194 Posts

A Brief Introduction to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
I ignored Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order until it was released, for no particular reason. Maybe it's my lackluster impression of Star Wars games or my lack of actually playing any. But, this game just came out and I think it deserves a Cheerful Ghost introduction (as it seems no one's talking about it here yet).

Reviews: I recommend watching the embedded "Before You Buy" video by Gameranx. You could also double down and watch the review it received from GameSpot (https://youtu.be/kIJ0kfjhuws), though they both pretty much say it's a good game and worth playing. It currently also has a "Very Positive" rating on Steam. If you'd like to see someone playing the first 40 minutes of it, check out the video Paul Soares, Jr. (one of my favorite YouTube channels) that he posted (https://youtu.be/CvGEZWsS5f4).

It's on my Steam wish list, though I don't know when I might get it. One review stated that it's a rather short (30 hour-ish) game, which I think is disappointing (I like long games). Still that's $2 per hour of game play and I think that's a decent value.

Feel free to share your thoughts about it here. I'm interested to know what you think about it, if you've played it, or if it looks like something you might get into.

May the Force be with you, always! smile

Why Video Games Are Good For Your Mind and Body
I jut found a cool video on a YouTube channel I'm subscribed to and thought I'd share it here. This video is from the channel Bright Side, which often features fascinating general knowledge. If you like learning new things, you should check it out.

Most of this video doesn't surprise me, but I have a couple of comments I wanted to make about it. I think video games are in part a distraction, a way to reduce stress. However, I find that sometimes video games can be incredibly frustrating. They can also help you concentrate, but I've noticed that they don't always completely occupy my mind. I think this often happens when I'm quite familiar with a game and no longer have to think so much about it. This is when a video game loses it's escape/distraction value.

The video also mentioned research and I have a great example for it! When I was playing CivVI, I did become much more interested in world history and just about everything included in the game such as famous world leaders, great persons, and nations. I most definitely did some research outside of game play on this topic and I found very fascinating. I think that if a game inspires you to learn more about "real life," then that's a huge success! Other than that primary example, I quite often do research on a game I'm playing. Often this is, because I've run into an issue and am looking for a solution. Or, perhaps there's something I don't quite fully understand about the game and I'm seeking help.

So, what are your thoughts? Does any of this surprise you? Game on!

Diablo IV Announcement
Diablo IV was announced during this year’s BlizzCon. We were able to see three classes; a druid, sorceress, and a barbarian. It looks as though the druid can transform into an animal, the sorceress can combine magic attacks, and the barbarian can dual wield.

The game play and cinematic trailers look very good! I’m glad that it still looks like a Diablo game. There is vertical terrain and mounts to help you traverse the larger map containing five regions. It seems mounts will be customizable and each class will have their own abilities for attacking while dismounting. The events of the game take place decades after the Reaper of Souls expansion. You can see Lillith, “daughter of hate,” in the cinematic trailer.

I’m really looking forward to this and I feel quite certain this is a launch day buy for me. Diablo III was my first experience with the series and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I can’t wait to find out more details, especially when it’s going to be released!

In the announcement cinematic the words, “by three they come...” I wonder if this is tied to the fact that there are three classes they’ve shown us in the game play trailer. I hope not. I expect the game will launch with these three classes, but I do hope they will add more either at launch or in the future.

What do you think? Are you planning on jumping in at launch? Which class do you think you’ll pick for your first character? Sound off in the comments!

Announcement cinematic: https://youtu.be/9bRWIdOMfro

News source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/diablo-4-gameplay-trailer-shows-the-druid-barbaria/1100-6471090/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

Mounts info: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/diablo-4-mounts-revealed-at-blizzcon-2019/1100-6471102/

Concept art book info: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/diablo-4-concept-art-on-display-in-new-art-book-th/1100-6471085/

Why Do We Play Games?
Why do we play games? Game Informer has a great video explaining how games meet some of our psychological needs as psychologists and sociologists continue to study the affects of games on us. Check out the embedded video!

This is a very good question! I feel like it's entertainment. Some people watch TV, I play video games instead. Without video games, I feel lost actually. Playing video games is a bit of a hobby or occupation for me. I can agree with what's said in the video. However, I think there are other pieces that weren't mentioned. I think some people want to feel powerful or challenged. I don't like to be challenged at all, but I do like the feeling of successfully completing a task, even if it's very challenging. Video games can be very frustrating to me, but I learn and improve and that feels good. Video games greatly capture my interest, not just for the games themselves, but also for the the hardware that runs them. I'm not just a video gamer, but I'm also a PC enthusiast. I could easily talk for hours about a single video game. I often look up things about a game I'm playing, especially if it's something I really enjoy or want to find help with. Sometimes, I even enjoy the social aspect of it, like participating in an Early Access community.

