General Discussion [ Page 10 ]

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 65: Spider-Man Far From Home

In this episode, we've all returned from the snap and wondering what the heck has happened over the past five years, as we review Spider-Man: Far From Home!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/13/2019 at 11:04pm

Good episode chaps! Seems like it was recorded before Sony & Marvel braking up and D23 and there was a lot of material left out around D+ and Spider-Man.

As for MCU Fatigue, it started for me around Civil War. I still enjoyed the movies but they were becoming a little too formulaic. After Spider-Man: Homecoming (which has to be one of my favorite MCU movies) the fatigue went away. I have been really looking forward to the movies since.

I am even excited for Black Widow. The prequel aspect has me a little worried, but Marvel has handled their properties well (even the bad movies are still watchable) that I am not too worried.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/14/2019 at 05:05pm

Yeah we didn’t know Spider-Man was out then and the future looked bright.... But now... I’m honestly curious how they will handle Spider-Man post MCU. All the Villians seem like they still be valid and Spider-Man might be on his own now which the end of the movie set up fairly well.

I wonder if he’ll refer to Tony in the new films or just someone he lost? Also curious how they’ll talk about the blip?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/14/2019 at 06:14pm

Will they make him give the glasses back?

A bigger question is that since Spider-Man is out of the MCU does it make the new movies must see anymore?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/15/2019 at 03:27am

I think the next one is still must-see. Tom Holland is my favorite live action Spidey so far, and I want to see him do more. Even if the plot doesn’t intersect with the MCU.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/15/2019 at 06:03pm

I am a hold out until the trailer hits. Maybe they will patch things up by the time the movie gets made.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/15/2019 at 07:22pm

Also it's interesting you mentioned Civil War as the first sign of fatigue for you, and I think that was my first as well. It's also where I started getting tired of rewatching it earlier this year. But they definitely brought me back in. Homecoming was at that time my favorite Spider-Man movie ever but it still hit me with some fatigue from the baggage that came along with it from Civil War. But then Thor: Ragnarok brought me back in full swing.

I'm really glad they're taking almost a full year off from the films at least.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/15/2019 at 08:21pm

I think the break should help.

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The Nintendo Switch Lite, Coming September 2019

The rumors about a new Switch version were true! In September, the Switch Lite will be released.

This new model lives up to its name in many ways

It’s light on price, $100 cheaper.

It’s light on features, as it’s portable only, with no TV output.

It’s light on screen real estate, having a slightly smaller screen.

It’s lighter in the literal sense, around 25% weight reduction.

And it’s lighter on battery use, as all these add up to less of a power drain.

This sounds like a perfect entry to the Switch family, an entry level system for people who only want to play it on the go, and don’t want to pay $300.

While I don’t do a lot of portable gaming, I could see myself... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 61b: E3 2019 (Part 2)

And we're back for part 2! If you loved our E3 discussion yesterday, you're in luck because we have another hour of it! This episode is all about the presentations from Microsoft, Bethesda, and Nintendo, and the new info we got about Google Stadia's game streaming service.

If you liked hearing our discussion on these, and want some text discussions too, check out our coverage on Cheerful Ghost!

Microsoft: https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/4098/e3-2019-day-1-microsoft

Bethesda: https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/4099/e3-2019-day-1-bethesda

Nintendo: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4104/e3-2019-the-nintendo-wrap-up

And check out the official site for Stadia:... Read All

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/09/2019 at 10:49pm

Boo Stadia! As a physical collector Stadia, and any streaming service scares me. I know it is inevitable, but I don't like it. As for calling Stadia a "console," I wouldn't go that far. It is a service as much as Steam is a service.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/09/2019 at 11:35pm

I see what you mean. I also don’t really trust google not to decide it isn’t profitable and shut it down, which they’ve done a lot in the past. And since there’s no physical component you’re kinda out of luck. At least with PC gaming, there are ways around service cancellation. Streaming? Not so much.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/09/2019 at 11:45pm

Shut it down, remove games from the service, etc. Streaming has a lot of gotchas. I also wonder about performance. How well will it work for the average gamer who probably is more the target audience for this. Do they have the bandwidth to handle it?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/10/2019 at 02:25am

I have decent internet and their test shows that I'm well past good for 4k streaming. But that's a benchmark, in practice that could change. I imagine most people who would be interested would be able to handle 1080p but... I'm assuming a lot.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/11/2019 at 04:30pm

All of those reasons are why i'm very dubious about buying a streaming only game. That said, people buy streaming only films. Not a huge difference there.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/11/2019 at 07:39pm

