I just discovered this game...
I just discovered this game...
Diablo III is still getting some major attention from Blizzard and the upcoming 2.4.0 patch contains a bunch... Read All "Miles off the coast of Westmarch lies an island that many believe to be little more than legend. Cut off from the rest of Sanctuaryâs developed civilizations, Greyhollow was once the center of a grand empire. Often times, such isolated societies grow and advance at incredible rates, and Greyhollow was no different. Its citizens devoted their cause to a mysterious and, as is often the case in Sanctuary, completely evil being. For reasons still unknown to this day, this unimaginably advanced society collapsed, leaving ruin, chaos, and a lingering curse behind."
Diablo III is still getting some major attention from Blizzard and the upcoming 2.4.0 patch contains a bunch of updates that will give it's players much more to play. I am interested in checking out the new thorns balancing changes they are making to the Crusader as well as the new Grehollow zone. No word on the next Diablo III expansion but I imagine we will hear about one this year. I hope the next expansion adds a couple new characters and acts but that may be more of a dream that reality.
Read the full set of patch notes below.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/19941042/patch-240-ptr-patch-notes-12-14-2015
*UPDATE*
The 2.4.0 patch is out now! http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/19998542
Whoa, they're adding new locations without charging for an expansion, that's great post-launch support. I wonder if it's a teaser for the next expansion.
I guess we can expect one new class and act, since that's what RoS added.
True, that said they are not rolling in loot 2.0 or adventure mode, which was a huge revamp of the original progression system and a ton more content plus changes to the online requirement(you are still required to be online but the PC client caches a ton more). So my thought it they will have time for more content? I could be wrong, but it's a nice thought.
Are you guys speculating on a new expansion or is that really expected? I think I'd definitely buy one, assuming it adds to the single player game. As I've stated before, I really do enjoy Diablo III (including RoS), much more than I expected. I'm not sure if this new patch will get me to jump back in. Eventually I'll probably check it out. There are numerous additions I still have not yet experienced, since I've pretty much only focused on Campaign Mode. I did play around a bit with Adventure Mode, though.
We are talking about an expansion that they haven't discussed.
I'd recommend heading back to d3 at some point to nab the kanai cube. It's like the horadric cube from d2.
Are there sources hinting at an expansion, or are you guys doing some wishful thinking?
Yeah, I know about both, but only by name. I've only very briefly played D2. I remember reading about the Kanai Cube, but I don't remember what I read about it. LOL
They said early on they were planning on two expansions.
Frankly if they want to keep launching D3 expansions i'll keep buying them as long as they look good.
@Travis Awesome, I wasn't aware of that.
@Jon I agree!
I found another video going over what's new. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8exDyPoV3fg
Here is a nice post on Kotaku about all the new stuff you might want to check out:
http://kotaku.com/eight-cool-things-in-diablo-iiis-new-patch-1752672498
Wow cosmetic pets pick up gold and Keywardens are shown with an arrow if they're around. That's cool, stuff! Jumping back into the game and playing with the new patch sounds like a cool idea, but now that I have a character of every class and both genders, I'm not sure which one to choose. LOL
I started my first Denon Huntress a couple nights ago and I am having a blast playing the game. I also loaded my old SnuggyBunny Witch Doctor and found they've really changed up the skill system significantly since d3 launch. He plays like a totally different character now.
With that, the Demon Huntress is great and I am just going through the story again. It's been a really fun time. I might switch back to an existing character to try Greyhallow at some point though OR just wait till I get there with my DH.
I've never heard anyone call the female Demon Hunter a "Huntress" before :D
Greyhallow is a big area but it's not huge. You can get through it all pretty quick.
"The PC version of Final Fantasy IX looks like it will let players turn off random encounters with enemies. According to the Steam page, it features seven game boosters including high speed and no encounter modes.
Additional features include achievements, autosave, and high-definition movies and character models."
Minimum PC System Requirements:
OS: Windows... Read All Final Fantasy IX is coming to PC via Steam!! I would like to know if you have any of the PC versions of Final Fantasy. I'd also like to know what you think of them and if they have "special features." While I have at least one version of almost every Final Fantasy game, I'm thinking I should get them through Steam.
"The PC version of Final Fantasy IX looks like it will let players turn off random encounters with enemies. According to the Steam page, it features seven game boosters including high speed and no encounter modes.
Additional features include achievements, autosave, and high-definition movies and character models."
Minimum PC System Requirements:
OS: Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS or ATI Radeon HD4650 or higher
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 20 GB available space
Recommended PC System Requirements:
OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 (32 or 64 bit)
Processor: Intel Core i5 2520 2.5 GHz or better
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS or ATI Radeon HD4650 or higher
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 20 GB available space
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-ix-pc-system-requirements-and-detail/1100-6433577/
" I'd also like to know what you think of them and if they have "special features"
Yes they do, some of them. The Steam store page will tell you. Like magic boosters, etc. in Final Fantasy VII and VIII.
