Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

It's A Tim Schafer Adventure Game!

Jack and Rich review the latest Tim Schafer Adventure Game Broken Age and conclude that it is indeed a Tim Schafer Adventure Game. Rich seemed to have enjoyed while he points out that Jack may not be a fan of the Adventure Game genre. Jack also brings up something I thought was really interesting in that people may have jumped aboard the Double Find Adventure Kickstarter hype train and may not have had a good understanding of what an Adventure Game really is.

WildStar MMO Going Free To Play in Fall

It seems the way of the average MMO. Launch to acclaim and player applause and over time the audience changes. The MMO market is really competitive and each game that comes out is inevitably compared to the still reigning champion, World of Warcraft. As the MMO continues through it's lifecycle most adopt a free to play model and WildStar is the latest MMO that will launch free to play in the fall.

A few details from the WildStar F2P FAQ:

"“Free-to-Play” means that anyone can download the game and play without spending any money to buy WildStar or committing to a required subscription fee.

Is the game really free?

Players can acquire the game, create an account, login and... Read All

Why Can't We Get The Mario Theme Out Of Our Heads?

In this latest Game/Show video Jamin asks why Mario's theme is so gosh darn catchy. He discussed the limitations of the early NES and modern music and what properties are more ear pleasing that others.

Mario's theme is catchy but nothing brings me back to a nostalgic adventure trip like hearing the music from NES Zelda.

"The Mario theme song is HARDWIRED into our brains. It's SO CATCHY! You absentmindedly hum the first six notes in your head when you’re doing laundry, or even find yourself hearing echoes of it in the modern music of today. What was it about your experience with games like Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Tetris that made their music so memorable? The... Read All

Get your WARBAND on!

This game is fun. I've played 144 hours of it! You start the game by answering questions about your background which influences how and where you start the game. You can do little quests for people so you get a little starting cash and start adding in the lowest rank soldiers from small towns (for free). Then you do some fighting and level up and level your hired band up to higher classes. You have skills to level up and equipment to upgrade. There's also hero type units that you can obtain and they gain levels just like you do and you get to control their equipment and skills.

Then there's politics kinda...there's different nations at war and you can help the rulers... Read All

What a Gorilla's Sexual Maturity Can Tell Us About Mario

Nintendo's star character Mario has been in over 70 games. 70 GAMES!!! Which leads to the question, does the Super Mario series have a discernible timeline? Or are Mario games, like many have been led to believe, a random assortment of games with no attention paid to continuity. While this may ultimately be true, there ARE details in the Super Mario games that allow them to be pieced into a timeline order...and the implications of that are SHOCKING!

The blood line of Mario Bros is fully mapped out finally! Mario, Cranky Kong, Pauline, Jumpman... they all play a part in the detective work here!

Game Theory is one of my favorite YouTube channels. I recommend just about... Read All

Terraria's 1.3 update will release June 30!

Re-Logic dropped a new teaser video today, along with some very important information: Terraria's 1.3 update will be released on June 30! Two new music tracks are also teased in the video, and some amazing background images for the underworld.

More discussion is going on at the official forums:

http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/a-short-time-from-now-in-a-minecart-not-too-far-away.18830/

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/29/2015 at 02:31am

How dare you steal my news! Ha! Hahahaha, I'm just kidding. I thought about posting it, but obviously didn't. It's so small and yet the news is huge. I've been waiting for this since November and I am tired of waiting. I'm glad they finally gave us a date, even if it is still a month away.

I'm definitely looking forward to all of the changes that we're aware of, those things alone are going to be awesome, but I bet there may still be some things we may not be aware of yet. At least, at the moment, I don't think we know what achievements have been created.

Anyway, Travis, I like how in the latest Roundtable you said you buy the game when it's on sale so that you can give it to others. That's really cool. You gave me the PC copy that I have, but I've since bought the console and mobile versions as well (one of each).

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/29/2015 at 04:12pm

I didn't buy the console version, but played the demo. Honestly if I'm home and want to play Terraria, there's no reason not to play it on my computer. Mobile I did buy, but it's kinda clunky. For the kind of controls they need for that game it's good, but it just isn't as satisfying as playing it on PC. So I guess I'm a purist :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/29/2015 at 04:49pm

I didn't think it the mobile version controls were bad, I think I just got used to them. Vinny managed to beat the Wall of Flesh and I think some hardmode bosses as well on it. I like how you can zoom in and use your finger, also having the grid radius is kind of helpful, too. It seems you can only play via wireless network with friends that are nearby. My complaint with the mobile version is that the world is way too small and you can't change it. I did fight Lepus, which was difficult because it kept spawning more copies.

