jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Dolphin 5.0 Swims In The Impressively Murky Seas Of Emulation

If you've ever played a GameCube or Wii game you owned in Dolphin you know it can at times be both very good and at times strange. The upscaling ability of Dolphin on Wii and GameCube games is well worth the price of admission alone as experiencing these classic titles in HD is incredible. For me, my classic hardware sometimes breaks so I try and backup all my games so I can play them on my PC. Recently Dolphin released 5.0 which is a notable milestone in that it optimizes for speed and also makes many games run much better than they did before.

"The long awaited Dolphin 5.0 release is finally here! After nearly a year of bug-hunting and handling the release process, everything has come together for our biggest release yet! The three previous releases followed a very distinct pattern: sacrifice performance, hacks, and features in exchange for higher accuracy. As such, Dolphin 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 progressively grew slower. But thanks to the cleanups put forward throughout those releases, Dolphin 5.0 is the fastest Dolphin has ever been!

By removing all of those hacks and outdated features while cleaning up the codebase, Dolphin has reached a new level of efficiency, powered by a revitalized dynamic recompiler. On the GPU side, OpenGL and D3D11 have seen tons of optimizations and accuracy improvements, and have been joined by a brand new D3D12 backend for huge performance gains. If there's a CPU or GPU extension that can make Dolphin faster, we take advantage of it."

https://dolphin-emu.org/

The CD Key Grey Market & Cheerful Ghost

Last year Cheerful Ghost published Starship Rubicon and I am really proud of that. Working alongside Wick to get the game launched, promoted and sold has been one of the more enjoyable things I've been part of. When I approached him about publishing his game, I had a fledgling idea of how to approach and in the end I believe we did well by the game and its fans. Together we've learned a lot: firstly, making an Indie game doesn't mean you make big money (because as of now we haven't made very much), and secondly, you need to be aware of what is out there that can potentially harm your game. One such thing that can chip away at the money you can make in the industry is the CD Key grey market.

Tiny Build Games is a relatively new publisher from Seattle I admire quite a bit. They started modestly and had a hit with Speedrunners that catapulted them into a really great spot in the Indie community. Since then, they've published Party Hard and Punch Club which are really great games that are well worth your time. They also recently wrote a blog post about the CD key grey market called "G2A sold $450k worth of our game keys" and after it was posted on their blog it lit a fire in certain parts of the game scene. The blog post is fairly detailed but the long and short of it is that over time G2A, a CD key reselling site, has made over $450k in resold keys from their published games. These keys were __NOT__ given to G2A by Tiny Build but resold through the CD key grey market where keys are acquired through bots scamming storefronts, purchased through low cost bundles or sold directly from crooked partners. Very frequently, CD Key resellers like this end up with a massive dump of keys from stolen credit cards, and there are no checks in place to ensure that keys are legitimate.

Again, it's an interesting read and I recommend you check it out.

http://tinybuild.com/g2a-sold-450k-worth-of-our-game-keys

Why Do You Care That I Sell Or Giveaway A Game Key I’ll Never Play?

To be honest, I don't. I don’t have a problem with a normal gamer getting a copy of Starship Rubicon and selling it or giving it away. I think there is a huge difference between a normal person reselling a key to make a couple bucks and having a CD key grey market middleman scam hundreds to thousands of keys to resell. Again, just to be super clear here I have zero problem if you giveaway or sell a Starship Rubicon key to your friend or internet stranger, as normal people are not the problem. Grey mass-market CD key resellers that use G2A and sites like them are the problem.

It’s also not wrong that people want to buy a game at a reduced price; sales are the lifeblood of the game industry! But there is a huge difference between buying a game in a Steam or Humble sale than on sites like G2A because the developer gets nothing from G2A.

