jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Faeria Has Finally Launched!

After spending a year in early access and a beta period Faeria has finally hit 1.0! Faeria is a free to play digital card game that is if like Magic The Gathering got together with a board game and had a kid that liked video games. It's a really fun blending of the digital card craze that seems to find a very organic flow with a hexagon board that you need to place land on strategically to win. It's kind of a hard game to describe so I've linked to a Kripparian video above where he talks about the game, it hitting 1.0 and then plays a couple games showing off how it works.

Faeria differentiates itself from other games like Hearthstone in that it is way more generous with free to play. For instance daily quests are things like "Play 10 yellow cards" that give you 200 to 600 gold. Since a pack costs 1000 gold you can open packs a bit faster than in Hearthstone and since the game is more strategic, when you lose it doesn't feel as harsh as losing to RNG. Faeria also enhances free to play by offering daily login bonuses you can get by just checking in once a day. They've also included a very nice set of single player missions that show you how to play the game and give you a lot of starting gold and packs.

You can play Faeria right now for free on Steam on PC, Mac and Linux or iPad. They plan on launching Faeria on Android tablets soon as well as iPhone and Android, which should be great to expand it's player base. I seriously recommend you create an account and check out the game and if you do let me know and i'll send you an invite to the game so I can get some free packs as you play the game.

Oh and when you play the game you can use the codes "KrippFaeria" and "FaeriaKripp" to get a couple extra packs to open too!

https://www.faeria.com/news/patch-notes/134-faeria-is-now-released

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/19/2017 at 03:37am

I enjoyed Faeria up until a point. The last time I played I was working on my dailies, but I got blocked. I think I might not be high enough in levels to complete some of them. The only thing I could actually do required me to play against other people. That's what made me quit. Still, it's a good game and I recommend it for those that like such games. For people like me, it's good and fun, until you're forced to play against others (which I really despise). That said, congrats to Faeria on 1.0!!

Travis Admin wrote on 03/19/2017 at 03:39am

In a world where free-to-play card games are becoming a dime a dozen, it's nice to see a new take on it. This seems like the kind of thing I'd suck at but I'm going to give it a shot!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/19/2017 at 03:44am

Travis, I strongly recommend checking out the Faeria YouTube channel. They usually have good videos, such as how to build decks. I liked the yellow elemental cards, I think that kind of deck is usually referred to as a rush deck. It is pretty fun to rush at your opponent and beat them quickly, granted I mostly played against the AI.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/19/2017 at 03:50am

> In a world where free-to-play card games are becoming a dime a dozen, it's nice to see a new take on it. This seems like the kind of thing I'd suck at but I'm going to give it a shot!

I'm not particularly good but I still win a fair amount of the time against people with better decks than me in casual. I've played through a lot of the single player stuff and I haven't quiet completed it and am sort of saving it for later

That said, you can get a lot of milage out of the basic decks and it's a ton of fun. Plus, right now I haven't seen anyone be amazing yet. Since it's new still people aren't dominating things. At least I haven't seen that yet, but i'm not playing ranked.

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Automate Your Home With a Raspberry Pi And An Ocarina

Do you want to automate your home? Do you want to set all your home gadgets to start when you play your Ocarina? If you do then prepare to get inspired to live the dream as YouTuber Sufficiently Advanced wired his house to turn on the heater, turn on the lights, water his plants, turn on a smoke machine and more all though the mighty power of his Ocarina. Sufficiently Advanced seems to have built all this automation himself which makes this all the more impressive.

Everyones Favorite Game About Pure Evil Gets A Cool New Update

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/gallery/DGF0VMEI2C9T1489538279252.gif

Sometime after Diablo III Reaper of Souls I was hoping we'd get another proper expansion. It seems instead of getting a full expansion we've been getting a ton of updates that if you bundled them all up would equal a full expansion when you consider the Necromancer class coming this year. I still would love some more story to see what happens after Reaper of Souls and try and wrap up the whole thing that happened to Leia but... I have honestly no idea what the future of Diablo III is. That said, Blizzard still seems hell bent (rimshot) on updating it with really useful stuff and the latest 2.5.0 patch is icing on a cake made of... pure evil.

