Idle Thumbs (gaming site, age 3, presumed dead since February), unexpectedly spasmed itself back into activity last week as Ben Andac and Alex Ashby posted three new articles that are much worth reading:
Getting The Short End
Alex observes that while Portal was greeted with universal praise this year, almost every media outlet commented on its shortness as a bad thing. And that, he says, is a bad thing. A great rant against people who complain about games that aren’t a billion hours long.
She Blinded Me with Aperture Science
Speaking of Portal, Alex wrote a whole article about it, taking a note on its Huge Success. Why did the world fall in love with this sleeper hit almost overnight in ways not seen since Katamari Damacy?Every Extend Extra Extreme: It’s in the Game
When I tried Every Extend Extra Extreme on XBLA, the magic didn’t really happen for me. That made it all the more fascinating to read Ben’s analysis of EEEE. That’s because Ben loves it. He really loves it, and dives deep into what makes this game tick. At the end, it makes me want to go back to the game with a different eye.
Anyway, all that and more on the Zombie Thumb.
While you are at it, be sure to visit the blogs of former Thumb writers Bob, Steve, Spaff and Duncan. They all have great new posts. A recent favorite blog of mine is also Rock, Paper, Shotgun. It has nothing at all to do with Idle Thumbs (it is in fact by Kieron Gillen, John Walker and other prestigious UK game journalists) but it is excellent and deserves a shout-out.
Rock Paper Shotgun is my favourite blog. I’m sure they’re glad they can count on my endorsement.
While we’re in circle-jerk mode, Steve pointed me toward brainygamer.com which is also really great and stunningly prolific. It doesn’t have anything to do with Thumbs either, which you could infer from “prolific”.
Duncan
November 12th, 2007