jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2755 Posts

StarCrafts Episode 15: Attention Seeker
The hits keep rolling from the guys over at CarbotAnimations. If you dig what they are making, they are now selling TSHIRTS and also have a video showcasing how an episode evolves over time.

TShirts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs3AUOITKn0&list=SP0QrZvg7QIgpoLdNFnEePRrU-YJfr9Be7&index=14&feature=plcp

StarCrafts Speed Animation 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt9_P8jalig&feature=youtube_gdata

Anúna Choir Perform Diablo 3 Soundtrack
"In July 2012 at Dublin's National Concert Hall, Anúna performed two pieces, "Black Soulstone" and "Incantation" written by US composer Russell Brower from the soundtrack Diablo III. Soloists are Lucy Champion, Miriam Blennerhassett, Rory Musgrave and Michael McGlynn."

This is a very good performance version of Russel Browder's great soundtrack. The Diablo 3 Soundtrack tops my list of great video game soundtracks to come out over the last few years and this choir sings these songs well.

It takes a bit to get started so skip ahead 35 seconds if you so desire.

One Seriously Under Appreciated King pt. 1
Since I have some time this holiday I decided to do a few Let's Play videos to share with you all. One game that tops my list of sweet Super Nintendo Games I feel needs WAY more attention than it does is King Arthurs World. King Arthurs World is a lemmings clone that takes the formula and creates a great war strategy game for the console. The game is so well done I am somewhat surprised this war game formula wasn't copied and recycled.

I make my way through 7 of the training missions and get back into the groove. The fun and creativity of this game shines through and I had a blast playing it. I will continue to do Let's Plays of this game and will do each one of only one stage from here on. If memory serves I went as far as the Goblin levels so hopefully, with enough Let's Plays I will beat the game :D

Did you ever play King Arthurs World and if so what did you think of it? If you haven't tried it, I recommend giving it a shot!

Let's Play: Steam Big Picture Mode
With all the Steam on Linux news Valve is pushing pretty hard into to break into your living room. I know most of us have heard of the new Steam Big Picture Mode but we might not have all seen it in action. Recently it showed up on my Mac Steam client so I took a few minutes to make a video showing off what it looks like.

Overall, Steam Big Picture Mode is beautifully usable. Its so well designed for a first effort it really showcases the huge difference between Valve and the traditional console makers: Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. Sony just pushed a pretty large update to the Sony Online Marketplace and its better, but doesn't come close to the first version of Steam's Big Picture Mode.

What do you think of Steam Big Picture Mode? Does this seem like something you might find pretty easy to use or do you prefer the current console offerings?

Regardless, Steam's Big Picture Mode doesn't throw as many ads at your as XBox Live. Something I find pretty interesting considering you have to pay for XBox Live and have advertising thrown at you so prominently.

Even Cheaper Games
http://i.imgur.com/cRT1M.jpg
Just wanted to let yall know about a few great deals happening in video games this Thanksgiving holiday and the blackest Friday of the year. If you have anything to add, post it in the comments and ill keep this post updated with the goods as I find new ones.



Those are the most interesting bits I found. What are you guys getting?

Updated: @jaelte commented about the GoG sale.

Portal 2 PC Gets Splitscreen in Big Picture
http://i.imgur.com/URO45.jpg
Recently an update to Portal 2 included these updates:

Big Picture Support
- Added 2 controller splitscreen support for Standard Co-Op. Press X on the second controller inside the first Co-op menu to activate it.
- Fixed controller's ‘quick ping’ button causing the player’s movement to stop.
- Fixed not being able to exit Robot Enrichment or Create Test Chambers menus with the controller.

This is awesome news for people wanting to run Steam in the living room as adding the same console features to the PC version helps this. Recently Big Picture mode came to my Steam and my first thoughts of it were good. Over the next few days I plan on doing a bender of Lets Plays, showcasing the new Steam Big Picture mode is on my list!

http://store.steampowered.com/news/9423/

Developer Bits. Why Free to Play?
Recently I read a Google+ post from one of the Triple Town developers on why they didn't just make the game 99 cents on the App Store. He seems to think that buying games for a fixed price is a bad model and goes into detail on why. Ultimately because he doesn't see many indies survive in this way.

"Imagine free-to-play games as practiced by a private company that makes games with long term retention for passionate players in a tightly knit community. That fits my personal goals substantially better. So I'm experimenting. I'm learning. Spry Fox may not figure it all out this time, but at least we are driving in the right direction.

So why you don't see Triple Town being slapped with 99 cent price tag and being sold like any other disposable wannabe hit? Been there. Done that. This time around, I'd much rather work towards having a lot fewer customers that see my games as a lifetime hobby. So I can continue to make great games for them for the rest of my life."

What do you think?

https://plus.google.com/105363132599081141035/posts/Lce7wEJApEr

Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight
A new Humble Thingy was dropped today in "Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight." Clipped from the site:

"Tim Schafer is revealing Double Fine’s never-before-seen game jam process!
Contribute and vote for your favorite game ideas to be prototyped (week 1).

Then, Double Fine will create prototypes of the top four ideas and live stream the process (weeks 2-3).

Contributors get to download the finished prototypes for Windows (Steam keys too!) Plus, you get two protoypes from past jams right away."

Sounds like a cool way to contribute to the next steps of Double Fine's internal demo process. If you want to vote on any of the games they could prototype, head over donate and vote!

http://www.humblebundle.com/double-fine

Emailed A Free WoW Battle Chest
http://i.imgur.com/qOtH4.png
Recently I made it to Hell mode in Diablo 3 and a night or so later I got an email from Blizzard saying this:

"You've proven your valor in the battle for Sanctuary in Diablo® III. Now take your skills to Azeroth with a FREE digital copy of World of Warcraft® Battle Chest®, which includes 30 days of game time, The Burning Crusade® and Wrath of the Lich King® expansion packs."

World of Warcraft Battle Chest free? The email came with a key. I thought this might be some kind of phishing, but the email seemed legit and the URL's matched up to Battle Net proper. Clicked the link logged in to Battle Net and I had World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King for free. It took me through the steps to pay for a subscription, so I declined that but I can do a free 30 days of the whole deal if I want.

I signed up for the World of Warcraft Starter Edition some time ago and stopped at level 9 or so. I went back into my Starter Edition account and poked around a bit. I created a Undead Mage or some such and called him... Wait for it...

SnuggyBunny.

It makes a lot of sense that Blizzard is hanging out free copies of WoW up to Litch King. Making the barrier to play NOT require the purchase of 5 games is a good idea.

Did you get this email? If you did would that prompt you to try out WoW?

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Not the only one talking about this either:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/534914-world-of-warcraft/64652371http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=500259
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=500259