Kripp has published a couple of his decks after Whispers of the Old Gods launched and I wanted to share one I really enjoy playing with. I made quite a few changes to this deck to combat aggro and zoo in that I replaced Sap, Thalnos & Xaril with Eviscerate and Beckoner of Evil(I also don't currently own Xaril, or else I'd run her in my deck). I also replaced Loot Hoarder with Undercity Huckster as they trade a bit better with early game at 2/2 and get you the draw you need off your opponent instead of drawing from your deck.

This is a very fun deck to play if you have the cards for it and since it contains two old Golds that raises the win conditions considerably. The downsides to this deck are, at times, few answers to aggro but this deck is very sold against Mid and Control. I did fairly well with this deck in a recent local bracketed ladder and I remember one match where dropping N'Zoth after C'Thun sealed the win as my opponent didn't expect me to be running double Old Gods.

Metal Jesus is a retro game YouTuber I follow and he published a video some time ago I felt was really important to anyone looking at creating gameplay videos. He goes over all of the methods he uses to capture gameplay footage on old analog video port consoles, modern HDMI based consoles and PC's.

Doom modders are bringing back the gameplay, maps and guns from the new Doom to the... original 1993 version. I love these sorts of demakes and in this case it's a demake of a reboot to get back to the roots of the original which is now becoming the reboot.... or something. Regardless these kinds of projects make the amazing aspects of the mod community shine.

http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=52164&sid=67e87677ed8187c5c703bb0b130bbf0e

Travis and I haven't been resting after we launched a new site revamp a couple weeks back and this evening we are launching a cool new top level feature called Giveaways. Giveaways are game contests that we will be running every now and again any registered Cheerful Ghost user can enter or run. If you see a game you want to win, click to join and you will be entered in the contest to be randomly selected to win!

It's also great in that anyone on the site can create a game giveaway for (mostly) and kind of digital game. If you have a few bundle keys or extra copies laying around your Steam inventory you can create a Giveaway contest! Giveaways work in conjunction with another new feature, which is game key gifting. Everyone has had(for a few months now) an option in your drop down menu to manage your game keys. This interface was created for you to add spare Steam, Humble, Origin, Uplay or Itch keys to gift to other Cheerful Ghost users. One nice aspect of key gifting here is that you can see when they opened it and if they haven't opened it in 4 days, you can take it back!

When you create a new Giveaway you can select one or many of the keys on your account for the Giveaway OR optionally select that the game is in your personal Steam inventory. When the Giveaway is over we randomly hand out keys to the winners OR if it's a Steam Inventory Giveaway we tell you the winners and you do the game gifting through Steam.

Cheerful Ghost has run some amazing game contests over the years starting with our Borderlands 2 giveaway through many now classic titles such as Terraria. I am looking forward to running lots of great Giveaways on the site and i'd also love to see yours too.

Travis and I are running two Giveaways right now so head over to the section, check them out and enter! I am running a contest for Sword & Sworcery and Travis is handing out a 3 copies of E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy.

"Compilation of interviews / events in chronological order where Gabe Newell first talks about Half Life 2 Episode 3 then suddenly becomes silent about it. I tried to get the best possible quality from internet archives. Some of this footage is from websites that are now inactive. The GTTV ones from February 2008 and September 2009 were not reuploaded to this day."

You know, i'm going to be honest here in that I don't think Half-Life 3 is going to happen. Even if it does it would be best that we all sort of just let it go to help make peace with it taking even longer or it not happening at all. It's obviously taken much longer to make than Valve anticipated, which is a story i'd love for them to talk about sometime. Don't get me wrong, i'd love a new Half-life game but it's been 10 years now and I think it's time to move on.

#lordgabenforgiveme

1.3.1 might not be the largest Terraria patch but it does seem loaded with some interesting stuff like full controller support, more wires and now a companion cube pet. It's also pretty nice that it's easy to get from a Merchant instead of some intense mob farming.

Jack and Rich from PreviouslyRecorded released their Doom review and like much of their show, I love it. I also tried Doom today and I love that too and for only having played it a couple minutes I can say that it's one of the better shooters i've played in years. It's nice to see Doom go back to the good ol' days of a simple fast paced game.

