jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

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

2762 Posts

Did You BBS? Connecting Your Old PC Hardware To Modern BBS Systems.
If you have an old 486 PC sitting around the house and you wanted to connect it to a modern BBS, Lazy Game Reviews has an amazing guide on how to do that. Apparently someone has created a Wifi card that translates a wifi signal to a Hayes compatible modem which allows you to connect to modern BBS's that people run online to play games like Legend of the Red Dragon and Tradewars! Optionally you can just head over to the BBS Guide and use your modern computer to relive those magical moments too but this seems way more amazing.

http://telnetbbsguide.com/

PortsCenter Is Back With The Doom GBA Ports!
Mikey Newmann is the creator behind the YouTube Series "Movies With Mikey" and is/was one of the leader writers working for 2K Games on the Borderlands series. Recently he stepped away from 2K and is focusing on his YouTube channel full time and one awesome benefit of that is that the show PortCenter is back!

In this episode Ben Paddon talks about the two Doom ports on the GBA for Doom and Doom 2. He dives in to what versions of the game they are based on and that Doom II wasn't based on the original Doom II source at all. I didn't know Doom was ported to the GBA, but it makes sense it was as it's been ported to nearly everything.

Metroid: Samus Returns Is a Remake of The Classic Gameboy Title Coming This September!
Nintendo announced a new 3DS Metroid game remake of the classic Gameboy game called Metroid: Samus Returns today at E3. Samus Returns aims to bring the 3DS remake treatment to Metroid II: The Return of Samus and I'm really happy to see Nintendo do this. I picked up the original Metroid II on Gameboy last year and had a lot of fun replaying it. That said, Metroid II suffers from the same problems I had with the original NES game in that if you don't bomb every wall and the like it's really hard to figure out how to progress. I didn't have that same problem with Super Metroid, which was the first Metroid game I actually ever completed. One of my hopes for this remake is that Nintendo can make progression a bit easier to understand as again, that was my biggest problem with the original games. Couple the fact that when I played the original games as a kid I had nearly unlimited time to play them, I still had issues progressing and just kind of played the beginning of the game over and over again.

All that to say, this remake looks really interesting as Metroid II really kicked the series into a new story telling focus which this game seems to bring back in spades. In Metroid II you are hunting down the final Metroids and you need to take them out one by one.

Nintendo seems to be upgrading the game quite a bit and some of the new game features are below:


  • This intense, side-scrolling action platformer has been completely remade with engaging and immersive 3D visuals and a rich, atmospheric color palette.

  • Classic Metroid II: Return of Samus gameplay is joined by a wealth of new content, including a set of brand new abilities that utilizes a mysterious energy resource called “Aeion,” a powerful melee counterattack, and 360-degree Free Aim Mode.

  • There are plenty of secrets to find—and if you uncover enough of them, you may even start to unravel the mystery of Planet SR388’s past.

  • Two new amiibo figures*—Samus Aran and Metroid—will be released as a set alongside the game. This game is also compatible with the Zero Suit Samus and Samus amiibo from the Super Smash Bros. series. Functionality details will be revealed at a later date.

  • While supplies last, fans will be able to purchase a special edition of the game, which includes a physical copy of the game, a sound-selection CD featuring 25 tracks from across the Metroid franchise, and a reversible title-sheet insert for the game case.


Metroid: Samus Returns drops this September 15th on the 3DS!

https://e3.nintendo.com/games/metroid-samus-returns-3ds

Fallout Shelter is Amazing But The Endgame is Disappointing
http://i.imgur.com/0GoNnCz.png
jdodson gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
jdodson gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
Fallout Shelter is one of the better freemium mobile games i've played. Bethesda has done a great job supporting it and after launch they added a ton of standout content such as quests. After hanging up Hearthstone a while ago I realized I wanted to play something else and an out of country vacation a couple months ago made me consider playing Fallout Shelter again. One of my goals, besides to play a fun game and try out the new stuff, was to get to the endgame get a 100 dwellers in the vault so I could build a Nuka Cola Bottling Plant.