By the way, Starship Rubicon is now 60% off in this current Steam Sale so if you love massive discounts and awesome Indie rogue-lites you need to check that out! CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/372030

We are also handing out free 10 copies in a Giveaway but that will only last for the next couple days so enter now! FREE? WHAT? ARE WE CRAZY? DON’T ANSWER THAT!

http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/giveaways/14/kicking-off-the-summer-with-free-lamjets-zukovs-warbirds

Cheerful Ghost Won’t Make Money From Developer Misery

G2A and other reselling sites can be a big problem for developers and as such I want to make it known that until they and other sites make drastic changes we won't be supporting them. Websites like ours can make big money recommending you purchase games through CD key resellers but we aren’t going to do that and to-date we've declined each request. Let's be clear here in that if we partnered with these sites we’d make quite a bit of money it’s just not right for us to do that. In one such deal we have been offered 6% commission for displaying a banner ad and re-directing gamers to make purchases on a reseller site. We’d also get 5% for direct purchases and it sort of breaks down a bit in terms of percentages based on use-case. Needless to say, if we made some hard recommendations and altered Cheerful Ghost to recommend these sites, we’d do really well.

Many Twitch streamers are financially supported by G2A because the money is pretty darn good. That’s because the CD key grey market is a gold mine, it's just banked on developer misery. We’ve decided to not partner with these sites and give up that revenue because we feel this position is better for developers making great games and the gamers that play them. I was also heartened to see the Reddit Hearthstone community take a stand on this issue and reach out to Twitch streamers to re-think their partnership with G2A.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/4ped4m/clean_up_our_community_ditch_g2a/

It’s good for gamers to care about this and make their thoughts on this issue known. The kinds of partnerships we make as video game sites and streamers matter and we need to think what kind of world we are creating by making them.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Ultimately CD Key Reselling sites will either change their rules to disallow massive CD Key sales from unofficial sources or continue with their morally bankrupt model. I have my doubts we will see much more than platitudes here but I remain hopeful to change. Ultimately these discussions are good to have because they raise awareness to gamers and developers on the health of the industry we all love. Curious what you think about this issue and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Here is another article well worth your time.

https://medium.com/@mode7games/the-key-masters-reselling-and-the-games-industry-6bb01a6a4963#.kkj9vddwd

A developer is recommending piracy over buying a game on G2A, can’t say I disagree with that thinking. I’d rather lose a sale than see G2A get money.

http://www.fortressofdoors.com/g2a-piracy-and-the-four-currencies/

Looks like G2A is attempting to address some of these issues if at least, very slowly. I think this is an interesting attempt but as the article states…

“Unless they actually solve the main issue — fraud on their platform — this initiative invites developers to become accomplices.”

http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/28/12050942/gray-market-reseller-rolls-over-agrees-to-incremental-changes-at-g2a

Travis Admin wrote on 06/29/2016 at 02:17am

Their model is, as you've said, very morally gray at best. However, they definitely get most of their money from money laundering from stolen credit cards. If this was any other kind of medium that dealt with something other than electronic goods, these services would have been shut down a long time ago, I imagine. Lawmakers still just don't know what to do with electronic goods.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/29/2016 at 11:21pm

I'm trying to wrap my head around this one, but I wanted to point out a quick misrepresentation. G2A didn't make $450K in sales of tinyBuilds game keys. The estimation that tinyBuild came up with was that just under $200K in revenue was created, with a percentage of that (somewhere between 10.8 and 30, I can't tell) going to G2A, which they claim would have equated to over $450K if those sales had gone through their site. I think these kinds of factoring are generally flawed, but the fact remains that they had product stolen and resold without seeing fruits of that.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/29/2016 at 11:46pm

Added to that, grey markets aren't illegal or immoral. Associating the problems in G2A's system with grey market activity is confusing the issue.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/30/2016 at 03:32am

> I think these kinds of factoring are generally flawed, but the fact remains that they had product stolen and resold without seeing fruits of that.

Yeah, that's a good point.

> Added to that, grey markets aren't illegal or immoral. Associating the problems in G2A's system with grey market activity is confusing the issue.

