jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Alive and Kicking: Portal Recreation In Portal 2 Greenlit

"Portal: Alive & Kicking is a full remake and re-imagining of Valve's hit experimental title - Portal. Using the visual capabilities of Portal 2, A&K will shove you back into the cold test chambers of Aperture Science to retell the original story of Chell and GLaDOS. The best part? It's FREE."

After playing the fan recreation of Half-life using the Half-life 2 engine and seeing how awesome that was, I am very hopeful for this recreation of Portal. Portal was an awesome game i'd love to see live on in a more modern engine.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=218303815

A.N.N.E. Update: SNES Controllers, Options & PAX Giveaway

A.N.N.E. is an upcoming 2D retro platformer that was successfully Kickstarted and is in heavy development. Mo, the creator of A.N.N.E. has been releasing development updates on YouTube and this latest one covers the shipping of the Super Nintendo USB controller to Kickstarter backers as well as enhancements for your ship. The ability to add "options" to your ship will be familiar to fans of Gradius as they seem heavily influenced by the aforementioned game.

If you are interested in checking out PAX East and don't yet have badges, Mo is running a contest so check out the video for more information.

A.N.N.E. is one of the games I am really excited about playing this year and it will ship on Linux, Mac and Windows sometime this year.

We interviewed Mo about A.N.N.E. during the Kickstarter

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1272

If you want to know a bit more about A.N.N.E.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1445624543/anne

Final Fantasy VI Fast Facts & Lore

To keep with the hype train around Square releasing Final Fantasy VI on mobile, you should checkout the fast facts video above and the Final Fantasy VI Lore video. They both contain some really interesting information about the game and are pretty short to boot.

Final Fantasy VI Lore in a Minute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zCXZ4O8PS8

Final Fantasy VI Comes To iOS and Android

http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple4/v4/3c/96/89/3c968968-5aee-3d09-713f-6519ca87b9f4/screen568x568.jpeg

One of the greatest Final Fantasy games has finally come to the iOS and Android platforms. For $15.99 you can head back to the World of Balance and Ruin and join up with the Returners to take down Emporer Gestahl and the Empire. For me the Final Fantasy series didn't get much better than VI and I can't wait to pick it up but I might wait till the prices comes down a bit, $16 for a phone game is a bit much.

That said, it seems like Square has revamped some of the graphics and gameplay to make it a bit more mobile friendly. I still prefer the big chunky pixel graphics, but this update doesn't seem to take it too far away from the beauty of the original.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 02/07/2014 at 02:15am

Cool! This is one of my favorite games of all time and... wait... a... minute! WHAT DID THEY DO TO THE GRAPHICS!? BLLLLllaaaARRRGGGG rage rage nerd smash! Why Square, why!?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/07/2014 at 04:48am

Yeah. I imagine it's so people don't look at the old amazing pixel art and get turned off. I mean, I don't mind the old graphics, in fact, I prefer them to this but... It sort of makes sense as to why they would.

Good thing we will always have the original :D

shockwave wrote on 02/07/2014 at 05:27am

I prefer the old pixel art, but I do like the new portraits. I'm also glad they put some work into it instead of just emulating the original version. this game is one of my favorites as well so i'll be picking it up when it goes on sale.

vdogmr25 wrote on 02/07/2014 at 08:10pm

I'm more likely to get it for PS3. This is one of those games I would sit down and play for a while, and I rather have that with a big screen and nice speakers, even if it's kind of outdated in those regards. Also, my phone is mostly for games that are pick up stuff that I can play on my commute. It's 5 bucks cheaper on PSN too.

CapnCurry Supporter wrote on 02/08/2014 at 07:52am

The pixel art / "improved" art thing has always bugged me about the Final Fantasy series. In a lot of ways, I feel like I was playing a different game from what they published, and the graphics used to let me do that. I played the FF6 reboot on PS(2?), and not only was it a bad port job, but what I saw had a very different feel from what I wanted. It's like, in my mind, Kefka was the Joker from the original Batman TV series - insane in a way you could laugh with if he weren't trying to end the world. But in the remake he was much more clearly presented, and it seems that Square thinks of him as the Joker from the Dark Knight reboot.

