jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

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

2731 Posts

Tales From The Void - My Thoughts On The First Half of Starcraft II Legacy of The Void
I am a StarCraft zombie from way back so when news of the final chapter of the StarCraft II series was releasing I zerg rushed to get it. Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm took the series into a much deeper and more interesting place and as seen in my numerous play sessions of both games. Legacy of the Void continues the epic saga and I can safely say that it's quite enjoyable and so far, a very entertaining ride. I don't want to spoil the game for anyone so I am going to not get too specific about anything I feel is related to the plot.

As the game launches you back into the StarCraft-verse things happen that I didn't expect but make sense with how Blizzard like to tell stories. After the initial couple missions things get very bleak, which makes sense considering they want you to feel like the odds are against you and you might not win. But since you always win in video games that you spend the time to complete this trope is honestly starting to feel a bit played out. It's not that I don't mind the odds stacked against you in a game, it's just that the lengths Blizzard goes to accomplish that seem entirely transparent. I'll try to explain what I mean without getting too specific about the story but at one point you come across a race that did very well in the last couple games and should be quite strong yet in one mission they are unbelievably devastated. "You mean all the stuff I did in the last games to build things up are wiped out in a mission or two? *sigh* sure Ok then." The only other thing I found a bit obnoxious was the Protoss have very well reasoned plans with clear objectives that keep getting figured out for not apparent reason. The game makes it plain that you are on the cutting edge of an idea and means to make you believe you arrive on location before the enemy does to only be hoodwinked by them as they have already arrived and are extremely well prepared. The game basically wants you to believe that when you come to some news first and leave right away the bad guys beat you to the punch... every... single... time. Again, this isn't a bad trope if you do it once or twice but it happens all the time.

That said the other aspects of the game are solid and extremely enjoyable. The diversity of missions is solid, the art direction is incredible and the music is top notch. If you loved the earlier StarCraft games you'd do well to play this one as it's a fitting end to the series.

The Best Gift Of All - The Starship Rubicon Demo For The Holidays
After a string of summer events showing Starship Rubicon, winter approaches, and as such comes the incredible march of the holiday sales. Starship Rubicon will join the legions of games on sale and we want to give people an extra incentive to buy the game at its super discounted rate so today we are launching a demo. If you haven’t tried Rubicon and have always wanted to this is your chance! As everything awesome in the PC space the Starship Rubicon demo runs on PC, Mac and Linux and contains a tasty slice of the actual game in 3 playable ships and the entirety of level Sol level 2. As with most demos we keep some of the great stuff for the full meal deal but we think there is a lot here to try and it’s well worth your time.

For folks that may not know, Starship Rubicon is a modern take on the classic space shooter genre. It's a smart and challenging rogue-lite that features a unique control scheme, pixel art remixed with real NASA photographs, and an existential crisis about who is REALLY the monster.

In Starship Rubicon, Earth has been casually destroyed by a mysterious race of space-faring invertebrates. You are a fighter pilot whose cryopod has been collected by a possibly-insane AI, who has placed you in the unenviable position of being humanity’s savior. Shanghaied and alone, you must gather the remaining human survivors and traverse the surprising biodiversity of deep space to find a new home.

Download the Starship Rubicon demo on Steam now.

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

My Review Of Valves Steam Controller - A Great Couch PC Experience
Valve is making a big push into the living room and the new Steam Controller is a large part of that. As reviews pour in what I've read hasn't left me with a good impression. Based on some reviews you might think Valve is insane and the new controller is an abysmal failure but i'd like to offer a different perspective.

Valves new Steam controller is amazing at some things and meh at others. Overall though, it provides a great middle ground that doesn't prefer one PC game type to another, which I think gives people a skewed impression.

