jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

My Continuing Adventures In Link Between Worlds

As i've said before, one of the main reasons I wanted a 3DS was to play Link Between Worlds, the direct sequel to A Link to the Past. I plan on writing on my journey through the game as it's quite good and think it might be interesting to read. Link to the Past isn't a very difficult game but it's fun, engrossing and a very tight and focused gameplay experience which is why it's always topped my list for one of the best games of all time. That said, Link to the Past is pretty easy if you play it in the right way and Link Between Worlds ups the ante some to make for a more interesting game. For instance, in traditional Zelda games death has no real effect on how you play the game. In fact starting with Link to the Past you can collect Fairies in bottles to bring you back to life each time you die. Effectively this means that if you have the maximum number of bottles and play the game reasonably well, death has no negative effect on gameplay. Link Between Worlds tries to change this with item rentals. At a certain early point in the game you meet a purple rabbit named Ravio that takes over the house you start in to rent and later sell you items. If you die in a dungeon Ravio takes you to the house again and removes your item rentals. It's an interesting mechanic where dying actually has some kind of downside and I think it's pretty cool. Even though you can store fairies to restore you back to life if you lost an item you need to complete a dungeon, you still have to go and get it. Later on in the early part of the game Ravio allows you the ability to buy items for 800 gold, which removes some of the negatives of dying but buying out all the items takes along time and I've only purchased a couple of them. Buying items is also different than the traditional Zelda way of finding them in dungeons which is a fresh take on how Zelda games work.

Recently I just gathered all three pendants and collected the Master Sword. This mirrors the original Link to the Past and I wonder what the Link Between Worlds equivalent of the Dark World is? Maybe it's the Dark World again? I'm not sure as I haven't read many spoilers about the game but when I find out i'll let you know.

James & Mike Play Alien Vs Predator Arcade & Talk About The Alien Franchise

I'm really excited to see the new Ridley Scott Alien: Covenant film and I don't think i'm the only one as there seems to be a lot of recent videos looking at the old Alien films and franchise games. In the video James and Mike of Cinemassacre play the old Alien VS Predator arcade game and talk about the Alien VS Predator film and other Alien nerdery. I'm going to watch Alien: Covenant with friends tomorrow and have really been enjoying the gaming commentary about these older franchise games and movie series retrospectives. If you are looking for a good Alien series retrospective before you head to the theater to watch the next Alien film Cinemassacre has a long breakdown of all 7 Alien films including Prometheus you might want to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8m6Jg9Y7X0

Cygnus Destroyer Takes Aliens Colonial Marines to Court!

Aliens Colonial Marines is the Gearbox and Sega 2013 smash failure that many view as one of the worst games of all time. Because of this and the release of the brand new Alien: Covenant film Cygnus Destroyer takes Aliens Colonial Marines to the Innocent Until Proven Guilty court. It's a solid review and I think his take is fair and now that all the hype of this game is over I think people can look at it again with a fresh perspective.

Are Some Apps And Games The New Nicotine?

http://media-hearth.cursecdn.com/avatars/284/56/635943064776665933.jpeg

A month ago after the launch of the latest Hearthstone expansion I decided to stop playing. It seemed like the right thing to do after playing it nearly every day for four years but I wondered if it would be hard to walk away from a game I played for so long? Come to find out it wasn't hard at all. Occasionally I check the Hearthstone community for interesting developments and there are some but for the most part I am just missing out on a new meta card cycle and new bag of community salt that comes from such a high profile game.

One of the reasons why I thought it might be hard to step away from a game i've played for almost four years is because of the sunk cost and the thought that my time would have been wasted. I think this is why people have a hard time stepping away from freemium games where they spend well more than the price of a normal triple A game and just as much time. But my view of Hearthstone is that i'm proud of what I collected over that time and since I sunk nearly nothing into playing but my time, walking away wasn't hard. I've read many posts by people in the Hearthstone community that want to stop playing the game but can't seem to due to how much money and time they've spent. Recently I was listening to the Real Time With Bill Maher audio podcast and in his closing segment compared social media to nicotine. I mostly agree with Bill here and this is partly one of the reasons I don't frequent Facebook and also partly why I stepped away from Hearthstone. Even though apps and games might be made to be just as addictive to humans as nicotine I think it's our job to understand this, how it effects us and try and change our habits accordingly so we can live better.

