We are back with the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Season 3. We talk a bit about what we've been playing over the holidays like Shadows of Mordor, Destiny, Risk of Rain, Pokemon & Super Mario Brothers.

During the Roundtable I mentioned beta testing Half-life 3 for Valve and as I was talking script drew something that reflected what I was playing.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-pWGPLx7kKj0/VMBhnWwMWwI/AAAAAAAAATw/H3R7igzOGI8/w395-h526-no/hl3.jpg

We also dig into what we are looking forward to with gaming in 2015 and more!

New video from YouTuber Andrewfilms that pits the main character of Skyrim VS Fallout 3. Interesting matchup and fun to watch. I kind of think the Fallout 3 character would win, but FusRohDah is pretty powerful.

WHO WON? YOU DECIDE!

Starship Rubicon is a challenging game and as such is fun to watch people play. A big part of modern gaming are Let’s Plays and Twitch streams and many people do that professionally. Wick and I believe that Starship Rubicon is a part of that and as such want you to create tons of Starship Rubicon videos and put ads on them. With that, videos are not the only thing that you can create on the web so feel free to create blog posts, walkthroughs and guides as well.

Have fun and if you make anything interesting make sure to share it with us.

Moonman is a really great looking new Terraria-esque procedurally-generated adventure game that looks too good not to share. They are on Kickstarter right now looking to raise 35K and if you want to get in on it, you should!

"In a strange, nocturnal world a moonman is summoned by an ancient mollusc. It sends him to the seven farthest corners of the land to search for fallen moon fragments -- that will power a great star-machine.

Explore a strange and vibrant world, harvest resources from the environment, craft and trade items, and have odd encounters. Each new game generates a unique world to explore.

You play as a happy green moonman whose quest is to search for fragments of moons that are scattered around the world. The fragments may have been hidden in caves or tombs, ingested by large creatures, or hoarded by agoraphobic hermits. The game features:"

Moonman has been in development for over 2 years and you can read about it's progress thus far on TIGSource. The developers of Moonman are aiming for a mid 2015 release on PC and then later port it to Mac and Linux.

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=21997.0

I can not tell a lie. I want Steam in the living room. After seeing what the Wii U, XBox One and Playstation 4 have to offer I am more interested in a Steam console than anything. Lately some news from Valve has surfaced that they are going to forgo Valve Developer days and instead have a large footprint at GDC as reported by Gamasutra.

"Steam Dev Days was a great way to brief a large number of Steam developers. This year our focus will be a bit different, so we are planning a larger than usual presence at GDC. So, there will not be a Steam Dev Days this year, but we will certainly consider doing it again in the future."

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/233656/No_Steam_Dev_Days_this_year_says_Valve__look_to_GDC_instead.php

Some other news also surfaced about the new Steam controller and Valve possibly rebranding Steam Machines to Living Room PCs.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/steam-controller-design-reportedly-finalized-more-/1100-6424515/

As I read the news I decided to get in touch with people in the Cheerful Ghost community and see what they think about it. I clipped out some bits from our conversations and had fun collecting everyones thoughts. Thanks to everyone that responded!

GregoPeck: I'm probably not as excited about Valve news as the rest of you guys. Sure, I'm interested in seeing what they do with their controller and Steam Machines, but I doubt I'll buy either. That is most likely due to the fact that my PC is a beast.

I can understand Valve's fans being disappointed at them not having a "Dev Days." I don't know what GDC is, but I think if they intend to have a huge presentation there, then fans will probably have something to get excited about. In a way, I think of it as if Nintendo had their own similar day and decided not to have one, but instead have a large presence at E3. I would be disappointed, but I would look forward to E3. That said, when it comes to E3, I pretty much only pay attention Nintendo.

I look forward to what Valve comes out with and what you guys think of it, but that's about as far as my interest goes.

AdamPFarnsworth: I'm very, very interested in finally getting firm details and a name (of sorts) for this system. I think the term "Living Room PC" is a great name, as it'll be so open, all systems could be different. "Steam Box" or "Steam Machine," whilst sounding pretty cool, sounds like there's just one version (to the uninformed). It's pretty widely understood that every PC has different specs, and you can't assume all PCs will run/work the same.

I absolutely cannot wait for the Living Room PC. I suppose I could hook up my laptop to my tv, but my laptop stays mostly in my office, and I want to game in my living room. Having just bought a Wii U, I know that if a system is available to me in my living room, there is a much higher chance of me playing it versus me going up to my office to play a game.

Travis: ...Since we don't *know* what's coming we can't exactly look forward to it yet. But here's my speculation-riddled fanboy diatribe.

Valve announcing that they're skipping Developer Days and bringing a major show to GDC is a good thing. It means we have to wait a little longer before any trickling information, but if they're bringing a full plate to GDC that means they're ready to talk about what we've been waiting to hear about. SteamOS, Steam Machines, that awesome and bizarre controller... we've been without any solid info for quite some time.

The one thing we do know is coming (assuming the sources are accurate) is the new controller, and I really want to see that in action. What I really want is to hold it in my hand and use it but that's not happening any time soon :)

I hope the controller works. That's my big concern. It's a major change from any kind of game controller we've ever seen, and if it works it could be revolutionary. If it doesn't, I worry that will have some effect on how popular Steam Machines (I'm going to keep calling them that until they officially change it) will eventually be. The big draw of that controller was that you could map it to functionally play PC games that have no controller support. If that works, the dream of full-on PC gaming on the couch is closer to reality.

beansmyname: Travis already said it best: hard to figure out what to look forward to when there's nothing being announced. With that in mind, I'll speculate wildly about what Valve may have in store at GDC.