So, why do you play games? What does it do for you? What do you like or dislike about games? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section!

Monster Hunter: World's Expansion Iceborne is Coming to PC Jan. 9
Monster Hunter: World Iceborne is Coming to PC Jan. 9th

Monster Hunter: World has become Capcom’s highest selling game. After it’s success on consoles, it came to PC a bit later (last year). It’s first paid expansion pack DLC, Iceborne was released for consoles some time ago, but it is coming to PC on Jan 9th. Not only is the game coming to PC, but it includes new upgrades such as DirectX12 and “better” keyboard and mouse controls.

I got MHW this Spring and started playing it this Summer. I can only imagine how people play the game with a keyboard and mouse. I decided early on to use an Xbox controller for the game as I read that it was recommended. I’ve always found Xbox (360 and One) controllers to be very good and easy to use for PC gaming.

You can now pre-order the expansion for $50 on Steam, but you can also get a special bundle that’s $40. It’s actually confusing, because it seems the $40 bundle comes with a few extra things along with the pre-order bonus, but is less expensive, while the $50 version only comes with the pre-order bonus. There will be another bundle that will include the base game and the expansion. I think that bundle is coming with the release of the expansion. Now is a good time to buy the base game as it’s on sale. It’s also a great time to play the game as there is a holiday event going on that contains quests and items that are available for a limited time. These quests usually come back to the game every now and then, but it seems all such quests come back on holiday events like this one. I imagine there will be another similar event in December, though I could be wrong.

The expansion obviously requires the base game, but in order to access it, you have to have at least finished the story mode of the base game. There is plenty of time between now and then to do so. There is also plenty of time to get a lot of things done, like collecting items and materials you will need. Check out the links provide below for details. I’m also including a playlist that includes weapon tutorials, so you can pick the right one for you.

I’ve already reviewed the base game here on Cheerful Ghost, feel free to check it out. In short, it’s a great game, I like it a lot. I’m not too keen on the multiplayer aspect, though. I don’t really want to play with strangers and I have no friends on Steam that own the game. There are certain quests that were designed for multiplayer in mind, trying to do these by yourself is extremely frustrating. However, I think the game is great, you should definitely check it out. If I had bought this game last year, it would have definitely been my pick for Game of the Year.

My MHW review: https://cheerfulghost.com/GregoPeck/posts/4197/who-know-monster-hunting-would-be-so-fun

Video links:
A short video pointing out PC upgrades coming to the game with Iceborne (*edit* some of these are already in the game): https://youtu.be/9PyHePaNodY

12 things you should do in-game before Iceborne is released: https://youtu.be/gby5dgDSF3c

A good set of weapon tutorials to help you pick the right weapon for you: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHc2Wj95htvMxZR7dvgYwevupNBy9imiu

Red Dead Redemption 2 PC Release November 5th
Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming to PC on November 5th. Rockstar Games created their own game launcher recently. If you hurry now, you can still get GTA: San Andreas for free. So, RDR2 will launch on their launcher and will include the extra bonuses for pre-ordering. This includes extra bonuses for RDR Online. The game will release on multiple other platforms, such as Epic Game Store, but will not launch on Steam until December. Pre-ordering the game on one of these other platforms doesn’t grant you the same amount of extra bonuses as you would get for doing so on the Rockstar Games launcher, but you still get something.

More details can be found in the embedded video. However, it seems that the game will include enhancements and more story content. We will learn the PC requirements on October 9th. The game will also launch with the new Google Stadia.

Battle at Big Rock
Spoiler warning! If you haven’t seen Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, this post may contain spoilers, so you may want to stop reading now.

Battle at Big Rock was just released and you can view it on YouTube (link embedded in this post). It’s a short Jurassic World film that basically shows a confrontation between two dinosaur species at a camp site and a family caught in the mix. It takes place after the end of Fallen Kingdom, where dinosaurs were released into the wild.

For someone who’s always loved dinosaurs and the entire Jurassic Park/World films, I like this. Stay around for the credits to see more! I’m looking forward to the next film, which I believe is coming in June 2021.

Let me know what you think about this!

