General Discussion [ Page 9 ]

Why Video Games Are Good For Your Mind and Body

I jut found a cool video on a YouTube channel I'm subscribed to and thought I'd share it here. This video is from the channel Bright Side, which often features fascinating general knowledge. If you like learning new things, you should check it out.

Most of this video doesn't surprise me, but I have a couple of comments I wanted to make about it. I think video games are in part a distraction, a way to reduce stress. However, I find that sometimes video games can be incredibly frustrating. They can also help you concentrate, but I've noticed that they don't always completely occupy my mind. I think this often happens when I'm quite familiar with a game and no longer have... Read All

Why Do We Play Games?

Why do we play games? Game Informer has a great video explaining how games meet some of our psychological needs as psychologists and sociologists continue to study the affects of games on us. Check out the embedded video!

This is a very good question! I feel like it's entertainment. Some people watch TV, I play video games instead. Without video games, I feel lost actually. Playing video games is a bit of a hobby or occupation for me. I can agree with what's said in the video. However, I think there are other pieces that weren't mentioned. I think some people want to feel powerful or challenged. I don't like to be challenged at all, but I do like the feeling of... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/27/2019 at 01:56am

I really enjoy films and TV but one downside is they are passive entertainment. I love running because I can take part in where I go, how far I go and such. I view video games in a similar way to running and adding on that I think video games are more replayable and you can, typically spend a bit more time with them.

I've really enjoyed making the switch to making games and have really found a lot of personal value in creating and continuing to improve Tale of the White Wyvern. Making a game is a lot like playing a game about making a game except it's way harder and more rewarding.

All that said, nothing beats kicking back on the couch in the evening with the Switch.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/27/2019 at 02:45am

:) Sounds good! I'm sure making a game takes a lot more of your time than playing a game. Just think about it, we waited so long for Terraria's 1.3 update. It came and within 1-3 months, I was done with it. Kind of sad. I can see various ways in which developing and playing a game are similar, both can be frustrating, but also rewarding at times. I think it would be cool to be a part of something like that, but I lack the programming skills. Many Math courses are required along with programming courses in college and I hate Math! So, I felt like programming isn't really for me. I like the easy, basic (no pun intended), stuff, but once it gets more complex, I get frustrated. Still, as I said in my post, I have enjoyed being part of some communities for Early Access games.

I also see video games as a means to escape. I think you're right about films and TV. I don't think they incite brain activity as much as a video game, although I guess that depends on what you're watching.

Again, I think this question of why we play is really a tough one to answer, even though I've been playing video games just about all of my memorable life and I continue to do so. Honestly, I can't even imagine a time in the future where I'm not playing video games. I don't think I'm "addicted" though. When my Alienware PC failed me and I had to wait for new parts to come for my new build, I didn't play any games at all. Instead, I watched YouTube and surprisingly, I didn't even watch videos about video games, I watched videos about PC tech. :)

Thanks for your input and for all you've done to add to the experience of video gaming!

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 69: The Pumpkin Spiceasode! Reviewing ALL the Pumpkin Spice!

It's that time of year, folks. The scent of pumpkin spice is in the air. So we thought, what better time to try out all the pumpkin spice flavored things we could get our hands on and review them live? What could go wrong? Come experience the flavor of the season with us in this special episode!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/23/2019 at 10:27pm

I want to do a bit of a followup here. I gave some of these another shot and wanted to share my updated tasting notes. I had gotten overloaded on sweet and some of my reactions were due to that.

The Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice Crullers are still divine. Easily the best of the bunch, and something I could eat until I got sick, which to be fair probably wouldn't be that many.

Both the Little Debbie cakes were better than I thought in the episode. I was rinsing between every taste but there must have still been some residuals there, because these are both pretty dang good. The Pumpkin Roll is still too sweet, but I didn't get that weird kick in the back of my mouth.

The pumpkin spice twinkies are FAR better than I thought during the episode. This one must have suffered the most from crossover flavors. Pretty decent overall, still not as good as a regular twinkie

The oatmeal is still bland but not as much as I initially thought. If you're ok with adding some cinnamon or something, go for it.

The M&Ms and Kit-Kats are still abominations and should be cleansed from the planet.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/24/2019 at 06:45pm

Guys, you must cleanse your palate between food tastings. Leave the food reviews to Guy Fieri.

BTW, I love Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte and their Pumpkin Scone.

