
I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.
2761 Posts
In 2015 YouTuber CirclMastr had a dream. Slowly... and I mean slowly... grind to level 99 with Cloud in Barrett in the first reactor in Final Fantasy VII. It's an impressive feat he captured over a recent Twitch stream you watch above as he finally hits level 99 in an hour long stream.

If you have retro game karts that need cleaning or repair this Metal Jesus video talks all about how you can go about that. Jesus and Kelsey also talk about how you can go about fixing game discs that are scratched to the point that they don't work. They even have some tips on how to get remove someones name they've sharpied on a game kart! Really good advice here for getting longest life possible out of your old games.

Hearthstones latest expansion Journey to Un'Goro is out and I was able to open 78 packs! Watch to see what I open and stick around to see some absolutely incredible matches. I play with a fun Shaman Elemental deck and take down a Warlock in what could only be described best as a 3 tier boss fight. Plus Dinomancer. Always Dinomancer.

Jonathan Blow released his follow up to Braid last year called The Witness. The Witness is a Myst like puzzle game that blends incredible visuals, a compelling story and deep puzzle mechanics that garnered rave reviews from gamers and the press. The game initially shipped on PC and PS4 and today released on Mac on Steam and the Apple Store. Recently The Witness was featured in the Humble Freedom Bundle and if you picked it up there on Steam you can now install it on your Mac like I did today.

jdodson gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
jdodson gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
Last Christmas I was gifted a Nintendo 3DS and the main game I wanted to play on it was Ocarina of Time 3D. I've written a couple posts on on how that's gone and if you want a bit more context, i've linked them below. Needless to say, Ocarina of Time 3D is one of the best remakes i've ever played and the game shines on the 3DS. I think Nintendo games are best played on a handheld system and Ocarina of Time shows that even if it wasn't originally intended for a mobile system it totally works on it.
After my last post I completed the Spirit Temple which, since I always bailed out at the Gerudo Fortress when I played the game before, was the first time I ever played it. The Spirit Temple is a really unique dungeon in that you need to do a part of it as child Link and then complete the rest as adult Link. The Witches boss fight wasn't too hard but the Witches themselves were pretty funny characters that spotlight just how good Nintendo is at creating memorable characters. After I completed the Spirit Temple I had Ganon's Tower left to complete but before that I decided to take a break from the game because I just didn't want to do yet another Zelda dungeon. I picked up the game tonight and come to find out, Ganon's Tower isn't too long and features 6 bite sized puzzle rooms to unlock the final area. That said, the final boss fight might well be the longest boss fight i've ever seen in a game. Ganon has two forms and between fighting them you need to escape a crumbling tower which is fun the first time but gets old if you die to Ganon as many times as I did. In the end I found a good pattern to take down Ganon's final form and was able to finally tick off one item on my "games to complete before I die" bucketlist.
Ocarina of Time unlocks Master Quest mode after you beat it for the first time which provides a much harder version of the game and rearranged dungeons if you want a new challenge. At the end of the game my play through clocked in at about 27 hours so if you factor in another version of the game, Ocarina of Time 3D really packs in the value.
Ocarina of Time is considered by many to be one the best games of all time. I'm not sure how that sits now with Breath of the Wild sucking up all the air in gaming right now. Ocarina of a Time is a really great game and the 3D remaster elevates it considerably. I hope that Nintendo ports this version to the Switch because it would look even better on a high resolution screen. But until then the 3DS version is superb and I plan on coming back to it.
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3227/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d-is-how-hd-remakes-should-be-done
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3287/the-water-temple-is-still-a-problem-the-continuing-adventures-of-my-ocarina-of-time-3d-playthough
After my last post I completed the Spirit Temple which, since I always bailed out at the Gerudo Fortress when I played the game before, was the first time I ever played it. The Spirit Temple is a really unique dungeon in that you need to do a part of it as child Link and then complete the rest as adult Link. The Witches boss fight wasn't too hard but the Witches themselves were pretty funny characters that spotlight just how good Nintendo is at creating memorable characters. After I completed the Spirit Temple I had Ganon's Tower left to complete but before that I decided to take a break from the game because I just didn't want to do yet another Zelda dungeon. I picked up the game tonight and come to find out, Ganon's Tower isn't too long and features 6 bite sized puzzle rooms to unlock the final area. That said, the final boss fight might well be the longest boss fight i've ever seen in a game. Ganon has two forms and between fighting them you need to escape a crumbling tower which is fun the first time but gets old if you die to Ganon as many times as I did. In the end I found a good pattern to take down Ganon's final form and was able to finally tick off one item on my "games to complete before I die" bucketlist.
Ocarina of Time unlocks Master Quest mode after you beat it for the first time which provides a much harder version of the game and rearranged dungeons if you want a new challenge. At the end of the game my play through clocked in at about 27 hours so if you factor in another version of the game, Ocarina of Time 3D really packs in the value.
Ocarina of Time is considered by many to be one the best games of all time. I'm not sure how that sits now with Breath of the Wild sucking up all the air in gaming right now. Ocarina of a Time is a really great game and the 3D remaster elevates it considerably. I hope that Nintendo ports this version to the Switch because it would look even better on a high resolution screen. But until then the 3DS version is superb and I plan on coming back to it.
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3227/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d-is-how-hd-remakes-should-be-done
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3287/the-water-temple-is-still-a-problem-the-continuing-adventures-of-my-ocarina-of-time-3d-playthough

