Cheerful Ghost Blog

You did a good job and I'm glad to be here. If you need any help with it moving forward don't hesitate to ask.

Neat! I'll do some post-posts.

+1

Hmm...
Probably...
Sir You Are Being Hunted, Routine, Watch Dogs, The Witness, Among the Sleep, Last of Us, Spy Party (fucking FINALLY), Lifeless Planet, Mech Warrior Online (even though you can play it now, it's still technically only in beta),
I could probably do this all day. Those. We'll stick with that list for now.

Dark Souls 2, first and foremost, then the Edmund McMillen stuff.

Planetary Annihilation. Other than that, we'll have to wait and see.

Ohhhh, that's good news. Hopefully they get someone good on Fallout 4.

I'm curious as to what that Fallout news actually means. Realistically I will play whatever Fallout game they put infront of me because I'm a huge Fallout fanboy. However I'd like a new, distinct and fresh location. So either they better have a good reason for him to be in this new location or we're back in DC, which I don't really want.

To me, the writers are more important than the location. It's my favorite game world, I love it. I want to drink it up. But it needs better writing than Fallout 3, I think.

Keep in mind, I actually loved Fallout 3. I just like 1, 2 and New Vegas more. I'd watch a movie, hopefully it wouldn't be a Uwe Bowl nightmare.

I wish the world of Fallout 3 wasn't 60% subway tunnel. The other thing New Vegas has going for it is companions/characters. The companions in FO3 were trash. In New Vegas, each was an interesting character.

I did like exploring DC, however.

There has still been talk about the Fallout MMO but I don't think this is related. I would be really surprised if this info were related to a movie, simply because Erik Dellums wouldn't make sense to actually play Three Dog on film. There is also speculation that this game will take the Final Fantasy route and be Fallout 3 II and not Fallout 4, which would explain why it is back in DC, instead of a new location.

Fawkes was the only companion with any development in that game. Fawkes is neat but I actually don't like how overpowered he is. Compare, however, the bandit you meet in the first town with anyone from New Vegas. Actually, you haven't played New Vegas! Imagine 8 companions with as much depth and nuance as Fawkes, with the added benefit of quests attached to each of them that upgrade them.

Those are interesting world building bits but dialog/writing is still super important. I can imagine that being great but I can also imagine it being clumsy. I think about something like the PS2 spinoff Fallout game which was fine from a lore perspective but the writing was atrocious and it got disavowed quick.

SimCity is the first big game of 2013 for me. The multiplayer looks like it will be a blast and I have some friends that I think will get a lot of fun out of working on a region together.

I have the first n last.. Hopefully will be able to get the rest too =)

Interesting that FTL did so well. It's a good game but I sort of stopped hearing about it much.

FTL is definitely on my list. It might have to wait for another couple of Steam Sales, though.

Awesome

That is so cute!

I got a Wii U. For the Wii U i got Nintendo Land. I played it for around 4 hours today.... I'm kinda obsessed with it.

So far I only bought Resonance for like 2 dollars because I'm all kinds of poor at the moment. I really recommend it for any fan of classical point and click adventure games, it has good oldie looks, but the mechanics are a little different. :3 Primordia is also one I'm enjoying quite a lot, and it's made by Wadjet Eye Games also. <3

Just voted. This will be cool.

BR! You are right! Don't let Borderlands loot lottery take the Cheeries again!

I'm just being pithy. I really disliked Borderlands 1 but I haven't played the 2nd. I think the loot system in the first one is total bunko and the quests were boring, but the skill trees were pretty good.

I agree with BR. The Walking Dead for GotY!

Though I must say, I'm surprised Mass Effect 3 isn't on the list. For all the criticism about the ending, it is still a really solid game.

My basic issue with Diablo style loot systems is this:

It speaks of shitty design to me. By stimulating the casino/gambling bit of the gamer mind and playing on our desire to watch numbers go up, you avoid actually designing your game. Item drops can be powerful rewards for exploration or, in the best of cases, they can recontextualize the rest of the game.

Consider doing a side quest to get a powerful weapon in an RPG. You're rewarded for going out of your way and seeing more of the game. The developers choose how powerful it should be comeasurate with the difficulty of the quest and can tie it in thematically. I'm on board.

Consider finding a new item in Super Metroid. When you get a new item, you reconsider every area you've already been to because you have a new mode of traversal or ability. That game is very well designed.