I actually don’t buy streaming only films. I’ll activate the code I get from the physical copy but if a service shuts down I don’t want to lose what I’ve bought. Movies Anywhere alleviates that though.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/11/2019 at 08:43pm

How does Movies Anywhere alleviate it? If Movies Anywhere shuts down, what do you think will happen to the movies? PC games are pretty much the only thing that I do digital only. I watch movies and tv shows digitally, but I buy phyiscal copies of what I want to keep.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/11/2019 at 09:23pm

Movies Anywhere connects to your other services, so if any one of those services shut down you still have them on all the other services. Even if Movies Anywhere itself shuts down.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/12/2019 at 05:59pm

Yeah, so far the only DRM servers still up from the early 2000 era is iTunes and.... Audible, maybe Adobe's eBook DRM. Frankly that doesn't sit well with me that if one bought a ton of Zune music or whatnot that's all gone now. I do prefer formats that you own or can easily rip for that very reason. I think I dodged a big bullet by preferring that in the 2000-now era. I'm slowly making my way in appreciating having a digital copy of my movies and music, but have a physical version and still curate that library for when it goes away.

Frankly, the Amazon film copy, Google Play and iTunes copies may never go away now if the companies stick around but it's still nice to have and I don't plan on relying on them so I can lose everything when i'm older.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 61a: E3 2019 (Part 1)

This is the episode so nice, we did it twice! This is part 1 of our E3 discussion-- we ran about two hours and are splitting it up for your listening pleasure. In part 1, we discuss Cyberpunk 2077, Terraria Journey's End, Limited Run Games, Final Fantasy VII, and Jedi Fallen Order.

Come back tomorrow for part 2, where we'll be discussing the presentations from Microsoft, Bethesda, Nintendo, and Google!

For more information on what we talked about in part 1, check out our coverage on Cheerful Ghost:

Microsoft's presentation, including Cyberpunk 2077: https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/4098/e3-2019-day-1-microsoft

Terraria Journey's End: ... Read All

E3 2019 Wrap-Up: What were your favorites?

If you were paying attention on Cheerful Ghost this week, you saw my posts about the big presentations up to Sunday, and then only scattered info from there on. Yeah, sorry about that everyone. I had planned to do my usual summaries from each of the big conferences but I got knocked out by a bad case of strep throat.

But I've caught up on the news, and rather than suddenly dropping a ton of posts, I'm just going to share a few highlights. I picked the Engadget video embedded above for this post because it hits a lot of the high points for the general public, even if they aren't all my highlights.

These aren't in any particular order except the first two:

BREATH OF THE... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/17/2019 at 01:14am

I haven't really paid attention to anything. I know about some games that may be relevant to me (PC games), but I haven't even really looked at them. So, the only thing I care about out of this E3 is the Terraria update. I'm glad BotW is getting a sequel, but I don't own a Switch and have no idea when I might get one. I've read that there are other models coming out, so that seems to make it even more worth while to wait it out. I'm not completely sure how I feel about the FFVII Remake, but I don't own a PS4 and don't plan on buying one or a PS5 (the game will work on both systems) any time soon. I am glad that FFVIII has been remastered for the Switch, it's my favorite FF, but again, I don't have a Switch and I already have it on Steam. I might get into Doom Immortal and the new Wolfenstein.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/17/2019 at 03:54pm

That for the shout out Travis! I am a Limited Run Games fanboy, so they were the highlight for me. Super Mario Maker 2, Link's Awaking, Jedi Fallen Order, were all the games that I want now, and preordered. Cyberpunk 2077 I am optimistic about. I was really disappointed in Marvel's Avengers, the characters look nothing like the MCU counterparts or the comics, so it was very off-putting. I would like to know more on why they went with the character models that are in the game.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/17/2019 at 05:17pm

Basically everything I was already excited for beforehand:

* Link's Awakening Remake
* Super Mario Maker 2

A few new things:

* Terraria: Journey's End (Like, yeah, awesome. Sad it's ending but it makes sense.)
* Elder Scrolls Legends on Switch (I have very low expectations, hopefully this is more fun than the phone version)

Things I knew about but am more excited for

* Wolfenstein: New Blood. (I have yet to play New Order, so I think after Tale launches i'll wrap up Rage, New Order and then get to New Blood. Who am I kidding, I'll prob get sidetracked by the Nintendo stuff and finally beat these games in 2032.)

