A new Terraria 1.3 trailer was released today that is no joke. The video shows off people joining a game using Steams match making service. Before, you had to set up a server if you want to play a quick game with your friends. From there it's a frenzied battle on what looks to be a Martian themed event.

Terraria 1.3 looks like it will be the biggest update ever, which is impressive considering how massive 1.2 was.

I've been feeling pretty horribly recently after coming down with the flu for the second time this year. Having the flu is a miserable process during which you find out how much unfortunate material can come out of your nose. I've been spending quite a lot of time resting and have had a few hours of time to fill. I've wanted to replay some classic NES titles, something Travis inspired me to do after he started his recent series 80's reruns(looking forward to the next installment). I decided to not cut any corners and head back to the grand daddy NES classic The Legend of Zelda. I am not going to spend much time aggrandizing the game, we all know how awesome it is. Instead I want to talk a bit about how I play the game and how that process went this time around.

First things first, The Legend of Zelda can be completed quickly if you have a good guide or know what you are doing. I spent about 5 days of an hour here and there and I had it completed quickly. As someone that is now enjoying smaller games, The Legend of Zelda shines here. I don't believe Nintendo set out to create a short game but due to NES limitations the game isn't very long.

The Legend of Zelda is an open world game such that you can complete certain dungeons out of order and spend a lot of time in the overworld before you start dungeon one. My typical play through finds me collecting the blue candle, shield, blue ring, blue sword, bombs, arrow, letter and red potion and bait before I start the first dungeon. When I was young I used to go directly to dungeon two to get the silver boomerang as that was MUCH more useful than the wooden one you get in dungeon one. From there I'd nab the bracelet and keep going to each dungeon until I could nab the master sword.

One useful thing that helps out quite a bit is overpowering yourself by collecting a bunch of stuff when you have the ability to as opposed to a bit at a time. The game ramps up pretty quickly in dungeon 6 and at that point you can't get the master sword yet so the dungeon is just really hard. So do yourself a favor and get everything you can before you enter a dungeon, it will help considerably.

The Legend of Zelda contains some really interesting dungeon design. The first few dungeons are good at dropping you into the game and to my taste get a little samey during the middle runs until dungeon seven, eight and nine which are superb. Dungeon seven is a standout in that instead of giving you something entirely new as most of the dungeons did to that point, it combines many things you've already seen. It also takes the difficulty down and I found it a very nice change of pace. Dungeon 8 brings the difficulty back and enforces that you must kill room after room of blue knights, which are in my view the hardest enemy in Zelda until you get the red ring.

http://www.gamedynamo.com/images/galleries/photo/966/the-legend-of-zelda-nes-screenshots-09.JPG

The final level mixes things up even more by bringing maze like mechanics to bear. It also contains the red ring, something you should immediately try to get as it makes completing the rest of dungeon much simpler.

The Legend of Zelda is a great game but has a few design points I thought might not have worked as they may have intended or I haven't seen in any Zelda game since. For instance you can collect keys and those keys will work in all of the dungeons. You can also purchase keys in shops. The Legend of Zelda also has dungeons where you don't need to visit every room to collect the important items. What this has the effect of doing is giving you a glut of keys if you know which rooms are useless. For instance, after dungeon two I had about 6 keys. This meant that I had to spend little time collecting them in later dungeons, which is part of the Zelda puzzling mechanic. Later on you receive a magical key in dungeon 8 that allows you to unlock an infinite amount of locked doors. This is handy for dungeon nine and made it a much speedier process but practically speaking, you can get this behavior after dungeon two by hoarding keys.

One element I noticed this play through is how hard it is to hit enemies without taking damage yourself. I realized over time that one of the reason the boomerang exists isn't just to collect hard to reach items but make it so you can kill enemies without taking as much damage as you would otherwise. The stun first and sword attack is critical in this game as it isn't in later Zelda titles. For instance in The Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past the boomerang can be used to stun and it's useful but it's not as critical as it is in this game to stay alive.

If you have any thoughts about the Legend of Zelda or anything i've written about let me know in the comments.

