Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Get Caught Up On Star Wars By Watching Them All At Once

Many Star Wars fans are marathoning all the Star Wars films before they see The Force Awakens. Seriously, I sort of respect that sort of thing but it doesn't really work for me. In days past i'd do that and then go see the new film with the fresh thoughts of the old ones in my mind. Often it creates a very hard situation where since the thought of the other films are so fresh, I compare it more than I would if some time has past since my last viewing. That said, if you can marathon films and enjoy the new ones, more power to you and if you want to do it faster than ever check out the fan edit above of all 6 Star Wars films at the same time.

Ark: Survival Evolved Available for XBox One

I thought I'd share the news with you that Ark: Survival Evolved is now available for the XBox One. The game is still in development and I've been following it very closely. I don't have an XBox One, but I've been playing this game on my PC since the summer, at least. I think it's a great game and it's certainly very popular. It also has issues which need to be addressed. Right now, I'm waiting for optimization updates. Unfortunately, the PC version doesn't run very well unless you have an extremely high-end GPU like a Titan. I only have a GTX 690 and I don't believe the game takes full advantage of my dual-GPU card. I can get the game to run well by using a command... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 12/17/2015 at 09:35pm

Your Xbox link appears broken.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 12/17/2015 at 09:38pm

It wasn't when I posted, but it apparently is broken now. I just Googled "Ark Survival Evolved XBox" and found that link on the XBox Store. I did it again and yes, the link is apparently broken now.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/17/2015 at 09:42pm

Yeah I tried searching on Xbox.com and couldn't find any mention of it. Apparently they've scrubbed it from the site.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 12/17/2015 at 09:53pm

I did, too, before posting my comment. It's odd, but I haven't seen any news about the game since I posted this. Do you have an XBox One?

Travis Admin wrote on 12/17/2015 at 10:10pm

Nah, I have none of the current gen consoles.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 12/17/2015 at 10:12pm

That's what I thought. I just have the Wii U.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 12/18/2015 at 04:35am

The link is working again, it seems.

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Or We Can Keep It In The Box!

Star Wars week continues with this hilarious new Saturday Night Live short. They really capture the disparity between kids and nerdy adult toy collectors. I really want to keep all my awesome stuff behind glass too because dammit, these toys are not for playing with!

An Inside Look At Hardware Manufacturing At Valve - Take a Peek at Valve's Robot Factory

"When we first started designing hardware at Valve, we decided we wanted to try and do the manufacturing as well. To achieve our goal of a flexible controller, we felt it was important to have a similar amount of flexibility in our manufacturing process, and that meant looking into automated assembly lines. It turns out that most consumer hardware of this kind still has humans involved in stages throughout manufacturing, but we kind of went overboard, and built one of the largest fully automated assembly lines in the US. Our film crew recently put together a video of that assembly line, showcasing exactly why robots are awesome."

As more manufacturing comes back to the... Read All

The Story, Finally Solved?

I've never actually played any of the Five Nights at Freddy's games, but it's been fun watching MatPat trying to dissect the story as the games have come out. He finally believes he has the story finally solved.

The final video (the main one for this post) is the final theory, and is good on it's own, but it was also a fun journey watching MatPat and the Game Theorists try and figure the games out as they came out, so I'd recommend watching the whole playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOl4b517qn8jl4Lw8H8cDrDkGwf1FtC7I

And of course, now that the story is "solved," there's a new image at http://scottgames.com/ that hints at more on 12/22/15 lol.

60 Minutes Segment on John Williams New Force Awakens Music

This 60 minutes inside look features John Williams scoring the new Force Awakens opening scene. It also features and interview with JJ as well as an all new never before seen scene with BB8 and Rey. It's a scene from the film and doesn't spoil anything, but skip over this entire video if you want to avoid seeing parts of the film beforehand. The tone and feel of the shot is 100% Star Wars and if the whole movie is like this, we are all in for a good time!

Star Wars Week Kicks Off With Jack & Rich Reviewing Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars The Force Awakens releases this week and like many I have had my tickets pre-ordered for a few months now. Thursday can't come soon enough but to keep us all in the mood until we see it, I'll be posting about Star Wars and Star Wars in gaming all week. So ignight your lightsabers and count those midichloreans because this Falcon has a new hyperdrive!

Jack and Rich reviewed EA's latest Star Wars Battlefront and I have to say that I entirely agree with how they look at the game. It's pretty. Very pretty and the music and sound effects are great. The shooting is also good but at the end of the day it didn't really do much for me. EA put forward a solid effort... Read All

Shadow Complex Remastered is FREE for the holidays!

