I think the new site re design is going well and decided to create the video showcasing a bit about it. The new design isn't a totally new shift, its a evolution and I think is an improvement over the original.

Sound off the in comments with your thoughts. I plan on starting the work to integrate the new design into the site soon so get your feedback in!

The video quality isn't stellar, for a higher res screenshot of the new design clicky click:
http://i.imgur.com/SdUBC.jpg

I have a lot of game demo's I need to ry. I dusted off the recent XCOM demo I had in my queue recently and it was a surprising amount of fun.

Full confession as I haven't played any of the original XCOM games. So I don't have much in my mind in terms of if the game follows the originals legacy or anything. If you played the original and then this recent version shout out in the comments or another post, I am interested how that turned out for you.

XCOM is a turn based squad game. Basically its similar to something like Final Fantasy Tactics or the like where you take turns against the computer to overwhelm them. But don't let that absolutely bad description fool you, the game is pretty intense. The demo comes with a few missions and some compelling story to give you a good taste of what the game has in store. I enjoyed the intro missions and they really teach you how to play the game and then kick you into the action.

My only gripe about the game was really a demo limitation in that I couldn't save any progress. I didn't quite finish the demo in an hour or so but it doesn't allow you to save. That means when you come back to it you have to start at the beginning. I imagine this isn't a problem in the full meal deal.

One interesting feature I noticed as I was reading about the game on Wikipedia is the game comes with an interesting multiplayer mode. You start with an amount of points and can allocate them on certain things as you wish and go head to head with another player. Reminds me of dueling when I think about how that would play out.

In between your missions you have a base you can use to upgrade your units and do other stuff. The part of the demo I played didn't go too deep into that but it was cool to be able to see your upgraded units in your base. Oh right, XCOM brings an interesting feature to the table in that if you have units that survive missions they gain XP and get better. So you can have a badass vetran soldier you use in every battle. Just have to be careful because if they die it is permanent.

That all said install and play the demo as its available on Steam and the consoles(I played it on Steam) and let me know what you thought of it. In a world of mostly shooter games, its nice to get a tactical turn based game with some honest to God fun strategy elements to it.

According to a recent Tweet by iD's John Carmack it looks like the Rage modding tools will be released really soon. Interested in seeing how this breathes some life back into Rage. I was really excited about this game and it would be awesome to see what the community can do with this.

I think one of the best parts of Rage was the split-screen co-op "Legends of the Wasteland." I also really liked the death match car combat as well. To the end of the game it got a bit stale, but overall I rather enjoyed Rage.

https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/260529465636040704

I was gifted a copy of DoTA 2 from vdogmr and I just wanted to say thanks for that. Ill give it a shot and of course, report back my findings :D

Thanks again!

Bethesda just announced a new expansion for Skyrim called "Dragonborn." As always it will be released on XBox 360 first for a mere 1600 Microsoft points($20).

The trailer boasts Dragon mounts and a new quest line for Skyrim where you find out your not the only Dragonborn in Skyrim. From the video I couldn't tell if this new Dragonborn is evil or not? I guess he/she must be because they wear some pretty scary armor. That said, it could be like the Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny Devito film Twins. Plenty of "Ill be back" references and your Dragonborn twin yelling loudly.

That or something about evil resurrected and a bunch of stuff hanging in the balance or whatever.

Not to say it won't be awesome though. :D

Twins Trailer(YouTube has everything!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EXZF5rcli8

Borderlands 2 is quite a lot of fun. As I continue on with it I keep running into quests and events that make me smile. The loot I am collecting is pretty bad-ass too. Compared to other loot based games like Diablo 3, Borderlands has it beat in my view. I never feel like any weapon I collected in Diablo 3 held any advantage over another save attack power going through it the first time. I have nabbed a few items now in Borderlands 2 that are not just overpowered awesomeness, but have unique abilities that actually can change how you play the game.

For instance, I got a shield that when depleted, explodes a few times. When the shield depletes and the explosions start I jump further into the fray. This can be used to totally level a room and is quite a bit of fun to boot. Sometimes it doesn't work, but death isn't a huge deal in Borderlands. Paired with the Gunzerkers healing when you pop into Gunzerk mode, this shield ability is pretty powerful. I held it for quite along time until just recently I picked up a shield that has a chance to absorb bullets and return them to my inventory. All this awesome stuff and I am only level 15.

Came across two quests I thought were really awesome I wanted to share. "Splinter Group" is a quest where you head off to kill mutants. You have to start off by getting a pizza from Mad Moxi's to deliver. The mission starts out with you killing mutant rat men and finally end off taking down 4 dude talking mutants with ninja weapons. The gun you get for completing this mission looks an aweful lot like the Ninja Turtle van as well. As you start the mission there is a QR code on the Pizza Box and after a ton of screwing around got it to translate on my phone to:

"Wise man say, forgiveness is divine but never pay full price for late pizza. -Captain Picard"

Another such themed mission was a serious nod to Top Gun and it was fun to notice the person that gave me the quest was called "Loggins."

http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Splinter_Group

In keeping with the spirit of the very infrequent "State of the Ghost" posts I add yet another to the mix. Going forward I plan on doing about 4 a year talking about the nuts and bolts of what's going on and what we have brewing on the site.

