Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood announced

Bethesda and MachineGames are back with more Wolfenstein! Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is a prequel to last year's absolutely fantastic Wolfenstein: The New Order, and has our hero B.J. Blazkowicz breaking into Castle Wolfenstein to steal coordinates to Deathshead's compound, and trying to stop some recently uncovered artifacts from falling into Nazi hands. Most importantly, he'll be killing Nazis like he does so well.

You can jump back into the action on May 5th. It'll retail for $19.99 and does not require the base game.

There's also going to be a Twitch stream later this week to show off some gameplay.

Check out Bethesda's announcement post for more: ... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/04/2015 at 08:33pm

I love that this is a separate game, and not DLC.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/04/2015 at 08:54pm

Looks like it is going to be two parts.

"Part one of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – Rudi Jäger and the Den of Wolves — pits BJ Blazkowicz against a maniacal prison warden as he breaks into Castle Wolfenstein in an attempt to steal the coordinates to General Deathshead’s compound. In part two – The Dark Secrets of Helga Von Schabbs – our hero’s search for the coordinates leads him to the city of Wulfburg where an obsessed Nazi archaeologist is exhuming mysterious artifacts that threaten to unleash a dark and ancient power."

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:20pm

Yeah, not sure if that's just like Act 1 and Act 2 of the same game or if it's episodic or what.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/10/2015 at 02:00am

Here is some Pax East video of a live streaming session.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra1FA5iJGAs

Looks like more of dat-shooting mayhem.

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Double Fine Adventure Documentary Is Free To Stream

Double Fine successfully Kickstarted a then titled project called "Double Fine Adventure" that became the game Broken Age. They released the first half of Broken Age last year and will be releasing the second half this year. As part of the project Double Fine hired 2 Player Productions to create a series of documentaries. So far they have released 18 videos to backers(myself included) and plan on wrapping up the series soon with a final few episodes. Up till now you had to back Double Fine Adventure to watch it but as of today they will slowly release each episode one at a time.

"The collaboration between 2 Player Productions and Double Fine Productions that launched a... Read All

Steam Link, Steam Machines & New Valve Controller Launch Nov

Valve made an announcement today that may make quite a few gamers happy.

"Steam Machines, Windows PCs, Macs, and Linux PCs will be able to take advantage of a new product announced at GDC called Steam Link. Designed to extend your Steam experience to any room in the house, Steam Link allows you to stream all your Steam content from any PC or Steam Machine on the same home network. Supporting 1080p at 60Hz with low latency, Steam Link will be available this November for $49.99, and available with a Steam Controller for an additional $49.99 in the US (worldwide pricing to be released closer to launch).

Steam Machines from partners Alienware and Falcon Northwest are being... Read All Valve made an announcement today that may make quite a few gamers happy.

"Steam Machines, Windows PCs, Macs, and Linux PCs will be able to take advantage of a new product announced at GDC called Steam Link. Designed to extend your Steam experience to any room in the house, Steam Link allows you to stream all your Steam content from any PC or Steam Machine on the same home network. Supporting 1080p at 60Hz with low latency, Steam Link will be available this November for $49.99, and available with a Steam Controller for an additional $49.99 in the US (worldwide pricing to be released closer to launch).

Steam Machines from partners Alienware and Falcon Northwest are being shown, with Machines from a dozen other partners slated to release this November. Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance. Customers interested in the best possible gaming experience can choose whichever components meet their needs. Epic will give a demonstration of the newly announced Unreal Tournament running on a 4K monitor driven by the Falcon Northwest Steam Machine. "We love this platform," said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games. "Whether you're running incredibly detailed scenes at 4K or running 1080p at 120 FPS for an intense shooter experience, this brings world-class gaming and graphics to televisions with an open platform true to Valve's PC gaming roots.""

The whole Steam living room mix will launch this November. I find the announcement of a little $50 streaming box to be very interesting. Because of the price I think this will convince a few Steam users that are on the fence about playing games in the living room to give it a go. It's a nice price point too because you can get the new Steam controller and Steam Link for $100 which can stream your entire Steam library to.

So what do you think, are you going for a Steam Machine or does the Steam Link seem more interesting to you or are you going to hold off on buying either?

