General Discussion [ Page 39 ]

Steam Music Drops, Valve Gives Away Free Music For Everyone

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"Now it’s easy to listen to your music collection while you play games on Steam.

Point Steam to the MP3s on your computer, then browse your collection of albums and artists. You’ll also find your Steam Soundtracks DLC in your Steam Music library when the associated base game is installed. Listen to albums, queue up mixes, and create playlists you love, right in your Steam library. Best of all, it’s all available right within the Steam Overlay, so you can control playback without leaving your game. The Steam Music library and player consist of all the basics you need to enjoy your music without switching tasks."

Steam Music has finally shipped and it's available to... Read All "Now it’s easy to listen to your music collection while you play games on Steam.

Point Steam to the MP3s on your computer, then browse your collection of albums and artists. You’ll also find your Steam Soundtracks DLC in your Steam Music library when the associated base game is installed. Listen to albums, queue up mixes, and create playlists you love, right in your Steam library. Best of all, it’s all available right within the Steam Overlay, so you can control playback without leaving your game. The Steam Music library and player consist of all the basics you need to enjoy your music without switching tasks."

Steam Music has finally shipped and it's available to anyone that recently updated the Steam client. Steam Music offers a pretty spartan UI right now in allowing you to search through all your music and filter by artist or album. After Steam scans your library accessing and playing your music is pretty quick but I miss a some features like being able to shuffle through all your music. At some point I hope they offer a cover art style way to mouse through your library, I really like this as I have a ton of music and it's nice to visually locate and album as I scroll through hundreds of albums(I have a ton of music).

That said, I love that music support came to Steam and am looking forward to further releases that support more audio formats like AAC & FLAC.

To celebrate the launch of Steam Music Valve is giving away the soundtracks to some of it's most iconic games. So grab them now while you can.

Half-Life | Free Soundtrack DLC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323130/

Half-Life Two | Free Soundtrack DLC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323140/

Half-Life Two: Episode One | Free Soundtrack DLC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323150/

Half-Life Two: Episode Two | Free Soundtrack DLC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323160/

Portal | Free Soundtrack DLC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323170/

Portal 2 | Free Soundtrack DLC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323180/

Free to Play | Free Soundtrack DLC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323120/

http://store.steampowered.com/news/14358

Watch Facebook Watch You Watch Facebook

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http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/oculus-brings-the-virtual-closer-to-reality/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

It looks like the Oculus is getting closer and closer to being released. There's a lot in this article, so I won't copy and paste much of it.

I'm not sure if I'm thrilled with the thought of buying a VR headset from a company like FB, but really all corporations are going to be the same. Watching your habits and trying to make money off you.

That said, it would be awesome to have a Cheerful Ghost Virtual Hangout!

Star Wars VII Millenium Falcon Reveal Features... Batmobile?

JJ Abrams production company Bad Robot released a on set teaser video for the Millenium Falcon appearing in Star Wars VII. Take a turn for the awesome at is features a porthole covered with the Batmobile.

Seriously..

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable S2 E13: Back on the Air

After taking a break, the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable is back on the air. Since we have spent so much time away, this episode is a bit different and contains a few more technical glitches than usual.

We break into song and dance talking about what we've been playing since the last Roundtable as well as the new that Microsoft purchased Mojang for 2.5 billion dollars. With all the negativity surrounding the recent #gamergate controversy we talk about what positive influences games have had on our lives.

http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/2209/confirmed-microsoft-is-buying-mojang-for-2-5-billion

The Evolution of Gaming Consoles Infographic

Starting with the The Brown Box in 1967 to the current generation of consoles this infographic covers each important gaming console to be released.

I wonder if Valve's "Orange Box" release is a nod to The Brown Box console?

Free Software, Free Society: Richard Stallman At TEDxGeneva

I respect and enjoy listening to Richard Stallman talk about technology and found his recent TED talk in Geneva worth sharing. This talk slips a bit outside the realm of gaming, but with Steam coming to Linux I think these kinds of discussions are important.

Richard's talk is essentially about the principles of free software and why they are critically important for a free society. I agree with many of his points, but like any philosophy or religion, I don't adhere to every component of it. A few years ago I did, going so far as to run a system that was nearly all free software save a few drivers. Over time, my thoughts changed as I enjoyed running certain non-free... Read All

Cheerful Ghost is proud to join the Internet Slowdown

https://www.battleforthenet.com/images/share_images/anigif.gif

Today we--and many other sites and organizations-- stand up against cable company dickery. If cable companies get their way websites across the net (like Cheerful Ghost) could be slowed to a crawl unless they pay the cable companies arbitrary fees to to reach their users. Don’t let Team Cable destroy the internet! Stand with us in support of net neutrality!

