jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2753 Posts

http://i.imgur.com/w10te.jpg
This just in from the "I am getting old Department" it seems Quake II marks its 15th birthday today! Bethesda and iD Software rang in the occasion with some interesting tidbits from iD's Tim Willits.


  • Only three artists made all the 2D and 3D art for the entire game.

  • One of the original suggested names for QUAKE II was WOR, but the game’s fast-paced, tactile feel felt closer to a QUAKE game than a new franchise.

  • ‘The Edge’ (Tim’s favorite deathmatch level in QUAKE II or any other game), has over 50 trick jumps possible in the map. Tim only designed two of them, and the rest were discovered by the QUAKE II community.



http://www.bethblog.com/2012/12/06/happy-15th-quake-ii/


http://i.imgur.com/qaEH2.jpg
Edmund McMillen of the Super Meat Boy & Binding of Isaac fame dropped some news on The Binding of Isaac Rebirth. Recently he had a Formsping Q&A on his blog and you needed to be made aware of the details. Your welcome in advance.

"-Rebirth is a totally remade game based on the flash version of the binding of isaac + wrath of the lamb.

-The game is being produced and developed by Nicalis, the guys who did all the cave story remakes and the VVVVVV port.

-Nicalis is working on the port for Ps3/Vita and PC (steam) and is also currently talking to MS and Nintendo about releasing on their platforms. we are also looking into an iOS version if its not garbage.

-The remake will feature all the content featured in BOI+Wrath but will also feature another Wrath sized expansion over the top that will feature a new final chapter, ending, 2 new playable characters and tons more items, rooms, enemies, bosses and the like. the goal will be to make replaying the whole game not only worth it but also make i so it feels very fresh and new.

-The remake will feature content that was removed from the flash version of the game due to limitations (secret stuff!)

-The remake will feature LOCAL 2 player co-op… no online play because that will just extend the release by another forever.

-I will be lead designer on the project, making sure things are as perfect as we can make them and as true to the original as possible, i will also be designing all the new content and features.

-The game will be getting a full 16bit make over, im doing this because i think the art is tired and im sick of looking at it. i think a fresh coat of paint is needed and i think its kinda appropriate/funny to do a damake for the remake.

-We will try to do a loyalty pre-order discount to anyone who owns the game on pc.
"

Some really interesting bits here:


  • Co-op. Whoa! If you can harm the other then that might make it harder.

  • I wonder what stuff didnt make it into the main game they wanted to include? I guess more on those bits will surface later.

  • Dropping the price for current owners is a good idea but I would have picked it up either way

  • If an iOS version played well I might play more of that than on the PC



The full post where he drops the details:
http://edmundm.com/post/36798306331/binding-of-isaac-console-remake-details

Edmund also ran a poll about the remake:
http://edmundm.com/post/37223982057/binding-of-isaac-retro-remake-the-results-are-in

Team Meat is working on a new game called Mew-Genics and dropped a bit of information on how diverse the in game cats are:

"So yeah, Mew-Genics will feature over 12,207,031,250,000,000,000,000 cats. its easy to assume you and your friends wont ever have the same cat. technically that number only applies to how the cat looks, if you include its personality variables that number multiplies by A LOT.. not to mention the ability variables, personal stats and a ton more secret stuff we will talk about later on."

http://supermeatboy.com/128/Mew_Genics_teaser_week_6/#b

This is in the running for my most anticipated new games besides Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm.


New Starcrafts cartoon short released, linked above. So many times I was foiled by that lone air unit when the brunt of my army had no anti-air. This is why I am not a pro Starcraft player. Fun game though.

Continuing with the Starcraft 2 dev Q&A Blizzard recently posted Part 7:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/7994699

I thought this question and answer were particularly interesting(yeah, I sort of follow the Starcraft lore and all that):

"Question: Are Tassadar and the Overmind one now?"

"Answer: Not now, no. But something like the Overmind does not die instantly. Some synapses may fire for a time as it fades away. And at the moment of impact for both of these organisms, they were one, for a brief instant. Their bodies certainly collided, but their higher-level functions, on a psionic scale, also merged. There is precedent for this: recall that Zeratul's mind touched the Overmind briefly when he killed Zasz."

So basically in Starcraft 2 the Zerg high person(trying not to spoil it) was undone. I am not sure what Zerg thing took over, but the devs are talking about the Overmind now being in charge. The end of Starcraft 2's campaign isn't terribly forthcoming but I did feel it closed up the story it created fairly well.



Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition was recently released by Beamdog exclusive to the Beamdog game platform.

http://www.baldursgate.com/news_2012nov28.en.html

Steam has officially released Big Picture Mode. Having a sale on Big Picture Mode friendly titles to celebrate.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/9495/
http://store.steampowered.com/sale/big_picture_release

Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC is dropping on XBox 360 tomorrow. No word on if any Skyrim DLC is coming to PS3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRmdXDH9b1s

Congratulations to Mojang as Minecraft has sold 8 million copies. Someone also made a Minecraft Dishonored mod.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/12/minecraft-pc-sales-up-to-8-million/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sepXAPLOTn0

A image has been passed around showcasing some awesome free games created by the folks at /v/. I still need to play Dwarf Fortress.

http://imgur.com/0hxve

THQ Bundle just hit a record 660,000 bundles sold totalling 3,395,015 at the moment of this writing.

http://www.humblebundle.com/


A few days ago @panickedthumb posted an Interview he gave with Ryan Gordon of the amazing Linux game porting fame. Recently the interview has been picked up all over the web and as such we are getting a lot of new visitors.

