Travis | Cheerful Ghost

Assassin's Creed III PC available for pre-order

http://cdn.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/208480/header_292x136.jpg?t=1352424437

$50 gets you AC3 when it launches on November 20th.

$80 gets you AC3 Digital Deluxe Edition, which gives you a season pass for all the DLC, 4 bonus missions, and a few other extras.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/208480/

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 11/09/2012 at 04:58am

So I preordered it and now I have to stare at it there in my inventory for 12 days.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/09/2012 at 03:44pm

Appreciate seeing deluxe versions of games not dying and instead migrating to digital deluxe versions.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/27/2013 at 07:21pm

How did you end up liking the game Travis?

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/27/2013 at 07:28pm

Yes. Also, any prominent political figures you enjoyed assassinating? King George perhaps. Wait, I don't think he was in the colonies...

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/27/2013 at 09:14pm

It was fantastic. I don't think it was as good as Ezio's games, but it was a ton of fun. I'd recommend it if you liked the previous games, but be prepared for some gameplay mechanics changes. Nothing too jarring, but it takes some getting used to.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/28/2013 at 03:55pm

I've not played any AC games, but this one still looks really cool. Contemplating picking it up on Steam :)

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Steam for Linux is now available to 1000 users.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/11/download-1.jpg

http://store.steampowered.com/news/9289/

Unfortunately, I am not one of them. They are going to be gradually expanding their test, so get that Ubuntu partition ready!

This also coincides with a new NVIDIA driver release that appears to double framerates in some cases. You definitely want this if you are an NVIDIA user and do any gaming in Linux.

http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/Releases/NVIDIA-Delivers-Massive-Performance-Boost-to-Linux-Gaming-8ac.aspx

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/07/2012 at 01:23am

This is awesome. Excited to be able to get Steam in Linux natively. I currently run it in Wine and wherein works, its not amazing.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 11/07/2012 at 04:50am

Apparently there's a way to use it without being accepted into the beta, but I'm nervous about trying that.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/07/2012 at 04:56am

Oh, so just getting the client and logging in then? Yeah, that could work I mean they could lock people out, but they might not :D

Maybe that means early access? hmmm.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 11/07/2012 at 05:21am

Yeah, you get the client and log in, then just move the window telling you that you shouldn't be doing this off to the side and use it as normal, basically.

I have to wonder if they didn't guard against that intentionally.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/07/2012 at 06:08am

Prob more work to limit it than just let it swing open if people want it. Seems like Valve makes choices to what is better for the user, not much else.

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TF2 Scream Fortress coordination thread

http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/440/extras/page_banner_2012.jpg

The easiest way to go about this is to join the CG Steam group.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/CheerfulGhost

Otherwise please post your Steam ID's below and we'll get crackin in less than an hour!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/31/2012 at 12:12am

I'll start: http://steamcommunity.com/id/panickedthumb/

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/31/2012 at 12:41am

http://steamcommunity.com/id/jdodson

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/31/2012 at 03:02am

We played Minecraft instead! :D

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/31/2012 at 04:41am

Yeah, it was!

Will_Owens wrote on 10/31/2012 at 02:39pm

I don't know if I'll ever be able to play from time differences, but I'd like to join the group http://steamcommunity.com/id/synertia

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/31/2012 at 02:43pm

@panickedthumb is on the east coast. What times one are you in Will?

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/31/2012 at 02:44pm

Timezone... Stupid autocorrect!

Will_Owens wrote on 10/31/2012 at 03:06pm

Hong Kong time, 12 hours difference from Eastern Standard... but because of Daylight savings I'm not sure if that's true anymore.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/31/2012 at 03:36pm

Oh wow. Well yeah, huh maybe a problem :D

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/01/2012 at 10:13pm

Will you can look at my profile. 12 hour difference for me wouldn't matter.

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GAME NIGHT TUESDAY - TF2 Scream Fortress

Come join us Tuesday night to play the new Scream Fortress expansion at 9EST, 6PST, and some other time if you're in other parts of the world. We'll make a post an hour before we start to coordinate, and join the Cheerful Ghost Steam group if you haven't already.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/CheerfulGhost

See you tomorrow!

Drama in the world of Gaming Journalism

Robert Florence has stepped down from Eurogamer because an article he wrote about games journalists and PR was edited due to complaints from people in the article.

It's hard to explain, much easier to read, so here you go. This is the unedited version, with the removed parts in bold:

http://wosland.podgamer.com/a-table-of-cowards/

One thing that sticks out for me is that journalists for reputable news organizations can't accept extravagant gifts from anyone involved in the material they're writing about. Is it ok for a gaming journalist to accept a PS3 from someone with a new game coming out that they'll surely be writing about?

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/26/2012 at 04:29am

Hey panicked, thanks for posting!