Also that processor for "recommended" is insane for this. There's a world of difference between the minimum and recommended CPU. If you need an i5 to max out a port of a game that came out that long ago, there are some issues in the porting process. I imagine it's not accurate and is the CYA stuff that everyone seems to put into system recommendations.
Yeah, I noticed some special features when I looked at the games on the Steam store. That was after I wrote this post, though. One thing I noticed was that "Chocobo World" is included in the FFVIII Steam version. I'll probably get it soon. Watching the video on that Steam page made me shed some tears. I really love that game. "Melodies of Life" is stuck in my head now, too, from watching the FFIX video.
Good point about the system requirements.
Are you going to get it?
What do you think about the Final Fantasy PC versions?
I won't get IX for a while. I'll wait for a sale.
I have VII and VIII on Steam but never played them. Though I did dust off my original Final Fantasy VII PC release and install it last year with a graphics mod, just to check it out. Didn't play much.
I bought VII on Steam a year or two ago and played it once. Unfortunately, the groundbreaking awesomeness that VII was really should have been left in the past. It just didn't translate well into a modern gaming environment. I still remember the game fondly, but did not enjoy picking it back up.
People consider VII to be one of the best games of all time. It might be but I've never played it. Like Adam said the graphics in my eye don't translate as well as 2D pixels do now. It's in that original PlayStation graphics zone where early 3D was great for the time but not as timeless for me.
That said I want to play VII at some point just to see what it's all about.
People harshed on the 64 at the time compare to this PlayStation but I think the graphics of that system due to its space limitations means the games hold up far better.
Yeah, VIII works much better these days on my eyes. IX would probably be even better.
But we have a VII remake to look forward to!
Wow my second comment there is horribly written. Don't comment and phone kids!
I will definitely take a look at a VII remake.
And Jon, I didn't think it was possible to have a lower view of you, but you just successfully lowered yourself with that horribly written comment. I judge you. :feelsgood:
I am guilty of being (or at least having been) a Final Fantasy fan boy. While the rest of FF fandom raves over FFVII, I am more into FFVIII. Travis was the one who introduced me to FF when we were college roommates and it was with FFVIII. I fell madly in love with that game. Don't get me wrong, FFVII is fantastic, great, and I love it, too, but it captures my heart slightly less than FFVIII. I love Rinoa mostly, but I also love other characters. I've felt that I've identified with Squall, even though I've never been an orphan. People have also said I kind of look like him. I also have various "action figures" from the game and I have a life-size replica of his Gunblade, along with some cos-play (low quality) jewelry such as the rings he and Rinoa share along with his necklace.
As for FFIX, I loved it, too, and I played it also while Travis and I were roommates. It does touch my heart as well. "Melodies of Life" is a touching song. Although I love the game, I still remember a few things that were tedious, like in the beginning doing the jump rope with Vivi, trying to earn something special.
It's been a while since I've played any Final Fantasy game, especially the classics I-IX. I did try it out maybe in the last 2 or 3 years on my PS3 and 50" Plasma TV. I think I made it quite far and was grinding on the Island Closest to Heaven and the Island Closest to Hell, but I didn't finish it.
I agree that it's difficult to go back to some of these games with archaic graphics, especially after becoming used to modern graphics, which are much more appealing. However, I'm still thinking about it. Visiting "Chocobo World" in FFVIII is something I've never been able to do, which I can apparently do with the PC version.
I am looking forward to the FFVII remake. I think that game could get me to buy a PS4. FFXIV, I believe is supposed to be coming out this year, which is tempting. FF Type-0 is on Steam, but I've read at least one review saying that it's a bad port from the Vita.
> And Jon, I didn't think it was possible to have a lower view of you, but you just successfully lowered yourself with that horribly written comment. I judge you.
@Travis it looks like you own almost every Final Fantasy game on Steam. I'd love to know what you think of them, assuming you've played them. Also, let me know if you've tried to play them using the XBox 360 controller. As I said, I have various versions of many of them for PSX, PSP, and DS. I even have the NES cart for I and two SNES carts (II and III I think). But, I think having them via Steam would possibly be great.
I only have three of them, 7, 8 and 13. There are way more on Steam, I hardly own almost every one, though I'd like to have more.
But I've only played a bit of VIII and I don't remember it well. I do remember thinking it looked better, but I didn't play much.
(I've played all three elsewhere, though, I just got them on Steam for future-proofing)
Ah my bad. I thought I saw that you owned more of them, I was obviously wrong. I guess I saw the two and my mind just filled in the rest. Hehe
FFVIII looks so awesome on the PC! I'm so happy and impressed! The models are the same, but the main ones have been updated and are much less pixelated. Some of the background is pixelated, but it is irrelevant background. The game does look like it got an HD remaster. I've just started and about to head to the Fire Cavern with Quistis. I just thought I'd jump out of the game for a second to post this. I also want to change my button configuration, because I always swap FFVIII's Cancel and Menu buttons.
