Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Standed Deep Overview

Overview

Still in Early Access as of 11/2019

Crafting and survival

Ship wrecks and other islands to explore

RPG elements

*Note*As the game is *still* in Early Access in 11/2019, some of this content may have changed.

Intro: Stranded Deep is an Early Access archipelago sandbox survival adventure game with RPG elements. If you've ever seen the movie Cast Away, then you'll be familiar with the story of Stranded Deep. At the beginning, the game gives you a very brief crafting tutorial by telling you how to make a flaming martini. Once you go back to your seat, the plane you are on suddenly begins to crash into the ocean. You must swim your way out and onto the ocean's... Read All

Hotline Miami 2 Drops March 10th

The release date of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number will be March 10th. I've been waiting for this since I heard the news drop that we were getting a level editor out of PAX East last year. The above review video is of the first three levels of the game and they look like everything I loved about the original with some new goodness tossed in. I still head back to Hotline Miami and have a blast so the included difficultly modes seem like a welcome addition.

Mark your gaming calendars as Dennation Games will release Hotline Miami 2 on PC, Mac and Linux at launch on March 10th.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/274170/

Human Beings Make Games And That Process Is Hard

As I travel the expanse of the information superhighway I read many words and see lots of things. Some of it incredible, some meh and occasionally things too dastardly to express with casual words. I took part in a Double Fine Bundle that included funding Broken Age to get access to documentaries of it's creation and development. As part of that I get emails about the games progress from Double Fine and the most recent video(shared above) I thought was worth sharing.

Tim Schafer industry legend and proprietor of great hair mentions that Broken Age part two is in beta and nearing release. This is great news as I wanted to wait till the entire game was released before I... Read All As I travel the expanse of the information superhighway I read many words and see lots of things. Some of it incredible, some meh and occasionally things too dastardly to express with casual words. I took part in a Double Fine Bundle that included funding Broken Age to get access to documentaries of it's creation and development. As part of that I get emails about the games progress from Double Fine and the most recent video(shared above) I thought was worth sharing.

Tim Schafer industry legend and proprietor of great hair mentions that Broken Age part two is in beta and nearing release. This is great news as I wanted to wait till the entire game was released before I dove in. To the end of the video he talks about something that recently happened with Peter Molyneux and Godus, a Kickstarted game. Essentially Godus is in some form of development limbo and hasn't lived up to some fans expectations. I don't want to re-litigate the drama here, but suffice it to say people didn't respond well to the situation.

In the video Tim states "The last thing i'd like to do is send our support to our friend and fellow developer Peter Molyneux. In the last few weeks we've seen some extremely rough treatment of Peter on the Internet and in the games press and I think that it's unfortunate and unfair and I don't think that it's healthy. Obviously things did not go as expected with his game and because of that people are making some nasty accusations of Peter and I can really relate to that believe it or not. I'm not saying that developers like Peter and I shouldn't be responsible and shouldn't be accountable to deadlines I'm just saying the reaction to recent events and the tone is really way out of proportion to the seriousness of the events themselves. Out of the many goals of this documentary that we are making(Broken Age) is to show actual game development and to show that the developers are human beings. I think it's clear that the problems that Peter is having are not unique to him and in fact they happen to most projects. If we stay transparent and keep involving players in our development that more and more people will start to see the process and how games are made and the effort involved and how game development goes the way it does. Knowing what goes into the games they play I think actually players will enjoy playing them even more."

I think Tim makes a very rational point which seems to fly in the face of our reactive and hostile online culture and this isn't something new to me as we talked about this in the second episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable titled "The Internet Hate Factory."

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1527/cg-roundtable-ep-2-the-internet-hate-factory

I watched the message from Tim the same day I read an article by Anthony Burch, the writer of Borderlands 2. Anthonys article is titled "Five Things I Didn’t Get About Making Video Games (Until I Did It)." It's a interesting article outlining his start as a writer of often negative articles about games. He seems to regret his often hyperbolic tone as his experience with making Borderlands 2 showed him how hard the process is. Increased knowledge of things often allow people an increased understanding and I appreciate Burchs article as it shows how someone can build some empathy by being an integral part of the creative process.

http://kotaku.com/five-things-i-didn-t-get-about-making-video-games-unti-1687510871

I am not saying I haven't been disappointed by games i've Kickstarted or purchased. It's just that at the end of the day there is a human being on the other end that often just wants to make the best thing they can. When considering a fixed budget and time many games slip in quality and promised features. Whereas this does bother me, I try not to let it eat at my soul such that I need to reflect that pain at someone else. As someone that has stepped in the game publishing and soon development process I can say it's a challenging prospect and we try our best.