My original comment was so long it hit the limit so ill write a redacted version of it, simpler, less words. :D

Ultimately Ill post a follow up to this because its an important happening and I think illustrates why "game journalism" isn't objective and totally broken. How can it serves Gamers when the forces of money choke out honest dialog.

Maybe Robert was out of line? Maybe he was just being honest and hit a nerve that caused some people to fear for their money pile getting smaller? The reason why "game journalism" is broken is because more often than not, its the latter.

Which part-in why Cheerful Ghost exists. Because I believe normal people's thoughts on gaming is more important than paid journalists in gaming.

But you don't have to take my word for it, get the latest highly reviewed title by any old mega game site and it should be fun right? I mean they are the experts and it had a 8.8 rating? That means a totally great game! If you are not scared for your $60 going right into the toilet then you and I both admit "game journalism" has issues.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/01/2012 at 11:17pm

This is a HUGE issue to me. It's more then just money as well. There are so many bias's that factor in you'd think it was a political review. There are some sites that review japanese games horribly simply because they are japanese. Lost planet 2 was a breath of fresh air compared to a CoD or more recent shooters and it received extremely critical reviews. It was made by capcom.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/02/2012 at 02:53am

Yep, me too. Its not bad for a site to make enough money to pay the bills, but big media game sites take it too far and sacrifice too much.

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Combat Details for The Elder Scrolls: Online

This looks promising. The narration is a little grating but the info is worth it.

It looks like the combat will be similar to that of the recent single-player games. The Finesse system sounds interesting. Overall, it seems different from any MMO combat I've seen, which is definitely a good thing.

I'll have to break my rule of never playing MMOs for this one.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/24/2012 at 04:07am

Thanks for posting this, I've been interested in The Elder Scrolls Online and this drops some compelling art and information that draws me to think this will be worth checking out!

First off, the art feels like something from Skyrim. The video was a bit artifacty on my phone but it looked like an improvement over Skyrim?

I wonder if this is PC only?

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/24/2012 at 06:45pm

Playing through Skyrim, I kept thinking "This is so awesome... but how much more awesome would it be to have other players playing with me?" So yes, I'm definitely looking forward to this game.
I do wonder about some of the random aspects of Skyrim that might be lost, like finding a wheelbarrow at the bottom of a waterfall. Finding one was cool, but with thousands (or millions, depending on how the servers work) of other players, I wonder how much clutter there will be? Now that I think about it, I kinda hope there's a ton of clutter.
I think I'm what I'm getting at (I'm not really sure, just kinda typing and seeing what happens) is that I like the sense of "wow, I bet no one has seen this in this world" feeling that is present in Skyrim, which could be lost in an online version.
But again, overall, I'm looking forward to this!

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/25/2012 at 02:58am

MMO's seem to allow a ton of people to play but don't allow the players to make a mark on the world too much. Elder Scrolls Online could change this though for the reasons you cite, like leaving stuff around. Problem is, would such a world turn into a garbage dump eventually? Seriously, it could. Some clan could invariably spend the time to make a mountain of potatoes too :D

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/25/2012 at 07:33pm

That's my worry as well.

My first thought was that perhaps items, after they're dropped, if they're not touched for a set amount of time (whatever that might be), they disappear. But I don't really like the idea of items just disappearing. One of my complaints (a very minor complaint though) of WoW was how quest items just magically respawn. I would like a better way for quest items (or ingredients to create things with) to appear. But with things like ore, obviously someone can't reset that, that pretty much just has to reappear... maybe some sort of mechanic function of the ground where ore would randomly be pushed up to gather, and trees would slowly grow.

That was a long first thought.

My second thought I like a little better, but not much. Perhaps there can be some NPC's that wander around the world, cleaning up random items left by people. Maybe if they were scavengers, and you could buy the items from them (and maybe get lucky and get an exotic item that they found?)?

But I would want to contribute to the mountain of patatoes as well lol

BR Supporter wrote on 10/25/2012 at 10:39pm

I'm very worried about this. I feel like it is going to just become another mmo like WoW. I'm hoping the combat keeps it different. I also feel like the character models have much more cartoon-y look then what an elder scrolls game should be like. Like the orc they show at about 0:35, He is HUGE. It reminds me of the characters in the old republic that were just like really big fat people. They look ridiculous.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/26/2012 at 02:14pm

Hopefully a CG user is on the beta and reports back! I know I'll be signing up.

Hopefully the big cartoony ORC is a one off because Elder Scrolls games and grounded in fairly realistic graphics.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/28/2012 at 05:35am

Cartoony graphics are often a way for companies to make a game that looks acceptable in a modern world while keeping the requirements low. Basically, they're trying to make it accessible to more users. Possibly.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/28/2012 at 06:34am

It worked really well for Borderlands 2 and its cell shaded graphics as well as Torchlight. Its a great choice technically.