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E3 2019 - Day 1 - Limited Run Games

Limited Run Games once again stole E3 (imho) with an excellent showcase. For their 2nd Annual E3 showcase they showed off around 50 games being released, physically, in the upcoming months. Personally I am excited for all the LucasArts Games (mostly released on their original platforms) and Blaster Master Zero. This is going to be an exciting year for LRG!

Here is a list of the games announced, stripped from their site (https://limitedrungames.com/blogs/news/lrg-e3-2019 ):

Atari Flashback Classics (Vita)

Atooi Collection (3DS)

Bad North (Switch)

Blaster Master Zero (Switch)

Blazing Chrome (Switch, PS4)

Corpse Killer (PS4)

The Curse of Monkey Island (PC)

Damascus Gear... Read All

Limited Run Games once again stole E3 (imho) with an excellent showcase. For their 2nd Annual E3 showcase they showed off around 50 games being released, physically, in the upcoming months. Personally I am excited for all the LucasArts Games (mostly released on their original platforms) and Blaster Master Zero. This is going to be an exciting year for LRG!

Here is a list of the games announced, stripped from their site (https://limitedrungames.com/blogs/news/lrg-e3-2019 ):

Atari Flashback Classics (Vita)

Atooi Collection (3DS)

Bad North (Switch)

Blaster Master Zero (Switch)

Blazing Chrome (Switch, PS4)

Corpse Killer (PS4)

The Curse of Monkey Island™ (PC)

Damascus Gear Operation Osaka (Vita)

Damascus Gear Operation Tokyo (Vita)

Dark Devotion (Switch, PS4)

DEADBOLT (Vita)

Double Switch (Switch)

Freedom Planet (Switch, PS4)

Guacamelee! (Vita)

Hover (PS4)

Mercenary Kings (PS4)

Metal Slug 3 (Vita)

Monkey Island™ 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge (PC)

Night in the Woods (Switch, PS4)

Papers Please (Vita)

Pix the Cat (Vita)

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Switch, PS4)

realMyst (Switch)

Red Faction (PS4)

Revenant Dogma (Vita)

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (Vita)

Rocketbirds 2: Evolution (Vita)

Rogue Legacy (Switch)

The Secret of Monkey Island™ (PC)

The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition (PC)

Shenmue III Collector’s Edition (PC, PS4)

Star Wars™ (NES, Game Boy)

Star Wars™: Bounty Hunter (PS4)

Star Wars™: Dark Forces (PC)

Star Wars™ Episode I: Racer (PC, N64)

Star Wars™: The Empire Strikes Back (NES, Game Boy)

Star Wars™: Jedi Knight (PC)

Star Wars™ Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast (PC)

Star Wars™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PC)

Star Wars™: Racer Revenge (PS4)

Star Wars™: Rebel Assault (PC)

Star Wars™: Shadows of the Empire (PC, N64)

Star Wars™: TIE Fighter (PC)

Star Wars™: X-Wing (PC)

Super Meat Boy (Switch, PS4, Vita)

Super Mutant Alien Assault (Vita)

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack (Vita)

Transistor (Switch, PS4)

Turok (Switch)

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (Switch)

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/11/2019 at 11:27pm

The Atooi Collection collect is awesome and it's great we are still getting new 3DS carts.

That link seems broken.

Are those LRG Star Wars games on DVD on PC? Curious if Podracer might come to Switch or if they are legit reproducing the N64 cart and PC CD?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/11/2019 at 11:40pm

link is fixed

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/11/2019 at 11:42pm

They are legit producing the carts. These titles are coming to the platforms listed in the parenthesis.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/12/2019 at 12:00am

I know they do but Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PC, N64) is coming back to PC and N64? Huh.

Cool but I was hoping for a more modern cart on Switch. That said, if you missed it on 64 nows the time!

Travis Admin wrote on 06/12/2019 at 02:35pm

I guess I'm missing the point for some of these. Sticking with Jon's Episode I Racer example, getting that on the Switch or other modern platforms would get more people playing it. I know it's coming to PC too, but presumably that's the PC version that released back in the day and is different from the N64 version.

But for me the larger issue is, it's not like it's hard to find Episode I Racer used for N64, and wouldn't it be cooler to have the original than a repro? Buy a couple copies just in case one breaks and you're probably out less money than this will cost.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/12/2019 at 02:47pm

> different from the N64 version.