Find out how you can help by going to www.battleforthenet.com.

Not sure what net neutrality is? Here are some great videos to help explain things:
For an all around informative break down check out CGP Grey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtt2aSV8wdw
For a hilarious take on the issue see John Oliver: ... Read All

Humble Indie Bundle 12 launches

In this tasty Humble bundle, pay what you want for SteamWorld Dig, Hammerwatch, and Gunpoint. Beat the average for Papers, Please, LUFTRAUSERS, Gone Home, and more to come. Pay $10 or more for Prison Architect!

But this time there's something new. Pay $65 or more to unlock the Humble Indie Bundle 12 Entertainment System.

This power pack gives you the complete bundle experience with a special issue of HIB Informer Magazine, 30-pages of tips and tricks for those radical games you just bought. You will also get a HIB 12 Super Shirt and a set of pins with the Humble Bundle logo and Arstotzka Crest to match. After showing off the new gear at school, kick back at home with... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/09/2014 at 09:49pm

Damn that $60 physical edition package is really tempting. That record looks great. Now if I only had a record player...

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/09/2014 at 09:53pm

Oh and this Bundle, wow, this is great. A solid lineup, i've wanted to play Steam World Dig & the full game of Gunpoint(enjoyed the demo quite a bit). With Prison Architect, Papers Please, LUFTRAUSERS & Gone Home this bundle really kicks out the jams.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 09/12/2014 at 08:55pm

I just picked this one up. Gone Home, Papers, Please, and Prison Architect were all games I have been wanting.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/14/2014 at 07:38pm

Still waffling on the special edition. Travis, are you thinking about picking it up?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/15/2014 at 02:35am

The $65 edition? I doubt it. Considering it just because it's damn cool, but not sure if I can justify it.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/15/2014 at 02:35pm

Yeah, that makes sense.

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Apple Announces the iPhone 6, and could make gaming harder

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus look fantastic, but with them come some issues for mobile games on Apple's platform. This comes from the fact that developers can no longer target a general device form factor. The iPhone has many games that play in portrait mode, including some of my favorites, but those will be harder to play on a larger phone where you can't comfortably reach the whole screen with your thumb when playing with one hand.

Due to the widely varying screen sizes in Android land, this has been the case with Android for a while now. Portrait games are few and far between on the Play store, but they're fairly popular on Apple's App Store.

Ultimately, this is... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/14/2014 at 07:45pm

After watching the video I am pretty stoked about the new set of iPhones and Apple Watch. That said, more than likely, I won't be picking either one up but I am really happy to see the direction Apple is headed.

iPhone 6: It seems most people like bigger phones and Apple is giving people what they want. Personally, I really enjoy the form factor of my iPhone 5S but a bit larger phone wouldn't be a problem. It would be slightly inconvenient in that I will have a larger indentation in my pocket with a bigger phone, but that's not a huge deal. I use my smartphone for a ton of stuff and have up to this point avoided getting a tablet because I just use my phone for everything. That said, a bigger phone would be even less of a reason to buy a tablet.

I am curious if the 5S form factor is now totally gone or if the iPhone 7 will feature 3 different screen sizes?

About people having a hard time making games it seems to me that people can target Android devices and whereas having one size makes things easier, it seems developers are doing fine. There are a zillion different screen resolutions on PC and it seems people have dealt with that even though it does complicate things some. Since I like diversity in devices, I see the new Apple phones adding to that.

Travis, when you upgrade are you going (size wise) 6 or 6 plus? The next time I will have the chance to upgrade will be around the 6S if I keep to my current carrier upgrade path.

Oh and I love the fact that the storage is 16G, 64G and 128G!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/15/2014 at 02:38am

I'll also be upgrading around the 6S timeframe. No way am I going plus, that is just too big. The few portrait games I've tried to play on my Galaxy S4 (work phone) have been pretty bad unless I use two hands, and I use one hand for my shopping list app all the time. I'm a little bummed that the 5/5S form factor is going away. Jobs mandated early on that you should easily be able to touch the whole screen with your thumb on which ever hand you were using, and I wish they'd at least kept that option around.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/15/2014 at 02:36pm

They may but it seems likely that we will have only the two sizes going forward.

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Video Games In Movies Video Mashup

The Huffington Post created an interesting video mashup of Video Games in movies. The footage seems to be mostly comprised of 80's and 90's films.

Get psyched!