So let's talk about what the Steam Controller doesn't do well to get that out of the way. In my opinion the Steam Controller isn't great at first person shooters. Don't get me wrong, it's fine but compared to the XBox 360 controller or keyboard and mouse the Steam controller isn't great. The dual trackpads don't make for a great aiming experience but that doesn't mean you can't have fun using it. It's not just not ideal. Since FPS games dominate the gaming landscape this control perspective will dominate the Steam controller discussion. That said, if you verge into nearly any other game type the Steam controller does very well.

So lets dive into the games I tried and I'll talk a bit about each.

Portal 2

This experience was fine but from the couch the 360 controller is superior. Since Portal 2 isn't a twitch game the Steam controller experience isn't bad at all I just prefer the traditional game-pad or keyboard and mouse.

Fallout 4

Bethesda provided a default binding for the Steam controller, which is great in every way except aiming. It just never felt responsive enough. I feel like you have to flick with the trackpad way more than you should but if you turn the sensitivity up it feels too jittery. If you stick to VATS for attack things are fine but in my opinion the 360 controller is better from the couch.

Rage

Honestly Rage felt a bit better but perhaps I was just getting used to the Steam controller at this point. Again not a bad experience but for these kinds of twitch shooters a 360 controller might serve you better. Then again, I really can't play this game with the 360 controller either as I can't really hit anything. But you know, iD games were born on the keyboard and mouse and I find that a better way to play the game.

Little Inferno

Non FPS games are where the Steam controller shines and Little Inferno is a great experience. Had no issues with the game and found the couch experience to be extremely fun.

FTL

Whereas the controller isn't as accurate as a mouse this game is very playable on the couch. Since you can pause the game you can take a bit more time to do what you need. FTL from the living room wasn't something I thought could work but the Steam controller makes this possible.

Age of Empires 2

If you don't mind hunting and pecking for building things, Age 2 works OK. I'd dumb down the AI considerably because of that but if you need to play Age 2 from the couch it's possible. I don't love it but it works well enough.

Hearthstone

This was the first game I tried and it worked perfectly. No special mappings or anything, just load up the game and go.

Diablo 3

Frankly this worked better than I thought. Whereas I didn't do this, if you could import Diablo 3 into Steam you could bind the Steam controller properly to make this a extremely seamless experience. That said I just played by clicking the mouse and it worked way better than I thought it would. Valve made a great controller that works well with Blizzard titles, so thanks Valve!

Binding of Isaac

Since the Steam controller ships with a standard analog stick and physical buttons games like The Binding Of Isaac work just as well as a traditional controller. The community even has a really interesting binding set that takes advantage of the trackpads in a really unique way in that you can move and shoot using them by touch or click. It's one of the more novel uses of the Steam controller and I tip my hat to the people that made it.

Knights of Pen and Paper

Like Hearthstone, this game works very well as it is primarily driven by the mouse. Games like this is where the Steam controller shines.

Terraria

The best Terraria control experience in my opinion is on the PC with a keyboard and mouse. I've never felt comfortable playing it with a PS3 controller or even on my iPhone. The controls just felt awkward. That said, Re-Logic has an official binding set for the Steam controller that makes it one of the best ways to play the game. It's not as good as the keyboard and mouse but it's damn good and I was surprised how well it worked. It takes a bit to learn but offers a really interesting way to play the game you should try.

Escape Goat 2

This is another title that works flawlessly due to the analog stick and physical buttons. Great experience.

Guacamelee!

Again, great experience due to analog stick and physical buttons.

Kingdom Rush

The community keybindings make Kindom Rush work really well. I'd say I enjoyed the couch experience more than using the traditional keyboard and mouse. I even enjoyed it more than playing it on my phone.

Shovel Knight

One more game that works just as well as using a traditional controller due to the analog stick and physical buttons.

In Conclusion

In a diverse Steam library that demands to be played from the living room the Steam controller is superb. If your gaming diet is primarily first person games i'd recommend you trying the Steam controller before buying it. Since it's new Valve is updating it's firmware, fixing bug and Steam games are getting more community and official bindings. Based on the early reviews I didn't expect it to be good but what I found was a lot more fun and should get better with time.

