Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

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... Read All

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.

Mass Effect: Andromeda - Review in Progress (the first 10-ish hours)

I've been playing Mass Effect: Andromeda in basically all my free time over the past couple days. EA has a program called Origin Access (or EA Access on consoles) where you pay $5 a month and you get access to a ton of games. It's like Netflix only for EA games. In addition, you get a 10% discount on any purchase. I had just gotten a new PC and wanted to try some games that I'd missed so I paid for a month.

Little did I know, however, that it also included timed game trials before release. In Mass Effect: Andromeda's case, I was able to play the game for up to 10 hours and up to a certain point in the story. I only got to about the 8:30 mark before I ran out of stuff... Read All I've been playing Mass Effect: Andromeda in basically all my free time over the past couple days. EA has a program called Origin Access (or EA Access on consoles) where you pay $5 a month and you get access to a ton of games. It's like Netflix only for EA games. In addition, you get a 10% discount on any purchase. I had just gotten a new PC and wanted to try some games that I'd missed so I paid for a month.

Little did I know, however, that it also included timed game trials before release. In Mass Effect: Andromeda's case, I was able to play the game for up to 10 hours and up to a certain point in the story. I only got to about the 8:30 mark before I ran out of stuff to do, and I had been really taking my time. And now I have to wait until Tuesday, when it actually releases, to continue. And I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas.

In short: there are issues, but it's great overall... so far. The following are first impressions that may change over the course of the game, and I'm keeping things spoiler-free.

The bad
First, lets get the bad stuff out of the way:

The facial animations. Oooooooooohhhh boy, those facial animations. At best they're as bad as the previous entries. Bioware has a bad track record for those. But with the new shiny graphics, the bad facial animations are more pronounced. At worst, they're really distracting and jarring. These have been getting a lot of ridicule and it's clear why. The odd thing is, the aliens have perfectly fine animations, it's the humans who have weird thousand-yard stares and creepy smiles. Bioware/EA has said that there's a bug involved and that it wouldn't be fixed by day 1, so we may get some improvements.

The writing for character dialogue is inconsistent. One character can go from seeming real to seeming cliché in two lines. While it isn't bad overall, the bad parts bring it down a bit. Thankfully it seems like only a few characters are affected. Perhaps they just didn't have a solid idea of who these characters should be? I'm hoping this improves as the story moves on.

Planet scanning seems to have less of a point. Almost no planets have anything to scan. And while the on-planet vehicle makes a return, at least at this point in the game the only planets you can land on are the ones involved in the main story.

Getting around in the galaxy is slower. You have a really pretty cutscene every time you switch from one planet/system to another. It's nice the first few times, not the 20th.

The omni-tool scanner slows you down and I felt compelled to pull it out often to make sure I wasn't missing something.

The first planet you visit (after the intro planet) isn't a good one to show off for the demo. Or, alternatively, the demo ends just too soon. You can barely go anywhere until you do something (which I won't give away in case people are really wary of spoilers) but the trial stops right before you get to do that thing. So even when you get to the end of where the plot will take you in the demo, you've probably exhausted what you can explore too.

There are some sidequests that feel identical to ones I've done before in Mass Effect and other games. It's not something unique to this game, but a couple of times I thought, "Oh THIS again. OK." Not a huge thing, but there are some tropes.

I don't care about the enemies. At this point, they're just violent and nothing else. I wish that, by this point in the game, we had learned about them a bit more.

This is more nebulous but worth mentioning. I like the characters but none of them seem as memorable as the wonderful cast of characters from the first three games. I could be wrong, there's a lot of game left.

Sometimes the new on-planet vehicle is an asshole. I see what they were trying to do with the new controls for it, but it may be overcomplicated at times. And it doesn't have any weapons!

The good

The graphics, facial animations aside, are wonderful. I can't say much more about them than that. It's really good stuff.

The world-building is fantastic. Er... galaxy building? Andromeda feels alien. Even more than the planets you visit in the previous Mass Effect games. The structures built by the Milky Way crew look like modernized architecture from the previous games. It feels very Mass Effect, and yet separate from the Mass Effect trilogy that came before it.

The more open design helps make the worlds feel real. I wouldn't call it open-world, but it benefits from being more open. The addition of jump jets let you explore more of the space, and it feels less restricted.

Combat is much improved, largely because of the more open design and the jump jets, but everything just has more weight to it now. Enemies seem smarter, and will actively flank you. You have to pay attention.

Aside from the tropey quests mentioned above, the quests and sidequests are great. Even in the intro, when you first get control of your character, you can see things happening around you that you can jump into or not. When you first find a certain place (again, being careful of spoilers) you can start a murder mystery that takes you to multiple systems to solve.

Even if the lips don't match all the time, the voice acting is solid. I got used to FemShep, so in my mind Mass Effect has female protagonists and I chose Sara Ryder. Her voice actor is no Jennifer Hale, but she does well, and the supporting cast does as well.

There are callbacks to the old games. So far, they've been minor ones but it helps to tie the series together.

