jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Miniverse Is Coming To iOS Very Soon!

As I am out taking the message of Cheerful Ghost to the masses I meet many awesome people doing cool stuff. While I was boothing at the last few events I met a local Portland developer working on Miniverse, a new iOS space game. The game contains a very unique premise and set of game mechanics that are really fun and well worth checking out. As someone that doesn't have a lot of fun with mobile gaming, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it.

Recently Ryt Games sent me a poster of the game and I wanted to share it in it's awesomery.

Miniverse will drop June 30th on the the iOS App Store so prep your app buying fingers.

http://miniversegame.com/

Civilization V Is Now On SteamOS/Linux

"Aspyr Media is pleased to announce our first Linux and SteamOS title, Sid Meier’s Civilization V. The SteamOS release includes all Civilization V DLC and expansion content, including Gods & Kings and Brave New World.

This release targets SteamOS on current gen hardware. Additionally, we're working towards supporting Ubuntu 14.04 as well as additional video cards in future updates.

Here’s where we need your help! To improve Civ V and future AAA games on SteamOS, we're looking for feedback. Tell us below what's working great or what's not working. If you're having any problems, please contact our support directly at http://support.aspyr.com/tickets/new"

Aspyr has ported a ton of games to Mac including BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2, Civ V, Starwars Knights of the Old Republic & Call of Duty. Now they are getting into the SteamOS/Linux porting game, which is great news. Can't wait to see what they port next!

http://steamcommunity.com/games/CivilizationV/announcements/detail/1787114954235229948

Travis Admin wrote on 06/13/2014 at 03:09am

I'm glad to see Aspyr jumping on the Linux train. From what I hear, this implementation isn't perfect but it's quite good.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/13/2014 at 03:44pm

Aspyrs Mac Ports are really good. I played much of BioShock Infinite on the Mac. Hopefully they will fix some of the bugs so it's a pretty seamless port.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 06/24/2014 at 12:50pm

One thing I noticed immediately was that that leader intro screens are animated on Linux. The is missing on OS X. Not a big deal to game play, but a nice environmental touch.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/24/2014 at 11:05pm

Great. I wonder why they did that? Maybe a newer version of SDL supports something a bit better than the one they used on the OSX version?

I also noticed that the title is a bit misleading. It wasn't JUST Civ 5, it was 4 and all the expansions too, at least it seemed to be the case when I opened up Steam on Linux.

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Hotline Miami 2 Will Ship With A Level Editor

Not a ton of great news out of E3(yet) but there has been some and this is definitely one of them. Hotline Miami 2 will ship with a pretty fully featured level editor. In a E3 developer Q&A the Dennation Games folks mentioned that they are working on Steam cloud sync for our levels making it easy for us to all share our creations.

Aperture Tag Is A New Portal 2 Mod Coming This Summer

"Aperture Tag: The Paint Gun Testing Initiative is a Portal 2 Mod. It's time to think with Gels! The Portal-Gun is gone, and the test must go on! Grab the Paint-Gun Device and solve the test chambers in ways you've never solved them before."

Any reason to get back into Portal 2 is a good one and this looks to be a very good one. Exploring more of the paint based mechanics, Aperture Tag also ships with a few other things too:

A new 27 maps campaign!

A new character with full voice acting!

Custom paint gun model!

Custom Soundtrack!

That said, this doesn't seem to be the only Portal 2 mod on Steam. "Thinking with Time Machine" is another such mod that is out now.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/286080/

Dislike The Game So Much You Spend 452 Hours Playing It?

I see many reviews on Steam like this. They basically give the game a bad review but play it... a lot.

So you dislike the game, don't recommend it but you suffered through it for 452 hours? Games I don't like get a few hours at most.

I don't entirely understand many parts of gamer culture, this kind of thing in particular.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/08/2014 at 08:39pm

It may be that there's a bug with reporting the time played on that. But that said, "keeps crashing" isn't necessarily a reason to give it a thumbs down anyway. I would first assume something was wrong with my setup rather than the game.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/08/2014 at 08:41pm

You see this with Diablo III all the time too. "I have all six classes farming Torment VI and now there's nothing to do, this game is terrible." Disregarding the hundreds of hours you had to play to get there.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/08/2014 at 10:07pm

Travis: Yeah thats kind of what I mean. I've heard of people having reporting bugs, but not like this. That said, maybe it was 200 hours of horrible, horrible time and this person needs to be liberated.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/09/2014 at 03:43am

Would be interesting, too, to see if time spent in the SDKs registers as game time.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/09/2014 at 04:10am

Huh, yeah, I don't know.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/09/2014 at 04:20pm

Perhaps they did enjoy the game, then a patch broke it? Or they might have children/family members that do enjoy the game through the crashes.

I think I have hundreds of hours of play time on Railroad Tycoon because my daughters enjoy it, and will sometimes not close it out when done playing.

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Retro News: Parents Upset Over New Super Nintendo Console

"In 1991, local newsstation reports Nintendo released their successor to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in America. But the parents wasn't too happy about it. The parents thought Nintendo was exploiting their children into buying new and expensive hardware for new games when the improvements to the new hardware were obvious."

It's fun to look back at video games to see how far we've come. I watched this news clip from the 90's that made me laugh a bit. I still remember the first time I played Super Mario World and experienced the Super Nintendo for the first time. The music, graphics and controls were very good. We got a Super Nintedo a few years after launch and to this day is one of my more memorable Christmases. Glad we didn't have a video camera as my reaction was mostly a ton of excited screaming.

