jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Jack And Rich Review Bloodbourne

Jack and Rich from Red Letter Media/Previously Recorded review the latest PS4 exclusive Bloodbourne. If you love Dark Souls, Demon Souls, Titan Souls, Wayward Souls or Soul music it looks like Bloodbourne is worth checking into. Jack wondered if Bloodbourne was a good enough reason to buy a PS4 and Rich seemed to agree. Not sure i'll pick one up for this game but all the Dark Souls games have come to PC eventually and this might be one I get. The fights look epic and who doesn't love gruesome horror games?

Star Wars VII The Force Awakens Trailer 2 Launches

It's so incredible and I nearly teared up. Yeah, just watch it because this movie looks absolutely amazing.

As always, discussion in the comments.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/16/2015 at 06:43pm

This is the most excited I've been over a movie... that I could ever remember. I almost teared up as well! I'm super kid giddy over this!

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/16/2015 at 07:37pm

I'll delete my post in the forums ;)

Yeah, this is amazing! The anticipation is just too much!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 04/16/2015 at 08:44pm

I am so freakin' excited about this movie! I tried to remain cautiously optimistic, but I failed. The Luke monologue! Han and Chewie! OMG!!

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/16/2015 at 08:57pm

Are we sure it's Luke speaking? Sounds awful young. Maybe a flashback? A youthful/slightly-passed-Jedi Luke talking to his niece or nephew?

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/16/2015 at 09:41pm

I'm guessing the voice over was Luke talking to one of the new main characters, possibly Finn (John Boyega).

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/16/2015 at 09:44pm

I really hope this doesn't become Star Wars: First Class though

Timogorgon Member wrote on 04/16/2015 at 09:46pm

It sounds like Mark Hamil, and it's the same dialogue Luke said to Leia on Endor (plus that added little bit at the end), so I think it's him. Mark Hamil's voice has held up pretty well over the years. Possibly due to his extensive voice-over work? :)

Travis Admin wrote on 04/16/2015 at 10:24pm

I don't know, X-Men: First Class was really damn good.

And yeah I thought it sounded like Mark Hamil. And freakin Han Solo!

https://i.imgur.com/IaLG69W.gif

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/17/2015 at 12:23am

I was excited about the trailer drop today but I wasn't expecting it to be so good. I've watched a bit of the Star Wars Celebration stream as I worked today and the fan response to the trailer has been pretty great. Vaders burned helmet, the Star Destroyers in ruin and Han and Chewie wrapping it all up.

Like WBS I was also trying to temper my excitement but... You know, I am only human.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/17/2015 at 12:25am

Star Wars Arcade Cab release video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv34R2dBy6Y

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/17/2015 at 02:37am

Regarding the Luke voice over: http://youtu.be/fMdVQ9avLxA

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/17/2015 at 02:50am

This whole trailer breakdown is pretty fun, too: http://www.slashfilm.com/the-force-awakens-teaser-2-images/

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/17/2015 at 03:38am

Yeah, it does seem to be from ROTJ then. Nice touch though, taking something from the old film. The music in the trailer is from the Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones trailer and it works very well here.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/17/2015 at 09:27pm

You all must watch Matthew Mcconaughey's reaction to the new Force Awakens Trailer. I feel ya Matt.

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

It's from Interstellar.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/17/2015 at 10:35pm

That's a good meme :D

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Every Mortal Kombat X Fatality In All The Brutal Glory

Mortal Kombat X released this week on PC and the consoles and to the amusement of fans it shipped with some pretty gruesome fatalities. Someone collected all the fatalities and released them in a video I linked above. Some people are saying these fatalities go too far and I see where people are coming from but consider this. When I was my young 90's self I was absolutely shocked and amazed watching Sub-Zero rip out someones spine. Mortal Kombat X has really amped up the gore here and like the Mortal Kombat of the past it pushes some buttons.

Are these new fatalities too much or are they a modern homage to a classic series?

