jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012

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

2757 Posts

During the Flame Fatales 2021 Games Done Quick charity speedruns this year I watched a new run I hadn't heard of for Final Fantasy IV called Paladin%. Basically it's a speedrun all the way to when Cecil becomes a Paladin making a much quicker FFIV speedrun. Not only does this run feature a classic Square RPG but also a runner I hadn't seen before, Spoone who is an absolute delight to watch.


Titanfall 2 dropped in 2016 to a very crowded shooter landscape and such as it was, somewhat under-performed expectations. That said the franchise went on to launch APEX Legends which is one of the biggest free to play Battle Royale games around and as such when I picked up an XBox Series X I decided to give Titanfall 2 a go. I played a bit of APEX Legends and it's a great Battle Royale game but I'm not a huge player of those kinds of games beyond the occasional Fortnite match and after hearing incredible things from one of my friends about Titanfall 2 I picked it up on sale for a handful of bucks digitally.

Titanfall 2 Is Incredible In 120FPS

Titanfall 2 is one of those games that when Microsoft gave developers the ability to take advantage of the XBox Series X hardware Respawn allowed game to run in 4K at 120FPS. I've heard some of my friends say they don't care about graphics and for the most part I agree with the sentiment. When you're into something fun be it a movie or game the graphics aren't always the most important thing. That said, playing a game at 120FPS is really an incredible thing that gives a game a little extra. If you are getting a console or PC soon capable of this, I'd hold out picking up Titanfall 2 until you can experience it as it's quite special.

The Empire VS The Rebels with Robot Suits

It's a battle tested story. Evil Empire wants to destroy it all and you are part of the scrappy rebels that will stop at nothing to save it. (A planet maybe, I don't entirely remember) Titanfall 2 uses these tropes to the max and the way they blend them makes the gameplay seamless. I'll be honest, I'm not sure I followed everything going on with the story but it serves the gameplay and incredibly lush visuals which is all I could really ask for.

Titanfall 2 clocks in at about 6-8 hours for the main campaign which isn't very long and thank Euclid for that. I know lots of gamers are looking for an epic 5,000 hour game but I'm really not anymore. Time is a premium and frankly, I'm not sure what kind of game could really hold my attention that long anyway. Titanfall 2 doesn't feel long winded and by the time I was wondering when the story would wrap up, it did. The final boss fight didn't really feel like a final boss fight which I really appreciated. It wasn't particularly challenging, which again, seemed good to me. The final boss fight here seemed a bit more like the ending to Kill Bill 2, except with Robot Suits and more shooting and yelling. I suppose in retrospect they aren't a lot a like but I liked it wasn't hard.

Titanfall 3 Please

With the success of the infinite money machine of APEX Legends I hope a new Titanfall single player game is coming but it might not be a big priority for EA. It seems that some rumors have surfaced that EA has given Respawn the greenlight for Titanfall 3 but I'm not sure what form this game might take and a huge game in early discussions is a long way from a potential launch.


I’ve been curious how the story of Spider-Man No Way Home would work with Doctor Strange and the multi-verse. After the first trailer dropped I’m no longer wondering how it will work I just want to watch the movie already.

Spider-Man & Doctor Strange will both try and alter reality this winter ONLY in theaters on December 17th.


Speedrunner frozenflygone snacks through this unique Candy Box 2 run in a sweet 20:51 time. I’d never considered a clicker game would make for an interesting speedrun but this run delivers. If you haven’t heard of Candy Box 2 and want to take your hand at the clicking action we have a version you can play right now on Cheerful Ghost too.

So watch the run and click the candy fun

https://cheerfulghost.com/games/candybox2

Yum!


Quake is back with a proper remastered version by Night Dive Studios & all new campaign by MachineGames! If you have Quake on Steam on the Bethesda launcher your version will automatically upgrade. I have Quake on the Bethesda launcher and was happy to see the game update and I checked it out and it looks and feels fantastic. There is a new feature in this version of Quake where you can download Quake add-ons and right now Quake 64 is the only thing you can download. If how iD Software has treated Doom is an indicator I imagine they will add more Quake mods over time that will make it easy for fans to experience even more of this classic.

This new version of Quake is in 4K on all systems that can support and also has widescreen support, enhanced character models dynamic lighting, anti-aliasing, depth of field and includes each of the official Quake expansion packs: “The Scourge of Armagon” and “Dissolution of Eternity,” as well as two expansions developed by the award-winning team at MachineGames: “Dimension of the Past,” and the all-new “Dimension of the Machine.”

https://bethesda.net/en/article/40MBmNhJV3lzyV8c0IOIx3/quake-returns-with-an-enhanced-re-release-for-modern-platforms-available-now

Updated for modern platforms, this version of Quake features up to 4K resolution and widescreen support on compatible platforms, enhanced models, dynamic lighting, anti-aliasing, depth of field and more, bringing the shooter and both its expansions to a new generation of players.