The PS3 controls take some getting used to, too. It also seems to have some exclusive content. You can also play two-player split-screen.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/30/2015 at 01:03am

I hope this means they release the Linux and Mac ports of the game too, that would be very cool.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 05/30/2015 at 05:28am

From what I've read, those are coming about a month later.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/31/2015 at 12:08am

Makes sense. Get out the big update, bug fix then the ports later.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/01/2015 at 01:40am

Ok, Travis, I have a big request for the next Terraria server. I want the Cheerful Ghost house to be bigger, much bigger than it has been. I always build a huge place, enough to house all NPCs that can move in. I also always add more space to even the place out and for storing things like chests, statues, and banners. I also have at least one room for my crafting area. I do this on my single player worlds and it's something I'd like to see on the next server world.

The reason i say this is because I remember the last (and first-for-me) time we played on a server, there was a small CG house with a few chests in it. I kept storing items there so that anyone could take freely. The problem with that was that the space was very limited, I needed more chests! Perhaps I should have stored more items in my own place, but I liked having those community chests and being able to use them with others.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 06/01/2015 at 04:06am

Well, I think about 98% of the items in those chests were from you. :) In the past that's been more than enough to store our shared storage. Not to be critical, but I just stopped using those chests altogether since it was full of your stuff. Our use of them in the past was for things that we already had one of, or overflow boss items, things like that. It makes them way more useful that way if it isn't just nearly everything you find. That's one man's opinion though.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/01/2015 at 04:09pm

I think making the default CG bigger makes sense. Maybe we could make it small initially and them build up adding chests as we need?

That's what I typically do with my house, I just go up for more space.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/16/2015 at 09:20pm

When should we create an event for this? Is it going to be our GotMC for July? Still, an event could be created and edited at any time.

Also, should we try out the new multiplayer features using Steam or get a hosted server? Perhaps we could try the new features and then get a server if that doesn't work out as well for us.

We need some more people in this conversation.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 06/16/2015 at 10:19pm

Too early to plan since we don't know how the steam stuff will work or when TShock will update. Don't worry, it will happen.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/16/2015 at 10:37pm

That's quite true, Travis, I hadn't really thought about when TShock would update. I wonder how long that will take.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/18/2015 at 02:43am

Yeah, it will happen. Not sure about ON launch day, but we should get it going not too soon after that.

That said, the next version will handle Steam multiplayer with friends. Maybe a bit closer to the drop we could set an event and run a new Steam multiplayer map and then turn that into the server. I don't need TShock on day one or... ever, I don't mind doing it the old fashioned way

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/21/2015 at 04:10am

9 days, isn't it amazing? It feels like we've waited oh so terribly long for this update. I seriously doubt any of us will be at all disappointed. But, yes, I'm still counting down the days, anyone else doing the same?

The only things I can really think of that I'd like to see in Terraria seem to me like things that could perhaps be possible, but I doubt they'll happen. I'd like to see a big world containing both the Crimson and Corruption. It'd be cool if they even created a new extra large world size for this. It would also be very cool if they could get the world to wrap, like it does in Starbound.

The thing about the latest update (pre-1.3) is that I've only played it once. It was that time with our last server. So, fishing and Duke Fishron remind me of that time. I miss it! I miss fishing in the game and joining some of you guys in the game. It was very fun and I can't wait until we get started again with the new update.

So, is there anything (like I mentioned) that you'd like to see? What are you most looking forward to with 1.3? As for me, I'm just looking forward to pretty much all of the new stuff. I can't quite wrap my head around the Portal gun. I'm not sure how it will work and how effective it will be, but I'm guessing I'll be surprised.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 06/21/2015 at 04:23am

World wrapping wouldn't work with how they have the biomes set up-- ocean is always at the world ends, for example. I would like to see some way of doing the corruption and crimson bosses, whether or not both biomes are present. Eater of Worlds is one of my favorite bosses.

