Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Valve's Next Game: Artifact - The Dota Card Game Will Launch in 2018!

It's a special time when Valve talks about a new game coming out but this one i've been speculating about for months. Digital Card games are the new hotness seen through the massive success of Hearthstone, Magic Online, Faeria, The Witcher Card Game, Elder Scrolls Legends and more and I've thought that Valve would be interested in getting in on it. Looks like they were thinking the same thing because in 2018 Artifact - The Dota Card Game will launch. So far all we've got is a very short trailer that only shows off the games four color logo that may be a tip to the different colored cards in Artifact? I guess time will tell what kind of digital card game it is but so... Read All

No Man Sky's Waking Titan is Over, and Some New Details About 1.3 (Atlas Rises) Emerge (UPDATED)

The ARG Hello Games organized for No Man's Sky is over, and we ended up with some hints and somewhat cryptic information about the lore of the game. It appears we're playing a simulation started by a rogue AI, which was a common theory. We also got some 1.3 screenshots!

The one above shows a portal-- a structure present in the game already, but one that had no apparent use. Apparently that's going to change soon! The control panel thing pictured isn't currently in the game, so it looks like we're getting some interactivity.

In addition, this beauty dropped showing a new ship class! It's parked next to an observatory, so those may be an important part of the update, or... Read All The ARG Hello Games organized for No Man's Sky is over, and we ended up with some hints and somewhat cryptic information about the lore of the game. It appears we're playing a simulation started by a rogue AI, which was a common theory. We also got some 1.3 screenshots!

The one above shows a portal-- a structure present in the game already, but one that had no apparent use. Apparently that's going to change soon! The control panel thing pictured isn't currently in the game, so it looks like we're getting some interactivity.

In addition, this beauty dropped showing a new ship class! It's parked next to an observatory, so those may be an important part of the update, or maybe just a neat thing to put in a picture.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.wakingtitan.com/loop16/a8af5654-879c-4cea-a476-77c2fd54dfee.jpg

A few places have No Man's Sky for around $25 right now, possibly in preparation for an update. If you're interested, now's a good time to grab it for cheap!

UPDATED: The man himself, Sean Murray, sent out an email today with more information about the update. It's called Atlas Rises (which I hope is a reference to a Metallica song) and will focus on new lore and making portals do fun things. The full text of the email follows:

Hello Citizen Scientists,

It’s been a year since No Man’s Sky first released, and it’s been an exciting, intense and emotional year for us at Hello Games. We have been quiet, but we have been listening intently.

We've spent that year working hard on free updates for this game our team cares about so much.

Update 1.3 will release this week and will be available for free to all No Man’s Sky players. We're calling it Atlas Rises. It focuses on improving the central story of No Man’s Sky and adds the ability to quick travel between locations using portals. Patch notes will be made available shortly before the update goes live.

What we do is much more important than what we say, but since launch we have sometimes focused too much on that.

We wanted to reach out and celebrate the devoted community that means so much to us. We launched Waking Titan to try to do that.

When we posted those cassettes we didn't know what to expect. In the last eight weeks a quarter of a million players from across the globe (174 countries, to be precise!) have come together - united by a shared love of mystery and science fiction - to form the Citizen Science Division. You’ve travelled great distances both real and virtual, undertaken complex tasks, and explored the depths of simulation theory. New friendships have been forged, and a tight-knit community has been created. Most importantly a cute hamster has a new home.

You've become part of the No Man's Sky origin story.

It's been an honour to watch, but this is just the beginning. Whether you’ve followed Waking Titan or not, we welcome anyone to sign up to the Citizen Science Division, and to join us on the official CSD forums.

Our journey continues.

Thank you for this year. We hope you enjoy what comes next.

Sean

Someone Finally Made An HDMI Connector For The GameCube!

GameCube has been traditionally bound to composite OR crazy expensive component cables UNITL NOW! Metal Jesus reviewed a really awesome GameCube HDMI connector made by zeldaxpro and the interest for them has been so high he can't meet demand right now! Basically zeldaxpro hacked the GameCube digital out port to accept HDMI and apparently makes them by hand at his house, which is why he is having a hard time meeting demand.

This is one of the reasons why I love the retro game community so much because long after the lifespan of a console is over people are still creating really amazing hardware to keep systems going.

https://zzblogs.wixsite.com/home/single-post/pnpgc2

... Read All

As Long As There Are Nazi's In The World BJ Will Keep Busy

New Wolfenstein is coming soon and as such Bethesda is pushing it hard online. Some of the stuff coming out is pretty interesting including the above mini conversation with Wolfensteins designers. The key takeaway from this video? Expect many Nazis to die by the hands of the resistance.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and all of it's Nazi murder simulative goodness will release October 27th on PC, PS4 and XBox One.

Bowser Jr. Is Now Defeated - The Mushroom Kingdom Is At Peace

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.

I got a new 3DS for Christmas this year and after getting it i've been picking up a growing back catalog of DS and 3DS games. New Super Mario Bros. DS was one of those games and I've always wanted to try it after it came out in 2006. I found it at Goodwill and then later picked up the box and manual for a couple bucks at Portland Retro Game Expo. I've had a save that's been at World 8 for the last couple months and recently I decided to finally beat the game. I'm glad I did too because it was nice to finally wrap things up.