The Very First Review of Tale of the White Wyvern!
GregoPeck gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
GregoPeck gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
Tale of the White Wyvern is the first game created by the developers of Cheerful Ghost; Jon Dodson and Travis Newman. It’s pretty much an online text based MMO reminiscent of BBS games like Usurper, and especially Legend of the Red Dragon. The game is rather simple; create a character, do some forest fights, buy a weapon, armor (and now a hat), and increase your character’s class skills. There are three classes to choose from; warrior, rogue, and mage. Each class has their own unique skills. You can increase them by one point with six gems you can spend in Tarbreth’s Adventurer Training. This will increase the daily amount of skill points you have per in-game day. The skill attacks are more powerful than a regular attack, but there are also other skills that can be used. For instance, the mage can use a couple of different offensive magic skills, heal, or teleport (flee). The rogue can now disappear, which makes them invulnerable for a few turns.

In-game days last for 12 hours, starting at 12:00AM (PST) and again at noon (PST). At the dawn of every day, your skill points refill along with your health and number of forest fights. Dead players also get resurrected during this time.

The forest is pretty much where characters will spend probably most of their time. It includes a nice variety of random encounters. Usually, characters will run into a monster or enemy, which they can attack or flee. This is the primary, but not the only, way to earn experience points and gold, which are awarded upon a successful kill. Gold can also be spent to heal in Helga’s Potions and Healing Shoppe. You may also randomly find gems along the way. You can use two to raise your attack, defense, or hit points by one point or save six of them for a skill point in Tarbreth’s Adventurer Training. You are given a limited amount of forest fights per in-game day. There are a couple of ways to temporarily increase your forest fights. You can accomplish this by interacting with the facilities in the new outhouse. You can also interact with an NPC named Crugg.

There are number of NPCs a player can interact with, many of these grant certain bonuses. Crugg can be found in the hidden tavern and will grant the player some temporary extra forest fights. Scarlet, in the inn, will grant the player some experience points. Jon Boyd the bard will grant the player some gold. You will need some charm to get the maximum bonus from these NPCs. Charm can be granted or lost in the forest by an old man or woman, which is a random encounter. You can only get an NPC bonus once per in-game day. However, you can ask John Boyd to sing, which will grant you some temporary forest fights. You can do this and still get the bonus from interacting with an NPC.

Pretty much, the goal is to gain enough experience to advance to the stage where you can no longer train with your master and are then told that you may be able to take on the wyvern. This is a beast that you’ll find in the forest, once you reach a certain level. It won’t appear as a random encounter, nor does it take away from your daily forest fights. Instead, you’ll find a new option in the forest to enter the wyvern’s den. The wyvern is one tough beast. It attacks hard and has a lot of hit points, so you’ll want to be fully prepared before you attempt to take it on, if you don’t want to die. A good strategy for fighting the wyvern is to save all of your daily class skill points for that battle and use them then. You will also need a good weapon and armor. Defeating the wyvern will reset you to the beginning and allow you to chose a new class.

There is a PVP aspect to the game, although I don’t use it. If a person does not rent a room in the inn, they will be in the fields; out in the open and vulnerable. If a person does have a room in the inn, you can still attack them, but you will have to pay some gold in order to call them down. Players who die (not just in PVP) lose some experience points and all the gold they have on hand. So, it’s best to deposit all of your gold into the bank before leaving the game. Luckily, you can acquire interest each day, which will give you a nice little bonus.

Tale of the White Wyvern is a good game to play and it doesn’t take very long to complete your in-game daily activities. It is meant to be played for about 15 minutes. There are a variety of things to do and ways to interact with NPCs and other players. One of the best things about it is that it is completely free. There are no loot boxes or anything you can buy with real money to enhance your character. The development process seems to be on going as Jon and Travis are working to add more things to the game. It’s a pretty bug-free game that can be played on anything with a web browser. You can play it on your PC, phone, tablet, and more. It’s a pretty interesting game and is definitely reminiscent of those games many of us enjoyed on a BBS back in the 90’s. I recommend at least giving it a try. As for me, I play it every day, twice per day, usually near the dawn of each in-game day.

Do Frames Per Second Really Matter?
I recently built a new PC and decided to get a new monitor as well. My old monitor is actually fine, it’s a 24” Dell and I can’t recall exactly what model it is. It’s a 60hz monitor and I decided I wanted to try one with a higher refresh rate. More hertz means more FPS in a game. I got the impression that once you see over 60hz, you’ll never want to go back.

Recently, I bought a recertified Acer Predator XB241H. I have some problems with it, but I’ll not get into that here as it’s irrelevant to this discussion. One feature of this monitor is that it can be overclocked to 180hz. I had no idea you could OC a monitor! It’s a 24” 1080p monitor, just like the one I was using. I think I’ve decided that 1080p is a resolution I’m quite happy with and don’t really see a reason to change. Higher resolutions require more GPU power and higher resolutions decrease your FPS. I have a GTX 1660 Ti, which is plenty of GPU power, although I can’t recall whether or not it can do 4K (probably so). I also don’t think 2K or 4K would look good on the desktop, I imagine it would make icons much smaller than I want them to be. I remember progressing through resolutions as time progressed. Those older resolutions look horrible today (I think)!

