Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Summer Games Done Quick Speedrunning Charity Starts On July 3rd

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Speedrunning charity stream Summer Games Done Quick will be blasting through the gaming stream-o-sphere starting July 3rd @ 9.30am and wrapping up on the 9th. As with every year, the game speedrunning lineup is a buffet of classic retro titles and many hot new modern titles such as Goonies II, Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening DX, BioShock, Dishonored, Hexen and Fallout 4.

I've created an Event you can join to add to you calendar to remind you of the event or just queue it up on Twitch starting July 3rd. As with every year there will be some great speedruns of this event and i'll share the ones I really enjoy. Let me know if you plan on watching and what games you are... Read All

The Entire BioShock Saga Is Coming September 13th!

"Relive the depths of Rapture and sail through Columbia in BioShock: The Collection! Remastered for current-gen, this edition includes all three #BioShock games, complete with all single-player DLC and a never-before-seen video series with commentary from Ken Levine. Available September 13, 2016 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC."

If you haven't jumped into BioShock yet this upcoming collection will be a great time to do so. Whereas the original game didn't sit as well with me as others, I thought BioShock Infinite and both DLC missions were incredible. If you enjoy heady sci-fi games with compelling stories, characters and gameplay or simply want to head back and... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 07/02/2016 at 04:20am

It's also worth noting that, like Skyrim, if you own these on PC already you'll get the remaster for free.

There's a Steam sale going on, what are you waiting for?

Travis Admin wrote on 07/02/2016 at 04:21am

I'll also add, on a more personal note, that I count the original Bioshock as one of my favorite games. In retrospect I don't think Infinite was close to topping it, even though I also count Infinite as one of my favorites.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/02/2016 at 05:52am

> It's also worth noting that, like Skyrim, if you own these on PC already you'll get the remaster for free.

So since I already own BioShock, Infinite and all the DLC i'll get this for free? If so, sounds good to me! I'd like the extra behind the scenes content!

Travis Admin wrote on 07/02/2016 at 01:43pm

Yep! If you want the Minerva's Den DLC for Bioshock 2 you have to have the game and the DLC.

But there's actually no change for Infinite. It's not getting the remaster treatment, it's just being included with the others. It's already shiny enough apparently. So if you have Infinite on PC you already have everything they're shipping for that one.

If you look at the announcement page, the behind-the-scenes stuff is just for the original Bioshock.

https://blog.2k.com/news/bioshock-the-collection-announcement

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/02/2016 at 02:28pm

To clarify, no change for Infinite on the PC, but it is being remastered for Xbox One and PS4. PC is just so powerful!

This is pretty exciting! All the Bioshocks, shiny and snug together. The director's commentary and Museum of Orphaned Concepts look most interesting. I haven't played through Bioshock since I completed it when it came out, and I never played through Bioshock 2, even though it's sitting, sadly, in my Steam library.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/02/2016 at 03:33pm

Yes, I meant specifically in Jon's case, but should have worded that better.

Bioshock 2 is also sitting in my Steam library, with like 2 hours of play time. It's not that it was bad, it just didn't grab me the way the first did. I still owe it a chance I suppose.

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All Of A Sudden, Game/Show Ends

After Game/Show launched I posted quite a few episodes to Cheerful Ghost because I liked the style of the show and what it had to say. Today I watched the latest episode that sort of just let us all know the show was over using a title roll and series of clips. Not that everything that ends needs to wave goodbye, but this doesn't seem like the shows style and I wonder what the story here is?

All that said, Game/Show had a really solid two year run and like many I appreciated it's perspective and what it added to the discussion.

*waves goodbye*

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/02/2016 at 02:34am

I'm probably in the minority (or maybe not, what with the cancellation), but Game/Show wasn't my favorite. LOT's of hyperbole, and I felt like Jamin's arguments were often contrived, to the point of being irrelevant ("Is Halo 5 For Old People?", "Is Jonathan Blow Gaming's Einstein?").

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 07/02/2016 at 03:03am

Oh man, interesting.