Later Haters!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/24/2019 at 07:37pm

Haha

I attempted to cleanse between tastings but it clearly didn’t work.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/24/2019 at 08:03pm

Thanks for trying, Travis. Maybe there is no cleansing of pumpkin spice? :)

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/24/2019 at 08:06pm

Maybe not! Haha

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The Analogue Pocket Wants My $200, Will Probably Get It

Analogue, creators of various retro goodness, have announced their next offering: the Analogue Pocket.

Out of the box, the Analogue Pocket can play all the original run of Gameboy and Gameboy Color games, and has an audio sequencer as well.

With some adapters, you can also play other handheld titles from the Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, and Atari Lynx.

Taking a note from the PSP and the Nintendo Switch, you'll also be able to buy a separate dock that connects to your TV and USB/Bluetooth controllers for playing your portable games in a non-portable fashion, if that's your thing.

This isn't a portable emulator-- Analogue have engineered their own chips to play these games.... Read All

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/17/2019 at 03:41am

Travis, you need it. Analogue makes some nice devices. I have their Super NT and it is a quality product. I hear the Mega SG is also nice.

Some other features that this has:
- It will play all Game Boy Advance games
- 3.5", 615 PPI, 1600x1440 LCD. Analogue says that it is 10x the resolution of the original Game Boy.
- It has a second FPGA that developers can develop for. I wonder if this means other systems will be ported to it?

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/17/2019 at 03:16pm

Piggy backing on the the success of its previous consoles, this looks like and incredible follow up. I already have two backlit flip GBA handhelds but... this looks so cool. Can’t wait to try it out!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/17/2019 at 03:50pm

I entirely missed that this could also play GBA games. Well, that’s pretty much it for me, no way I’m talking myself out of it now.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/17/2019 at 04:00pm

Totally. GBA ROM carts are gonna explode in sales too as people want to play homebrew on this.

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Start October Off Right With Night of the Living Dead!

Night of the Living Dead legendary film maker George Romero's first film that create the entire Zombie horror genre. Night of the Living Dead is a black and white film from 1968 that hold's up today as a "bottle" horror film in that it all takes place in a farmhouse. Night of the Living Dead would inspire Romero to create the Night of the Living Dead series including the incredible Day of the Dead.

The original copyright holder didn't renew Night of the Living Dead so it fell into public domain allowing it to be put on YouTube for free and included on Cheerful Ghost for your viewing pleasure. Night of the Living dead has some pretty campy effects but i'd argue the film... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/12/2019 at 06:17am

Honestly, I liked this original movie when I saw it in the late 90's. I don't think I've liked another zombie movie as much since then. Maybe it's because it's in black and white that makes it less gorey, I don't know, but I think it was good.

On the topic of zombies, well first of all, how many zombie movies do we need? Geez there are so many of them! Now for video games, same question, must zombies be in every video game? Geez, we need some more creativity! LOL Ok, that's a broad generalization, but there just are so many zombies in our favorite media.

Travis Admin wrote on 10/12/2019 at 04:09pm

Yeah it definitely seems like Left 4 Dead created a new gaming zombie craze. Or maybe it was starting before then? Not sure. Resident Evil was already established and popular but it didn't seem to be as widespread until L4D.

But yeah, Call of Duty games have a zombies mode, it seems like most survival games are zombie related, Red Dead Redemption had the Undead Nightmare DLC... it's everywhere!

But, when done well it's really cool. If the AI in the enemies is programmed well, it's a big change from the kind of gameplay you see in other games, especially when you just get SWARMED by zombies without any inhibitions, who don't try to protect themselves, who just want your flesh at all cost.

Damn now I want to play Left 4 Dead.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/12/2019 at 04:34pm

I’d say Shaun of the Dead brought Zombies back to pop culture in what might be considered the second wave of Zombie stuff. I’d say that film inspired a lot of modern takes and it just keeps going. A lot of it is fun but on the gaming front it’s a bit played out yet we have fantastic takes like Death Road to Canada to keep things fresh.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/12/2019 at 07:58pm

:) I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices this. I don't really think about it much with some stuff, like Terraria and Minecraft.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 68: Sayonara Dragon Link

We love to check in every month or so about what we've been playing and watching. It had been a while, though, so we devoted almost the entire episode to it! And we check in on Jon's playthrough of Link's Awakening on the Switch to see how he liked the end.

The Sega Genesis Mini Review: GENESIS DOES WHAT NINTENDID BUT MAYBE BETTER

The Sega Genesis Mini has been out for a few days, and I've put in some time with it. I'm impressed. This is not a cheap AtGames device that will languish in the bottom of some drawer. This is a solid device with damn fine emulation, and a feature set to compete with the current trend of minis.