With the power of Add-ons, players will have tons of free levels to play, with the re-release receiving post-launch support for the best community-made content.


Randomizers in the Speedrunning community are ROM hacks that breathe life into certain old games where a random experience can create a very thrilling run. Recently Games Done Quick showed off a run by Skybilz in The Legend of Zelda Consternation Randomizer which takes the original NES game and mixes up the items with a few other fun bits. In the run you can watch above, Skybilz plays through the Zelda randomizer twice and there are some really fun turns in level 9. Randomizers really flex a Speedrunners game knowledge and require a very deep focus on all the games items, levels and what's required to get to "go mode" which is having all the items such that you can complete the run.


Magic The Gathering is a classic collectable card game that continues to be the most popular of it's kind. Even during COVID it's more popular than ever and in 2019 Wizards of the Coast launched Magic The Gathering Arena to pitch the game in a new way to compete digitally with other digital card games such as Hearthstone and Gwent. I've tried earlier incarnations of Magic the Gathering in a digital form and found them to be severely lacking in that the user experience made the game a chore to play. Magic the Gathering Arena takes the Magic ruleset and streamlines the experience to make the game more accessible. I'm not an Magic expert so I'm not aware if any rules were changed in the digital form but it feels like the whole Magic experience.

Magic the Gathering Arena is free to play and as such I think folks should be wary that it might fall into the trapping of more modern free to play predatory game leanings. For instance, as someone that played Hearthstone in it's original form all the way through and then left due to the game becoming more focused on needing to buy packs, Magic Arena feels more than fair if you want to play for free. Right away Magic drops you into a set of tutorial modes that familiarize you with the base game such that you can earn a pretty solid deck for each color. After that you can play quests to earn gold to buy packs and unlock dual color decks that offer you even more ways to play. Right now I have 7 decks they have given me for free and seem to be able to unlock more as I play the game. I imagine you could construct even more decks from the free cards you get too, but as a Magic newb I'm not sure i'd have great results with that yet.

If you want to checkout Magic Arena it recently came to mobile on iOS, Android and you can also play it on PC and Mac on the Epic Game Store. Not only can you unlock a hefty amount of free decks but right now you can use the code PLAYDnD to unlock 3 new packs from the Dungeons & Dragons meets Magic in the Forgotten Realms expansion.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena-welcome


Recently Hungry Goriya reviewed the classic Wisdom Tree NES game Spiritual Warfare. Spiritual Warfare is a Zelda clone where a Christian Warrior takes on the evil spirits in their community and eventually goes to Hell and kills the Devil. I grew up Christian and my parents wanted me to be exposed to games with a more Christian focus so they bought me Spiritual Warfare in thick of the classic NES era. I played this game constantly as a kid so much so that I had every secret memorized and could be the game start to finish in a handful of hours. Spiritual Warfare is one of the better Zelda clones on the NES and where it's not revolutionary the items and zones are fairly memorable.

The Angry Video Game Nerd dedicated an episode to Wisdom Tree games and I felt his light focus on Spiritual Warfare did the game a dis-service. Is the game ham-fisted with it's Christian message and how you approach evil in your community? Oh yeah! Is it kind of funny and incredible at the same time? Very much. I'd say Spiritual Warfare exudes some of the best qualities likened to some of the best "bad films" in that it's earnestly doing it's thing while nearly satire in itself. I'm not approaching my genuine love of this game in any ironic way, I really enjoy this game and embrace it for it's very earnest pitch and also enjoy thinking about it's message from a more modern perspective.


Steam Deck is Valve’s latest hardware announcement that looks to put a PC in everyone’s hands. Similar to the Switch, Valve is building a handheld that runs Steam + Linux and looks to allow users the ability to play their Steam library and install whatever else they want including Windows. Steam Deck comes in three SKU’s and is available for pre-order right now with a $5 initial deposit.

I’m not quite sure if I’ll buy one in the end, but I’ve already pre-ordered the 3rd option (faster storage and anti-glare screen). For quite some time I’ve been very interested in Valve consoles and for someone to make a big play in the PC space with a handheld and this seems like it might be it.

Looks like Steam Deck will start shipping later in the year and I’m curious what everyone thinks about it?

https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck


The Summer Games Done Quick charity speedrun has begun and if you love watching people play videos games fast and supporting incredible charities, this for you. You know, even if that might not sound like it’s your thing I’d recommend clicking the play button above to give a random speedrun a few minutes.

Summer Games Done Quick donations go to support Doctors Without Borders which is a fantastic charity that brings medical help to the places in the world that are in need. So if you have a few minutes to watch some fun runs and a few bucks to chip in make sure you do!

Summer Games Done Quick runs from July 4th - 10th.

https://gamesdonequick.com/
https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick
https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/ui/donate/35