James & Mike Play The Famicom Legend of Zelda
Many of us grew up playing the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. That said, the NES wasn't the original launch system for the Legend of Zelda and James and Mike from Cinnemassacre talk about the original Famicom version. It differs from the US version and they discuss them as the play the game.

Pols Voice: A ghost with big ears and a weak point – he hates loud noises.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Is Coming
Mystery Science Theater 3000 recently achieved it's crowdfunding goal on Kickstarter for three new episodes. It's a little under halfway to it's further goal to full fund a full 12 episode season if the nerd crowd so desires. Either way we will be getting new episodes which is an awesome thing. If you were alive in the 90's you may have caught this show on Comedy Central and later on the SciFi Network. One yearly staple was MST3K Turkey Day where Joel and Bots would select 6 episodes to show over the course of Thanksgiving and record a new video segment to kickoff each episode. In the last couple years Turkey Day has been something they've continued through streaming and this year should be worth checking out.

Why not relax with this message from Internet sensation Joel Hodgson:

"If you've been watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 for a while, maybe you already know about a little holiday tradition that we like to call the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon.

Every year on Thanksgiving, we get together and spend the day giving thanks for our favorite meal: the cheesy movies that have been feeding Mystery Science Theater 3000 since we first aired on Thanksgiving Day in 1988.

Now that you're part of our family, I'd love for you and your family to become part of our tradition."

If you are interested in forgoing football in favor of 6 classic MST3K episodes there are a ton of options to stream it free online on their Kickstarter page.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k/posts/1420187/

Cheerful Ghost Video Mini: Every Starcraft II Collectors Edition Unboxing
I do a quick unboxing video of all the Starcraft II Collectors Editions featuring Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.

Can't Play Fallout 4? Play Fallout 3 Instead!
Lots of us on Cheerful Ghost are playing Fallout 4 but I understand many of you can't right now. Christmas is right around the corner or maybe your PC isn't up to the task. Not partaking in Fallout 4 might be your reality but why not play the next best thing with Fallout 3?

Bundle Stars has a crazy deal on the Fallout Series where you can pickup Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3 Game of the Year and Fallout New Vegas Game of the Year for only $20. This is one of the best deals in our pre-apocalypse so grab it while you can.

https://www.bundlestars.com/en/bundle/fallout-bundle

If you want to pickup each game in the series they have deep discounts on those as well.

https://www.bundlestars.com/en/games?publishers=Bethesda%20Softworks

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable S3 E7: The One Where We Fall Down 4 Times
In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we get together to work our fears and thoughts on the upcoming Star Wars The Force Awakens. We also discuss what we are all playing which is mostly Fallout 4.

Come for the fun banter, stay for belt references along with WhiteboySlim and his hat.

The History of iD Software
In 1993 iD Software melted the faces off the entire world with the release of Doom on DOS. Doom was a masterpiece of violence and gore that ushered in a new era of gaming with the First Person Shooter. iD created some very iconic work such as Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake and as many books and documentaries have been dedicated to the topic. I recently saw one you all need to check out and is linked above. The video is somewhat dated in that it was released in a post Rage world but it mentions the upcoming Doom reboot and the sale of the company to Zenimax/Bethesda.

Jack & Rich Review The Steam Controller. "It's A Spork"
In the latest episode of Previously Recorded Jack and Rich don't paint a very good picture of the Steam controller. After watching a couple hours of Rich playing games he doesn't look like an easy person to please but I do respect his opinion. Both seem to think the Steam Controller was a good idea that hasn't quite hit it's stride yet. I've read some reviews that speak well of it but I haven't heard anyone say it's a slam dunk win and something they love using.

I plan on getting a Steam Machine soon but am a bit nervous of the prospect as the Steam Controller is a large part of what makes the Steam in the Living Room work.