Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Celebrate The Year Of The Mammoth Tomorrow With Free Hearthstone Daily Rewards!

Hearthstone will be running special rewards for simply logging in March 29th through April 5th. This is a pretty special thing in Hearthstone as most CCGs have gold rewards for coming back every day and to date Hearthstone has been one of the biggest hold outs. That said for the next 8 days that changes so you should log in each day to get the 4 packs, 100 gold, 100 dust and a special Golden Volcanosaur card from the upcoming Ungoro expansion.

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20567513/

What Happens When You Put Your Daughter In Ghouls 'n Ghosts? Battle Princess Madelyn!

Back this on Kickstarter!

"Battle Princess Madelyn is a game that follows the journey of a young knight in training, Madelyn, and her ghostly pet dog Fritzy. They set out on a journey to save her kingdom and her family from the clutches of an evil wizard."

After playing Super Mario Brothers for the first time I wanted to be a game developer. Battle Princess Madelyn is an interesting project by developer Casual Bit Games where the main hero is his daughter. Taking a bit (highly interpreted drawings) of input from his daughter and translating that into the base game is a cute premise and as someone that has a kid now and enjoys having fun with him, I can see how this project could take shape. I... Read All

Elder Scrolls Legends Releases On iPad

Elder Scrolls Legends released on iPad today and with that Bethesda also dropped a schedule for the rollout of the game on even more platforms. Elder Scrolls Legends will drop on Android tablets in April, Mac in May and phone in mid 2017. This seems to be a popular release strategy for all the new digital card games and Bethesda doesn't seem to want to be left in Skyrim on this one(get it, because Skyrim is cold.... please don't beat me up).

Super Meat Boy Gets A Physical Release With IndieBox

If you love Meat Boy and want to have a box copy of it along with a ton of swag to go along with it you should check out IndieBox. This month they are packing up Meat Boy in the "Super Dumb Boy" collectors edition packaging alongside a DRM free copy of the game, 2 disc soundtrack and more.

https://www.theindiebox.com/

Evolution Complete: StarCraft Remastered In 4K Launches In The Koprulu Sector This Summer!

The rumors were true and StarCraft & Broodwar are currently being remastered by Blizzard for a PC & Mac release this summer. This looks to be a full remastering of the original game with new crisp HD art and an updated engine for modern LAN and Internet gameplay. Next week Blizzard will drop an update to the original StarCraft game to get ready for the remastered version this summer:

"In preparation for StarCraft: Remastered, Blizzard Entertainment will update StarCraft: Brood War later this week to version 1.18. The update will include bug fixes and improvements, including the ability to rebind keys; observer mode; modern anti-cheat measures; compatibility... Read All The rumors were true and StarCraft & Broodwar are currently being remastered by Blizzard for a PC & Mac release this summer. This looks to be a full remastering of the original game with new crisp HD art and an updated engine for modern LAN and Internet gameplay. Next week Blizzard will drop an update to the original StarCraft game to get ready for the remastered version this summer:

"In preparation for StarCraft: Remastered, Blizzard Entertainment will update StarCraft: Brood War later this week to version 1.18. The update will include bug fixes and improvements, including the ability to rebind keys; observer mode; modern anti-cheat measures; compatibility improvements for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10; and more. Once the update is live, StarCraft Anthology, which includes the original game and the Brood War expansion, will be free to download and play. "

StarCraft is one of my all time favorite games and it getting this HD remastering update is incredible. To date some of the best HD remasterings of games have given them new life in a world where running them on modern systems is difficult and the old StarCraft is no exception. Blizzard updating the multiplayer means that it will be easier to play StarCraft with friends over the Internet, which up till now has been pretty difficult.

"In StarCraft Remastered, we’ve kept everything you love about StarCraft, but upgraded everything else.

Detailed visuals - Zoom out for a Battlecruiser’s view of the battlefield, or zoom in to see the veins on a Mutalisk’s wings.

Stylized Briefings - Race-themed comic book interludes tell the original story with a fresh coat of paint.

Amped Audio -The original soundtrack and dialogue, re-recorded and rejuvenated."

I've wondered if Blizzard would use the original engine to do a possible retelling of StarCraft or use the new StarCraft II engine and it seems this is a remaking of the original game with much update love. From the many behind the scenes videos about StarCraft i've heard the codebase is hard to work with so this is a pretty large effort and I can't wait to pick it up when it drops this summer. I also hope Blizzard releases a collectors edition, that would be an incredible way to launch this retelling of the game.

https://starcraft.com/en-us/
https://blizzard.gamespress.com/

Travis Admin wrote on 03/26/2017 at 06:09pm

I was just coming to post this! I hope we get the same kind of treatment for Diablo II and others. Starcraft is coming up on 20 years old... 20 years! It's amazing to see it played so heavily still, and getting this kind of update.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/27/2017 at 01:05am

Yeah, Travis is right, it was about 20 years ago (apparently) that I got my copy of Starcraft. I couldn't find it within my small local area, so I actually travelled half an hour to a Wal-Mart in West Virginia to get it. I can't remember which box cover I chose, I think it was Protoss or Terran.