That said, if developers create things you don't like, don't buy them. If a studio produces things you don't find fun, stop pre-ordering them. It seems that the video game industry is going the route of digital downloads, which is very convenient but doesn't allow us to return the game if it is terrible. This isn't optimal and as i've considered the subject of video game refunds I can't think of a system that would work to please everyone. Some people want to return a game they've sunk 300 hours in, which I don't understand at all. I can understand an immediate return if the game crashes or is immediately terrible but when some games are 8 hours should you be allowed to return a game after you completed it in a day? That said, I try to stick to purchasing games from developers I trust and when something new comes down the pike, I often wait till I hear from my friends about it. That means that you don't always have the latest and greatest game, but it also means you can buy really great stuff.

I don't think this issue will be solved overnight but I've adopted some strategies to keep myself happy with the games I buy(no early access, no pre-orders from unknown developers, etc). As gaming continues on it will offer us even more ways to buy games and it will be up to us to make the right purchases. And when things go south we should turn on the Internet Hate Factory, that's really not the kind of world we should want to live in.

Fan Game Mother 4 On Track For June Release

As a big fan of Earthbound I have been really excited for Mother 4. Since Nintendo doesn't seem interested in making a new Mother game, fans took it on themselves to work on something new. The Mother 4 team has been busily working on the game and last year mentioned a 2015 release date. Today they dropped a new trailer and a tentative release date of June with the new trailer game footage. I like how similar the feel is to Earthbound while proving a more modern take on the classic pixel art.

Oh and Mother 4 will release for free on PC, Mac and Linux.

"Mother 4 follows the journey of three kids and the leader of a biker gang. With dark rumors of "Modern Men" running... Read All

GTAV for PC delayed again to April 15

Unfortunately, GTAV has gotten delayed again for PC players. April 15 is the new date. From Rockstar:

"Our apologies to PC gamers worldwide who have been counting down the days until the launch of the game, but a bit more time is needed to ensure that the game is as polished as possible, and to make certain that both Heists and the GTA Online experience are ready to roll out on day one for PC. As a gesture of thanks for your understanding, we will grant anyone who has pre-ordered the game an additional $200,000 in-game cash for use in GTA Online."

I'm glad they're delaying it, if not delaying it means that we get a buggy game.

In better news, online heists are hitting... Read All

Timogorgon Member wrote on 02/24/2015 at 11:34pm

Considering how many high profile games have been launched with game breaking bugs in the last year, yeah, take all the time you need Rockstar.

That said, I'm really excited to see heists are finally coming! If anyone on PS3 needs help getting geared up/ready for heists, I'd gladly meet up with you to run through some missions/jobs/races/whatever for fun and profit.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/25/2015 at 01:13am

Oddly enough, I don't feel disappointed. I remember how eager I was to get the game on the PS3 and if it kept getting delayed like this, I would have been disappointed. However, I still have it, so if I wanted to play it right now I could. Instead, I've been playing a handful of different games lately, therefore I see this news as giving me more time to play them. That includes the PC version of San Andreas, which I got by pre-ordering the PC version of GTAV. Since I pre-ordered and they're giving me even more in-game cash, I'm going to be rich!!!! One other thing I like about this news (as opposed to other games I'm waiting to get an update for), at least Rockstar is giving us some dates, even if that date keeps changing.

jdodson Admin wrote on 02/25/2015 at 02:19am

I agree with the sentiment here, i'd rather the developers make the game a great port than toss out some junk. With as long as PC ports can be sold(indefinitely if updated to run on modern systems) it makes more sense to start with a strong port of the game so it has a longer shelf life.

It's kind of sad when PC games like Fallout 3 are having issues when it's not an old game at all.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 02/25/2015 at 04:56am

Well, Fallout 3's issues mostly stem from the fact that there are little inconsistencies between XP/Vista and modern versions of Windows. Once you get those sorted out, the game works far better on PC than it does on either console it was released for.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/09/2015 at 01:48am

Yesterday, GTAV for the PC became available for pre-loading for those of us who pre-ordered it. I've never pre-loaded a game before, until now. The game will be available next Tuesday. I think it's interesting to notice that the download is a whopping 59 gigs, which surprised me and makes me think it's the biggest game I've ever seen. I obviously didn't pay much attention to the hard drive space requirements when it said it requires at least 65 gigs. Apparently the PS4 and XBox One versions require 50 gigs. I'm glad to see that those systems seem to have 500 gig hard drives. I'm also happy that my PC has a near 3TB hard drive, so the space requirement for the game isn't a big deal for me. It's just taking a long time to download. I had to pause the download earlier as I noticed it was creating lag in my Diablo III:RoS game play.