New Rule: Social Media is the New Nicotine | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDqoTDM7tio

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3318/when-is-it-time-to-take-a-hearthbreak

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/18/2017 at 05:33am

I saw that clip of Bill Maher as he just recently posted it. I kind of agree with his analysis, but I don't know that it's quite comparable to nicotine. I do play Words With Friends daily and I have other games I play. Gaming takes up a majority of my time, but I don't dare call it an addiction. I also watch stuff on YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix.

I'm surprised you decided to stop playing Hearthstone. You're the most enthusiastic Hearthstone gamer I know. I can compare my own relevant experience though. I've played Ark quite a lot in the last two years, in single player mode, on a server, and with mods. I took some breaks, sure, but there's always more to come back to since development is still on-going. I haven't played it much lately, which means there's plenty of "new" stuff for me. It seems like with two more patches all the creatures will be released. They're almost done with this stage of development, which has gotten extended.

I used to spend more time on Facebook and even played more apps, but I stopped. I got unhappy with my newsfeed and decided to ignore it and that's worked out for me. I'd be fine without it, but it provides and easy way to be in touch with many.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/19/2017 at 03:13am

> I saw that clip of Bill Maher as he just recently posted it. I kind of agree with his analysis, but I don't know that it's quite comparable to nicotine.

It's not a perfect analogy but I think for some people it's a good one. If you look at the habits of people now lots of us are buried in our phones and less responsive to people. I'm not saying smartphones are bad, I think they are one of the coolest inventions of all time but they allow us the ability to be connected 24/7 and I think that comes with a real world cost. For instance, I put my phone down when i'm with my son and am spending time watching him because I find that if I have my phone I spend more time doing that than playing with him. He is 11 months old now and I don't want to miss much as he is so sweet and if I was really hooked on Hearthstone or something else that would really take away from time with him.

> I'm surprised you decided to stop playing Hearthstone. You're the most enthusiastic Hearthstone gamer I know.

Yeah, it's a great game and if I had to make a top 50 list it would be on it! I love gaming but I think it's a good thing to see what other games are out there and see if I could play something else for a time. I still plan on coming back to Hearthstone at some point but it's good to just step away for no other reason than I can and it's been a nice change.

> I used to spend more time on Facebook and even played more apps, but I stopped. I got unhappy with my newsfeed and decided to ignore it and that's worked out for me. I'd be fine without it, but it provides and easy way to be in touch with many.

I used to check Facebook more times a day than I could count. Hundreds maybe. In the end I found the discussions to largely be toxic, the information I was taking in to not be useful and I didn't find the time I spent there to be something I was happy with. I now just go there to share baby pictures (because people asked me to) and that's about it. Funny thing is I thought that not logging in for a week would mean I wouldn't know what was happening in the world but I still read news sites so I still understand current events. I just miss people telling me what they think about it because i'm not reading that anymore.

I think in the end I like being able to focus my time in ways I think is useful and so far it's worked out pretty well. I also like talking about this kind of thing because I like thinking about it. Is the time we spend most of our lives on really how we want to live? Maybe for everyone it is, but i've found that thinking about it and figuring out where you want to be can inform the choices you make and that can have a useful outcome on your life.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/19/2017 at 03:46am

>It's not a perfect analogy but I think for some people it's a good one. If you look at the habits of people now lots of us are buried in our phones and less responsive to people. I'm not saying smartphones are bad, I think they are one of the coolest inventions of all time but they allow us the ability to be connected 24/7 and I think that comes with a real world cost. For instance, I put my phone down when i'm with my son and am spending time watching him because I find that if I have my phone I spend more time doing that than playing with him. He is 11 months old now and I don't want to miss much as he is so sweet and if I was really hooked on Hearthstone or something else that would really take away from time with him.