And then think about finding a random, more powerful bit of armor in something like Torchlight 2 (which I really liked, btw). Even rare loot is usually not a huge jump in effectiveness and even when it is, it's gated by level requirements. So the pleasure you get is that of watching numbers go up and very rarely of a new ability, like a status effect of some sort. Those status effects are usually already available, without the numbers going up, from shops and the like.

The rare loot you get is barely more empowering than the loot you already had. You're just trading a viable strategy for a very slightly more viable one, with higher numbers, brighter colors and cooler names. Very little actually changes. The fact that it's random means it more or less happens continuously throughout the game. Rare loot is not rare. Playing Torchlight 2, I was finding rare and magical loot constantly. On a given run, I'd find 2 or 3 unique pieces of equipment. When I would find something really exciting, level limits and class restrictions undermine the very thrill that they're hoping to create. Because of this, the effect is a constant marginal increase in your character efficacy, that isn't tied to your actions. That's Progressquest. If you're going to be random, have the courage to be random. Then, at least, it's like a slot machine and you feel like you can really hit the jackpot.

It's also annoying to constantly have to be picking up trash items to sell as the games basic economy. Specifically with Diablo (haven't played 3, just 1 and 2), the rhythms of the game are set by trips to and from the market. It's a game about selling junk you find on the floor. Sometimes you get a nice bit of equipment that is VERY rarely a big jump up, but it's not because of your performance or for exploration or for anything you actually DID.

Again, I'm basing all of my experience on Diablo 1 and 2, Torchlight 1 and 2 and Borderlands 1. It's possible Borderlands 2 is different. Does it have stat/class/level requirements to undercut you when you win the figurative slot machine? That shit drives me bonkers.

I also like a lot of these games, but it's in spite of the loot side. What these games do really well, I think, are skill trees. I love character customization, I just don't want to pick up a whole lot of Shoulders of the North which grant +.03 frost resistance along the way.

Also, random dungeons generally don't seem to add much. It's sort of neat that it's different every time but are the layouts ever considered? Designed? Neat? Most of the time in those games, there are a lot of dead ends with pottery in them.

It's not that I'm against randomization. Consider something like Binding of Isaac where each item you get is random. The difference is there are few, if any, insignificant upgrades. Each item is a meaningful improvement or, even better, drastically changes the way you play the game. Diablo-likes are literal seas of meaningless upgrades.

Pawn's Adventure

The Walking Dead is the only game on here that changed how I think of games. A lot has already been said about the narrative which is the focus and is top notch. But not enough has been said about the play.

TWD has the best "false gameplay" of any game I've ever played. The gameplay is almost entirely quick decisions and mild puzzles and the decisions are the draw. Not only do they have real consequence and do they masterfully manipulate tension by having timers, they are sometimes false. Sometimes, what you say doesn't matter. Sometimes, it doesn't matter how quick you are. Sometimes, the things you say have the opposite of the intended effect. Just like in life.

Further, there are some actual quick time events. Sometimes these are just button tap fests, but I want to talk about a very specific one that is very SPOILERY. So please STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED IT BECAUSE I'M GOING TO SPOIL SOMETHING.


















Seriously, spoilers.








Near the end, when you're strangling the guy in the hotel, you're prompted to slam on the Q button to do so. The prompt disappears. If you stop slamming Q at this point, he gets the upper hand and you're forced to take care of him another way. However, if you're like me, you're so emotionally invested in this character and what he's done and in protecting Clementine, you just keep slamming on the Q button as if you are actually choking the life out of someone. If you can't stop pressing the button until he's no longer a thread, he dies. DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE GAME ISN'T TELLING YOU TO. That moment alone makes this my game of the year. The fact that I cared enough to transcend mechanics and actual "game" signaled to me that this would be a game I'd never forget.

Runner up: Dishonored. Dishonored is a stealth game where it's fun to get caught. Think about that for a moment.

Spec Ops: The Line.

Looks great on my Samsung Galaxy!

I love it as well. As I am using a laptop I don't normally use when browsing the site I can't determine if this is a new change or if this is this particular computers fault. I will confirm when I go home in a few days.

The issue is that the box you type in is incredibly small I can't read what i'm writing or what it looks like. Very hard to scroll as well.

Keep up the awesome work on the site though.

It's perfect thanks for fixing it.