Yeah, that makes sense. This article has been through a couple revisions and what it landed on maybe is a bit odd in that way. I do think that G2A and sites like it can potentially serve a legitimate use, for instance a developer could sell the game there if they wanted. That said, that's a far reach from what I am talking about in this article and I used the term Grey market to sort of cover a legit usecase for these sites even though the main use of them isn't.

In the end I think G2A and sites like it should operate more like a pawn shop and require ID up front and maybe do a bit more to make sure things are on the up and up if you are selling more than a handful of keys.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/30/2016 at 04:43am

I find it interesting that you both use the British "grey" instead of the American "gray"

That's off-topic :D

Gray markets definitely aren't illegal by definition, but there's a certain connotation with the term. And G2A's practices certainly support that connotation. It's possible that "gray market" isn't the right term to use here, but I don't know what the right term is. At its best it isn't money laundering with stolen credit cards, but it supports that. At its usual best, it provides ways for people to sell keys that they probably aren't authorized to sell.

And there's a certain point about ownership here as well. It's worth noting that just because you have a key to redeem a game on Steam, that doesn't mean you are allowed to sell it in all cases. Ultimately, with digital goods, you don't own the content, you are licensed the content, and the content owners can make choices that affect your ability to re-sell or do other non-standard things. G2A and its competitors facilitate fudging that concept of ownership.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/02/2016 at 03:09am

> I find it interesting that you both use the British "grey" instead of the American "gray"

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Head Back To Gaming's Past To E3 1996!

Someone posted a video on YouTube that captured 30 minutes of E3 floor footage from 1996. It shows off Nintendo's booth and people playing with the Nintendo 64, Mario Kart and Super Mario World as well as a couple games I don't recognize. I like that this video is free of any commentary and is simply just capturing the 96' E3 show floor, it's a nice change from the massive wall of video commentary we get from these events.

Building a Warlock Burst Zoo Deck on a Budget

Recently my partner and I had a kid so I haven't had as much time to game as I usually do. That said, Hearthstone is a good game to play if you only have one hand free when the other one is consoling your crying baby. Sometimes I have to put the phone down for a second to readjust my hold with him but if I am sitting on the couch it works out really well. I'm also a Hearthstone free to play player so like many, I don't have every card available to me but enjoy playing constructed and like trying out the new meta decks. One such deck to emerge post Whispers of the Old Gods is Warlock Burst Zoo. Warlock has always been great with Zoo but it's stepped up a bit after WoTG due to a couple new cards like Darkshire Councilman and Possessed Villager.

I recently built a Warlock Zoo deck from a recipe but since I don't have all the cards for it I had to make some substitutions. Sometimes you really can't sub out certain cards for others but in this case I think they worked out well. Here is the deck I based my alteration on for you to check out:

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/472913-legend-zoo-lock-standard

As you can see, the deck is mostly commons and rares with a few legendaries and one epic and I subbed out all the Legendaries and epics for other cards. Substitutions I made include:

Reckless Rocketeer for Leery Jenkins. With Arcane Golem nerfed into the dirt, Leeroy is a very viable card now. That said, I don't have it as it's a Legendary so for now I think substituting Reckless Rocketeer is a good choice. Reckless costs one more mana but it's the same stats and I think the tradeoff is pretty solid. Reckless/Leeroy allow you to cast Power Overwhelming to burst your opponent to death as a possible deck win condition. Reckless Rocketeer (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/560-reckless-rocketeer) Leeroy Jenkins(http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/674-leeroy-jenkins)

Argent Squire for Gormok the Impaler. Yeah ok, this isn't a fair substitution but there really isn't a cheap replacement for Gormok. Since I don't have Gormok and I also dropped Crazed Alchemist as I didn't find it that useful most of the time I added two Argent Squires to make the deck more quick and added a pinch more Aggro. Argent works well with the buffs this deck can produce and is a very solid turn one. Argent Squire(http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/473-argent-squire) - Gormok The Impaler(http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/22323-gormok-the-impaler)

Northsea Kraken for Sea Giant. Again, this isn't a perfect sub but one that works pretty well for this deck. At turn 9 Kraken is both removal and a huge minion making your opponent have to deal with it or lose. Sea Giant is incredible in this deck because it costs less per each minion in play but if you don't have it, like me, Northsea Kraken is a solid replacement. Northsea Kraken(http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/22289-north-sea-kraken) - Sea Giant(http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/614-sea-giant)

What decks are you running right now and have you made any interesting changes to popular meta decks?