I agree with you. I always see people on their phones, driving, walking, standing, sitting, etc. The Internet is hype. LOL I don't spend much time on my phone unless I'm not at home. Then it still depends. If I'm out of Pokeballs and not near a Pokestop, then there's not much reason for me to play Pokemon Go. Haha.

>I used to check Facebook more times a day than I could count. Hundreds maybe. In the end I found the discussions to largely be toxic, the information I was taking in to not be useful and I didn't find the time I spent there to be something I was happy with. I now just go there to share baby pictures (because people asked me to) and that's about it. Funny thing is I thought that not logging in for a week would mean I wouldn't know what was happening in the world but I still read news sites so I still understand current events. I just miss people telling me what they think about it because i'm not reading that anymore

Yes, my experience is similar, it's too toxic and negative. I also "get my news" from a wide variety of other sources, much of which I read or watch on YouTube.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/20/2017 at 03:48am

> The Internet is hype.

Truest statement ever.

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Starting Out Link Between Worlds: The Follow Up To One Of The Greatest Games Of All Time

In 2013 Nintendo released the follow up to The Legend of Zelda A Link To The Past on the 3DS called The Legend of Zelda Link Between Worlds. It's a direct Zelda sequel, something we don't often get and is set some millennia after the original events of Link to the Past. Like many games in the Zelda timeline, there are new direct descendants of Link and Zelda called... Link and Zelda and some of the original characters from Link to the Past appear that seem to never age, like the Elder Sahasrahla. The game features nearly the exact same overworld map as Link to the Past and goes into pretty good detail to recreate it just as we all remember but change certain details that would change if a couple hundred years passed since the original. Thing is though, it's not entirely clear from playing the game just how long have passed since the original events of the Link to the Past but it's so long that the original LTTP events is a kind of legend they tell each other and it doesn't seem to be on everyones mind until things happen that mirror the events in those legends.

And again, one good part of Link Between Worlds so far is how it ... Links... with the original Link to the Past. The game begins similarly to the original LTTP except this time you work for a Blacksmith and need to deliver a sword to one of the guards of Hyrule. Much like with LTTP you are thrown directly in to the game and need to stop the bad guy that isn't working for Ganon but you know.... more than likely totally working for Ganon. Hell he might BE Ganon but you know... no word on that yet.

Everything from the games top down style to the music and sound effects are directly influenced by the original Link to the Past. And since I consider Link to the Past to be one of the best games of all time, I think they made a good choice here. I'm only about an hour in but so far the games pacing, music and story are really well considered and are a "Nintendo top notch effort."

One of my hopes is that the vast catalog of 3DS, Wii & Wii U games get ported to the Switch so they can be enjoyed by a much larger audience but barring that, Link Between Worlds might be a reason to get a new 2DS or 3DS to play it alone. I mean, if you consider Link to the Past to be one of the best games of all time then why not play it's sequel? So far it's great but even if it doesn't live up to the original game in terms of greatness and I imagine it can't just hanging out in the world in a new way is well worth the time.

What Are You Playing Right Now?

Curious what everyone is playing right now? I'm playing two games starting with Fallout Shelter. I loaded it up on my iPhone for a recent trip and have been super hooked on it after experiencing most of the updates i've only read about. The addition of quests make the game feel like a proper Fallout game plus the addition of Mr Handy and other quest rewards like Bottle and Cappy really kick it up since I first played it when it launched.

I'm Preying right now with Besthesda/Arcane Studios new shooter Prey. So far i'm about 30 minutes in and there is no tie in to the original Prey, which was something they said previously. It seems like a mashup of System Shock, Portal & Half-Life with an incredible amount of polish. It contains on of the most unique and inventive credit sequences i've seen that really punch up the beginning of the game and I hope there are other set pieces just an inventive sprinkled throughout the game.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/12/2017 at 04:45am

How is Prey? I don't know anything about it, perhaps I should watch that video.

I'm playing Twilight Princess HD right now so that I can get a stronger Wolf Link in Breath of the Wild via my amiibo. I'm working on getting through the Cave of Ordeals and I'm near the end of the game. I'm also playing Fallout Shelter on Steam and Pokemon Go.

vdogmr25 wrote on 05/12/2017 at 06:44pm

Prey looks super good! I can't wait to try it.