The Humble Indie Bundle is back with it's 14th-ist Bundle yet! Featuring the Indie smash hits Pixel Piracy, UnEpic, Outlast, Torchlight II, La-Mulaa and Super Splatters. Pay more than the currently $10 average to unlock Shadow Warrior Special Edition and if you pay $40 you get a neat shirt, patch and scarf. I've always wanted a scarf.

As per normal all the Humble Indie Bundle games come with Linux, Mac and Windows ports DRM free as well as Steam Keys so you can unlock it over there.

I've been interested in trying Pixel Piracy, is this the right time to pull the trigger?

A free update recently dropped in the laps of all Legend of Dungeon fans. The game finally gets some cool new unlockable classes including pets! Getting more build diversity sounds like a good move as it will give the game even more replayability.

If you follow the site you are aware that we are all pretty excited about Steam Machines and the Steam Link. I've mostly been tuning out the other stuff because, to date, nothing has seemed as compelling as buying a game in one place on Steam and playing it anywhere I want.

With that, last week I found out about the upcoming Nvidia Shield Console that is a $200 high powered Android TV device that supports in home streaming and Nvidia's new Grid service. Using Nvidia's in home PC streaming you can broadcast your Steam games to your Nvidia Shield console. Steam Machines and the Link do that too but what is interesting is the Shield console runs a full blown Android TV system which supports Chromecast streaming, Android TV apps including Pandora, Netflix and Hulu. It's also not hard to unlock Android TV to install other apps on it. So if you are looking for a system that does a bit more out of the box AND handles Steam game streaming this might be something to put on your radar.

That said, the Nvidia console option does come with one negative in that it weds you to playing all your PC titles to use Windows as Nvidias streaming only works on Windows PCs. Steam in home streaming can stream from Mac, Linux or Windows so you can fling whatever Steam game from whatever OS it may run on.

http://shield.nvidia.com/console

It's been a long time since Fortnite was unveiled by Cliffy B at PAX. Since then Cliffy has left Epic and started his own game company, Epic released Unreal 4 engine for free and Unreal Tournament is getting a reboot. Fortnite has remained in pretty active development but I haven't heard very much about it from others or the press. As I was reading about Fortnite I watched the video above showing off game play, construction and basic game mechanics. In Fortnite (or one mode of it) your team builds up a base to survive the oncoming hordes of invaders. Some of your team members gather resources while others build the base to hold up to the invasion. After watching the video I have a better idea of what the game is but certain aspects of it are still shrouded in the mystery of it being in alpha. If it's anything like the early beta of Unreal Tournament, Fortnite should be really fun. It's nice to get a co-op team based shooter that's focused on building mechanics as well as shooting things in the face.

Double Fine is releasing the second and final act of Broken Age on April 28th. Most of us have followed this game from it's record breaking Kickstarter to it's act one launch to it's eventual final chapter in April. I picked up Broken Age as a Slacker Backer during one of the Amnesia Fortnight events. I wanted to wait until the game was fully released to start playing it so hopefully i'll have the time to start it up when April 28th comes round.

Curious if anyone has played this and what they think of act one so far(please no spoilers).

http://steamcommunity.com/app/232790/discussions/0/618457398956845716/

After the gamemaster was finished explaining the rules for March of the Ants I was ready to build my colony. As a young kid I couldn’t get enough of SimAnt so it seemed like March of the Ants was something i’d enjoy. Created by Portland locals Ryan Swisher and Tim Eisner, March of the Ants was successfully Kickstarted to it’s currently released state of strategic game goodness. The joy of playing a locally crafted board game run by the people that had a hand in developing it is one of the reasons why attending GameStorm is a unique experience. Plus it doesn’t hurt if you can take down a rogue centipede or uncouth spider. If you are looking to play new games in early stages or buy something new to take home and play GameStorm is for you. I was asked to attend this year and had some time so I stopped by to hang out and play.

For the weekend it runs GameStorm offers around the clock access to LARPs, RPGs, board games, CCGs, panels, tournaments and more. I was able to sit down with GameStorm Chair Debra Stansbury to talk about this years convention and our mutual love for games.

jdodson: What are one of your favorite parts of GameStorm?