Give Hell A Try - The Doom Demo Has Been Extended

During E3 iD released a demo for the new Doom game that was only supposed to run for a limited time. Sometime afterward iD and Bethesda decided to extend it so if you haven't tried out the new Doom game, now is a good time. There isn't a firm demo end date and I hope they just leave it up indefinitely. A limited time demo is a far cry from Doom's Shareware roots but then again, we ain't dialing up to BBS's anymore. Which honestly is fairly sad as I always loved BBS's myself.

#missyoulord #goodbyetradewars

http://store.steampowered.com/app/379720/

Celebrate Ubisoft's 30th Anniversary With 7 Free Games

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/13600/header.jpg?t=1447351278

"To celebrate Ubisoft's 30th anniversary, The Ubisoft Club is offering you seven digital PC games. Every month a new game will be revealed and free to download. Then its yours to keep!"

Ubisoft is handing out one free game a month for the next 7 months to celebrate it's 30th anniversary by heading over to their website and signing up. During the first month they are giving away Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and while it's not entirely clear what other games they will hand out in the upcoming months you need to head over and pick this one up!

https://30years.ubi.com/en-US/operation-index

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/21/2016 at 03:37pm

Love me some Sands of Time! My guess is that we'll see a Rayman, Splinter Cell, Beyond Good and Evil, Assassin's Creed (probably the first one), you know, some of those classic franchises. Free games are always good!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/21/2016 at 04:24pm

Yep, those sound like what I was thinking too!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/21/2016 at 04:25pm

Far Cry may make an appearance.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/21/2016 at 05:57pm

The title says 6, but the quoted blurb says 7.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/21/2016 at 08:09pm

Updated. Thanks Travis. I've been tired lately

Travis Admin wrote on 06/21/2016 at 08:38pm

I wonder why! :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/21/2016 at 08:40pm

STAYING UP LATE FOR A ZACK EFFRON MOVIE MARATHON OBVIOUSLY!

Travis Admin wrote on 06/21/2016 at 08:48pm

Yeah, I like where your priorities are!

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System Shock 2 Is Free On GOG Right Now

If you head over to GOG and download GOG Galaxy, the new GOG Desktop client they will give you a free copy of the PC classic System Shock 2. If you are interested you will want to check this out now as it won't last for much longer.

GOG is also running their yearly Summer Sale and have some fun quests you can complete to earn free games such as Splunky, Gabriel Knight and Dreamfall Chapters.

So much free and so little time...

https://www.gog.com/galaxy
https://www.gog.com/summer_xp

Reflecting On One Year of Hearthstone

A little more than a year ago Blizzard released Hearthstone on smartphones and that hooked me. Up till that point Hearthstone didn't really interest me but something about playing it on my phone made the experience magical. Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain and Goblins VS Gnomes were the only released adventures and expansions then and I spent most of my time collecting gold and learning how to play. I had no idea what to do with the gold I had but I figured i'd save it until I knew what best to spend it on. I didn't even create any decks when I started because I had no idea what was good. So I just played causal matches with no deck and I lost a lot. During that time I simply realized what was good and what wasn't by trying things and losing a lot of matches.

At that time I only knew a couple people that played and JaBo being one let me know you could unlock Adventure wings with gold. After that I decided that my first steps were to unlock all the adventures cards and then focus on opening packs(something I recommend people do to start). Naxxramas was the first Adventure I unlocked and over time I was able to unlock the rest and open a ton of packs along the way.