I finally bought Overwatch, and that's been fun. I love my Junkrat. Started replaying the Mass Effect Trilogy on Twitch. It amazes me how dated and stiff the first one seems in just a few years. Just finished Until Dawn for the first time. I thought it was really fun until my favorite character died in the last 3 minutes of the game. Still a bit salty about it.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/12/2017 at 11:08pm

I need to get the Mass Effect series, I've never played it. I have ME2, it came free on Origin.

I finished Twilight Princess HD, without finishing the Cave of Ordeals. I did, however, manage to get my data uploaded to my Wolf Link amiibo, so soon I'm going to jump into BotW with a better Wolf Link.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/12/2017 at 11:14pm

Not too much at the moment. I took a break from FFXV for awhile, but recently jumped back in to try the timed quests that started back up this month.

I've also dusted off my PSP and been playing Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together. It's a fun and surprisingly challenging tactics game in the same vein as Final Fantasy Tactics. The game hits that sweet spot of being challenging without being frustrating.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 05/13/2017 at 04:42am

I am about 85 hours into Breath of the Wild. Still enjoying it quite a bit. I think this is the most that I have put into a game.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/13/2017 at 03:37pm

Playing Prey but I haven't felt up to it lately, crazy deep-head allergies are not great for sitting at a PC for extended periods of time. But that's re-awakened Mario Run for me. The balance changes they've made to the Toad Rally have really helped.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/13/2017 at 06:55pm

*growls at Travis's Mario Run Mii*
Seriously, the only Toad Rally I can never seem to win is against Travis lol (your Mii is unmistakable)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/13/2017 at 08:32pm

> How is Prey? I don't know anything about it, perhaps I should watch that video.

It's a good shooter that seems to be fairly interesting. I'm not very far in so I can't give a super complete view of the game but if you love really polished sc-fi single player shooters this one is well worth looking into.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/13/2017 at 11:02pm

Eat it Farnsworth!

Lol. I love the airship runs.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 05/14/2017 at 04:54pm

It seems the only games I'm playing lately are Rocket League and Dirty Bomb. Dirty Bomb is a fairly standard FPS in the style of TF2, or maybe even Overwatch but not so over the top. The fact that it's free to play is awesome, but what's really cool is that it's very much skill/class based, without any 'pay to win' bs.

I did sample the Prey demo on PS4, and it was absolutely amazing. So fun, and I look forward to picking it up soon (probably on PS4). It has this really cool way of feeling like the best first-person sci-fi games of the past, while still feeling fresh and new.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/14/2017 at 08:23pm

A few days ago, I decided to replay Fallout: New Vegas. I've finished it on the PS3, but I got it on Steam last year. Playing quite a bit of Fallout Shelter on Steam made me want to play another Fallout game again. I may hold off on Breath of the Wild for a little bit longer.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 05/14/2017 at 09:33pm

Fallout: New Vegas is one of those at the top of my Wall of Shame (such a tall wall...). Not that I ever finished any of the other Fallouts, but I really enjoyed the time I spent in 3. Next on the list, though, is going to have to be Darksiders 2, especially with the recent reveal that #3 will be coming soon. Too many great games.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/18/2017 at 12:18am

After playing Fallout New Vegas, my enthusiasm dwindled. So, I'm back to playing Breath of the Wild. I'm not too far in, I just got spoilers from "the old man" and Impa. I'm glad that I get to use my Wolf Link amiibo, he really helps!

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Cygnus Destroyers Top 10 Disney Games!

If one had to list their top Disney games of now and the past Ducktales & Kingdom Hearts and the like would no doubt come up for most people. Cygnus Destroyer drops his top 10 Disney Games video on us as he celebrates the recent release of the Disney Afternoon Collection. His top Disney game is The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse, something I haven't thought about in quite some time. The Magical Quest is an incredible game and one I rented quite a few times as a kid. It's not something I ever owned back then but it's an incredible Super Nintendo Game that is a best of breed Capcom platformer.