I'll probably get the iPhone version, though. FF6 has a lot of meaning to me, and I don't think I'd be able to skip this without at least digging into it a bit.

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Cheerful Ghost Roundtable S2 E2: FTL - Faster Than Light

In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we talk about the amazing indie rogue-like FTL! During this season we will be doing entire episodes about certain video games we love and we decided to kick this off with style!

Show Notes & Seek Times:

What We are Playing & Drinking

0:29m CapnCurry: Skyrim

1:43m WhiteboySlim: GTA V Online & Starbound

2:56m Travis: GTA V Online & FTL

3:34m jdodson: BioShock Infinite Burial at Sea Part 1, Pokemon Blue & Starbound

FTL: Faster Than Light

7:24m - What is FTL?

9:20m - What our win counts are? What game stats do we have?

15:45m - What ships have we unlocked and what do we have yet to get?

19:15m - What are the first few items we get for the ship when we start the game off?

30.44m - In game races, what do they do and which ones to we like?

37.30m - What strategies do we like and if we have a viable boarding party strategy?

44.50m - What should people NEVER do & a tip to take down the Rebel Flagship?

48:25m - What do we think of the new FTL: Advanced Edition?

Make sure to checkout both our Interviews with the amazing people behind FTL:

Interview with FTL score composer Ben Prunty:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1552

Interview with FTL designer Matthew Davis:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1181

More about FTL: Advanced Edition:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1732

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/06/2014 at 04:41am

No wonder I saw that Travis and Tim were playing hours ago!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/06/2014 at 04:50am

Capn, tell me about your upgraded gaming rig. Mine is quite old, I've been told I should upgrade since I can now afford to. I looked into some components and got a bit overwhelmed.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/06/2014 at 05:35am

Travis, what is the DRM-free version? Does that mean it's free? Hearing you guys talk about the game makes me want to play it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/06/2014 at 06:23am

DRM free means it doesn't require Steam or some external server to authenticate to to run it. You can get a DRM free version by purchasing it through the FTL website using the Humble Widget which will also net you a Steam copy. That said, the Steam copy does sync your ships and stats so if you reformat, some if your progress is saved.

Also love to hear about CapnCurrys new rig!

CapnCurry Supporter wrote on 02/06/2014 at 06:37am

My gaming rig is actually a Macbook Pro, dual-booting into Windows. The good news is that it's a perfectly respectable gaming machine in a laptop form factor. The bad news is that the price tag on the sucker is probably in the neighborhood of $3,000 - I say "probably," because it was bought and provided to me by the company I work for.

If you have three grand to drop on a gaming rig, you can certainly find a better one than a Macbook pro. For what it's worth, though, this is the base model: http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=ME294LL/A&step=config

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/06/2014 at 06:48am

Ah right, dual booting into Windows on the Mac w bootcamp. I install games on my Macboock direct but I bet installing Win 7 native on the Mac would get a bit more oomph from the hardware.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/06/2014 at 07:17am

I have plenty to drop on a gaming rig, but I'm not one to buy a computer, I prefer to build them. I have no desire for a Mac or laptop. I have nothing against Apple, really, but I'm predominately a Windows user and have barely used anything Apple at all.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/06/2014 at 07:18am

Oh, Jon, when you talked about the FTL score, it reminded me of how I feel about the Minecraft music. It is wonderful and music that I would enjoy listening to if I was programming.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/06/2014 at 04:15pm

I should do a few posts about some of my fav. game scores. Hmmm. Yeah.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 02/06/2014 at 07:19pm

I listened whilst working, so I might have missed part of the conversation about this, but what are any of your thoughts as far as types of Sectors to go to (Civilian vs Rebel) and inside the sectors, do you avoid any types of stops(I personally hate the nebulas)?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/06/2014 at 07:33pm