It really doesn't seem like i've been playing Hearthstone nearly each day for a year. Since matches only last only a handful of minutes on average(some take much longer) it doesn't ever feel like I am spending much time playing it. For me it's one of those perfect games you can play a few minutes here and there and if you need to concede a match because something comes up it's not a big deal. In a world of very shallow and short lived mobile games Hearthstone is fairly deep and extremely repayable.

In the last couple months I went to my first local bracketed ladder tournament and had a reasonable showing for my first attempt. I am very happy with how well i've done considering I am free to play. I'm not sure one needs to spend a ton of money in Hearthstone to be good or even be competitive but if you spend a lot of money in the game and have all the cards you do have an advantage. Having everything doesn't make someone great but it helps. Over time I imagine i'll unlock most everything that will keep me competitive and the game will still be fun and still not spend any money. With that, if you don't mind spending a few bucks here and there it can really help you to spend it on unlocking the adventures. The adventures are fun and if you complete them you unlock some really incredible cards that will help you do well.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2926/spent-sunday-praising-yogg-at-the-taco-house-my-first-local-hearthstone-tournament

The New Player Experience Is Much Better Now

One of my friends is starting Hearthstone for the first time and so far he really enjoys it. It's cool to help him make his way through the game as a new player and so far he is doing well. I think the new player experience is better than it's been for quite some time. Right now all players new or old get C'Thun and two Beckoner of Evils for free plus if you complete the quests you can get 13 or so free Whispers of the Old Gods packs. This is also on top of the other free classic packs they give you to start the game. It's nice Blizzard gave everyone C'Thun because it's a solid card and comes with an accessible strategy to win the game which is to out well stat'ed minions that buff C'Thun and when he finally comes out on turn 10, you win. It maybe doesn't always work like that but it can and it's something that makes the new player experience much better. Blizzard also has a new deck builder tool to help new players build decks that are pretty good if they have the cards and help them chose replacements if they don't. I've been playing with these Blizzard approved decks and many are quite good so I recommend new players build around them to start learning how things work.

Watching Great Players Can Make You Better

One thing I did to improve at Hearthstone was to spend some time watching other fantastic players play and then I copy their decks and learn from them. I know everyone wants to be an incredibly original deck builder as well as an amazing player but when you start out you really should stand on the shoulders of giants. One streamer I recommend you watch is Kripparian. Kripparian is not only a fantastic player he is also a fun guy to watch and explains his strategy well enough to understand it.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Kripparrian

Kripp posts two videos each day that are clips shows from his daily streams. They involve some sort of theme and he starts out by talking about some timely topic and then shows you relevant matches he's played. Kripp's show is one of my most anticipated shows I watch right now. Most of the decks he showcases I create, play with and modify and i've learned some awesome game tricks by watching him play.

Well That's All Great, But What Happens Now?

I like Hearthstone because it's fun and if it ever felt like it was becoming a chore or a stupid grind i'd stop playing. To date it's been a fun ride and i've hit some really great momentum lately. Not sure if i'll be playing Hearthstone each day for another year but if this last one is an indicator, I should be.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/08/2016 at 06:19am

That's awesome! So, I told you that you can unlock Adventures with in-game gold? I don't really remember that.

Anyway, I appreciate your perspective on the game. It seems you did something rightly smart. I am really glad that you shared one of the tools you've found to be very helpful, the YouTuber. I may have to check that out. Watching YouTube on my TV at night is part of my nightly routine. :)

I've used the deck builder tool to help suggest cards I should put in my deck. I'm not opposed to finding a good recipe (as they have now) and copying it. It would be a cool way to learn how to play more effectively and even with different strategies.

I like the freebies they recently gave us, well they're free if you complete those challenges, which I managed to do some how. I've seen C'Thun used in matches I've played, but I don't think I've ever used it myself.

Back to Adventure Mode, that is what I liked most about the game. I wish this part of the game was so much bigger and wasn't so expensive. I've unlocked some with in-game gold, but I think it'd probably take me a week to get enough to unlock another.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/08/2016 at 11:06pm

> That's awesome! So, I told you that you can unlock Adventures with in-game gold? I don't really remember that.

