General Discussion

Released on February 28, 2012 by Cheerful Ghost

Developed by Cheerful Ghost

The place for conversation that doesn't make sense to talk about in any specific game in our list. Think of General Discussion as a "catch all" for conversations about gaming, game culture or anything else worth sharing.

So, I've been beating the Cardhunter drum for a while now, and I thought I'd take a few moments to explain why it's been absorbing 95% of my gaming hours.

First up, it's a genre-bender. We've got a grid-based playing field and turn-based play flow, like many strategy wargames. We also have a deck-and-card element ala Magic: The Gathering, and we have characters, classes, and levels like any classic RPG.

When your characters start out at level 1, they have a few equipment slots - a warrior, for example, will have slots for two weapons, and one pair of boots. Each piece of equipment represents a number of cards in your deck, and when you place a piece of equipment into a... Read All


http://i.imgur.com/qRGVNi5.jpg
I've been making it a point lately to play things I wouldn't otherwise play. You may have noticed my "Is it really that bad?" series, which is far from over, but in addition to playing games that were widely panned I wanted to push my boundaries and play genres I don't normally like (or at least, don't think I like).

For years I've just cast aside the military shooter genre. I've seen them covered to death all over the web, commercials, magazines, etc, but they never really interested me.

A week or so ago, I saw a deal for Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for $7, and I realized that I already had a free copy of Battlefield 3 from some Origin promotion months ago, so I... Read All


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/NES-Console-Set.jpg
Or should that be "blow" some new life... get it?

And therein lies the problem. We all had that shiny new NES that could do no wrong for a while, but then things started to go south. You'd get that telltale blinking blue screen, letting you know that something was amiss.

Somewhere along the way everyone somehow knew to blow in the cartridge, try again, and it would work. We shouldn't have done that, we were only making things worse, but the promise of playing Mario now was too tempting for our childhood minds. But even that would fail you eventually, and some of you may have an NES that just stopped working.

Here's what actually happened: The 72-pin connector in your NES... Read All


The "Sprint" game mode is 40 lines as fast as you can clear them. The video is using a tournament-specific version of Tetris that accounts for different modes and different block spawning algorithms.

This is the first time anyone has cleared a Sprint in under 20 seconds. It's amazing to think that there are human hands controlling this.


I read a very good article on Polygon about harassment focused at game developers. The article features a good synopsis of the topic and collects a few interviews with people that have experienced some I call, "The Internet Hate Factory."

I am glad this topic is getting broader coverage and I hope it spurns more dialog in the community and fosters some change.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/15/4622252/plague-of-game-dev-harassment-erodes-industry-spurs-support-groups

You should also check out the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Ep. 2 "The Internet Hate Factory" that covers this topic, Cheerful Ghost Ghost style.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1527


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Hammerwatch is now available for purchase on Steam for Mac, Windows and Linux. It will do your sould well to play this amazing new Indie Gauntlet styled hack n slash.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/239070
http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/1039

A game I have been crushing on recently has just come to Steam as pre-purchase. Take a swing at this beautiful new Rogue-like from the awesome dev duo Robot Loves Kitty.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/238280
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1215

John Carmack gives a really insightful talk on the physics of light and rendering. More wisdom from the master of Doom himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG4QuTe8aUw

Sorry... Read All


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Blizzard just opened up its new Battle.net client into open beta for anyone to test. I tried it out on my Mac and found the download and install to be a very simple process. The Battle.net client has a slick layout and is fantastic to use. I hope over time they keep the simplicity of it all.

"The new single sign-on functionality allows players to log in once to access World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, and the upcoming PC and Mac versions of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and stay logged in for up to 30 days.

Players can also install games directly through the app and, if you choose to leave the app running on your desktop, keep them up-to-date automatically... Read All


Now this one is interesting and somewhat unexpected.

Pay under $5 (as of this writing) and get:

* Dead Space 1 and 3 (2 will probably be unlocked later)
* Burnout Paradise
* Crysis 2
* Mirror's Edge
* Medal of Honor
* Battlefield 3
* Sims 3

All of these games unlock on Origin, but the games that are available on Steam will also be redeemable there.

Another important piece of info to point out: EA gets none of the money. So if you want to play these games but don't like supporting EA, here's your chance.

What do you think about this one?


"Guthrie and his band drove 18 hours round-trip from Ontario just to perform three songs behind the desk of NPR Music's Bob Boilen. Watch them perform some of the wistful and infectious highlights from Guthrie's new album, Takes Time."

Its a great 3 song set featuring "A Difference a Day Makes," "Before and After" & "Like a Lake."

Jim Guthrie is the composer behind the music of Sword & Sworcery, Indie Game: The Movie and the upcoming game Below. He also recently released his entire catalog on the Humble Weekly sale and his new album "Takes Time" was part of that.

http://www.npr.org/event/music/210523884/jim-guthrie-tiny-desk-concert


With the recent news of Phil Fish closing down development of Fez 2 and quitting gaming we focus our Roundtable on "The Internet Hate Factory." Is it ok for people to actively act against others online or should cooler heads prevail? Do people need to develop a thicker skin or should be all be more nice?

We discuss that and the games we are playing as well as a few fun bits, like Travis building an Internet Hate Site focused directly at me, jdodson.

show notes:

Phil Fish closes down Fez 2 Development:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1498

Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow talk about Japanese Video Games:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD9P2uyx6fQ

Jon Carmack Responds to a... Read All