Margnially, I should say. With the exception of much better graphics and more cutscenes on the PC version, the N64 version. has some cheats and lets you use two controllers, one for each engine, kinda like how the arcade version worked.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/12/2019 at 04:36pm

To me, it depends on what collectibles are packaged with it. If there are some cool extras in a CE, some of these titles I already have will be worth picking up again. Also, don't underestimate the power of "new". That being said, these are probably aimed more at the fans/collectors of the games, rather than the general gamer.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/13/2019 at 02:18pm

Good points all around. I hadn’t considered the pack-ins, things like that can really make the difference.

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E3 2019 Day 1 - Bethesda

Bethesda kicked off their presentation with Todd acknowledging the missteps Fallout 76 had at launch, but praising the community for helping fix things. And it's true. It was a mess back in November, but it's fantastic now. Not perfect, there's still plenty to do, but we got some sneak peeks at what's to come among the announcements. Here's what's coming over the next year for Bethesda:

Fallout 76 is, as mentioned above, getting some big updates. The Nuclear Winter update coming this summer brings a battle royale mode to the game, which... is odd. But OK. I will play it to get any items that I really want, and then ignore it but if people want it, it's cool that it's... Read All

Bethesda kicked off their presentation with Todd acknowledging the missteps Fallout 76 had at launch, but praising the community for helping fix things. And it's true. It was a mess back in November, but it's fantastic now. Not perfect, there's still plenty to do, but we got some sneak peeks at what's to come among the announcements. Here's what's coming over the next year for Bethesda:

Fallout 76 is, as mentioned above, getting some big updates. The Nuclear Winter update coming this summer brings a battle royale mode to the game, which... is odd. But OK. I will play it to get any items that I really want, and then ignore it but if people want it, it's cool that it's there. Based on the players I've interacted with, though, I'm not sure how popular it will be.

In addition, the Wastelanders update coming this fall brings humans back to the region after the scorched plague drove them off (or killed them, or turned them into weird sentient zombies. But not the cool non-feral ghouls). It will also bring a new quest line with factions and game altering decisions. THIS is the one that is most interesting to me.

Finally, tomorrow begins a week-long free trial, so get your Bethesda launchers ready folks (I'm panickedthumb there, by the way)

The Elder Scrolls Online is getting a new expansion, Elsweyr, that takes you to the Khajit homeland and there are some dragons to fight.

The Elder Scrolls Legends is getting an Elsewyr card set to go along with the Online expansion

Ghostwire Tokyo is the next game from the makers of The Evil Within, and it looks like either The Leftovers or the Thanos Snap in Tokyo, with some seriously creepy vibes. I want to see more about this, I have no idea what kind of game it is, but I'm intrigued.

If you told me 3 hours ago that I'd be typing the following sentence I'd have said you're crazy: We're getting an online, free-to-play, cartoon-styled Commander Keen game. Yeah, what a time to be alive! I'll definitely check this out but much like the above, I don't really know what kind of game this is.

Arkane is bringing us Deathloop, a game where two people are re-living the same time loop. One person wants to keep the loop alive, one wants to break it. Trouble ensues.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood looks suitably amazing. If you've played the recent Wolfenstein games this will look very familiar but now you can play co-op. It's more Wolfenstein, and therefore it's awesome

Rage 2 is getting frequent small updates, including some new vehicles and a mech suit soon, and the new expansion is coming later this summer.

Orion is Bethesda's new streaming tech that can be included in any game, and increase streaming performance by reducing the required bandwidth to stream. As a dev I *really* want to know how they're pulling this off.

Doom Eternal looks amazing. So amazing. The same insanity from Doom, but with far more veritcality and a focus on world traversal. You have a grappling hook for one, but there are also other platforming elements added. The end result is something that's even more fast paced, and the twitch shooting is ramped up significantly with so many more interesting ways to take out an enemy. This one launches November 22.

E3 2019 Day 1 - Microsoft

Microsoft brought their A game to E3 this year. Their focus is definitely on games, games, and more games, mostly third-party, but they're doing a damn fine job of selling Xbox as the way to go. I'm not going to get into everything because there was a lot, but here are some highlights.

Xbox Game Pass for Windows is a new service that costs $9.99 a month and gets you access to 100+ games on Windows, much like their Xbox Game Pass for consoles, and EA's similar offering for Origin. If you have an Xbox One as well, you can get both game passes and Xbox Live Gold for $14.99 a month.

Xbox Scarlett (probably a codename) is the next Xbox console, coming April 2020. They... Read All

Microsoft brought their A game to E3 this year. Their focus is definitely on games, games, and more games, mostly third-party, but they're doing a damn fine job of selling Xbox as the way to go. I'm not going to get into everything because there was a lot, but here are some highlights.