I also got FFVII, which I will play when I'm done w/ VIII. I'm hoping that IX also got the HD remastered look.
Spoiler alert: The steam store page has screenshots and features, so you can see "high-definition movies and character models" as one of the features, and then look at the screenshots to confirm it. :D
So yep, IX did too.
Sweet! I'm loving FFVIII's new look! I wonder if I should wait until X arrives on Steam to get it or get the PS3 version. The Kingdom Hearts games are tempting, too.
I just got an email saying FFIX is now on Steam (because it's in my wish list)!!!!!
Yep, it's out and seems to be getting really great reviews!
Recently I started Final Fantasy VI and it's been very fun.
Well #1, I loved it when it came out on the Playstation, #2 it looks so much better now (at least the character models and CG scenes), and #3 I picked it up for a discounted price of about $17.
There are also Steam achievements and in-game "cheat" modifiers you can use, although I never found the game to be extremely difficult.
Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying FFVI. I was playing FFV on Steam, but haven't played it in a while.
I want to thank Scrypt for working on the amazing... Read All For the last couple years we've been going strong with the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable which is a monthly live stream video roundtable show where we talk about all manner of geekery and video games. Recently we've been advertising the livestream more and had a great time in the most recent episode about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I've also been doing more with video as seen in my recent interview with Wick as well as Let's Plays and Cheerful Ghost mini videos. I've updated our Cheerful Ghost YouTube channel, organized everything into tidy playlists and we just recently added our new YouTube channel art as seen above.
I want to thank Scrypt for working on the amazing piece seen above and I to say I love it is a bit of an understatement! As video on Cheerful Ghost expands, it's nice to have amazing art reflect that and I hope 2016 is a great year for it!
If you want to follow more of Scrypt and his art projects, check out his blog post below:
http://johningalls.tumblr.com/post/136691154742/so-i-got-nasty-sick-over-the-holidays-and-i
Nice! Great job, Scrypt!
Thanks, and thanks, Jon, for project! It was fun!
That looks great! Very cool.
Wow, this is incredible! Well done, scrypt!
Thanks, guys!
The GPD XD is a Chinese made Android handled that resembles a Nintendo DS. The GPD XD sports a Quad... Read All Some games are fantastic on smartphones. Hearthstone, Flappy Bird, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake and Skullduggery are all good games that work well when you tap around your screen. There are also entire genres of gaming that are not served well on smartphones. First person shooters, real time strategy and traditional platformers are not great with tap controls. Because of this iâve been searching for a handheld gaming system where I can play a different variety of games. In the last couple months I picked up the GPD XD and itâs one of the slickest gaming devices I own.
The GPD XD is a Chinese made Android handled that resembles a Nintendo DS. The GPD XD sports a Quad Core 1.8 ARM CPU, 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM. It has the clamshell hinge, two full analog thumb-sticks, a directional pad, X/Y/A/B buttons as well as two trigger bumpers for each index finger. It has a volume toggle, on and off switch as well as ports in the back for headphones, usb power, a micro SD card and HDMI mini out. It runs a GPD semi-custom Android build that sports a strange UI that you can change if you want. Itâs a fully unlocked Android 4.4.4 device so you can install anything from the Google Play store or any Android app through an the .apk format. From my initial usage the battery seems to last about 4-6 hours and it has a relatively quick recharge cycle. The battery lasts a bit longer if you turn off Wifi and turn it off when you are not using it as the sleep cycle seems to drain the battery.
The specs are actually pretty solid for a handheld device but the most powerful gaming device is junk if you canât play any games on it. Needless to say the GPD XD comes loaded with a ton of games over the Google Play store and some are tuned well for a traditional controller. Iâve downloaded Duck Tales Remastered, Knights of the Old Republic and Sword of Xolan and they all work amazingly well with the controller. I obtained those games for free on Amazon Underground as Amazon has a special deal with certain games to provide them to the player for no cost. Itâs an interesting model Amazon is trying and I am not sure how it works for the game developers, but as a player itâs pretty solid. Only a couple Android games work with the controller and I imagine as more games are optimized for AndroidTV, the landscape will get much better here.
That said, playing Android games isnât the only thing the GPD XD can do and one other big use case for it is Emulation. I have a ton of physical Nintendo, Super Nintendo, GameCube and Wii games and itâs nice to be able to play them wherever I want. Itâs also nice to use only one device to play them all. The GPD XD emulates the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance and PSP with ease. It falls down on DS emulation but since I donât have many DS games itâs not a huge problem. In world where your NES and Gameboy cart batteries die, itâs nice to be able to load up the game on a device that will never suffer that fate. Itâs also nice to be able to switch between Gameboy Tetris and Secret of Mana in a couple seconds.