I know this game is awesome because I played it on the PS3 and I've noticed how incredibly popular it has become since it's original release. It was, after all, greatly anticipated. I am hoping that the controls on the PC are great. It's been a long time since I played GTAIV on the PC, so I don't recall how well it worked with they keyboard and mouse. I have played San Andreas in recent months, a GTAV pre-order bonus, and I was not impressed with they keyboard and mouse game play. So, I have high hopes for GTAV. I'm also hoping that it will work nicely with the XBox 360 controller I have for my PC, if they keyboard and mouse set up doesn't work as well.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/09/2015 at 02:12am

Greg: Keep us updated when you play the PC port. Since I am not going to pick it up at launch I am going to live vicariously through you

Oh and if you buy GTAV on PC box copy it comes with 7 discs! Kind of makes a good case for install media on bluray buy most PCs don't have that.

http://cs625517.vk.me/v625517290/22b6b/RzePAIGclSE.jpg

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/09/2015 at 02:33am

I will, Jon! I noticed that the retail version contains 7 discs. I thought it would have been on Blu-Ray discs, but it seems to be on DVDs, but you're right, most PCs probably don't have Blu-Ray. I, for one, didn't choose to get a Blu-Ray drive on my PC.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/09/2015 at 09:26pm

Yeah they're still pretty rare! I'm looking forward to finally playing it on PC but I'm not shelling out another $60 on a game I've already completed and nearly completed a second time. But yeah, I'm totally looking forward to it!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 04/10/2015 at 07:37pm

On a side question, with you being on the PC version are you able to join our Cheerful Ghost crew? I don't know if crews are console exclusive.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/10/2015 at 09:10pm

I'm glad you mentioned that, Tim. It seems that none of the versions of the game are able to work cross-platform, which is a shame because I'd love to join the CG crew. This does tempt me to create a PC version of the crew and hopefully some day you and others will join me. It will probably be a long time before I get into the online aspect of the game, which I barely spent time with on the PS3. I do know that I can bring a copy of my character over, which is great because I like how he turned out (visually). If I find any information about cross-platform online game play, I'll let you know, and I'll try to see if it works or if it ever will.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/10/2015 at 09:18pm

You can bring over your character, not sure if the crew is movable though.

https://support.rockstargames.com/hc/en-us/articles/202892778-Transferring-Your-Previous-Grand-Theft-Auto-Online-Characters-and-Progression-to-PlayStation-4-Xbox-One-or-PC

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/11/2015 at 04:20am

Yeah I think the crew stays.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/12/2015 at 11:10pm

Really good interview with folks at Rockstar about the GTAV PC port.

http://www.pcgamer.com/rockstar-talk-4k-pc-performance-and-more/

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/13/2015 at 12:28am

Awesome, I saw a brief bit of that last night on another site. The game will be available tomorrow at 7PM (EST). I'm looking forward to "whoa" moments as I know my PC is going to handle it sweetly, even though I'll miss out on the 4k resolution.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/14/2015 at 04:15am

I played very briefly today since I wanted to get in and out so that I could get GeForce Experience to optimize the game for me. What very little of it I played looked simply awesome and that was before GeForce Experience optimized it for me (increasing many of the settings because of my GPU). I don't recall being able to go into first-person mode on the PS3 version, but it's been a long time since I've played it and I only played through it once. Initial movement was done with WASD keys and I noticed that the configuration has a controller option, though I haven't tried that yet. It may be a while before I jump into it deeper due to (in short) time management, game juggling, and other interests. I may report more in the future.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/14/2015 at 07:15pm

First person is new.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/15/2015 at 12:24am

Even while driving, Travis? I played a bit more today. I made it to Franklin's house and saved my game. I'm tempted to try out the controller, I think it might make moving around easier. I obviously haven't played very much, but in what little I did, it seems that they keyboard and mouse controls are definitely much better than GTA: San Andreas. Still, there are a lot of keys usable. For instance, triggering a character's special ability uses the CAPS LOCK key, while switching between characters is the left ALT key.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/15/2015 at 07:12pm

Today I decided to try out the controller. The one I have is a USB XBox 360 controller that's clear and lights up blue, I bought it specifically for my "new" PC, although I've hardly used it. I thought using a controller with the game would make moving about more fluid and I think I was right. I also thought a controller would simplify the controls, I think I was right again. I was surprised because, after plugging in the controller and starting the game, it recognized the controller instantly and could tell that I was using it, so it displayed the controls for it instead of the keyboard. I did start a new game with it.