As long as it "feels life" Elder Schools I am ok.

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Have any of you ever used ENB for any of your games? I got

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/images/1215280-1336186446.jpg

Have any of you ever used ENB for any of your games?

I got a new video card a week or so ago and I've been experimenting with ENB mods. First off, I have no idea what ENB stands for. From what I can tell, nobody really does. Essentially, it accomplishes some graphical quality increases using an extra rendering layer. This obviously comes with a hit to performance, so you may not like the results on older hardware.

The main development goes on at http://www.enbdev.com/ and consists mostly of a modified DirectX 9 dll that you copy into the game's directory. Then, presets and configurations specific to whichever game you're using are available, whether from the creator of the ENB series or from users. Nexus has a few different ENB configurations for Skyrim and Oblivion. Skyrim is shown in the picture above.

At its most basic, it seems to give everything on-screen more depth and realism, though I haven't been able to really nail down *why*.

It can get quite a bit more detailed though. Icenhancer for GTA4 for instance: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KwTQQXx-OvU/0.jpg

Icenhancer uses the same ENB dll at its core but has various other additions built-in.

Generally the installation is a snap, it's just a matter of extracting some files into the C:\Program Files\...\Game folder, and they generally don't overwrite anything.

So what do you think? Anyone tried this out?

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/07/2012 at 09:04pm

Thanks for this, I haven't heard of ENB. Ill give this a shot.

What new video card did you get? Did you have to get a new power supply too? In the next year or so I am going to upgrade my video card, but don't want to get one such that I have to upgrade the power supply in my desktop as well.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/07/2012 at 09:09pm

I got an nvidia Geforce GTX 550 Ti. Not the newest thing out, but new enough to play most things at Ultra High quality. Skyrim is so beautiful.

And yes, my PC came with a 300W power supply, and any decent video card needs at least 400, so I just bumped it up to 650. Nice but cheap Thermaltake. It's running cool without any additional fans or obsessive cable management, so I'm thrilled.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/07/2012 at 09:14pm

I think Ill need a new power supply. Ugh. Oh well, it happens :)

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/08/2012 at 09:43am

Instead of ENB i use RCRN customizer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFFOyfcAxh8.

ENB stands for Enhanced Natural Bloom. It adds in sort of a layer of extra bloom to make things glow more. The reason i prefer RCRN is because it is not an artificial overlay like most graphical adjustments are. It changes the actual graphics for more realistic effect. The trade off is it is a lot harder performance hit.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/08/2012 at 09:50am

Sorry I want to be more clear with what I meant. ENB does NOT adjust actual game mechanics. The bloom adjustment or saturation included in any particular ENB will not effect your stealth and such. RCRN is a REAL in game change not a filter that you see the picture through. At night it is near pitch black making abilities like night vision much more useful. It also effects sneaking making you harder to see when in dark areas.

Tungsten wrote on 10/08/2012 at 10:47am

This was my favorite ENB profile (if I could put up with the 8fps)

http://www.gamezone.com/products/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/downloads/confident-enb-a-realistic-enb-profile-skyrim-mod

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/08/2012 at 04:14pm

Jacob, I read someone suggest enhanced natural bloom, but there was nothing to back that up. I'll assume it's true though :)

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 10/08/2012 at 10:15pm

Ya there is a lot of people who use ENB panicked. Nothing wrong with it. Most people don't really understand the differences or what ENB really is as you said. Which is why most stick with the similar ENB rather then an actual new shader and lighting revamp. In comparison to think about. The awesome water mods you see use new shaders. However with your ENB on, look at the water and you'll see it really isn't much different. The mods of course do more like changing the physics and such but that is besides the point.

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The OSU marching band doing a video game show. Not only is

The OSU marching band doing a video game show.

Not only is this an incredibly geeky marching show, it's pretty well-done. It makes me want to dig out the trumpet and go back to college, just so I can get out on the field again.

Some of this technique is amazing. Making the horse (which I'm assuming is supposed to be Epona) gallop is one of the best things I've ever seen done in a marching show.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/07/2012 at 08:38pm

Wow, I'm am really, really impressed! This was so good! The horse galloping was amazing.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/07/2012 at 09:01pm

Space Invaders, Pokemon, Tetris, Mario, Halo, Zelda, Mario, PacMan & ending in a Game Over Screen.

Wow that was awesome. Your right @panickedthumb, the galloping Epona was something I haven't seen before and was quite impressive.

Sharing this.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 10/08/2012 at 05:12am

That was so incredibly awesome! I hope they win some kind of award or something for this.

BR Supporter wrote on 10/10/2012 at 03:06pm

This is possibly my favorite marching band now. That was f***ing amazing.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/10/2012 at 03:38pm

Yeah, it was pretty involved. Imagine the hours practicing this!