Since the GPD XD is full blown Android you can use it for pretty much whatever you can think of. Want to output the XD to your HDMI monitor and plug in a keyboard and mouse and use it as a sort of PC? You can. Want to attach it to your TV and connect a USB controller? You can. Want to watch a movie on it? Yep. One of the big problems I have with buying tech is buying into an ecosystem that doesnât allow you to use in whatever context you want. I love the hell out of my iPhone but itâs annoying I canât always use it in the ways iâd like to. These unlocked Android devices really allow that and I think itâs a huge bonus.
One other killer feature of the GPD XD is Moonlight. Moonlight is an open source project that allows you to use NVidia streaming to play your PC games on any device that can run Moonlight. Since the Moonlight developers have a great Android port Moonlight runs well. What this means is that I can stream Fallout 4 to my GPD XD from anywhere in the house. Well, Fallout 4 or any other PC game I have. Someday I hope Valve releases a Steam in home streaming client for Android and iOS but until then, Moonlight works amazingly well.
The GPD XD is a great device if you are interested in the fledgling Android controller games market (like I am) or want to play your retro games in a more convenient context without rebuying. Since itâs a Chinese designed and made device it suffers from some odd translation and usability decisions but if you can hack your way around Android, itâs not a problem. In the end if you are looking for a device that is open and hackable with a traditional control set the GPD XD is for you. If you are looking for a place to play the latest and greatest Nintendo or iPad games, you should stick with what you already have.
That sounds like a really cool device. One of the problems I have with my Kindle Fire, although it's a tablet and not this kind of device, is that I do not have easy access to Google Play. In fact, I'm missing out on many Android games and apps. I'm looking into Amazon Underground to see if it's compatible with the Kindle Fire. Honestly, I can't think of any games that I really want that I don't already have, but I'm also not aware of very many. I have a bunch of Angry Birds games along with Minecraft and Terraria. I also have Words With Friends, Scramble With Friends (now Word Streak), and What's That Phrase. My son has a bunch of other free apps.
Back to the GPD XD, again it sounds like a really cool device. I don't think I read anything in your review that I didn't like about it. As for the translation thing, I'm sure I could figure my way around it and how to use the device simply by searching Google.
Thanks for posting a cool review about a device that sounds really neat!
Dude, that sounds really rad. I'm surprised I've not heard you talking about this before now! I want to check it out :)
I imagine the Steam sale and holiday had much to do with these numbers but as with the last couple sales, I didn't buy anything as I have enough to play as is.
http://store.steampowered.com/stats Yesterday Steam had 12,332,504 users online at the same time breaking it an all new Steam concurrent user record. In the "post PC era" Steam is doing pretty well and with the advent of living room machines, the Steam controller and Steams new VR this number should keep growing. The top most played Steam games are not too surprising with Dota 2 in the lead followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fallout 4, Team Fortress 2 and Sid Meier's Civilization V.
I imagine the Steam sale and holiday had much to do with these numbers but as with the last couple sales, I didn't buy anything as I have enough to play as is.
http://store.steampowered.com/stats
Huh. I could've sworn I saw a ten-minute Fallout 3 speed run a couple years ago.
Early in the year, I went back to Diablo III, where I completed campaign mode with every class of character for both genders. There is still much for me to do in the game, outside of campaign mode, but this is a game I've really enjoyed playing.
Spring brought the release of GTAV for the PC, which I pre-ordered and got to enjoy once again. I had a couple of video issues, but I managed to resolve them with a simple configuration setting. This was the game that made me realize how ignorant I was about... Read All 2015 was an interesting year in gaming. I had fun with friends and I spent about half the year playing a single game. I didn't watch many movies, but I liked what I saw.
Early in the year, I went back to Diablo III, where I completed campaign mode with every class of character for both genders. There is still much for me to do in the game, outside of campaign mode, but this is a game I've really enjoyed playing.
Spring brought the release of GTAV for the PC, which I pre-ordered and got to enjoy once again. I had a couple of video issues, but I managed to resolve them with a simple configuration setting. This was the game that made me realize how ignorant I was about choosing a GTX 690 for my new Alienware PC. I didn't realize it was a dual-GPU card, until now. I played a little bit of GTA Online, but not much.
Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft is a really fun card game featuring WarCraft characters and mobs. I enjoyed it, although I wish the game had a much stronger single player aspect to it. I'd love to be able to play against an AI instead of people. That's really why I haven't spent much time playing it. Still, it's a good game. You can spend money on it, but I have not. I did save up some earned in-game gold to buy some stuff, though.