Overall I am really happy with how far Cheerful Ghost has come since I launched the site this year in January. Ill paint a larger picture at the year end with how far we have come, but needless to say I am really proud of Cheerful Ghost as it sits today. Since the site is still so young if you have any suggestions or recommendations forward I would love to hear them.

Last month I added a lot of stuff to Cheerful Ghost to clear out some long needed features to make it easy to start up some new awesome stuff we will launch very soon. Before I get into the upcoming features currently in the works, lets discuss what I rolled out last month:

1. Posts now have titles. Its funny because people have been asking for this since the site first launched. I thought it was nothing important so I kept dismissing it as something we needed. Over time I realized that being the ONLY person that felt we didn't need post titles was a bad idea, so I gave you what you wanted. I sort of did it thinking no one would use it but... since its launch its has been used in 100% of all new posts proving without a doubt I can be wrong about what features we actually need :D After using the post titles myself, I can say they are an awesome addition and I am glad people kept pushing on that one. I think this proves that if enough people want something and are vocal about it, it will be added. Post titles now work with our Atom Feed, Emails & Google Searches and when you share a post to Facebook and Google+ the title is incorporated in the content.
   


2. If you come to the site on a popular Holiday you will get a trophy. So far I have added Trophies for All Hallows Eve, Turkey Day & Leprechaun Day. As more holidays approach, I will add more. If you have a holiday you think should be memorialised in trophy form, let me know. Yes, I will add a trophy for Star Wars Day. :D


3. If people haven't come to the site in a few weeks we send out a email letting them know the most popular conversations that happened since they were away. I send this out every two weeks as to not be annoying. We now randomize between 5 or 6 different subjects for the email. I don't want to give the impression the content of the email is always the same because the subject line was. Now the subject will be different enough to hopefully let the user know the content of the email is new and interesting.


4. We were having a problem with certain people posting content a few users and myself didn't think was awesome. I implemented a system to "bury" a post. Basically it means that a buried post won't be visible to anyone on the main or corresponding game page. The post will be visible to the originating user and on the users personal area. 99% of posts are fine, occasionally some are not and this is just a way to ensure stuff on the main page is awesome for everyone.


5. Tungsten, Panickedthumb & WhiteboySlim are site moderators. Basically this allows them the ability to bury posts and add and edit games in the Cheerful Ghost database. Wherein its not new they are moderators, they can now bury posts along with me.


6. I experimented with adding video embed support for Twitch.tv. Basically I can't get a good method to ALWAYS display the video feed to browsers on your phone, tablet and desktop. What I ended up doing is displaying a Twitch graphic pointing the user to the twitch content on the site. I don't love this solution, but I like it more than displaying a broken box to people on iPhones and Androids. Eventually Twitch will provide an embed that will work on all clients and when they do I will be the first to incorporate it.
   


7. I had to migrate the database of the provider we host the site with. The free database plan we were on was no longer valid because of all the data the site stores. I guess tracking 26k games all the posts and comments take up more space than they felt should be under the free plan. :D
   
8. I also fixed a few bugs and made some improvements to the overall site look and feel as well as a bunch of other stuff I don't remember off hand.

I cleared this list off because I wanted to put us feature wise in a good place for something I have wanted to do since the site launched in January.

Cheerful Ghost is getting a visual upgrade. First off I want to let you know that the site will not lose any functionality you love. I am merely taking the design we currently have and making it better. Since I am the lone developer you have been stuck with the best visual design that I could muster. For not being a designer I am pretty happy with how it turned out but I want the site to be "moar awesomerz" in its visuals.

Yesterday I started the process of working with the new design made with the amazing Twitter Bootstrap Framework(http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/) and after showing it to a friend I am really happy with the direction. What I am doing is recreating the main page in HTML and making sure it works well on phones, tablets and desktops. When I complete the initial design and mockup I will post a "Lets Play: Cheerful Ghost Design Edition" to show you what I have cooked up.

After the design is tweaked and I feel it is awesome enough, ill spend a week or whatever cutting up the site to operate with the new design. After the bugs are all ironed out ill push it out for everyone to enjoy.

The reason I want to give the site a visual lift is because I want the visuals of Cheerful Ghost to be as awesome as the community and the content we create together. For many months I have considered what to do about this and think I am on a pretty good path, but I look forward to your input here when I post the visual "Lets Play" video showcasing the new goods.

Thanks for reading and if you have any thoughts about the above, please let me know.

