jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Terraria to Drop on Consoles in March

Terraria will drop on consoles in North America on March 26 and March 27 on the PS3 and XBox 360 respectively. Hoping for a demo to try out how the controls work on the console for this one. Ultra interested to see if this content comes to the PC in some way. And yes, I would buy an expansion for Terraria.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/22/terraria-digs-in-on-psn-march-26-xbox-live-march-27/

Hearthstone: A New Blizzard Collectable Card Game

Blizzard just announced its next new game at PAX East called "Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft." Hearthstone looks pretty interesting and according to the FAQ:

"Hearthstone is a free-to-play digital strategy card game that anyone can enjoy. Players choose to play as one of nine epic Warcraft heroes, and then take turns playing cards from their customizable decks to cast potent spells, use heroic weapons or abilities, or summon powerful characters to crush their opponent."

Since I really enjoy Magic: The Gathering I am interested in Hearthstone. Essentially its a free to play CCG that you can play online in a few minutes. Sound like it could be fun.

I know a few people have scoffed that this isn't anything new because its based on the existing Warcraft franchise. After thinking about it some, it really makes sense that this game is in the Warcraft universe as it already has a pretty deep canon and the characters are pretty well known. I played the living junk out of Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne so most of the heroes they showcased were well known to me.

Its interesting to see Blizzard pair down a project for a small team and release it on PC, Mac and the iPad. I think this game has the ability to be quite huge, because of its free to play nature and Blizzards huge sway with players. That said, I can see where some might "meh" this game. Wherein I am not foaming at the mouth for this one, when it drops I will pick it up and play it for sure. Will I buy some in game decks? Well, typically I don't but if the game is good enough ill kick them a few coins to keep things going. But if this is like previous Blizzard titles, they won't have much of a problem paying the bills for this one.

Also wondering if they plan on doing a physical release of this game as actual playable cards if it does well?

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/faq/

Friday at GameStorm:Kickstarter & Community Panels

My first day at GameStorm was great. Its nice to come to an event by Geeks for Geeks. If you love playing RPG's, Board Games, Miniatures or Collectible Card Games GameStorm is your jam. I do and it was fun to sit down and play some games I wasn't previously exposed to. After my first panel(more on that later) I hit up the floor and settled on playing Steve Jackson's Revolution! Revolution! is a game where you try to coerce the town such that your influence spreads such that you gain the towns support for your revolution. I was mesmerized by the bidding and strategy process so much that I forgot to expand my influence in the city. I was spending time reading the table, trying to anticipate what they would do and "bid" accordingly. The game is very strategic and has near poker feel to how you can read into what the other players are doing. If you are looking for a fun strategy game that doesn't take much to learn, Steve Jackson's Revolution! is worth a go.

My first panel of the day was "What's on Kickstarter Right Now" also known as, the first panel I've ever been in. I think it went very well and I told a few jokes that seemed to hit the mark. In the end, it was awesome to be a panelist with people that love whats on Kickstarter and have Kickstarted projects themselves.

My co-panelists where:

Jess Heartly is a cool writer who has worked on a ton of awesome stuff.
http://www.jesshartley.com/

I also shared the stage with Gary McBride the owner of Fire Mountain Games who recently Kickstarted the amazing looking Creature Cards.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/730004812/creature-cards-monstrous-playing-cards-for-games-o

My second panel was on Community Organizing. It was moderated by PIGSquad's own Will Lewis. We talked about organizing communities and shot around our different thoughts on how we go about that.
http://pigsquad.com/profile/WillLewis

Jeffery Sens from Portland Games for Change.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/247773668667490/

And Paul Vorvick of the LARP Beyond the Eaether.
http://www.beyondtheaether.com/

Panelling is very fun and I really enjoy talking to other people in similar spaces doing awesome stuff. Looking forward to heading over today, I have my final 2 panels today and look forward to meeting more people and playing more games.

* The picture of the awesome mask was taken at the Attention Span Games Booth http://www.asgarb.com

FTL: A Fun Roguelike in Space + Co-Op

So after asking everyone which game I should play next I installed Fallout: New Vegas and started the single player mission. Compared to Fallout: 3 the intro wasn't terribly interesting. I imagine the game picks up a ton later on, but I didn't click for me right away. I will come back to it at some point though.