This is good news and what surprises me more is that it's supposed to be out this summer. I enjoyed the game and the expansion. I liked the cut scenes and funny things units and characters say. Remember, "I love you Sarge!" LOL

However, I'm not sure when or if I might pick this up. I enjoyed SCII, but the recent additions were a bit too difficult for me and I ended up cheating. This kind of turned me off a little bit. I remember using cheat codes on the original. I don't remember it being extremely difficult. It's been a long time since I've played it, so I don't recall very much very well.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/27/2017 at 03:12am

The only missions I remember I cheated on in SC was the ending mission where the Protoss team up with the Terrans against the Zerg. That was nuts and I just typed in the code to have it be over. And it was. And I was confused by the ending.

Go figure.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/19/2017 at 06:30am

Starcraft is now free with a new patch. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/starcraft-goes-free-today-with-new-patch-its-first/1100-6449431/

Travis Admin wrote on 04/19/2017 at 01:10pm

And when the remaster comes out we'll be able to play multiplayer across this version and the remaster.

The one thing that I question is that CD-key banning is the most effective tool they had against hackers. They don't have that now since someone can just make a new account rather than having to pony up money for it.

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The New Season Of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Is Happening And It's Beautiful!

Netflix dropped the trailer for the new season 11 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 today and it looks... bonkers incredible. As a longtime MSTie from watching it late night on Comedy Central in the 90's I can say that getting a new season is pretty magical. I bought the huge pack of episodes on Vimeo, funded the Kickstarter and bought a Tom Servo kit because... you know... it's the greatest show of all time and it all needed to be done. The work that needs to be done now though is unpacking that new trailer which you need to watch right now so stop reading and get to clicking!

It looks like Jonah works for Gizmonic institute as a space garbage man.

As he is doing his... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/23/2017 at 02:44pm

I still need to catch up on MST1K and MST2K

Travis Admin wrote on 03/23/2017 at 02:47pm

I'm so looking forward to this. I haven't watched a ton of the old MST3K but I've seen some, and I've seen a lot of movies with RiffTrax, which is kinda their follow-up. It's all riffing on movies, without the plot, but it's still great.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 03/23/2017 at 03:46pm

I hear it takes place in the not too distant future.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/24/2017 at 04:52am

I still want to pitch that if you have stepped away for a bit and want a recommendation on one to watch on Netflix that you start with Pod People. It's a very special kind of bad movie and the host segments and everything else makes it a very special episode.

It's also perfect for watching late at night so if you don't know what to watch... POD PEOPLE! Trumpy will thank you(this is not a political reference, but if you watch the episode it will make more sense)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/24/2017 at 05:23am

I've never seen this show, so I was kind of delighted to see it on Netflix when I joined. Perhaps I'll check it out sometime.

Oh and speaking of Netflix, I probably wouldn't have jumped on the Netflix train if it wasn't for Cheerful Ghost. :)

Travis Admin wrote on 03/24/2017 at 02:22pm

Greg I don't know how you existed without Netflix :D

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Dragon Age: Origins Third Time Charm?

http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/17450/header.jpg?t=1447351620

Some years ago, I received a recommendation to play the Dragon Age games. I ended up buying the Ultimate Edition for PS3. Want to know how much time I spent with it? I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s less than 10 hours, definitely less than 20. I’m not sure why I stopped playing it. Perhaps it was the battle system. I’m not used to characters acting on their own, thus removing the need for me to keep pressing buttons (or keys for the PC) to keep attacking. You can even pause the action and issue commands to each party member. This felt new and odd to me, but I am now a bit more comfortable with it.

Years later, Origin offered DAO for free (without any DLC). I was glad to... Read All Some years ago, I received a recommendation to play the Dragon Age games. I ended up buying the Ultimate Edition for PS3. Want to know how much time I spent with it? I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s less than 10 hours, definitely less than 20. I’m not sure why I stopped playing it. Perhaps it was the battle system. I’m not used to characters acting on their own, thus removing the need for me to keep pressing buttons (or keys for the PC) to keep attacking. You can even pause the action and issue commands to each party member. This felt new and odd to me, but I am now a bit more comfortable with it.

Years later, Origin offered DAO for free (without any DLC). I was glad to have the game on PC (having a kick ass PC has made me an almost exclusive PC gamer). Again, want to know how much time I spent with it? I could possibly find out by opening up Origin now, but that won’t be necessary. I’m sure I’ve spent less than 20 hours. This comes as a surprise to me presently, because it felt like I had spent more time with it.

