BioShock is one of those games that builds a world you feel immersed in from the start. Playing the game I really got into the character and mood of the game and it was very creepy. As far as the start to a game goes, BioShock does it better than most ive experienced. I started with the PS3 demo and then was given the full meal deal from a friend on my cake day.

100% full disclosure, ive never completed it. I haven't completed it because I can only play it in 10-20 minute increments. The game looks fantastic, has a interesting plot device and the game mechanics are good its just that ... I don't want to exist in that world doing that stuff very long. I find it interesting enough, the political flavor and spin, its just that I don't want to be in a game world where bloody ranting lunatics are trying to kill me every waking second. The game is like a Halloween Haunted House for most of the game it seems and my personal style dictates I only visit Haunted Houses on occasion.

Its unfortunate because this game has such a strong following and they have said how rad the entire game was and the story that took them through it. Then again, I will most likely finish the game, it will just take me 50,000 10 minute sessions.

Anyone interested in SkyoShock aka BioShock Infinite? That game doesn't look quite as "psycho clown circus" but it does seem to still have some insane elements.

The State of the Ghost 1.0

If people like these kinds of posts, ill keep them semi-regular and to the point about Cheerful Ghost and what direction the site is headed.

Ill try to keep this as brief as I am able :)

A month++ ago I launched Cheerful Ghost to my friends. People seemed to think it had potential and as I listened to your feedback I made improvements to make the site awesome. Based on our small but absolutely dedicated following I can now say that this is the most fun Ive had in gaming in years. Seeing what you guys play and having meaningful dialogs on those games is magical. I wasn't sure it was possible to be part of a community that can rise above the typical douche-baggery and karma whoring that plagues the Intarwebs.

As I have listened to your feedback and whats the most important to I wanted to let you know what I will be working on in the up-coming weeks to continue to make Cheerful Ghost rad-sauce. That said, Cheerful Ghost will not be made or lost on features, it will be even more great if it can grow.

In no specific order, the goods:

The largest and most important thing I will be working on is helping attract people that love video games to Cheerful Ghost. The next set of stuff I will be working on is generally all related to that important goal.

1. We have a fair amount of users that have signed up to the site, posted content and have wandered away over time for whatever reason. People are busy and often times they are not thinking all Cheerful Ghost all the time. With that in mind I am going to add email notifications that are not annoying to gently remind people whats going on. This email will be east to opt-out of and will only go out once per week IF the user has any site notifications they have yet to read. The email will also contain a cool short list of the most popular game conversations since they last logged in. If the user doesn't want to get this, it will be easy for them to opt-out of.

2. A few people have noted they want a "General Gaming" category we all have access to so we can fill up some space with stuff that doesn't fit into a game we have in our lists. I agree, this is important so I am going to add that to everyones list. If you have any ideas to the specific wording of this that will go in all our game lists, let me know your thoughts.

3. I am going to build a system to easily Tweet, Facebook or email a link to your friends that you can use to drive them to Cheerful Ghost. If any of your friends sign-up using this method you will get special trophies and rankings. Think invitations but on your terms and not focused on email only.

4. People have wanted the site to have Platform specific pages for the PS3, Super Nintendo, PC or any other platform we have games listed under. I am going to add this support and a few other bits that will be interesting and useful.

5. Over the coming weeks I am going to figure out how to attract certain game players to Cheerful Ghost from communities I respect. Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Steam and Diablo 3 are some of the people I am going to be talking to.

6. I am going to make a few YouTube videos to help spread the world about Cheerful Ghost. I have some ideas, ill let you know when they are finished.

Id like things a bit more noisy and id like to add more awesome voices to our mix so my focus in the next few weeks will be to grow the community. Anything that gets us closer to that I would love to know about and if you have any ideas, feel free to let me know. Want to talk to me about something else, I am listening.

Unsure if you have seen this. If not, check it out.

I found a free to play MMO off Steam called Realm of the Mad God. It has just about the simplest sign-up process ever as after you load the game you don't need to sign-up for an account, they just start you in a zone to teach you the game and you play it.

http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/ (you can play it in your browser right now)

Immediately I felt at home because of the retro graphics and simple controls. Seriously, this game is pretty simple and its a refreshing experience. You start out as the Wizard class and its a fun class to play. You can unlock other classes by playing the game. Yesterday I unlocked the Priest class.

One thing you need to know is that death is permanent. I died a few times but once you get used to how it all works, staying away from death isn't too bad. I did find that since death is permanent I was playing it safer than I do in other games. I only made it to level 5 and its not hard to get back to that level.

Check it out, its fun a best of all: free.

I pre-ordered the Diablo 3 collectors edition last week. I got the Starcraft 2 collectors edition and loved it, decided since its not that much more than the box copy of D3, ill get the collectors as well.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/services/collectors-edition/

Comes with: Diablo 3 PC/Mac game, Diablo skull and 4G usb soul stone, Behind the scenes DVD/Bluray, art of Diablo 3 book & the Diablo 3 soundtrack. It also comes with some digital stuff like SC2 avatars and some exclusive D3 items.

Kind of with pre-ordering the game got you into the beta. Id love to give it a go.

Found an awesome site the other day as I was searching for phrases from Zelda games. Yeah, I do that.

http://secrettoeverybody.com/

The Secret to Everybody site takes phrases from the original games and collects them in screen-shot form for you to view. Very fun.

Hey all.

Trying out Google Ads on the site, let me know what you think.

I want them to be available yet not annoying. I hope Google can provide them such that they are beneficial to you.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Some people actually created a Super Mario Brothers with portals game. Looks pretty awesome.

http://stabyourself.net/mari0

Can download it for Windows, Mac and Linux.

From the site:

"Two genre defining games from completely different eras: Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. and Valve's Portal. These two games managed to give Platformers and First-Person Puzzle Games a solid place in the video game world. But what if Nintendo teamed up with Valve and recreated the famous Mario game with Portal gun mechanics?"

Ive been seeing reports that Valve may release a "Steam Box" to compete with Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft in the console market.

The picture above is from a patent application filed by Valve last year for a "game controller having user swappable control components."

"Apparently meetings were held during CES to demo a hand-built version of the device to potential partners. We're told that the basic specs of the Steam Box include a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU. The devices will be able to run any standard PC titles, and will also allow for rival gaming services (like EA's Origin) to be loaded up."

Some more interesting bits from The Verge:

"Part of the goal of establishing a baseline for hardware, we're told, is that it will give developers a clear lifecycle for their products, with changes possibly coming every three to four years. Additionally, there won't be a required devkit, and there will be no licensing fees to create software for the platform."

I think this is very interesting because if this is all true then the Steam Box will be a much simpler system for developers to port games to in terms of licensing fees. Steam is great for indie publishers to get something to market and make money with it. Consoles are not quite as easy and Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo take more of a cut of the sales than other hardware makers like Apple or Google.

Looking forward to E3 this year, hopefully it will be showcased.

What do you all think? Is another company entering the console market a good thing? Is this even needed at all? Never going to upgrade from your original NES?

Sources:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57390062-235/portals-valve-to-release-steam-box-console-says-report/

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20110105231#b

Posted that ive been playing through Rage in my spare cycles. I have spent some time in game beefing up my Caprino. I slapped some rocket launchers to it, won a sick spiky spoiler on front, got some spiked blades and upgraded the engine. Its pretty fierce out in the wasteland and when I get into a fight with some bandits I turn on the shields and can blow them straight to The Underdome.

Here is what my ride looks like as I am driving it:

http://i.imgur.com/axTxl.jpg

Oh and the pictures above are the actual in game shots of me driving and standing in front of my car.