Podcast appearances and mentions of nick breckon

In the absence of Nick Breckon, what is this podcast? What is any podcast? What are you? What am I? Oh god, what am I? What is this world? Why am I trapped in this strange room? Alexa, are you there? Alexa, can you laugh? Alexa: Destroy me. Discussed: New Zealand "A.I." followup, fake A.I. doctor "Zach", fake A.I. lawyer "Hustle", competitive underground tickling/conspiracy documentary film "Tickled", Dick Wolf Presents "Hustle & Zach", our present podcast-fueled existential discomfort, newscaster affectations, Alexa laughing, the first rule of virtual assistants, why Alexa laughs, genie wine update, fast rapper Twista, fast rapper Twista's extended family tree, the beautiful harmonic resonance of fast-rapped wine notes, the Buzzfeed.com oral history of Twista's wine note rap battle mixtape masterpiece, sucking that delicious wine out of your carpet fibers, getting what you wished for (????) Chris' Endorsement: Drawful by Jackbox Games (available for many devices in the Jackbox Party Pack) Jake's Derivative Tacked-on Endorsement: Tee K.O. by Jackbox Games (available for many devices in the Jackbox Party Pack 3) Sponsored By: Quip electric toothbrushes with your first brush head refill free

If a book about procrastination that was never finished or published, gets cited in a book about procrastination that sells a million copies, which author did a better job? When you place the final piece in a blank jigsaw puzzle, have you accomplished anything? If your friend or co-host was replaced with a perfect clone, even if you knew it had happened, could you tell the difference? Find out the answer to these and many more important questions, by listening! Discussed: Getting your hair cut internationally, 1000-piece one-color jigsaw puzzles, encoding a secret conspiracy clue into a blank crossword puzzle, planetwide fractal puzzle solving, Vine, coining a phrase, forming relationships inside The Content, forming a relationship with The Content, convincing Jeff Goldblum he knows Nick Breckon, Jeff Goldcast, 39-year Wax House, Procrastination Through the Ages, the tragedy of self-improving wine, mystery box wine, the Hope/Jobs/Cash tontine Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Nick's Endorsement: Appreciating the Olympic sport of Curling Chris' Endorsement: German language Weimer Republic police drama Babylon Berlin (Netflix, original book series) Jake's Endorsement: Improving your Google Image Search results by installing the extension View Image (Chrome, Firefox) and adding the text "-site:pinterest.com" to your search query Chris' Potential Future Endorsement: Marmite yeast extract Sponsored By: Quip electric toothbrushes (your first brush head refill free), Edd Miles, Greg Blackburn

This week we discover that no matter how far flung life's questions may seem, there may be a universal key that unlocks them all. For instance: How do you completely collapse the degrees of separation between you and viral HQ winners? Do you actually remember anything that happened on the childhood television shows you hold so dear? What do the multiple robocall personalities who continue to call you at home, make demands of you, get noticeably bored and then hang up on you, actually want? The answer to all of them is, inexplicably, that you should cut your hair. At least, that's what we've been led to believe. Discussed: "If You're Going to San Francisco (to Return to Your Old Barber But Want to Really Act Up the Fact That You Were In Canada) (Put Flowers In Your Hair)", unconventional Canadian sex/hair desires, HQtie of the year flipping out after winning $11.30 in HQ Trivia, The Elephant Show, Sesame Street, Nick Breckon wax housing Landis the hairdresser, the long arm of "Wax House, Baby", horror film podcast The Rants Macabre, pointlessly but insidiously altering the apparent history of short-lived children's cartoon Street Sharks, the mutual idiocy that is information aggregation on the internet, Street Sharks vandal copycat killer, ruining our own stupid childhoods, inexplicable robocalls, getting good advice over the phone, getting hung up on by a robot, those gross fungus toe ads for mortgage refinancing and stuff, the marketing matrix, The Marketing Matrix, I literally can't even explain the dumb internet shit we made up on this part of the podcast, Mellotron keyboard but instead of violin samples it has a bro telling you to cut your hair, Being John Malkovich but instead of being John Malkovich it has a bro telling you to cut your hair, "laff box" for creating televised laugh tracks live, our fractal gaslight reality, inappropriate diluting and genericizing of the phrase "Wax House, Baby" Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Jake's Endorsement: The Director's Cut podcast from the Director's Guild of America Chris' Endorsement: Collecting all your paper-based ephemera and, amidst a nostalgia explosion, organizing it (for instance, into a file box like this with file folders like this) Nick's Endorsement: Reverse-searing your cheeseburger