I saw this video in my subscriptions, but hadn't watched it yet. I'm not a huge fan either (only really enjoyed a few of the episodes), but it's still a little sad to see it go.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/02/2016 at 03:08am

scrypt: They used hyperbole for sure. My thinking as to why is because hyperbole can often get attention and start a discussion, where something more reasoned may not. It's not my style most of the time, but I can see it's use from time to time.

Once the video was going, did you find the arguments to contain the same kind of hyperbolic themes? It seemed they chilled some, but often the arguments seemed somewhat simple.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/02/2016 at 04:19am

"hyperbole can often get attention and start a discussion"

It's like the old joke about Linux forums. If you go in and explain your problem, you won't get any answers, but if you go in and say "Linux sucks, it can't even do [thing you're trying to do]" then you'll get a ton of explanations and fixes from people defending it.

Hyperbole gets attention and starts discussions for the wrong reason, but it definitely does get attention and start a discussion.

I have no strong opinion on the show though. I liked the first couple episodes and then, for no reason I can immediately convey, I just lost interest.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/02/2016 at 05:31am

I don't know, I feel like the arguments relied on bent facts that only served to reinforce the title of the videos. I lost respect for him when I felt like I had to do the research for him after each show I watched. Not like his arguments stirred me to look deeper into a subject, rather I felt like he kept missing the point, and then missing the facts that would have supported a more grounded topic. In those cases where I bothered to let it push me, I actually learned more in spite of what was presented, not because of it (and that's not a good thing). I almost wish there was an Onion-like satire to Game/Show. That would have been entertaining. However, trying to start seemingly intelligent conversations by catering to people who have no attention span seems like a completely futile and frustrating endeavor. I watch another show called The Know, and they have similar tactics with their headlines (as do most game news sites these days), and it just gets boring. It's like they're not even trying to be creative anymore. Just say something bat-shit crazy, and people will click.

I'm being pretty harsh, and maybe the show wasn't intended for me. I like smart conversation, and topics that run deeper than surface fodder, but I also feel like there are enough interesting things in the gaming world to discuss without having to make things up.

Having said all that, I really do wish Jamin well with his next project, whatever that may be. He has a unique voice, and at the very least I'll be interested to see where he goes from here.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/02/2016 at 05:46am

> Having said all that, I really do wish Jamin well with his next project, whatever that may be. He has a unique voice, and at the very least I'll be interested to see where he goes from here.

Yep, me too. And it was a PBS project so I wonder if we will see more gaming content from them?

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Dolphin 5.0 Swims In The Impressively Murky Seas Of Emulation

If you've ever played a GameCube or Wii game you owned in Dolphin you know it can at times be both very good and at times strange. The upscaling ability of Dolphin on Wii and GameCube games is well worth the price of admission alone as experiencing these classic titles in HD is incredible. For me, my classic hardware sometimes breaks so I try and backup all my games so I can play them on my PC. Recently Dolphin released 5.0 which is a notable milestone in that it optimizes for speed and also makes many games run much better than they did before.

"The long awaited Dolphin 5.0 release is finally here! After nearly a year of bug-hunting and handling the release process,... Read All

The CD Key Grey Market & Cheerful Ghost

Last year Cheerful Ghost published Starship Rubicon and I am really proud of that. Working alongside Wick to get the game launched, promoted and sold has been one of the more enjoyable things I've been part of. When I approached him about publishing his game, I had a fledgling idea of how to approach and in the end I believe we did well by the game and its fans. Together we've learned a lot: firstly, making an Indie game doesn't mean you make big money (because as of now we haven't made very much), and secondly, you need to be aware of what is out there that can potentially harm your game. One such thing that can chip away at the money you can make in the industry is... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 06/29/2016 at 02:17am

Their model is, as you've said, very morally gray at best. However, they definitely get most of their money from money laundering from stolen credit cards. If this was any other kind of medium that dealt with something other than electronic goods, these services would have been shut down a long time ago, I imagine. Lawmakers still just don't know what to do with electronic goods.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/29/2016 at 11:21pm