The Journey To Un'Gogo is the upcoming Hearthstone expansion that set to launch on April 6th. Featuring Elementals, Dinosaurs, class quests and some other fun new cards Un'Goro looks to be a solid expansion. Make sure to log in for daily rewards every day until the launch of the game to get packs, gold and a special golden Volcanosaur(oooh!).
As with every Hearthstone expansion i'll be recording my pack opening and dropping it on YouTube so stay tuned and let me know if you are planning to jump back in to check out Un'Goro! I've been saving up in game gold and i'll have enough to open around 75 packs, woooooooo!
Check out all the new Un'Goro cards below:
https://www.facebook.com/Hearthstone/photos/rpp.498467596862680/1425934520782645/?type=3&theater
As with every Hearthstone expansion i'll be recording my pack opening and dropping it on YouTube so stay tuned and let me know if you are planning to jump back in to check out Un'Goro! I've been saving up in game gold and i'll have enough to open around 75 packs, woooooooo!
Check out all the new Un'Goro cards below:
https://www.facebook.com/Hearthstone/photos/rpp.498467596862680/1425934520782645/?type=3&theater

Gearbox is still handing out golden keys from Borderlands 2 and if you are currently on your way to taking down Handsome Jack or plan on coming back to it at some point these keys will put you well on your way. These shift codes as for PC/Mac/Linux, 360, XBone, PS3, PS4 & the Vita and expire on 4/18 so get em now!
PC / Mac: 5BW3J-C565J-F63FK-T3JBT-CJ9B3
XB360 / XBOne: 5JKJB-6HS3K-HHFRZ-KXT3B-HT6K5
PS3 / PS4 / PS Vita: CBWT3-BBRKS-93CHK-SBWT3-K9CW5
https://twitter.com/Borderlands/status/847904997539012613
PC / Mac: 5BW3J-C565J-F63FK-T3JBT-CJ9B3
XB360 / XBOne: 5JKJB-6HS3K-HHFRZ-KXT3B-HT6K5
PS3 / PS4 / PS Vita: CBWT3-BBRKS-93CHK-SBWT3-K9CW5
https://twitter.com/Borderlands/status/847904997539012613

Destiny 2 will come out this September 8th on PC, PS4 and XBox One and besides the new launch trailer being pretty bad I am pretty excited about the game. There hasn't been much in the way of gameplay, features or anything like that talked about but you know... it should be good right? I went to the Destiny website to get more information on Destiny 2 and clicked the "more information" button. I got some information about the early beta you get by pre-ordering and then more information about pre-ordering. Beyond some information about the 3 playable classes in the game and some story backdrop details on Destiny 2 are a bit sparse but you CAN pre-order the game so I guess we'll always have that.
Anyways, Destiny 2 does come with a pretty crazy Collectors Edition and if you know Destiny 2 will be your jam you might want to look into that. Destiny 2 is also coming to PC which should be something hardcore PC fans should appreciate. Hopefully over the next few weeks Bungie releases some gameplay footage and more information about the game to give us a better picture because if Destiny 2 is like that trailer it will be a whole lot of cringe.
https://www.destinythegame.com/
Anyways, Destiny 2 does come with a pretty crazy Collectors Edition and if you know Destiny 2 will be your jam you might want to look into that. Destiny 2 is also coming to PC which should be something hardcore PC fans should appreciate. Hopefully over the next few weeks Bungie releases some gameplay footage and more information about the game to give us a better picture because if Destiny 2 is like that trailer it will be a whole lot of cringe.
https://www.destinythegame.com/