Because I’m able to monitor my FPS via counters, I can see that I’m getting more than 60FPS without screen tearing. Before, with the old monitor, I turned on Vsync, because screen tearing was an issue and I hated it. Now I have a Gsync monitor and have it turned on. I am seeing about 10 more FPS in some graphically intense games like Atlas and Monster Hunter: World. My FPS in CivVI has more than doubled, in my testing I saw around 180. Surprisingly, when I tested Minecraft (without Optifine), I saw over 1,000FPS without any screen tearing! Whoa!

Other than having a counter, I don’t feel like I can personally notice or see the difference in FPS. All games I’ve played seem to look the same to me no matter what FPS I’m getting. Although, there is definitely a difference when I’m getting very low FPS. I don’t know at what point that becomes noticeable, but I kind of think less than 30 or even less than 10 is definitely noticeable.

What do you think? Is FPS something you can see and notice with your own eyes without a counter? Does FPS really matter to you? Are you unwilling to accept anything less than 60FPS or another number? Let me know in the comments, I’d like to discuss this.

Monster Hunt: World Review
GregoPeck gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
GregoPeck gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
Review

  • Recommended +1

  • Premise

  • Monsters

  • Weapons

  • Armor

  • Canteen

  • Multiplayer

  • Story mode

  • Quest types

  • Collaborations

  • Research points

  • Items

  • Palicos

  • Poogie

  • Iceborne

  • Controller and keyboard and mouse support
Premise: Monster Hunter is a Capcom game series. It has been around for a while and is very popular in Japan. Monster Hunter: World is now Capcom’s top selling game, which is truly a success. The game is simple with depth. The premise of the game is to hunt monsters, collect materials, craft items, and repeat. The process of doing this is also simple; prepare for a hunt, hunt a monster, collect materials, craft items, and repeat the process. This small process may sound boring, especially after a while, but it’s surprisingly fun.

Monsters: There are many monsters in the game. Most monsters are pretty unique, but there are some that are pretty much another variation of another monster. Each has a distinctive look, behavior, elemental and status strengths and weaknesses, and item drops. Before you go on a hunt, you’ll want to prepare. As you progress in the game, you’ll run into tougher monsters. So, you’ll need to equip some gear like weapons, armor, and charms. You can also add decorations to your weapon and armor, if they have slots for them.

There are 14 types of weapons. They range from close range like swords to long range like a bow. Each has unique advantages and disadvantages. Some allow the player to be more mobile, while others are slow, but very powerful.

Armor is divided up into 5 pieces; head, chest, arms, waist, and legs. Each piece may have one or more abilities. Usually, equipping a full set, some times even less (like 3 pieces) will give you an overall ability that each piece contributes to, increasing that ability. There are very many abilities, like Attack, Defense, and much more.

Canteen: Preparing for a hunt also includes visiting the canteen where you can purchase meals using a variety of in game currencies or points. You can also “oven roast” ingredients and get useful items. One good tip is to put raw meat in the oven to roast. When you come back to the canteen after a quest, the raw meat will have turned into rations, which are very useful in increasing your maximum amount of stamina. Having a meal before a hunt can grant you extra health, defense, stamina, or other bonuses. This can be quite essential for some really tough monsters. These bonuses are only temporary, though and are no longer applicable once a quest is complete (or failed). You can eat multiple times in a quest, though. The canteen can offer a wide variety of bonuses, especially when you have collected all of the available ingredients.

There is a multiplayer aspect of this game, in fact it’s pretty much an online multiplayer game. You can of course play alone, but you’re still online. Although, if you don’t have an Internet connection, you can still play in offline mode. When you start the game and after you’ve chosen your saved data, you can then select which type of online mode you want to be in. You can select options such as what kind of players (like “beginners”) and who can join your game (like friends only). When selecting a quest, you can choose to “post a quest” or “join a quest.” If you “post a quest,” you can choose how many players (1-4) can join you. While out on a quest, if you get overwhelmed you can fire an SOS flare. This will open your game up and make it available for others to come help you.

There is a story mode to the game and in the beginning, the game holds your hand for a little bit, telling you how to move and how to do different things. There are small tutorials littered throughout the game, which you can view later. Some of these include videos showing you how to do something. However, the game doesn’t hold your hand very long nor does it tell you everything you might need or want to know. There is much depth to this game and you may want to look online for help about a particular topic, boss fight, or general recommendations. I’ve found two great YouTube channels for this game such as TheGameconomist (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnuZHEmJqsxV4DJtPheYp2g) and Arekkz Gaming (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zjH-e5XBzMpy_VtwIGRxQ).

