jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Funkmastermp Speeds Through The Original Diablo at AGDQ 2016 in 20:35

I just watched a very impressive Diablo Summer Games Done Quick 2016 run by Funkmastermp where he blows through the game in 20 minutes. This is pretty impressive considering the very slow character run speed in the original Diablo and that Funmastermp never gets his character over level 3. Funkmastermp uses a frame timed item dupe to get a ton of gold to buy enough mana potions and items. At one point he needs to get a teleport scroll tome and has to talk to reload the game and talk to Adria over 50 times.

This is a really good run and if you are a fan of Diablo something you should watch.

The Internet Archive Plays With Power By Putting Each Issue of Nintendo Power Online

If you grew up pouring through each issue of Nintendo Power then the Internet Archive might be your new best friend. They recently put each issue online to view and download for your nostalgic retro gaming needs. Nintendo Power discontinued all publications in 2013 but in it's 90's prime, it was the best way to learn about Nintendo games. My favorite parts of the Magazine were the comics and tips and tricks section where you could learn cheat codes and other secrets to your favorite games. The popularization of the Internet made magazines like Nintendo Power largely obsolete in favor of wikis and game sites but that said, it's still awesome that each issue is available to read.

https://archive.org/details/nintendopower

**UPDATE**

Nintendo booted up their lawyers and now the issues of Nintendo Power have been removed from Archive.org. Hopefully Nintendo can release them digitally or allow a collectors edition reprinting to meet demand.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/8/8/12405278/nintendo-power-issues-disappear-from-free-online-archive

One Night in Karazhan And The World's Your Oyster - New Heartstone Adventure Coming August 11th

It seems the rumors of the new Hearthstone Adventure being in Karazhan were true as Blizzard announced the upcoming adventure "One Night in Karazhan" to the audience at ChinaJoy. One Night in Karazhan will feature 4 new wings you can unlock for 700 gold or buy the whole adventure for $20. As you can see from the trailer above, One Night in Karazhan has a very cool disco party vibe that looks like it pulls many influences from Disneys Beauty and the Beast as well as the John Travolta's disco classic Saturday Night Fever. After the darker tone of Whispers of the Old Gods us getting a more silly party styled adventure seems like a nice change.

As with all Hearthstone adventures the first wing will launch August 11th, the second the week after and they will continue to release at that pace until the final wing launch. This adventure is different in that they are offering everyone a free prologue mission that will unlock two free cards for everyone! So even if you don't plan on picking up the whole adventure, playing through the free mission for the two cards seems like a pretty good deal!

I've scoured the web for more details about the expansion so if you are interested keep reading!

If you are interested in watching Hearthstone designer Ben Brode talk about the new adventure in the recent ChinaJoy twitch stream, you can watch it below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w5Yaqrkszk

Redditor Nostalgia37 is keeping a spreadsheet up-to-date with all the Karazhan cards as they are unveiled by Blizzard. So far 9 of 45 cards have been revealed and they all look like they will have a pretty big impact on the meta. As the Karazhan gets closer to launch i'll be talking about the cards I am most interested in .

https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/4v60mk/the_marvelous_prerelease_reveal_chart_all/

PC Gamer has a interesting playthrough of one of the missions of One Night in Karazhan. I recommend muting the audio.

Thttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7e_Udn88E8

Nova Covert Ops: Pack 2 Drop Ships In On August 2nd

I'm a huge StarCraft fan from way back. I tore through the original games and more recently, StarCraft II Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void. I'd thought that would be all of the single player content we'd get from StarCraft II until they announced the Nova Covert Ops missions. They launched the first 3 missions and I was happy to give them a good review. So it's nice to finally know that the next 3 missions are dropping on August 2nd. The game picks up where the last missions left off which continues your search for the terrorist organization, The Defenders of Man. I don't want to say more as that's already a light spoiler for the first three missions but it's sort of akin to saying the Rebellion fights the Empire in Star Wars (spoilers if you haven't seen Star Wars).

As with any official StarCraft campaigns i'll give you my take on it after it launches and I blast through it.

If you want to read my review of the first Nova Covert Ops 3 missions, check that out below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2878/starcraft-ii-nova-covert-ops-mission-pack-i-review

Terraria Otherworld Delayed - Game Getting Quite a Bit of Rework

Last year Re-Logic announced Terraria Otherworld, a game set in the Terraria-verse that contains more RPG styled gameplay. The initial concept and game shown seemed solid and most Terraria fans were interested in playing it when it launched. As you may have noticed, there hasn't been a ton of news on the Otherworld front and we now know why that is. Terraria Otherworld is getting quite a bit of re-work to bring it up to the level of quality Re-Logic is comfortable with. This means that the game will come out much later than they initially anticipated but it should be that much better for it!

"To keep it short and simple, at the beginning of this year, we undertook a full in-depth review of the project versus our standards, expectations, and vision for the game. It was pretty clear to us at the time that Otherworld needed quite a bit of work - and even a good bit of rework - in a number of areas in order to hit that mark.