Just looking at the Genesis Mini itself tells you a lot about the care that went into the production. The expansion port cover comes off and the headphone volume slider slides, just like on the original. This serves no functional purpose, but it's meticulous little details that show that Sega is taking this seriously, even if they aren't taking themselves serious in the process... Read All The Sega Genesis Mini has been out for a few days, and I've put in some time with it. I'm impressed. This is not a cheap AtGames device that will languish in the bottom of some drawer. This is a solid device with damn fine emulation, and a feature set to compete with the current trend of minis.

Just looking at the Genesis Mini itself tells you a lot about the care that went into the production. The expansion port cover comes off and the headphone volume slider slides, just like on the original. This serves no functional purpose, but it's meticulous little details that show that Sega is taking this seriously, even if they aren't taking themselves serious in the process (they released a "tower of power" package that you can buy to put a sega cd, 32x, and game cartridge on your Genesis Mini, which do nothing functional but poke fun at the old tower of power joke).

When you first boot up, you are presented with a region selection screen as you'd expect, but you can come back to this at any time to change your region. And you should. This is the one killer feature in my mind-- the games installed on the Genesis Mini have various regions included. If you change to Japan, for instance, you can get the far superior version of Contra: Hard Corps.

But after that you get to the list of games, presented in a nice grid of box art (which also changes based on your region). You can sort this list alphabetically or by release date. This menu's music is so great, I had to look it up. It's brand new music composed by Yuzo Koshiro, the composer of Streets of Rage, and it even uses the Genesis audio hardware to be more accurate to the time.

When you get into one of the system's 42 games, many of the staple features these mini systems are known for are at your fingertips. You can hold start to get the save state menu, and go back to the game list (thankfully), but one omission here is the rewind feature made popular by Nintendo's offerings.

The same kind of picture options you'd expect are here, 4:3 or 16:9, scanlines, etc. As I did with the NES and SNES Classic, I just left those options at the default so that it looks closest to what I remember.

As for the games? Well, that's up to you. There are plenty to choose from, double the amount on the SNES Classic (exactly double, in fact) and there are some incredible titles in here. One highlight is Mega Man: The Wily Wars, which was an exclusive to Sega's dial-in online service back in the day, but is now available to everyone here. And like top 10 lists, some people will hate what was included, some will love them. There are some strange omissions, but the games included here are generally fantastic, and there's something for everyone who isn't a sports fan at least (NHL 94 dominated the Genesis and isn't included here? For shame!)

My only complaints are...

I love the games on this thing, but there are a few glaring omissions. But I don't envy the people who had to put this together, and I've had this complaint about every mini so far.

The lack of rewind, but with save states that isn't a requirement, though it would have been nice.

The lack of 6-button controllers. At least this is fixable with a separate purchase, but Street Fighter II for instance is a mess with 3-button controllers. Playable, but much less comfortably.

It's $80, which isn't cheap, but if you like the games included this is a no-brainer. Everything from the design of the Mini itself to the software choices and the tight emulation shows a real attention to detail, and wins over Nintendo in some key ways, to a point where I'd say it's the better device. I certainly wouldn't bet on this game list vs the SNES Classic, even if they do win in quantity, but the loving detail to every facet of the presentation is quite nice to see.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/23/2019 at 11:15pm

Do you notice any audio lag? I have read some reports about some lag.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/24/2019 at 12:18am

I had some lag issues but they were TV related. I was ready to cast this aside as a waste of money until I remembered I hadn’t set game mode on that HDMI port. But no, after I fixed that I played some fast games and didn’t notice any input lag at least. But I may not have been paying attention to audio lag.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/24/2019 at 01:49am

Cool. I think I have that "cheap AtGames device." I remember buying it at Kroger (local grocery store for those unaware) years ago. I didn't really play it very much though. So, it comes with an HDMI port? That's cool! I have a Sega collection on Steam, but again I haven't really played it very much. I doubt it's included, but Jurassic Park was one of my favorite Sega games.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/24/2019 at 02:15am

That's correct, JP isn't on it. I imagine some of those licensed games are tough to get.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 66: Stranger Things 3

In this episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio, we're visiting

uʍoᗡ ǝpısd ǝɥ

As we review Netflix's Stranger Things 3!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/24/2019 at 10:44pm

Oh man, I disagree with this episode.

While I do love each season, I feel each season is slightly inferior to the last.

Season 1 captured magic in a bottle. It was the start of something special and you didn't know where they were going.