The game does look and feel great, although I must admit there were a few times where the game lagged a bit. I know I don't have the best hardware that's currently out there, although my PC is very close. For anyone interested, my PC is an Alienware Aurora-R4 with a 3.7Ghz Intel i7-4820k with 16GB of RAM, and a GTX 690.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/15/2015 at 09:42pm

I think first person driving controls have always been around. Don't quote me on that though.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/15/2015 at 11:54pm

Every time I read your PC specs I shake my head(because it's a beefy setup) and want to upgrade my rig. That said, I am not really due for newer horsepower this year. I think i'll just get a steam machine and maybe just drop an SSD in my Desktop to get some more boot speed.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/16/2015 at 12:36am

That bit of lag I experienced makes me feel like my PC isn't up to par with the game and is disappointing. Perhaps I should try with a fresh reboot and running fewer programs (I usually have Chrome and Steam up at least). I saw where the game also shined with the latest GPUs (specifically noticed the Geforce one) and an SLI configuration. That nearly tempts me, but I don't think I'll do any upgrading for a while. I'm not even going to think about it until some time after my warranty expires.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/16/2015 at 03:18am

After a bit of research ("Googling"), I found out that I'm not the only one who's noticed some frame rate drops at times. Many people with various hardware and various graphics settings have experience this issue. So, it is my thought that it could be an issue with the game. Some people say that the game isn't playable, but that isn't the case for me. It happens sometimes, but not too much where I can't play it.

I ran the in-game benchmark and my PC performed quite well on almost every scene. There was one scene that started slow, but then jumped back up to where it should have been. All other scenes performed quite well, although the game didn't give me a final report.

So, I decided to do some benchmarking on my own and I'm quite impressed with what I found out. I downloaded the 3DMark demo from Steam and ran the 64-bit version of Firestrike, which is for high performance Windows gaming PCs running DirectX11. The report from that benchmark is spectacular! My PC performed better than 93% of all results. Here is a link for the results, I'm hoping you can access it: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4596441

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/16/2015 at 04:09am

NVidia released a driver that fixes up some issues for some people. You might want to look and see if this works with your video card, might get you closer to 60FPS with no stuttering.

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/83819/en-us

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Valve will show Steam Machines, final controller, VR at GDC

Some new info straight from the horse's mouth...

http://store.steampowered.com/universe/

"Steam is bringing the best games and user-generated content to exciting new destinations. At GDC 2015, we’ll be giving demos of the refined Steam Controller, new living room devices, and a previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system."

This is exactly what I wanted to see from Valve, in addition to new games. Maybe... we can hope right?

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 02/24/2015 at 04:22pm

This is great news! As cool as VR sounds, I'm glad they've settled on a controller design and sound like the Living Box should be coming fairly soon.

jdodson Admin wrote on 02/24/2015 at 10:15pm

Yep, me too. This is great news and I can't wait to get my Steam Machine and try out the new Steam controller.

jdodson Admin wrote on 02/25/2015 at 12:05am

Valve will be pushing glNext at GDC too. Very interesting piece of tech.

http://schedule.gdconf.com/session/glnext-the-future-of-high-performance-graphics-presented-by-valve

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/25/2015 at 01:15am

That's going to be interesting, especially the SteamVR system. It seems only recently that VR become something people are working on, maybe technology has progressed enough to make it possible.

jdodson Admin wrote on 02/25/2015 at 02:20am

After trying the Occulus I can say that VR really will be something special. I can see why many companies are jumping on it, it really will be a big part of gaming if not computing in general.

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If A Kid Wants To Dress Up As A Biblical Prostitute...

The Binding of Issac is a game I've been playing a lot lately (when I find time to play anything). It's a great pick-up-play-and-die quickly game. Similar to a casual game for me, because I don't generally get far lol. I've not worked through any endings of it yet, but definitely enjoy the game so far.

This video takes a great look at the endings (there are many) of the game, and has a ton of spoilers. Not something that affects my ability to still enjoy the game, but if you're enjoying playing through it and discovering the new characters and endings, this video isn't for you.

But it is deep, and good :)

Is Super Mario Brothers More Immersive Than Call of Duty?

Jack and Rich are back with a new episode of Previously Recorded that discusses quick time events, cut scenes and game immersion. They note that when you drop instructions on screen to press buttons you remind the player they are playing the game instead of being the character on the screen. This is a good point and I think that it often gets worse when you are playing a PC game that asks you to press a button on a controller that you are not using.

What do you think, is Super Mario Brothers more immersive than Call of Duty? Do quick time events ruin game immersion? Are Jack and Rich horrible frauds?