Omni-tool scanning, while not perfect (see above) is fun. I felt like I was in No Man's Sky, running around scanning animals, rocks, plants, and tech. I hope the folks at Hello Games play this and modify the scanner in No Man's Sky a bit, honestly.

(This isn't really a spoiler unless you've literally avoided everything about this game, so if you're here I assume you at least know the premise.) You aren't saving the galaxy this time, I don't think. I say "I don't think" because the plot has a long way to go and could significantly change. In the previous games there was a massive threat that needed to be stopped. In this game, it's all about making a new home. The new goal and focus are refreshing.

Multiplayer is pretty solid but I suck at it.

The Tempest isn't the Normandy but it's pretty sweet. It's that same familiar ship design from the SR-1 and SR-2, but modernized and shinier.

The characters are good. I'm pessimistic about them achieving the character development from the first three games, but they are good. I care about them. Natalie Dormer's Lexi T'Perro is a fantastic Asari doctor (who totally isn't into women, a fact I discovered accidentally), Vetra is a Turian who would make Garrus proud, and so on. The characters retain the traits of their races, while also having unique personalities.

The on-planet vehicle is much improved over the Mako. Yeah I know I complained about it up top, but in general it's far better. GTA it ain't, but it serves its purpose better than the Mako.

Bottom line
When I was looking for a screenshot to include up top, I found a screenshot from Shepard's apartment in Mass Effect 3, when she throws the party and they take a group photo. That felt like seeing a picture of my absolute best friends that I haven't seen in years. While Mass Effect 3 was a downgrade for the most part, I seriously felt regret and loss at seeing that screenshot. That's how much I loved the original trilogy. The question for many won't just be "Is Mass Effect: Andromeda a good game?" It will be "Does Mass Effect: Andromeda achieve what the previous games did?" And that's not really even something we can answer until there's a trilogy, because the strength of each new game builds because of the history.

For now, I can say Andromeda is really good so far. I'm simultaneously optimistic and hyper-critical because of loving the first trilogy. I have problems with Andromeda, some of which may get fixed, some of them are there for good, and some are my own brain telling me "BUT IT'S NOT SHEPARD!" But the problems don't make it bad, not at all. The facial animations are the biggest issue but, while they're distracting, I'm not playing the game for how people's faces look when they talk.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. There's a lot of promise here, and I just want to sleep until Tuesday so I don't have to wait to keep playing.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/19/2017 at 03:40am

Looks like this month (and maybe next) we're both playing Bioware games. I'm working my way through the Dragon Age series. I intend to get the Mass Effect series eventually since it comes with a lot of strong recommendations (from friends). I'll probably wait for a sale though.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/19/2017 at 03:43am

They go on sale often. In fact, you just missed a huge Origin sale where they were way cheap. I recommend getting them on Origin because the DLC is way easier to deal with there.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/19/2017 at 03:44am

(But if you have them on Steam already you can *usually* activate them on Origin with the CD key, at least until those keys expire)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/19/2017 at 03:46am

That sucks that I missed it. I do intend to buy them on Origin, since Steam's ME collection is limited. Steam doesn't even have ME3.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/19/2017 at 05:32pm

Nice review, Travis. Seems more fair and balanced than others I've read. Andromeda was high on my anticipated games list for this year. While I haven't played yet, I did watch gameplay of the first hour, after reading some reviews, and decided I should probably rent this first. I'm at 57% completion on Horizon Zero Dawn, and the complaints I see about Andromeda are handled with absolute style and grace in Horizon. I've heard other reviewers complain mostly about the writing in Andromeda, and from what little I've watched, I can see what they mean. Bioware games are typically synonymous with rich story. The beginning of Andromeda is more like cheap fiction. More Starship Troopers than Star Trek. Which is okay, I guess, if that's what you're looking for. To be fair, though, I'll give it a rent and see what else is there.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/19/2017 at 08:52pm

The story does seem to get better. I'm not super far into it or anything but I can kinda feel things building toward something. That something could be good or bad.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/19/2017 at 09:16pm

But yeah still. None of the same writers from previous games worked on this one. We're in uncharted waters, story-wise.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/22/2017 at 08:21pm

Okay, I'm a little over 10 hours into Andromeda now. All of the complaints seem justified, or at the very least understandable, from what I've played. Animations are not what you would expect from AAA studios in 2017, but for a Mass Effect game, they aren't awful, which isn't a great thing. It would be like saying the Wii U was amazing for implementing HD graphics, when everyone else had been doing it for a decade. It's progress for them, but a slow train moving for the industry. Voice acting in Andromeda is decent, mostly. What those voices say, however, can be cringe inducing at times. It's less horrible than some have made it out to be, but it's indeed jarring. The combination of poor dialog segments attached to unpolished facial animations is where I find the game most disappointing. These are the vessels that are telling the story. It's hard to take them seriously when they all look like they had their eyelids removed before cryo-sleep.

Shepherd's saga left large shoes to fill, and, smartly, Bioware has thrown them away altogether and are trying something mostly fresh, but safely familiar. Its a good idea, but I find the execution so far is boring. Rather than explore options in this new galaxy, you're immediately presented with ad nauseam justifications, from almost every speaking character, as to why this game had to have combat mechanics. I get that the story is about immature explorers making bold choices and finding their way, but that doesn't mean the story itself has to be immature. The overall design of story, levels, and characters feels sloppy. This could be something that improves as the game progresses, but it needs to be there at the beginning, and certainly within the first 10 hours.