It's the last thing you can build so it must be awesome right? Recently I hit 100 vault dwellers and was able to build a Nuka Plant and was really excited to bottle my first Nuka when I realized the Nuka Plant just makes water and food... at the same time.

*sigh*

Needless to say I was really disappointed in spending so much time getting to the endgame to realize that the final room just optimized food and water creation. That's useful sure, but at that point in the game I have no problems keeping everyone fed and watered. All that said, I don't actually use much of the in game Nuka Cola that allows you to speed things up. As you can see from my in game screenshot I still have 96 bottles. I think the waiting aspect of Fallout Shelter is completely fine and I never felt like I had to use them. Occasionally i'd speed something up but mostly just to see how it worked and out of a kind of boredom novelty, not to get anything done faster.

Fallout Shelter is a very well done freemium game in that you can unlock everything by simply playing it and I never felt like I needed to buy lunchboxes to accomplish anything. I've heard that Fallout Shelter made Bethesda a mint and I can see why but for me, I don't get the draw of spending money unlocking anything. The quest system gives you enough lunchboxes and when you finally can send out groups for even more quests the amount of items you can collect goes up considerably. Still, I can see that some people might like to open lunchboxes and get that sweet hit of pulling that slot machine and buying more gets you more of that.

If you haven't played Fallout Shelter I recommend you give it a shot or check it out again if you've been away for a while. That said, I found the endgame lacking but if you love sending out dwellers on quest after quest there is more than enough of that to keep you busy for quite some time.

South Park: Phone Destroyer - A Card Game About Cowboys And Indians?
UbiSoft is working with South Park Studios to release two new South Park games this year. South Park: The Fractured But Whole(say it a couple times to let that sink in... cough) and the newly announced mobile title South Park: Phone Destroyer. Phone Destroyer will be a totally free to play South Park game that competes with other card battle games like Hearthstone, Faeria and Gwent. It will be totally free to play and according to the FAQ on the official website:

"Everything can be earned in the game without paying, but you can choose to spend real world money if you wish. The game is designed so that nothing is ever locked behind a paywall."

I'm interested to see how they roll the free to play aspect of the game because some games are more stingy with earning in game stuff than others and I hope Phone Destroyer edges on the side of more fair. I don't mind playing a game to unlock more cards if it's not too grindy. Whereas this is an official South Park game it doesn't seem to be a direct sequel to The Stick of Truth but is obviously in that universe.

Oh and you can kill Kenny.

South Park: Phone Destroyer drops on mobile sometime this year.

http://southparkphonedestroyer.com/

If You Are Brave You Can Watch Devolver Digital's "Big Fancy Press Conference 2017"
It's satire. And then starts things off with the conference presenter firing a gun in a crowded theater. Then they show a new game called Ruiner that looks neat. Then they show off a special innovation they are brining to gaming allowing people to throw money directly at the screen so they can take it. Then a guys arm is taken off and blood squirts everywhere and then things... devolve... to get even more weird. Which is great because this "press conference" is some A+ satire that I found both entertaining and also quite disturbing.

But you know, don't take my word for it, click to watch because I assure you that it amps up from there and the ending is quite the crescendo.

Age Of Empires: Definitive Edition Coming Later This Year!
Age of Empires is a classic RTS that helped bring in a new wave of multiplayer gaming that later blew up with Age of Empires 2 and StarCraft. If you play the original Age of Empires now, besides not possibly not running at all on Windows 10, it suffers from low screen resolutions that make it practically unplayable on a modern monitor. That said, some modern port projects such as the "UPatch Age of Empires Rise of Rome Unofficial Patch" seem to fix many of those problems giving the original Age of Empires the same treatment as Age of Empires II HD on Steam. In fact, i've installed the UPatch and it's a solid community patch making giving my original Age of Empires install discs some usefulness beyond collectors nostalgia.