Oh you might be right, it was JaBo. But you said something right afterward and I always attributed it to you in my mind. I'll update my post to reflect this, thanks Greg!

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2495/dropping-cards-battling-heroes-my-recent-game-addiction#comment11290

> Anyway, I appreciate your perspective on the game. It seems you did something rightly smart. I am really glad that you shared one of the tools you've found to be very helpful, the YouTuber. I may have to check that out. Watching YouTube on my TV at night is part of my nightly routine. :)

Watching the Kripp show on TV at night is awesome, it's one of my new favorite times of the day. Besides lunch.

> I've used the deck builder tool to help suggest cards I should put in my deck. I'm not opposed to finding a good recipe (as they have now) and copying it. It would be a cool way to learn how to play more effectively and even with different strategies.

Yeah, the Blizz decks are pretty fun too. I've been impressed with how well they actually do.

> Back to Adventure Mode, that is what I liked most about the game. I wish this part of the game was so much bigger and wasn't so expensive. I've unlocked some with in-game gold, but I think it'd probably take me a week to get enough to unlock another.

There is another one coming out next according to the path Blizzard has layed out. It will, most likely, be another $20 so to date they've released 3 adventures with this other one on the way. And I wish they'd do more per year too but right now, that seems unlikely.

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Get Nox Free on EA Origin

"An excellent action/RPG hybrid with very unique gameplay. Your name is Jack Mower, a 20th century dude who just happened to be sucked into the world of Nox via his TV set. The world is in danger and you have to save it! But before you embark on your epic journey you must choose your path: warrior, wizard, or conjurer.

Choose the path of a warrior, and you will be able to equip and use all manner of swords, battle-axes, war hammers, and chakrams - though you’ll leave the magical mumbo-jumbo up to the Conjurer and Wizard classes. An enchanted weapon is the closest a Warrior gets to magic but that’s OK, because magic is for sissies."

Origin has given away some really great classic titles and continues that tradition with Nox, a Westwood developed RPG. When I think Westwood I think Command & Conquer and the Dune games. That said, Westwood did develop many different kinds of games and Nox was one of it's later releases.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/free-games/on-the-house

What Are You Playing - Summer Edition

As Summer is now in full swing I am wondering what everyone is playing right now?

I play Hearthstone daily and am currently saving gold for the next 4 wings of the upcoming adventure. I'm also playing FTL, the new Doom and a iOS game called Gem Hunters.

Let me know in the comments what you are playing as well and if it's worth looking into!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/06/2016 at 05:46am

I finished FFX (HD Remaster) and Doom. Now I'm playing Fallout 4, because of the Far Harbor DLC. However, I haven't started it yet, instead I'm going around collecting a bunch of stuff like the bobbleheads and magazines I've missed. I'm going to go after some of those great weapons and stuff, too. I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to attempt to complete all the misc. quests.

Once I finish w/ Fallout 4 I'm moving on to The Witcher 3 again because it just had a DLC released as well. Maybe after that I'll play FFX-2 (HD Remaster).

I'm still playing a bit of Ark, but not much. I got on the server a while ago and helped with some things. I also started a new single player game on The Center map, which is now an official mod. I'm interested in other mods, so I may start another new game with those (particularly Annunaki Genesis).

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/06/2016 at 06:29am

> Once I finish w/ Fallout 4 I'm moving on to The Witcher 3 again because it just had a DLC released as well.

Some day I plan on picking up Witcher 3 and all of it's DLC. I can wait though as I have many other games right now and I imagine at some point the whole package will be available in one bundle. Heard really great things about it. Have you completed Witcher 3 Greg?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/06/2016 at 07:17am

Yes, I finished The Witcher 3 and I absolutely love it! The story was quite epic, I cared a lot about the main characters. There are a lot of quests, so there's plenty to do. I do strongly recommend it.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/06/2016 at 11:32am

I tried (unsuccessfully) to play the first Witcher. It was just super clunky and not very fun. But I hear it's worth getting through, and that Witcher 2 fixes all those issues.

