"Ah, bashing video games for their senseless violence. It's a time honored tradition... at least since the 80s. But is this violence really a VIDEO GAME issue? If we look at other games - sports, even board games - we'll see echoes of these violent game mechanics. In our complex competitive world, we may need these simulations to help us learn and train for the unexpected. So are violent video games possibly more helpful than harmful? Watch the episode and find out!"

Jamin Warren gives a good history of violent video games with Arcades, Mortal Kombat, Doom, Postal 2 & Night Trap. He notes that our culture over time has become less violent but that it's not entirely obvious.

What do you think? Will we always have violent games? Does it matter?

I completed Fez on Mac after the Mac port came to Steam yesterday. The game plays beautifully and picks up my controller such that the game feels just as polished as the Windows version. Another rad feature is that Steam syncs your saves. I started the game on Windows and played it a bit on Linux and completed it on Mac.

You can unlock the final area with 32 cubes collected and I achieved that in about 6 hours of total play. I have many more cubes to collect and plan on doing that here and there over the next bit. The ending sequence was really interesting and I don't want to say much to spoil it but I will say that it was unique and thought provoking.

After you complete Fez you can create a new Fez+ game that starts the main campaign over again but allows you to pick up where you left off in terms of collecting things. I many areas left to explore and cubes to collect. Some of the puzzles in Fez are fairly complicated and I am not really sure how to complete them yet. That said, I have many areas left to explore and sometimes exploring an area tips you off to how to complete a series of puzzles you didn't have the key to earlier.

Fez is great and is currently part of the Humble Bundle 9 and I seriously recommend you play it.

https://www.humblebundle.com/

"How does The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD's graphics and visuals compare to that of the original GameCube version? We pitted the two side-by-side in a head-to-head comparison to find out just how much better the Wii U version looks!"

Press play and crank up the resolution and watch Wind Waker side by side Wind Waker HD. Looks like Wind Waker HD brings some really crisp visuals to the table. Does this look compelling enough to nab on Wii U?

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Episode 4 takes a bit of a different turn as @Travis, @CapnCurry and @scrypt are away with bubonic cancer. @WhiteboySlim and I talk about some really interesting game news bits and show off what we are playing!

show notes

• Humble Indie Bundle 9: https://www.humblebundle.com/


• Vita TV: http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/1597


• 2DS: http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/new/


• @Blue_Element's comment of the week: http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/1597#comment6395


• Steam Family Sharing: http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/1601


• Terraria 1.2 drops October 1st: https://twitter.com/IndieGameHQ/statuses/377918648935251968


• Prison Architect: http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1587


• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: http://www.swtor.com/


• Delver: http://www.delvergame.com/

The sequel to one of the most beloved NES games is finally being made! Conatus Creative looks like it is really taking the the spirit of the original to heart too.

"We've set out to create a sequel worthy of the name, paying homage to the original while recapturing its charm and gameplay innovation. This is our love letter to River City Ransom, Technōs Japan, and the epic fighting and wrestling games of the 80's and 90's. We're pushing the envelope of all two dimensions with this ambitious retro revival. "

If you are interested in seeing this project funded, check out the Kickstarter!

I agree, this is awesome.

Waiting patiently for Cookie Clicker in Skyrim.

I recently came across a Kickstarter for a very interesting new game called Octopus City Blues. It's a really unique adventure game that's hard to describe so I recommend you watch the Kickstarter video.

"Assume the role of Kaf Kafkaryan, a cowardly middle-aged octopus blood junkie and tentacle trimmer, living in a city built around a giant octopus. Kaf has been experiencing bizarre dreams about a world populated by twisted creatures. To help the inhabitants of his dreams, he must learn more about the people of the city and explore the underside of the towering metropolis. Along the way he becomes entangled in a conspiracy with far-reaching implications for Octopus City."

The game has now made double over it's current Kickstarter backing level but if you are interested in getting in on some of the goodies, check it out.

At the end of last month Terraria came to the iPhone and iPad. 505 Games, the company that ported Terraria to iOS plans to bring the game to Android but right now, it's only available on Apple devices. Since I love Terraria and have an iPhone, I bought the game the second it dropped in the iTunes store.

I don't have much luck with games I love being ported to the iPhone. That said, 505 Games has really done a great job with the Mobile port as it really captures much of the fun of Terraria. My only major gripe is that the game is not quite as easy to control as the PC version, but its pretty damn good considering the touch only interface. But don't take my word for it, check out the iTunes reviews. The game is doing so well it has become an iTunes Editors Choice game, which is to say, it has turned quite a few heads.

That said, the port aint perfect and occasionally it's hard to jump or navigate the world. I have run into a few bugs and work around them, but the vast majority of my experience with Terraria on mobile is good.

the changes

You can't port a PC game to mobile without making changes or else the game would be bad. Terraria is no different here and the changes are noticeable. All told, they are mostly all for the better but it's good to know what they are. The game is quite a bit easier on mobile. On PC if you don't build a house in your first night, you will die. The mobile version spawns less slimes and zombies such that night isn't that much of a problem.

Your player emits a pretty bright light at all times making it less useful to drop torches. I still drop torches, but the bright light emitted from the player really doesn't make them as useful. (The screenshot I took in my game above, illustrates what I mean)

I have also found that resources seem much more plentiful in the mobile version. This isn't a huge deal because I imagine people are less inclined to want to spend hours digging on a phone.

Doors automagically open for you and you auto jump when you reach terrain you cant walk over. This basically means you can hold down the left direction to move and you auto jump over anything easily. This is a really nice feature as the left screen is for movement and the right screen is for digging or attack. Swiping up jumps you but I don't do that as often as I thought i'd have to with auto jump.

world spawns

This is far from empirical data, but I have created 6 worlds now and none of them start with anything close to a flat surface at the spawn zone. In fact, the world generation seems much more apt to create some very rough terrain than I recall in the PC version. I wonder what your experience with your maps have been, does the game spawn you a uneven forest zone? Terraria on PC could create some really unique forest topography but much of it was flat that contained some up and down, on mobile that doesn't seem true.

final thoughts

If you love Terraria and want to play it anywhere, Terraria on iOS is for you. So far Terraria has been ported to PS3, XBox 360 and iPhone and iPad. Clearly porting the game to other platforms is possible so I really hope to see it ported to Mac and Linux someday.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/terraria/id640364616?mt=8

Delver is a new first person Roguelike created by Chad Cuddigan. The game is heavily influenced by Ultima, Hack, Rogue and ... Minecraft. Which is to say, the game looks awesome.

Delver is currently out on Steam Early access, the Humble Store and Android.

The premise for Cookie Clicker is fairly simple. Click the cookie to get cookies. Save cookies to buy things that help you get more cookies. Buy powerups with Cookies to get more Cookies. Rinse repeat till you have zillions of Cookies.

The game is very simple, yet terribly addicting. The game stores its state in your browser and keeping it open for longer nets you more cookies. I've shared my progress above, how are you doing with your Cookie empire? Or are you going to skip this entirely?

pro tip: Keep a look out for the golden cookie, if you click it awesome things happen.

http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/