You should hit the blog post below for information on the full patch but the short of it is that there will be a new interface for crafting materials so they no longer take up inventory slots. That alone is worth the price of admission but 2.5.0 also contains The Armory which gives each of your characters 5 unique armor loadouts you can toggle between. On top of that they are adjusting the rate at which certain Adventure mode zones spawn making the ones that show up a bit too often less seen. There are a couple other things in 2.5.0 so hit the link below for more details.

And if Blizzard is reading this... please... Another couple acts of Diablo III please?

https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20597130

Travis Admin wrote on 03/17/2017 at 01:59pm

Oh wow. Crafting materials no longer taking inventory slots gives me like two stash tabs! I'll have to log in to check this out. I don't want to start playing again until the necro update, I want to come into that fresh, but I gotta see this new QoL stuff.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/17/2017 at 09:41pm

Crafting materials not taking up inventory space is sweet! This update sounds good, but not something that makes me want to jump back in the game right now. I'm looking forward to the Necromancer. I like that there's still so much in the game that I haven't even touched. I've hardly done anything in Adventure mode, though I did try it out a few times.

I'd like to see another expansion for this game, but I won't be disappointed if it doesn't get one. I don't see the need to "wrap up" the whole Leia thing. I guess I just didn't feel that it was lacking closure.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/18/2017 at 04:49am

Y'all, Leia is the princess/general in Star Wars. You're thinking of Leah :D

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/18/2017 at 05:27am

I blame my error on Jon, he wrote "Leia" and so I wrote it that way, too. Infectious, Jon, you see your error is infectious. LOL

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/18/2017 at 04:41pm

> Y'all, Leia is the princess/general in Star Wars. You're thinking of Leah :D

Right, that person.

I have a way with getting people to do the wrong thing....

... suckers.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/20/2017 at 10:51am

Updated Necromancer video, the "Melee-nancer." It looks pretty cool. I'm really intrigued by what they said at the end, that this could be a real expansion, possibly with a new Act, not just a simple character class addition. They also said that while there is still no release date, the Necromancer will be joining the PTR "soon." I'm going to take a guess and (hope) that this will be out by summer time. Anyway, the video is short, but worth watching!! https://youtu.be/v8Kc8vNap-E

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/20/2017 at 05:15pm

I really wish they did a full act for the Necro update. Seems like they said there might be but Blizzard is being very cagey about it, which I understand. *fingers crossed*

But like Travis I want to wait until the Necro is out before I head back in the game to experience all the freshness at once.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2017 at 02:55am

Blizz seemed to clear up all our questions with a recent update. TLDR; No new story updates.

https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20597129

"Is the Necromancer part of an expansion pack?

No, the Necromancer is part of a content pack which includes the class, an in-game pet, cosmetic wings, two additional character slots, two additional stash tabs (on PC), a portrait frame, pennant, banner, and a banner sigil.

It will, however, launch alongside a free major content patch that includes two new zones, Challenge Rifts, and more. These additional features will be available for all players with Diablo III: Reaper of Souls or the Ultimate Evil Edition.

How much will the pack cost?

We’re not ready to announce a price yet—we know you’re eager to find out, but we have a few more i’s to dot and t’s to cross before we can share.

When is the Necromancer coming to Diablo III?

We are currently aiming for the second half of 2017; when we have an official release date, we’ll certainly share it!"

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/22/2017 at 03:29am

Thanks, Jon! It sounds like what I expected it to be originally. The only part I'm not too fond of is the last sentence, "second half of 2017," as I expected this to come out during the first half. I'm still ok with that though. I have other games to play and there are also other games I'm waiting on (like Terraria: Otherworld).

Travis Admin wrote on 03/22/2017 at 03:52am

I think second half of 2017 has been their target for a while now, but I may be wrong. That said, I've gotten to a point in my life where I'm kinda patient with game updates/releases.

Speaking of patience and game releases... yeah Terraria Otherworld :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2017 at 04:28am

> That said, I've gotten to a point in my life where I'm kinda patient with game updates/releases.

