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.

2748 Posts

Starcraft 2 Turns 5 - Celebrate For Aiur!
http://media.blizzard.com/sc2/media/wallpapers/wall061/wall061-2048x1536-standard.jpg
It feels like Starcraft 2 released 5 years ago and because of that, I can't wait to wrap up the trilogy with the upcoming final protoss installment, Legacy of the Void. Blizzard is marking the launch of Starcraft 2 with a free in game portrait drop by simply opening the game from now till August 3rd. So you know, grab that portrait... for Aiur!

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/19831343

Upcoming Patch 2.3.0 Adds New Zone & Horadric Cube
Blizzard is preparing a hefty update to Reaper of Souls and aims to bring back something we all loved from Diablo 2, the Horadric Cube. You can find the new cube, Kanai's Cube in the new zone Blizzard is adding called "Ruins of Sescheron." The new zone was cut from the shipped version of Reaper of Souls and will be added back in the upcoming 2.3.0 update. I am looking forward to checking this out when it ships as one thing that always impressed me about the game is how beautiful and inventive the zones are. It also looks like it features some awesome new monsters as well, which should give high level players something fun to do.

What do you all think of these additions to Diablo 3? Will Kanai's Cube and the new zone bring you back to Diablo 3?

Ruins of Sescheron trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiYqif-AUy8

Classic PopCop Game Zuma's Revenge Free On Origin
EA is giving away the classic PopCap "frog shoots ball from mouth to match colored balls game" Zuma's Revenge on Origin. If you haven't played any version of Zuma you should pick it up and give it a try. Zuma's Revenge on Origin works on PC & Mac.

New Hearthstone Expansion The Grand Tournament Coming Soon!
Blizzard just let us know what big Hearthstone news is and it's a brand new expansion called The Grand Tournament.

"The Grand Tournament bolsters the expanding Hearthstone library with 132 new cards, introducing all-new spells, weapons, and a retinue of Azeroth’s most renowned Champions ready to join your cause. Here’s a taste of what you can expect when you step into this Grand Tournament!"

In the Stream Blizz highlighted 5 new cards that focus on a brand new ability called Inspire that is activated when you use your hero power. I like this new ability and the new cards they have shown off really look to add a huge new dynamic to the game that should be interesting to see in decks in the upcoming months.

Next week Blizzard is doing a pre-sell on an exclusive card back + 50 Grand Tournament packs for $49.99, which is a reduced price from in game. At this point I am not sure if I am going to pick it, it's a damn good deal but I am still on the fence.

That said, excited to see this and I can't wait to see the new cards in action. What do you think about the Grand Tournament news?

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/19819218/the-grand-tournament%E2%84%A2-opens-this-august-7-22-2015

Tips & Strategies for New Hearthstone Players
Recently I've been seeing more people starting out in Hearthstone and wanted to write up some tips and starting ideas that helped me out. The in-game tutorials are good but they don't give you a direction or help you make choices about how to spend your time and gold. As you read this you might have something you have that helped you, drop it in the comments. This post is for new players to Hearthstone or people that are thinking about jumping in.

First thing is to keep in mind that you are new to the game and will lose a bunch until you figure out the games mechanics. It's OK, you don't know everything and you don't lose anything in game when you don't win a match. I am also writing this from the perspective of someone that wants to play the game without spending money, to date I haven't and that has worked out well to this point.


  1. Start out by playing all the heroes in Single Player mode and unlock them all to achieve all the basic cards. Don't build a deck, just play as the starting heroes and unlock all the cards in Single Player against the computer. Over time you will understand the basic flow of the game and by the time you level all the heroes you should be able to beat the computer most of the time.

  2. As you continue to unlock the basic cards in Single Player all the gold you acquire should be spent on card packs. You might not know if you pull anything good yet(one my first packs got me a Harrison Jones) but adding more cards to your game is important and you might pull something great.

  3. When you are done unlocking all the basic cards start playing with people online in unranked matches. When I got to this point I didn't even have a deck built yet. I didn't win much but I started to understand how real people played VS a computer. At this point you should be favoring a few classes over the others, stick to a couple and focus on learning them well.