I was pretty happy.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/08/2014 at 12:34am

Wow, that 80's hair! (OK, early 90s hair, but still)

But yeah, I remember reading about how people said the printing press was going to be the downfall of conversation, the radio was going to ruin the world, television was rotting our brains, and so on. This is just an extension of people not understanding technology.

But as for the SNES, I just bought one for the first time about 5 years back. I went from NES to Genesis, and while I LOVE the Genesis I was a bit bummed out that my parents wouldn't get me another console. I don't regret my choice, the Genesis is the bees knees, but it was great reliving a lot of the experiences I had at friends' houses when I finally got an SNES of my own.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/08/2014 at 02:48am

Those were the days, right? I think the news was run by Satan back then, so I wasn't allowed to watch it, but I do remember the SNES and it's heavenly 16bit glory. And the hair.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/08/2014 at 03:58am

" I think the news was run by Satan back then, so I wasn't allowed to watch it"

That sounds like a story in and of itself.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/08/2014 at 04:08am

His parents weren't the only people that thought stuff like that. I couldn't go trick or treating because of that. Early on in my gaming years I couldn't play Mario 2 and had to stop playing Zelda because they had magic and potions.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/08/2014 at 05:06am

Smurfs, He-Man, Depeche Mode... It all came from the fiery depths.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/08/2014 at 06:08am

Ah yeah, He-Man. That was the first thing that was excised from my child years. I had the sheets and the toys then we went to a different church or something, I don't entirely remember I was very little.

No more He-Man sheets or toys.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/08/2014 at 07:00am

Was this something from Fox News? It seems like something they would report. LOL I didn't get a SNES until my college years, I believe, same with the NES. I still don't have a Genesis, though I want one. I was, however, lucky to have a cousin that had a NES and a Genesis and friends that had a SNES. I got the Gameboy, the first one. I got a Game Gear during my early high school years.

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Mortal Kombat X Looks Like A Fighting Game Killer

It's a pre-rendered fight scene but even if the game looks half that good with some of the mechanics they showed, it should be fun. I played a bit of the latest Mortal Kombat incarnation and I was a pretty big fan.

Hopefully it skims a nice balance between doing service to the old characters and game as well as bringing something new to the table.

The game will ship in 2015 on PS3, PS4, 360, XBox One and PC.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/05/2014 at 01:21pm

That was probably the most brutal game trailer I've ever seen! Jeebus! Poor Sub-Zero...

While some of that is pre-rendered, I'd be willing to bet that the fighting from the side-view perspective is pretty close to what they'll be able to pull off in-game on the new consoles, if they aren't doing it already. Might be a stretch, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's just nice to see Mortal Kombat back in the spotlight, after such a long string of crap games.

I enjoy fighting games with the company of good friends. Most of the time I get my ass handed to me, unless I'm Paul Phoenix or Ryu. Then it's 50/50. I wanted to pick up the last MK or Injustice, but there isn't as much incentive to play, without friends nearby.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/05/2014 at 03:11pm

*watching* "That's not that brutal of a traile.... oh wait. Yeah, that's Game of Thrones worthy"

I love fighting games when company is over, but I'm also looking forward to the online gameplay.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/05/2014 at 08:44pm

Yeah, it's hard to make of this what will be real and what won't be. If it's about half of what's show then i'll be pretty happy.

I agree, with you scrypt, fighting games are best played with friends.

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Are All Games Worth $60? Uhm, No, Not Really.

Boogie2998 is one of the YouTube personalities I enjoy watching. Not only do I enjoy his Francis character rage against the latest video game news, but I enjoy listening to his commentary too. In this latest vlog he talks a bit about AAA pricing and dat $60 price tag. I agree with him that not every AAA game is $60 and he notes that will most likely or is already changing.

He also notes that he felt, to make the game FEEL like it was worth $60 that the fetch quests in Wolfenstein were tacked on. He also though missions were added in to make the game longer and give people more value. Whereas I don't feel that when I play it myself, I can see the criticism. Often time game developer pad in content to make it seem like you got your moneys worth when it's just a huge slog and grind. Personally, I felt Borderlands 2 suffered from this quite a bit.

What do you think about the $60 AAA price tag and have you played a game recently that felt like it added content to make it longer?

Hotline Fortress 2: Wrong Number

I am not a huge Team Fortress 2 fan, but this mashup trailer of the Hotline Miami universe with the Team Fortress 2 universe is pretty epic.

That said, it is also pretty violent so be forewarned.

Compare it to the original Hotline Miami 2 trailer:

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

XCOM Coming to SteamOS/Linux This Summer

Remember when the tide started turning and publishers were coming on board to port more games to SteamOS and Linux? I do too, because that time is now as seen in this latest news of XCOM Enemy Unknown coming to Linux. 2K has tapped Feral Interactive to do the port, which is interesting considering they port games to Mac.

If this is a broader move by 2K to port successful titles to SteamOS/Linux this will make for a very interesting year.

jdodson1

2753 Posts

Miniverse Is Coming To iOS Very Soon!

Civilization V Is Now On SteamOS/Linux

Hotline Miami 2 Will Ship With A Level Editor

Aperture Tag Is A New Portal 2 Mod Coming This Summer

Dislike The Game So Much You Spend 452 Hours Playing It?

Retro News: Parents Upset Over New Super Nintendo Console

Mortal Kombat X Looks Like A Fighting Game Killer

Are All Games Worth $60? Uhm, No, Not Really.

Hotline Fortress 2: Wrong Number

XCOM Coming to SteamOS/Linux This Summer