Summer brought the much anticipated 1.3 update for Terraria. It was amazing! I got to play on a server with my fellow Cheerful Ghosts and I had a lot of fun. Once we were all ready for Expert mode, I had pretty much already moved on. Expert mode didn't last very long for us, but that gives us another reason to run another server. I also learned how to use Tshock, which is really awesome.
About this time, I also found out about a new Early Access game called Ark: Survival Evolved. This has turned into my game of the year. I have really enjoyed it and continue to play. While the game has a strong PVP aspect to it, I've been playing strictly PVE on my own in a single player mode. It's a bit like Minecraft, but includes dinosaurs and other creatures that can be tamed. Many of them can be mounted and serve various purposes. I've also enjoyed the various holiday events. I'm very tempted to write a much longer post about why this is my Game of the Year.
A local friend told me that he was playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I found the entire series on sale on Steam, so I decided to go for it. The first two games in the series weren't all that wonderful, but the third was fantastic! I enjoyed riding around the open world on horse back with plenty of quests to do. The story was also very excellent.
This Fall, Fallout 4 was released. It was a bit difficult at first. In fact, it took me around 5 times of starting a new game to finally get into it. I ultimately decided to tone down the difficulty a notch. Once I got into it and was comfortable with it, I began to enjoy it. Perhaps my only complaint with the game is that some quests are never ending and you're constantly getting notifications that they are available. It took me a while to decide to just finally start ignoring them. One of the things I enjoyed was the fact that pretty much all that junk you collect can be used in crafting a variety of structures and mods for weapons and armor.
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void was also released this Fall. I haven't spent much time with it, honestly. I struggled to complete the first prologue mission in Whispers of Oblivion. After a bit of research, I was able to figure it out and make my way through it and the remaining two prologue missions. This ended up how I've had to complete many of the beginning missions of LotV, having to do so research to figure out how to complete them. I've been playing on Normal difficulty and it's been a while since I've played any StarCraft, so I had a rough start. I have taken a break from this after once again having difficulty in a mission.
Jurassic World was fantastic! It seems like nearly a reboot of the original, but I thought it was quite awesome. New dinosaurs were introduced along with good characters. I enjoyed buying the JP Blu-Ray collection and watching all of the movies with my son.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was simply great. I really enjoyed taking my son to see it. While our 3D experience wasn't great, the movie was fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing at least a sequel.
Since I got an Amazon Gift Card for Christmas, I decided to use it to rent a movie and watch on my TV via my PS3. I watched The Avengers: Age of Ultron and I enjoyed it as I usually enjoy Marvel movies.
Originally I saw Jurassic World in the theater with my partner and friends. It was a fun movie and I enjoyed it but not as much as watching a second time. After the second viewing I was really hooked, it's a really nice follow up and sort of does the "Force Awakens" thing which is to say it takes just enough from the original and does enough on it's own to be very enjoyable. Since it made a ton of money I expect sequels and if they are as good as World, I am in.
I kind of had a similar feeling. I mean, I enjoyed it the first time, but I was really into it the second time. Maybe that's because I watched the previous ones before watching it. Good point about "Force Awakens," I agree. It was basically a Jurassic Park reboot, but different. The story was essentially the same, yet it wasn't. I liked the characters and the dinos that were in it.
One thing I guess I never realized about Ark: Survival Evolved is that it has a PVE mode! I figured it was just like the swarms of other multiplayer survival games, only with dinosaurs. Very cool :)
Well yeah, it's primarily PVP, but I only play in single player mode (PVE). I have made an Ark friend and have been invited to play on an official PVP server. However, I'm doing some things on my own and not sure I'm ready to join. I'm not of fan of PVP, but apparently this server has neutral tribes and thus they don't do a lot of PVP.
Not only dinos, but other similar creatures as well. like the ape, Gigantopithecus, and the monkey, Mesopithecus. But, there's also tech stuff and weapons such as various firearms including small guns, rifles, grenades, and rocket launchers. Some things in the game seem to be more effective against dinos than humans and vice versa. One of the creatures, Dimorphodon, specifically targets humans, even when they're riding a dino. Usually when you attack a dino, it targets your dino, but not you.
I've played nearly 600 hours and I'm still playing and enjoying this game. Updates are frequent, including new items, creatures, bug fixes, and optimizations. I've also become a part of the community on Steam and the official forums at www.survivetheark.com. I believe the game is still in the alpha (pre-beta) stage, but it's really good for an alpha. One thing I like about the community is that I also feel like a beta tester, reporting bugs or issues I find.
It does sound fun. I'll try to check it out when it comes to PS4, which is supposed to be sometime early this year. My big anticipation right now, though, is The Division, which is due out March 8th. Epicness awaits (hopefully they don't muck it up)!