In recent years, a friend has often raved about DA and strongly recommends the series. I did download a demo for Dragon Age Inquisition, which allows only 6 hours of game play. I tried it out, but I was still uncomfortable with the battle system, so I hardly played it. However, I recently decided to buy the DA series. I got DAO’s Ultimate Edition on Steam and I believe I have DA2 and DAI on Origin.

Steam says I’ve spent 21 hours playing this time, but I know that doesn’t actually reflect my current saved game. I made it to the tower in Ostagar and decided to lower the difficulty from normal to easy. Now it’s a much more enjoyable game. The funny thing is that in this third time of starting out the game, I am now further into it than I’ve ever gotten. I still feel close to the beginning. I may be ¼ of the way through it, I’m not sure, because I don’t know how many hours this game has. I imagine it’s a lot, but the map looks small, so I’m not sure.

In my three attempts (one currently successful) to start the game, I have always chosen to be a noble male warrior. I’m not sure what weapons I used in the previous two attempts, whether they were one- or two-handed swords, but now I’m using one-handed swords with a shield. Once again, I did rescue Sten. I have him using two-handed swords and right now he has the beautiful Butterfly Sword which came as a free gift due to one of the game’s DLC. I love it!

I never reached specialization in any of my other attempts to play this, but my main character now has the Berserker specialization. I chose this because of the health bonus. I had Morrigan in my party until I did the quest for the Circle of Magi and met Wynne, who is now the mage in my party because she’s a healing mage. I also have Zevran in my party, because I need a rogue to help me open locked chests. Unfortunately, he still has “insufficient skill” to open almost everything I try to open, so I need him to level up. What I love about him is that he sounds like an Elder Scrolls Khajiit.

The game is about 8 years old now and I feel like it’s aged well, in other words it still looks decent. I’m not saying that the game’s graphics are exceptional, but to me it doesn’t look bad. I find some games are difficult to play after they’ve aged a while as the graphical quality is often hard to “get over.” The modern games I play put my GPU to work, I can definitely tell by how much noise is coming out of my fans, since I have them set to “auto.” However, I also have manual settings that I switch to when playing games like Ark: Survival Evolved and No Man’s Sky.

Anyway, if anyone wants to jump in here and discuss the game, your comments are welcome. I may update this post (via comments) as I progress and think of more things to discuss about it. My future DA path looks like this; finish DAO, then check out DAO’s Awakening and other DLC, then play DA2, and then play DAI.

Feel free to let me know what you think of this game and the others in the series. I may create other DA posts as I progress to each different game.

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

Your attempts to start this sound like my attempts to start Mass Effect. It took me three times to get past 6 or 7 hours. I'm thrilled I finally did, but that first game was a slow burn. I gather Dragon Age is as well from other people's comments. I have played about an hour of it so far and it looks really interesting.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/23/2017 at 06:12pm

Interesting. I can't really think of many other games I've started this many times and failed to make significant progress. On the contrary, I've played Skyrim 3 times, but I believe I completed it each time. I seem to recall Jon saying his experience w/ DA's battle system was similar to mine.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/23/2017 at 07:35pm

It's very strange/unique. It's not even turn based, it's weird. But it works! I haven't put much time in at all, I just needed something to take my mind off waiting for Andromeda so I fired it up. I plan on diving into that series next.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/23/2017 at 09:15pm

Cool! Maybe you'll post something and I can join your conversation. I might do the opposite, play ME after DA. I'm not really sure what I'll play when I finish this series. I do want to hop back into Ark to check out the latest patch, but I don't want to do that while playing one of these DA games, because I'm afraid I'll forget what's going on and feel like I have to start over again. Ark can wait, for now.

DAO just crashed on me. It's done that at least once before. That reminds me that this is one of those games where saving often is definitely something you want to do. I just lost some progress again. Ah well.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/24/2017 at 04:50am

DAO was recommended to me years ago and I started playing and walked away about when you did. I absolutely __LOVED__ Neverwinter Nights which this is a spiritual successor to. Again, very similar to NwN which I loved but somehow, Dragon Age Origins didn't hit me quite right. I think it was the combat too and at some point the difficulty spiked and it was already feeling like work so I stepped away.

It's one of those games I bet if I came back to i'd enjoy in bursts but I think it might also be a game for another kind of gamer or another version of myself. Back when Neverwinter Nights came out that was the only new game I had that could run on my college laptop. I had played WarCraft III so much I wore out the CD's(not really but I played it a crazy amount) and I was looking for something else. Neverwinter Nights offered a metric junkload of gameplay and I really enjoyed it and bought the two expansions that came out for it.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/24/2017 at 05:20am

I've never played NwN, but DAO reminds me of Lord of the Rings and The Elder Scrolls. Since you mentioned it, I haven't played WarCraft III either (although I do have a demo of it on my PC).