I'm trying to wrap my head around this one, but I wanted to point out a quick misrepresentation. G2A didn't make $450K in sales of tinyBuilds game keys. The estimation that tinyBuild came up with was that just under $200K in revenue was created, with a percentage of that (somewhere between 10.8 and 30, I can't tell) going to G2A, which they claim would have equated to over $450K if those sales had gone through their site. I think these kinds of factoring are generally flawed, but the fact remains that they had product stolen and resold without seeing fruits of that.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/29/2016 at 11:46pm

Added to that, grey markets aren't illegal or immoral. Associating the problems in G2A's system with grey market activity is confusing the issue.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/30/2016 at 03:32am

> I think these kinds of factoring are generally flawed, but the fact remains that they had product stolen and resold without seeing fruits of that.

Yeah, that's a good point.

> Added to that, grey markets aren't illegal or immoral. Associating the problems in G2A's system with grey market activity is confusing the issue.

Yeah, that makes sense. This article has been through a couple revisions and what it landed on maybe is a bit odd in that way. I do think that G2A and sites like it can potentially serve a legitimate use, for instance a developer could sell the game there if they wanted. That said, that's a far reach from what I am talking about in this article and I used the term Grey market to sort of cover a legit usecase for these sites even though the main use of them isn't.

In the end I think G2A and sites like it should operate more like a pawn shop and require ID up front and maybe do a bit more to make sure things are on the up and up if you are selling more than a handful of keys.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/30/2016 at 04:43am

I find it interesting that you both use the British "grey" instead of the American "gray"

That's off-topic :D

Gray markets definitely aren't illegal by definition, but there's a certain connotation with the term. And G2A's practices certainly support that connotation. It's possible that "gray market" isn't the right term to use here, but I don't know what the right term is. At its best it isn't money laundering with stolen credit cards, but it supports that. At its usual best, it provides ways for people to sell keys that they probably aren't authorized to sell.

And there's a certain point about ownership here as well. It's worth noting that just because you have a key to redeem a game on Steam, that doesn't mean you are allowed to sell it in all cases. Ultimately, with digital goods, you don't own the content, you are licensed the content, and the content owners can make choices that affect your ability to re-sell or do other non-standard things. G2A and its competitors facilitate fudging that concept of ownership.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/02/2016 at 03:09am

> I find it interesting that you both use the British "grey" instead of the American "gray"

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Head Back To Gaming's Past To E3 1996!

Someone posted a video on YouTube that captured 30 minutes of E3 floor footage from 1996. It shows off Nintendo's booth and people playing with the Nintendo 64, Mario Kart and Super Mario World as well as a couple games I don't recognize. I like that this video is free of any commentary and is simply just capturing the 96' E3 show floor, it's a nice change from the massive wall of video commentary we get from these events.

I've Got a GOOD Feeling About This?

Lots of good footage out there now with gameplay from the new DLC pack coming for Star Wars Battlefront, which will focus on the cloud city of Bespin.

Okay. I own Star Wars Battlefront on the PS4. I picked it up on sale for $40, back in January (I think). I'll state, up front, that I really hate what EA is doing with the monetization of DLC for this game, but at the same time I really LOVE the attention to detail that is going into the game. The question becomes, "Is it worth the money?" That is really only something the market can decide. If consumers want what EA is doing with this game, then they will buy it. Plain and simple. To put it in perspective, The Legend... Read All Lots of good footage out there now with gameplay from the new DLC pack coming for Star Wars Battlefront, which will focus on the cloud city of Bespin.

