Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Star Wars Week Kicks Off With Jack & Rich Reviewing Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars The Force Awakens releases this week and like many I have had my tickets pre-ordered for a few months now. Thursday can't come soon enough but to keep us all in the mood until we see it, I'll be posting about Star Wars and Star Wars in gaming all week. So ignight your lightsabers and count those midichloreans because this Falcon has a new hyperdrive!

Jack and Rich reviewed EA's latest Star Wars Battlefront and I have to say that I entirely agree with how they look at the game. It's pretty. Very pretty and the music and sound effects are great. The shooting is also good but at the end of the day it didn't really do much for me. EA put forward a solid effort... Read All

Shadow Complex Remastered is FREE for the holidays!

Shadow Complex, released back in August of 2009 for the XBox 360, has been remastered for it's re-release on modern consoles, and you can get it for free on PC for the next few weeks.

And you should. This is the best Metroidvania game I've played that isn't Metroid or Castlevania, and it's written by Orson Scott Card.

https://www.epicgames.com/shadowcomplex/

Winter Veil Comes To Everyones Favorite Blizzard Cash Creation Engine

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/gallery/KOYUKLN4X91M1449535529201.jpg

"Oh the weather outside is frightful,

but the Inn is so delightful.

With our decks all good to go,

Play Hearthstone! Play Hearthstone! Play Hearthstone!"

It's nice to see Blizzard getting in the holiday spirit with Hearthstone. Then again, it's not too hard getting excited for something that makes more money than Donald Trump. To celebrate Winter Veil Blizzard is replacing the standard Hero greeting with a special Winter Veil line as well as decorating the boards with a nice festive theme. They are teasing more to come, which might take the form of a fun Tavern Brawl or ... possibly ... some free stuff? If Winter Veil Claus brings us all a free pack or two that would... Read All

JaBo wrote on 12/11/2015 at 04:48am

So, one thing I noticed is that there's 10 extra packs when you buy 40, so it's $50 for 50. I did that just now. I pulled 8 cards I didn't have yet lol. 7 were golden versions, 1 legendary I didn't have (I did pull a 2nd ragnaros). Then I disenchanted the rest and gained over 3200 dust so I crafted two more legendary cards.... all in all, can't complain.

I finished the heroic mode today and gained the new card back (and the rest of the cards). I haven't played yet with these weeks cards, but so far, I like Ethereal Conjurer, Entomb, Jeweled Scarab, pretty much any discover card is awesome and good for value. The spider, the mech, all card advantage. Thinking of crafting gold versions of some of them (then they give "discover" gold cards).

If anyone needs tips on the boss fights, I'd be happy to share my tactics.

Good expansion

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/11/2015 at 08:33pm

> so I crafted two more legendary cards.... all in all, can't complain.

What cards?

Entombed Spider is great and works really well in Hunter beast deck. It added so much to it already. That and Glaivezooka.

Was talking to a friend and we both think this will be the new model for Hearthstone going forward. A yearly expansion + adventure in that order plus anything new they plan on adding, not sure what that would be though

JaBo wrote on 12/14/2015 at 05:08pm

Don't remember exactly which two, I have a few new ones I've crafted lately. I got the 2 good mage ones (I already had pulled the flame tank thing), and the dragon that gives +5 spell damage.

I'm kinda running out of legionaries to care about. I do have epics I need though. I had only pulled 2 giants, so I'm working on getting those now. Frost Giant seems decent in a control deck. In priest or warrior I easily use my ability over 10 times, so those would be 0 cost 8/8s w/o me having to be at 10 life, or having cards in hand, or full board... I may try them out.

This should be public vieable, but here's my collection: http://www.hearthpwn.com/members/Nardraug/collection

Not sure what my legendary I want next... I may just keep grabbing some epics. I'm tempted to also craft some golden cards I use a lot.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/14/2015 at 06:30pm

It seems to require a login to see it.