UI is painful. Combat is painful (AI especially. Again, maybe better for ME, but way below average). Environment scanning is painful as well (I know you like it, Travis, but it takes me out of the game. I'll take NMS existing scanner any day. An improvement would have been to make an omni visor, or something so it could actually be a vision mode, ala the Arkham games, especially being a 3rd person game. As it is, you're constantly pulling out the scanner, because you don't want to miss anything. At least in NMS, when you do scan, it seems out of purpose rather than paranoia.). In fact, that's what I keep coming back to with my game play: an unnecessarily painful experience. And I'm super bummed about that.

The best thing I saw, so far, happened in the first 20 min or so: The "cinematic" when your shuttle is en route to Habitat 7. For a moment, it felt like a Mass Effect game. The rest of the time if felt more like "Uncharted Jr. in Space" Effect. I want to say that I'd come back to it at some point, to see how it plays out (maybe the real meat is at the 20 hour mark! I've heard that Final Fantasy XIII is like that.), but I don't see anything in there that would pull me back in.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2017 at 09:00pm

I haven't had any UI issues and I love the combat, but I totally get what you mean about the scanner. It's not for everyone.

I don't know how far you got in that 10 hours, but if you haven't left Eos, the galaxy has yet to open up. Very shortly after Eos, it starts to really feel like Mass Effect. I'll avoid spoilers but send me a text/chat/something if you want more details about what I'm talking about.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2017 at 09:45pm

But you're absolutely right that this is a problem in and of itself. I kinda wonder if the start of the game was written around that 10 hour trial so that you don't get stuck in something important. Eos's main plot should have ended way earlier (exploration later notwithstanding) so that the next chapter could have come by at least hour 6ish? The pacing of the beginning is way bad.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2017 at 10:31pm

An aside, but how freakin' annoying is the sudoku you have to do for some of the hacking? Talk about taking you out of the game.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/23/2017 at 03:00am

Total sudoku! I mean it's nice to see an attempt at fresh puzzle mechanics, but it's literally sudoku with glyphs.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2017 at 03:05am

It changes up a bit on the more difficult ones but the basics are still the same.

But jeez that's just what I want in the middle of my exploration, right? Stop playing a video game and play sudoku instead!

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/23/2017 at 03:15am

I think you might be on to something with the pacing of the 10 hour demo. It's so - and I hate to keep using this word, but it fits so well - painful. The pacing of the combat is intended to be flinchingly fast, and they've done well in that regard. But everything outside of that slows to a crawl, to the point where I feel like I need to take a day just to figure out the mod/inventory system. There is a reason that Call of Duty doesn't have 10 layers of character modification and nuanced weapon crafting. I don't know. I feel like you should pick one or the other, or simmer the whole thing down to a happy medium. Does the happy medium come after 10 hours?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2017 at 03:41am

It gets better at least, yes. I can't say whether the happy medium comes because that's going to be a moving target. I'm on hour 22 and it's better now than it was at hour 15, which was better than hour 10.

What's odd-- and I'm not just getting used to it, I watched some videos to confirm-- the facial animations get better. I kinda wonder if EA said "We need 10 hours to give early" and the whole Eos arc was a rush job. OR if they tried to pad it to make the cut-off point (right before you head into the SPOILER that changes the SPOILER and lets you SPOILER) close to that 10-hour mark.

Anyway, yes, everything gets better. The plot opens up significantly, you feel like your actions are leading to something story-wise, the sidequests seem less grindy and more things you can do while on your way to other things (while I liked them before, you had to travel way off the beaten path on Eos which was a grind all on its own). It seems like the pace averages so that you aren't just driving for 5 minutes with nothing to do.

The most important thing, character banter and the interplay of your squad gets better. It's like they figured out the characters and started writing them better. OR they padded the intro and had to write shoddy plot/dialogue to fill it in. Either way, once you have everyone, it feels like that same kind of Mass Effect character interplay.

Better and better. Still loads of problems and plenty to complain about, but I still want to stay up all night playing.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2017 at 01:21pm

An important thing to stress here is that it's the same gameplay, just paced better. If you don't like the combat or the nomad, you won't like them after Eos either.

As for the inventory/mod system, it seems to work about as well as it did in the other games, but they needlessly change it every game so you have to get used to it. One option you have is just ignoring it for the most part. Just switch to new guns/armor you find and don't worry about crafting. Since they took out the ability to customize your squadmates' gear it's less of an issue.

This article from Forbes is great for where you seem to be scrypt: https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/03/21/ten-things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-started-mass-effect-andromeda/#3ff712be5e68

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2017 at 01:22pm

The one thing about this article though-- he mentions the first two planets being Eos and Havarld but you don't have to do it that way. I went Eos -> Voeld and based on that article, I'm glad.

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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... Read All

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... Read All

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... Read All

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... Read All 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... Read All

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... Read All

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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