jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Half-Life 2 Speedrun Method Explained

Speedrunning is amazing and I am in awe of the talent and care it takes to do it well. The fastest way through most games is to glitch it and go out of bounds to bypass massive areas to save time. YouTube BitRain makes a great video explaining how you can glitch through the walls in Half-Life 2 which is the basis for his 40:49 speedrun featured below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnFjTG9J-T8

Disney & Lego Release Prequel Force Awakens Star Wars Cartoons

Don't let the thought of a Force Awakens prequel give you the wrong impression, this new Disney web series is ridiculously enjoyable. So far Disney has released Poe To The Rescue (featured above), The Trouble With Rathtars, Hunting For Han and Rey Strikes Back. The shorts are semi-canon and feature voice work by some Star Wars veterans I don't want to spoil. Each episode in the series is loosely related and they converge a bit in Rey Strikes Back. Not sure when Disney will be done with the series but after watching these I want a proper Force Awakens Lego cartoon series!

Disney can't seem to hit a foul ball in anything related to Star Wars recently as these shorts are a great way to begin Star Wars week! Stay tuned to Cheerful Ghost for more Star Wars news and check back this May the 4th for something extra special.

1. Poe To The Rescue (Embedded above) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK92gFG-YUA

2. The Trouble With Rathtars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciZLPyWf-P0

3. Hunting For Han - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdVE0LKIxFs

4. Rey Strikes Back - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IW1UE6LryQ

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 05/03/2016 at 04:35pm

I like how "Poe to the Rescue" picks up where the C3PO comic left off.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/03/2016 at 04:38pm

Yeah, I want to read that one.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/03/2016 at 06:51pm

The first episode really feels like a How It Should Have Ended video. Similar humor and style :)

Travis Admin wrote on 05/04/2016 at 01:54am

So how canon is this? I assume Poe didn't actually bowl down a bunch of stormtroopers with a helmet. And BB-8 sounds so incredibly wrong. Lego is usually better about that.

Fan wanking aside, this was a lot of fun!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/04/2016 at 02:51am

That's why I think they are semi-canon. The events happened, but the exaggeration for comedy isn't to be taken as real. At least, that's how I watched them.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 05/04/2016 at 05:21pm

JJ says Poe bowling down stormtroopers with his helmet is SO canon.

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Prep Your Barbarians Because Diablo III Season 6 Is Live!

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/gallery/zz/ZZPZRM5BG5J41408120797741.jpg

If you are looking for something to play and haven't opened Diablo 3 in a bit you might want to check out the latest Diablo season. You know, in between Hearthstone matches, Fallout 4's new DLC, Stardew Valley, Battleborn, Dark Souls 3 and the upcoming Doom reboot. We all have that kind of time right?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20108628

Upcoming Changes Coming For Stardew Valley

http://stardewvalley.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/version1_1-768x480.png

Stardew Valley is ConcernedApe's country life farming game mega hit and in a recent blog post he outlined a roadmap of upcoming features. At the top of the list of stuff I am very interested in are Mac and Linux ports. Since Stardew Valley has been a one man effort to date ConcernedApe will be enlisting the help of some Chuckle Fish developers for the ports and multiplayer support. This is actually a really great thing as it means he can focus on core gameplay additions solely.

New features that are on a list of things to come:

Version 1.1 — A substantial content update

Co-op Multiplayer

Localizing for non-english regions

Mac/Linux Ports

Console Ports

Merchandise

Check the official post below for the full 1.1 feature list.

http://stardewvalley.net/post-launch-progress-update-version-1-1-and-more/

New Doom Features Original Doom Campaigns As Secret Easter Egg

iD Software recently revealed to IGN that the the upcoming Doom game features hidden easter egg levels from the original Doom and Doom 2. In each level of the new Doom campaign there is a secret lever that if pulled opens a door to a classic mission. This mission is then playable in the current mission you are in or unlocked and playable from the main menu. This iD tradition of including the original maps from classic games started with Rage continued to Wolfenstein: New Order and now to the upcoming Doom game. Hopefully you can unlock much of original games this way to play through it in total in the new engine.

New Information Comes Forward Casting Doubt On Something We've All Accepted

It's important you take time out of your day to watch the video above. I know it might seem far fetched but Graham Putnam's video casts serious doubts on the story we've all been spoon fed. It's time we all woke up to this truth and this video deconstructs the administrations narrative and the key players involved. It's nice to know people like Graham can spend the time to research such an important topic and I urge you to watch this video before it is censored to keep it from spreading.

Orionnoir wrote on 04/28/2016 at 04:04am

I been saying this for years!!!

rettisawesome wrote on 04/28/2016 at 04:34am

omg this is genius

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/28/2016 at 06:43pm

Well, when you piece it all together like this... it makes a lot of sense.

Orionnoir wrote on 05/31/2017 at 05:21pm

I am sad this video got muted for copyright concerns. :.(

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/31/2017 at 05:58pm

https://youtu.be/eW9mBIYTs20
Here's a modified version (video flipped and sped up slightly) that hasn't been muted yet :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/31/2017 at 07:14pm

Updated the embed for that video, Thanks Adam!