JaBo wrote on 12/14/2015 at 06:44pm

Hmm, well HearthPwn is a really great site to read up on decks/ideas/cards. I haven'r used it too much, but it's cool for comparing your decks vs others similar to see what others try (and see how popular they are with the community). You can search for decks filtering down to certain card combos.

JaBo wrote on 12/14/2015 at 06:50pm

It also shows you how much dust is needed for the deck.

Like this dragon priest deck, it costs over 10k dust. http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/394674-loe-shadow-reno-dragons
But it tells me I only need 1600 to complete it based on my collection. (missing one legendary for it)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/15/2015 at 06:13pm

Nice, i'll sign up for an account then.

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My Spoiler-Free Experience with Fallout 4

Azurephile gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Azurephile gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

My experience included:

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point allocation uncertainty

Limited ammo and use of melee weapons

Crafting, settlement building, and looting everything

Realizing it’s not necessary to give companions Stimpaks

Radiant quests

Factions and having to choose sides

Issue/bug with one mission

Available choices in how to go about a quest and dialogue

Starting a new game to choose a different path

Pre-loading: I was aware of Fallout 4 about the time when Bethesda showed it off at E3. I liked what they showed. Since I enjoyed Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I was sure I'd enjoy 4, although I didn't get too excited about it. I did finally pre-order the game on Steam, but it... Read All My experience included:

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point allocation uncertainty

Limited ammo and use of melee weapons

Crafting, settlement building, and looting everything

Realizing it’s not necessary to give companions Stimpaks

Radiant quests

Factions and having to choose sides

Issue/bug with one mission

Available choices in how to go about a quest and dialogue

Starting a new game to choose a different path

Pre-loading: I was aware of Fallout 4 about the time when Bethesda showed it off at E3. I liked what they showed. Since I enjoyed Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I was sure I'd enjoy 4, although I didn't get too excited about it. I did finally pre-order the game on Steam, but it wasn't until launch day or hours before that I realized it was ready for “pre-loading.” It took me a few hours to get it downloaded and installed, but once it was ready, I jumped in.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. allocation: My beginning with it was full of anxiety. I had no idea how I wanted to allocate my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points at the beginning. So, I decided to even them all out. I actually restarted my game quite a few times. One of the reasons was because it seemed too difficult for my taste. Luckily, Travis brought it to my attention that you can change the game's difficulty level (at any time) under the game's options, something I overlooked. I also decided to max out my Strength stat because I was looting everything and getting encumbered. Then, I found the perk that increases your carrying capacity. I also learned that companions have a limited amount of weight they can carry.

I also felt that ammo was too limited. So, I ended up trying to kill almost everything with a melee weapon. Speaking of weapons, I was also overwhelmed with how many are in the game, I wasn't sure which pistols or rifles to carry around. I ended up carrying around many more than I actually used. I also didn't even try to mod them. I only modded my armor a couple of times to help me carry more weight. The only other kind of crafting that I did was giving a few settlements things they needed like defense turrets and repairing my Power Armor when needed. I also did a lot of cooking. I ended up mostly relying on those items to restore my health. Travis helped me realize that even though you can use Stimpaks on your companions, you probably should save them for yourself. It doesn't seem as though companions can die, but they can become helpless during battle if they take too much damage, unless you give them a Stimpak.

Radiant quests: Travis also helped me realize that the game's quests are very much like Skyrim, that is many of them are “radiant” or, in other words, never-ending. So, I ended up searching on Google to find out which quests were radiant and I ignored them, because I got tired of doing them after a while. I did run into some non-radiant side quests. I was trying to focus on them while ignoring the main quest line. Eventually, I decided to just go for it.

This was about when the game started to focus more on factions. Siding with different factions helps you gain allies, but it also creates enemies. This intensified later because I found out that two factions wanted the same thing from one location and the game forces you to decide which side to take. So you were given a choice as to go on to the mission or inform the other side. If you use the transportation provided by either side it will tell you that you will become an enemy of the other.

