I have been wanting to try Guild Wars 2 for some time and this weekend i'll get my chance. Guild Wars 2 will be free this weekend starting this coming Friday @ 12:01 AM and ending at 11:59 PM PDT on Sunday.

If you are thinking of checking the game out, let me know and we can try and create characters on the same server. I created an event for people to join so if you are thinking about checking it out, join the event and add it to your calendar!

Register for the free here:

https://register.guildwars2.com/trial?cid=7:5:HomepageBanner:Static:1292x444:Global:40:4:

Join the CG event here:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/events/38

For me Awesomenauts is the perfect MOBA. It's accessible, easy to pick up and fun. It takes the MOBA formula, strips it back to its best elements, tosses in humor and some great art to make a seriously addicting game. After picking it up as part of the Humble Bundle 8 I couldn't put it down. As such I wanted to talk to Ronimo about the game and know a bit more about it from behind the scenes.

As luck would have it Ronimo also just announced a new Kickstarter for the new Awesomenauts: Starstorm. The expansion looks to add 3 new classes, spectator mode, global chat, twin-stick controller support & some new music. The backer levels are pretty intense so if you are an Awesomenauts fan you need to check this out.

As follows is my q & a with Robin Meijer, a producer at Ronimo Games.

jdodson: Awesomenauts has been released for about a year now and has been received well and has a great community behind it. What does the future look like for Awesomenauts and what we can look forward to in regard to it?

Robin Meijer: The future for Awesomenauts is quite open right now – we have no shortage of cool character ideas or wishes for additional features, but how far we take all this really depends on how well the game continues to do. We have also announced a version of Awesomenauts for the Playstation 4 recently, and we definitely hope that that will grow to become a community as a large and vibrant as our current Steam community.

For now, we're just working on Admiral Swiggins, the character that was chosen by our community in our “Design-your-Awesomenauts” competition a couple of months back. There is also something else that will be making its appearance soon enough, but I really can't tell you about that right now. You'll just have to wait and see, but I think it's going to be pretty awesome!

jdodson: Awesomenauts started out on the PSN and XBox Arcade and was later ported to PC, Mac and Linux. I wonder what the tech is behind Awesomenauts that you used to port it to so many systems and how did the porting process go?

Robin Meijer: We used our in-house engine for Awesomenauts, and that allows us to be quite flexible when porting our game to other platforms. Still, it was a lot of work to get the game running smoothly on all platforms, and it was definitely a lot harder than we anticipated in advance. We developed the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac versions of the game in-house. The Linux version was ported by a third party, and the Playstation 4 version is in development at another studio as well.

jdodson: You were recently part of one of the coolest recent games bundles with The Humble Bundle 8. How was it for you in terms of getting new fans for the game and more exposure?  Would you do it again with another Ronimo game?

Robin Meijer: Being part of Humble Bundle 8 was quite amazing – I think more than 400,000 copies of the bundle were distributed and a lot of those people have logged into game. Many of them probably just played the tutorial or a practice match and never ventured online, but we still did see an increase in the number of active players in the longer term. Growing our community was the most important reason for participating in the Bundle, so I'm pretty happy we succeeded in that regard.

jdodson: Many MOBA games are free to play or at some point after launch switched to that model. Is this something you have considered for Awesomenauts?

Robin Meijer: We did consider it, but we felt like Awesomenauts in its current form just makes a lot of sense as a $9.99 purchase, and it wouldn't make any sense to have the game available as a free-to-play title on PC if it was sold as a $10 purchase on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. Switching to Free-to-play further down the life cycle could always be an option I guess, but we have absolutely no intention of doing that right now – the game is doing great as it is.

jdodson: Do you think Gnaw could eat an entire planet if he were motivated to do it? Would covering the planet in BBQ sauce help? Along that note but somewhat unrelated, Skroggle are Omnivores but I am curious if they could be Vegan?

Robin Meijer: A Skroggle could be vegan if all there was to eat were plants, but normally they really eat pretty much anything. The question of whether something was once part of a living being doesn't really come into the equation.

Gnaw would probably be able to eat an entire planet if given enough time, but as he regularly points out during the game: “Gnaw needs to poop.” Eating an entire planet would leave a planet-sized pile of poop, so that technically doesn't remove the planet. Covering the planet in BBQ sauce first just means you end up with a slightly more gooey digested planet.

jdodson: Recently patch 1.21 dropped and it seems to be well received by players. Are there any areas of character or map balance that you are looking at now that people have been asking for?