I usually go to Civilian but thats a bit safer and you won't get certain ship events or other cool stuff.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 02/07/2014 at 01:06am

My stats: 18 hours (probably around 12 hours in Normal, until talking to Jon and finding out that it's socially acceptable to play in Easy). No Federation kills, yet.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/07/2014 at 02:03am

I think one thing everyone can take away from the roundtable is that we all think it's ok to play on easy :D

Timogorgon Member wrote on 02/07/2014 at 02:37am

There is no shame in playing on Easy, especially in this game.

I don't like the sectors that are entirely nebulae (I had to look up the plural of nebula...) but when there is a nebula in an otherwise normal sector I always head for them to slow down the rebels and give myself more time in a sector.

Otherwise I kinda go where ever. A couple of the ships can only be unlocked from events that take place in hostile sectors though, so keep that in mind.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 02/07/2014 at 04:35am

And even though everyone said not to... I tried the spider event, and lost a crew member. At least it was early on in the game :)

CapnCurry Supporter wrote on 02/08/2014 at 07:56am

The spider event has become one of those things where logically, I know it's not "supposed" to be any worse than anything else, but when I lose a crew member I always feel like I should have known better. I know I've had positive outcomes with it but I can't even remember what the reward is for it.

Hey, are they taking requests for the expansion? If I had an option to fire a torpedo and nuke the spiders from orbit, I'd probably take it regardless of what the loot odds looked like. :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/08/2014 at 04:48pm

"Nuke planet from orbit" :D

We need to be sure..

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 02/10/2014 at 05:13am

About 28 hours in, and I recorded my first win! Some significant stats: 229 piloted evasions(human) and 9 kills(mantis, when I got a teleporter for fun, I still don't have the mantis ship).

I'm finding as I'm playing that instead of maxing out my shields, I'm using three shields and increasing my engines until I'm around 50% evasion. That plus the timing the cloak for when they shoot really helps.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/17/2014 at 07:37am

This whole conversation is making think of getting FTL. I'd prefer to play a free demo (before buying so that I can be sure I want the game), but there doesn't seem to be one.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/17/2014 at 03:45pm

Yeah, playing a demo is good for sure. But FTL might be a "blind buy" and it makes more sense when it's on scale, which is often. Oh wait, I have a copy of it for you Greg, if you want it. Left over from a bundle. FEZ too. You can have both if your interested.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/18/2014 at 01:40am

Oh! That's awesome! I'm not sure about Fez, but sure I'll take FTL. Are we friends on Steam? Nope, what a shame. Well send me a friend request. http://steamcommunity.com/id/gawoodruff

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/18/2014 at 02:11am

I could give you some $ for it, but I've already given you $ (Cheerful Ghost official paid member here). Hahahahahaha! Travis hooked me up with Terraria.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/18/2014 at 03:08am

Nah it's fine, consider it a gift :D

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/18/2014 at 04:59am

You guys are awesome! I'm glad I was able to donate to the site, I felt like it was totally worth it and I'm glad that I was able to help keep the site alive.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/22/2014 at 11:12pm

Awesome, I'm glad I came back to this discussion now that I've been playing. Adym, you've said what Tim said in my discussion, pretty much, about raising the evade %. That's something I'm going to work on.

At first, I was avoiding the nebulae, I'm working on getting out of that habit. However, I don't like them because I often find that some of my systems are disabled and I have to re-route power to be able to jump. I usually try Civilian sectors, but sometimes also go for Engi or Rock. I sometimes choose the Pirate sectors to, especially as opposed to Rebel.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/23/2014 at 12:22am

Here are my stats: http://i.imgur.com/b9u0eOn.jpg

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Humble Sid Meier Bundle

"The Humble Sid Meier Bundle features an enormous selection of quality strategy games by Sid Meier, legendary designer of the Civilization game series. Pay what you want for Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete, Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition, Sid Meier's Ace Patrol, Sid Meier's Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies and Sid Meier's Railroads!. Pay more than the average price and you'll also receive Sid Meier's Civilization V and Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings DLC. We'll also include Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World DLC with all purchases of $15 or more."