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Hearthstone Dailies For Ghosts: ep. 10 Whispers Of The Old Gods Launch Day Pack Opening & Trololo

In this special episode of Hearthstone Dailies for Ghosts I open 50 packs of Whispers of the Old Gods cards. After some unforunate technical launch day glitches I start things up.

A couple notes:

I open the worst Legendary you can. WHICH ONE? Find out.

I open the second worst? Legendary you can.

Is the game Trolling me?

That said I consider this a pretty lucky set of opens even though I didn't get so lucky in opening Legendaries. One saving grace was that it was a golden so I can craft a proper Legendary.

I am a free to play player and these packs were purchased entirely with gold.

JaBo wrote on 04/27/2016 at 03:44am

Jelly of that gold Journey Below, I am tempted to craft 2 (for 800 each lol). I been playing raptor rogue and that card is boss... (and getting golds off of it is better obvi)

JaBo wrote on 04/27/2016 at 03:48am

BTW, props to you for doing the free to play.. and yeah, thank God that leggie was gold at least lol. I mean... would have been better to get a gold leggie of a playable guy unless you don't care about golds and just want the dust.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/27/2016 at 05:28am

> Jelly of that gold Journey Below

Yeah, it's nice. I play so many crazy golden cards off it. Mostly pulling Golden Xaril which I may craft. Xaril is SOOO good. At this point I may craft Sylvanis or Xaril. I have enough to craft 2 legendaries BUT that might not be the best thing as filling in other places may be better strategically.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/27/2016 at 05:31am

> BTW, props to you for doing the free to play..

It's actually been OK. Lots of really dry spells grinding for gold. Months of only opening the one free Tavern Brawl classic pack or the one you can occasionally get from quests. That said, Hearthstone is still very fun and I enjoy playing a lot. It was harder earlier on but now that I have a pretty good collection things are much better.

> thank God that leggie was gold at least lol. I mean... would have been better to get a gold leggie of a playable guy unless you don't care about golds and just want the dust.

Agreed. Now I can craft a proper Legendary. I keep golden cards most of the time. Glad I did in the case of blade flurry because when it was nerfed I got 800 dust! I keep all my cards, golden or otherwise unless I need the dust, which is rare. Usually I spend dust on commons & rares but this time may be different.

Still unsure entirely what to craft so i'll hold off a week or so to decide. It's easier to spend dust and gold than get it back

JaBo wrote on 04/27/2016 at 04:10pm

Well, I'll provide some feedback of new ones as I use them. I have all but 3 of the new legs. Between the packs and 16k dust, I just grabbed almost everything.

New ragnaros is boss.

I put together a divine shield paly deck and added him as a topper (using challenger too). The priest I was playing literally shut me out all game.

T1 cleric keeps me from pooping a soldier he can kill and heal/draw from. So I put out the +1/+1 secret for team and wait.

When I finally play, I put out the 3/3 that gives shield to 1 toughness creatures. And I put out the defender secret. He pains the 3/3 and swings in to my now unprotected 2/1 secret defender. Kills it and heal/draws....

Ugg. I can only throw out soldier next turn (was holding blood knight). He steals it with cabal.

I cast the 5 mana 5 soldier spell and even throw off the resurrect secret (since I'm hoping my +1/+1 secret buffs my team). Well, he clears the board with excavated evil. But he doesn't kill the revived soldier. So my secret procs next turn to give me a lone 2/2 soldier. I trade it with the weakened cabal and I drop a mysterious challenger. He shadow words it. It comes back with 1 hp, he shadow words it again. FFS lol

I slam ragnaros down proudly knowing he's out of shadow word, fully expecting entomb tho. Heals me for 8.

He can't kill it. Next turn I give it +3/0 and divine shield, cast sword that buffs shielded minions by +1/+1, play my knight to steal shield to be a 6/6 himself, smash face for 13 (cadence procd too) and heal for 8.... It's gg from there.

JaBo wrote on 04/27/2016 at 04:15pm

Also, the new hogger was my last craft with my last dust... Not disappointed. Gotten so many creatures off him compared to they old one. Also.. Consider him as a defence to cthun. Each time he gets hit, instant new 2/2 body. If your board is empty and he plays Cthun, hogger can potentially proc 6 times before he dies, giving you 12 extra toughness to absorb the dmg. It's like an 18 health buffer against Cthun.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/28/2016 at 02:22am

I've heard many people say new Hogger is bad but he looks really good. Nice to hear you are having a good time with him and good to know about him soaking so much from C'Thun in a good way. I hadn't considered that before, but it makes sense!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/28/2016 at 02:27am

Bina and I got together tonight and challenged each other to the best out of three with these rules.

1. We pick a class for the other person.
2. You can only use Standard commons and basic cards.
3. You can only spend 5 minutes making the deck.

We went best of three and Bina won the series in our 3 matchup. It was really fun and I recommend it if people have friends to try it with. You can mix up the rules as you want too. I like the making the deck in a limited time though.