I agree. I have so many games already that I don't need anything to launch at any particular time. So developers can take as long as they need, i'll still be around when it gets done.

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The Disney Afternoon Collection Comes To PC April 18th

Capcom is bundling up all of NES games from it's 90's era cartoon show called the "Disney Afternoon Collection." Featuring DuckTales, DuckTales 2, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2, Darkwing Duck & TaleSpin this collection is more xtreme than Hammer Pants! Ok well nothing is more xtreme than Hammer Pants but this is a pretty good collection and will come to PC, XBone & PS4 on April 18th.

The collection also comes with a few new things such as a time attack, boss rush and rewind mode so when you mess up in DuckTales you can do it all over again. Not that you'd need to because DuckTales is actually pretty easy. DuckTales is a lot of fun but it's one of the easier Capcom platformers.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/official_capcom_blog/blog/2017/03/15/90s-kids-rejoice-the-disney-afternoon-collection-revisits-ducktales-rescue-rangers-and-more-retro-classics-on-april-18

Full Throttle Remastered Revs Up To Ride April 18th!

I'm impressed that Double Fine is continuing to remaster classic LucasArts games. Obviously it's a pretty good business choice as they keep doing it but as a fan of Day of the Tentacle & Full Throttle I get as much joy seeing these games ported to modern systems with as seeing the original Ghostbusters rescanned and mastered in 4K, which I got and is incredible. If you must pre-order it you can do that on GOG, which seems to get an exclusive pre-order window for these old LucasArts / DoubleFine remasters.

You might not have known but Jedi Master Mark Hamill voiced the villain Adrian Ripburger in Full Throttle which should be well more than you need to check this out as his voicework along with the rest of the cast is top notch. Full Throttle has always been panned as one of the easier LucasArts games but I never felt that was a failing of it as the story and characters were interesting enough to have me replay it multiple times.

https://www.gog.com/game/full_throttle_remastered

The Water Temple Is Still A Problem. The Continuing Adventures of My Ocarina of Time 3D Playthough.

I've been powering through Ocarina of Time 3D on my new 3DS and been having a really good time. As i've said before, Ocarina of Time 3D is how remastered games should be done and I hope it gets ported to the Switch. Not only will it be able to come to a new audience but the new rendering engine and screen should allow it to look even better. I've knocked out a few dungeons recently in the Fire Temple, Water Temple and Shadow Temple. According to gamer folklore the Zelda Water Temples are notoriously unfun and this all started Ocarina on the Nintendo 64. Grezzo, the company that remade Ocarina of Time 3D made some modifications to visuals in the Water Temple to make the level easier and I have to say that they did a pretty good job here. Instead of getting stuck on 6 things I was only stuck on 2 but that still made the level frustrating just... less frustrating. In the end the thing that took me WAY longer to figure out than i'd have liked was the treasure chest that appears after you kill Shadow Link. Somehow I totally missed it and had to spend way too long to come back and get it's contents which were required to progress through the dungeon.... Doh!

The Fire and Shadow Temples are both fairly interesting and have fun moments but like all Zelda dungeons involve a few puzzle tricks that revolve around the main items you just collected. I liked the Shadow Temples hook in that you needed to use the lens of truth to detect hidden doors and platforms but by the end felt it was a smidge overused. Which leads to my biggest critique of Ocarina of Time.

Ocarina of Time repeats itself too much. Once Ocarina of Time gives you a new item or some new mechanic then it proceeds to overuse it. I don't mind coming back to familiar mechanics as that's the base for really great games but in the case of Ocarina it's feeling very samey to the point of being tedious in the late game. Inserting longer and longer dungeons could be interesting but I find Ocarina of Time has many of the same pitfalls that other games have. Which is one of the reasons I rate the older 2D Zelda games so highly, they are shorter and more focused experiences. That said, Ocarina of Time is a child of it's time and Nintendo worked some absolute magic to make this game as great as it is with the limitations of the Nintendo 64. In some ways modern critiques of Ocarina of Time are like saying Citizen Kane is a bad movie because it's shot in black and white the 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Citizen Kane is an absolutely incredible film and a product of it's time and limitations while remaining a fantastic film.