Shadow Complex, released back in August of 2009 for the XBox 360, has been remastered for it's re-release on modern consoles, and you can get it for free on PC for the next few weeks.

And you should. This is the best Metroidvania game I've played that isn't Metroid or Castlevania, and it's written by Orson Scott Card.

https://www.epicgames.com/shadowcomplex/

Winter Veil Comes To Everyones Favorite Blizzard Cash Creation Engine

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/gallery/KOYUKLN4X91M1449535529201.jpg

"Oh the weather outside is frightful,

but the Inn is so delightful.

With our decks all good to go,

Play Hearthstone! Play Hearthstone! Play Hearthstone!"

It's nice to see Blizzard getting in the holiday spirit with Hearthstone. Then again, it's not too hard getting excited for something that makes more money than Donald Trump. To celebrate Winter Veil Blizzard is replacing the standard Hero greeting with a special Winter Veil line as well as decorating the boards with a nice festive theme. They are teasing more to come, which might take the form of a fun Tavern Brawl or ... possibly ... some free stuff? If Winter Veil Claus brings us all a free pack or two that would... Read All

JaBo wrote on 12/11/2015 at 04:48am

So, one thing I noticed is that there's 10 extra packs when you buy 40, so it's $50 for 50. I did that just now. I pulled 8 cards I didn't have yet lol. 7 were golden versions, 1 legendary I didn't have (I did pull a 2nd ragnaros). Then I disenchanted the rest and gained over 3200 dust so I crafted two more legendary cards.... all in all, can't complain.

I finished the heroic mode today and gained the new card back (and the rest of the cards). I haven't played yet with these weeks cards, but so far, I like Ethereal Conjurer, Entomb, Jeweled Scarab, pretty much any discover card is awesome and good for value. The spider, the mech, all card advantage. Thinking of crafting gold versions of some of them (then they give "discover" gold cards).

If anyone needs tips on the boss fights, I'd be happy to share my tactics.

Good expansion

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/11/2015 at 08:33pm

> so I crafted two more legendary cards.... all in all, can't complain.

What cards?

Entombed Spider is great and works really well in Hunter beast deck. It added so much to it already. That and Glaivezooka.

Was talking to a friend and we both think this will be the new model for Hearthstone going forward. A yearly expansion + adventure in that order plus anything new they plan on adding, not sure what that would be though

JaBo wrote on 12/14/2015 at 05:08pm

Don't remember exactly which two, I have a few new ones I've crafted lately. I got the 2 good mage ones (I already had pulled the flame tank thing), and the dragon that gives +5 spell damage.

I'm kinda running out of legionaries to care about. I do have epics I need though. I had only pulled 2 giants, so I'm working on getting those now. Frost Giant seems decent in a control deck. In priest or warrior I easily use my ability over 10 times, so those would be 0 cost 8/8s w/o me having to be at 10 life, or having cards in hand, or full board... I may try them out.

This should be public vieable, but here's my collection: http://www.hearthpwn.com/members/Nardraug/collection

Not sure what my legendary I want next... I may just keep grabbing some epics. I'm tempted to also craft some golden cards I use a lot.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/14/2015 at 06:30pm

It seems to require a login to see it.

JaBo wrote on 12/14/2015 at 06:44pm

Hmm, well HearthPwn is a really great site to read up on decks/ideas/cards. I haven'r used it too much, but it's cool for comparing your decks vs others similar to see what others try (and see how popular they are with the community). You can search for decks filtering down to certain card combos.

JaBo wrote on 12/14/2015 at 06:50pm

It also shows you how much dust is needed for the deck.

Like this dragon priest deck, it costs over 10k dust. http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/394674-loe-shadow-reno-dragons
But it tells me I only need 1600 to complete it based on my collection. (missing one legendary for it)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/15/2015 at 06:13pm

Nice, i'll sign up for an account then.