All that said, it seems the Forgotten Empires team wanted to kick up the Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and as such are remastering the original graphics in 4K, re-recording the audio as well as other improvements. Information on the systems they are bringing the Definitive Edition to are sparse but it seems like it's coming to XBox One and PC. Again, no details on if PC means Steam or the Windows store but when it's announced i'll let you know. I think one of the reasons why Age of Empires II HD is a great version of the game is that the Steam integration is top notch. So having Age of Empires 2 HD on Steam and then the only version of Age Of Empires: Definitive Edition on the Windows Store seems odd to me. I don't mind if it comes to the Windows Store and Steam because giving people more choice to places is buy the game is a great idea to me.

If you are looking to dust off your original Age of Empires discs you can check the Unofficial Age of Empires patch check on the website linked below and while you are at it let me know what you are thinking of the new announced Age of Empires: Definitive Edition!

http://upatch-hd.weebly.com/

Life on Hearthstone Is a Strange Web Cartoon About Depression
YouTuber SuperDoTheGames has an interesting 5 part video series called "Life in Hearthstone." It's hard to describe but it's something like a "hand drawn personal hearthstone poetry reading" but... stranger and more honest. At least it seems like these videos are a somewhat autobiographical process for the creator or just some really dark satire. Maybe both.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Drops October 27th And Looks Incredible!
I think I could handle a new Wolfenstein game released every few years that continues the fucking bananas storyline that MachineGames created in the epic Wolfenstein: The New Order that they are continuing in The New Colossus. Looks like BJ survived the events of the first game(spoiler alert) and is going to be a father of twins! I like how everyone that survived the first game is back and that they've added some all new characters to the game that look like a lot of fun. MachineGames New Order was one of the best story driven shooters i've played in years and is a game i've actually come back to play a couple times over. In The New Colossus BJ is set on seeing America free of Nazi control and looks to be trying to build a coalition with other rebel groups in America.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus drops on PS4, Xbox One and PC October 27th and let me know your thoughts on the E3 reveal trailer in the comments below.

Edmund McMillen's New Game "The End Is Nigh" Drops July 12th On Steam!
The End Is Nigh is an upcoming platformer by Edmund McMillen, the creator of Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Issac and Tyler Glaiel. It features the voice acting by Red Letter Media's own Rich Evans and music by Ridiculon. I really like the trailer but it doesn't seem to give away too much of the game except that it looks like a platformer that mixes up Super Meat Boy & Gish.

"I’m extremely proud to announce that Tyler and I finally finished something! After months of working in secret I can now say that our game is called The End is Nigh and it will be releasing on Steam, July 12th (in 5 weeks!).

A little back story….

In September of last year Tyler and I announced that we were working on a new game called 0uroboros, a platforming shooter with randomly generated environments. after a year of working on it, it felt 10% done. In order to avoid it becoming another mewgenics, we needed to figure out how to refocus it before it grows out of hand.

while working on 0uroboros we would take small breaks to prototype a few other ideas, but it wasn’t till December that we actually sat down and decided to do a full game jam and see what would come out. within a week what we had was a completely stripped down platformer with an adventure game “open” feel where the levels were all locked into tidy little boxes but attached in a way where they could be explored… it felt a bit like VVVVVV meets 1001 Spikes with a Spelunky control setup and it felt perfect.

once again what started as a 2 week mini project sprawled into, by far, the largest game (level wise) I’ve ever worked on. I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished with this game, it embodies aspects of basically every game I’ve ever created and I’m super excited to see what you guys think."

The End Is Night is coming to Steam on PC July 12th and even though it has a Steam page isn't yet available for pre-order. I don't think i'll pre-order this but will wait to pick this up after hearing a more about how it plays.

What do you think, are you interested in playing The End Is Nigh?

http://edmundm.com/post/161553453240/the-end-is-nigh