To be honest I never completed Ocarina of Time when I played it on the 64 back in the 90's. I always bailed at the same place, The Gerudo Fortress. To me the game started getting tedious at that point and I just wanted to do something else. Recently I just got to the Gerudo Fortress and apparently I still feel similarly. The only difference is now I want to finally complete it so I hope the game picks up a bit of steam here. I'll admit i've come to this point with many games, Borderlands 2 being an example. Borderlands 2 is a great game but like Ocarina I felt the content was stretched to be too long for my taste. A 15-20 hours long Borderlands 2 would have been absolutely perfect for me but it needs to exist in a world with a much longer playtime to meet modern players expectations.

All that said, overall i've quite enjoyed the game despite some of it's flaws and am really curious to see how the game ends. And, i'm not sure why, but the thought of fighting Ganon in this game is daunting to me. I've always felt like the Ganon portrayed in Ocarina has always been more sinister than other Zeldas as he is a character that shows up now and then and always seemed creepy to me. I think this is the games limitations at work because Ganon never actually emotes so my mind fills in the gaps which is somehow more sinister than he would otherwise be. It's like reading something from a great book where your mind has to fill in the gaps which can make it more personal and immersive.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 03/15/2017 at 04:41am

My memory is fuzzy, but I think I beat this on the N64 and the 3DS.

Dubb wrote on 03/15/2017 at 06:08am

Once you're past the Gerudo fortress, you're almost done. And you get a cool shield and gauntlets.

Also, you're "Gannon banned". :p
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/gannon-banned?full=1

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/15/2017 at 03:15pm

> Once you're past the Gerudo fortress, you're almost done. And you get a cool shield and gauntlets.

I think there is one more temple to go then Ganon.

Speaking of, thanks for letting me know. I've been spelling Ganon wrong for years. How long does being "Gannon Banned" last?

Dubb wrote on 03/15/2017 at 04:11pm

Well, I was counting the Spirit Temple as part of the Geruodo Fortress. Otherwise, if you're considering it separately, then there is one more level before Ganon's castle. It's a good level though. I always felt it was kind of relaxing in relation to the other dungeons.

You know, if you ask me, you're better off Gannon Banned. The guy who runs the official site is kind of a douche. Plus, he defends the CDI games. Better not to mix with "that ilk". 😄

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/15/2017 at 04:16pm

Defends them huh? Wow ok. I like bad movies and I put the CDI games in the "bad movies that I think are interesting" camp. Fun to have exist but I don't think i'd play them very long.

Dubb wrote on 03/15/2017 at 04:40pm

Ha, yeah I guess it is pretty entertaining to hear Link say, "golly, I won", in the voice of a stoned surfer.

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Did Link Almost Battle Space Aliens? Find Out In This Three Part Nintendo Breath of the Wild Behind The Scenes Series!

Today Nintendo posted three videos that catalog the making of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. The first video is linked above called "The Beginning" which talks about the games early concept and start back in 2013. They go into detail about an early game demo that was mocked up using the original Zelda art that fleshed out some early game concepts that was the foundation for what became the final game. The final two videos I'll link below but contain spoilers so I haven't watched them. They don't outright lay out the story(at least that I saw, but I didn't finish them) but they do show scenes from later in the game I didn't want to see. That said, if spoilers don't bother you and you love watching behinds the scenes docs on games you love, click play.

The video below contain later game scenes that may spoil things you want to experience on your own.

The Making of Breath of the Wild - Story and Characters:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/T3CsGbtifZI

The Making of Breath of the Wild - Open Air Concept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLMGrmf4xaY

Click Your Way To Happiness In Tap Adventure Time Travel

jdodson gives this a "Meh" on the Ghost Scale

It’s not amazing, it’s not bad. This is ok but you may want to choose another title.

jdodson gives this a "Meh" on the Ghost Scale

It’s not amazing, it’s not bad. This is ok but you may want to choose another title.