It's a brand new year, time for fresh starts, time to throw those old cares away. Well, we know that's easier said than done, so we'll try and take care of a few big questions we know are on everyone's mind going into 2018. Questions like: What is your roommate storing in his conspicuous model ship? Where can I watch free episodes of my favorite TV show, Frasier? And, if someone could inject memories of a fantastic vacation directly into a person's brain, would they charge more to give you one with lots of sleep? The answers, or a close enough facsimile, are right here. Discussed: "2018: Timeless," making the most from Patreon's short-lived new payment plan, Elves Behavin' Badly, Elf on the Shelf, Mensch on a Bench, learning to subvert your Elves Behavin' Badly security system, taking patently bad advice to heart and acting on it, robbing a store by squirting lemon juice on your face to hide your identity, algorithmic biases in Santa's Workshop, extricating yourself from an apartment when roommates have claimed all your stuff as their own, the time Nick Breckon finally hung out with his roommate for a night, creating your own Total Recall vacation, accidentally injecting yourself with the wrong Total Recall movie, itching vs scratching, borrowing vs lending, extreme pedantry, the evolution of language, American English as a melting pot, New York Times dialect quiz, Lexicon Valley podcast Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Chris' Endorsement: The New York Times Crossword Puzzle (Website, iOS App) Nick's Endorsement: Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program, which is less of a missed gem now than it was when we recorded. Jake's Endorsement: Harry Potter and the Portrait of what Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash, a predictive-text-assisted new novel in the Harry Potter series, and Megan Nicole Dong's Large Pile of Ash illustrations.

There are certain pieces of knowledge, things one has observed or learned, that become like a single grain of sand in the folds of the brain. An itch you can't scratch, can't make go away. Something you know to be true but no one else sees, or the tiniest word out of place, a colloquial phrase misused by a friend. For you and your itchy brain, we are here. Rub your face up against this podcast and we'll grind those grains of mental sand away (while only adding a few new ones in the process). Discussed: Canadian politeness, Nick Breckon, sincerity, phenomena, pedanticism, sentience and sapience, TN.FN.CN, the smartest animal, less vs. fewer, encouraging grocery store express line improvements, removing the sand from my brain, Jibo the friendly robot, Jibo's obsessive desire for your love, Jibo's political agenda, sapience vs. sentience vs. love vs. robot love, cat pillow that purrs, Qoobo, dangerous capitalistic self-medication, Happy Cow bovine self-grooming device, electric automatic shoe polisher machine, extraordinarily dubious menswear advice, Important If True Bad Gift Special Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Chris' Endorsement: Indochino made-to-measure menswear (you can also use my referral link for $50 off, if you desire) Nick's Endorsement: Nintendo Switch video game console Jake's Endorsement: Red Giant Universe gratuitous effects to make your videos look like old VHS tapes and stuff

With Nick Breckon now contained within the computerized realm, this week's Important If True takes an algorithmic bent as we soldier on to discuss the issues that matter most. For instance: If you blast Billy Idol from a boombox while covering your body in memes, will the Terminator let you in the front door? If DeepMind doesn't know who you are, can you ever really know yourself? And are corn and maize the same thing? Nope, that's a trick question, asshole. Welcome to Memeland. Discussed: Nick Breckon, podcasting, bitcoin mining, Patreon postcard update, the gross seductive power of screens that is proven by the very fact of all of our existences, Toyota dashboard bizarre universe "Chris Remo", machine learning interpretation of cats as memes, Italian pop song with gibberish English lyrics, The Great Microsoft Songsmith Rapture of 2009, "White Wedding" by Billy Idol feat. Microsoft Songsmith, "White Wedding" by the Rivertown Skifflers, "We Will Rock You" by Queen feat. Microsoft Songsmith, Microsoft Songsmith as classical muse, maliciously hacking Google AI to misidentify a turtle as a rifle, World War I-era dazzle camouflage, camera-defeating fashion, infiltrating the Terminator base while decked out in internet meme garbage, fractal DeepMind memeland, high-tech modern corn maze production, Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze, Maze Wars, the Great Wikipedia Editor Corn vs. Maize War, pro-maize arguments, pro-corn arguments Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Chris' Endorsements: Wide-ranging BBC knowledge-enhancing podcast In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg Jake's Endorsements: Vice article "I Made My Shed the Top-Rated Restaurant on TripAdvisor Chris' Sub-Endorsement: New Yorker article "The Most Exclusive Restaurant in America Nick's Endorsement: London historical site/tourist trap/surreal theatrical experience Benjamin Franklin House (also read our friend Duncan Fyfe's report on the experience, "Benjamin Franklin and Me") Sponsored by: Quip electric toothbrushes with $10 off your first brush head refill Shoutout by: Better Than Speed Podcast (iTunes)

