General Discussion [ Page 12 ]

The Nintendo Wii Shop Channel Closes Next Week

https://media.nintendo.com/nintendo/bin/Ukc0nycDCrFmMwZAbz_ZJ3Um6jgORFp-/eCstgHqgT4n3siSK2-6cSoLSuYWcdSHj.jpg

If you still have Wii Shop points, spend 'em while you can. On January 30, it will no longer function.

Along with this any video-on-demand services will stop functioning on the Wii.

This brings up a topic we've discussed a lot on the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable, and now on Cheerful Ghost Radio. When will digital games be preferable to physical? For me, it's when I can have some guarantee that I can come back 20 years later and play these games.

Nintendo has gotten much better about their online services in recent years but they still aren't quite as straight-forward as their competitors were even last generation. But that said, we don't know when Sony, Microsoft, or... Read All

Wine 4.0 Released!

https://appdb.winehq.org/images/skyrim_specialed.jpg

Wine 4.0 was released today, bringing a ton of enhancements and bug fixes to make playing games on Linux even better. Most notably:

Vulkan support.

Direct3D 12 support.

Game controllers support.

Some of this was already possible using extra utilities to get vulkan going. DXVK would translate DirectX calls to Vulkan. But now it's native to Wine itself.

This is after months of progress in other areas of Linux gaming. Tools like Lutris have matured quite a bit, to help you get the precise Wine setup you need to run specific games, and Steam's Proton (a distribution of Wine) is getting better and better, with more successes than failures in getting Windows games running... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Game of the Year Awards 2018: The Winners!

Your votes have been cast, and now it's time to reveal the winners!

Best AAA Game: TIE between Red Dead Redemption 2 and Spider-Man
2018 saw many great games, and many of our nominees were worthy of this award, but these two inched out past the competition.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterpiece, an experience that anyone who's into cinematic, character driven games should not miss. The follow-up to the original Red Dead Redemption (2010) improves upon its predecessor in basically every way imaginable.

Spider-Man is an open-world game with a much tighter focus than RDR2, but adds another dimension (literally). Insomniac took the superhero game formula that Rocksteady... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Game of the Year Awards 2018: Voting Round

2018 is over, so you know what that means: it's time to pick our favorite 2018 games! Your nominations are in (along with some other games that were huge in 2018) and now it's time to vote!

You'll have through January 14 to cast your votes, and we will announce the winners on January 15.

Best AAA Game

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Fallout 76

God of War

Red Dead Redemption 2

Spider-Man

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Vote here: https://www.strawpoll.me/17150345/

Best Indie Game

Celeste

Dead Cells

Graveyard Keeper

Into the Breach

Jurassic World Evolution

Revenge of the Bird King

Subnautica

Vote here: https://www.strawpoll.me/17150357

Best Ongoing Game

Fortnite

Minecraft

No Man's... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 46: Looking to 2019 With Cheerful Ghostradamus!

In this Cheerful Ghostradamus episode we’re going to tap into our future telling abilities and make predictions about everything coming in 2019 in gaming! In addition to your hosts' humble predictions, we share some predictions from Will Ball and Greg Woodruff, two awesome users on Cheerful Ghost, as well as the folks from BrothersForgeGaming and Game Dev's Quest.

Bonus, if you start listening to this episode at 11:17:32 PM, the end credits theme will kick in right at midnight. Ring in the New Year with Cheerful Ghost Radio!

BrothersForgeGaming: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMcrNT6_3HXVSjDcOhrO1yg

Game Dev’s Quest: http://airpodcast.com/ http://gamedevsquest.com/

Auld... Read All

What Consoles Are Currently Hooked Up To Your TV?

Metal Jesus has a new video out where he asks his crew what systems they have hooked up to their TV. The answers were pretty interesting coming from a bunch of avid collectors and at one point John Hancock had 32 systems on 3 TVs! The systems hooked up to my TV are the NES Classic, Wii, Wii U & Switch and I'm planning on removing the Wii at some point. The Switch is the latest system that's attached to my TV and I recently put my SNES Classic back in it's case because I'm not playing it at the moment.