By the time it was official Blizzard was releasing a new Hearthstone expansion I was excited as I thought the game was getting a bit stale. When Blizzard first talked about standard mode, I was interested and liked the constant rotation of cards entering and leaving the game. I was heartened when they said everyone was getting a free C’thun, some support minions and a few free packs. Like many I also had reservations as they were removing the Naxxramas expansion and Goblins VS Gnomes and placing them in Wild. As a huge Naxxramas fan this was painful but after finally playing Standard mode and the new Whispers of the Old Gods expansion I can firmly say this is the best and most fun Hearthstone to date.

An Ever Changing Meta

One huge change in standard mode, according to Blizzard is the release of new cards in the form of 2 expansions and one adventure per year. This means that we will get a bunch of new cards to play with that should keep the game fresh and not feel too stale.

My first fear with the new Standard rotation was that free to play players would be in a hard spot due to so many new cards. But after doing a bit of math if we keep completing our dailies we should have enough gold to unlock the adventure tiers and buy plenty of packs.

One other part of Standard that makes it great is that older adventures and expansions rotate out to wild. This is nice as it allows the ability for Blizzard to experiment more with card design and also rotates out cards that you don’t like playing against. Hated Dr Boom? Well I did and now I don’t have to play against him in Standard. If you want to play with your old cards you can do so in Wild, but Standard offers a mode that significantly changes with each new year.

The Old Gods Mechanics Are Wicked Fun

Blizzard had it’s “Oprah Moment” when it gave everyone a free C’Thun (“You get a C’Thun, you get a C’Thun, everyone get’s a C’Thun!”) and I think that was one of the best parts about the latest expansion. Giving everyone a great legendary is a solid choice because on day one of the expansion you can play with one of the coolest Old Gods. It also encourages players to open packs and try to find the numerous C’Thun cards that increase his attack and play well with his mechanics. N’Zoth is another amazing Old God that brings back all deathrattle minions you previously lost in the game making for some crazy game reversals when you play him. All the Old Gods cost 10 to play so the game could be over before that or be the game winning play depending on how things go.

Hearthstone’s Future Looks Bright

A popular thought before launch was this expansion would slow the game down from it’s quick pace. Whereas the majority of decks I played at launch featured C’Thun and by nature most of them are slower, lots of aggro decks have come to attention that have proven that in some cases, the pace isn’t slowing.

Whispers of the Old Gods and the new game modes lay the road for a long and full life and that alone is the main part of this expansion. With all the dust I collected disenchanting the nerfed cards and dust from dupes I had enough to craft a very respectable set of cards I love playing with. Chief among the latest crafts are Sylvanas Windrunner, N’Zoth, Twin Emperor and a ton of classic cards to round out my collection. After finally opening another 20 packs of classic cards I am now saving gold for the upcoming adventure. I am not sure when the next adventure will launch but i’ll have enough gold to buy it when it does.

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Oh and I also hit ranked 11 today which is a fun first. Also, make sure to check back as I plan on doing some Hearthstone Dailies for Ghosts where I review some of my favorite cards and decks from the latest expansion.

Hotline Miami is a violently strange game about someone that gets phone calls from a person wanting you to commit massacres against the local Russian Mafia. The game is similar to early GTA games but differs in that you die more and everything is way more bloody. If you loved the game and want a special collectors edition version Devolver Digital has just launched something you might love. Not sure if i'll pick this up but it might look neat next to my Starcraft II Battlechests.

"HOTLINE MIAMI and HOTLINE MIAMI 2:WRONG NUMBER on DVD (you'll also get Steam codes for each game) along with a cassette tape containing highlights from the soundtrack, a pack of five Cameo Cards, an art card and a 50 Blessings Stencil, presented in a presentation case."

http://merch.devolverdigital.com/products/572298-hotline-miami-gamers-edition-low-stock

The new Doom is out and it seems to be getting great reviews. I found an interview with Doom's composer Mick Gordon discussing his process for making the crazy metal insanity that backs new Doom. Spoiler alert, he tunes the guitar really really low to get the extra evil tones.