It is very fun, I think. I'm afraid playing on a PVP server won't be as fun because people will try to kill you and your creatures. Although, I also think it would be fun to play co-op with other people. On default settings it takes a very long time to tame some dinos. My new Ark friend recently said she found a level 120 (which is currently the max level for wild creatures) Spinosaurus and that it was going to take 4 hours to tame. Server admins can change a wide variety of settings to increase taming speed, harvesting amounts, XP earned, difficulty, etc. You can do that for single player mode, too. I've changed some settings, making it a little bit easier. I'm still playing on default difficulty, which seems to mean that I won't see a wild dino above level 40 and I probably won't see supply drops with higher levels of gear. Gear has different levels such as Primitive (the most basic), Apprentice, Journeyman, and Mastercrafted (the highest). Depending on the level of the gear, it's stats can be higher along with crafting costs. So, an Apprentice Pike will have a higher damage stat than a Primitive one. Saddles will have more armor.
I am aware that the game is supposed to be coming to the PS4. I think the ETA is this summer. XBox One already has it in it's Early Access-like program. So, XBox players are testing out the game now, just like us PC gamers. However, the versions are not cross-platform compatible. So, a PC gamer isn't going to be on the same server as an XBox gamer. The PC version is a expected graduate from Early Access this summer, too.
I'll also mention that I've started a fresh new game/character/map a few times now. I've been backing up my local files and reverting to them when something goes wrong (like death). I have made an error with that which made me decide to start over again a few months ago.
I'll be happy to continue talking to you about Ark. You can hit me up some time if you want to talk about it. I also recommend the link I provided in my last comment. I've also been watching Paul Soares, Jr., Zueljin, and Sl1pg8r on YouTube. Paul plays in single player mode while Zueljin and Sl1pg8r play together on a private server along with other really cool people.
The more I hear about ARK the less I'm interested. It just seems like the big thing these days is survival games, and this is just another one but this time with prehistoric creatures.
Then you read that the level of grind required to accomplish anything is so high as to be prohibitive, and to breed some of the high level dinos you have to spend a few actual real-life days incubating an egg, making sure the temperature is right, and... wait there are air conditioners?
The other main criticism is that you can get basically invincible creatures with no skill beyond reading the wiki and obsessing over getting the conditions right.
Then there's the "gotta catch 'em all" aspect that requires more obsessing over.
Now you're telling me there are dinosaurs that, by default, take 4 hours to tame? And that unless you do save file swapping when you die, you're permadead?
It seems like if you want to sink hundreds of hours into obsessing over things it's great, and there are plenty of people who like that kind of game.
Yeah, survival games seem to be pretty popular. I like them, though. Minecraft and Terraria have given me a strong desire to play similar games. This game, to me, is much like them. There's survival, crafting, pets, exploration, etc. It seems to me, still, that FPS games are extremely popular, especially FPS or survival games that feature zombies. I really don't understand the great appeal for that.
Yeah, the amount of grinding sucks. It does seem to (by default) take a long time to incubate an egg. I haven't messed with breeding yet, so I have no personal experience to speak of. Yes, there are air conditioners (along with various other high tech items). Air conditioners actually help by increasing hypothermal and hyperthermal insulation. With the right amount of them (4 or more), you can incubate an egg no matter the environmental temperature, apparently.
Yeah, you can get some pretty OP creatures. However, they recently did a huge rebalance of stats, which has upset a huge amount of people as many tamed creatures received a larger nerf. Some creatures, such as Giganotosaurus are sill quite OP.
I enjoy the Pokemon-like "gotta catch 'em all" aspect.
Yes, some creatures take a very long time to tame. There are also other challenges such as an increase in the speed of how long it will take them to wake up from being knocked out. There is a hardcore option for permadeath, but it is not on by default. When you die, you can spawn in certain general areas or on a bed you've made. You can then go back to where you died and retrieve the items you lost.
The game is still in Early Access and there's plenty of criticism about it. One of the main things is that it's not yet very optimized, so it runs poorly for most people. Even with my GTX 690, I'm only getting about 50 FPS and I have to force the game to use DirectX 10 instead of 11 just to get that. I also use other command line launch options such as removing sky details. I have also created a special shortcut for it that makes it run as a high priority process. I have also "unparked" my CPUs and told the game to "use all available cores." The game looks great in DirectX 11 mode and without all of my special options, but I lose 10-30 FPS by running it that way.
Thanks for the reply! =)
I don't even consider Minecraft and Terraria to be survival games, though. Not in the sense of what the genre has become anyway. "Surviving" in Terraria is just a matter of walling in a 3x4 rectangle. But the idea of gathering, crafting, etc. I'd imagine are similar throughout. Rust, for instance, has a crafting interface very reminiscent of Minecraft.
Also WRT the hardcore option-- the way you mentioned swapping saves when you died made me think you just died entirely, but I guess based on your reply here you do that just so you don't have to go searching for items. It sounds like the Minecraft way, or the Medium-core Terraria mode.
