"Below is an adventure game viewed from a top down perspective. You are a tiny warrior exploring the depths of a remote island. The game is about exploration, though that goal is contingent upon the character's survival in a world where there is brutal combat and permanent death."

If I was excited for the release of Below, I am now even more excited-er(I realize that is not, in fact a word). At first I didn't quite understand why the game featured the main character being so small, but seeing the gameplay I see now how it works. Zooming so far out allows more scenery on the screen as well as gives the designers the ability to make for some HUGE boss fights. That and it's a really unique concept.

Below is a XBox exclusive(for now) but will also ship on Steam. No word on the Steam platforms, but when we know more i'll report back.

As someone that has always loved comic books, it's been a bit sad to spend most of my adult life not reading them. The only series to catch my attention was Hellboy and beyond that, I haven't read much I enjoyed. During the recent Humble Walking Dead Bundle they were giving out the first 3 issues for free. So, like many, I downloaded the first 3 issues. I didn't get a chance to read them during the bundle but started them a bit thereafter. I was immediately impressed with the black and white style and bleak tone. I appreciate that comics style in that it is serious, but isn't so serious it gets boorish or overly dark. Many of the scenes play out and let the "comic" nature of the story at times be, well, comical(Grimes getting hit with a shovel comes immediately to mind).

http://horrorcomicsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/1523961-rick_shovel_comic.png

As an entrant to the whole Zombie resurgence, The Walking Dead hit things off in 2003 with well used idea from 28 Days Later. The main character, police officer Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma after the Zom-pocalypse has hit. Whereas this story device wasn't original to the series, it's use here was great and it didn't feel dumb or cliche. In fact, what better way to bring the main character to the new Zombie-Earth?

After reading the 3 free issues I needed more as the story gets so great I wanted to keep going. The Humble Walking Dead Bundle was finished and so I couldn't pick up volumes 1-5 for $15, which is a steal. Instead of nabbing the digital volumes I decided to opt for the Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1. Whereas it includes Volumes 1-6 for a great price compared to buying them individually, it's pretty heavy. That said, as I have read it it hasn't been a huge deal and nothing beats how great it is to flip through the actual pages of a great story.

You can get the whole first issue of the Walking Dead free on ComiXology and I seriously recommend it. The Walking Dead is a series that allows DRM free downloads on comic sites that support that and as such if you want to get them digitally, I recommend ComiXology.

https://www.comixology.com/The-Walking-Dead-1/digital-comic/60

Stardew Valley is one of my most anticipated games of the year and I am happy with each bit of news that comes out about it. Recently, some really interesting information surfaced about the games main story. The main character is from Pelican Town and has the option to restore the old Community Center.

"This building was once the heart and soul of Pelican Town… a place for citizens to gather, socialize, and collaborate. But that was long ago, In a bygone age when the valley was more isolated from the outside world. Now, the community center is in shambles, a forgotten relic of the past…

The community center is divided into six areas… the Pantry, the Art Studio, the Fish Tank, the Vault, the Bulletin Board, and the Boiler Room. To repair each area, you’ll need to complete a number of “bundles”:

Each bundle consists of a selection of items and corresponds to a unique aspect of the game. They are designed not to be “grindy”, but rather to encourage players to explore the various facets of Stardew Valley. pickaxeICONWhen you’ve completed all the bundles for an area, that area will be restored and a permanent, positive change will happen in the valley (a new area might become available, for example)."

I like that Stardew Valley has a interesting story, but it's not the typical "save the universe trope" we see over and over again. Plus, who would rather restore the old Community Center and party down at the town harvest festival than shooting a bunch of people in the face in the next Call of Duty? Personally, I would prefer the former.

http://stardewvalley.net/

In a recent update, Edmund McMillen posted the following update about The Binding of Isaac Rebirth.

"the closer we get to release the less i want to spoil.. but i did promise you a video.. so here is the 1st vid of rebirth in its near final state. we are still tweaking things visually and the game is missing a few sound effects but this is basically what you will be getting on release."