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The Borderlands 2 Haiku contest is now over. Weve tallied

The Borderlands 2 Haiku contest is now over. We've tallied the score, and the preliminary winner is Jacob_Richardson with 56 votes! We are only human, so we are going to give the game to the winner tomorrow at this time, to give us and the community time to check our work, and to confirm the validity of all votes cast. Please note that no more votes will be accepted: +1's given after 4PM EST today do not count.

The winning haiku: http://cheerfulghost.com/Jacob_Richardson/posts/495

In a very close second, Axel_Mller's haiku: http://cheerfulghost.com/Axel_Mller/posts/502

Also a shout-out to our winner in the SteamGifts giveaway: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tks_mase/

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/15/2012 at 08:26pm

I want to say that had i not entered TonyJapMayo I really liked yours. Anything done in japanese is pretty impressive to me. I've tried a few times to learn it and it takes a lot of effort.

Balki wrote on 09/15/2012 at 08:28pm

Well, it isn't a haiku, but whatever! Congrats Jacob.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/15/2012 at 08:40pm

Thanks to everyone that entered! Fantastic effort!

Axel_Mller wrote on 09/15/2012 at 09:53pm

I want to apologize for my behavior once again. But I also want to thank Jacob for being nice to me despite my before-mentioned behavior. Congratulations. :(

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/15/2012 at 10:34pm

I just woke up got about a 2hour nap. Just wanted to say thanks for that. Wasn't a big deal though.

TonyJapMayo wrote on 09/16/2012 at 06:38am

Thanks Jacob, really glad u like it, I'll like prob anything in Japanese too.. haha.. n Congrats on winning the awesome game =)

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 09/16/2012 at 07:26am

You should check out my post in general chat about japanese games if your into those.

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So I beat The Butcher in Inferno. I know, no big deal, its

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KiYh8BuUoQM/T7T9bzYyHoI/AAAAAAAAAwY/C5z2rUk12aQ/s1600/butcher.jpg

So I beat The Butcher in Inferno. I know, no big deal, it's been done a million times already, but it did feel pretty damn awesome to take my fresh level 60 monk all the way through Act 1 with no troubles at all.

Then I hit act 2. Oh man, did I ever hit act 2. It's pretty hard. My gear is probably to blame, but I was hoping to actually find some gear along the way to act 2 that would help me when I started the act, but I wasn't so lucky. Looks like a trip to the AH is in order.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/29/2012 at 03:10pm

Progression then wall... :) Sounds like Diablo to me.

Ive been playing an hour here and there with my WD. Been much more fun lately. Gear is fine and with that I believe I am pretty overpowered for nightmare. Right... Still in nightmare :)

BR Supporter wrote on 08/29/2012 at 08:06pm

How is Diablo 3? I've heard from many people that it isn't nearly as fun as the earlier ones.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/29/2012 at 09:06pm

I'm an outlier. I think it's more fun than the others, but for different reasons. Well, I barely ever played 1, but 2 was more addiction than fun for me. 3 is really and truly fun. There are major issues, but the gameplay, the grind, is fun.

Tungsten wrote on 08/29/2012 at 10:32pm

I can see why the really hardcore players could have problems with it; it has some major differences from D2, and those changes go against what the hardcore players grew to love.
That said, For the general public its a great improvement, and they also seem to be addressing some of those other problems.

Tungsten wrote on 08/29/2012 at 10:34pm

The launch was atrocious though. They deserved to get blasted on that.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/30/2012 at 12:02am

Right the launch was poor. I agree that they are addressing the issues now. Its not perfect, but it is much better and I look forward to the next set of updates.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/23/2013 at 04:35am

I still need to do this. I stopped at Hell act 1. I imagine ill make it to Inferno at some point.

Have you played it much beyond this in Inferno Travis?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/23/2013 at 12:40pm

Wow, 8 months ago.

I haven't gotten past that really. Act 2 was so much harder. I need to get back into it after all the updates and see how it plays.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/23/2013 at 07:24pm

Yeah, good idea. I still also want to play Torchlight 2 as well but the Hal and slash RPG'a just are not calling my name right now.

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Travis4

547 Posts

Assassin's Creed III PC available for pre-order

Steam for Linux is now available to 1000 users.

TF2 Scream Fortress coordination thread

GAME NIGHT TUESDAY - TF2 Scream Fortress

Drama in the world of Gaming Journalism

Combat Details for The Elder Scrolls: Online

Have any of you ever used ENB for any of your games? I got

The OSU marching band doing a video game show. Not only is

The Borderlands 2 Haiku contest is now over. Weve tallied

So I beat The Butcher in Inferno. I know, no big deal, its