General Discussion [ Page 93 ]

Add this nesmaps.com to your awesome list. They have entire

http://nesmaps.com/maps/Contra/ContraMapStage1.png

Add this nesmaps.com to your awesome list. They have entire screen shots of popular NES games for your enjoyment. The above image is Contras first level.

A few awesome maps:

http://nesmaps.com/maps/MarioBros/MarioBros.html
http://nesmaps.com/maps/MegaMan2/MegaMan2.html
http://nesmaps.com/maps/Zelda2/Zelda2.html

Awesome to see what people can do with retro games.

Arkham City Voice Casting

An interesting video about the voice actors in Batman Arkham City. Mark Hamill talks about his role as the Joker as well as Kevin Conroy as Batman.

Best Bundle Ever Ill save you the suspense of loading the

Best Bundle Ever

https://www.humblebundle.com/

I'll save you the suspense of loading the page.. Here are the games:
•Bastion
•Limbo
•Psychonauts
•Amnesia:Dark Descent
•Swords and Sorcery EP

Seriously, get this now if for no other reason than Psychonauts, though each of these games are probably worth over $10 alone.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/31/2012 at 06:46pm

I am all over this one. I already own Bastion and Psychonauts, but it's worth it for Amnesia alone.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/31/2012 at 10:21pm

I already own Limbo but it's worth it for all those other games. I will be buying this when I get home today! The pack said it includes the sound tracks for all those games as well. That's awesome!

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/01/2012 at 02:16am

I am going to pick it up in a few days after things shake out so as the average of what people gives goes up a bit I pay over the average.

I wanted to get the Swords and Sworcery EP soundtrack and now it will be offered up with the rest in MP3 or FLAC which is really interesting to me. Plus, I played Limbo on the PS3 and id like to play more of it.

I agree with Tungsten, best bundle yet.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/07/2012 at 05:30pm

Humble Bundle adds Braid, Super Meat Boy and Lone Survivor if you are over the average! Woot!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 06/07/2012 at 08:57pm

That is too awesome. I have heard good things about Braid too! Glad I payed over the average :D

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/08/2012 at 01:19am

Getting it soon! WOOT!

Travis Admin wrote on 06/11/2012 at 02:22pm

This is the best bundle yet.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/11/2012 at 02:45pm

Yes, it is.

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Some arranged Radioheads OK Computer and Kid A as 8 bit

Some arranged Radiohead's "OK Computer" and "Kid A" as 8 bit recordings and released the entire albums on YouTube and download. YouTuber QuintonSung has them available for YouTube streaming:

OK Computer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxLnu4PhQNQ
http://www.mediafire.com/?k19e847uw1wb5wl [MP3 download]

Kid A:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFUIeDjo2dA
http://www.mediafire.com/?i1fjgryo63czhhg [MP3 download]

Listened to it today and they are both really cool. Like how he puts in Zelda and Mario sound effects from time to time.

The thought of a new MMO to any MMO player takes a lot of

The thought of a new MMO to any MMO player takes a lot of work. You vest time into a game and starting over can be tough. Since the original World of Warcraft game I have been investing my time. I have killed limitless mobs and bosses. I have laid siege to The Undercity and helped Thrall prevent a Cataclysm to end all. This game has been a part of me as much as I have been a part of it. Ask someone why they play and MMO and you will get a verity of answers. With that said the new prospects of any new MMO you do your research. One that caught my interest is the new MMO by Bioware and Lucas Arts, Start Wars: The Old Republic.

For years I had read about its development. I... Read All The thought of a new MMO to any MMO player takes a lot of work. You vest time into a game and starting over can be tough. Since the original World of Warcraft game I have been investing my time. I have killed limitless mobs and bosses. I have laid siege to The Undercity and helped Thrall prevent a Cataclysm to end all. This game has been a part of me as much as I have been a part of it. Ask someone why they play and MMO and you will get a verity of answers. With that said the new prospects of any new MMO you do your research. One that caught my interest is the new MMO by Bioware and Lucas Arts, Start Wars: The Old Republic.

For years I had read about its development. I watched the screen shots, videos, interviews and playable demos at the Con’s. I was impressed and with great excitement read almost every review. Was this going to be a game that replaced WoW for me? I wasn’t sure but from what I saw this game had everything and more.