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth aims to fix some long standing problems with the original Binding of Isaac, namely in the performance of the original flash version. Rebirth also adds a SNES-like pixel aesthetic, something I quite like. If you have a copy of the original game, there will be a discount for Rebirth, but since it's an entirely new game I don't think full price is a crazy proposition.

http://bindingofisaac.com/

"Oscar-winning filmmaker George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” revisits his own post-apocalyptic trilogy featuring the anti-hero known as Mad Max. Tom Hardy stars in the role of Max Rockatansky, alongside Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley."

As someone that grew up loving Mad Max I was delighted to watch the new Mad Max: Fury Road trailer. It mixes the right amount of post-apocalyptic biker punk ascetic with the dry wasteland vibe we've come to love seeing in games like Fallout 3. That said, Mad Max did all of it first and the original director of the series, George Miller is back with a new saga and Fury Road is starting it up.

Mel Gibson played Mad Max and he isn't coming back to reprise the role. This time, Tom Hardy plays Max and he seems like the perfect fit. Charlize Theron is a new character called Imperator Furiosa and she is all over the trailer in a cool way.

Curious where this movie will fit in with the original Mad Max, Road Warrior and Thunderdome. Max has his signature car, so this might be between the first film and Road Warrior?

If you are interested in picking up a unique Indie couch co-op game where you can spend time killing your friends, you need to check out Crawl. Not only does the game sport a really unique pixel art look, it also comes with one of the coolest launch trailers in recent memory.

Crawl is available right now on Steam & The Humble Store for Linux, Mac and PC.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store
http://store.steampowered.com/app/293780

In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we talk about the latest video game craze, Video Game Streaming. We talk about Let's Plays, E-Sports streaming & the recent Twitch.tv acquisition by Google for a cool Billion. This episode features Portland Indie Game Squad's (PIGSquad) Will Lewis as he live streams the show on the new PIGSquad Twitch.tv channel.

http://www.twitch.tv/pigsquad
http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/24/5934695/google-buying-twitch-youtube
http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/update-changes-to-vods-on-twitch/

What do you think about video game streaming and Google's recent acquisition of Twitch.tv?

A few months ago I dropped the release trailer for the local Portland developer ClutchPlay's game, Skullduggery. Skullduggery is a mobile game where you play a tax collector for the underworld. This new gameplay footage trailer shows off how the basic game functions as well as more advanced moves like head-shots. The game is uniquely disturbing as you use your brain like a rubber band to rocket the skull around the screen to collect coins and accomplish goals.

Skullduggery was one of the PAX 10 selected for this years PAX Prime, which is pretty awesome so if you talk to anyone from ClutchPlay make sure to congratulate them.

http://departmentofskullduggery.com/
http://prime.paxsite.com/pax10

"The Expendables 3 comes to Broforce in a ridiculous, free expansion pack."

As if Broforce wasn't already a great game, here comes the Expendabros, a free standalone download. This version is themed for the new Expendables 3 film and they got Dolph Lundgren to cameo in the reveal trailer! It's cool to see Indie games moving into integrating movie IP which has typically only been taken on by triple A studios.

"The Expendabros was created by Broforce developer Free Lives and will be available for download until December 31, 2014."

What do you think of the Expendabros?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/312990/

Since the creation of the site all Cheerful Ghost posts went directly to the main page. That said, over time we have noticed that some posts don't make sense to go on the main page and changed that. Some new users want to say hi, some want to talk about different races in Star Trek. All of this is awesome stuff to discuss, so we created the new Forums section.

Basically all new users post directly to the forums. If it makes sense to, the post can be moved to the main page. If the post makes sense in the forums, it will stay put. If you want to post to the forums, after you submit it, click the drop down in the upper right of the post to send it to the forums. In the future I will add a toggle to post directly to the forums and also allow people to post directly on the forums from the page itself.