A few days ago FTL went on sale through the Steam Spring Indie sale and is currently $5 stand alone or $7 with the score. I picked up FTL + the score(of course) and decided to try it out. After an un-countable amount of games I can say that FTL is a must buy if you love space sims. Its a interesting take on the Roguelike game genere that dares to be fun! I guess I should qualify that a bit because I don't find many roguelikes fun. There are roguelikes I want to enjoy, but just can't get into. Its not that I don't like challenges or have a problem losing its just that certain games don't mix the "really hard" and "losing your ass off" to make it fun. But FTL does. In FTL in every game I lost my ass off and it was very fun. An epic adventure even. But realize here I play games for fun, not work, so if a game seems like work I just don't play it.

One evening of late I described FTL to a friend and recommended he give it a go. We were talking over Google Hangout and I decided to screen share the game with him. We spent nearly an hour making choices on how to play the game together and not only was it fun as hell I got further than I did on my own. I want to play FTL co-op again this way and hopefully we can do that. So yeah, if you have the ability to sit down and play with a friend, try FTL co-op. I guess you could call it "FTL Pairing" because thats a method I employ when I partner with someone on a project and we are at the same computer doing it together. Anyways, regardless of what you call it, it was fun as hell.

FTL is awesome and you really aught to try it, because, you know, space and all. You can even get unique and play it with your friends over Google Hangout too.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/212680/

BR Supporter wrote on 03/22/2013 at 09:36pm

Trying FTL co-op by screen sharing sounds awesome. I'll have to try that with someone sometime.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 12:35am

Yeah, it is. I want to do it again and do a Lets Play of it.

BR Supporter wrote on 03/23/2013 at 01:01am

Dude....I totally want to join you on that one.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 01:05am

Ok so lets do that. Ill send you an email to setup the time.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/23/2013 at 01:42am

Outstanding idea! When I first read the headline, I thought I just missed reading that it had co-op. Glad I read the full story to get the full scoop.

You must have a pretty serious rig to be able to screenshare via Hangout without dropping. I was considering doing something similar for Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I have some folks who would really like to see that one.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 05:12am

I think one thing that helps is FTL looks like a 2D sprite game. Plus it doesn't have a ton of movement. Then again I think I did... Minecraft over hangout too. :D

CapnCurry Supporter wrote on 03/23/2013 at 06:38am

I can vouch for the awesomeness of FTL screensharing - Jon took me through a guided tour of the game, and I was surprised at how easy it was to follow along with what we were doing. I played through the tutorial on my own later, and I think I'd have had a disappointing first run if the tutorial were all I'd had to work with.

I've played through it a few times since then, and gotten *remarkably* close to (what I think is) the finish line. I'm hoping for a chance to play FTL in pair-mode again with a more experienced eye and see how that changes things.

If Google hangout can stay smooth, I'm wondering if this opens a new door on the "single-player strategy game as co-op" play I enjoyed as a teenager. Myst made a remarkably good two-player experience; I wonder what else is out there that's worth experimenting with.

Brandon_Waters wrote on 03/25/2013 at 10:03pm

I haven't screen shared, but that sounds awesome. FTL is another game for me that took a bit to get into but I've clocked some solid hours on it now. It's like Oregon Trail in space to me (with a bit more skill involved). Great game.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/26/2013 at 12:21am

Huh, good point on the Oregon Trail in space, I hadn't considered that before. Its the goto game in my rotation right now, so very cool.

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Beta Multiplayer: First Thoughts

After playing my first Age of Empires 2: HD multiplayer game I am happy to say that it went very well. All the awesome fun of the original game is here and in full force. Travis and I played a 2 vs 2 match with bots to try out the Age 2: HD multiplayer landscape.

Since its been a few years since I played last, it took me a bit to get back up to speed. As we were playing I was letting Travis know all the special UI hints I knew to make the game play much smoother. For instance, you can shift click to queue up house construction instead of just doing one at a time. And that you need to remember to queue your farm reseeding. Age 2 has a ton of advanced UI and knowing it makes the game a much smoother prospect.

We had the game lag out some when we had lots of units in play at the end. This is a pretty common old Age 2 bug in the matches I have played with my friends over LAN and doesn't have to do with your multiplayer connection speed. The lag was tolerable but annoying. In some Age 2 matches I have played we have restarted because its so intense. I think it might have to do with creating a ton of trade carts, but I am not entirely sure.

The force I rolled over the bots with was pretty simple. Swordsmen, Arches, Trebuchets and Monks. I always need a Monk. :D

It was awesome playing Age 2 multiplayer again and can't wait to get more people in the mix.

A few more of my thoughts on Age of Empires 2: HD

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1111

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Guest Pass Giveaway

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm came with 4 guess passes. I will be giving them away to the first people that claim them in the comments.

* no Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Guest Pass Left!
* 2 Word of Warcraft Guest Passes

Ill update the post when someone claims one of the passes.