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable: S3 E2 - It's Finally Coming

In this Episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we talk about the Cheerful Ghost Games Club and what we've been playing with that. We talk about replaying Half-life 2, Guild Wars 2, Titan Souls and the recently released Hearthstone on phones. We head to the main Roundtable discussion covering GDC and Valve's final Steam Controller, Steam Machines & Valve's new VR headset. As always we keep the discussion fun and hopefully Travis can answer why robots kept him away from this episode as for now, it's a secret to everyone.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/16/2015 at 09:20pm

I haven't finished watching the video yet, but I thought I'd answer Scrypt's question to the audience. On my old PC, I was trying to use a PS3 controller and that was with Morrowind. I tried XPadder or some other program, which actually worked when it emulated as an XBox 360 controller. I did finally get it working, though it took a bit of a process. When I got in the game, it didn't quite work out as I had hoped, so I stopped trying to use the PS3 controller on my PC. Last year, I bought a new Alienware PC and instead of trying to use a PS3 controller, I decided to buy a USB XBox 360 controller. That has worked out extremely well! I plug it in and it gets recognized. Recently, I've used it playing GTAV and I really enjoy it. I didn't have to do any configuration whatsoever for it to work, the game instantly recognized that I was playing with it. So, when the game was telling me how to use the controls, it showed the XBox 360 buttons. I did try the game with the keyboard and mouse, but thought the controller would make everything a bit simpler and give me more fluid movement. Thanks goes to Jon and Travis for their recommendation on getting that controller for my PC.

As for the Steam controller, I agree with a few things you guys said. I think the buttons being under the D-Pad area on the right might be odd, especially to someone who's used to having those buttons above. I'm not sure how it's going to work and I imagine for some games it might do well. Personally, I'm happy with my current set up and don't anticipate getting a Steam controller.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/16/2015 at 09:55pm

Thanks for the reply, @GregoPeck. The convenience of the XBox 360 controller is certainly a good thing. I'm thankful, since, in general, I prefer playing games with a controller. I thought Sony had mentioned driver support for PC for the DualShock 4 at some point, but that could have been a dream I had.

From what I've read about the Steam controller, it seems that the games will have to support it in order to get that same type of native recognition. Otherwise, you'll have to do some button-mapping to get the games to work. I don't anticipate the controller to natively support most Steam games. I'm sure Valve will have some user-contributed database of layout options that you can download from, but then you'll probably still have to do some tweaking to suit you're needs. Native SteamOS games won't have this problem. Developers are probably already being encouraged to patch their existing offerings with Steam Controller support.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/17/2015 at 12:28am

I think the Alienware Steam Machine is at the top because the list looks like it's in alphabetical order. That $5,000 one is seriously awesome (hardware wise). 8TB SSD, that sounds awesome! Still, I spent less than that on my Alienware PC and it's superb, so I don't expect to be buying another PC or even a Steam Machine for a very long time.

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Hearthstone Launches on iPhone and Android Devices

http://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/blog_header/hf/HFVRX3M6X10H1428616926500.jpg

Blizzards digital collectable card game just dropped on iPhone, Android Phone and Amazon phones today. It features a very streamlined interface built with small screens in mind. I played 3 matches on my iPhone 5S today and they ran flawlessly. As someone that isn't really into tablets or playing Hearthstone at the Desktop I love Hearthstone on my phone. As far as I am concerned it's the best way to play it and allows for very casual in and out play.

I recommend you play a match on your phone as they are handing out a free card pack to everyone that plays a game for a time(practice matches included).

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/18648148/hearthstone%C2%AE-now-available-on-mobile-4-14-2015

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/15/2015 at 03:40pm

Very cool. I downloaded it this morning. I'm much more likely to play games on my phone than anything else these days.

Playing the first few intro matches, it's working really well. It does seem to have a long load time when you first boot it up, but it's not too bad. I think I'll be enjoying this game :)

JaBo wrote on 04/15/2015 at 05:32pm

Just tried it on my phone. It's funny the way it's ported over.

I play this game on my laptop, my tab, and phone.

I had played it on my phone before using the hacked version for tabs and it ran fine. It's different now because they made the interface bigger and rearranged things so it can fit on smaller phones.

My tab is a galaxy tab 3:
DISPLAY
Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 7.0 inches (~66.0% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 600 x 1024 pixels (~170 ppi pixel density)

My phone is a galaxy note 4:
DISPLAY
Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 5.7 inches (~74.2% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels (~515 ppi pixel density)

I almost wish I could adjust the resolution, because everything feels a tad too big and I'd like it zoomed out a little (on my phone).

That said, I'm glad it's finally released in full for phones.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/15/2015 at 11:42pm

I am glad it's out too.