Xbox Game Pass for Windows is a new service that costs $9.99 a month and gets you access to 100+ games on Windows, much like their Xbox Game Pass for consoles, and EA's similar offering for Origin. If you have an Xbox One as well, you can get both game passes and Xbox Live Gold for $14.99 a month.

Xbox Scarlett (probably a codename) is the next Xbox console, coming April 2020. They claim significantly increased performance with 8k resolution and 120fps in some games. They're also putting a focus on load times, and making cloud gaming a priority. They mentioned playing four generations of games on it, so it seems like their backwards compatibility is still going strong.

Speaking of streaming, Project xCloud is coming this October and will let you stream games from your console at home to nearly any device, anywhere in the world, for free.

Halo Infinite will be a Scarlett launch title and it looks gorgeous, but we didn't really see any gameplay.

Borderlands 3 got a new trailer and it looks as amazing as ever. In addition, the new Borderlands 2 DLC rumors were confirmed, and you can play it right now. After the show, IGN sat down with some folks from Gearbox for a gameplay demo of Maze the gunner, on one of the many varied planets you can visit. You can check out that gameplay here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWtFYMeBGjI

Cyberpunk 2077 is now my most anticipated game for the next year, and it's not even because Keanu Reeves is in it. This game has serious depth; even the clothes you wear can affect how the world treats you.

Gears of War 5 is coming out September 10, and has a new interesting multiplayer co-op mode where you have to kill everything and GTFO fast.

Minecraft Dungeons is coming next Spring. Imagine Minecraft aesthetic with Diablo-style gameplay. It sounds odd but it looks very interesting. They're focusing on accessibility but will have depth to keep people of all skill levels happy.

Doublefine has been acquired by Microsoft Game Studios, and we got a new trailer for Psychonauts 2.

E3 2019 Day 0 - EA

EA isn't really at E3, but that didn't stop them from doing their own presentation the day before E3 kicked off. It's a massive three-hour show that you can watch above, but here are some highlights:

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order by Respawn is the first single-player Star Wars game since the Lucasfilm sale went through, and it looks like a doozy. Stig Asmussen, who worked on God of War 1 - 3, and was the director of God of War 3, is directing Jedi Fallen Order, and it shows. A lot of the world traversal feels like some of the stuff we saw in the old God of War games. The combat looks very Star Warsy, lots of strategic force use, plenty of lightsaber combat. I really... Read All

EA isn't really at E3, but that didn't stop them from doing their own presentation the day before E3 kicked off. It's a massive three-hour show that you can watch above, but here are some highlights:

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order by Respawn is the first single-player Star Wars game since the Lucasfilm sale went through, and it looks like a doozy. Stig Asmussen, who worked on God of War 1 - 3, and was the director of God of War 3, is directing Jedi Fallen Order, and it shows. A lot of the world traversal feels like some of the stuff we saw in the old God of War games. The combat looks very Star Warsy, lots of strategic force use, plenty of lightsaber combat. I really like what I've seen here and can't wait to get my hands on it

Apex Legends is getting a new playable character, a new gun, and a dragon that will appear in season 2

Battlefield V is getting private servers, new multiplayer maps, and will be returning to the Pacific Theater

FIFA 2020 is getting a new mode that feels like the old FIFA Street games, and this mode is being targeted as a new player orientation since you have fewer players to handle. The 11v11 mode has gotten some heavy tweaking as well, and they really get into the weeds with details on that. As a soccer fan I've tried FIFA games before and felt a little overwhelmed, this may be my path into actually playing a licensed sports game.

Anthem hasn't been very well received, and the devs feel that. Their segment in the presentation was mostly reassurances that they are working to fix things.

The Sims 4 is getting a new expansion, Island Living, which gives players some fun in the sun as well as some thematic hazards like volcanoes. A few Sims games are getting some new outfits to celebrate Pride Month

For me the standout has to be Jedi Fallen Order, and it was definitely the setpiece for the stream. As I said up top I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm glad to see EA *finally* doing some single-player stuff with their Star Wars contract.

MST3K: The Mole People

Occasionally the official Mystery Science Theater 3000 YouTube drops a new film to watch for free and the recent one, The Mole People is something you should see if you haven't yet. The Mole People was season eight which was deep into the Mike as MST host years and was the first season to see Bill Corbett as the new voice of Crow. I'm a huge MST3K fan and enjoy taking these moment to initiate new folk into the incredible wonder of the show. If the old 4x3 movie riffing isn't your thing, there are two new seasons of MST3K on Netflix and the latest, The Gauntlet is well worth watching.