  4. When you get tired of losing and understand your focused classes better, build a deck. Hearthstone has a great deck builder so just use that and then play with the deck you build. Based on how the matches go drop cards that don't work and replace them with cards you like. As you play against people you will see them do some cool stuff with cards you might have. Would that strategy work for you? If you see something someone does you like, steal it and make it your own.

  5. Every week play Tavern Brawl to at least win a match and get the free pack. Tavern Brawl is fun but the free pack each week is incredible, get it.

  6. Once you get some decks you like start saving in game gold up to unlock the first Hearthstone adventure, Naxxramas. Hearthstone adventures are great in that if you beat the adventure bosses you are assured certain cards. Naxxramas has some epically amazing cards you NEED to have for your decks. Sludge Belcher, Haunted Creeper, Maexxena & Kel'Thuzad are all incredible and will make your decks stronger. Each Naxxrama wing costs 700 gold to unlock so it will take you some doing to accomplish but the cards are well worth it.

  7. Understand how to reroll your daily quests to get the most gold possible. I outlined the steps I learned in a post here http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2508/heartstone-roundup-the-grim-patron-is-good-gold-stats

  8. Once you feel ready, each month you should play ranked matches and get to level 20. It's not too hard and if you do it you unlock a monthly unique card back for doing it. Personally I use the standard card back but it's nice to have options and it's something else to do in game.

  9. Understand all the in game basic quests because doing them rewards you with a ton of gold. http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/1ua5c9/hearthstone_for_beginners_guide_and_resource/

  10. If you are losing with a particular deck consider what cards you don't use and think about replacing them. Does your deck not have a good starting temp? Maybe you need more cards that cost less. Are you getting slammed by big creatures you can't match? Maybe you need more cards to help you later in the game.

  11. Be comfortable with experimentation. If you have an idea, build a deck and try it out. Playing against a computer is a good way to see if a deck has a minimum viability and playing against people is even better. Don't be afraid to try something new but it's also OK to have a mainstay deck you can't help but come back to.



If I forgot something let me know in the comments and i'll update this guide over time accordingly.

Far Cry 3 - An Open World Dark Shootageddon
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2Kbn8Q3PABI/maxresdefault.jpg
Last year in June I picked up the Far Cry franchise pack for about $15. I had picked up Far Cry 2 on PS3 from a discount bin a few years earlier and really enjoyed that and decided that picking up the original Far Cry, Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3 + all DLC & Far Cry Blood Dragon for $15 was a good idea. I recently completed Far Cry 3(yeah yeah, I took my time) and wanted to talk a bit about my experience with the game.

Largely I enjoyed the game and if you are looking for a fun open world shooter with tons of stuff to do, you need to pickup Far Cry 3. One nice thing about getting it now on PC is the rock bottom price and the fact that it comes with all the DLC out of the gate. That said, I had a rough start with Far Cry 3 and you can read about that below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2130/great-rpg-shooter-cliched-narrative

I stand behind my first experience with the game and note that I think my reaction was somewhat intended by the designers. I didn't realize it at the time but Far Cry 3 is an interesting game that mixes in satire and a meta story that puts a light on gamers and gaming culture that really didn't work on me to start. I thought the game was simply rolling with tired "white man saves the natives" tropes because it would sell to it's primarily white gamer dude audience. Whereas I am sure the game did well with white guys because the main character was a white guy if you pay attention to what is happening Far Cry 3 writes a compelling story about a protagonist that actually changes over the course of the game. Often we play shooters that have us do things that have absolutely no lasting world or character impact. Far Cry 3 differs in that your actions change how the characters you are trying to save feel about you. You actions also change the world you inhabit in very interesting ways.

The core gameplay is fun when you are not thinking too much about what you are being led to do. I sort of look at Far Cry 3 as Skyrim with guns but that's not a perfect analogy. You need to explore new areas to reach your objectives and to do that you need to unlock cell towers and bases. This can get tedious but since the game took me a year to complete, I didn't feel that as much as someone that may have played it straight through. The gun unlock and upgrade system is fun and I enjoyed sinking skill points into my character and see him progress.