(apparently I just want to make notifications tick up for you guys, and it has nothing to do that I don't have my thoughts in order to make one comment and have it done :D)
Your reply actually alleviates some of the issues I thought I had with the idea of the game. But then that's the problem-- all I have is the idea. I wish games still had demos.
I've heard of Rust, but don't know anything about it.
What does "WRT" mean? Well, yeah, I don't like dying and I don't like losing items upon death. When I play Minecraft I use the command that lets you keep your inventory upon death. But, yeah, it's very dangerous in Ark to die and then have to go try to retrieve what you lost. Your body may be there, or eaten. Even if it is eaten, you'll have a pack that sits there for a certain amount of time, giving you time to retrieve it. However, that pack does despawn (along w/ your body) after that time is up. Retrieving your pack from some places can be near impossible, like if you fell into lava in a cave or died in the deep sea. But, yeah, I use a back up system for death and when other things go wrong, like losing a dino.
Some games still have demos, but not all of them.
WRT = With regard to
This post is a wrap up of a few things I enjoyed in 2015. It's not an exhaustive list but I am sure I am saying that so you don't judge me for only putting popular stuff on this list. You know, so if someone is all like "hey man why is this list Star Wars The Force Awakens" 20 times I can say "it's not meant to be exhaustive.â
The following lists aren't in any sorted order unless otherwise noted. This list is of things I experienced in 2015 not just stuff that was... Read All If people are handing out awards for the laziest post titles, i'd put "A Few Things I Liked In 2015" up for nomination. I wanted to make it "Things I Just Couldn't Even In 2015" but you know, I couldnât even.
This post is a wrap up of a few things I enjoyed in 2015. It's not an exhaustive list but I am sure I am saying that so you don't judge me for only putting popular stuff on this list. You know, so if someone is all like "hey man why is this list Star Wars The Force Awakens" 20 times I can say "it's not meant to be exhaustive.â
The following lists aren't in any sorted order unless otherwise noted. This list is of things I experienced in 2015 not just stuff that was launched in 2015.
Hearthstone is the game of the year hands down no exception, no tag backs and no reverses. For me right now it's the perfect game. Every day I get a new quest where I can grind for gold. The dailies vary enough to be interesting and if I save 700 gold I can unlock a new Adventure tier. With each adventure tier you get new and interesting cards that can change your decks and how you play the game. When you unlock all the adventures you can open packs that also add and change how you play the game. Hearthstone has a few classes and each class combined with deck builds make for a wide arena to play in. Tavern Brawls mix the core game mechanics up in interesting ways and since it's such a popular game there is always someone to play with and I win enough to make the game fun and enjoyable.
I have acquired enough cards to make some interesting decks and as mentioned before my win ratio is high enough that the game is still lots of fun. I am not the greatest Hearthstone player and don't care to be but it's nice to improve my game over time. Hearthstone fits well in a world where you have little time because each match is only a few minutes long. I am not sure how long I will keep playing it but hands down in 2015 Hearthstone was my game of the year. I hope Blizzard keeps bringing the awesome because it's a great game and keeps getting better.
To date I've spend $0 in game. It's a nice achievement and I wonder how far I can climb ladder this way?
Terraria
The 1.3 update was great and my only real complaint was I didn't get to play it more. It seems they have finally "finished" Terraria in the we have a proper endgame but even with that they released the Mac and Linux ports and Iâve heard about future updates as well. It's a game I plan on playing in bursts every year and thatâs pretty incredible considering I purchased it in a sale for $3.
Fallout 4
It's what everyone says it is unless someone says it's a bad game. I've recently stopped playing it for nearly no reason but each time I come back it's a solid experience. Bethesda did a great job here and the massive sales show that people are still interested in this franchise. I didn't get the DLC pack and don't plan to until I am completed with enough of the main game to warrant it. If you have the PC or console horsepower it's well worth a shot.
Broken Age
I bought Broken Age+Double Fine Adventure doc series in a slacker backer bundle and decided to play Broken Age when the whole game was released. Even though I looked how to complete most of the endgame puzzles(they are really hard in ways I don't want to spend time on) the games journey and story were very rewarding. The Double Fine Adventure doc series was similarly great and to a point was more enjoyable than the game itself. Double Fine has garnered some displeasure from the gaming crowd and whereas I understand the criticism I'm not sure I find the immense negativity to be warranted. Not a mega fan by any stretch but I enjoyed this game and the doc series that came from it.
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void
This was a great ending to the Starcraft II trilogy. Not sure much more needs to be said here, if you love those games check it out.
Movies:
The Babadook is a really unique film about grief and things that we canât seem to shake. What they accomplished with such a small budget is remarkable and considering this the first film of Jennifer Kent even more so.
Faults is a strangely compelling film about cults. The first few minutes are a mixture of hypnotizing and cringeworthy mixed in such a way I couldnât stop watching. Itâs got a fun twist and showcases well how creative independent movies can be.