CapnCurry Supporter wrote on 03/21/2013 at 11:50pm

Wings of Liberty, please!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/21/2013 at 11:51pm

Sent.

aziz_cingz wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:40am

Aye!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:58am

Which one do you want Aziz? Wings or WoW pass?

aziz_cingz wrote on 03/22/2013 at 06:47am

Wings please, sir (:

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2013 at 01:39pm

Sent

BR Supporter wrote on 03/22/2013 at 04:10pm

Aw damn! I missed the starcraft ones :(

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2013 at 04:47pm

Plenty of WoW codes :D

BR Supporter wrote on 03/22/2013 at 06:48pm

No thanks, I am done WoW. I used to play it quite a bit.

BR Supporter wrote on 03/22/2013 at 06:49pm

done with WoW*

Travis Admin wrote on 03/22/2013 at 09:41pm

Hang on a sec, how does the WoL guest pass differ from the SC2 starter edition? I thought Starter Edition replaced the need for guest passes.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 12:37am

It may Travis. I just had those in the Collectors Edition. So yeah, BR you might wan to try the SC2 Starter Edition and let us know how that works out.

Oh and I hear you on leaving WoW, sometimes stepping away is good.

BR Supporter wrote on 03/23/2013 at 01:03am

Is the starter addition just a trial or something?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 01:05am

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/3250656

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Supergiant Games: Transistor

"In Transistor, players assume the role of a young woman who gains control of a powerful weapon after a mysterious group of assailants nearly kills her with it. Now she must fight from street to street against forces that will stop at nothing to recover the weapon. During the course of the adventure, players will piece together the Transistor’s mysteries as they pursue its former owners."

What do you think, are you interested in getting Transistor? The music and visuals look top notch and the character and premise look very interesting.

http://supergiantgames.com/?p=1816

mate211 wrote on 03/21/2013 at 05:42pm

never played bastion myself, but this looks really promising. The song playing in the video was beautiful too:)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/21/2013 at 05:44pm

I totally agree the song really hooked me into the premise and game world.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/21/2013 at 09:02pm

You had me at Supergiant Games.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/21/2013 at 09:49pm

Yes, please!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/21/2013 at 11:33pm

Yeah, it looks really good. Hopefully more leaks out about it at PAX East.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/22/2013 at 12:24am

Or PAX Prime! Did you see the announce on ticket availability in a month or so?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:33am

Yeah, the site says to check back after PAX East. Woot! I got tix last time, but they sold out really fast.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:37am

I'll be picking this one up when the Linux version comes out, for sure. Bastion was incredible and this is a team that designs games they want to play.

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Age of Empires II: HD is Superb!

Age of Empires 2 is a classic RTS game that for many, defined the genre. I have had many epic LAN battles with my friends over the years and its really sad I can't play it with them anymore. I have tried much to get back to those awesome multiplayer battles, but nothing has worked.

As it turns out Hidden Path and Microsoft think this problem must solved and have paired up to release Age of Empires 2: HD Edition. Travis and I just got press beta access to this game and I had to post my first few hours with it!

Put simply, this is the game I wanted them to make.

fullscreen/windowed

There is a simple toggle to go from full screen to windowed mode and it works very well. If you have the game windowed you can resize it afterward and the game snaps to and works seamlessly. I tried the game in both Windowed and Fullscreen and had no issues at all. I have a very high resolution widescreen monitor and it looked great.

multiplayer

Age 2: HD has no LAN support.

http://forums.ageofempiresonline.com/forums/thread/350618.aspx

As they state, you can play Age 2 single player in offline mode but to play multiplayer you will need an Internet connection to Steam. Now before your rage-o-meter hits 1,000 there are a few things you need to know about how the Age 2 multiplayer on Steam works.

Age 2: HD lets you create games on Steam by first selecting the games visibility: "public," "friends," or "private." I created a "friends" game and since Travis and I are Steam friends Travis saw it right away and joined. It was buttery smooth and worked right away in Steam out of the box.

So yeah, LAN isn't included here but the Steam integration is top notch and we had zero issues getting into a game.

a few new awesome things

* Steam Cloud Saves
* Steam Workshop Integration. When I saw this in game my mind exploded with the limitless possibilities of awesome Age 2 mods. Can't wait to see what people come up with.
* Multi-Monitor Support.
* You can increase the population cap to 500 in mulitplayer. Seriously, it works and I totally did it. This means you can expect some ridiculously huge battles with your friends.

final thoughts

First off this is just a teaser of my first few hours of the game, I plan on posting again after Travis and I hit up a full mutiplayer epic with a 500 unit cap and my other exploits. Needless to say, this port is really what I wanted and am so very happy it was made. Leaving out LAN kind of hit me in the feels but if the Steam integration keeps being stellar I don't take point with it.

