jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2755 Posts

Donate & Watch Awesome Games Done Quick 2021
The Awesome Games Done Quick 2022 charity speedrun event is going strong right now and you should absolutely watch it! While you are there consider a donation to The Prevent Cancer Foundation! So far today there have been some incredible runs of Mega Man 2, Deathloop, Donkey Kong Country 2 & Deaths Door and up next an Oracle of Seasons Speedrun!

❤️

Peep the schedule for upcoming runs to watch: https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule

Halo Infinite Multiplayer: Quick Thoughts
Halo Infinite released last month but the Multiplayer has been available in beta for quite a while now and even though I don't play a lot of brand new games, since Infinite multiplayer is free I decided to give it a try. If I had to sum of my thoughts on the Halo Infinite multiplayer in three words I guess I'd say "embarrassment of riches." Basically we get one of the best Halo multiplayer experiences and it costs nothing at all. Does it have a battle pass progression system where after buying it and playing the game a lot you unlock cosmetic rewards much like Fotnite? Yep. Do you need to do any of that? Nope, not at all. The best part is that even if you're not great you can play with normal humans on your team and bots on the opposing team. Oh yeah, Halo multiplayer now includes bots if you want that to be a thing and frankly it's a nice addition because I'm not really any good but when you are playing against easy bots it does feel a bit more fun to kill something from time to time.

Whereas you can't do this online right now you can head into my local Target and get an XBox Series S for $300. From there you can plug this in to your TV sign up for a free xbox account and download and play Halo Infinite Multiplayer, Fortnite, Rocket League and a metric shit ton of free games for just the price of the console itself. Same if you owned a PC though the cost of getting started is a bit more than $300 if you wanted to play all those games. Which is why I think gaming right now is an embarrassment of riches because there are so many great experiences and all you need to have is some hardware to play them on.

If you have some hardware such as an XBox One or greater or a PC(It's on Steam even!) with any power at all you can play Halo Infinite right now. It's a fair download but even if you only play a handful of matches I think it's worth the download cap hit.

Zelda Game & Watch: Save Your Rupees For This Incredible Hyrulian Value!
For Christmas this year I got myself the Legend of Zelda Game & Watch. The Zelda Game & Watch features The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link and Link's Awakening alongside a classic watch game and a few other fun modes. The big draw of the Zelda Game & Watch to me was the fact that it included the original Gameboy version of Link's Awakening. I'd have preferred the DX color version, but the original Gameboy version is classic and well worth replaying. I've been playing Link's Awakening on the Game & Watch and just acquired the third instrument. The small system feels good in my hands and the controls feel quite natural. Since I'm playing the Gameboy game everything feels good in the hand as I have a lot of memory playing this on the classic Gameboy. All told the classic Gameboy was much bigger in the hand but the screen wasn't too big so it feels pretty natural. My only minor complaint is that due to the screen size the original Link's Awakening is stretched to fit the screen by default. Nintendo has a setting to have the game play in the proper orientation but it's an odd default selection.

I plan on completing Link's Awakening on the Game & Watch and heading back to The Legend of Zelda and completing it again too. I've never completed The Adventures of Link and wonder if I'll finally do it on the Game & Watch?

Compared to the Mario Game & Watch this is an incredible value and with the rising prices of retro games even more so. If you had a thought to want to come back and play these games and don't have a great way to do it do yourself a favor and get the Zelda Game & Watch. Afterward check out the three article series Nintendo created on all the secrets they've stuffed the Zelda Game & Watch with. Some of these were included in the original games and some are completely new to the Watch system.

Regional Game Differences: https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/game-and-watch-the-legend-of-zelda-secret-series-part-1/

Saving the World in 12 Hours? Mysteries of the Playable Clock: https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/game-and-watch-the-legend-of-zelda-secret-series-part-2/

Secret Button Commands: https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/2021/game-and-watch-the-legend-of-zelda-secret-series-part-3/

Happy New Year!
Wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! Wherever this years end finds you I hope 2022 treats you well! As a fun bonus I've included a best of games list from Digital Foundry's own John Linneman to kick off a discussion of games you played this year that top your list. Also if there are any games coming out next year you are interested in?

Happy Presents Day!
Happy Presents Day everyone! Hopefully the legendary holiday presents mythical elf human hybrid brought you everything you wanted. Regardless, you can get the recent Bethesda game Prey for free today on the Epic Game store on PC RIGHT NOW!

🎅🎁🎄

https://mobile.twitter.com/videogamedeals/status/1474772051089051654

Horde Mode for the Holidays With Quake!
I noticed a new update to the Quake remaster in the gaming press and word of a new multiplayer Horde mode. This a popular mode in Unreal Tournament and other shooters and it seemed like a great fit for Quake. Recently I picked up the Quake remaster on the Series X and felt Horde mode was worth a try and friends… let me say Quake Horde mode is superb. If you were waiting to try the Quake remaster this is the time to give it a shot because just playing this with bots is well worth it. I’m excited to have friends over to try split screen at some point too.