Overall I had fun playing Far Cry 3 but when the ending credits rolled I didn't feel like I had accomplished much. By the end of the game your friends and family seem to be fearful of you and what I accomplished I didn't really enjoy doing. I kind of wish there was the "leave the Island and call the authorities" button but if you did that, many of your friends and family would have died. That said, Far Cry 3 has you reflect on your actions so does it make sense morally to kill thousands of people to save 5 or 6? If this were real life then i'd say hell no but then again, it's just a video game so it doesn't matter. Far Cry 3 is a solid shooter Island romp that might leave you a bit uneasy with what you are led to do but it has more life than the protagonists soul by the end of the game.

Fallout 4 Gameplay - Walk Around The Beautiful Wasteland
Some new Fallout 4 gameplay surfaced and it looks great. Is anyone else going to pick this up in November when it launches? The footage is a mixture of scenes we already saw at E3 and some new stuff featuring power armor. Spoiler alert, you get into power armor as if it were some kind of mech robo-suit.

Todd Howard has been talking to press lately and I found this Telegraph article interesting on the games voice acting.

"A lot of games have voiced characters, but what they don’t want to give up is all the dialogue options. So for us a lot of it was logistical. The voice actors have been recording for 2 years, they’ve each done over 13,000 lines of dialogue. So to be able to do that makes the difference; you still have choice."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/11723096/Fallout-4-interview-Bethesdas-Todd-Howard-on-building-the-apocalypse.html

Are you looking forward to skipping* all this dialog too? Let me know in the comments.

* I kid, I kid.

Starship Rubicon Drops On Steam -w Linux Port & Huge Update
Following in the vapor trails of our early 2015 release Starship Rubicon is now on Steam! It’s pretty exciting to be part of a game that is now available for people to play on Steam. Tick one off that bucket list!

This update is pretty massive in that it features an all new gravity gun, ship and level editor, mod tools and freshly baked Linux port. So you know, this seems like a great time to buy the game and everything so… why don’t you head over to Steam and get it?

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

If you bought Starship Rubicon through Cheerful Ghost/the Humble Widget, Itch.io or Desura we have already dropped a key on that site and it should be available very soon, because why buy it twice?

Recently you may have heard about some trouble on the PC game service Desura. Because of this we are recommending people not purchase the game on Desura. We have removed links to it from www.starshiprubicon.com and recommend people buy it from Steam or site direct via the Humble widget or Itch.io. We recommend people that bought the game on Desura to head over there and grab the Steam key and download the game files. We are both sad to see this happen to Desura as we love to support all the PC indie stores we possibly can!

Will A PC Live In Your Living Room? The Corsair Bulldog May.
Valve's SteamOS and Steam Machine Train is heading out of the station this November alongside their Steam Controller and lots of PC manufacturers are jumping on board. Corsair, makers of memory and other hardware has a new living room PC chassis called Bulldog that might be something worth checking out. It's a DIY kit that comes with a case, 600 watt power supply, hydro series liquid cooler & next gen motherboard featuring an Intel chipset starting at $399. This is aimed at people that want Steam in the living room but want the ability to upgrade the system over time. You'd need to add the RAM, hard drive and video card but after that you'd have a pretty slick setup.

I've approached a living room PC from the lower cost option but this seems to allow for a more powerful setup and run as much as the base cost+extra components. This is something i'll keep in mind as November gets closer.

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2015/june/what-is-bulldog-a-preview-guide-and-faq

This Is No Trap - The Force Awakens Comic-Con Panel
Star Wars VII is coming this December and it may be one of the most anticipated films in recent memory. Many fans are wondering if JJ Abrams magic will infuse the films with life again. I remain fairly hopeful as I try and consume every bit of non-spoiler information I can get my hands on. JJ and crew were at San Diego Comic-Con a few days ago talking about the new film and there were more than a few surprises to learn. Watch the entire presentation above and then check out the Force Awakens behind the scenes clip they release right afterward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTNJ51ghzdY

It was amazing seeing the new principle cast along with the dark side additions. When Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford came out things got nuts. When JJ took everyone to a special Star Wars concert afterward they sealed it for one of the coolest Comic-Con panels ever. December can't come soon enough. Anyone planning on seeing it during a special midnight showing?