What gaming systems do you have hooked up to your TV?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/31/2018 at 12:53am

Nes Classic, Snes Classic, Super NT, Switch, Xbox One and PS4. I also have a PC that is connected, plus a retropie that is sitting next to the TV.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/31/2018 at 12:54am

All other consoles have been organized in such a way that I can get them out and hooked up in about 5 minutes.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/31/2018 at 01:21am

NES Classic, Wii U, PS3

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/31/2018 at 04:36am

At the moment I have: Switch, Wii U, PS3, PS4, SNES, SNES Classic, NES classic, and X-Box. The X-Box and SNES are probably going to get rotated out for an N64 and a PS2 soon though. :)

Travis Admin wrote on 12/31/2018 at 06:52am

On my main TV, the ones that are currently actually connected are SNES, SNES Classic, Switch, PS4, Xbox 360, Steam Link, and an Android TV device with some emulators on it.

Though I have the NES, NES Classic, N64, Wii, Sega Genesis, PS2, and PS3 sitting in the entertainment center and their cables are hanging on a hook behind the TV, labeled and ready to connect when I'm interested.

On a second TV I have another NES, a GameCube, a PSX, and another Steam Link connected.

And a third NES in a closet. Just in case. Redundancy!

Guy_Retro wrote on 01/01/2019 at 04:46am

I've got PS3 &4 hooked up to cover all my PlayStation needs, and a SNES classic in the bedroom.

BrothersForgeGaming wrote on 01/01/2019 at 06:20pm

I generally have at least one system (NES) hooked up to my CRT, but have others systems at the ready. I have a backwards compatible PS3 and first gen PS4 set up on my main TV. Ideally I would like to have a Wii setup so that I can play Wii Sports at any given moment, but currently I do not have the extra space. Also I have NES and SNES Classics set up in my bedroom in case I need a late night fix.

Travis Admin wrote on 01/01/2019 at 09:22pm

I wish I'd managed to get a PS3 that was fully backwards compatible. I'd love being able to play PS2 games on it.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 01/20/2019 at 08:25pm

I just got my Wii U, RetroTink and AVS hooked up too! Another HDMI switch and a different surge protector allowed me to hook up more HDMI and better arrange power supplies.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/20/2019 at 11:30pm

I replaced my Classic NES with a Classic SNES. :) (I still haven't really played it yet though.)

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Happy Holidays To All Ghosts!

Wanted to send everyone a special Holiday greeting and hope that today is a fun and restful day. As we open our IRL loot boxes please drop what you got from the Holiday Loot Elf in the comments to share!

Pictures get you a bonus accolade!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/25/2018 at 09:07pm

I got some really cool stuff starting with a Nintendo Switch + Mario Kart 8 bundle. Couple Switch games, Annihilation on Blu-ray a coffee grinder, Mario Land on 3DS, Mario Checkers and a Velvet Revover CD(remember those).

http://i.imgur.com/4G8gzKS.jpg

jaelte wrote on 12/25/2018 at 10:31pm

I think they're excited.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/26/2018 at 01:19am

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 04:15am

Velvet Revolver, damn, that's a name I'd forgotten long ago.

I got some sweet Vault-Tec socks, a Vault-Tec shirt, and a TLJ Poe Dameron jacket (which is both near-screen accurate, and comfy/functional) from my wife, the full Mission: Impossible movie series on Blu-Ray from a friend, a pretty awesome seat cushion, some albums on vinyl (including a first-run pressing of The White Album) and other odds and ends from family, Tabletop Simulator from Tim, and a mystery game (I think on Switch?) from Jon when it gets here later in the week!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/26/2018 at 04:45am

I got some clothes and a $20 Gamestop Gift card, which means I'm going to turn that into $20 Steam wallet money probably. I have bought myself a few games w/ the Steam sale including Atlas (I'll have to write about that one), Wolfenstein 2, and Command & Conquer 3 & 4 including C&C3 DLC that I did not have.

@Jon I'm jealous, although not the Switch bundle I would choose (I want the Smash Bros. one). It's funny, I thought if I'd save some $ I'd get one, but now that I've saved some I don't know if I want one. LOL BTW Could you please tell me if it uses discs or cartridges? I'm curious to know what physical format Nintendo chose for the Switch. (I've also been having dreams where there's a Nintendo or someone stole mine lol.)