If you are wondering what Cheerful Ghost is, take a peek here:
http://cheerfulghost.com/about

I am going to collect all the places on the web the Interview is being picked up in this post, if you see it somewhere let me know:

http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/12/02/1749251/interview-with-icculus-on-gnulinux-gaming
https://twitter.com/search?q=cheerfulghost&src=typd
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI0MDI
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com//2012/12/02/the-sunday-papers-245/
http://linuxgamenews.com/post/36901542979/interview-with-ryan-c-gordon-about-linux-gaming#.ULwVCEJ1Rmd
http://www.linuxgames.com/archives/18497
http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/59058
http://www.ubuntuvibes.com/2012/11/ryan-c-gordon-2013-will-be-awesome-for.html
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/ryan-gordon-is-no-longer-one-of-us-4175439703/
http://steamforlinux.com/?q=en/node/135

Oh and it was translated to Spanish:

http://libuntu.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/conoce-los-detalles-de-la-entrevista-realizada-a-ryan-c-gordon-de-valve/

If you see the interview pop up anywhere else online, let me know and ill add it to this post.


I know many of you have little happiness in your lives. You come here for a few things and I imagine my life changing Minecraft videos are part of the reason. I heard your calls over the vast sea of the Internet bits and am gifting to you my latest video.

Oh right the video is also fairly short, clocking a bit over 5 minutes.

I was inspired to build a Treehouse in one of the taller trees on my farm. I am proud of my Minecraft creations thinking I am doing some impressive work until I went to a few Minecraft servers and my hopes of achieving Minecraft greatness were dashed. I seem to have less time than some Minecraft pros.

That said, existing in a world like Minecraft with no apparent agenda is a freeing thing. That freedom allowed me to learn something about myself too. I used to have a idea that it would be somewhat epic to venture out into the wild on my own. As a kid I enjoyed the tales of Johnny Appleseed, Jeremiah Johnson & Mad Max. After playing Minecraft, which is a kind of wish fulfillment I can say that I am questioning that old dream. Its lonely being by yourself.

I remember some of the best experiences I have had in the last few years with games and Fallout 3 sticks out. At first blush my memroy recalls it being mostly a solitary game and then I am reminded my primary sticking point to the game. My attachment to the father character played by Liam Neeson.

There is something cool about being out there on your own in Minecraft. No story, no agenda and its all up to you. But lately after playing I have the twinges of being in a "lonely planet." I should just join a server but something keeps me coming back to my world, like I have something more to find out. When I do find that thing out, I will let you know.


http://i.imgur.com/jr0wy.jpg
When Lord of the Rings Online went free to play a few years ago I created an account and started my adventures through Middle Earth. I didn't know much about the game when I created an account so I picked a Dwarf Guardian. The game impressed me with its size and it ran really well on my underpowered hardware. I told a few of my friends about it and we started playing it together. Lord of the Rings Online was my first proper MMO experience and as such it has a special place in my heart. I picked a crafting tree where I can harvest Lumber, Ore and make armor. Right away I loved collecting wood and ore and refining it into lumber and ingots. I find crafting my own armor to be really awesome as well.

Recently I noticed Lord of the Rings Online was available in Steam so I downloaded it to see how the game had progressed. It sat idle for a long time as my Steam catalog grows at a rate faster than I can reasonably consume it. A day or so ago I headed back into Middle Earth to get my bearings on how the game had advanced in a few years. I noticed they tucked in some new graphics and quests I hadn't seen before. That said, the game is largely the same, just a few years worth of refinements mixed in.

Recently they released a Mac Beta client and I can say it works very well. If you are looking for a fun and accessible MMO you should check out LoTRO. The free to play aspect isn't annoying and I find myself more interested in kicking them a few bucks now than when I originally played. If you are interested in starting a character and want to play together join the Riddermark server.


New episode of Game Shop. Really starting to enjoy this show. The first few episodes didn't really hook me, but these later ones are.


https://www.humblebundle.com/

"Seven legendary titles to rock your gaming library. The Humble THQ Bundle is here with a colossal onslaught of esteemed titles. Pay $1 or more for Steam keys for Company of Heroes (and its two full-blown expansions Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valor), Darksiders, Metro 2033, and Red Faction: Armageddon. And if you pay over the average price you’ll also receive the extraordinary Saints Row: The Third!"

Where to begin. First off gratz to the Humble folks, this is a pretty cool next step for them. Its cool seeing the Bundle be able to keep doing Bundle after Bundle. They have tried some awesome stuff, the Android Bundle, The Author/Book Bundle, The Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight and the awesome normal bundles of course. That said I am wondering a few things about the Humble Bundle.

Did the Indie thing change? Not that they must be at all moments but it seems the last few bundles were "mainstream." Not that mainstream is bad, but it is called the Humble Indie Bundle. One other staple of the Bundles was that they were always playable on Windows, Mac and Linux. The THQ Bundle is Windows only as was Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight. Will the Indie Bundles remain cross-platform and not the mainstream ones?

That said, I am happy the Humble Bundle is continuing its trend of allowing people to buy awesome games and donate to charity. Oh and the THQ bundle is doing pretty well, they raised 1 million dollars in 5 hours!

Are you picking up this bundle?