For the last year or so I have bought PC games that refuse to work with anything other than the USB XBox 360 controller. I have been happy to use my Logitech USB gamepads but I have really started to use them more on my PC recently and have been a bit annoyed they just don't work with certain games. Since I don't buy PC hardware that ONLY works on Windows, I looked into the 360 controller support on Linux. It seems a few enterprising folks added support for it in the Linux Kernel and they have reported it works very well. So after a few months of mulling it over I decided to drop a few bucks and pick up the 360 controller.

If you know me, you know I am not a Microsoft fanboy. For the most part, most of what they create isn't interesting to me. That said, over the years I have come to love a few things they have created. Most notably the Microsoft ergonomic Keyboard and after using it, the 360 controller for PC. Holeee crap, this thing is wicked awesome. Force feedback, feels great in your hands, well set buttons and the analog sticks are superb. Oh and did I mention it works great on Linux too?

That said, the controller doesn't work on Mac out of the box so you must install this driver to get it working.

http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/ProjectRoot/Xbox360Controller/OsxDriver#toc1

After the driver installed and I rebooted the controller worked on my Mac without a hitch. I hope Apple adds the 360 controller as supported hardware in a later OS patch!

I fired up some of the games that refused to work with my old Logitec gamepads and they worked great with the 360 controller. Whereas I think game developers should make their games work with a wide array of controllers, its nice to just have the damn thing work right.

One of the things I wanted to try after picking up the 360 controller was how well Big Picture Mode worked in Steam. Big Picture Mode is a mode in Steam that allows you to control Steam and launch games with a gamepad. I wondered how seamless it would be to start up Steam in Big Picture Mode and launch games and play them with ONLY my gamepad. I know Valve has been putting much love into Big Picture Mode and I wanted to see just how well a Steam Box would work now.

I first started with Windows. I figure this should work the best as it supports the most games and because of this should be the most used. While you are in Big Picture Mode many of the games have a controller icon visible that lets you know how well the game is gamepad supported. Many games have a full black controller letting the user know this game is VERY well supported. Some games have a half white half black controller letting the user know the game has some controller support BUT may require you use a keyboard and a mouse to set that up or get the game to launch correctly.

A few games worked flawlessly in Big Picture Mode on Windows such as Borderlands 2, Awesomenauts, Skyrim & Portal 2. A few other games worked well enough, but required a keyboard and mouse to set them up correctly. All in all things seemed to work VERY well and I was surprised how seamless it all was.

I decided to test big picture mode on my Mac and wasn't left with as awesome results as Windows. Many games opened and required a keyboard and mouse to switch to the gamepad and the switch from Steam to the game was a bit jilted. Overall it wasn't awesome but worked ok. I won't be using my Mac laptop as a faux Steambox as I planned, it just doesn't feel right.

The last thing I tried was Big Picture Mode on Linux and it worked as well as Windows. I have personally found Steam's support on Linux to be better than the Mac. There are more games on Mac to be sure, but things seem a bit more clean and games run a bit smoother. That said, Linux big picture mode worked well and launched awesomely for the few games I had installed.

After picking up the 360 controller for PC and checking out Big Picture Mode again I am considering never purchasing a console again. That said, I may drop Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft in favor of Valve's Steambox. With Steam Cloud Saves and the thought of playing a game in my living room and then on my PC is VERY compelling to me. Apparently the first "Steambox" will be released this December if all goes according to plan. At this point it looks like a smaller form factor PC and I hope it works out well for Valve. Because, really shouldn't our games seamlessly move from the PC to the living room by now? Seems like few companies are setup to do that and I put Valve at the head of the line for making it happen.

"Ravensdale is based on classic arcade shooters like Contra and Metal Slug, but focuses heavily on co-op interactions between players. For example, while you rapidly pull yourself towards and past your buddies, they block projectiles heading your way and feed an overdrive mode to boost the entire team! We’re also pushing for strong interactivity between player characters, enemies and the levels to provide a wider range of tactical options to both solo players and assault teams."

Ravensdale is an awesome looking 2D Orc kill-fest that blends elements of Unreal Tournament and Killer Instinct... which is to say, what I took away from the Kickstarter video. Ravensdale is the next game by Black Forest Games, the team that created The Giana Sisters. I like the direction they are taking this one and its nice to see a game keeping the awesome but doing something a bit different in terms of visual and play style.

