"I do hope you have been making the best of your time, nephalem, because the sands in your hourglass have run out. The time has come for my master to sweep clean the streets of Westmarch, and your feeble efforts will mean little against our inevitable tide."

After spending the last few hours playing Diablo III: Reaper of Souls I can say that it is a very worthy upgrade to Diablo III. I started the new Crusader class and so far am loving it.

What are your spoiler free thoughts of Reaper of Souls? How did you start and where did you end off after your first day playing?

http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/13370216

How Nintendo has drawn Link has changed from game to game. This image references the different stages of his design and sort of shows off how his style varies from consoles to handhelds releases. It seems that the console versions feature a much more adult Link as the consoles have him at a younger age.

I imagine when we get a Zelda game supported by the Oculus Rift Link will be well into his late 30's.

"Mozilla and Unity are announcing new deployment tools bringing Unity-authored games to the Web without the need for plugins, made possible thanks to Mozilla-pioneered technologies including WebGL, a Web graphics library and asm.js, a supercharged subset of JavaScript. Unity’s WebGL add-on will be made available with the release of Unity 5.0 later this year."

Using open web technology such as WebGL and asm.js it should be pretty easy for developers to port their games to the web using the upcoming version of Unity. Currently Unity web games require a browser plugin and after the new version is out developers can start building native browser games.

Now that Internet Explorer is supporting WebGL if things works well enough, native Unity games "should" work everywhere.

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/03/18/mozilla-and-unity-bring-unity-game-engine-to-webgl/

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls drops next week adding a whole bunch of content to the game world of Sanctuary. In the new Act V Diablo III story, Malthael the Angel of Death steals the soulstone and as such you must put a stop to it. It's fun seeing what maguffins the Diablo III writers come up with after the destruction of Diablo at the end of the game. On one hand, I love coming back to Diablo and having fun but on the other hand, haven't we killed ultimate evil a few times before? Well, apparently not because we need to take a swing at the Angel of Death. Still, the game looks great and I can't wait to play as the Crusader.

nod to the happenings of act V

The video linked above is a recent interview with some people involved with the voice acting at Blizzard including the voice actors of the new Crusader class. It's a really great roundtable style interview but I found one point interesting as it may shed some light to the particulars of Act V. In the interview, Gideon Emery lets slip that as he was reading lines for Reaper of Souls that you are "Visited by another character and had to reign in the emotion…." Whereas this could mean many things I am wondering if this is a possible hint at the return of some main characters we lost in Diablo III(to avoid spoilers I am being a bit hazy here).

more reaper newsy bits

If you are wondering how you might allocate skills to the new Crusader class, you should check out the new skill calculator. It allows you to read all the new skills and runes you can use to make your perfect build.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader

If you want to know more about the design process for the Crusader, Blizzard has a nice post about it with some design sketches and videos.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/13299171

In other Diablo III news, the auction house is now closed bringing it's reign of terror to an end.

Diablo III drops March 25th on Mac and Windows. Also, if we kill death in Act V does that mean people stop dying in Sanctuary? I guess we'll know on March 25th.

Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 is deep in development after a very successful Kickstarter but they took some time during GDC to release a new gameplay video. From the creator of Mega Man, the game seems very similar but give the game a modern edge. I really love the idea of a new fresh take at Mega Man but wasn't in love with all the art choices they showcased. After seeing Mighty No. 9 in action I am convinced the game will be good.

Mighty No. 9 will launch April of 2015 on Linux, Mac, Windows, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Vita and 3DS.

"In Hyper Light Drifter you'll travel a ruined land with a twisted past, delving deep to collect lost technologies and unveil secrets long buried. Hyper Light is comprised of various elements: combat that's lightning quick, brutal, never unfair and always satisfying; a highly stylized, lush and varied world to explore with an intense atmosphere; a strong narrative and character interactions expressed through visual design."

The more I see the gameplay and hear Disasterpeace score I want to play this. Heart Machine is planning on releasing Hyper Light Drifter in mid 2014 for the PC, Mac, Linux, PS4 and Vita.