JaBo wrote on 04/28/2016 at 02:45am

I've been wanting pauper format! (Commons only) I like the time limit too

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/28/2016 at 03:14am

Right. It basically means, unless you cheat, you can't net deck and have to use cards that mostly everyone has. It was fun I played with cards I wouldn't otherwise.

JaBo wrote on 04/28/2016 at 03:36pm

That's why I like arena, too. Not to mention getting 5 copies of flame strike is just hilarious

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/28/2016 at 08:59pm

Did you get that at one point?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/28/2016 at 09:00pm

> That's why I like arena, too.

Yeah, it's a great format. I don't love the 150 gold to play model though.

That said, I plan on playing more this year so that should be interesting.

JaBo wrote on 04/29/2016 at 03:23am

I have gotten 5 flame strikes before, yeah.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/29/2016 at 04:15pm

That's incredible!

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The PGS Portable Continues The New PC Handheld Movement

Last week I wrote an article about the GPD Win which is a new PC portable that gives you the power of PC games in a small device. Now that Intel CPU's are getting much smaller the dream of owning a reasonably powered PC that fits in your hand is closer than ever. A new handheld PC system has surfaced and is called the PGS Portable. Right now, the PGS Portable is still in the early design and concept phase but their plans are very interesting. I want to note again that this is in very early stages with no working hardware yet I find their goals to be very interesting.

The PGS Portable aims to ship two competing versions. The lite version and the more souped up hardcore version. The hardcore version aims to ship with a 2560 X 1440 QHD Display, Windows 10, Intel Atom Quad-Core 2.4GHZ, Intel HD graphics, 8G RAM, 128G SSD, wireless n, bluetooth, usb 3, microHDMI, headphone jack, webcam and a DS-like second display. They claim the battery life should last up to 5 hours but I imagine that depends on the game and other factors. Compared to the GPD Win the PGS Portable is visually stunning and seems to be aiming directly at owners of existing Sony and Nintendo handhelds.

Like I said before, I imagine this space will heat up significantly as all the power we've come to love from our phones comes to PC gaming and I can't wait to see how it turns out.

http://pgslab.com/

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2889/the-gpd-win-is-a-vision-of-handheld-gamings-open-future

Train Hopper is the First Overwatch Comic

http://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/blog_header/bh/BHDB5NDH19O21461151580873.jpg

And it's a totally free PDF to download and read online by clicking the link below. Train Hopper is a very fun and short ride though a slice of the Overwatch world alongside the gunslinger McCree. Blizzard has said this is the first issue of a few comics to come and is well worth reading.

http://comic.playoverwatch.com/en-us

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable S4 E4: The Fallout 4 Episode Is Episode 4

In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable our main topic and review is of the 2015 smash-hit, Fallout 4. The Fallout 4 review will contain some spoilers, so be warned of that. We let you know before we head into spoiler territory and you don't need to skip the whole show to miss the spoilers.

In our "what we've been watching and playing segment" we talk about Alias, Fringe, Stardew Valley, Overwatch, Card Hunter, Final Fantasy VI & Hearthstone.

We talk about two breaking news topics in that Borderlands 3 will be worked on next by Gearbox after the Battleborn launch and Steam is now carrying Lionsgate films for rent.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/04/25/borderlands-3-on-gearboxs-menu-after-battleborn/

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/03/2016 at 12:09am

Thanks for mentioning Fringe! You've made it easy for me to decide what to watch next. I just finished watching Penn & Teller: Bullshit, which is a great show. Now I'm watching Fringe for the 2nd time, I don't know if I've seen the last two seasons. Perhaps I'll check out Alias next since I've never seen it, but I'm also thinking of watching The X-Files, Heroes, and Lost again (yes, I've seen all 3 once before).

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/05/2016 at 09:46am

So, is everyone in agreement that the Institute are the bad guys? I know Travis sided with them at least once to complete that end of story. That was the first ending I saw, because that's the side I chose. I don't think any of the groups are necessarily good or evil, I think it just depends on your perspective. I mean, yeah they're evil if you're the Brotherhood, but the Brotherhood is evil if you're the Institute. That was one thing I didn't particularly like, that once you get to a certain point in the game, you have to take sides. Even worse is that the endings really aren't all that different.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/06/2016 at 04:54am

> So, is everyone in agreement that the Institute are the bad guys?

I'm not but I need more information. That said, I trust Travis and WhiteboySlim so I bet they suck

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jdodson1

2753 Posts

Half-Life 2 Speedrun Method Explained

Disney & Lego Release Prequel Force Awakens Star Wars Cartoons

Prep Your Barbarians Because Diablo III Season 6 Is Live!

Upcoming Changes Coming For Stardew Valley

New Doom Features Original Doom Campaigns As Secret Easter Egg

New Information Comes Forward Casting Doubt On Something We've All Accepted

Hearthstone Dailies For Ghosts: ep. 10 Whispers Of The Old Gods Launch Day Pack Opening & Trololo

The PGS Portable Continues The New PC Handheld Movement

Train Hopper is the First Overwatch Comic

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable S4 E4: The Fallout 4 Episode Is Episode 4