Disney games...they're among the best licensed tie-ins ever produced and they helped create so many happy memories. Whether partnered with Capcom, Sega or other established developers, Disney has dominated the gaming industry into the 2000s and they're back in the spotlight with the recent release of the Disney Afternoon Collection, so I've decided to count down my personal favorite Disney video games In this brand new Cygnus Destroyer Top 10.

When Is The Right Time To Buy A New PC?

One of the great things about owning a PC is being able to update it without replacing the whole thing. Need more storage? Add a new hard drive. Graphics slowing down? Drop in a new video card. Last year I decided to replace my PC that went through several upgrade cycles with a gaming laptop. Whereas you can only really update the harddrive and RAM on an ASUS ROG laptop I felt it the upgraded cycles of my PC were complete and it was time to go with entirely new hardware. Plus a laptop is portable and the ASUS ROG is quite a speedy machine for the form factor and price. Plus if i'm being honest about the games I play on PC, I really don't play games that push the latest graphical edges and a gaming laptop that can play most games at medium settings is just fine.

But most PC gamers have a full blown gaming tower and for you, when is the right time to replace it?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/06/2017 at 10:25pm

I used to build my own PCs and the time to upgrade came when I could afford to and whenever I felt the need. I stopped building my own PC when I bought this Alienware years ago. I had the money and needed a better computer. I got everything I wanted, for a hefty price, and I've loved it. Unfortunately, the GTX 690 I selected for its GPU is a dual GPU card and unfortunately not all games are able to harness the power of that setup. So, some games were only able to use half of the 690. It was Ark that made this issue apparent. I wanted to play Ark like it should be played and so I decided to upgrade the GPU to a GTX 980Ti Classified and I love it.

I think this PC is about 5 years old, I've had it for a few years at least. I still see no reason at all to replace it, it's going strong and I love it. Right now the only thing I'd like to change is the hard drive. I'd like to get an SSD, to help speed things up a bit.

That's what I love about having a "full blown gaming tower," because whenever there's a part I want to upgrade, I can do it quite easily.

Oh and I fully agree with graphic in this post, PC is the master race!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/07/2017 at 04:09am

Yeah, your Alienware PC is capable of many more years if you update the video card. The SSD would be great too but would require you to reinstall Windows on the SSD as your primary and then you could use your normal HD to have your games on. All in all that would make things load WAY faster as on my laptop I have a boot drive SSD and then spinning drive for installing games and it's wicked fast to boot.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/07/2017 at 05:18am

Honestly there's no reason to replace your PC until the CPU can't handle what you want anymore, or if you want more ram than your motherboard can handle.

That was my reasoning this last time-- the CPU couldn't cut it anymore.

But even then, if you focus on upgradeable hardware, you could even replace the mobo/cpu without replacing all the other parts and eventually get into a philosophical conundrum. If you've replaced all the parts of your PC over time, have you replaced the PC?

If you build a house, and then over the span of 20 years take a board out occasionally and replace it until there's nothing left of the original, is it the same house? What if you simultaneously use those replaced boards to build an identical house. Which house is the original?

Perhaps I should go to bed. :D

TL;DR: If you consider the motherboard to be THE PC then the only time you need to upgrade is when you need a new cpu generation that your motherboard can handle or more ram than your motherboard can handle. And something about houses.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/07/2017 at 05:38am

Katie helpfully points out that there's already a famous thought experiment for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

I probably read that at some point and was unknowingly channeling it in my previous comment.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/07/2017 at 06:10am

Jon, I thought the SSD would help games load faster, too. For me, Ark takes a few minutes to load, so I think putting it on an SSD would make it load much quicker. It doesn't take forever though. My PC runs fine, so I'm not in a hurry to upgrade, but right now an SSD upgrade is the only thing I can think of that I'd change. I have 16 gigs of RAM and that seems to be enough. I could look into upgrading my monitor, so I could get better resolutions, but again I still don't feel a strong need to do that.