In this episode of The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we are talk about a smattering of game related bits such as the new Steam Controller re-design, Gauntlet Reboot & Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls. We also chat about what games we've been playing as well as other awesomery not found anywhere else(except for the other places you can find them).

What We are Playing & Drinking

• 0.25m scrypt: Darksiders & Darksiders II, Dark Souls & Pinball FX2


• 2.00m WhiteboySlim: GTA V Online & Ocarina of Time Remaster


• 5.00m Travis: Portal 2, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake & Super Mario World


• 6.30m jdodson: Portal 2, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake, Diablo III 2.0.X & Nom Nom Galaxy

This Episodes Roundtable Topics

• 10.15m WB Announces Gauntlet Reboot. Coming to PC Steam and SteamOS.


• 19.40m Diablo III Reaper of Souls.


• 32.40m Steam Controller Redesign with ALL NEW BUTTONS!


• 39.30m Leaks of the new Amazon controller for a probable new Amazon console.

"FREE TO PLAY is a feature-length documentary that follows three professional gamers from around the world as they compete for a million dollar prize in the first Dota 2 International Tournament. In recent years, E Sports has surged in popularity to become one of the most widely-practiced forms of competitive sport today. A million dollar tournament changed the landscape of the gaming world and for those elite players at the top of their craft, nothing would ever be the same again. Produced by Valve, the film documents the challenges and sacrifices required of players to compete at the highest level."

You can watch it right now on YouTube linked above or download it on Steam for free. Write your thoughts in the comments or post your review.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/245550/

I just sat down to play the Kickstarter Early Access for Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake. Needless to say the game is awesome and I was really impressed by it. After playing many Early Access games on Steam I have come to accept a certain amount of broken and bugginess from early previews. The Kickstarter Early Access for Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake transcends all of that and throws you into a very polished game oozing with charm. If I had any questions about how good this game will be, they were answered in first few minutes of playing.

Once you start the game you are brought right into the games story and meet the main character Niko. Niko wakes up on his birthday morning and finds that his cake has been stolen by the dreaded Boogin King. As you leave your house you head through the village and talk to the elder Altus and he imbues you with your first Biblio Monstrum. Your Biblio Mostrum acts as your guide cataloging all you know about in game characters, collected items, costumes, enemy boogins and the current level objectives.

After the brief introduction you head out into the world and the game teaches you it's puzzle mechanics. Like all great games it slowly teaches you each new mechanic in turn giving you plenty of time to understand the games elements. I found this a very nice touch as the game ramps up the puzzles quickly in a way that is fun and challenging.

The game art, tone, writing and music all lend to it's immense charm. If this is just an early access preview, I can't wait to play the final version.

The early access preview was released on Mac and Windows and the Mac version ran without a hitch. The Kickstarter backer email had a few bits of info I found interesting.

Q: But it’s still coming out on mobile, correct?
A: Absolutely. iOS and Android.

Q: Linux?
A: We’ve gotten this question a lot, and yes, we are seriously considering a Linux version. However, as it is not a part of our original timeline, it will probably be released a bit later.

Q: When is the full game coming out?
A: This summer.

Can't wait to play the final version this summer and when there is a final release date, i'll let you all know. If you are itching to see more of the game, here is another screen grab I took of the games over world. I may do a let's play of the first part of the game so stay tuned.

http://i.imgur.com/MhEC1ZQ.png

If you are interested in reading our interviews with SleepNinja Games, look here:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1887
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/919

I have been itching for a new version of Gauntlet for quite some time and it seems WB Interactive is tapping Arrowhead Studios to the task. They have announced the game will initially ship on PC with Steam and later come to SteamOS.

Snip from the press release...

"... Gauntlet, a completely modernized action RPG version of the celebrated dungeon crawler, will be available this summer via Steam for PC, offering full support for SteamOS and the upcoming Steam Machines shipping the second half of this year."

The trailer for the game looks like a nice next step for Gauntlet but I am curious how they will improve the hack in slash formula the game invented so long ago. What do you think of the Gauntlet reboot?

I may be wrong, but this also seems like the first game by a major publisher to be announced for SteamOS. Now that GDC is upon us till PAX East in April, I expect to hear about more games coming to SteamOS.