Blizzard is continuing to add heroes, maps and features to Heroes of the Storm and they are going even further in the upcoming 2.0 update. Firstly they are changing the way hero leveling works by removing the cap entirely and changing the absolutely crazy grind to reach higher levels. Another change is the addition of loot chests that are awarded when your Heroes level that award nearly any item in the game including voice packs, skins, banners and portraits! Blizzard is also changing up the way you can outright buy things in game with the new in game currency, gems. Gems can be purchased with real money and Blizzard will give you some at level 5 for free to "get you started". Not sure if players that have progressed beyond 5 will receive the free gems but I hope Blizzard hands them out to everyone including new and longtime players. Blizzard is also adding a new in game currency called shards that are collected when you receive a duplicate item. Spending shards you can acquire cosmetic items meaning that you can get all the in game items playing for free with a fair amount of gameplay. This change is pretty neat and is how it works in Hearthstone were you dust duplicate card and and then craft cards you want with that dust.
In combination with all this 2.0 news Blizzard has dropped details on a new Hero coming to the game called Cassia who is a Amazon from Diablo 2. If you head over to the Heroes 2.0 page you can read more on Cassia and the other 2.0 details that unlock on certain dates like another hero, new battleground and the 2.0 launch event itself. Heroes of the Storm is a fun hero brawler/moba and if you haven't played it yet when it hits 2.0 that might be a good time.
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/heroes20/
In combination with all this 2.0 news Blizzard has dropped details on a new Hero coming to the game called Cassia who is a Amazon from Diablo 2. If you head over to the Heroes 2.0 page you can read more on Cassia and the other 2.0 details that unlock on certain dates like another hero, new battleground and the 2.0 launch event itself. Heroes of the Storm is a fun hero brawler/moba and if you haven't played it yet when it hits 2.0 that might be a good time.
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/heroes20/

Jack and Rich review Nintendo's latest Zelda game and they love it. Clocking in at an hour it's one of their longer reviews and as such a pretty deep dive in Zelda's gameplay.

Oh god why!?
I thought I was crazy to grind enough to learn Meteorain before leaving midgard! This is insane on another level.
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What he said. I guess the answer is always "because you can." But damn.
47:12 "Life has no inherent purpose and things have no inherent meaning. It's up to us to assign meaning and create metaphor for our own lives and our own actions."
Alright, now I want to hear everyone's most insane gaming "accomplishment."
I got the highest ranking on every level and collected every single item in We Heart Katamari. I made spreadsheets. I hated those gray boxes where items should be!
When Beautiful Katamari came out for Xbox 360 all that practice paid off, by some measures of "paying off," because for about two weeks I had the highest score on the last level's leaderboard. But I never obsessed over it, or any other Katamari game, like We Heart Katamari
(interesting side note: don't use the less-than symbol in comments. Trying to make less-than-three hearts broke the comments!)
Well I did this:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/656/super-turbo-turkey-puncher-3-high-score
But that's not insane crazy but it is pretty high I guess.
But Travis is the king of trophies and achievements and i've asked him to write a post about his Steam achievements, trophies and badges and talk about his most impressive ones for games like Terraria and others. Like seriously, I have nothing even close to the collection he has.
> 47:12 "Life has no inherent purpose and things have no inherent meaning. It's up to us to assign meaning and create metaphor for our own lives and our own actions."
I actually think that's really beautiful and something to really think about. I know not everyone would agree, but there is some courage in that kind of outlook because it means you are on the hook for your choices in a way other outlooks might not. Glad he found meaning here, I wouldn't maybe but I respect it even before I knew he had such a cool quotable viewpoint.
Hmmm... I already mentioned my grind for Meteorain. I beat Link to the Past using only one bottle, the least amount of hearts possible (only picking up hearts from bosses) and never upgrading my armor/tunic.
I was less successful in playing Ocarina of Time without a shield. There are certain parts of the game that require you to use one, so I'd have to equip it, use it where needed, then find a way to lose it since you can't completely unequip one manually.
The craziest thing I've tried to do was master all jobs in Final Fantasy Tactics as soon as the first random/repeatable battle opens up. I never made it, but I came closer than I'd like to admit.
> Hmmm... I already mentioned my grind for Meteorain.
That reminds me. Back in High School in FFIII/VI, for some reason, I wanted to grind up to 99 experience eggs and you can do that by betting a tonic and fighting up to the experience egg. Some quick googling found the old grind which was Tonic->Elixir->Rename Card->Marvel Shoes->Tintinabar->Exp. Egg.
Not really sure WHY I wanted to do it but I did it. Because, you know, we assign meaning to our lives.