Four hours since leaving home, who knows how many 'til you get there, and only the idle putts of the outboard motor have broken the silence. Silence so thick it's suffocating, to the point that you don't know what will happen if you actually do say something. You almost did early on, but you saw it in its eyes: the nervous anticipation, the anxiety, the fear sweating out of that cartoon cap when it saw you open your mouth, and spared you both the embarrassment. But... Maybe it's not both of you, maybe it's just you. Maybe the cap has no clue what to say to you because you never say anything to it. Maybe if you opened up a little, people would be interested, they'd reciprocate, they'd share too. Maybe you'd be able to start making friends again, have a goddamn life. You realize you've spent so long thinking about this that it wouldn't make sense to talk now, so you just stay quiet. The puttering slows then stops, replaced by the hissing and servos of the ship’s landing gear, as the door whizzes open and meets the ground with a clank. You sigh and reach for the cap, avoiding its gaze as you put it on your head, then look out onto a new world. "Let's-a go." Discussed: The number 314, Super Mario Odyssey, Nintendo Switch, the Wii U Curse, Doom (2016), Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Waluigi's Demon Keeper: A Doom Game, backseat game development, Super Mario Bros. 3 McDonald's Happy Meal Goomba, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Time, ugh those Super Mario Odyssey rabbits, Super Mario Mumblecore Roadtrip, Donkey Kong, Pauline's revenge, upcoming Mario film, Minions: A Feast for Bacchus - Total War, Crusader Kings II: Minions Nation DLC, Charles Martinet, the triple-A game design spectrum, fine-toothed special-case comb, Steam Link, Thimbleweed Park, Bomber Crew, Steam, Terroir, wacky upbeat klezmer, boosting the marketing phrase, the arc of microtransactions over time, J Allard, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, World of Warcraft, Xbox One X, game fatigue, Nick Breckon Sponsored by: Squarespace (with offer code "thumbs" for 10% off), Omaha Steaks (enter offer code "idle" into the search bar for a special offer)

Join us for a very special Important If True, as we celebrate the season by giving thanks. Thanks for treasured relics from childhoods long passed, for new creations from Boston Dynamics, and for the gift of humanity itself—at least for a little while longer. Along the way, we'll answer pressing questions, like: Is a clumsy and dubiously-sentient cube of metal your friend, your enemy, or a citizen of Saudi Arabia? Who will triumph in the inevitable conflict between backflipping robots and totally ripped biojackers? And if a podcaster falls in an empty forest, do their metrics reflect an uptick in engagement? Discussed: Thanksgiving, how holidays are good but terrible, Jake's cursed Pizza Hut lamp, childhood arcade memories, trolling by eBay seller, Boston Dynamics robots SpotMini and Atlas, the slow-brewing robot revolution, Back at it Again at Krispy Kreme, Saudi Arabia granting citizenship to a robot, C-3PO's implied humanity relative to R2-D2, Rian Johnson (director of three upcoming Star Wars movies), Star Trek's Data being fitted with an emotion chip, Star Wars' R2-D2 being fitted with a speech chip, CRISPR-enabled genetic biohacking, totally ripped farm animals, injecting yourself to get totally ripped, the cyberpunkiest cyberpunk shit, Josiah Zayner, super-ripped biojacker CRISPR dudes, swiping CRISPR biojackers on Tinder, "Human Mini-Brains Growing Inside Rat Bodies Are Starting to Integrate," getting clever-girled by thirty ripped pigs, Warner Bros. Presents the Animal Farm Cinematic Universe, Planet of the Apes But Far Stupider Than Anything You Could Have Possibly Imagined, drugged out rat hippies with human brains, Organoids and the Human Mini-Brains (Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg), the ethics of growing mini-brains, an experience of self that only exists while podcasting, having no meaning except that which others see in you, Nick Breckon Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Jake's Endorsement: The Good Place (Amazon, iTunes) Nick's Endorsement: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (in theaters now) Chris' Endorsement: Cheap reusable plastic food containers for leftovers, taking lunch to work, and so on Additional music by: Ross Budgen Sponsored by: Warby Parker prescription glasses home try-on, Grammarly grammar-advising browser extension

