"Confederate Express is all about exploration, fighting enemies, and making your way towards the main goal: trying to survive while delivering a package. Packages vary by size, weight and fragility; which makes every delivery a unique experience, ranging from a quick 15-minute tasks, all the way to a challenging journey throughout various events and locations. The more difficult the delivery, the greater the rewards: mercenaries, gear, weapons and ultimately - greater challenges."

Confederate Express has already sailed past its Kickstarter goals but if you want to get early access to it, funding it at the $25 level will get you in. Nice to see the Indie game scene enter the strategic turn based strategy realm.

Steam is having a Halloween sale starting today until November 1st on some awesome games. If you were looking to add a few new games to your collection, now is a good time as any.

A few games on sale that caught my attention:

• I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream


• Plants Vs. Zombies


• 7th Guest


• Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs & A Dark Descent


• Ghostbusters A Sanctum for Slime


• A Wolf Among Us


• The F.E.A.R. Collection


• Alice Madness Returns


• Left 4 Dead & Left 4 Dead 2


• Bioshock 1 & 2


• Alone in the Dark


• Eldritch


• Fallout 3: GoTY


• Limbo


• The 11th Hour


• Costume Quest


• Borderlands: GoTY


• Painkiller Pack


• Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition


• Killing Floor


• The Walking Dead


• Don't Starve


• Monaco


• Another World


• Lone Survivor

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/halloween2013

Didn't think i'd be writing about the Starbound beta this year but it looks like it will be coming very soon. Chucklefish recently posted about how the beta will roll out over the upcoming months.

stage 1: progenitor

"Stage 1 will be move at a breakneck speed. This will be the buggiest and busiest stage of the beta. A bunch of unfinished features will be disabled whilst we finish them up. Updates will come thick and fast, sometimes as often as multiple updates a day.

If you choose to take part during stage 1 you should expect bugs, lots of balance changes, you shouldn’t get too attached to your character or universe as we may make changes that require you to start from scratch. You should expect the game to be broken at points as we make sweeping changes but you’ll get to enjoy exciting new content added constantly. The engine won’t optimized during this stage of the beta so performance could be poor on some low end machines."

stage 2: automaton

"Stage 2 will be largely feature complete. You’ll still find the odd bug but they’re unlikely to be game breaking and the chance of you losing your character or save is minimal. The main quest line won’t be in yet but the sandbox experience will be near complete. All sectors of the galaxy will be available including sector X (End game content). Much of the focus in this stage will be on bug fixing, optimization and balance."

stage 3: Bio-organic

"Stage 3 is largely about prepping for v1.0, this means finishing up the main quest line and implementing the post beta content. i.e. the Novakids, fossils. By the time stage 3 is complete Starbound should be ready to launch as a finished game. Worry not however, we plan to keep adding new content for at least a year after release, perhaps a lot longer."

If you are in the Starbound beta are you going to check it out before the release? Are you planning on playing the game heavily at first or wait for the game to be a bit less buggy?

http://playstarbound.com/how-the-beta-is-going-to-work/

A few days ago Blizzard blessed me with access to the Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft beta. Since I have been pretty busy with Terraria 1.2, Monaco and PixelJunk Monsters I haven't given much attention to the Hearthstone beta. That said, I installed it and over the last few days have played most of the practice matches once and tried my hand at two online matches with real live humans.

You start out Hearthstone by playing 5 guided matches. Over these matches they let you know the games rules and slowly acclimate you to how to play. The 5 matches are not optional and they are not skippable. I thought it was pretty nice and they really do usher in the more complex game elements in a way that is not overwhelming. I started the game as Jana Proudmore and remembered her persona from Warcraft III and enjoyed the banter she had with the other heroes I played against.

The basic premise of Hearthstone is that you pick a hero to play as and then have cards that fit under that hero type. So Jana is a Mage and she has a special ability that for two mana she can target a creature or hero and inflict one damage. The goal of the game is use your cards to overpower the other hero and you can do that by casting creatures, spells and having your hero fight as well.

Hearthstone is very Magic: The Gathering-esque but goes off in different directions and as it does that builds up its own style. I really enjoy that by default your creatures can target other creatures or the Hero. Hearthstone has a taunt ability and when a creature card has it, all attacks from other creatures must hit the taunt creature first. Hearthstone has many things like this that really add to the strategy you use in the game but the core game itself is quite simple to understand.

Like most card games online, it is free to play and you can pay money to get booster packs. You can also accomplish in game stuff to get packs too, but if you don't want to wait for that you can drop the cash and get a whole bunch of cards. I don't mind this freemium aspect to the game as, at this point, its not annoying at all. I imagine this will divide up players that have lots of options from other player that have less options, but one can spend the time and get good cards without paying or by only paying a little. Or you could just play with friends that play for free too, since its all on battle.net your friends list carry over.

Hearthstone is a pretty easy to understand free card game I am really enjoying. I can't wait for more people to try it out and if I get some extra beta keys you guys will be the first to know. If you have played Hearthstone, I wonder what you think of it?

PopCap just released Plants vs. Zombies 2 on Android and I serious recommend you pick it up if you have an Android device. PvZ 2 is a freemium game but it isn't annoying. Where as I would have preferred to pay for it all and not have to spend time unlocking things, I never needed to pay for anything and the games increased challenge was a welcomed addition.