As for what I'm playing, Doom and Fallout 4. I decided to do both kinda alternately but I got the Far Harbor fever and haven't gone back to Doom. It's really, really good.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/06/2016 at 05:15pm

I just finished Dishonored (finally), and found it to be quite good. Now I've moved onto Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which I've had to start over because I can't remember what was going on when I left off. Also picked up Oxenfree on the PS4, which I can't tell yet if I like. Rocket League is ever-present. I really want to get on that Doom train, but it will have to wait.

Because of recently binging and catching up on Game of Thrones, I've also been visiting Skyrim, not so much to play through it, but simply to be in that environment. It feels like an extension of that Song of Ice and Fire universe, in a way.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/06/2016 at 05:55pm

Deus Ex Human Revolution is one of my faves. The director's cut which includes some cut content and offers a few more choices in how to handle things is apparently the way to go but I haven't played that version.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/06/2016 at 06:37pm

Last weekend I found myself binging again on Game Dev Tycoon. Finally created my first 10/10 game lol.
Other than that I've been playing Bejeweled Stars for a few mins here and there.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/06/2016 at 06:41pm

The Director's Cut is what I'm playing, and a secondary reason for starting over. I think it was a free upgrade through Steam a while back. It's hard going from Dishonored, with such smooth movement mechanics, to DE:HR, especially since both are heavy-leaning stealth-optional. DE:HR is a bit more cumbersome, but good on gadgets!

Is anyone playing, or considering getting into Overwatch? I know a few of us played the beta. I never took advantage of the PS4 beta, but with the $20 price difference on PC, I think I'd rather that route, if I took the step. I definitely enjoyed the beta, but it seems like everyone playing is completely smitten with it.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/06/2016 at 07:45pm

I didn't really enjoy the first Witcher game. The second was better, but the third was absolutely wonderful.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/06/2016 at 08:23pm

Greg has been playing a lot of EVGA Precision X 16. 221 hours on record! :D

Seriously though since you installed that from Steam it's showing that you're constantly playing it. And what the hell, it has achievements?

I installed that straight from their site. Seems weird to have it tied to Steam.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/07/2016 at 12:27am

Interesting. Yeah, I installed it via Steam before I got my new GPU. I have it run at startup. Windows says it's running, but I don't see it unless I load it myself.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/07/2016 at 01:23am

> I tried (unsuccessfully) to play the first Witcher. It was just super clunky and not very fun. But I hear it's worth getting through, and that Witcher 2 fixes all those issues.

The first Witcher is rough but I may have liked it more when it first launched? It doesn't hold up as well I think if you haven't played it before. W2 is better but for whatever reason, I didn't continue on with it.

> Because of recently binging and catching up on Game of Thrones, I've also been visiting Skyrim, not so much to play through it, but simply to be in that environment. It feels like an extension of that Song of Ice and Fire universe, in a way.

I really like the Skyrim atmosphere and music. In a way, more than Fallout 4 but I like the F4 story and gameplay more. If that makes sense.

> Is anyone playing, or considering getting into Overwatch? I know a few of us played the beta. I never took advantage of the PS4 beta, but with the $20 price difference on PC, I think I'd rather that route, if I took the step. I definitely enjoyed the beta, but it seems like everyone playing is completely smitten with it.

It's the huge game of the moment and I enjoyed what i've played so far but I didn't like it enough to pick it up. It's a good game but nothing I need to play.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/07/2016 at 01:24am

And yeah, Travis is right Steam says you are playing that all day. I wonder if they hacked the app to crowd out other games because I know you play other games and I don't see you playing those.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/07/2016 at 02:30am

I read up on it. If you install it via Steam and then you have it auto-start, it's naturally running in Steam all the time. The only way NOT to get it to do that is to not have it auto-launch, and to launch it AFTER the games you run.