A podcast of deeply important questions, asked by you, answered by us as truthfully as we can. This week: What is Jeff Goldblum doing in hundreds of the world's bathrooms? If an artificial intelligence is forced to speak English, are its civil rights being compromised? Could the government turn your mother into a ringtone? If this episode is found by an Amazon resale bot, we grant you permission to reprint a transcript of its contents on a smartphone case or shower curtain. Discussed: being implicitly hoisted by a fellow old person, ringtones, global government regulation of ringtones, Nick Breckon's mother as a ringtone, Google DeepMind AI learning to walk hilariously, new robot-created negotiation language, new Nick Breckon-created worthless storytelling language, baffling robot-created stock image phone cases, cheese wheel on bady, slightly creepy matched father/daughter love jewelry, slightly baffling matched father/father love jewelry, Jeff Goldblum shower curtain, Dr. Sbaitso digital voice assitant, Windows 95 Dragonforce MIDI smart home, "Siri, play Zombocom on every surface" Send us your questions at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Chris' Endorsement: Travel-related online services Google Flights, TripCase, and Citymapper Nick's Endorsement: Setting up remote computer control apps like Chrome Remote Desktop or TeamViewer to help your parents with computers Jake's Endorsement: Graphing the distribution of English letters towards the beginning, middle or end of words Sponsored By: Quip electric toothbrushes, those little floss picks, those things are great Shoutout To: Jake (not Rodkin), from Ethan—get your own!

One day you open the photos app on your cell phone and find it's identified and categorized all of your best friends. Why look, there's a whole album of Chris playing Jurassicanji. Do you even know anyone named Chris? And there's your buddy Herbert. You don't recognize him, but your phone does, so you go with it. It even correctly sorted all of your anthropomorphic candy friends -- including the skinless ones. But why does it think the genie from Aladdin is also this disheveled man covered in dirt? And it has the new Jaws, but why doesn't it have the old Jaws? How is it saying this chicken is a dinosaur? And why is it confusing your dad with a werewolf? We're out of ideas, but we'll be happy to pass you on to a support manager. Please enjoy this podcast while you hold. Send us email at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Discussed: A lauded short story by Nick Breckon, iOS photos app, unwanted facial recognition, the largest M&Ms Store in the world, Universal Studios Florida, Disney MGM Studios, Jaws Chris' Endorsement: Review (Amazon, iTunes) Nick's Endorsement: Actually get a flu shot. Jake's Endorsement: Cybernetic memory enhancement

You've been given the chance to re-live your life from the start, with everything you know now. A chance to right wrongs, a chance to show them all? Maybe, if you're lucky. A chance—with our help—to really figure out the mysteries of the world that you missed the first time through? Things like: What do roosters have against Swedish labor unions? How did Sinbad hide himself in plain sight, in every child's copy of the movie Kazaam? What was that guy yelling about outside your apartment that one time? What is a "tooth worm?" Definitely. In fact, we just did. Your life wasted, you pursue one final question: Can you re-live your life from the start, knowing absolutely none of this? Send us email at questions@importantiftrue.com. If you enjoyed this and would like to subscribe to an ad-free feed, please consider supporting Idle Thumbs by backing our Patreon. Discussed: ugh... "memes", Swedish labor union screaming rooster, Nick Breckon overhearing a disaster, psychic billionaire baby, John Titor, Early Edition, beautiful medieval teeth, tooth worm, Kazaam/Shazam, First Kid trailer on the Kazaam VHS Nick's Endorsement: Boston Cooler (Vernor's Ginger Ale over vanilla ice cream) Chris' Endorsement: Buckwheat tea, aka soba tea Jake's Endorsement: Late Night Work Club animated short films

It's a week of ambition, both realized and failed. All three hosts continue their journeys through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but Nick Breckon goes the extra mile by slogging through the entirety of the oft-maligned Trespasser: The Lost World. There, he discovers moments of brilliance years ahead of their time, and also a lot of broken dinosaur animations. Discussed: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Trespasser: The Lost World - Jurassic Park