"Eleven albums, a game, and a movie... This week, pay what you want for the albums Takes Time; Takes Time: Instrumentals & Demos; Sword & Sworcery LP - The Ballad of the Space Babies; Indie Game: The Movie (Soundtrack); The Scythian Steppes: Seven #Sworcery Songs Localized for Japan; Children of the Clone; Corporeal; Now, More Than Ever; Morning Noon Night; A Thousand Songs; and FREE-P. Every purchase also includes a 50% off coupon for a double LP vinyl of Indie Game: The Movie (Soundtrack) (while supplies last). If you pay more than the average, you’ll also receive the game Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP and Indie Game: The Movie. The top 10 contributors will additionally receive a box set of several vinyl records signed by Jim Guthrie!"

This is a great chance for everyone to get the entire musical catalog of Jim Guthrie and if you love good music, you really should pick this up. I appreciate The Humble folks for trying new things in terms of offering Book Bundles and now with this Music Bundle. I already have Sword & Sworcery as well as Indie Game The Movie but I plan on paying over the average because there is just so much great music here.

Clicky click:

http://www.humblebundle.com/weekly

Hammerwatch is an upcoming Gauntlet styled hack-n-slash featuring 4 player co-op. Travis and I featured this game on the site a few months ago with an interview and early gameplay review. I am happy to let you know that Hammerwatch is available to pre-order from the Humble Store for $8. When the game is ready to ship the pre-order gets you access to the game, game score + Steam Key.

Seriously, this a crazy deal and its not even on sale.

No secret I am very excited for this game to launch and as such shipped over a few questions to the Hammerwatch developers about the pre-order and final release. I want to thank them for taking the time to talk with me and I wish them well shipping.

jdodson: I just tried beta 1.0.6 that has a new Tower Defense mode as well as a fleshed out Warlock class. Are there any other changes coming to the game before the games final launch?

Myran: We don’t plan on releasing a new beta version, no. Releasing a beta takes a bit of time from us and although it’s great to be able to get the bug reports from it we think we have a stable enough version now to just do the rest of the testing ourselves.

jdodson: Awesome to see the ability to pre-order the Hammerwatch beta on the Humble Store. Can you give us any hints when the full game may ship by?

Myran: We should be able to release it in a few weeks.

jdodson: Are the any plans to support the game after launch with content updates or DLC?

Myran: It depends on how well the game sells, really. If we can then yes, we would love to do stuff like content patches and improving the editor, but it’s not something we can really promise to do since we don’t know if we will be able to afford doing it. I doubt we will do any kind of paid DLC though, if we do content updates they would most likely be free.

jdodson: As you are entering the final stretch of development what are you focusing on in regard to the game itself?

Myran: What’s left is mostly polishing some features and balancing the difficulty. There are also some stuff that’s not directly the game itself, like making installers, a trailer and logos for stores. And then there is of course always bug testing and fixing.

Pre-order the game from the Hammerwatch site:

http://www.hammerwatch.com/

Our interview with the developers back in January:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/955

Our review of an early beta of the game + developer Q&A session. It includes a video of Travis and I playing Survival together:

http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/1039

Recently, Dota 2 left beta for its final free to play release on Windows. During its Beta it wasn't available for Linux or Mac but recently Valve made a test build available for both platforms. Recently I downloaded both clients on Linux and Mac to give them a shot. If you have Steam for Mac or Linux you can simple download the Dota 2 test from your games list.

Mac Test Build

This build works well enough that I recommend it for Mac users if they prefer gaming from their Laptop or iMac. That said, I don't recommend it for serious Dota 2 playing but if you want to have a bit of fun with bots or friends, it works well.

A few issues I noticed:

When the character selection screen came up it was very small in the upper left hand corner of the screen. I could select a character, but it was hard to read anything and understand each characters strengths and weaknesses. Not a huge deal if you know who you want to play.

I also minimized the game a few times and had no idea how I did that. It was easy enough to resume the game, but it was distracting the few times it happened.

The performance on my Macbook wasn't great and I experienced a bit of lag on occasion. It wasn't a huge deal, but my Macbook has an SSD and 16G of RAM, it doesn't need to slow down.

Linux Test Build

The Linux build was the most stable of the two and it worked very well for me. No glitches that I noticed and the build seemed good enough for serious play. That said, each Linux machine is a bit different but on my rig, it ran very well.