Along with story mode “assigned” quests you can also do optional, investigations, and events. Investigations are interesting, in a way, because they are limited. You can only attempt them a certain amount of times, but there are very many of them. I’m not sure that they actually help advance your Hunter Rank, but they do give other resources like money, items, and research points. Investigations are very plentiful and can include a variety of things such as hunting a certain monster, capturing a certain monster, collecting certain items like flora, and a lot more. Some events are available only during a limited time and require a certain hunter rank.

Collaborations:There are also tie ins to other games. For one, there’s a quest related to The Witcher, who appears in the game. There are some items you can get from some of these quests. For instance, to get the Mega Man costume for your Palico, you’ll need to accomplish a certain limited-time event quest.

Research points can spent in the canteen and other places. You get them by completing quests or interacting with monster tracks. Monster tracks allow you to gather more information about a monster and ultimately making it much easier for your Scoutflies to track. Scoutflies are a group of little insects that help lead you to where you want to go. If you’re tracking a monster, you can tell them to do so on the map and they’ll lead you to it while pointing out, along the way, monster tracks and other items you can collect. You can also use your capture net or fishing rod to collect small fauna like insects or go fishing.

There are a variety of items you can find during your hunt, that your Scoutfiles will point out to you. This includes flora, which can be used to craft items such as potions, traps, ammo, and other things. Items stored in your pouch will stay with you, while items in your equipment chest can be accessed in town or camps. During a quest, you can access a chest that will provide you with some useful items, usually potions. Although if you’re doing a capture quest, the box will supply you with what you need such as traps and tranquilizers.

The game has some different little other additions. For one, you are partnered with a cat, which is called a Palico. It can use gear as well including weapons, armor, and another piece of gear that has a variety of functionalities. This item can help you with healing, defense, and other items like traps, which are definitely very helpful on hunts. As these abilities are used, they level up and increase their efficiency, to a max of level 10. Palicos make it so that you’re not alone when you’re hunting. They will fight monsters, too, and can even befriend some monsters, who will join you on your hunt. They can even befriend local tribes of Palicos that will come along with you during your quest. These Palicos can teach your Palico new abilities and give them access to certain items and also allow them to befriend a small monster, which will be a temporary team member.

There’s also a pig in town called a Poogie. You’ll want to increase it’s friendship with you by petting it. While petting, you’ll notice an exclamation mark (!) and that’s when you need to press a button to stop, otherwise it will just knock you over. Once you successfully pet it once, you won’t be able to increase it’s friendship until after your next quest. Once it’s friendly toward you, you can pick it up and carry it around town. It will then hop in your arms, telling you that there’s an item near by that it can dig up. If you’re using a controller with vibration feature, this will trigger when Poogie has spotted one of these areas. It can find different costumes for it, if you put it down in specific places. Sometimes it can also find a Lucky Voucher if you put it down by the Handler. These can be used in the canteen.

There are a few areas in the game. I’m not sure if I’ve discovered them all, although I think I may have. This is slightly disappointing, because I’m enjoying the game and want much more of it. Luckily, there’s plenty to do and a new DLC.

That new DLC is called Iceborne. It takes place in what looks like a tundra area, but it apparently has multiple mini areas like springs and others. Iceborne is already available for the PS4 and Xbox One. However, it will arrive on PC in January and it is definitely a DLC I intend to get at launch, as I’m really loving this game. It contains new weapons, monsters, areas, and new items. One feature allows you to ride Tailraiders, which you can’t control, but they’ll take you where you want to go.

Controller and keyboard and mouse support: I am playing this game with an Xbox 360 controller connected to my PC, but you can also use other controllers. You can also use the keyboard and mouse and it’s incredibly easy to switch between the two. While using the controller, if you hit a key on your keyboard, the game will display keyboard and mouse controls automatically. If you then hit a button on your controller, it will switch to controller controls automatically. I think this is quite impressive.

I think this is a fantastic game, I only wish there was much more of it on the PC, although the series itself has spanned various consoles and handhelds. I really do recommend this game. So far, it has been cheaper on consoles than PC, but you could wait for a good deal. When Iceborne releases for the PC, there will be a version of it that includes the base game, so you might want to wait until then. If you get the game feel free to let me know if you run into anything you need help understanding (you will), I can either explain it or point you towards some great videos. If you need some help on a quest or want to try out multiplayer, let me know, I haven't tried it yet, but I've run into quests that were designed specifically for multiplayer, so I can't complete them on my own.

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