The only major technical issue I had with the game was when I got lost on a particular mission. I took an elevator back to the top of a building, because the game had me going around in circles. When I got to the top, the screen was totally black after it loaded that area. A few seconds later, I could see the world around me, but I fell to my death when I tried to move. So, I had to revert to a previous save which cost me a few hours of game play. In the end, I realized that I was supposed to be with someone on that mission, someone who wasn't there the first time I tried. I also forced this person to follow me by coaxing them into an elevator by moving in front of them, because I wasn't sure if the person would follow me to a lower floor.

Choices: I noticed other instances in which the game gave you the option of how to handle a situation, which could turn out in your favor or against you. During one in particular, I chose a path that didn't end very well, so I tried it again another way, which gave me a good result. Another mission started off badly if I didn't successfully convince another faction of my good intentions. A little later in the mission, I had to try to convince someone to join me, which failed every time until I decided to suit up in some clothing that increased my Charisma stat.

Eventually I became more comfortable with the game and how I was progressing as a player. After a while, I stopped looting everything, for instance. In conclusion, I think the game is good. I definitely recommend it for anyone who's played even a little bit of Fallout 3 and/or New Vegas and enjoyed it. In the end, the game forces you to choose sides, which can be a tough decision, but I think that just adds to the game's replay value.

I know I did not discover every place and I'm sure there's plenty that I missed, but I felt like I “finished” the game. However, since I picked one side and went with it, I decided to start a new game so I could play a bit differently and go along with the other side. One of the other main differences in this new game play is that I maxed out my Intelligence stat right away so I could get the most EXP possible right away. I think that will help me out greatly with leveling up and selecting the perks I want.

Epic Games Announces New Gears of War Styled MOBA Called Paragon

Epic just announced that it will be launching a new MOBA in 2016 called Paragon. From the gameplay trailer above it looks like it pulls some elements from Gears of War, Unreal Tournament and their iOS game Infinity Blade. If you are a MOBA fan 2016 will be a good year as 2K's Battleborn is coming out as well as the very popular League of Legends, DoTA 2 and Heroes of the Storm are getting more attention than ever.

Paragon will launch in 2016 to a paid early access and then later with a summer beta on PC and PS4.

"Today Full of Energy Mario Runs" - Did You Know The Super Mario Theme Had Lyrics?

You can file this in this "what the..." section but apparently the Super Mario Theme has official Nintendo sanctioned lyrics. See if we take our time machine and go back to 1985 Nintendo fans submitted lyrics for the theme song to a Japaneese radio contest. The winner was selected and the song pressed to a vinyl record that someone later recorded and posted above. Some awesome person at Destruction later translated the song to English and what follows will really give you a deeper understanding of Mario and the entire series.

Oh and the title of the song? Go Go Mario of course!

"Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
Go save Princess Peach! Go!
Today, full... Read All You can file this in this "what the..." section but apparently the Super Mario Theme has official Nintendo sanctioned lyrics. See if we take our time machine and go back to 1985 Nintendo fans submitted lyrics for the theme song to a Japaneese radio contest. The winner was selected and the song pressed to a vinyl record that someone later recorded and posted above. Some awesome person at Destruction later translated the song to English and what follows will really give you a deeper understanding of Mario and the entire series.

Oh and the title of the song? Go Go Mario of course!

"Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
Go save Princess Peach! Go!
Today, full of energy, Mario runs
Today, full of energy, jumping!
Today, full of energy, searching for coins
Today, keep going, Mario!

Get a mushroom - it's Super Mario!
Get a flower - it's Fire Mario!

Goomba! Troopa! Buzzy Beetle! Beat them all!
Mario is always full of energy and strong!

[Spoken] The only one who can reverse the spell that has captured the Mushroom People is Princess Peach. But Princess Peach is hidden underground, in a far-off castle. Ah, the days of peace... if we could once more return to those days... to save Princess Peach and bring peace back to the Mushroom Kingdom, that is why Mario is on his journey today.