Debra Stansbury: For me what I like the best about GameStorm is that we contacted Kamarion and they now run our gaming with LAN and console games. Upstairs we have the CCG’s and have 5 different kinds of RPGs, which I love. I play RPGs at home but not at the convention. Every year people have an idea for things to try and we just try something new and it becomes part of the convention. Like the giant Jenga board and the kids and their little hard hats. This year we had the garage level G which were not expecting.

jdodson: Right so I had a question about the garage. Due to space issues and some scheduling you had to use a garage level and I am curious how that is going?

Debra Stansbury: It’s been amazing actually. Alot of people thought it would be dark and not fun so we put in carpeting and drapes. We bought lights and put in spotlights. We got the hotel to put in air blowers to help circulate the air a bit as we discovered that was an issue. We originally thought it would be a bit chilly but as it turns out it’s not. The sound baffling there is amazing compared to other rooms. In other places we have games the noise level ramps up and there isn’t that noise ramp in the basement. That said the Call of Cthulhu guys were like, “it’s pretty bright down here can it be a little more moody” so you can’t make everyone happy.

jdodson: How long have you been involved with Gamestorm?

Debra Stansbury: My first Gamestorm was Gamestorm 6 and that was in I think 2004 or 2005. I was the person in charge of hospitality and we didn’t have a hospitality suite before then. The chair wanted hospitality and asked me and I was insufficiently reluctant and said yes. Since then I have been hotel liaison, event co-ordinator and ran hospitality for several years. I am also involved in OryCon and chaired one year and also helped out with Kamarion. OryCon is a totally different animal i’ll tell ya it is completely different than Gamestorm.

jdodson: With that OryCon is the sister convention of Gamestorm and I am wondering how that relationship works?

Debra Stansbury: I am on the board for OSFCI and have helium hand-itus and have a really hard time saying no. Oregon Science Fiction Conventions Incorporated is a non-profit organization that does business as OryCon, Gamestorm and several funds such as the the Susan Petrey scholarship, the Clayton medical fund for authors and the Endeavor award awarded at OryCon. There is also a WorldCon scholarship for people that volunteer and learn things to bring back to us. This years scholarship winner was the person running swag this year Heather McLaughlin.

jdodson: What do you want people to know about Gamestorm that might consider attending next year?

Debra Stansbury: Since you can sit down and play games at home in your basement some people might wonder why they should sit in some other basement to play games. When you come to GameStorm you can try new games and meet new people. You can play the same game with the same people and you may think you know how it works but when you go to a convention and play a game you might discover you interpreted the rules wrong. You can also teach your favorite game to new people and realize how much fun that is. There is an Assassins game running this weekend and they are given tasks in the game and one of the tasks is to challenge the Chair to a game of her choice and if you beat me you get extra points. So I taught three young ladies earlier today how to play Escalation which is a quick card game where you try and screw your neighbor. So what I really want people to know is that they can come to GameStorm to see and play something new and different. We like to have a little bit for everyone.

jdodson: What’s one game that you really enjoy playing?

Debra Stansbury: I really enjoy playing a game we call Crayon Rails which are a bunch of games like North America Rails, Nippon Rails, Russia Rails and I have a friend that has the entire set. We keep going through them from Australia to Russia and rotate them every Friday night. I also play D&D and I am in three different games and like to play Clerics a lot because I like healing and battle magics. I really enjoy smiting the enemy to take them down.

jdodson: GameStorm is the premier Portland game convention. Why is it held in Washington?

Debra Stansbury: We were at the Double Tree across the river until it burned down and they closed it. Then we were drifting from hotel to hotel trying to find the right combination of rooms and space. OryCon had the same issue as well and they found a hotel and settled in. When we were looking around the Hilton here in Vancouver liked us and when we had the issue this year they bent over backwards to help us find a solution which is how we ended up with the garage. The Vancouver Hilton is in the Portland metro area even though it is in Washington. One thing we don’t like to do at any OSFCI event is exclude people so the fact that it is in Washington means we are reaching out to our Washington friends. It’s also not too far out of reach from Portland. We have people on my team that come up from Cottage Grove and people coming down from Seattle. What’s really fun is when we see people that come and play with others they see once a year that have games that keep going through the years.

jdodson: Do you know about how many people you have on staff this year?