The build up to launch in 2011 was massive. I was looking forward to each Con with great eagerness to see the new aspects of the game that no one had see. There was an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) with the beta but I trolled YouTube often to see if someone was brave enough to post anything new. I was ready. I purchased the Digital Collectors Edition. The in game items I have used in the past with other MMOs were fun to have. Not everyone had them and they were just plain cool to any geek. With this purchase was the registration for Beta Access. I checked my email every time I heard beta invite emails were sent.

A few month before launch Bioware setup Beta weekends, dropped the NDA and for those who PreOrdered everyone was invited. 5:AM the morning of the first round of beta weekend invites I was up and ready to go. Then it happened. I was in. I knew I was going to play a Trooper for the Republic so I played a Bounty Hunter to not ruin what I wanted to play. The game was not perfect and some things were broken but it played like any other MMO I had tried before. I was sold. This was great. By the time the weekend was over I had a level 18 Bounty Hunter that I wanted to keep playing. I could not wait until the next Beta Weekend. The next weekend came and went so did the 3rd and 4th. I cut off my play time so I did not ruin the experience when the game launched.

Yes I did the unthinkable to most people. For launch I took three days off work. Why you ask. Well unless you play games I do not think I can explain it to you. The game launched and I was off to the races. Part of the PRE-Launch Bioware offered was to build your guild with people you know. Attach yourself to that guild and on release you will be on a server with all of your friends. We all were in and we all were republic. I started my trooper and was having a blast. I was questing in and out of hubs. Running flash points with guild mates, we were having a great time. Then the servers began to fill. People could not login at the same time. Server lag was terrible. The Launch was upon us and it was hard to enjoy the game.

So I was playing when I could. I logged when the servers we online and put my time in. One thing Bioware does well is RPG games and it started to feel that way. After awhile and into several planets I started to feel the grindy-ness of the game. I was not having fun. The passive talents were not working for me. I wanted to feel a reason to level. Not a 1% increase to a stat. I leveled the Trooper to level 30. Then one day more of my WoW buddies showed up. These people I have played with for a long time. However they wanted to play Empire. Not something I did not want to do but I had already invested my time into this Trooper. Yes I decided. It was getting grindy so I changed factions and servers with hopes to get out of the grind.

We choose a lower population server to avoid ques. I created the guild and invited everyone and we were going for it. The newness of the MMO was recaptured for me. The main reason for any MMO is to play with friends. Around the mid 20’s the World Boss on Droman Kass was up and we got the guild and took him down a level. This was a great accomplishment for us. We were proud of ourselves. However over the next month people started to loose interest. Dragon Soul in WoW, the final chapter to the expansion was out. They were making progress and it was hard to justify the time spent in SWTOR for most of them.

I was on Hoth and I hit level 40 on my Bounty Hunter. Two other people in the guild hit 50 and I was just not feeling it. “Oh Help Us”, “Only You” “You are the Best”, “We Cant Do It” were the constant drolling themes to the planet quests. Each quest hub was the same. I know it is questing and what more can you do. But I am sorry the underlying story in each zone in WoW is not this grindy and the same style. So I put down my Blaster and traded it for a Lightsaber and started playing a Sith Inquisitor Assassin.

I was taken by the class mele with minor range abilities. So I started over again. I knew the planet quests were the same so I “spacebar’d” over the quest talking and just paid attention to my class storyline. It was good, had its good and bad parts. Then around 35 I was noticing I was completing planets 1-2 levels behind. I was not sure what was going on. I level the Bounty Hunter the same way running Planets and Flashpoints. Going to a planet 1-2 levels before you should be there can be tough. Mobs hit harder and take longer to die. So I went to my ship and flew space quests and caught up. I went to my next planet at level and when I left again I was 2 levels behind. What was going on? So I logged onto my Bounty Hunter and played him the same places and I was 1 level higher this made no since to me. I was starting to feel pull back from myself to want to play.

BREAK: I will post the rest of this later. Don’t want to make it too long.

Enjoy reading
-Ben

Tungsten wrote on 05/21/2012 at 10:34pm

Ya, every time I hear about a new MMO, I have that thrill that the genre can finally be something more than a grind fest.
LOTR
Warhammer
Conan
Rift
Eve (To be fair, this was a bit different)
Guild Wars 2
SWTOR

None shattered the genre. Still waiting.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/22/2012 at 01:43am

A few threads I hear from MMO people.

1. Playing with friends
2. Accomplishing things in game that are fun

I think the socialization of games show you don't need an MMO to accomplish that. Co-op games are pretty popular and can get you some of the playing with friends and accomplishment.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/22/2012 at 02:53am

I took part in the Beta for SWTOR and was very impressed with the game. It ran like mud on my desktop though, and i didn't want to have to steal the laptop (which is primarily used by my wife) everytime i wanted to play, so I passed on buying it. It's a shame it sounds like the later parts of the game turn into another grindy MMO.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/22/2012 at 02:19pm

That's kind of what I hard too. People said it was awesome then stopped playing.