Oh hey, JaBo I had a question based on something I saw in a casual match. I was playing some random person and they were playing REALLY badly. They brought out a boar with charge and didn't attack right away. They also aimed a fireball spell directly at them which did damage to them, which i've never seen before. I am curious if this person was just really bad or possibly throwing the match for some reason? The end result was I won match and I got some gold from a daily quest but it was a strange fight.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/17/2015 at 03:22pm

I am officially addicted to this. Haven't played a lot of PVP matches yet, as I'm unlocking all the different starter decks, and learning about customizing decks.

This game is really a lot of fun!

JaBo wrote on 04/20/2015 at 08:56pm

Yeah, I've been hooked on this game for over a year now, it's just too quick and easy to pick up and play.

Jon, It sounds like they either were an 8 year old or possibly having trouble with lag causing them to fireball themselves. I've had it happen to me once where I went to fireball something and as I was dragging it from my hand across, I lagged and it dropped my fireball on top of myself... it was awesome lol.... But it sounds like more than one "noobie" thing going on here. So my guess is a really young player

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/25/2015 at 02:08pm

Makes sense, thanks JaBo. Hasn't happened after that.

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Interstellar And That Baseball Scene IMAX Frame

Interstellar is a new sci-fi epic by Christopher Nolan about a crew of astronauts that travel to space to find a new home for humanity. Christopher Nolan is a great director and I usually enjoy his films and Interstellar was no exception. The story, cinematography, acting and score are all top notch and really showcase a director at the top of his game. If you love hard sci-fi you need to watch Interstellar.

When I really enjoy a film I buy it. I typically watch movies I love many times over and I also like scouring over the extended scenes, outtakes and behind the scenes features. I usually buy films on Bluray as digital copies don't usually provide extras, commentary tracks or the ability to loan to a friend. The Interstellar Bluray had a cool feature where they would clip out an IMAX film cell to include with each Bluray package. It's a cool addition for fans of the film and makes sense when you consider that Christopher Nolan is one of the few remaining film makers that insist of shooting on reels of film and not digital. There is a larger debate in cinema on the merits of film VS digital and if you want to go into that more, I recommend Keanu Reeves amazing documentary Side by Side. Needless to say I don't have a preference but I think Nolan does have a look to his films that other directors don't and I imagine shooting on film is one of the components of that.

When I heard that Interstellar included an IMAX frame from the film I was interested in getting something featuring the machines Tars or Case. That said there are a ton of great scenes in the movie and any of that would have been great too. When I got the movie I was excited to see what frame I would get and opened it with gleeful anticipation. Nothing could have prepared me for the massive disappointment of opening it up and finding out I got a frame of the baseball scene. Now the scene was good and made sense in the film and I have no problems with it at all and quite enjoyed it, it's just that.... A BASEBALL PITCHING FRAME FROM A SPACE MOVIE???? *Sigh* Massive first world problems disappointment.

Most movies don't release a film cell with the Bluray so adding it is a pretty unique thing and I am actually pretty happy to have an IMAX frame at all. Still, I think I would have preferred a main character looking like a derp instead of a frame of someone pitching a baseball. That said, this IMAX frame will go up on my bookcase of nerd treasures and it's still pretty cool to have even if it is a baseball pitching frame from a space movie.

That said, if anyone buys Interstellar and is upset that they didn't get an IMAX frame from the baseball scene I have a high quality frame I would be willing to trade for just about whatever else you've got.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_%28film%29
http://sidebysidethemovie.com/

Super Mario Bros. 3 Remix Review

RetroLiberty's Shauntendo64 reviews the Super Mario Brothers 3 hack, Super Mario Bros. 3 remix. This is a game that I am interested in playing as it mixes elements from Mario 2, 3, Super Mario World, Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine all on the Mario 3 engine. It's a great review and the ROM hack looks like one of the more creative fan versions of the game.

Heroes Of The Storm Beta Key Giveaway II

I guess Blizzard likes me because I have four more beta keys to giveaway. This time I am giving preference to long time Cheerful Ghost users. So if you want a key, hit me up in the comments and i'll send it your way!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/09/2015 at 04:06pm

This is a very fun MOBA! I recommend everyone check it out!