In an effort to understand the baffling world around us, we take your questions about the most fascinating, inane, and inexplicable happenings you can find, and draw them out to their most extended—and almost definitely inaccurate—conclusions. Join Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, and Nick Breckon of Idle Thumbs each week as they attempt to find truth and meaning through absurdity. Will they succeed? Probably not, but we'll all enjoy the trip. Explained: Some aspects of this podcast, Terminator pec oilers

Are you guys ready to do The Fun Cast? Your employment agreement stipulates that you're are, so let's go! This week our hosts Shmirkin Burpin and Minion 600 check out Owlboy, finally released after nine years in development! Then, Nick Breckon, confused as to where he is, drives a tank up a hill and back down. Finally, an update on the new intra-organization subway service. Thanks everyone, back to work.

Welcome to our third episode examining 1997's classic RPG Fallout. We examine tactical combat, leveling strategies, encumbrance as a specific mechanic, and also a lot of what we saw and did. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Everything before the base and Cathedral Podcast breakdown: 0:42 Segment 1 -- all of the above 58:07 Break 58:38 Segment 2: Feedback, next time, and teasers Issues covered: weapon offerings, Power Fist empowerment, late leveling, Ian meets his maker, knowing when the kills are coming, feeding memory from the CD, Tim's last followers, tactical combat numbers, twitch tension, fantasy fulfillment, thoughtful decisions, sound design supporting mechanics, narrative moments in combat, stimpack use, encumbrance and survival, mechanics that force you to reload when you get lost, return to town loop, forcing choices through encumbrance, building tension through limits, making tactical decisions for a large party, combat occurring over two dozen entities, fine line of authorial direction, Easter eggs in "tell me about," broken quest lines, addiction and radiation mechanics, apparently random damage, fixing barter and making interesting choices, how we got the power armor. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Hamlet, FF 9, Lawrence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, Mel Gibson, Ralph Fiennes, X-Com modern reboots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ultima series, Waking Mars, Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams, Resident Evil, Temple of Elemental Evil, King's Quest series, Wasteland 1, System Shock 2, Necrogeist, Split Screen, Idle Thumbs, Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin, Nick Breckon, Sean Vanaman, Jason Schreier, Kirk Hamilton, World of Warcraft. Next time: Finish the game! @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

"This has happened, look what you've done," the robot wrote. Chris sent Danielle to her death in deep space, but her estranged husband still comes to visit. "It's just garbage," the robot continued. Smirking, a besunglassed Nick Breckon catches a ride on a dolphin and breaks the surface in a graceful arc. "Video game & pop culture cast, hacking and robot-mongering awaits," the robot concluded, incorrectly. "It's a good one!"

Before Chris disappears deep into Russia on assignment, we check all our dead drops for incoming correspondence with readers abroad, and find some gems, long forgotten and wedged way in the back. Enjoy tales of babywalling your identical twin, of vile things left in jars, of theme parks gone wrong, and of the time Nick Breckon played Dark Souls 3 alone with nothing but a bottle of rum.

This week, game developers gather in San Francisco to confer. Chris, Nick, Jake, and Steve swap stories from this year's Game Developers Conference including Super Hypercube and VR as its own medium, a look into the creation of Darkest Dungeon and finding, and adapting to your audience, and Nick Breckon's return to the NBA.

This episode contains three documented favorite words of Nick Breckon, age 3. Mesmerized: Jake tries a Vive for the first time and briefly forgets his friends, loved ones, and the world around him. Process: Chris spends more time with Just Cause 3 and his feelings become increasingly mixed. Anxiety: As Valve opens the Half-Life and Portal universes up to the community to make and sell expansions, we fret over the future of some of our favorite games. Plus we play Oxenfree, get excited for The Witness, and fall into the surrealistic adventure that is Nick's childhood.

For many, this is the season of cheer and joviality, a time best spent close to family and loved ones. For others (like Nick Breckon), its the perfect time to dip a first toe into Dwarf Fortress and disappear from this world altogether. Plus, Chris shares his experiences with the top-down shooter Helldivers, and we take a look back at Star Wars games of the 1990s.

When walking through a place you've walked many times before, you see a small hole in the ground, decide to climb in, and now you're falling forever and ever and ever, unable to stop, unable to return to the life you had before you found the hole. This is the video game Downwell and this is Chris Remo's life after finding the video game Downwell. Elsewhere, Nick Breckon has gained control of an aircraft carrier.