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/04/2015 at 05:19am

Since you asked....hehehe. My interested in a "Steam Machine" hasn't really changed since we last talked about it. However, this Steam Link seems like a neat idea. For me, it could mean that I could hook a Steam Link up to my 50" Plasma, instead of my 20+" monitor. The Steam controller would then come in handy. Sure, I could probably hook my PC up to my TV, just like I had done with my old PC, but I only used it for outputting video, which I now do with my PS3 and PS3 Media Server. If I were to do that idea now, I'd probably want a wireless keyboard and mouse, because I've been enjoying the keyboard and mouse game configurations. Although, that hasn't been the case with every Steam game that I have (Risk of Rain, I'm talking about you). I have been wishing I had a bigger monitor lately. It could be interesting to see and try out, perhaps. Anyway, I've kind of rambled a bit. All in all, I think it could be a way for my son to use his Steam account since his PC stopped functioning.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/04/2015 at 06:32pm

If the Link performs as well as they claim (and pending many tests on that "low latency"), I'd much rather have that, which would support my existing system, than a completely new computer. Eventually, I'd go full SteamOS, when I could afford to have multiple high-end computers in the house. Until then, Steam Link sounds like a nice option.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/04/2015 at 07:23pm

Yeah, this is the cost effective way to go. I still want a Steam Machine, but that $50 box may do all I need. Especially if it has support for streaming media of all kinds from my other PCs. There are still some games that don't stream well, but that may be that they're poorly optimized or my rig can't handle the encoding on top of playing it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 08:38pm

Here is the new Steam Controller.

https://steamdb.info/static/img/blog/57/IMG_20150304_100101.jpg

I'll create a new post when a better image surfaces.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:07pm

Someone playing the new UT in 4K on a Steam Machine -w the new Steam Controller.

https://twitter.com/WesPhillips/status/573193120390623233

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:09pm

Engadget has a video showing off the new Steam hardware.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/04/steam-machines-are-coming-this-fall/

Travis Admin wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:21pm

Wow, the new UT looks amazing.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 12:20am

Yeah, it does. A modern cross platform UT game will be great. Can't wait.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 01:53am

Found some new UT screenshot http://m.imgur.com/a/Vo9J1

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 06:08pm

Valve has a list of all the Machines on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Travis Admin wrote on 03/05/2015 at 07:46pm

I was coming here to post that. I'm officially priced out. Hello Steam Link!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/05/2015 at 07:49pm

Wow, so many of them! The Alienware one costs much less than I expected. I expected it to cost about as much as some of the others in the $1-2k range.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 08:36pm

The pricing makes sense to me, essentially the gamut of PC level pricing... because they are PC's.

I am thinking about Alienware, but I need to look closer at the other ones. I love the wide array of choices and prices.(I won't buy them all but I appreciate having options.)

JaBo wrote on 03/05/2015 at 11:25pm

Oh, I just posted my steam machine question in the other controller thread before seeing this. So this little device essentially is supposed to have a better quality stream? I've used my laptop to stream a game to my TV from my desktop and it's definitely hit or miss on the game and quality.

Man, what about the Falcon Tiki "Storage: Up to 8 TB of SSD" Amazeballs!

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:33am

It isn't quite the gamut of PC pricing. There are lower priced models that could still push out current gen quality, which is what I was hoping for. BUT it is totally reasonable pricing, just not for me personally.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:36am

I'm not sure about "better quality" stream, but it handles Streaming without having to use a separate PC/Mac. And yeah, I've had hit or miss quality as well. I think it's when rendering the game is topping out your gaming rig, so encoding the stream is choppy.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:59am

Travis: Yeah, I agree. After spending more time looking at the Machines themselves and the specs, you are right. The high covers things well, but the low end isn't (specs wise) impressive. I want something that is on par with a PS4 and some machines have some of those specs but not in terms of CPU or RAM. I think the reason why the lower end(I just mean cheaper options not quality) suffers some is because they need to fit the goods in a lower form factor case and make some profit. Seems like for something fairly decent I may have to spend $600 which is more than I thought i'd have to spend.

That said the Alienware is cool but the first version is 4G RAM with a dual core intel chip. Not sure how well that would perform compared to a PS4 with double the memory and 6 more cores.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 04:37am

That's one spot where console makers have an advantage. The PS4 might have launched with $700-$800 worth of hardware in it. Console makers always take a major loss at first, but then it starts printing money after a couple of years when their costs go down but the hardware stays the same.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2015 at 03:45pm

Interesting hands on with the new Steam Link. After thinking about it, I am unsure if I am going Steam Link of Steam Machine.

http://www.pcgamer.com/steam-link-hands-on-valves-best-shot-at-the-living-room-costs-50/

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Don't Starve Review

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.