Okay. I own Star Wars Battlefront on the PS4. I picked it up on sale for $40, back in January (I think). I'll state, up front, that I really hate what EA is doing with the monetization of DLC for this game, but at the same time I really LOVE the attention to detail that is going into the game. The question becomes, "Is it worth the money?" That is really only something the market can decide. If consumers want what EA is doing with this game, then they will buy it. Plain and simple. To put it in perspective, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time retailed for $60 when it launched. Accounting for inflation, that cost in today's terms would be close to $88. Granted, Battlefront is more a "work in progress" than a finished title, and for early adopters the total cost comes over $100 for the complete experience. As of this writing, you can purchase the original game from Amazon for as little as $29, with the Season Pass selling for $50. I don't really know why I'm going into cost breakdowns, but the point is this: EA is building an amazing looking (and feeling) Star Wars experience, and the biggest hurdle they've faced, so far, is the idea that they are cheating people by releasing a "partial" game, and then filling in the gaps with DLC. I get it. What gamers have to decide (or maybe have already decided) is whether the cost is worth the experience. The Bespin DLC will be releasing soon. The Outer Rim is already out, and after playing on it during a recent "free weekend," I'll admit, I'm tempted to get the Season Pass now. Soon, we'll have Death Star DLC, and I think that will be the kicker. When you get the kind of quality that EA is putting out, and imagine taking the seat of an X-Wing on a Death Star battle... Seriously, people spend $150 for Collector's Edition sets that come with cheap plastic gimmicks. In an age where we spend $10 a month on various subscription services, I'll be very interested to see if cost will be a factor when a Death Star trench run is on the line.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/27/2016 at 09:16pm

As soon as there's a single player I'll buy it. Like the previous Battlefront games. Not until then, though. I understand that there wasn't a single player campaign because they ran out of time, so maybe one will show up.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/27/2016 at 11:28pm

+1 for single player.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/28/2016 at 05:59am

Oh wait, I'm seeing this now: http://starwars.ea.com/en_AU/starwars/battlefront/features/single-player

How sizable is this? If it's like an hour of solo gameplay I'm not interested but if it's significant I might be.

I'd still be super bummed if the best stuff was locked behind multiplayer.

rettisawesome wrote on 06/29/2016 at 03:12am

The cost is the biggest thing for me as well. More transparency in cases where DLC is a must buy would go a long ways. Luckily I got the game for about 20 bucks. But an extra 50 seems pretty stiff... if only because I know they will do it again next year. And before you know it people have spent 300 bucks on this thing

scrypt Supporter Post Author wrote on 06/29/2016 at 06:59pm

The single player modes include the training missions (which are fairly short), 8 Battle missions (which are basically kill-confirmed death-match type games, with or without friendly bots), and 6 Survival missions (fighting off waves of enemies). Survival missions definitely take the longest to play through, and aside from the tutorials, actually have semblances of story elements, and take place on the largest maps. Individually, probably as long, or longer than campaign missions in Battlefront 2, but less of them. I guess I don't have as big a problem with it, because I find this Battlefront to be a really fun and immersive Star Wars experience. The original Battlefront games were a similar formula, where the campaign basically mimicked what the multiplayer felt like, but I don't remember them being really all that fun. "Story" was all handled through cinematics, and the AI was horrible. The thing that really made Battlefront great, for me at least, was the giant multiplayer battles (also, landing a ship inside of a Star Destroyer, and then proceeding to battle on foot). I feel like this current version more than delivers on that part of it.

Regarding the DLC, it's certainly not a must buy in the sense that the game is broken without it. It's a huge tease, but it's not necessary. This latest iteration feels like DICE is mapping the Star Wars genome, so to speak. They are putting an extreme amount of effort to nail the details, and honestly the results can be pretty breathtaking at times. $40 (or less) is a better price-point than the $60 it launched at, especially with the missing campaign. It looks like EA Motive is heading the sequel project, so if you really can't get behind what DICE is doing, another take will be available probably late next year, which will unlikely require the current version as a base game.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/30/2016 at 03:56am

One of the nice things about games with "long tail DLC" is that you can get in on the action super cheap and the game is supported for a long time. Unless you get a Blizzard game, then it's supported for a long time without DLC. I kind of like that they are continuing on with the base game instead of jumping right into a sequel. One other part that can make this kind of DLC thing nice is if you wait you can get it all for super cheap later. Not sure people will still be playing it, as the magic of these games are in the people playing it, but waiting often nets a good result.

I'm with your scrypt, this DLC isn't needed but it seems so great it's hard to consider a world where you love this game, play it all the time and don't pick this up. NO CLOUD CITY? I don't want to live in that world.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/30/2016 at 03:59am

Another thing worth considering is EA has a subscription service that looks pretty good. Currently it doesn't have Star Wars Battlefront but at some point it may.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/origin-access

I like this model because if you paid a monthly at some point maybe it could include all this EA DLC content for a sort of premium membership. If you were a big EA fan all your gaming would be taken care of and you would have to think much about it, which could be nice for some.