Explore The New World In Pioneers

Pioneers is a brand new exploration strategy game in alpha development by Eigen Lenk. In Pioneers you take the role of an explorer leading a party to make a name for yourself in the new world. If you ever wanted to play a game where you could be Lewis and Clark, Francis Drake or Edmund Fanning this game is it. It also has a really unique painted pixel art style that I find really refreshing.

You can get Pioneers on itch.io now for as much as you want to spend on it on Mac and PC. If you play it let me know what you think of it in the comments!

http://eigen.itch.io/pioneers

"Pioneers is a turn-based exploration/adventure RPG where you lead a party of travellers in search... Read All

An Early Access Overview of Salt the Game

Overview

Pirate, exploration, crafting, hunting, ship building

Unique graphical style

*Note 11/2019*
Salt is no longer in Early Access, so some of the content of this post may have changed. One thing is that it now contains a multiplayer option.

I've been regularly watching a favorite YouTube channel by Paul Soares, Jr. Months ago, I noticed an interesting new game on his Indie Game Test Drive playlist called "Salt." I didn't really get into it at first, but recently, I thought I'd check it out a bit more and watched the rest of his videos on this game. While I installed the demo months ago, I didn't start playing it until recently and after catching up on his Salt... Read All

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 02/20/2015 at 10:10pm

Along with playing the game, I've decided to read the developer's blog. I just found a great post about the graphical style of the game (see link below). While I noticed that the game looked similar to Wind Waker, it is mentioned as an inspiration to Salt in the post I just read. That's pretty cool. I remember when WW came out, it seemed to catch a lot of negativity from players, although i thought it was beautiful. When it came to Salt, I thought it was cool looking, but my first impression of the character model (pirates) wasn't a great one. However, now I really love it. The game is simplistic and artistically beautiful. I also really like the realistic looking water and lighting (such as the sun and moon).

I'm still very happy with the game and I'm looking forward to seeing what is added or changed in the future. It is expected to be completed by the end of the year. There are some questions that come to mind while playing the game. One of them is if things respawn, which they seem to do. I've seen islands with pirates back on them when I had previously killed them all. It seems that respawning takes place when exiting the game and opening it again. I think other things (like boulders) respawn, too. I also think some things despawn. For instance, once I was chasing a black deer at night towards the shore. It disappeared right in front of me into the sea. This occurred right when the night changed to day (you can tell because the chirping crickets sound change into birds).

I've spent a LOT of time on an island looking for things that I know are there, like the pickaxe on the spawn island. There are quests in the game and it seems as though I've only run into the one where a guy asks you to help him locate buried treasure on an island. There have been at least a couple of times where I spent a LOT of time on an island trying to find it. I always do find it, though. Still, I'm some what disappointed that this is the only quest I've come across and it's been given to me plenty of times. While these quest givers are "merchants," they didn't seem able to participate in the buying or selling of goods. I still haven't found any real merchants on my randomized seed.

Anyway, I hope some of you at least check out the demo. I think this game is worth getting and really cool to play and I'd love to discuss it with you.

Developer's blog about Salt's graphical style: http://saltthegameblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/friday-dev-update-closer-look-at.html

JaBo wrote on 02/26/2015 at 06:44pm

I just checked it out...looks sweet and thanks for the review. I am definitely going to try the demo. This might be a game I hook up to the TV if it's as cool as it sounds.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 02/26/2015 at 09:36pm

Thanks, JaBo! It is a cool game. I've spent 61 hours playing it so far. Some of the harder pirates (such as Pirate Battlemaster and Captains) seem a bit over-powered. There is an exploit that can be used to defeat them though as they won't chase you into the sea and you can therefore "kite" them. However, Bandages and White Flower Potions are greatly beneficial when fighting them, along with blocking (right-click w/ weapon). You can dodge, but that mechanic is a bit tricky to master, so I almost never do it. Dodging requires you keep your mouse focused on the enemy and jump with a directional button (WASD). However, you can jump backwards, which is a bit easier.

The game is all about exploration and doing so you will be able to find more things that will help in the tougher battles. I managed to buy a good sword from a merchant and I'm still using it. I also found some good armor at a ruins site, but then along the way I found better armor.

There are two different types of the compass in the game. The first one always points to the north (the red line), but on the face of the compass, "N" always is in front of you, so it can be a little confusing. I saw on Reddit that someone mentioned how the compass could be better, the developer saw that and created a Mariner's Compass in the game. I found one in the game and it is much better at showing you the direction your facing.

I should have included a video in my post, but check out the trailer on Steam's app store: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327860/

This is a game I definitely recommend, enjoy, and am looking forward to seeing how its development progresses. It's supposed to be finished by the end of the year.

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