Robin Meijer: Update 1.21 was an update that didn't include any new characters, so we had a lot of time to really look at where the game stood at that point and make some changes to steer it in a better direction. The next update will bring Admiral Swiggins, so we're focused on getting the balance right for him.

jdodson: Who would win the following matchups and why?

• Lonestar VS Lone Wolf McQuade?

Robin Meijer: That one would probably go to Lone Wolf McQuade. Even though Lonestar is a genetically engineered cowboy that wrangled an entire race of Bovinians, Lone Wolf McQuade is still in fact Chuck Norris. So yeah, McQuade wins.

• The Terminator (Model 101) VS Gnaw?

Robin Meijer: Gnaw would win that one hands down. The Terminator is built to kill human resistance members, while the Skroggles pretty much just eat everything that moves. The fact that the Terminator is made of metal beneath his layer of skin does mean that Gnaw has to chew a bit more to eat him, but he'll get the job done eventually. Then he'll eat the humans that the Terminator was hunting.

• Voltar VS Krang?

Robin Meijer: This would be a really interesting match-up, and could go either way. The two of them can't really do anything to each other without help from their machines, and if those come into play then Krang would probably win if he gets a good hit in. Voltar is quite fast though and he can float around, while his droids fire away at Krang. It really could go either way, but I'd put my money on Voltar... he is the brain of the operation, after all.

jdodson: I have recently seen a few Ronimo developers mention super secret projects in the works and I am wondering if you can give us a bit of taste of what some of this may be? Awesomenauts 2 perhaps?

Robin Meijer: I'm afraid that I can't give you any details about what our super secret project is, but that'll become apparent soon enough. It's not a sequel to Awesomenauts though – we still have way too much stuff that we want to do with the current version before we start thinking about a sequel.

jdodson: I want to thank you for taking the time to talk with me today, is there anything you’d like to say before we wrap things up?

Robin Meijer: No problem, and if there's anything I'd like to add is that it's that Admiral Swiggins, a character that has been thought up and designed by our community, will probably be launching some time next week. We're still working on balancing him and fixing a couple of bugs, but things are looking good and I think we'll be ready next week. Of course, just like all the other characters that we've released until now, Admiral Swiggins will be available for free once he launches!

No too long after the release of Age of Empires II HD we are getting a new official Age of Empires II expansion called "The Forgotten." You might remember a Age of Empires II fan expansion that was released called "Forgotten Empires." Apparently the team that made that is partnering up with SkyBox Labs and Microsoft to incorporate much of that content into the new expansion.

Not only will they be adding 5 civilizations such as the Italians, Indians, Slavs, Magyars & Incas. The expansions will also include new technologies and 4 new in game campaigns as well as integrated Twitch.tv support and multi-player observer mode.

Awesome.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/221380/discussions/1/864976115141842643/

Yes, you heard correctly. Some seriously dedicated fans to the Earthbound/Mother series have taken it upon themselves to create Mother 4. Oh, and it looks awesome too.

"Mother 4 is a traditional RPG set in an idealized vintage America, following the adventures of a young boy and the leader of a biker gang, who get caught up in the whirlwind events surrounding a group calling themselves the Modern Men."

Travis, Meryl, Leo & Floyd are the new characters Mother 4 brings to the forefront and each one has a different backstory. The art style is fresh, yet very reminiscent of the Mother series. They recently launched the above linked trailer and set the release date for Winter of 2014.

Mother 4 will launch on Mac, Linux & Windows.

http://www.mother4game.com/

I read a very good article on Polygon about harassment focused at game developers. The article features a good synopsis of the topic and collects a few interviews with people that have experienced some I call, "The Internet Hate Factory."

I am glad this topic is getting broader coverage and I hope it spurns more dialog in the community and fosters some change.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/15/4622252/plague-of-game-dev-harassment-erodes-industry-spurs-support-groups

You should also check out the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Ep. 2 "The Internet Hate Factory" that covers this topic, Cheerful Ghost Ghost style.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1527

Plants vz. Zombies 2 It's About Time has just dropped on iPhone and iPad today and it costs nothing. After playing a few missions I can say that it is quite a bit of fun and well worth downloading. There are a few changes to the game, but it contains the same core PvZ action I have come to love.

Since the game is a free release on iOS it has a built in store to purchase upgrades. With only a few levels under my belt I haven't had to need to purchase anything. The game contains an overworld map similarly to Candy Crush Saga and its a nice touch.

The game starts you out around the house you played the majority of the first game from. Crazy Dave shows up with a time machine and hijinks ensue. He takes you back in time in a mission to get a taco he just ate from himself to eat it again. Due to a mis-calculation you arrive in ancient Egypt and it seems to be over run with Zombies.