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
Go and beat the Koopa tribe, go!
Today, full of energy, Mario runs
Today, full of energy, jumping!
Today, full of energy, searching for coins
Today, keep going, Mario!

Get a star - become invincible!
Quickly, go save Princess Peach!

Lakitu! Blooper! Cheep Cheep! Beat them all!
Mario is always full of energy and strong!

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
He's made it to the castle and gets fireworks!
Lightly sidestepping the Hammer Bros.
Show the last of your power, Mario!
It's been a long journey but it's nearly at an end
You've done it, you've done it! You've defeated Bowser!

Princess Peach says "Thank you"
Mario's got a great big heart!

Mario's adventure is over for now, but
Mario's dream lives forever..."

http://www.destructoid.com/super-mario-bros-theme-has-lyrics-30498.phtml#skePQ8mQwzRvQ8Rd.99

Day of The Tentacle Remastered Is Going To Take On The World March 2016

Day of The Tentacle was one game in a batch of 90's adventure games I have fond memories for. It contained such a unique sense of humor and figuring out each puzzle felt like you were some kind of genius because most of them were so bizarre. On the heels of Grim Fandango Remastered, Double Fine has been spending time polishing up Day of the Tentacle for the same kind of HD treatment and will drop the game on March 2016 on PC, Mac, Vita and PS4.

Oh and Tim Schafer also noted that they will be relaunching Full Throttle Remastered in 2016 as well. So many remastered games, so little time.

"Now, over twenty years later, Day of the Tentacle is back in a remastered edition... Read All

Interview With Travis Newman Creator Of Indie Sensation Animator's Nightmare

In the wake of this years many gaming disappointments, community fiascos and the ever growing disappearance of the sacred dollar menu at restaurants many wonder about the future of gaming and culture. Will the industry see a new wave of games that captivate us in the same way as the ones that came before? Or are we to be held in a creative limbo where everything created is the exact same as the things that came before? In a world of sequels, reboots and DLC packs some developers are taking the gaming basketball down the court and jumping up for a slam dunk. I was able to experience one such effort in developer Travis Newman's brand new game Animator's Nightmare. After... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/05/2015 at 07:12pm

This game is so hard, I only scored 5!! Is there any way you could possibly tone down the difficulty? I mean it said to press the ANY key to jump, but I can't find it!!!!! Do I need to upgrade my keyboard? Also, the my GTX 690 had severe issues with the graphics. I didn't see the amazing graphics Jon mentioned, should I upgrade my PC? I mean my computer could barely run it. It was kind of slow. This is a terrible game and you should be ashamed that you made it. I am going to call upon my fellow trolls and make you afraid to step outside of your hows!!!!!!

HAHAHAHA I'm kidding as much as you guys. Good job, Travis! Good interview, too!!! =)

Travis Admin wrote on 12/05/2015 at 10:25pm

My high score is like 40 because I got bored. The next version will be harder. :D

But yeah this was fun to make. All the backgrounds and obstacles were from previous animations I've done throughout the semester. The plot, such as it is, I fall asleep at the PC and have a dream that I'm trapped in the Flash software with all my creations trying to kill me. The timeline and titlebar you see the player running on are parts of the Flash interface, and the panel with the score and health are the symbol properties for the player symbol. The title and game over screens are wrapped in the Flash interface, with a ton of the panels hidden so I could make it feasibly sized and still have the content show up.

I'm super proud of the concept, it works without any noticeable bugs (as mentioned in the interview :D) but I seriously might change it up a bit for a more general audience who hasn't seen all my previous animations, and make it actually have some difficulty.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/05/2015 at 10:51pm

If you want the context of all those animations you see riddled throughout that make no sense: http://nrccstudents.org/newmant/flashprojects.html

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/05/2015 at 11:22pm

> Also, the my GTX 690 had severe issues with the graphics. I didn't see the amazing graphics Jon mentioned, should I upgrade my PC?