Season 2 had some great character development and moments, but some pacing problems.

Season 3 lost the majority of that character development and became more popcorny. It was enjoyable but I felt that it didn't move the characters from point A to B very much. That being said, the way the ended the season gave me a lot of hope for the next season.

Also season 3 had once of the worst scenes I have ever seen that ground the show to a halt. While it was good on its own, it really screwed up the pacing and should have been edited down.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/25/2019 at 03:22am

Which scene was that? I assume you didn’t mention it for spoiler purposes but I’m curious, if you can word it in a non-spoilery way.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/25/2019 at 04:11am

It involved singing. Still makes me cringe.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/25/2019 at 04:07pm

Ah. I thought it was hilarious. Cringey yeah but also hilarious.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/25/2019 at 04:23pm

On it’s own it was great, but it ground that episode to a halt.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/26/2019 at 02:23am

I'm gonna watch the whole show again at some point to get more context for this, or an updated point of view.

That said, if memory serves I thought season one suffered from the issue where I felt like many early Netflix shows suffered from in that they were two episodes too long.

Might not be totally how I think now but it was then so when I do a rewatch i'll note that again. I thought Season 2 and 3 nailed the pacing but I like popcorn

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/30/2019 at 04:39pm

Yo: https://twitter.com/Stranger_Things/status/1178701041333886976

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/30/2019 at 05:00pm

Hyped! More upside down please! I would get into what I want to see, but I am avoiding spoilers.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Now On Spotify!

We want you to be able to listen to Cheerful Ghost Radio on whichever platform you choose, so today we're happy to share that Cheerful Ghost Radio is now on Spotify!

Spotify used to have a more curated podcast section and was a bit exclusive, but they are trying to make Spotify the go-to for podcast listening and have changed things up. We're happy to add Spotify to our growing list of services. It's one more step on our path to WORLD DOMINATI.... I mean one more way to make our listeners happy! Yep, that's what I meant.

Have a listen at the link below, and as always, let us know if your favorite podcast source doesn't have Cheerful Ghost Radio and we will work to get... Read All

Battle at Big Rock

Spoiler warning! If you haven’t seen Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, this post may contain spoilers, so you may want to stop reading now.

Battle at Big Rock was just released and you can view it on YouTube (link embedded in this post). It’s a short Jurassic World film that basically shows a confrontation between two dinosaur species at a camp site and a family caught in the mix. It takes place after the end of Fallen Kingdom, where dinosaurs were released into the wild.

For someone who’s always loved dinosaurs and the entire Jurassic Park/World films, I like this. Stay around for the credits to see more! I’m looking forward to the next film, which I believe is coming in... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/17/2019 at 04:21am

Preamble: I unequivocally love Jurassic Park (not too odd there) and Jurassic World including the incredibly under rated Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom that I lovingly call Jurassic Park Monster Mansion (it embraces the camp to it's credit).

Meat off the bone: This short is a really tense look at life after Fallen Kingdom that sets up Jurassic World 3 quite well. The short really leans in to what made Jurassic Park 1 & Lost World work and reframes it in Jurassic World. If JW3 was a film just like this with real people surviving in Dino USA i'd be in. In fact, a TV series of this would be awesome... and I just got the thought that this might be a first step to that...

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 09/17/2019 at 04:32am

I agree w/ you about JP. I liked Fallen Kingdom, but I'm not sure how I'd rate it if I were to rate my favorite and least favorite JP movies. I guess there are things about all of them that I like (dinosaurs) and don't like. I saw the first movie when it was in the theater and waited FOREVER for it to come out on VHS. After it did, I watched it almost daily! Probably my biggest complaints w/ the movies has to do with some of the actors, I didn't like them nor their characters. There are more than a few of them to list. For example, the guy in JW that was an asshole and wanted the Raptors to be used for military purposes.

I like this short. It does remind me of JP2 when the trailer was knocked over by T-Rexes. I really have no idea how they're going to end the JW series. I guess some how they capture all the dinos or the dinos die off, I don't know. Blue is definitely my favorite Raptor!

I'm glad they put this short on YouTube for us to watch for free. It was supposed to be included in a movie (the new Calvin & Hobbs Fast & the Furious), but got delayed.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 09/17/2019 at 04:33am

Oh wow! I just realized I'm a "Super Member!"

Travis Admin wrote on 09/17/2019 at 03:18pm

Congrats on your upgrade 😂

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/17/2019 at 03:40pm

> Oh wow! I just realized I'm a "Super Member!"

Hell yeah!

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