Debra Stansbury: It’s well over a hundred and nowhere near as many as we need.

jdodson: So you are in need of people to help out with the con?

Debra Stansbury: We are always short staffed. We have three different levels of staff starting with Con Com which are your department heads which are in charge of areas and they have staff to help fill in the gaps. The staff are the people that before the con have agreed to work at least twelve hours. Some of them work that amount in a day and we don’t encourage that but people do. At the convention we also have more casual volunteers that might have an hour before their next game to see if someone needs some help. People can volunteer from washing dishes, washing doors, restocking hospitality, working the games, security and registration.

jdodson: What has been one of your more memorable moments at GameStorm?

Debra Stansbury: One of my early memories was when Richard Garfield came and we ran a live action RoboRally for the first time. That was really fun because he was MCing his game and we laid out the grid on the carpet with blue painters tape and put in the obstacles and we had people standing there as the robots and at the table we had the programmers. You know things are not going well when you have the robot standing there at what is supposed to be a pit and it looks down and the pit, looks at the table at the programmer and the programmer can’t look at them in the eye because the robot is about to die. That was a lot of fun watching them get involved in that.

GameStorm is a game convention held in Vancouver Washington and you can pre-register for next years con right now.

http://www.gamestorm.org/purchase-membership/
http://www.osfci.org/
http://weirdcitygames.com/

I wanted to let everyone know about a slew of new features that I added to the site over the last few weeks that I can finally talk about. I've wanted to add this stuff for quite some time and have been really happy with how it turned out. Let me know how the new features work out for you and if you run into any issues with them.

Steam Login

Most of us use and love Steam. Steam is constructed such that the Desktop and web client are pretty much the same. One cool part of Steam on the web is that you can authenticate to a website like Cheerful Ghost through Steam. Facebook, Google and Steam have provided websites like Cheerful Ghost with the ability to authenticate for quite sometime so you don't have to manage yet another set of login credentials. I've liked this approach to authentication and recently added the ability for people to login to Cheerful Ghost using Steam. If you have an existing Cheerful Ghost account start by linking your Steam account before you authenticate to Cheerful Ghost with Steam. You can link your Facebook, Google and Steam accounts to your Cheerful Ghost account by following the link below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/user/link

After your Steam account is linked to your existing Cheerful Ghost account you can login to the site with Steam.

Enhanced Avatar Integration

Since we launched Cheerful Ghost we have only supported avatars using the Gravatar service. Since we require people to authenticate with Steam, Facebook or Google we now automagically import your avatars from those sites. So starting with the next time you authenticate or when you link your accounts you can select any of your Avatars from the Google, Facebook or Steam accounts you've linked. I recommend people link up their accounts and select an avatar from Steam, Google or Facebook.

We still support Gravatar but it is now officially deprecated. We will be removing it in a few months so I recommend selecting one of your avatars from Steam, Google or Facebook to use on the site.

Recent Activity

I've been hearing from people that when you come to the site people notice there is a lot of discussion happening but don't know where to find it. To allow people the ability to see the latest chatter on the site i've added the recent activity stream on the right column on Desktop and certain tablet orientations.

Spright Gets A New Look

I spent some time integrating the new Cheerful Ghost look into the site and I am really happy with how it turned out. Over the years Spright the Cheerful Ghost has evolved and i've taken some time to catalog that. If you are interested in look at how the Cheerful Ghost came to look the way it does over the years you should check out the link below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/spright

I want to thank everyone for making Cheerful Ghost a great community to be part of. Let me know what you think of the new features and if you run into any issues let me know.

I enjoy reading every bit of interesting information I can about people doing interesting stuff in gaming. Recently Geoff Keighley sat down with Gabe Newell and Erik Johnson of Valve to talk about some behind the scenes stuff with Valves recent reveals. Gabe addresses people that look to creators to create sequels, massively hinting at peoples desire to see a Half-life 3. He doesn't say much other than he understands where people are coming from and as fans they want more of the things they love too.

"Geoff Keighley sits down with Gabe Newell and Erik Johnson from Valve to discuss the state of one of the most respected video game companies in the world. Hear Gabe and Erik discuss Steam VR, Steam Machines, Source 2, and the future direction of Valve."