The controller has to make an appearance. It's been the highlight of Valve's "Ten Foot" initiative from the start. After a few iterations, Valve appears to have finalized the design so this almost seems like a no-brainer. Even better would be an announcement that the controller would be available for purchase by mid-summer or even at the time of announcement.

If Steam Machines are no longer a thing, as Origin claims, perhaps all of the work on In-Home Streaming is also being used to create a Steam game streaming service, like PS Now or OnLive. That would be a huge gift for those of us who run Linux exclusively as we wouldn't need a Windows box to run the non-native games in our libraries. This would also open up the possibility of streaming to mobile devices.

There's also the 3's: L4D3 & HL3. Either one COULD make an appearance, however, I'd be really surprised if Valve was able to keep either of those under wraps for this long. Just wishful thinking on my part.

jdodson: If Valve drops news on a new game I think the Internet will explode in glee. I mean, I know I would. With that, I'll be picking up a Steam console this year and i'd prefer to not have to build it but if I can't find something I love then i'll put it together myself. That said, I am looking forward to hardware from Alienware and Origin. It's possible someone else might come out the gate with something good so I am keeping my mind open. It's great plugging in my laptop to the TV and playing games with it but it's getting annoying to have to keep doing it over and over because it takes way more effort to get that going than i'd like. A dream setup would be something I just press to turn on and can grab a controller and go.

And as Bean said above, SteamOS/Linux has an impressive amount of Steam titles and I imagine that number will blow up after Steam consoles hit the market. Many people online seem to nay say Steams living room efforts and this negativity I really don't understand. Everyone might not buy one right away but you can't argue with an already existing built in library of games you may already own. Plus it's super open hardware, so what's not cool about that?

Here is part 2 of the Starship Rubicon Let's Play & Twitch roundup.

The video linked above is a very recent video by Sundarworld where he takes the Lamjet all the way to the Dodongo boss. This is his part 4 in his Starship Rubicon series. I'll keep you posted on how far he goes with this playthrough.

Streamfriends had an awesome Twitch stream video that is massively entertaining. After a few tries Mog beats the game so if you want to see someone beat Rubicon, this video will show you how. Along the way they bump into a few bugs but fear not, like everything, they will be fixed in an upcoming patch.

http://www.twitch.tv/streamfriends/v/3617686

In ShieldGuys video he plays with the Lamjet and Warbird. He beats the first level boss, the Bullwark with the Warbird and makes it to level 2!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3D8MBsxZF0

Starship Rubicon is on Steam Greenlight and you should vote for it!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=331311253

If you missed it, check out the first part of the round up below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2360/starship-rubicon-all-over-the-universe-pt-i

Starship Rubicon was released last month and it's good to see people enjoy it. We are going to wrap up all the interesting Rubicon Let's Plays and Streams into two posts so strap yourself in for part one!

The video above is Maris of the Twitch GamerQuest fame. She held a two hour game stream/developer Q&A with Wick. I want to feature this video because it not only shows off the game but because Maris has a really interesting discussion with Wick about developing the game. The 2 hour session is broken up in a YouTube playlist, so hopefully that translates well to the embed above.

http://www.twitch.tv/gamerquest

Celerius TheDerp takes a stab at a few Starship Rubicon runs and, like me, runs into a few asteroids along the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIYYH6qF9wo

YouTube sensation "What's A Pixel Productions" recorded a video playing the game blind for the first time. He figures it out but gets bumped along the way. Starship Rubicon is challenging and this video shows someone experiencing that for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN579EQZo4o

Robert Turner uploaded a video where he plays a few times as the Lamjet. He makes it all the way to the first boss and like my first try on that boss, is blown into many crystals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxKWzh_9Qho&feature=youtu.be

Starship Rubicon is on Steam Greenlight and you should vote for it!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=331311253
Check out part two

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2361/starship-rubicon-all-over-the-universe-pt-ii

Jack and Rich are back for a new episode of Previously Recorded covering the new game Crypt of the Necrodancer. In an endless sea of sequels, gritty reboots and shooters it's nice to get something a little different.

If you only have a handful of time to play video games, Roguelikes offer a pretty good way to go. Don't have time to play some epic sword and magic RPG odyssey? Why not spend 30 minutes on a Binding of Isaac run? Don't have 60 hours for that latest triple A epic? Why not plunk a few minutes on Risk of Rain?

Recently that time has added up as I just unlocked the Engineer and Enforcer in Risk of Rain. I don't mind the Commando(the character you start with) but the game really opens up when you can use a different play style to win. Playing as the Engineer is such a different experience compared to the Commando that I worry some might miss how differently the game feels if they don't play any other class.

As with all Roguelikes the longer you play them the better you get and the closer you get to completing the game. In Risk of Rain I always can complete the first level and with my most recent run almost beat level 2 and have 23% of the game completed(not a huge feat yet, but I am having fun).

How far have you progressed in Risk of Rain? What characters have you unlocked?

EDIT Tonight I was able to make it to level 4 and was killed by Cremator.

Super Mario World is one of the most beloved and iconic Mario titles. RetroLiberty, Game Sack, Leo Camacho & Crossroads Reviews talk about the history and personal recollections of one of the best console launch titles of all time.