Clicker games are a genre that I might always have a few minutes for. I don't play clicker games very long but for a brief couple of days they are something I can't stop playing. It all started with Cookie Clicker, the absolute best Clicker game i've ever played. Then came the Steam Summer Sale with the Steam Adventure which was a crazy robot friend adventure that was something I played for entirety of that sale period. I tried my hand at AdVenture Capitalist and enjoyed that for a brief stint and my most recent clicker story is of a game brand new to Steam called Tap Adventure: Time Travel. Is it as good as Cookie Clicker? Nope. But it's a pretty fun free to play clicker that you might find enjoyable enough to sink some time into.

Like all clicker games the goal of Tap Adventure is to start out clicking on bad guys long enough to buy a hero to attack and collect gold for you. From that point on you are min maxing your way to collect more gold and experience to hit level 100 so you can "Time Travel" back to the start of the game keeping some of your previous progress in treasure chest keys and some magic stones that act as a form on in game currency or you can optionally choose to continue on to achieve ever crazier gold collection heights. The art style, music and interface of Tap Adventure is quite good which helps when you basically live in the same clicker UI for your game duration. So far in Tap Adventure i've Time Traveled once and found the second iteration through the grind cycle to be easier as I have an understanding when to save gold for the next big upgrade VS saving to buy a new hero.

Tap Adventure: Time Travel is available for free on iPhone, Android, Steam, PC and Mac. If you are looking for a new clicker game to play that isn't too hard and has some fun moments, you might want to check it out.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/14/2017 at 03:29am

OK I had no clue you liked this genre, and that you were the person I needed to ask this question: why are these games a thing?

I'm being incredibly careful in this comment not to be a negative Norman, so I'm sorry if it feels like I'm over-defending myself.

Please note that I am not disparaging the clicker/tapper games at all. I just don't get them. I've tried Cookie Clicker and two iOS games. I adore the Katamari games and one came out for iOS called Tap My Katamari so I had to try it.

But I just don't get it. I get about 30 minutes in at most, and that's just to give it a chance to grab me, because a few seconds in and it already doesn't feel like a game. That's fine, not all genres are for everyone and this one definitely isn't for me but I'm legitimately curious about what the appeal is for those who like it.

Again, this comes off like I'm dropping a deuce on the genre but that's not what it's about. Some people can't get into RTS games, some people can't get into RPGs, and that's fine. I'm not trying to be negative and infect everything with my negativity. I'm legitimately curious.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/14/2017 at 04:33am

> why are these games a thing?

In brief chunks they are like a distilled version of unmitigated progression. It feels like, for a day or so, you can quickly just level up quickly and such and it's fun to see where that goes. THEY GET OLD WAY FAST THOUGH but again, for that brief period it's all fun grind.

Really though for a day or so it's like the craziest slot machine high and I can't stop. Then when it hits me what's happening i'm like "what am I doing" and then I stop. But for a time, it's a crazy fun time.

Hope that helps.

> Tap My Katamari

Someone should win an award for that name.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 03/14/2017 at 05:29am

I tapped to end that video. Even the music made me sleepy. Zzzz

Travis Admin wrote on 03/14/2017 at 01:39pm

Jon, yeah that's kinda the answer I expected. I guess I'm just missing the drive necessary for them! I've always disliked games where I feel like progression exists for the sake of progressing and nothing else.

There was a guy from the Diablo 3 dev team defending why they nerfed the amount of gold you get from busting pottery. He referenced playtesting research where if you take a game that has been well received and then put a big button somewhere that says "click me for gold/points/xp/whatever," people will click it a few times and then go on to play the rest of the game and find it less rewarding, so they keep clicking the button and come out with the impression that the game is boring.

It's interesting because these games just take the gameplay out entirely and give you that button and the progression around clicking it more efficiently, and made something that beats that research the Blizzard dev cited.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/14/2017 at 03:13pm

Huh. Yeah. Can't disagree there because I don't really stay interested for long with clickers.