The Humble Sid Meier Bundle is one of those bundles that is pretty incredible. For $15 you get Sid Mieier's Civ III, IV, Ace Patrol, Pacific Skies, Railroads, Civ V + Expansion packs. Figuring in that Civ IV & V are playable on Mac this is a pretty incredible bundle. I have been looking to pickup a modern Civ game and this seems to be the best way.

https://www.humblebundle.com/

Steam Music: Because, You Know, Steam Should Do Everything

http://media.steampowered.com/img/music/music_album.png

"The Steam Music Beta is coming soon to Big Picture and SteamOS interfaces, with desktop features soon to follow. To express interest in beta participation, join the Steam Music community group. Group members will be invited in waves, until the feature is released to everyone.

With Steam Music, you can now listen to your music collection while playing games. Once you’ve pointed Steam to your local music directory, your Steam Library will include Album and Artist views of your collection."

It seems Steam is getting the ability to play music in Big Picture mode and SteamOS. This should come as good news to people planning on using a Steam Machine as a Media Center. The interface is clean and I like that you can bring it up when you are playing a game.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steammusic#announcements/detail/1498873168009439000

Prison Architect: Alpha 17 - Armed Guards & Forestry

Prison Architect Alpha 17 dropped today and the guys at Introversion have an awesome video showcasing the new goods. This update sees in inclusion of armed guards and a new weapons locker room type. If you decide to add armed guards to your prison it comes with a cost in that during each riot the prisoners will try and get access to the weapons locker. In the Alpha 17 showcase video the rioting prisoners went straight for the weapons locker and proceeded to arm themselves, which i'm my estimation would end that particular prison.

They also added a new forestry zone that gardeners can tend to that grow trees creating another way your prison can make money in the long term. They have mentioned adding prisoner education and reforms and can't wait to try that. Building a right win hell hole and a leftist paradise both sound like interesting things to try when they are available.

Prison Architect is available right now on Linux, Mac and Windows.

I Hack, I Slash, I Loot!

Hack, Slash, Loot is part of the Humble Weekly Rogue-like bundle and I have been enjoying it so much I decided to show it off with a gameplay video. I randomly rolled a Wizard and went my furthest yet in this play-through. Hack, Slash, Loot is a great little rogue-like that weighs in at only 9 megs!

If you are looking for a really fun armchair hack-n-slash, this game is for you. Hack, Slash, Loot is available right now on Linux, Mac and Windows and you act quick-like, you can pick it up as part of the Humble Weekly sale. The developers have also made a demo of the game for download on the games website.

https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly

http://hackslashloot.com/

Shadowrun Returns to get Dragonfall Expansion

"Shadowrun: Dragonfall is a new campaign expansion for Shadowrun Returns. This thrilling full-length campaign takes players to the city of Berlin and is packed with new features, characters, environments, weapons, cyberware, enemies, and other enhancements to the Shadowrun Returns experience. Shadowrun: Dragonfall will arrive on February 27th, 2014 for Windows, OSX, and Linux and will sell for $14.99. It's currently available for pre-order on Steam, and a DRM-free version will be available on GOG.com."

Shadowrun Returns is a really neat isometric turn based action game that I picked up in the last Steam sale. If you love games built on top of a plot centered narrative with really interesting characters in a unique style, you ought to give Shadowrun Returns a try. Shadowrun Returns ships with a full in game editor and as such it's Steam Workshop page is loaded to the hilt with player creations. That said, if you are looking for the next best thing from the creators of the game, Dragonfall will be it.

Shadowrun Returns is available for Linux, Mac and Windows and when Dragonfall will as well.

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=234650

jdodson1

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