If you nab it on Android give it a go and let me know how it goes!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ea.game.pvz2_row

"All Mae wants to do is run around with her friends, break stuff and hang on to a life of aggressive aimlessness. She dropped out of college and returned home to her crumbling old mining town to do just that, but she's finding that nothing is the same anymore. The old town seems different. Her old friends have grown in their own directions. Mae herself is undergoing some sudden and unexplained changes, giving her mysterious abilities that grant her access to a side of town she never knew existed. The world is changing, things are ending, and the future is uncertain. Up behind the park at the edge of town, back in the trees by the old mine- there's something in the woods. And it could mean no future at all."

Night In The Woods is a new project that just dropped on Kickstarter a few days ago that blew past its initial funding levels. Mixing up some great art and story themes the game really seems to take the gameplay into a sort of indie movie style. According to the Kickstarter they have a very early gameplay prototype being built and are looking for funds to flesh it out and polish it up for release.

"What we’re attempting here is kind of ambitious. We want to create the feeling that the player is actually visiting another world full of unique and well developed characters. This involves combining gameplay elements from a few different genres with a lot of handmade content, including a great deal of unique character animation and environment detail."

Can't fault them for being ambitious but hope the scope of the project is something that can be finished reasonably. That said, what do you think of Night in the Woods?

In The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Episode 7: Halloween Special we take a bit of a break to talk about horror themed games we have played that have had an impact on us. @CapnCurry drops a story during our roundtable about "Gonzo the Norn" that is a must hear. It's a really interesting tale about an experience he had with a particular Norn in Creatures 2. Experience the story that prompted us to spontaneously clap when he was finished.

We also polish off the episode by going over games we'd like to see come to Valve's upcoming SteamOS and Steam Machines. Come for the video game discussion stay for us dressing up strangely!

• Terraria 1.2 Server: http://cheerfulghost.com/events/39


• Doom 3: http://cheerfulghost.com/game/13039


• Amnesia: http://www.amnesiagame.com/


• Creatures 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_2


• Final Fantasy XI: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml


• SteamOS: http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

Like many of you guys I am really excited about SteamOS and Steam Machines. So much so that I have been creating a mental list of games i'd love to see ported. I don't hold out hope for many of these, but if by some chance it were to happen but one can dream right?

terraria

I'll admit, this is kind of a cheat answer. It's not so much that I want to play Terraria on a console as much as I want to get Terraria off Windows. If Terraria were on Mac or Linux it would make my life much simpler and SteamOS would be an awesome benefit. That said, Terraria tops my list and if it were to be ported I would be elated.

skyrim

Getting a solid triple A game that people love ported to SteamOS would really give the platform some solid footing. Not to say every Valve title isn't enough already, but the more the merrier and Skyrim is a game we should have access to on modern platforms until... forever. Plus, I am certain i'd play this more if I could play it in the living room and sync my saves between the PC. My Dovakin needs a new home on SteamOS.

borderlands

The original Borderlands was nothing short of incredible and I hope this classic gets ported to SteamOS. By rights Borderlands 2 would be ported first, if any Borderlands come at all, but because of my affinity to it i'd love a port of the original. I have been wanting to head back to Pandora and would love to do that when SteamOS drops.

destiny

I can't help but want to play Bungee's next game because it looks so great. The world looks compelling, the story looks good and the shooting looks top notch. It's basically the most non-Halo Halo sequel in the works and would love to give it a spin. Bungee hasn't ruled out a PC release going forward so that may open the door for a possible SteamOS release given when Destiny launches in relation to it's PC port and release of SteamOS. It feels like a long-shot, but one can certainly dream :D

super meat boy

Super Meat Boy was made to be played on a console with a great controller and I would love to break in my new Steam Machine with it. Super Meat Boy runs really well on Windows and has a great Linux port that is currently not available on Steam. Hopefully Team Meat can shore up some resources to get it on Linux on Steam at some point. Since SteamOS will be based on Linux and allow some kinds of modification, I imagine installing Super Meat Boy would be possible. That said, having a fully integrated experience would be better and because of this I hope Meat Boy comes to SteamOS.

torchlight ii

Torchlight is a great hack-n-slash game that could work very well with a controller in your living room. The original Torchlight was ported to Mac and Linux on Steam and I am holding out hope that Torchlight II can make the jump as well.

fallout 3

Fallout 3 is one of the most "stand out" bad-ass games of the last 5 years. The story, game play and tone are superb and I am chomping at the bit to head back to the vault to be born again. I am curious to see the outcome if I take the "dark path" as I did my best to be good during my first play through. Wanting a port of Fallout 3 seems like a huge stretch to me but, again, it would still be awesome.

So that's my current list as it sits with me right now. So what do you think, what games would you want to see ported to SteamOS if anything at all?

We will be recording the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Halloween Special this coming Wednesday and I was wondering what everyone was playing this Halloween? For instance, one of the games I play that reminds me of this time of year is Doom 3. It's creepy jump scare element really make this time of year seem more enjoyable.

If you have such a game or games you play, chime in the comments, i'd love to read them off during the roundtable!

"Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine is a single player or co-op heist game. Assemble a crack team of thieves, case the joint, and pull off the perfect heist."

Monaco recently came to Linux on Steam so Pocketwatch Games could bring the game to SteamOS. Not only is it great to see games ported to all the platforms, but its awesome to see publishers target SteamOS in particular. I hope this is a trend I see continue.

Pocketwatch Games is celebrating the recent Linux release by marking the game to $5.99 and after hearing it get a great review from @WhiteboySlim I picked it up. I can't wait to dive into this one!

If you have any experience with this game or picked it up for the first time, drop your thoughts in the comments.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/113020/