I felt like a piece of history and culture was lost with Age 2 classic and now its back and polished up for the modern era and this makes me very happy.

And really, I think we can all "wololo" that.

The game will officially launch on April 9th or April 5th with pre-order.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/22/2013 at 12:37am

Can't wait to play!

http://imgur.com/E4yz1

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:33am

I just played multiplayer with Travis, going to be writing about that soon :D

Travis Admin wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:36am

It. Was. Awesome.

It still lags out a bit when you get a ton of enemies on screen, but I'm sure Jon will be talking about that soon in his post.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:40am

Never played AoE II. Played a metric-poop-ton (trying to keep it clean) of the first, though. Many a late night gaming session became an early morning bedtime as me and my cohorts played 3-on-5 battles against the AI. Egyptian priests were my army and the computer's weapons became mine. :)

I drooled over AoE II before it came out, but life happens and I just never played it. Glad to see it got revived and is just as fun as it ever was.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2013 at 03:17am

Yeah, it is very fun. I just posted about the match Travis and I had.

Microsoft and Hidden Path both said this won't be coming to Linux though. Total bummer.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/23/2013 at 01:38am

Oh well. There'll be other games. There will always be other games.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 05:10am

Always more games!

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Interview with Sam Didier About Heart of the Swarm

PC Gamer keeps dropping the interviews they gave on the SC2: Heart of the Swarm launch. Sam Didier or Samwise as been an artist at Blizzard for quite sometime. He has a really unique art style that isn't seen a ton in the video game industry and its cool to hear his perspective on the game. He also does a very good Zegara impression.

Dungeon Defenders 2 Drops Late 2013

"Dungeon Defenders II is the sequel to our popular tower-defense role-playing game, Dungeon Defenders. Unlike it’s predecessor, Dungeon Defenders II features a cooperative and competitive mode. Heroes, cosmetic items, pets, and more will transfer across both modes."

The interesting bit is that Dungeon Defenders II will ship as a free to play game. Taking the on the mantle of many free to play MoBA and Tower Defense games, DD2 will be free to play. Looks like all the hero's in DD2 will not be F2P and only a few rotation selections will be. DoTA2 and League allow you full access to all the heros and you can purchase skins and other cosmetic items to allow you to customize your experience. Seems DD2 is not going this direction entirely.

Are you excited about DD2? What did you think of the original?

http://dungeondefenders2.com/game/

Sign up for the beta here:

http://dungeondefenders2.com/register

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/23/2013 at 01:47am

I liked the original but didn't play much because I got it well after most of my friends had. I have it for the PS3 and Steam (Windows only...for now) and the Linux port. Do you know if DD can be played cross-platform?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 05:14am

It was on a recent bundle and I think it's on Steam for Linux now.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/23/2013 at 05:36am

I have Dungeon Defenders from the first Humble Bundle that offered it, so I have access to the Linux version, but it's not yet in Steam for Linux. Not all of the HB titles have transitioned to Steam. Torchlight (which never really ran that well for me to begin with), Binding of Isaac (sad, sad, sad, sadness), Swords & Soldiers, Psychonauts, Super Meat Boy and a handful of other games offered in the early Humble Bundles are still not in Steam yet.

From what I was reading elsewhere, though, some of those titles may never actually get into Steam. Some have Linux ports just to satisfy the Bundle's requirement for cross-platform. I imagine part of the delay is adding in the additional hooks for Steam and getting someone to work on the port.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 04:59pm

Yeah, well I hope someone does work on those Steam ports and gets them added. Ive heard the Meat Boy Mac version wasn't awesome, can't imagine the Linux port being much better.

I see more games being added to my Steam Linux account over time though. I currently have Solar 2 and FTL installed on Linux and they both run very well. I see Torchlight listed, but I haven't tried it yet.

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jdodson1

2762 Posts

Terraria to Drop on Consoles in March

Hearthstone: A New Blizzard Collectable Card Game

Friday at GameStorm:Kickstarter & Community Panels

FTL: A Fun Roguelike in Space + Co-Op

Beta Multiplayer: First Thoughts

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Guest Pass Giveaway

Supergiant Games: Transistor

Age of Empires II: HD is Superb!

Interview with Sam Didier About Heart of the Swarm

Dungeon Defenders 2 Drops Late 2013