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My Spoiler-Free Experience with Fallout 4

Azurephile gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Azurephile gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

My experience included:

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point allocation uncertainty

Limited ammo and use of melee weapons

Crafting, settlement building, and looting everything

Realizing it’s not necessary to give companions Stimpaks

Radiant quests

Factions and having to choose sides

Issue/bug with one mission

Available choices in how to go about a quest and dialogue

Starting a new game to choose a different path

Pre-loading: I was aware of Fallout 4 about the time when Bethesda showed it off at E3. I liked what they showed. Since I enjoyed Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I was sure I'd enjoy 4, although I didn't get too excited about it. I did finally pre-order the game on Steam, but it... Read All My experience included:

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point allocation uncertainty

Limited ammo and use of melee weapons

Crafting, settlement building, and looting everything

Realizing it’s not necessary to give companions Stimpaks

Radiant quests

Factions and having to choose sides

Issue/bug with one mission

Available choices in how to go about a quest and dialogue

Starting a new game to choose a different path

Pre-loading: I was aware of Fallout 4 about the time when Bethesda showed it off at E3. I liked what they showed. Since I enjoyed Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I was sure I'd enjoy 4, although I didn't get too excited about it. I did finally pre-order the game on Steam, but it wasn't until launch day or hours before that I realized it was ready for “pre-loading.” It took me a few hours to get it downloaded and installed, but once it was ready, I jumped in.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. allocation: My beginning with it was full of anxiety. I had no idea how I wanted to allocate my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points at the beginning. So, I decided to even them all out. I actually restarted my game quite a few times. One of the reasons was because it seemed too difficult for my taste. Luckily, Travis brought it to my attention that you can change the game's difficulty level (at any time) under the game's options, something I overlooked. I also decided to max out my Strength stat because I was looting everything and getting encumbered. Then, I found the perk that increases your carrying capacity. I also learned that companions have a limited amount of weight they can carry.

I also felt that ammo was too limited. So, I ended up trying to kill almost everything with a melee weapon. Speaking of weapons, I was also overwhelmed with how many are in the game, I wasn't sure which pistols or rifles to carry around. I ended up carrying around many more than I actually used. I also didn't even try to mod them. I only modded my armor a couple of times to help me carry more weight. The only other kind of crafting that I did was giving a few settlements things they needed like defense turrets and repairing my Power Armor when needed. I also did a lot of cooking. I ended up mostly relying on those items to restore my health. Travis helped me realize that even though you can use Stimpaks on your companions, you probably should save them for yourself. It doesn't seem as though companions can die, but they can become helpless during battle if they take too much damage, unless you give them a Stimpak.

Radiant quests: Travis also helped me realize that the game's quests are very much like Skyrim, that is many of them are “radiant” or, in other words, never-ending. So, I ended up searching on Google to find out which quests were radiant and I ignored them, because I got tired of doing them after a while. I did run into some non-radiant side quests. I was trying to focus on them while ignoring the main quest line. Eventually, I decided to just go for it.

This was about when the game started to focus more on factions. Siding with different factions helps you gain allies, but it also creates enemies. This intensified later because I found out that two factions wanted the same thing from one location and the game forces you to decide which side to take. So you were given a choice as to go on to the mission or inform the other side. If you use the transportation provided by either side it will tell you that you will become an enemy of the other.

The only major technical issue I had with the game was when I got lost on a particular mission. I took an elevator back to the top of a building, because the game had me going around in circles. When I got to the top, the screen was totally black after it loaded that area. A few seconds later, I could see the world around me, but I fell to my death when I tried to move. So, I had to revert to a previous save which cost me a few hours of game play. In the end, I realized that I was supposed to be with someone on that mission, someone who wasn't there the first time I tried. I also forced this person to follow me by coaxing them into an elevator by moving in front of them, because I wasn't sure if the person would follow me to a lower floor.

Choices: I noticed other instances in which the game gave you the option of how to handle a situation, which could turn out in your favor or against you. During one in particular, I chose a path that didn't end very well, so I tried it again another way, which gave me a good result. Another mission started off badly if I didn't successfully convince another faction of my good intentions. A little later in the mission, I had to try to convince someone to join me, which failed every time until I decided to suit up in some clothing that increased my Charisma stat.

Eventually I became more comfortable with the game and how I was progressing as a player. After a while, I stopped looting everything, for instance. In conclusion, I think the game is good. I definitely recommend it for anyone who's played even a little bit of Fallout 3 and/or New Vegas and enjoyed it. In the end, the game forces you to choose sides, which can be a tough decision, but I think that just adds to the game's replay value.

I know I did not discover every place and I'm sure there's plenty that I missed, but I felt like I “finished” the game. However, since I picked one side and went with it, I decided to start a new game so I could play a bit differently and go along with the other side. One of the other main differences in this new game play is that I maxed out my Intelligence stat right away so I could get the most EXP possible right away. I think that will help me out greatly with leveling up and selecting the perks I want.