In 2006 Nintendo tried to bring back old school Mario platforming and New Super Mario Bros smashed on the scene to great reviews. I'd say it's a... Read All I got a new 3DS for Christmas this year and after getting it i've been picking up a growing back catalog of DS and 3DS games. New Super Mario Bros. DS was one of those games and I've always wanted to try it after it came out in 2006. I found it at Goodwill and then later picked up the box and manual for a couple bucks at Portland Retro Game Expo. I've had a save that's been at World 8 for the last couple months and recently I decided to finally beat the game. I'm glad I did too because it was nice to finally wrap things up.

In 2006 Nintendo tried to bring back old school Mario platforming and New Super Mario Bros smashed on the scene to great reviews. I'd say it's a nearly perfect Mario game in that it's fun and feels challenging enough. The first handful of Worlds aren't terribly difficult but they are inventive and fun. The last few Worlds, 8 in particular, ramp the difficulty up considerably which makes beating them all the more rewarding.

Nintendo brought Mario to iPhones and Androids recently and I much prefer a traditional play style Mario game like New Super Mario Bros to the tap to play Mario Run. Mario Run is just about the best you can do on a phone but New Super Mario Bros is some of the best Mario platforming around and the traditional style d-pad thumb controls on the 3DS really make it shine.

If you have a DS or 3DS I recommend adding New Super Mario Bros to your collection. The "New" Mario platforming series has received a couple sequels such as New Super Mario Bros Wii, New Super Mario Bros 2(on 3DS) & New Super Mario Bros U. All of those games look great and I plan on picking them up at some point. It seems Nintendo is hip to keep the "New" Mario platforming franchise going and I expect that they will bring a new game to the Switch at some point to keep the old school platforming alive for their new shiny system. And if they do and you have a Switch I recommend you look into it because if it's anything like New Super Mario Bros it will be well worth playing.

Elder Scrolls Legends Releases on iPhone & Android

http://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/The-Elder-Scrolls-Legends.jpg

Elder Scrolls Legends dropped on iPhone and Android recently and I installed it to try it out and it's a really solid port of the PC game. It seems Bethesda is following the tried and true path of releasing a digital card game on PC first, come to tablets next and then phones afterward. The phone ports come right in time for the Skyrim coming to Elder Scrolls Legends so if you wanted to try that out, now is the time.

Hopefully Valve and EA join the digital card game market and release phone game clients because by then we won't call them smartphones anymore, we'll call them card game handhelds.

https://legends.bethesda.net/articles/legends-on-phones?locale=en

SGDQ Wrap Up Volume III: Avenging Spirits!

Actraiser by Straevaras in 1:01:12 is a run worth watching especially if you are unfamiliar with ActRaiser like I was. Yeah, ActRasier might be on my "list of shame" but this run is still amazing to watch and Straevaras makes the game look like a breeze.

E.V.O.: Search for Eden by Darkwing Duck in 51:06 is a fun run especially if you like jumping. Taking advantage of buils that favor agility, this run is blisteringly quick. There are more than a few tense moments as the Darkwing Duck sinks nearly all the skill points into agility making it quite possible to get one shotted many moments in the run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a5ioaqzWfw

Shovel Knight: Specter of... Read All

The Legend of Zelda.... But With Birds?

I'm not going to pretend I understand this but I thought it was worth sharing.

Please give your interpretations in the comments.

Super Nintendo Classic Pre-Order Update

Just wanted to post a follow up about my Super Nintendo Classic pre-order. It might not be news to anyone at this point but Walmart sent out the pre-order for the Super Nintendo Classic by mistake and as such cancelled them. Apparently everyone that got one isn't getting one anymore and we are now back in line for a Super Nintendo Classic with everyone else. And it's quite upsetting.

I was beyond happy that I got a pre-order and thought that I was one of the lucky few. As someone that plans on actually playing it when I get it, this is really unfortunate. It's possible Nintendo could increase stock on the Super Nintendo Classic making it easier to buy in stores... but... Read All

My Review Of The 8Bitdo NES30 Pro

Recently I picked up 8Bitdo's NES30 Pro bluetooth gamepad. I have a bunch of PC controllers but most of them like the XBox 360 controller are great for PC shooters and other games but not great for traditional platformers or retro games.

The NES30 advertises support for the PC, Mac, Android, iOS & more recently the Switch. With some research I found out that the NES30 supports iOS through iCade which is a pseduo-standard that began with the iCade for iPad where the controller acts like a keyboard and games that support the iCade respond to certain keyboard button presses. It's an interesting work around to Apple not having a controller standard at the time until... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 07/25/2017 at 03:40pm

I'm still torn on waiting for the SNES30 Pro or getting this.

Or maybe both :D

I definitely prefer the stacked shoulder buttons of the SNES30 Pro but I like the look of this one more. I guess I'll just wait and see how the reviews are for the SNES30 Pro.

Glad you like it and it feels right. The button action of the early systems is what stands out for me in your review-- nobody seems to have gotten that right until now.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 07/25/2017 at 04:24pm

I'd love to see if this is as beautiful in person as it is in the picture!

Travis Admin wrote on 07/25/2017 at 09:00pm

Check out some youtube reviews Adam-- it's not, not quite. But still quite nice. The lighting and framing in the pic above gives it a metallic look.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/26/2017 at 08:25pm

Yeah, it's not quite as glossy but does look good.

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