Travis, interesting paradox! I wouldn't consider it a new PC unless all or most of the parts were different. Usually, I'd build one and over the course of a few years, I'd end up upgrading it. I've been through a few of them, in fact I think they're all still in my room. It's interesting to think about my PC history and how it evolved over time. But, the primary reason I buy or build tower PCs, because parts are more easily interchangeable.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/08/2017 at 03:46am

That is an interesting thought experiement Travis and because of it, I consider replacing the whole thing at intervals. I mean if you don't replace the case and motheboard then it's arguably the same PC but for those reasons I replace it every 5 years or so. Because at that point I have replaced many parts and I like having the old hardware around for historical reasons. For instance my last Desktop is dual booting between Linux and Windows and I use the Linux part as file storage and the Windows part if friends come over so I can play network games with them if they don't have a computer. Still a good machine but not my top notch go to PC anymore.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/08/2017 at 03:28pm

Yeah, at the point of replacing the motherboard/cpu you might as well. Honestly at that point it isn't much more money to just upgrade it all, if you take out a beefy video card from the price. I tend to get the midrange current-gen video card so it's never the big $400 purchases.

Nicholas_Biondi wrote on 05/17/2017 at 03:18am

I always by ROG. Have my 4rth gen now

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/17/2017 at 11:23pm

My ASUS ROG is a great laptop. Lots of power and the price was fantastic.

My only quip about it is the size. I'd like something a bit less bulky and when I do it again I won't get a DVD drive. It opens at odd times and it's just not as nice as i'd have thought it would be to have one in a laptop anymore.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/18/2017 at 12:16am

I actually have an ASUS motherboard to my left. I'm pretty sure it was the last motherboard I bought.

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Thus Sparks The Great Fan War Of 2017! Rogue One VS The Force Awakens.

Lessons From the Screenplay has a new video out that compares Rogue One to the Force Awakens. Spoiler alert, they think Force Awakens is a better movie with better developed characters and after recently watching them both I agree. In our Roundtable episode of Rogue One I said that my thoughts on Rogue One were mixed and I still stand by that but they have evolved some. Rogue One has one of the most incredibly well executed endings to a Star Wars movie that feels a bit muddled in the first half. It's not a bad movie to watch at all, but the reshoots are felt and I think the first half suffers partly because it seems that Disney may have wanted to change the tone of the film. Just last week I rewatched The Force Awakens and I may have loved it more that time that watching it the first time in theaters. It's such a great film that stands up well to rewatching and I found myself seeing new things that I missed before(like when they talk about FN-2487 they show his baby photo on the terminal, a nice touch as they bring up his history file implying Fin has been with the Empire since birth).

But you know... I could be wrong so take to the comments tonlet me know what you think.

Should We Be That Loyal To Corporations? Are Video Game Companies Our Friends?

I watched an interesting video on Kotaku the other day about questioned certain kinds of brand loyalty i've linked above. It's an interesting thing to consider and after watching it caused me to think a bit about how I approach brands and if the biggest ones really need my loyalty at all. I certainly love video games and that passion drove me to create this website and post regularly about them but that doesn't mean I need to have a blind devotion to brands. The modern reality of the Internet allows us to be connected to our favorite things all day long and I think some, perhaps, see this as a stave for actual human relationships. Not to say I haven't made friends by running Cheerful Ghost and those relationships are fake, they aren't, but perhaps our loyalty should be to people and not corporations.

If you have thoughts on the video and this topic i'd love to hear them.

jdodson1

2755 Posts

My Continuing Adventures In Link Between Worlds

James & Mike Play Alien Vs Predator Arcade & Talk About The Alien Franchise

Cygnus Destroyer Takes Aliens Colonial Marines to Court!

Are Some Apps And Games The New Nicotine?

Starting Out Link Between Worlds: The Follow Up To One Of The Greatest Games Of All Time

What Are You Playing Right Now?

Cygnus Destroyers Top 10 Disney Games!

When Is The Right Time To Buy A New PC?

Thus Sparks The Great Fan War Of 2017! Rogue One VS The Force Awakens.

Should We Be That Loyal To Corporations? Are Video Game Companies Our Friends?