Beasts of No Nation is a Netflix original movie that is one of the most beautifully shot films iâve seen all year. Beats is a movie about child soldiers and as such is a very emotional journey. Super happy to see such a high quality movie be released by Netflix after The Ridiculous Six left such a bad taste in my mouth.
Blue Ruin is a movie Iâve heard described as No Country for Old Men featuring very stupid people. It's a revenge movie with a great ending that harkens back to the bleak style of 70âs films.
The Guest
If you mixed Halloween, The Terminator and Scream youâd get The Guest. Whereas itâs not particularly scary itâs a lot of fun and contains a ton of style worthy of itâs sourced material.
Mad Max: Fury Road
I think of Mad Max: Fury Road as âcar chase the movieâ except that I generally dislike car chases and I love Fury Road. Itâs a solid entry into the Mad Max franchise and entertains each time I watch it.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Itâs a new Star Wars movie fitting of the original trilogy. Not sure I can give it any more accolades than that.
TV / Shows / Podcasts:
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is the greatest show of all time. Iâve been watching each episode and am currently mid season six. Itâs a show I loved watching in the 90âs as a kid and holds up very well now. Lots of memes we use on the Internet either started on MST3K or were used on it. Itâs a pretty impressive feat considering Internet/meme culture wasnât a thing back in the 90âs. MST3K was recently Kickstarted for a new season and after backing it I canât wait to watch the new episodes. Rewatching the old show a bit of a time is like experiencing an important part of history and canât wait till I watch them all.
Anything Red Letter Media
Like many I started watching Red Letter Media after I watched The Phantom Menace reviews. I binged on the rest of the Plinkett Reviews then started watching Half in the Bag and most recently the video game review show Previously Recorded. I watch pretty much whatever they release and love nearly all of it. If you are looking for a hilariously unfiltered look at pop culture, I recommend anything Red Letter Media.
The Slashfilm Podcast
I love movies and the Slashfilm podcast is a good way to know whatâs great. I heard about Faults, Blue Ruin and The Babadook through Slashfilm and found their reviews on The Force Awakens, Jurassic World and other popular films essential to the film-joyment process. I donât watch all the films they review but really respect their opinions and find the banter to be very entertaining.
Good post! I was thinking of doing something similar as well, so I went ahead and did it. The image you included is funny. I didn't mention Hearthstone, perhaps I'll go back and add it in the comments.
Is Hearthstone your Game of the Year?
> Is Hearthstone your Game of the Year?
Yep. Just finished unlocking the last League of Explorers tier today and had a blast. I only have the last tier of Blackrock Mountain to unlock then it's just figuring out which packs to grind gold for.
That's awesome! I haven't played in a long time. Like I mentioned in my post, that I edited to include the game, I wish it had a stronger single player aspect to it. I'd rather play AI than other people.
BTW, I just created my 100th post! =)
Triple A Game of the Year
Winner: Fallout 4
Runner Up: Bloodbourne
Indie Game of the Year
Winner: Rocket League
Runner Up: Ark: Survival Evolved
Update of the Year
Winner: Terraria 1.3
Runner Up: Hearthstone Tournament of Champions / League of Explorers
Mobile Game of the Year
This year we have a tie for the winner of the Mobile game of the year in Monument Valley and Fallout Shelter!
Thanks to everyone that voted and here's to 2016 being a great year in gaming! The results have been counted and the winners of the Cheerful Ghost 2015 Game of The Year Awards are:
Triple A Game of the Year
Winner: Fallout 4
Runner Up: Bloodbourne
Indie Game of the Year
Winner: Rocket League
Runner Up: Ark: Survival Evolved
Update of the Year
Winner: Terraria 1.3
Runner Up: Hearthstone Tournament of Champions / League of Explorers
Mobile Game of the Year
This year we have a tie for the winner of the Mobile game of the year in Monument Valley and Fallout Shelter!
Thanks to everyone that voted and here's to 2016 being a great year in gaming!
Well deserved winners all around!
This is 99 cents on iOS and I just picked it up. If you can get it for a buck, I seriously recommend it.
The tutorial is very good and it's not too hard, but don't let it fool you, normal is much more difficult. After a couple games I got the hang of things and generally lost under two scenarios: 1. I killed everyone except a couple people in some countries(I wasn't strong enough to infect) or 2. I infected everyone on earth but my disease wasn't strong enough to kill everyone before they found a cure.
Finding that balance is a fun thing to figure out and I finally did and my disease "Sauron" wiped out everyone on earth, so yay! It unlocked a new game mode and a special ability and it seems the more I win the more I unlock. This is available on Steam and is $15 and seems to be the same game, but I am not really sure about that entirely.
Well worth a dollar if you are looking for a very fun strategy game where each game lasts a handful of minutes.