Speaking of which, you guys cool with re-rolling until we get corruption? Since we did crimson last time.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/21/2015 at 05:10am

It seems as though they could connect the oceans. I'm not sure how it is technically on their side, if that is a possibility. I wonder if they've thought of it or tried it.

What you suggest with the bosses sounds like a good idea. I'm not really sure how that would happen though. To summon many of the bosses, you need materials from that bosses's biome. If the biome isn't there, then you don't really have much to craft something. Although, it would be cool if perhaps they introduced something that was biome-neutral that could be used.

I was kind of disappointed that we got Crimson on the first server I played because the grand majority of my PC experience with Terraria has been pretty much exclusively Crimson. There may have been a couple of times I created a world that had the Corruption instead, but I barely played those worlds. However, that experience is the opposite with the mobile version of the game. With that version, I've only gotten Corruption worlds.

It kind of sucks that you can only get one of the two in one world, but it also gives you a reason to create another world to explore. It'd be cool, too, if some how the Portal Gun could transfer you to another world so you could go back and forth between Corruption and Crimson.

Anyway, I'm cool with "re-rolling until we get corruption." There are only a few disadvantages to that, though. First, there's the lesser chance of getting Vampire Knives, which we could steal from another world. Granted, there's a chance that chest will be there even on a Corruption world. Also, can we still make a Golden Shower in Corruption? I think one of the main ingredients (ichor) comes from a Crimson monster. The other drawback is the pickaxe. I think I read recently that the Crimson's pickaxe is better than the Corruption's, though I wouldn't consider that a significant setback.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/21/2015 at 09:55pm

"Speaking of which, you guys cool with re-rolling until we get corruption? Since we did crimson last time."

Sure. But I prefer Crimson, it's easier to farm vertibre than the Corruption stuff and I like the armor and weapon set visually.

As to wanting it to drop today, I am with you Greg!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/21/2015 at 10:52pm

We could put it up to a vote when we create the event and have some other players. Jon, are you actually going to play with us this time? Last time you just popped in briefly, you were missed. I'm sure Tim will join us again, but I'm wondering if we can grab some more people. Scrypt seems like a Terraria-virgin, so I wonder if we could some how get him hooked. Hehehe. Anyway, I think it'll be cool, I can't wait!

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/22/2015 at 02:51am

Greg: it's my intention to but with Starship Rubicon releasing on Steam soon and other life stuff, I might not play as much as I'd like.

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Cheerful Ghost Roundtable: S3 E3 - Free To Slay

In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we talk about what we've been playing, the latest Humble Nintendie Bundle & the latest craze with free to play games. In this episode you can find out how much our lifetime spend is on free to play games and if we regret any money we've put into them. You're welcome internet!

Rust - Representing Race in Games - Extra Credits

Rust assigns players a skin color on character creation, then ties it to their Steam account so they can never change it. This game design decision creates diversity in the player base and has forced many players to play as characters of an ethnicity different from their own. Since the game does not censor players' language, many of these players are hearing themselves called racial insults for the first time. While uncomfortable, this experience also pushes players who might normally be oblivious to those issues (or even participate in them) to consider things from a different perspective.

I find this super interesting. I don't know if I am actually interested in the... Read All

Welcome to Exile

Path of Exile has been around for quite awhile. If you were in the closed beta it has been around now since 2012. If there is one thing that has always held players back from enjoying this game as a hardcore ARPG experience. It is that of desync.

Desync is when the information you send to the server is not the same as the information your client is reading. So you may walk around a rock to the left on your screen. The server says you walked around it to the right. Now you teleport back to before the rock so that the server can re-sync you to the information the server had on your last known location.

Well I recently received a beta key to their newest and biggest... Read All

Blizzard Releases New Hanzo Footage For Overwatch

Overwatch is a upcoming game by Blizzard that is a FPS first for the studio. With each new gameplay footage drop the game looks like a really fun entry into the team shooter space. Taking nods from Team Fortress and Unreal Tournament, Overwatch is a game in a dystopian far future that doesn't bring the gritty dark tone with it. It's also an entirely new set of IP so nothing from the Diablo, Warcraft or Starcraft universes here.

The character shown in this gameplay reveal is Hanzo a parkour assassin that can climb walls and pick off other heroes with his bow. Whereas I don't typically enjoy playing heroes like Hanzo, the overall game mechanics seem interesting to try... Read All