So far they have a fairly hefty catalog of titles and it's expanding all the time. I wonder what other companies will join here? Well besides Nintendo...

Travis Admin wrote on 06/30/2016 at 04:45am

> "Currently it doesn't have Star Wars Battlefront but at some point it may."

Huh. I could have sworn it did at one point. That may have been wishful thinking :D

But yeah I've considered paying for the vault. $5 a month and you can play a lot of great titles, and you get a constant 10% discount as well. So, if you buy a single $60 game and get $6 off, you've paid for a month of it.

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Hidden Gems of E3 - Bound

I know we don't have many PS4 owners here (apparently), and we don't super-love exclusive titles. However, if you DO own a PS4, and are looking for something...familiar, but very different, look at what developer Plastic is doing with their latest game, Bound. A kind-of-platformer/not-game, the experience in Bound seems to be centered around deep story development and mystery. The cool thing, though, is that the playable character movements are enacted in a balletic style. The only games that come to mind that execute player movement in the form of dance is P.N. 03 or Space Channel 5, to some degree (I'm sure there has to be others. Post them below if you think of... Read All

Hidden Gems of E3 - Battle Chasers: Nightwar

Funded in October 2015 on Kickstarter with over $850K in support, Battle Chasers: Nightwar is making beautiful, beautiful progress. This is the kind of game that should be getting a lot more attention than it is. Classic JRPG styled play set in the fantasy world of the Battle Chasers universe. Joe Madureira (renowned comic artist and creator of the Battle Chasers comics) and founding members of Vigil Games (responsible for the Darksiders series) joined to create a new studio, Airship Syndicate, located in Austin, TX. Gameplay was demoed at E3, showing off dungeon movement and the core combat system, which seems pretty straightforward turn-based play. That polish,... Read All

The Steam Summer Picnic Sale is Live!

And this is what we're seeing for the most part!

It always happens like this for the first few hours, so it's best to give it a while.

This time around they've brought back the trading cards as a reward for going through your queue. Much like the most recent sales, every game that will be on sale is already on sale, for as low as it will go. There's no need to wait until the end to see if the game you want will get cheaper.

Is there anything you've been wanting to snag?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/23/2016 at 06:17pm

If only I could see what is for sale. :)

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/23/2016 at 07:53pm

I picked up Solus Project + The Ball and Vanishing Realms

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/23/2016 at 08:44pm

Thanks for the notification. I was wondering when it was going to start. I really don't know what to buy, I'm pretty much out of ideas.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/23/2016 at 09:33pm

For these summer sales, I generally don't pick up much in the way of games, but I always like to see what the steam-wide contest is. I'll have to check it out tonight!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/24/2016 at 12:43am

You can get 3 cards a day by going through your Discovery Queue, a very easy accomplishment!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 06/24/2016 at 03:08am

Yeah, that's also been the same the past couple times. Last time they had the semi-alternate-reality game going, but I don't see any evidence of that this time.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 06/24/2016 at 03:12am

The theory last time was that people were looking so hard for an ARG that they added in the ARG late in the sale to placate people. Apparently the theory for this sale is that they've hidden the ARG so well that nobody has found it yet. Whatyagonnado?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/24/2016 at 04:04am

What's an ARG?

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/24/2016 at 04:23am

Stands for Alternate Reality Game. Basically it's a game that's sort of hidden people try and win by figuring out strange clues.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/24/2016 at 04:52pm

As to what games I think I'll get?

Hotline Miami 2 and Wolfenstein Old Blood. Both are great prices and I've wanted to play them both for some time.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/25/2016 at 04:01am

Having now played the new Doom and loving it, I'm curious about the new Wolfenstein games. Also, now that I've found some Surge (soda), I'm tempted to play the old Quake games again. I'm not really into PVP stuff, so the new Quake doesn't really interest me.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/26/2016 at 09:53pm

New Woofenstien is definitely worth getting!

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