jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012

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

2731 Posts

The MiSTer is an open-source project that emulates consoles and various other retro hardware via FPGA. FPGA means that it's pretty original hardware accurate emulation and it's similar to RetroPIE in that it's open source meaning anyone can create a hardware kit on your own to play or sell. I've heard really good things how well MiSTer runs and as such wanted to share this review by everyones favorite Jesus made entirely of Metal.


Seems like I'm posting a few Digital Foundry videos this morning. With that, has anyone picked up and played Skyward Sword on Switch yet? I've heard the controls are a mixed bag but overall the game is quite good. I didn't get this game on the Wii but am curious if it's worth coming back to on Switch?


I played Super Star Wars on the Super Nintendo a lot. A lot. It's one of the most fun Star Wars video games I've played and it's notoriously "Nintendo hard." I never really thought about it as a youth but when I come back to it now I do. If you practice at it you can beat it start to finish in one life, which I could do, but it takes a lot of effort to develop that. That all said, Super Star Wars and the subsequent two games are an example of fantastic Star Wars video games in a very crowded space. Lately, the quality of Star Wars games has gone up but it wasn't always so.


Now that the NightDive / MachineGames Quake remaster is out I thought it was worth sharing this Digital Foundry retrospective video. This came out earlier in May so it doesn’t cover the recent NightDive / MachineGames version but goes deep on Quake, it’s history and various ports.


During the Flame Fatales 2021 Games Done Quick charity speedruns this year I watched a new run I hadn't heard of for Final Fantasy IV called Paladin%. Basically it's a speedrun all the way to when Cecil becomes a Paladin making a much quicker FFIV speedrun. Not only does this run feature a classic Square RPG but also a runner I hadn't seen before, Spoone who is an absolute delight to watch.


Titanfall 2 dropped in 2016 to a very crowded shooter landscape and such as it was, somewhat under-performed expectations. That said the franchise went on to launch APEX Legends which is one of the biggest free to play Battle Royale games around and as such when I picked up an XBox Series X I decided to give Titanfall 2 a go. I played a bit of APEX Legends and it's a great Battle Royale game but I'm not a huge player of those kinds of games beyond the occasional Fortnite match and after hearing incredible things from one of my friends about Titanfall 2 I picked it up on sale for a handful of bucks digitally.

Titanfall 2 Is Incredible In 120FPS

Titanfall 2 is one of those games that when Microsoft gave developers the ability to take advantage of the XBox Series X hardware Respawn allowed game to run in 4K at 120FPS. I've heard some of my friends say they don't care about graphics and for the most part I agree with the sentiment. When you're into something fun be it a movie or game the graphics aren't always the most important thing. That said, playing a game at 120FPS is really an incredible thing that gives a game a little extra. If you are getting a console or PC soon capable of this, I'd hold out picking up Titanfall 2 until you can experience it as it's quite special.

The Empire VS The Rebels with Robot Suits

It's a battle tested story. Evil Empire wants to destroy it all and you are part of the scrappy rebels that will stop at nothing to save it. (A planet maybe, I don't entirely remember) Titanfall 2 uses these tropes to the max and the way they blend them makes the gameplay seamless. I'll be honest, I'm not sure I followed everything going on with the story but it serves the gameplay and incredibly lush visuals which is all I could really ask for.

Titanfall 2 clocks in at about 6-8 hours for the main campaign which isn't very long and thank Euclid for that. I know lots of gamers are looking for an epic 5,000 hour game but I'm really not anymore. Time is a premium and frankly, I'm not sure what kind of game could really hold my attention that long anyway. Titanfall 2 doesn't feel long winded and by the time I was wondering when the story would wrap up, it did. The final boss fight didn't really feel like a final boss fight which I really appreciated. It wasn't particularly challenging, which again, seemed good to me. The final boss fight here seemed a bit more like the ending to Kill Bill 2, except with Robot Suits and more shooting and yelling. I suppose in retrospect they aren't a lot a like but I liked it wasn't hard.

Titanfall 3 Please

With the success of the infinite money machine of APEX Legends I hope a new Titanfall single player game is coming but it might not be a big priority for EA. It seems that some rumors have surfaced that EA has given Respawn the greenlight for Titanfall 3 but I'm not sure what form this game might take and a huge game in early discussions is a long way from a potential launch.


I’ve been curious how the story of Spider-Man No Way Home would work with Doctor Strange and the multi-verse. After the first trailer dropped I’m no longer wondering how it will work I just want to watch the movie already.

Spider-Man & Doctor Strange will both try and alter reality this winter ONLY in theaters on December 17th.


Speedrunner frozenflygone snacks through this unique Candy Box 2 run in a sweet 20:51 time. I’d never considered a clicker game would make for an interesting speedrun but this run delivers. If you haven’t heard of Candy Box 2 and want to take your hand at the clicking action we have a version you can play right now on Cheerful Ghost too.

So watch the run and click the candy fun

https://cheerfulghost.com/games/candybox2

Yum!


Quake is back with a proper remastered version by Night Dive Studios & all new campaign by MachineGames! If you have Quake on Steam on the Bethesda launcher your version will automatically upgrade. I have Quake on the Bethesda launcher and was happy to see the game update and I checked it out and it looks and feels fantastic. There is a new feature in this version of Quake where you can download Quake add-ons and right now Quake 64 is the only thing you can download. If how iD Software has treated Doom is an indicator I imagine they will add more Quake mods over time that will make it easy for fans to experience even more of this classic.

This new version of Quake is in 4K on all systems that can support and also has widescreen support, enhanced character models dynamic lighting, anti-aliasing, depth of field and includes each of the official Quake expansion packs: “The Scourge of Armagon” and “Dissolution of Eternity,” as well as two expansions developed by the award-winning team at MachineGames: “Dimension of the Past,” and the all-new “Dimension of the Machine.”

https://bethesda.net/en/article/40MBmNhJV3lzyV8c0IOIx3/quake-returns-with-an-enhanced-re-release-for-modern-platforms-available-now

Updated for modern platforms, this version of Quake features up to 4K resolution and widescreen support on compatible platforms, enhanced models, dynamic lighting, anti-aliasing, depth of field and more, bringing the shooter and both its expansions to a new generation of players.

With the power of Add-ons, players will have tons of free levels to play, with the re-release receiving post-launch support for the best community-made content.


Randomizers in the Speedrunning community are ROM hacks that breathe life into certain old games where a random experience can create a very thrilling run. Recently Games Done Quick showed off a run by Skybilz in The Legend of Zelda Consternation Randomizer which takes the original NES game and mixes up the items with a few other fun bits. In the run you can watch above, Skybilz plays through the Zelda randomizer twice and there are some really fun turns in level 9. Randomizers really flex a Speedrunners game knowledge and require a very deep focus on all the games items, levels and what's required to get to "go mode" which is having all the items such that you can complete the run.