The start of ancient Egypt acts like a tutorial acclimating you to the new boosts and upgrades you can use on your plants. I am not sure if everything in the game can be unlocked by playing it or if you have to pay to unlock everything. I'll do a deeper review of the game later to cover all that as I play it more.

The graphics have been updated with the plants and zombie animations. It took a bit of getting used to and I think it is a pretty nice improvement. My only gripe with the first Plants VS Zombies game was that is was way too easy. I imagine they will ramp things up to encourage people to buy boosts and items so I may very well get my wish for a much more challenging game.

If you have an iPhone and some free space for a game no reason not to download it and kill some Zombies with Crazy Dave. Plus, I am dying to know if he can eat his taco again.

Hammerwatch is now available for purchase on Steam for Mac, Windows and Linux. It will do your sould well to play this amazing new Indie Gauntlet styled hack n slash.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/239070
http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/1039

A game I have been crushing on recently has just come to Steam as pre-purchase. Take a swing at this beautiful new Rogue-like from the awesome dev duo Robot Loves Kitty.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/238280
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1215

John Carmack gives a really insightful talk on the physics of light and rendering. More wisdom from the master of Doom himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG4QuTe8aUw

Sorry Mario Brothers is an interesting concept game where you play the Princess escaping Bowsers castle on your own. Personally I like seeing this sort of thing, she is magical and capable so why not?

http://www.thewildeternal.com/2013/07/30/sorry-mario-bros/

Blizzard just opened up its new Battle.net client into open beta for anyone to test. I tried it out on my Mac and found the download and install to be a very simple process. The Battle.net client has a slick layout and is fantastic to use. I hope over time they keep the simplicity of it all.

"The new single sign-on functionality allows players to log in once to access World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, and the upcoming PC and Mac versions of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and stay logged in for up to 30 days.

Players can also install games directly through the app and, if you choose to leave the app running on your desktop, keep them up-to-date automatically even while you’re away from your computer. Please note that it’s entirely up to you whether you wish to leave the app running—you can exit it at any time, and it will automatically re-launch whenever your standard launchers would. "

If you want to read more, check out the Blizzard post:

http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/10626946#best

If you just want to download the new client for testing:

https://us.battle.net/account/download/index.xml?show=bnetapp

After news that Phil Fish decided to halt Fez 2 development, in a fit of angsty sorrow, I decided to play Fez for the first time. From the intro screen to the first swaths of gameplay and score, Fez is magic. So magical that if video games can be art, Fez pushes that discussion forward. How much higher praise can a game get than it gave me genuine feelings of joy and exploration?

I am not sure what I can say more about a game that was featured in Indie Game: The Movie as well as reviewed and Let's Played as much as Fez. The rotating camera gameplay coupled with gorgeous retro graphics are a delight. Each new area offers new rich visuals and the unique gameplay Phil Fish crams in each zone is incredible. And nothing beats experiencing it all for the first time.

So far, I have kept my play through spoiler and game guide free and have completed somewhere around 75% according to the game itself. I am not certain how to beat Fez, but I am sure when I come to it, i'll know. I am in no rush to beat the game but do plan on "getting gold" on each area I come to because somehow, it seems like an awesome thing to do.

Jens Matthies of Machinegames gave a pretty interesting interview at QuakeCon about the upcoming Wolfenstein: The New Order. The video showcases some of the stuff we can expect from the game. Some of the video footage shows off BJ scaling a wall to the top of a building one hand on a rope while the other is spent killin' Nazis. As BJ scales the building a plane epically crashes into it and since nothing seems to stop him, he just keeps climbing.

The video also shows off a cool new stealth takedown mechanic new to Wolfenstein. Wolfenstein: The New Order will allow both a run and gun and stealth style of gameplay.

The difficulty modes in The New Order will mirror those in Wolfenstein 3D. So get ready to select from "Can I play, Daddy?", "Don't hurt me.", "Bring 'em on!" or "I am Death incarnate!" It seems many people really enjoyed the challenging 1999 mode in BioShock Infinite so heres to hoping "I am Death incarnate!" ups the ante!

As to the million dollar question of if Hitler will make an appearance Jens noted that "Hitler is not in this game.... That's all i'll say on this topic I think." I wonder if that means there will be a sequel or DLC or Hitler's head on a robot as with Wolfenstein 3D?

I am a huge fan of Wolfenstein and can't wait for Machinegames epic take on this universe to drop in 2014. Are you interested in killing some Nazis or will you skip this one?