I am a big Totally Rad Show fan. Love me some Jeff, Dan and Alex. I enjoy what they have to say about Video Games, Comic Books and Movies.

On such recent review for Dishonored really interested me in checking it out. I have more games than I know what to do with now, but when a Bethesda deal comes around with Dishonored included I will pick it up.

Did you nab this game? What are you thoughts on it?

Haven't played a stealth shooter yet, so this would be my first. Oh and when I pick this up, it WILL be on PC.

Table Top just released a new episode covering the Board Game Star Fluxx. One of my friends recently picked this up and I need to play it with him sometime. He said it was good, looks like it from the video.

As I mentioned a few days back that I would be sending out user interviews to the most active Cheerful Ghost users. I emailed BR and he awesomely answered my questions.

Ill send out more over the next few weeks. If you don't get a email right away, fear not ill get to you all.

http://cheerfulghost.com/BR

jdodson: I know a bit about this already, but I wonder if you can let us know why you chose BR as your screen name?

BR: For those who don't know, BR stands for BlueRooster. This has been my screen name for the past few years. I first came up with it when creating an account to play Global Agenda. I mostly like it because its fairly simple and unique. I've never met someone before who has the same name and I never have trouble creating an account with the name. That is, except for my youtube channel which is BlueRooster43. Oh, and BR is my screen name on CG because I felt like it would be fun to go by an abbreviated version of my screen name.

jdodson: What kind of game genre is your all time favorite?

BR:I'd say my favorite game genre is probably Open-World rpg's. Such as games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim. I enjoy being able to do what I want and not having to follow a specific story. I still enjoy certain linear games but not as much as an open-world type game.

jdodson: If you saw The Dark Knight Rises, I wonder... Did you want another movie after the ending credits rolled?

BR: I woudn't mind another Batman movie, but I don't feel like they need to make another. I do think it would be cool if they had a movie with the riddler, but its not needed. I feel very content with the current movies.

jdodson: I wonder what really upsets you about gaming now?

BR: I'd have to go with the extreme amounts of dlc and how much they are overpriced. I can't afford to pay $20 every month for a new map,character, or mission on my favorite game. I wouldn't mind if expansions came back for $40-50 because they included much more content and were spaced out over time making them affordable.

jdodson: Whats the most fun multi-player experience you've ever had?

BR: This is a very hard one for me. I play tons of multiplayer games and its hard to choose which one had the best impression on me. After thinking about it I would have to go with either Garry's mod or TF2. These are both games I've put tons of hours into and feel the multiplayer is very well done. Garry's mod because I enjoy the huge modding community and there is always a new gamemode to try out. TF2 because they have many little things that give you goals for playing just a simple objective/deathmatch game. Not to mention both of these games are constantly being upgraded. TF2 always has updates to make the game better and Gmod has a modding community that never sleeps. There is always new content in both these games.

jdodson: What is the best music to listen to while gaming? Or do you typically just listen to the in game music?

BR: I enjoy listening to music in games that does not have important dialogue. This mostly consists of multi-player games and a few single-player ones. If I had to choose what music to listen to, I would go with some type of electronic or dubstep. Stuff like deadmau5, knife party, and kill the noise. This is just stuff I listen to while gaming, I like other music than this also.

jdodson: In the current(some could say last) gen of console gaming of the Wii, PS3 and XBox 360 I wonder which of the lot you preferred? Did you get more games on one over the other?

BR: I would pick the XBox 360 for the simple fact that I own way more games on it than any other system. I have a ps3 also but only own 2-3 games on it. XBox also has a lot of games that are unique to it.

jdodson: What game did you just finish playing last? Like the actual last game you closed before reading this email.

BR: The last game I played is Atom Zombie Smasher. I just bought this game the other day and am having a lot of fun with it. Its a nice simple strategy game that I am absolutely horrible at. I'm still learning how the game plays so I hope that I will get better.

jdodson: What are your thoughts on Disney buying Lucas Film and by proxy the rights to Star Wars, Indiana Jones and all associated with them?

BR: I'm very fearful of what Disney might do to the Star Wars franchise. I fear that they will screw with the original story. I am still hopeful,however, that when a 7th star wars episode is released, it will be worth watching and will not disappoint me.

jdodson: Whats game company do you think stands out above the rest?

BR: I'm not really sure about this one. I would say Mojang because they have come from almost nothing to a huge success. Minecraft is one of the best games I have ever played and it was developed originally by a single person. Mojang has come a long way in a very short period of time making me think of them as a company that stands out above the rest.

jdodson: If you could force a game studio to make a game, what would it be?

BR: I think many of you would agree when I say I would force Lucas Arts to make BattleFront 3. The first two were major factors in why I enjoy gaming today. I played them all the time as a kid. Also, I am waiting for Fallout 4. So if the first option didn't work out, I would go with that.

Thanks for the fun interview!