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/09/2015 at 06:24pm

More fun than LoL?!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/09/2015 at 07:29pm

I've actually never played LoL. But I've played Dota2 a ton. It's not quite as good as Dota2, but that could be because that was my first, or because I've put so much more time into it.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/09/2015 at 07:40pm

Right on. I should probably just try it. I'll queue it up tonight.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/09/2015 at 10:09pm

I've played LoL and DOTA2 one about as much as the other, and the hyper-elitism turned me off. I'm sure Heroes will get there as well, but the learning curve is a little better so you aren't kicked or ganged up on because you suck.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/09/2015 at 10:10pm

And that also goes into Greg's discussion about competitive games. DOTA2 and LoL go far past my competitiveness threshold, so I may not be the right person to ask about how Heroes compares.

rettisawesome wrote on 04/09/2015 at 10:41pm

I would play if there were any more keys. But no worries if not.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/09/2015 at 10:50pm

rettisawesome: sent.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/10/2015 at 06:09am

Started it up and played through several of the practice matches. It's a lot more simple than both DotA 2 and LoL, but I kinda like that. I could see sinking a few hundred hours into this ;). Tempted to pick up the Nexus Bundle...

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/10/2015 at 03:28pm

Just changed my Battle.net ID to scrypt#1203, to make myself easier to find, for those who want to par-tay :squirrel:.

JaBo wrote on 04/10/2015 at 08:14pm

I'd probably play with rett if you have an extra key. I love MOBAs (like dota 2). I tried getting Tim to play dota2 with me. He tried once and we had some asshat with us that I quickly defriended after he went all rage mode... poor Timmy...

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/10/2015 at 08:34pm

JaBo: sent.

JaBo wrote on 04/10/2015 at 09:12pm

Awesome! Rett let's play!

rettisawesome wrote on 04/11/2015 at 06:42pm

Thank you much! Jason m down. I'll install asap

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Criticisms For a Classic Game - Donkey Kong Country

With the Cheerful Ghost Games Club playing Half-life 2, my recent play through of The Legend of Zelda and now Donkey Kong Country I have been having a good time just playing through the classics. It's been really fun but as i've been reliving these games and often times I noticed things I hadn't before. With Donkey Kong Country and my recently play through of it may have tainted my perspective on what I used to think was a perfectly constructed game. Don't get me wrong, the play control, music and tone of the game are still unmatched but the game has some pretty huge glaring issues I never noticed before.

The biggest problem the game suffers from is that it gets it's difficulty simply by making certain levels so hard you need to memorize them to complete them. For instance, there is a minecart level that is so hard, i'd argue the majority of it is impossible to complete without completely memorizing where everything is located. This reliance on memorization was pretty common for old games but doesn't make it any less cheap. I would say a good platformer can be challenging but not so brutal you simply just need to burn it into your muscle memory to complete it.

Another sticking point with me and this game is that the difficulty is so varied as well. The game goes from a pretty even difficulty for the first level to a massive brick wall in level two that will leave your head spinning.

All that said, Donkey Kong Country contains some of the best platforming mechanics on the Super Nintendo. It contains some incredibly beautiful graphics and music and I really enjoy the in game bonus stages and banana collection. At the end of the day i'd still consider this a classic, but it's so cheaply brutal it's legendary status dropped a few pegs.

Game/Show Talks About Speedrunning

I thought this recent episode of Game/Show was well worth sharing as it covers an arena of gaming I mostly just watch with awe. A good speedrun is pretty magical and it's been a joy to see how quickly people can complete games like Ocarina of Time, which seems to be the current speedrun gold standard.

"Speedrunning! The competitive genre of choice recently that’s popping up on Reddit, Twitch, Youtube, and basically anywhere you can watch video. Recently popularized by people like Cosmo through his run of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, speedrunning is becoming the next big thing (and possible foil) to most games’ competitive scenes. Instead of doing your best to play by the rules, you break them! You try and beat the game as fast as you can in an exhibition of wit, reflex, and raw talent."

jdodson1

2731 Posts

Jack And Rich Review Bloodbourne

Star Wars VII The Force Awakens Trailer 2 Launches

Every Mortal Kombat X Fatality In All The Brutal Glory

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable: S3 E2 - It's Finally Coming

Hearthstone Launches on iPhone and Android Devices

Interstellar And That Baseball Scene IMAX Frame

Super Mario Bros. 3 Remix Review

Heroes Of The Storm Beta Key Giveaway II

Criticisms For a Classic Game - Donkey Kong Country

Game/Show Talks About Speedrunning