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 05:08am

Greg, it's a tiny cartridge.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 05:10am

The horsepower it has (though nowhere near the other current gen outings) combined with a disc to spin up would make the battery life abysmal, which is already something I wish was a bit better on the Switch.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/26/2018 at 05:25am

Awesome, good to know. That means the media can't really be scratched or badly dirtied and thus unreadable. However, a tiny cartridge means it could be lost easily. And that is what I'm thinking about when thinking about buying a Switch (that and which game(s) to get first).

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 03:10pm

Here's a good look at the size: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zYQvTSD6HCCw7suXf4ZtkFZMeRY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8023253/20170221_162415.jpg

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 03:12pm

Actually here, this article has a number of comparison shots and, while the one I added above was probably more than enough to let you know how big it is, some of the comparison photo captions are pretty funny

https://www.polygon.com/2017/2/21/14691596/nintendo-switch-cartridge-size-comparison

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/26/2018 at 03:37pm

The Switch game carts are really tiny. I’d say the size of a quarter.

Travis, glad to hear you got the Mission Impossible series. It’s univerally great(except 2 but even 2 is fine I’d you like bad movies).

I also got two Steam gifts in Darkest Dungeon and The Duck Talea remake.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 04:25pm

I thought MI:2 was better than 1, but then 1 was also better than 2.

1 was just ... unsure of what it wanted to be. Campy while trying to be serious, or serious while trying to be campy. And it felt like a lot of important stuff was cut, the plot worked but felt unearned in a way. It just didn't really hold my interest much aside from the campy parts, when they really doubled down on the spy feel.

2 knew what it was all about but at the same time what it was all about wasn't great. It was a consistent tone but a messy plot (and some real misogyny that hasn't aged well). Apparently John Woo's original cut of that movie (as in, the cut that he took to the studio and said "I'm done, here you go") was 3 and a half hours.

So I think I prefer 1 overall, but 2 didn't have the lulls where I kinda checked out like 1 did.

3 was great though. JJ is a natural for that kind of plot. So natural, in fact, that he did the show Alias which is basically Mission Impossible without the masks. I kinda wonder if the studio saw Alias and said, yep, this is what we want for MI:3!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/26/2018 at 08:25pm

I don't think I can look at Mission Impossible 1 objectively. I saw it in the theaters in the 90's, my friends and I were nuts for it and watched it on VHS a lot. We quoted it, not quite as much as other films, but it was a favorite. So I love MI:1. That said, Brian De Palma made a great film but you are right it's a couple styles. I think he wanted to make a dark noir spy movie but by the end it's more actiony and by the time John Wu makes MI:2 it's all 90's crazy motocycle gun fights with Limp Bizkit in the soundtrack. JJ grounds the franchise as a solid action series and I think from there it really picks up a lot. MI:3 is a pretty simple movie compared to the first two, which I think the series needed. Plus it features Philip Seymour Hoffman as the bad guy and I think, to date, he's the best villain in the series.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/26/2018 at 08:26pm

If you watch the MI:3 special features JJ gave Tom Cruise Alias on DVD and he watched them all then asked him to do MI:3 which was, I think JJ's first film as a director.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 09:52pm

OK that makes a ton of sense. Awesome bit of trivia!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/27/2018 at 12:52am

Thanks for the pics, Travis! That is small! I thought they'd be bigger, but you know how technology is.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 45: The 2018 Holiday Special!

Pour yourself some eggnog, cozy up by the fire, and join us for the Cheerful Ghost Radio 2018 Holiday Special! We talk about some recent news that Blizzard is scaling back Heroes of the Storm, chat about what we've been playing over the past month, and discuss some of our favorite games to play and films to watch around the holidays.

Links and notes about topics we discuss this episode:

Unforeseen Consequences: A Half-Life Documentary: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3960/unforeseen-consequences-a-half-life-documentary-is-a-must-watch

The Future of Diablo: https://kotaku.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-diablo-1830593195

Heroes of the Storm: ... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 44: Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame Trailer Special

Marvel dropped trailers for Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame in the same week, and our heads exploded in anticipation. RIP Jon, Tim, and Travis. But we were prepared for this: our hosts have been replaced by Life Model Decoys.