It's not so much that it's hacking the app, it's just that it's software being run through Steam and it runs constantly, so it effectively does crowd out all the other games. It's acting the same as it would if you set a game to auto-start.

But then the in-game stuff doesn't work for it.

So yeah, it's a terrible thing to even install via Steam. Uninstall that shiz and get it from their website :D

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/07/2016 at 02:49am

Ah, I see. Will do, thanks for letting me know.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/07/2016 at 03:14am

After a couple days it might rank higher in your most played games list than Terraria. That alone means it should be killed.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/07/2016 at 03:40am

WRT Overwatch: No interest, as I already see people complaining about others "not understanding the meta" and "having to carry" people who suck. And comparing this and that to LoL and this and that to DotA. Nope, pass.

This is definitely not the game for me. Just give me an arena shooter already. I was hoping for one with Doom but that was a major waste of multiplayer.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/07/2016 at 03:59am

What's wrong with the multiplayer in Doom?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/07/2016 at 04:01am

Also, I was understanding that Overwatch was basically Team Fortress 3, not MOBA-esque, so curious about the comparisons to League and DoTA :(.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/07/2016 at 04:45am

Shoot, Ark is my most played game at 1074 hours. But, I uninstalled that app and reinstalled the one directly downloaded from EVGA's mirror link.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/07/2016 at 11:54am

If Overwatch is TF3, then I'm wrong and it may be way more fun, just going by what I've heard.

Doom multiplayer (based on what I played in the beta and the one or two matches I played on the final release) is an attempt to meld the old arena shooter ways with CoD and the like. It feels like it's trying for arena shooter but never landing because of the changes made to make it more like modern shooters. Weapon loadouts have no place in an arena shooter, for instance. It't not that it isn't good, it's that it isn't great. There's fun to be had, but it's definitely not what I was hoping for.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/08/2016 at 03:21am

Overwatch is like Team Fortress 2. I played during Beta and sucked up a storm and no one said anything to me about it. There are matches people play against bots and against other humans. Bots are fun because our team won. Against humans we died each time, I just wasn't helping.

From my limited experience Overwatch doesn't have as a bad community, but even that all said, i'll wait till I pick it up. It's a fun shooter no question, it's just not what I am looking to get into right now.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/08/2016 at 03:22am

As to Doom multiplayer, I have yet to try it. I'll maybe do that tonight if I remember to.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/08/2016 at 04:27am

I overlooked Overwatch. Some of my Ark friends played it, so I asked them about it and got my understanding of it from them. It looks a bit like Splatoon in the way that you have to wait online for other players to play w/ and against. I haven't played it either, I just know from watching Vinny play it. I liked shooters back in the old Doom and Quake days, but I haven't really been into them as much. Although I'm into Fallout, it kind of counts as being in that category, but I think it's so much more than that. Right now i don't have any interest in Overwatch, maybe that would change if I looked into it and watched a video of someone playing it (which is how my interest in the new Doom was born).

I haven't tried multiplayer in the new Doom yet, either. I think it'd be fun to play a co-op match against demons, but I generally don't like PVP kinds of games. If anyone plays Doom multiplayer, let me know how ti goes and whether or not there's a co-op option. If so, I wouldn't mind playing with someone, I love Doom!

As for TF2, that's what Vinny's been playing lately. I got an invite from a friend to play it over a year ago (maybe more) and I haven't tried it yet. Yet another game I have no current interest in, which could possibly changed by watching a YouTube video about it.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/08/2016 at 04:03pm

It looks a bit like Splatoon in the way that you have to wait online for other players to play w/ and against

This is basically how most multiplayer works. :D

At least the default matchmaking thing. I assume there are ways to play Overwatch with friends.

Maybe I was just experiencing assholes talking about Overwatch. One thing I loved about TF2 when I played it was the community. It's a very tactical game and a bad player can really break your team but the community was always fun. I don't know if that's changed since it went F2P.

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