hardeyez wrote on 03/14/2017 at 11:20pm

I get into clickers for short bursts. It's the reverse engineering the progression curve that catches my fancy. I.e. that's the gameplay for me, figuring out how to min/max. Once that's done, I'm bored. There is also some attraction to seeing all the various units in the game also (if there are fun animations/sfx)

hardeyez wrote on 03/14/2017 at 11:21pm

But I do that with a lot of genres -- it's the game dev in me. I did it with several early facebook games (yes, I had spreadsheets for Farmville and for Vampire Wars) and still do it in a lot of other games. I just like separating out the mechanics and see how they balanced the set :)

hardeyez wrote on 03/14/2017 at 11:24pm

I also find more abstract games fun. For example Parameters is a lot of fun to play at least once (it's an abstract rpg) http://nekogames.jp/g.html?gid=PRM

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Footage From Borderlands 3 Surfaces From This Years GDC

After Gearbox announced that it was in development on Borderlands 3 I've been interested in hearing about how it's shaping up. At this years GDC some footage was shown of Borderlands 3 using the latest Unreal Tournament 4 engine and how it's effecting the look of the game. They wanted to stress that they weren't showing a game but an engine but I imagine this is what they will be eventually rolling with when the game launches... when it launches. The video shows off how they make the art style for Borderlands, the new lighting system and some production art assets.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/13/2017 at 05:01am

Looks nice!

Travis Admin wrote on 03/13/2017 at 02:05pm

Its a stretch yet to call it footage from Borderlands 3 since it's just tech demos but yeah this is shaping up nicely.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2017 at 05:05pm

> Its a stretch yet to call it footage from Borderlands 3 since it's just tech demos but yeah this is shaping up nicely.

I'd actually say it's a stretch to say otherwise. Will some of the art change? Yeah sure, but the core engine will be used for sure. Companies don't spend a zillion dollars making this stuff to be scuttled. Even if the code changes, this is the foundation and i'd bet money it will be the foundation for Borderlands 3. The reason he is saying "this isn't a game" is so fans don't get locked into a set of features and then go crazy when they are different in the game or don't show up the way they think. It's more damage control than "yeah man this is what we're gonna do for sure" which again, i'd bet money it will be.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/13/2017 at 05:43pm

Ehhh well, I think I agree with almost everything you said there, so we're probably talking semantics about what is meant by "game footage."

What I mean is that it's a room or two, some random objects, and a character model. There's no game yet to have footage of. For sure this stuff is being worked on FOR Borderlands 3, no question. But they're taking very basic pieces of it to figure out their lighting tech for Unreal 4, essentially.

So what I meant was, taking some assets people have built for BL3 and dropping them into a tech demo to show off lighting isn't game footage.

But again, that's semantics.

However...
> "Companies don't spend a zillion dollars making this stuff to be scuttled."

A lot of them do. Remember the PS3's Final Fantasy VII tech demo? And Valve reportedly did this a lot with games when Source 2 came out, re-creating an entire Left 4 Dead 2 level just to test the engine (and that thing looked amazing). Bethesda may have as well; they claimed at one time that the first step in developing Fallout 4 was to port Skyrim to new consoles and that they had no plans for a Skyrim port... but their plans obviously changed.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2017 at 07:51pm

Art assets change, for sure. The base engine? It evolves for sure but i'd be surprised if the game doesn't look a lot like that when it launches. Companies change things but my main point really is in this instance I bet Borderlands 3 will look very much like that and use that tech.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/13/2017 at 07:57pm

I think there's some miscommunication here because as I said, I totally agree with what you're saying there.

I'm just saying that this is light effects. Yes, they'll probably use those, along with the assets. But it's *just* art and lights now. It's too early to say "footage of Borderlands 3" because it isn't even a game yet.

A video of a wheel and a door isn't footage of a new car.

That's what I mean when I say we're talking semantics.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2017 at 07:58pm

Heh, right.

Games are composed of elements like lighting to make a final product. This is as much Borderlands 3 as my arm is me. That said, detached from my body it's just an arm... That came from me.

But you're right.

PS BORDERLANDS 3 FOOTAGE CONFIRMED! THE GAME CONFIRMED TO HAVE LIGHTS AND SIGNS!

