jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Destiny: A Game That Compels Me To The PS4

Typically I don't nab a console for one game but Destiny looks so good I might make an exception to that rule. Since I have never owned an XBox I haven't played any of the Halo games and Bungie's next game seems like a re-visioning of that universe.

With the Steam Console being on the unknown horizon and the PS4 seeming to support the Indie scene as well as it claims, I might get a next gen console much quicker than I thought.

What do you think, does Bungie's next game look interesting to you? If so how do you plan on playing it?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/11/2013 at 04:25am

Since this isn't coming to PC (that I've heard, anyway), I plan on picking it up on Ps4. I'm a big Halo/Bungie fan, so I'm really looking forward to see what they do with a multiplayer persistent world. Looks like there may be some inter-planetary travel, too!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/11/2013 at 04:50am

Yeah, I am really looking forward to more details on this game. It looks so pretty.

Chowda wrote on 06/11/2013 at 06:59pm

This looks pretty interesting but I am firmly in the camp of not buying a console for a particular game. My PS3 is more of an entertainment console anyway, I think I'll stick with it until it dies. I'll need a lot more than one interesting game to pick up the PS4. I had plans to put a guest OS on my PS3 when I got it. With a mandatory firmware update they removed that option a few months later. I'm not bitter...

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/11/2013 at 07:14pm

Yeah, I dont typically nab a console for one game either. Also, like you I use my PS3 as a media center the majority of the time too. Destiny does look good though and over time I might get excited about a few more games to help the prospect.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/11/2013 at 09:44pm

Something I usually use as a decider in any game purchase, is the the controller that's available. Prior to this year, I would have never purchased a First Person Shooter on the Ps3. The Xbox 360 controller just felt right for that type of game on a console. I'm starting to get used to using keyboard/mouse on the PC side of that coin, but I feel more at home with a controller. The DualShock 4, if it's as tuned as everyone says it is, makes playing a game like Destiny even more accessible on a Playstation system. I think it will be a key factor, in conjunction with the apparent lack of gamer love coming from Microsoft, that will draw a good chunk of the Xbox players over. Seriously, is it just me, or is that controller just dead sexy!?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/12/2013 at 03:02am

The PS4 controller looks pretty good. Not sure why people dislike the PS3 dualshock, I think its pretty good but the XBox 360 always felt way too big for my taste.

BR Supporter wrote on 06/12/2013 at 08:40am

I prefer the xbox controllers because of the placement of the joysticks. They just feel much more natural when I hold them.

But about Destiny. I've been extremely excited for this game and I would really like to get it. BUT, I ,just a few days ago, built a brand new PC and its going to be hard for me to go back to console after making such a beast machine. If I do end up getting a console I'm leaning towards the PS4. The slightly better hardware and the new design for the controller definitely has me thinking I will part from the xbox, Although, the xbox one does have the ability to switch back and forth between windows and xbox operating systems which is kinda cool(or so I've been told).

So I have no idea.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/13/2013 at 03:47am

This is published by Activision so I'd be surprised if it didn't come to Xbox One and PC as well. You should be safe BR :)

BR Supporter wrote on 06/13/2013 at 04:56am

I was talking to some of my friends at work today and they were saying that destiny will only be on the PS4 and PC. I'm not sure if this is true but I haven't had the chance to look it up yet. Also, after talking to them a bit, I found out about the PS4's stance on used games and online restrictions. I'm thinking I will be buying the PS4, considering they actually know what the people want.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/13/2013 at 05:38am

Bunnie's pre-order page shows it for Ps3, Xbox 360, Ps4 and XBone. I don't think it's coming to PC at all.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/13/2013 at 06:01am

Yeah, not listed as a PC port. Sad, it would be great if it came to PC.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/13/2013 at 06:07am

Apparently, I get all my games from Bunnie's Game Cache here in Anchorage...

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/20/2013 at 03:55am

Destiny MIGHT come to PC:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/18/destiny/

"I’d say we would absolutely love to be on PC,” Parsons said. “If you go upstairs and talk to the people upstairs, we play on all platforms. So stay tuned."

So, ill hold off on my "buying the PS4 for this one" until we get the official "sorry, no."

BR Supporter wrote on 06/20/2013 at 04:48am

Cross your fingers people! Destiny would be Badass on PC!