Ben_Dodson Post Author wrote on 05/22/2012 at 04:31pm

The build up as to why I stopped playing should be out some time this week. I want to make sure I get it right

Travis Admin wrote on 05/22/2012 at 07:52pm

I had so much fun with Final Fantasy XI up to about level 50, then it started getting old. Grinding another job up to 50 was always an option, but meh. I think I'm done with MMO's. I could be wrong, but they just don't hold much appeal for me anymore.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/22/2012 at 08:12pm

I played FFXI for 4 years. The grind in that game is pretty bad. If I didn't have a good group of people I was playing with I would have given up on it a lot sooner. MMO's were great when I could actually dedicate entire nights to playing and it didn't matter that it took an hour to get the group together for a dynamis or something, but I just don't have that kind of time anymore and neither do most of my friends, so I doubt I'll ever pick up another MMO.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/22/2012 at 08:46pm

That reminds me, I think I've been paying for FFXI for a year now without playing it. I just kinda stopped playing and forgot it was taking money out.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/22/2012 at 09:14pm

lol both my wife and I kept paying for it for a few months before we finally pulled the plug. We had been playing it for so long it was kind of hard to give it up.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/23/2012 at 04:11am

Pretty glad I haven't started into the MMO craze. Played but of LOTRO and that was fun. Cool it was free.

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Can you say tatoo idea? There is also a mega man one and

Can you say tatoo idea?

There is also a mega man one and the artist says there are more to come:

http://jedart.blogspot.com/

Seems like a few companies are celebrating 20th

http://epicgames.com/community/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/OSTCover_FINAL41.jpg

Seems like a few companies are celebrating 20th anniversaries lately. Epic is celebrating its 20th anniversary and to commemorate the event they are releasing the "Epic 20th Anniversary Original Soundtrack."

Download it here:
http://epicgames.com/community/epic-20th-anniversary-commemorative-soundtrack/

Its a good sampling of all their games over the 20 years they have been pumping out the hits. To bad they didn't include ZZT.

This Weekend is a open beta stress test weekend for Path of

This Weekend is a open beta stress test weekend for Path of Exile... So maybe you can curb your Diablo 3 anticipation...

Here's what they said:

----

Want some dark RPG action this weekend, with all-new features and tons of flexibility?

We're opening up the Path of Exile Beta to everyone this weekend, May 11-13, so that we can stress-test our servers in preparation for entering Open Beta.

The last public weekend in March was a huge success and attracted a total of 47,000 players. We're keen to try to push that limit! There's a list of frequently asked questions about the public weekend here: http://www.pathofexile.com/publicweekend/

This week, we announced the Shadow, our... Read All

Wondering if one should buy this. You know, I dont entirely

http://www.splitreason.com/Product_Images/d344fd7c9d73.jpg

Wondering if one should buy this. You know, I don't entirely mean me, you know its for someone I know. He is a big dork and loves this stuff.

Thoughts?

My friend likes Ninja Turtles AND Mario. Too much awesome in one shirt? Possibly.

http://www.splitreason.com/product/ign/1234?utm_source=gplus&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=ninjatroopasGP

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/09/2012 at 05:38am

That is pretty rad.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/09/2012 at 03:19pm

I think so.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/09/2012 at 08:19pm

Do you think all of them except Raphael will still walk off the edge of a cliff?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/09/2012 at 08:38pm

Yeah, they look like Koopas in Halloween costumes.

Tungsten wrote on 05/09/2012 at 11:22pm

That guy looks like Eric Bana

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/09/2012 at 11:25pm

SPOOOOCK! And your right, he does look like Eric Bana.

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State of The Ghost: 2.0

State of The Ghost: 2.0

A semi regular list of things happening on Cheerful Ghost. Served up with an extra dose of rad-sauce.

New Faces on Cheerful Ghost:

In the last few days our community size has increased by 15% and Google tells me that the amount of new users on the site VS people that come back all the time is now a 50/50 split. That means for every two people that come to Cheerful Ghost one of them has never come to the site before.

I recently added a new feature to the site to help bring more people to the community as well. On the main home screen there is a button "Invite Your Friends" that you can use to easily send invitations to join Cheerful Ghost. I upped... Read All