Travis Admin wrote on 03/13/2017 at 08:02pm

So when I said "It's a stretch to..." what I meant was just a simple "wow this is early days so we're a long way off just yet" but here we are talking about "what even is a game?" :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2017 at 08:15pm

BORDERLANDS 3 FOOTAGE CONFIRMED! lol

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2017 at 08:16pm

That's really all I have to say now. I think I'm gonna put that in my email signature.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2017 at 08:18pm

My guess is that they actually have a playable game built. I bet they've more than started that and are integrating all the parts, creating art and doing level design. I've seen what a smaller team can do with UE4(System Shock) in a short amount of time. I bet they are much further along than that demo would suggest.

ALL SPECULATION but they have teams of a zillion so I bet they are pretty far along. MY GUESS is we will see gameplay by years end. That might be really optimistic and wrong though.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/13/2017 at 08:23pm

They probably have the team chunked into smaller ones working on all the parts right now and lighting was the one they were ready to show off. From what I've read about UE dev, it makes things really easy to integrate like that.

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Quake Champions Will Be Free To Play!

Being able to play an old school deathmatch shooter you can play on modern systems that can be played easily with friends is harder than it might sound. Everyone having the same game on Steam is often a problem and if you are having a few friends over as finding a shooter you all have in Steam can be a problem. I recently heard that Quake Champions will be free to play at launch, which makes me very happy. Not only does this mean that anyone with a reasonably powerful PC can play it but it also means that it's available to anyone. Like some modern arena shooters Quake Champions will allow everyone access to Ranger, the default Champion and if you want to play the other Champs you will have to pay. According to Tim Willits you will be able to grind for in game currency to temporarily play as other Champs but if you want to own them, you will have to buy them. In other F2P MOBAs you can grind in game currency to unlock Champs but since different Champions in Quake are simply cosmetic, paying to unlock them makes sense.

Hopefully Quake Champions can be played on reasonable hardware so literally anyone with a PC could play it but if it requires a powerhouse anyone with a newish PC would be OK. The system specs or final release date haven't been announced yet but when they do i'll let you know.

What do you think about Quake Champions going free to play, is this a good idea or do you think this might be bad for the game?

http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/10/14877004/quake-champions-free-to-play-full-price-favor-currency

Travis Admin wrote on 03/13/2017 at 02:14pm

If the purchases are purely cosmetic, and if they can make enough money from those purchases to keep up the servers, then yeah I like the idea and I think it'll be great for getting new players in and keeping it alive.

If you can pay for anything that gives you any edge in combat, then I don't like the move and it's going to be dominated by people willing to pay more.

It looks like champion skills will be the only thing non-cosmetic but if they're balanced well, then it's not an issue. And it looks like microtransactions aren't factoring into it either-- you just buy the champions pack or you don't-- so this seems to be a good fit.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/14/2017 at 03:23am

> and if they can make enough money from those purchases to keep up the servers

They did that with Quake Zero or Quake something or other and it didn't seem to work out as well. I hope they can strike a great model here because, like Hearthstone, i'd love a free to play game I play often that has a large enough community to fund it.

> It looks like champion skills will be the only thing non-cosmetic but if they're balanced well, then it's not an issue.

So different Champs have different abilities? I guess I missed that. I figured it would be a sort of retelling of Quake 3 where everyone is the same.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/14/2017 at 03:55am

They said in that article that the champ skills were different, but you could select any of them (which seems to be conflicting) and in another article I read earlier it said that they would be different but balanced.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/14/2017 at 04:35am

Huh. Well having more than a cosmetic difference between Champs makes sense. That said, balancing them and only having access to one does seem odd BUT we'll see how it turns out. If it's not great we will still have Unreal Tournament which is shaping up to be great but moving a bit slower than i'd have thought.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/14/2017 at 01:40pm

And maybe the powers are only different in a cosmetic sense? I dunno, we don't have enough info yet, but there are plenty of ways they could do it right.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/14/2017 at 02:35pm

Also yeah, I had kinda forgotten there was a new UT coming. I need to pop in and see how it's progressing.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/14/2017 at 03:11pm

It's coming along really well. Feels very UT/UT3 ish.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/14/2017 at 03:50pm

Neat, that's basically all I wanted from it honestly! The user-created content is icing o n the cake. I haven't played it since around when it was first available to test and it felt close to complete at that time. I guess some things have changed!

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jdodson1

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Quake Champions Will Be Free To Play!