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The Firehose: Wolfenstein, Stardew Valley & PvZ 2

New trailer released for Wolfenstein New Order. More of the plot details come out loaded with shooter frenzy.

ConcernedApe the developer of Stardew Valley dropped more game updates about in game rings, boots and minerals. He also talks about other game mechanics and options for how you can play the game.

http://stardewvalley.net/mini-dev-update-6/

Plants VS Zombies 2 will drop on iOS before PC an odd choice considering it was the other way around for the first game. It will also launch as a free to play game as well so if you wanted to play it and keep a few bucks, now you can.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/03/plants-vs-zombies-2-blooms-on-ios-july-18-is-free-to-play/

Scrolls Beta: A Fun New CCG by Mojang

I have been eagerly awaiting Scrolls, the new Collectable Card Game by Mojang for quite some time after it was announced. I wanted to tuck a bit of time under my belt before writing about it and feel like now is a good time.

After buying Scrolls I needed to merge my Minecraft account into my new Mojang account. This makes sense as what Mojang is doing now is having an umbrella Mojang account be the set of credentials that gets you access to all your games. So now, I can access Scrolls and Minecraft with the same information. After you get that all sorted out you can start playing Scrolls.

Scrolls is a 1 on 1 card game where the goal is destroy 3 of the opposing players idols. The game is played on a hexagonal battlefield broken up into 5 lanes. Scrolls differs from other CCG's in that you don't start with energy, you must sacrifice cards to obtain it. Its a interesting mechanic and I like it quite a bit.

Each new player starts by selecting one of three pre-constructed decks and I selected the green deck. As you play matches you win gold and you can spend the gold in the game store for cards or packs. I seriously recommend saving up for the packs as you get more cards for the gold you spend. You can drop real money to buy shards and coupled with gold allows you to buy the other pre-constructed decks or specific cards. You don't need to spend real money to get all the cards as you can stick to buying packs with earned gold.

I have been playing practice matches on Easy and find that offers plenty of challenge for my current Scrolls skill. Even in easy, the game isn't trivial even if the computer isn't too smart. Sometimes the luck of the draw can really hinder your win, just like in any CCG.

The game features a pretty robust deck builder and you can build a seemingly infinite set of deck variants on the cards you own. After opening a few packs now, I have some interesting choices and plan on making a few variants on my pre-constructed green deck.

If you love collectable card games and want to try a well polished take on the genre, you should give Scrolls a look.

Starbound: Updated Roadmap and Some News Blocks

Recently the Starbound roadmap was updated to cover the updated progress of the project. Many of the high level sections are at 90% complete but some still need more love. If you are interested in checking it out, check it out.

http://www.playstarbound.com/roadmap/

The Starbound team has been pumping out daily updates on their website and Starbound News collected all the past week reveals into one video linked above.

This screenshot was released this morning.

http://i.imgur.com/dZv7wZJ.png

Server Support & Moderated Events

A few days ago I launched a few new features for Cheerful Ghost events that I want to talk a bit about.

moderated events

All the events created with Cheerful Ghost events to this point can joined by anyone. This is a pretty awesome default and will remain so, but occasionally we all might want to create an event that we want to be bit more selective with. Intro moderated events. Moderated events allow the event creator to approve people to join the event that request access.

server support

In the past Cheerful Ghost has run game servers that last a month or so and as such events now support that use case. You can now put in your Server URL and Server Password into the event and if someone successfully joins an event they can access the URL and password. The reason this information will only be available to people that join the event is so you can keep this information secure to avoid griefers.

Moderated events in conjunction with server events will run the next Terraria 1.2 Cheerful Ghost server. So basically people will ask to join the server and when you are approved you will get access to the server URL and password. This will make it easier for us to communicate when we pop the game into hardmode as well as ensuring we don't overload the server. Over the lifetime of the server, the password may change as well and keeping this all in the event will make this much simpler.

Creating moderated and server based events are only available to Cheerful Ghost Members. If you are interested in becoming a Cheerful Ghost member read about it here:

http://cheerfulghost.com/membership

Mine Of Steel

I want someone to remake The Dark Knight in Minecraft. Not just the trailer, the whole film. Its cool, I can wait.