If you are Mac or Linux bound or simply want to see Valve's latest game to be ported to these platforms you should download them now!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/570/

Capybara Games just released a new trailer for Super Time Force and it is worth a watch. The trailer features examples of how the time travel game mechanic works during game play. When you rewind time you can also select another character to play, making it possible to play different parts of a level with different characters. The game boasts the ability to play as a Dinosaur but that aspect isn't shown in the trailer. The trailer does show off a Luke Skywalker character as well as others that resemble various iconic 80's action stars.

As with any Capybara game, the trailer features a really great music. The trailer itself is fairly unique in that the last minute is a very interesting rewind segment. I couldn't tell if that was just for fun or if that mechanic will be included in the game itself.

The game look very polished from what was shown in the trailer. Any hint to the release date was included at the end of the trailer that read: "2013 XBLA." I have no plans to buy an XBox 360 or XBox One so I hope this comes to PC at some point in the future. That said, the game looks fantastic and I can't wait for it to ship.

http://supertimeforce.com/

"Fruit trees are a long-term investment for your farm. They don’t need to be watered, but they are expensive to buy, need a lot of space, and require a full year of growth before they’ll produce any fruit. However, once it’s established, your tree will provide you with juicy morsels every day during its fruiting season!

What will you do with your new fruit?

Sell it? Cook with it? Give it to your sweetie?

Throw the pungent little thing into an oak barrel and spend the winter guzzling strong wine? (don’t do that)"

http://stardewvalley.net/mini-dev-update-8/

" 1989. In an era of Nintendo-mania, toymaker giant Mattel unleashes a bold technological experiment to an eager public. The POWER GLOVE: the first video game controller that allows players to operate Nintendo games with intuitive hand gestures.

Despite immense hype surrounding its release, the product is a critical failure, disappointing thousands of children with its subpar gameplay. More than two decades later, however, dedicated fans continue to repurpose the Power Glove for art pieces, hacking projects, electronic music, and more.

For the first time ever: the story behind the world’s most notorious video game controller."

The Power Glove is one of those awesome devices in gaming history that is more awesome in concept than in practice. Not to say your can't repurpose it for much now, but I never really found it useful in any of the games I owned as a kid. That said, I am really interested in watching the documentary as I really do appreciate owning my own Power Glove and love the lore and history of it all. I wonder if they will interview Lucas from The Wizard? Time will tell.

http://thepowerofglove.com/

"Unreal Tournament 1999, original intended to be nothing more than an expansion pack for the original Unreal which would simply be called "The bot pack", turned out to be one of the most influential multiplayer shooters of all time. Toppling the giant powerhouse that was ID software in both technology and gameplay and modding capabilities of ID's engines. "

Unreal Tournament still holds up today as a great competitive FPS. I hope Epic decides to give some more attention to the franchise as UT3 was fantastic and id love a more modern take on this franchise.

I wanted to update you about a recent batch of features to hit the site. One such thing I have been experimenting with are the comment visuals. The old comment style was fine in Desktop browsers but on mobile they were squished. The new style gives the comment body much more room and I think they are much easier to read. That said, they don't seem as good as they could be. I can't put my thumb on it entirely, but something needs to be done in terms of the colors we use or placement. Beyond that, I really love how much more room the comments have on my iPhone.

A few days ago I changed the "Update Profile" link in the drop down to "Account Settings." This will be an "umbrella" area for all things related to your account. I added a series of tab buttons to the top of the page allowing you to update your profile as before and I also added a new "Account Security" section. Currently what this allows you to do is sign out all other open Cheerful Ghost browser sessions. If you think your account may have been compromised or you are just a bit paranoid, this should help you be more secure.

I want to stress the point that we have not been hacked and no account has been hacked that I am aware of. Security really matters to me and I want to allow people the right tools to ensure that is a priority. We also started a new policy that requires everyone re authenticate every 2 months. I know this is somewhat of a hassle but is a fairly normal convention on modern web apps.

One of the next features I will be working on in the upcoming weeks is updating how posts are seen on the Cheerful Ghost main page. Some of you have asked for some kind of front page moderation and Travis and I are currently working out how that will work. Our goal is to painlessly allow awesome content to make it to the front page. I want to stress that the majority of what people post will still make it to the front page, that said as the site grows we need to ensure that the stuff people see is our best.

If you have any questions or comments about anything covered hit me in the comments or using site feedback:

http://cheerfulghost.com/feedback