“Experience the all-new Horde Mode and Add-ons for Quake, free to all players. Grab your guns and drop into Horde Mode - play solo, with friends online, or in local multiplayer split-screen. Unlock powerful weapons and power-ups and battle your way through endless waves of monsters.

Plus, expand your Quake experience with the free Honey Add-on and delve deep into the darkness to conquer a deadly plague infecting the land. With even more free add-ons coming soon, there’s never been a better time to play Quake!”

The Analogue Pocket Is Out And It Looks Incredible!

The Analogue Pocket is out now and seems to be getting universally high praise. Pretty impressive considering they have a slate of updates coming to the system next year. I thought Valve’s Steam Deck would launch sooner but I’m happy to see Analogue beat them to the Holiday rush. Originally I wasn’t going to pick this up but the retro community reviews are so glowing I wonder?

What Are You Playing This Holiday Wintery Whatever?
Greetings Ghosts and Elves,

Now that presents time is upon us I was wondering what everyone is playing? Before you go I’ll dish up a side of ham and Borderlands 3. Originally I picked this up on sale on PC and quite enjoyed it but solidly changed my gaming focus to the XBox when the Series X came. Recently Gearbox released a Borderlands 3 Legendary Edition that features the base game plus all DLC (base game disc, DLC code on paper) and I’ve been playing that here and there. I also got Forza Horizon 4 for cheap during Black Friday. Needless to say these are more than enough to tide me over plus the incredible backlog I have already (the woe, the lamentation).

What are you playing? Also if you want, dish up what you’ve been watching too. I’ll put my watching in the comments.

Happy Thanksgiving: Now Watch MST3K Turkey Day!
I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and also drop the note of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day marathon. This year the extra bonus is that they are dropping the titles of the movies they are riffing for Season 13! So far the new announced movies in Season 13 are:

Munchie, Beyond Atlantis, Robot Wars, Santo and the Treasure of Dracula & Doctor Mordrid.

There are some real gems in there and I can’t wait to see how they riff Munchie!

Wolfenstein Gets It's New Blood & It's A Little Messy: My Review of Wolfenstein Youngblood
jdodson gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
jdodson gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
It's a pretty well tried release strategy to release a main line shooter entry and then drop a gaggle of smaller DLC with it or one big story game alongside it using the engine of the game you just made. With the Wolfenstein franchise Besthesda drops one extra follow up story campaign alongside the main entry and Wolfenstein Youngblood was the follow up campaign that launched after New Order.

Originally I picked up Wolfenstein Youngblood on Switch and while it's not the optimal place to play it if you want the best graphics, it's a solid port worthy of the game. That said, when Wolfenstein: Alt History Collection (which contains each game in the new Wolfenstein series) was on XBox for cheap, I picked it up to play Youngblood and finally completed the main story portion of the game.

Wolfenstein Youngblood takes everything from the previous Wolfenstein games and builds on it to add some extra game mechanics in terms of character and weapon upgrades to give the series a new take. Whereas the new mechanics are interesting, they aren't very much fun. Early on when playing the game I didn't put much thought into the upgrade system until I hit a brick wall in terms of enemies being so hard I couldn't progress. When that happened I felt the game was forcing me to upgrade things I wasn't sure would make progression easier. In the end a combination of weapon and character upgrades along with staying ONLY on the designated mission path was the ticket to making progress in the game. Youngblood has a hub world system where you can veer off the mission path and if you do, the increased enemy difficulty will obliterate you unless you are some kind of shooter Godess.

Besides the upgrade system, the actual shooter part of the game is top notch. The guns feel great and I enjoyed each one quite a bit. Each enemy has a weakness to a particular gun type which forced me to use different guns beyond just camping out on the shotgun or machine gun.

Youngbloods story is about as good as anything from the main games but there isn't much of it, which is a shame. There is plenty of game here I just feel that the story that ties it together is pretty sparse and I wanted quite a bit more of it. According to Bethesda, Youngblood will the the springboard for the series right into Wolfenstein 3 which should be the conclusion of this new Wolfenstein game trilogy. I don't want to spoil any of the story, but what they did set up in Youngblood should make for a great ending to the Wolfenstein series.

While Youngblood isn't the best entry in the series, there is enough fun to be had to keep things interesting until the end. There is quite a bit more to play after the main campaign is over but I don't imagine i'll finish the remaining missions now that the story is over. If you haven't played any of the new Wolfenstein games I heartily recommending picking up the Alt History Collection.