Skyrim Legendary Edition Released

If you were wanting to wait to dive into the world of Skyrim, now might be a good time to do that. Bethesda released the Legendary Edition that wraps up all the Skyrim expansions into one game. Featuring Dragonborn, Hearthfire and Dawguard this should keep you in Dragon slaying heaven.

If you buy large game tomes, Prima is also releasing the Skyrim legendary edition Game Guide. Last game guide I bought was for Fallout 3 and all its DLC and was quite large but this looks like it covers much more stuff. You know, if you were into reading game hints on actual... paper and all.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/28187/
http://www.primagames.com/pages/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-legendary-edition-game-guide

The Super Mario Brothers Super Show

Hey Paisanos! For retro Tuesday I decided to talk about a television show I watched the hell out of as a kid. It is a show I rarely ever missed and had a blast watching each episode. The Super Mario Brothers Super Show was the first taste I got of a video game theme show and quickly became my favorite of its era. Watching Mario, Luigi, the Princess and Toad foil Bowser over and over again never seemed to get dull. The plots were interesting and they seemed to add in the right amount of Mario-ness to the show. I even liked the live action set pieces between animation.

Each season of the Super Show is available on Netflix and YouTube now, so if you are interested in watching this again, its available. Some things I loved as a kid don't age well and The Super Mario Brothers Super show straddles that line. On one hand, the voice acting is done well but on the other hand not every aspect of the show holds up. Its not the aging quality of the visuals either and surprisingly I think the live action set pieces are some of the stronger parts.

If I can take point with the show now, and its not a huge point, is that the plots of the shows are a bit lost on "older jdodson." Each show is a take on a old fairy tale or some kind of folklore. Like Mario in Camelot, Mario and the Beanstalk and Mario in the Old West. None of these set pieces I find interesting and honestly I would prefer if they just had to stop Bowser or Wart in the plain-ol Mushroom Kingdom. Because of this, I point to the first episode as some of the best of the episodes because they simply exist in the Mushroom Kingdom without a fairy tale or folklore backing.

That said, the show is still fun in all its gloriously cheesy Mario-ness. I love the intro music and can still sing it by heart and get excited when the teaser for the Friday Zelda episode plays.

Starcraft II Adds Spawn Copy Support

Starcraft was a staple of my ol' LAN parties and to get everyone playing the game we occasionally spawned copies of it on people's machines that didn't have the game. Some have lamented this loss but it seems today Blizzard is bringing this back.

Starcraft II has had the starter edition for quite some time, which allows you to play as Terran on a few maps and also allows cross play with your friends that own the full game. Up till now, all the Heart of the Swarm maps and units were unavailable if you wanted to play with your starter edition friends until now.

The video above showcases how it works, simply start a game with starter edition friend and you get all the Heart of the Swarm multiplayer options and maps available. This is a really cool feature and I plan on using it in an upcoming Starcraft 2 event, so stay tuned for that and if you haven't load up on the starter edition.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/10145834

Assault on Dragon Keep Walkthrough w Anthony Burch

Revision 3 recently posted a video with Tara Long and Anthony Burch the lead writer for Borderlands 2 going over the new Assault on Dragon Keep DLC. The walkthrough contains some mad spoilers but its fun to see the game unfold with Burch's commentary.

The new D&D influenced DLC will hit June 25th.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/04/2013 at 07:30am

I never finished BL2, and I feel a little ashamed of that. Spent so much time in the first game, that I got a little burned out when it came to the second. I don't know. This expansion, however, looks mighty awesome. May have to dive back in.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/04/2013 at 11:54pm

Yeah, I chip at it a bit at a time but largely I find the main campaign to be way too long between interesting bits. The writing is good, but I think the smaller bite sized DLC packs might be more my style too.

That said, perhaps another reason is I crushed so hard on the first game and second one was essentially the same kind of thing with better writing.

Anyways, Dragon Keep looks good and I want to give it a spin at some point.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/05/2013 at 02:38am

That's exactly it! The first game was amazing, fresh and new. Played through several times, with multiple characters, and sometimes would just grind for weapons. Then the second came, and I was really into it, but lost interest somewhere along the way, and couldn't get back in.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/05/2013 at 08:59pm

Right. I chip away on BL2 a bit at a time because it fun in bursts but, yeah it doesnt have me like BL1 did. Kind if been wanting to go back and play the original lately too.