We then spent some time in detailed discussion among ourselves and also with Engine Software in regards to how best to get things to where they need to be. We then made a list of requested reforms and changes and such. As a part of this, the project team at Engine now has a new lead designer and art lead along with other changes made to better align to our vision for the game. On top of that, our two teams have laid out clearly what needs to be done and are pushing forward executing towards that roadmap to deliver the game we expect - and our fans deserve - as soon as possible."

The game is getting some pretty sizable visual updates as well as gameplay enhancements and more. This should make for a more polished game at launch, something most fans will appreciate. The nice part here is that there was no promised deadline or early access fans to annoy, just the game getting the attention it deserves.

"We will work hand in hand with Engine to keep up the momentum on the work and rework in the weeks and months to come. We are confident in this new approach - but rest assured that we will remain closely involved and will make sure that Terraria: Otherworld gets finished in a way that will be worthy of the Terraria name.

We don't have a date to give you - our focus is on getting the game done right first and foremost. That said, expect it to be a while still - there is a lot of work to get done and done right. As we know more, we will share it - so expect a return of spoilers (though maybe not every few days as before ;) )."

http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/terraria-otherworld-bringing-you-up-to-speed.47302/

Fantasy Flight Games Brings Hell Back To Your Tabletop!

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/a3/81/a3812f71-080f-4ef8-aa35-b476237852f8/zx01_layout.png

Doom: The Board Game is the most beloved Board Game I have. Kevin Wilson's 2004 survival classic is one of the most authentic video to board game creations i've ever played. For the Marines, each game is a nail biter as instead of dungeon exploration and the collection of loot your goal is to escape Mars base alive. Today Fantasy Flight dropped news that they are rebooting Doom the Board Game with an all new design to pair up to the recent Doom remake.

"Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of DOOM: The Board Game, a completely redesigned tactical combat experience for two to five players based on Bethesda’s blockbuster video game, DOOM.

Glory Kill your way to victory as one of the United Aerospace Corporation’s elite marines or grab control of the legions of demons threatening to take over the complex. Each side of DOOM’s asymmetrical gameplay introduces an entirely unique way to play, whether you're struggling to save Mars from being overrun by Hell’s most merciless demons or fighting to crush each marine and conquer the planet once and for all. You and up to four friends will play through a series of missions, the marines attempting to achieve a variety of objectives and the invader orchestrating a barrage of savage demon attacks against them. While the marines can respawn after death, they can only do so a set number of times before the demons claim victory over the mission, threatening not only the UAC’s operation, but the survival of humanity as a whole."

It seems the biggest difference is the new Doom game is less survival run and gun and more of a tactical objective based game.

"DOOM provides two operations of six missions each for your invader and marines to battle through. Every mission takes place on a unique map and presents a different set of objectives and threat levels. The objective cards designated for each mission describe the victory conditions for both the team of marines and the invader, in addition to all associated special rules. The marine’s objectives can vary from securing the battle area to collecting valuable assets, while the invader has just one goal—to kill the marines…repeatedly. "

I'm very excited to know more about this new version as the original has a very special place in my heart and I hope this new game captures how great the original one was.

https://drafts.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/7/28/the-invasion-is-imminent-1/

Will The NX Be A Tablet With Detachable Controllers?

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--QiL3P3m_--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/bna2vdr9ujpepesben76.png

According to some very interesting rumors the Nintendo NX might be a tablet with detachable controllers (seen above) that sports an NVidia processor that you can plug into your TV that will take some kind of flash-like game karts. What this basically means is that, if true, Nintendo's next console will be a fairly powerful system while rooted in a touch interface with a traditional controller attached.

If you've been following the site for a while now you know we talked about some of the things we all wanted to see in the NX back in March. In my article I said i'd love it if Nintendo offered a Netflix styled game download system and that the NX should be some mobile experience you could fling to your TV. Looks like we might be getting something better than I envisioned and I am very interested to know more about it.

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2833/a-couple-thing-nintendo-s-next-console-be

As with most things Nintendo, this device will be tied into their ecosystem and it seems that the rumors explicitly strike out that this is an open Android system. Still, this seems to at first glace, harmonize Nintendo's future in that if the NX will be their console and handheld offering this makes it a nice system to purchase if you want to experience all of the new Nintendo games.

Until Nintendo talks more about the NX these are unconfirmed rumors but they all seem to point to a very interesting system I want to know a lot more about. What do you think, does this seem like something you might be interested in getting and does this leaked design seem like a good way to play games?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-07-26-nx-is-a-portable-console-with-detachable-controllers

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/29/2016 at 06:04am

I saw two articles about this a couple days ago. I haven't dived into the NX rumors, waiting for something to be confirmed. However, it seems that a lot of video game rumors have actually been based on fact in recent times. Still, I don't know how I feel about it. I'm most interested in seeing if the new Zelda games performs better on it than on the Wii U. That's where my initial interest in it begins. We'll see.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/29/2016 at 04:08pm

I wonder if it will work with the wiimote? Also, it will be a definite buy if it has a subscription service for their past catalog.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/30/2016 at 07:06pm

> I haven't dived into the NX rumors, waiting for something to be confirmed. However, it seems that a lot of video game rumors have actually been based on fact in recent times.