Did you ever lower the difficulty when you played? I feel no shame that I'm playing it on "easy" now, it (to me) certainly makes the game much more enjoyable. That doesn't mean I don't get my ass kicked, but it's usually not so bad or often.

The game offers a variety of choices. For example, in the quest I'm working on now with the dwarves, the king is dead (trust me, not a major spoiler), and I can choose which of the two sides to support. There are other choices to me made as well. I can recall at least one bad ass kicking you can avoid, by saying the right thing. At another point, there's a dragon, which you clearly see, but it won't attack you unless you blow a certain horn (or hit the gong for the console version).

There are also plenty of gifts you can give to your party members, which raises or lowers their disposition to you (how much they like you). I haven't run into it yet, but it seems "romancing" certain characters is a very popular thing among DA fans. You can do this via gift giving. If you do decide to "romance" a character, you're not limited to herterosexuality.

One of my biggest annoyances so far is trying to righ-click on (to open) something on the ground (like a chest) and instead right-clicking on a character, which initiates a conversation. So, sometimes while my characters are following me, they get in the way. Your party members don't have to follow you every where as you can have them stay put or "move freely."

Travis Admin wrote on 03/24/2017 at 02:21pm

> I feel no shame that I'm playing it on "easy" now, it (to me) certainly makes the game much more enjoyable.

I play a lot of games on easy these days. I had more patience for it back in the day but I just don't have time to master a game the way I used to. If I'm getting home from work, then relaxing a bit before/after dinner, then getting maybe 2 hours of gaming in, I don't want to spend half that time repeating stuff because I died.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/27/2017 at 12:33am

Wow, Steam says 40 hours. Even on easy the last part was extremely difficult. Luckily you can use your army allies and call them into battle. In the final battle I used golems and when they died I called in the dwarves. Now I have Awakening and the DLC to do.

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Seiken Densetsu Collection Coming to the Switch In Japan!

The Secret of Mana Collection is coming to the Nintendo Switch and so far it's Japan only. It features the Gameboy and two Super Nintendo entries that round out the classic collection. Stateside we got Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy Adventure only but if this collection comes to the states this will be the first time we get a proper port of Secret of Mana 2 / Seiken Densetsu 3. Because nerds can dream right?

Review - Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (part of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove) for the Switch

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope is the original Shovel Knight game released by Yacht Club Games in 2014. It is a platformer with an 8-bit sound and art style. The version reviewed here is part of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove for the Switch, which was provided by Yacht Club Games, to Cheerful Ghost in the form of a download key.

I previously played Shovel Kinght: Shovel of Hope on the 3DS, and now on the Switch. The Switch version wins the match between the two, hands down, in my opinion. While the Switch does not have the 3D that the 3DS has, it has a beautiful handheld screen and great sounding audio.

Yacht Club Games did an outstanding job with Shovel Knight. The level... Read All Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope is the original Shovel Knight game released by Yacht Club Games in 2014. It is a platformer with an 8-bit sound and art style. The version reviewed here is part of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove for the Switch, which was provided by Yacht Club Games, to Cheerful Ghost in the form of a download key.

I previously played Shovel Kinght: Shovel of Hope on the 3DS, and now on the Switch. The Switch version wins the match between the two, hands down, in my opinion. While the Switch does not have the 3D that the 3DS has, it has a beautiful handheld screen and great sounding audio.

Yacht Club Games did an outstanding job with Shovel Knight. The level design was awesome. Each level was difficult, but not to the point where you give up. They designed it in such a way that you felt finishing each level was achievable, which is was.

The retro 8-bit sound and art was well done too. The thing that stood out the most to me was the use of lighting on some levels. Not only did this provide a fun game mechanic, but it also provided ambience to those levels.

The controls on the game were very responsive, even with the Switch's D-Pad buttons. The D-Pad buttons took a little bit of getting used to, but after an hour or so of play, it felt like a good replacement for a D-Pad.

My two small problems with the game were that some of the auxiliary weapons didn't seem needed (maybe it was just the way I played), and the pogo attack move seemed overpowered. The reason I felt it was overpowered, was that for the most part, it could be used to take down the majority of enemies including the bosses. Maybe this was by design, but it would have been nice if I needed a little bit more strategy to defeat the bosses for each level. The only time it felt balanced was when there were knights with shields that could block you from bouncing on their head.

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope is just one game out of three in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. I would recommend getting Treasure Trove for the Switch just for Shovel of Hope. I hope the other two games live up to this first Shovel Knight game.

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is available on Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Sony PS3, Sony PS4, Sony Vita, Xbox One, PC, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch.

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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