You don't ask if Animator's Nightmare should change to fit your PC, the proper reasoning is to change your PC to work better with Animator's Nightmare.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/06/2015 at 12:11am

That's what I said Jon, you even quoted me saying "...should I upgrade my PC?" Maybe if I upgraded my GTX 690 to a 3dfx Voodoo 2, it would look amazing! I'm not sure I'm ready to have a $1,300 graphics card though. Steam says I've spent 1,000 hours playing this game and I still think it sucks! Granite, I think the conpect is neice becuz who woold of thout to have a charakter jumping over thing?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Do you like what I did there? Seriously, good job, Travis! I hope you enjoy my humor as I've enjoyed the humor of your interview. Remember your good ol' roommate when you get rich! =)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/06/2015 at 12:19am

scrypt Supporter wrote on 12/06/2015 at 01:59am

I first played Animator's Nightmare back on 12/4/15, before it was cool, and it terrified me. Everything about it seemed so REAL, especially the horror. I'm glad there was a jump ability, because there was no way I was going to lose another fight to a dancing baby! No one should have to relive that moment...

My only complaint is that this game suffers from what I call "coercive nostalgia." The past is so present in such a way that it causes me to forget any recent knowledge I've acquired of video games, and how to play them. Granted, this works to the games advantage, but it really sucks when I then go on to play The Talos Principle, forgetting how to apply logic, or even push other non-jumping buttons.

I have to hand it to Newman, though. Only the bravest son-of-a-bitch could take those very personal, haunted dreams and push them on people in such a simple, yet not condescending way. A masterful stroke, almost frighteningly so, proving once again that Canadian game developers should definitely be taken seriously.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/06/2015 at 05:23am

After awhile the level design starts to feel recycled. Also, I felt there were too many dancing babies and not enough Humping Robots. I also think it could have used more anime cat girls.
4/10.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/06/2015 at 05:36am

**account deleted**

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/06/2015 at 06:24am

After searching for a few hours on local a BBS, I found out that in order to run the game properly, I had to upgrade my Netscape Navigator to 2.0. I can't afford to buy the brand new 3dfx Voodoo 2 nor can I afford to upgrade my 14.4 modem. Luckily, I was able to play the game again and I got a better score. I did notice a significant boost in proformance of the game and golly, the graphics are amazing!!! I also found out that there's this gaming company called "Copcam" and they have this game called "Megamain" or something like that. Anyway, the karakter jumps just like yours in the game. You clearly made your game first and so you should sue them for cofyright infrengiment. I hope you'll hook me up with some of that money you get when you win that lawsuit, since I'm the furst to pont it out two your!!!!

Hahahaha I looked at your other work, too. Good job! Parallax Background was probably most notable to me because I remembered seeing that "Parallax" option in Terraria and didn't really know what it was about. I don't even think I looked it up.

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Double Fine Launches New Crowdfunding Effort For Psychonauts 2

Tim Schafer and Double Fine are at it again with a new Crowdfunding campaign to launch the development of Psychonauts 2. As seen in the video above they are enlisting the help of many people associated with the original game to cook up what looks to be a nice follow up to the original. The video is very fun and features a cameo by Valve overlord Gabe Newell and writer Eric Wolpaw that is work the price of admission alone.

To date Double Fine seems to have navigated a few Crowdfunding snafus with Broken Age and Spacebase DF9. I can't speak to Spacebase but I found Broken Age to be an incredibly fun game even though the funding efforts were a bit shaky at times. To... Read All

Epic Mark Hamill Interview on Star Citizen, Wing Commander and Star Wars

Mark Hamill is one of the many actors that will appear in Star Citizen, the extremely well funded Kickstarter Space simulation game that has raised an estimated $99 million dollars with pre-launch crowdfunding. Apparently Star Citizen is bringing on some very talented actors such as Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson & John Rhys Davies to help tell the games story. Hamill is no slouch to lending his voice and acting abilities to gaming as my first memory of him outside Star Wars* was Adrian Ripburger in Full Throttle and went on to later star in Wing Commander and the voice of the Joker in the Batman comics as well as video games. In this interview with PC... Read All