It seems most of the rumors point to some kind of mobile system you can attach to your TV so whereas this may not be 100% they seem to point to a system very similar to this, if not this one.

> Still, I don't know how I feel about it. I'm most interested in seeing if the new Zelda games performs better on it than on the Wii U. That's where my initial interest in it begins. We'll see.

I agree. I want to pick this up and my hope is the re-release Wii U games on this so it's more of a insta-buy for me. I really dig the Wii U and it has a nice catalog of games so if they can port lots of those games to the NX, it seems like a no-brainer. To me anyway.

> I wonder if it will work with the wiimote? Also, it will be a definite buy if it has a subscription service for their past catalog.

If Nintendo wants to release Wii games on the NX, it will need to. That said, if it has bluetooth it can. You don't need a physical connection to the console for the Wii sensor bar, it just needs to be powered.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2017 at 12:16am

Apparently this leak was accurate

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Humble 2K Bundle Adds More Freedom Than You Can Handle!

Humble Bundle is running a 2K bundle that just added Freedom Force and Freedom Force VS The Third Reich. Freedom Force was made by Irrational Games in 2002 and is a top down turn based super hero strategy brawler you may not have played. It is heavily rooted in campy comic book stories and when I played it in 2002 I really enjoyed the graphics, quirky story and humor. I'm not sure how the game holds up but i'll be playing it soon and write up some thoughts on it.

The 2K Bundle also contains some really great games in Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, Battleborn + DLC, Railroad Tycoon 3, The Bureau XCom Declassified, Mafia 2, NBA 2K16, Civ V, Duke Nukem Forever, Spec Ops The Line and The Darkness II which is a superb value at $15.

https://www.humblebundle.com/2k-games-bundle

Star Wars Celebration 2016 Wrap Up Part II + Rogue One Panel

LucasFilm is slowly releasing all the panel videos from Star Wars Celebration 2016 and as i've been watching them, I have another batch to share. Linked above is the Star Wars Rogue One panel where we get a small amount of new information on the movie from director Gareth Edwards and the stars of the new film. It's a really sneak peek at the film and after watching all the Rogue One news bits to come out of Celebration 2016 i'm more excited about checking out Rogue One in December.

Warwick Davis interviews Carrie Fisher

As far as I am concerned, Carrie Fisher is real life Star Wars royalty and this interview shows why. Warwick Davis does an amazing job keeping the interview flowing and Carrie brings her own strange and often extremely uncomfortable style to the mix. She gives me hope that one can be aged well and also keep a good sense of humor and make others squirm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpgNRJscUCE&list=WL&index=37

The Creatures, Droids and Aliens of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

David Collins welcomes artists from the Pinewood Studios-based art, creature and costume departments as they reveal the creative process behind their wonderful designs, including never-before-seen pieces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lknh4bCSCk&list=WL&index=50

You Thought You Might Not Get The Upcoming NES Classic, But Now There Is a Commercial!

I know some of you said you weren't getting the new NES classic, but all your fears have been put to rest because here is an official video showing it off! If i've learned one thing it's that people can't resist advertising so let me know if this turned you around to picking one of these up on November 11th.

Commercial's work. Right?

"From your first Goomba stomp to your thousandth victory in FINAL FANTASY®, the Nintendo Entertainment System™ may just be the most nostalgic gaming console ever. And now, a new, miniaturized version is here, pre-loaded with 30 of the all-time greatest games, including The Legend of Zelda™, Super Mario Bros.™ 3, and MEGA MAN® 2. Just plug it in…and play."

Commercial heckling aside, this looks great and i'll be picking one of these up around the holiday season.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/23/2016 at 05:20am

Maybe I've fallen for the trick, but just seeing it in action makes it feel that much more tempting. I'm not sure if I'll get it, but I haven't ruled it out completely. It would be awesome if it wasn't strictly limited to those 30 games. It would be sweet if it included the entire NES library (although probably more expensive).

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/24/2016 at 04:28am

They'd have to clear more game licenses which would bump the price a bit. Nintendo owns quite a bit of those games, but not all of them.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/24/2016 at 04:28am

Kinda bummed Duck Tales isn't on that list though.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/24/2016 at 04:38am

I'm not sure what other games I'd love to see on it, but I agree that DuckTales should be one of them. (BTW I wrote "Duck Tales" in a previous post and the Internet shows it's name as "DuckTales," so that's why I've written it that way here.)

hardeyez wrote on 07/24/2016 at 07:34pm

Warrio's Woods would've been great also (but the SNES version looked better :) ) ... Still $60 for 30 games on a little console with a re-usable controller... that's awesome for me. I'll get one and a second controller launch day and play with the kids :)