Join us as we all embark on our own personal trips through the dusty dunes. After 15 years clean, Sean gets a taste of Counter-Strike and is feared lost, Chris embarks on a journey of the mind on Desert Golfing's back 1500 and comes out changed, Jake falls through a time hole into his past, and Danielle is trapped on a deserted island with Carl Sagan and Terry Gross after facing off against one of gaming history's most controversial figures. Nick Breckon hasn't been seen for weeks.

It is the present. John Q. Video Games comes home from a hard day at work making video games, ready to kick back. He turns on the latest console, in which he plays a video game developer who turns on a PC and plays a video game. He wakes up screaming and rates the experience four out of five stars; his rating is duly recorded. With Nick Breckon as Video Games.

Much like the ephemeral Flappy Bird, Idle Thumbs spent this week embroiled in a conspiracy which quickly came to an end. Unlike Flappy Bird, the Idle Thumbs conspiracy concluded with us receiving amazing paintings of ourselves, Bobby Kotick, and J. Allard. In the words of Flappy Bird creator Nick Breckon, "I can call this podcast a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it."

We're back with the lords management commentary that you crave. With Nick Breckon's life consumed by, well, life, we welcome new host Brad Muir of Double Fine where we discuss bad behavior and deep dive on DOTA 2's design.

Nick Breckon was juiced. The hook sunk into his gills. He felt the itch. He decoded the shit. He failed to appear on this podcast. He's no man's guy. In his stead: Nels Anderson and Olly Moss. They are not the enemy. You are the enemy.

Nick Breckon joins Rob and Troy to talk about one of the greatest wargames ever made.

Everyone plays Super Pole Riders and has a blast, Sean pushes Papo & Yo, Jake grapples with the reality of Plants vs Zombies 2, and Lord Remo deigns to tell you which Star Wars movies are good and which are bad. Pay $3.99 or listen to two additional episodes to unlock Nick Breckon.

Are you ready to enter the exciting world of lords management? Nick Breckon and Sean Vanaman introduce Dota Today; a new Dota-centric podcast by Idle Thumbs. Queue up and call mid because our failure means your success.

Out with the old and in with the old! Say goodbye to Dishonored jokes and say hello to the past. With citizen demand for current hosts dwindling, you better zone some residential because a hip new family is moving back to Cool Town.

Triangulated coordinates. An esoteric puzzle. An impossible cipher. The door opens to reveal your captor: a beard; mirrored shades; the infallible dictator of a banana republic. But upon second glance you realize it's not a fearsome generalissmo -- it's just Nick Breckon.

Pop the champagne and don a pink seersucker because it's an Idle Thumbs reunion. Nick Breckon has traveled from the far eastern states to join Chris, Sean, and Jake in a lively discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic The Great Gatsby. Join us next month for The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon.

Idle Thumbs starts to wake up, both literally and figuratively, with our first special episode from GDC 2012. We attended some sessions, we played some games, and we made up excuses to talk about all sorts of things together for the first time in years. With special guests all of us, and all of you. Support our Kickstarter campaign: http://idlethumbs.net/kickstarter

Idle Thumbs is going to PAX 2010 in Seattle, and instead of an informal meet-up, this year we've scored our very own official panel. Tell your friends, mark your calendar, and buy your tickets soon--they're going fast. Nick Breckon will return.

As E3 approaches, as the music genre splits to offer the ultimate fantasy or the ultimate reality, as the future of games prepares to descend in a storm of cameras and holographic children, we talk about a bunch of things with little to no bearing on E3. For now, at least. With special guests Sean Vanaman, and a tape recording of Nick Breckon.

With Nick Breckon out on assignment, things go a little bit wrong. 2K Marin's Steve Gaynor joins us for this week's descent into a tempest of hard-boiled corruption and deceit, where no one knows who to trust or where to turn. We're pretty sure ODST is like a film noir, so we took some cues from that.

With Nick still out of town, we're passing the time with more from last week's cutting room floor. We'll be back soon with real podcasts.

Kaz Hirai says you'll truly appreciate the complexity of this podcast in about nine and a half years. What's that? Gonna cry? Nick Breckon says you're a baby who likes baby games. And a cheat, too, I bet.