Captain Marvel Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1BCujX3pw8

Infinity War Endgame Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee1172yeqyE

Cheeful Ghost Game of the Year Awards 2018 Nominations

It’s that time again, folks! We are gearing up for our Game of the Year awards, and we need your nominations!

Please listen closely, as our menu options have changed. We have changed up the categories a bit this year, so please read those carefully.

Then drop your nominations in the comments below, and we will compile them into polls for final voting.

Best AAA Game: This category is for the Call of Duties and the Fallouts, the big games with big publisher backing.

Best Indie Game: The games that go their own way, sometimes self-published.

Best DLC/Expansion/Update: Any addition to a game that had a very positive effect, from something as simple as an update or... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/17/2018 at 08:52pm

Best AAA: Fallout 76
Best Indie: Jurassic World Evolution (I think it's indie)
Best DLC: Jurassic World Evolution: The Secrets of Dr. Wu & Ark Survival Evolved: Extinction
Best Ongoing: Minecraft

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/17/2018 at 09:09pm

Best ongoing: Terraria & Fortnite

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/17/2018 at 09:42pm

Best mobile: Egg, Inc.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/17/2018 at 11:19pm

I'd like to give best ongoing to Terraria, but it's been too long since it's been updated. I expect next year we'll finally see an update.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/18/2018 at 03:26am

Yeah Terraria hasn't even gotten an update since April 2017, hard to call it ongoing for this year but I think it's fair game since development is ongoing.

Frontier Developments did JW Evolution. They're kinda on the cusp. Like AA instead of AAA. I think you could reasonably count them in both camps.

Here are mine.
Best AAA: Red Dead Redemption 2 . Game of the Decade. Hat tip to God of War which I was convinced would be my GotY until I played RDR2.

Best Indie: Graveyard Keeper. I still can't drive past a graveyard without thinking about it.

Best DLC: No Man's Sky NEXT

Best Ongoing: No Man's Sky for basically killing it and coming back from the brink of hatred.

Best Mobile: Egg Inc came out in mid-2016 or I'd call it my mobile GotY. I'm going with Alto's Odyssey.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/18/2018 at 04:18am

I think the only 2018 game I played this year was Revenge of the Bird King. I don't really count the re-release of Shenmue for Xbox One/PS4 a new game. I vote for Revenge of the Bird King for every category!

vdogmr25 wrote on 12/18/2018 at 06:22am

Best AAA: Monster Hunter World
Best Indie: Monster Prom
Best DLC: Little Nightmares: The Residence
Best Ongoing: Starcraft 2 (manily co-op mode getting more maps and commanders)
Haven't played anything from this year on mobile.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/27/2018 at 12:53am

Best New Early Access Game & Most Improved: Atlas :)

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:35am

How is it possible for it to be most improved when it just launched? Did they release a patch that fixes the massive launch mess?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:35am

Also, you just made up those categories

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/27/2018 at 05:19am

Yes, it suffered a horrible launch, but was resolved. I also call it the most ambitious. So, Best New Ambitious Early Access Game & Most Improved: Atlas. LOL And yeah, I made up those categories, although Best Early Access seems like a good one to add, officially.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:24pm

I could see the benefits but I would worry about a few things

* I think people are wary of Early Access, at least the crowd here, and don't use it much (though I could be way off on that)

* People use Early Access for different levels of testing. Some games will be amazing ideas but still quite broken, some will be practically finished, with Early Access just being used as a pre-order where you get to play it early, and some games remain in Early Access long past the point where they should be, so the developers can use it as a crutch: "Oh you're having issues? Well it's still in early access, don't worry. Here buy our new DLC for our game that hasn't been released yet!"

* It's hard to judge games that aren't done cooking yet

* Early Access devs can just disappear and leave people with a wasted purchase, and it would suck to give something the CG Early Access GotY and then it ends up being vaporware.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 01/01/2019 at 10:27pm

Nominations are closed, voting is open!

https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/3974/cheerful-ghost-game-of-the-year-awards-2018-voting-round

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