Review

Recommended

Crafting and survival

Different playable characters with special talents

Adventure mode

Multiplayer and DLC

Brief intro: A while ago, I saw a video about Don't Starve. It looked interesting and seemed to have a Tim Burton kind of artistic look about it. This game fits many genres such as survival, sandbox, adventure, and maybe more. As your character, you find yourself waking up in the world with another character telling you, "Say pal, you don't look so well. You better find something to eat." From there, you're on your own to figure out how to survive. Your primary concern may be not starving to death, but you also have to keep an eye on... Read All

Plague Knight Dispenses His Own Justice

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/003/371/970/48ed66597f296d6cd3422270b10b521e_large.png?1425343820

The first major DLC is coming to Shovel Knight, for free! From the Kickstarter page:

"In this adventure, you play as Plague Knight, the villainous master of alchemy, in a quest all his own. Using his maniacal scientific mind, Plague Knight is seeking to concoct Serum Supernus, the Ultimate Potion. However, to retrieve these ingredients, he must extract them from his former allies… the villainous knights of the Order of No Quarter! World class platforming, music, storytelling, and art all return in Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows; an explosive quest with a new play style, new story, new bosses, and more!"

In addition, PS3, PS4, and Vita will be getting a taste of Shovel... Read All

Terraria 1.3 Music Spoiler + Scott Lloyd Shelly Minterview

News recently dropped that the upcoming Terraria 1.3 update will include some new music from composer Scott Lloyd Shelly. Re-Logic created a new trailer to show off part of a new song you need to check out. One of the coolest parts about the Terraria 1.2 update was the new music and I am very excited to hear we are getting more(amongst other things). I decided to reach out to Scott and ask him a few questions about how the music for 1.3 is progressing and he was nice enough to get back to me.

Scott recommended that we checkout the Terraria GDC blog as they will drop more Re-Logic and Terraria news over the week.

... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 03/03/2015 at 04:26am

There are console-exclusive songs? I had no idea.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/03/2015 at 04:32am

A bit more about it on one of the Terraria wikis. Search for "exclusive" on the page.

http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Music

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/03/2015 at 05:20am

Awesome! I love this piece of music they released!!!! I found out about this spoiler from the Terraria forums (http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/sampling-the-sounds-of-1-3.13064/). Someone also posted a link to the soundtrack (https://re-logic.bandcamp.com/album/terraria-soundtrack). It is cool that we can listen to the soundtrack and buy both volumes. I think Terraria has a great soundtrack!

Jason_Diaz wrote on 05/25/2015 at 05:52pm

Terraria's music is seriously some of my absolute favorite game music. It's right up there with my list of faves such as pretty much everything early Squaresoft days (16 and 32 bit era) and CSoTN soundtrack.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/27/2015 at 01:15am

I totally agree Jason, the Terraria one of the best i've heard in the last 5 years. That said recently i've been binging on the Double Find Adventure videos featuring music by Lifeformed and I have really been impressed with that lately.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/28/2015 at 05:23pm

A new, small video was released today, which comes with something very special at the end. =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXam7gSObek

Travis Admin wrote on 05/28/2015 at 05:42pm

Niiiiiiiice!

Confirmation!

Travis Admin wrote on 05/28/2015 at 11:05pm

Since you haven't posted it, I'm going to! :)

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Valve Partnering with HTC To Build VR Headset

HTC has announced that it is partnering with Valve to produce a VR headset they are calling the RE Vive. It differs from the Oculus rift in that it uses sensors to detect where you head it pointed at in the room. Apparently this change makes the VR experience more seamless and as a result people tend to not get sick as much. The Valve/HTC hardware will also support a 90 hz refresh rate and two 1200 x 1080 displays.

This wasn't the news I was expecting out of GDC but it's pretty damn incredible. If any other news about this breaks, i'll update this post as it happens.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/03/2015 at 03:00am

Wow! I wonder how you physically interact with it and how it looks. I mean, is it just like attaching a small screen in front of your face? I also wonder how much it will cost, my guess is at least $1,000. It'd be cool to at least try it out. I'm only familiar with the Oculus Rift by name, but I know nothing of the OR and VR experience. It's pretty cool how some of our technology has caught up with Star Trek, but we have a long way to go still. One of my most favorite pieces of Star Trek technology is the Holodeck. If we can some how create that technology, or if these VR devices simulate it, well that would be pretty awesome!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/03/2015 at 04:29am

A price point like 1K might put it a bit too far out of the reach of most people. I think a few hundred is a good price, but I really don't know what the consumer version price will be.

I've played an Oculus VR game and the input was me moving around my head. It was a simple Game Jam game but it was such a uniquely beautiful experience, it was like playing Super Mario Brothers for the first time. The game was pretty simple, you moved your head to look at what was in your virtual persons hand and then looked at the right shape it would fit into. After doing that 15 times fireworks streaked across the sky and colors started dancing across the screen. It was a really beautiful and simple puzzle game.

That said, you could port games like Minecraft and Half-life to use VR. So you can move around your head to see things and you can control the game with the typical keyboard/mouse or controller. That said, if Valves VR expects you to walk around you'd need some kind of wireless controller or some other cord free input.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/03/2015 at 04:30am

I never considered that something like this might get us REALLY close to Star Trek Holodeck technology but it really does. Even with the developer Oculus Rift it felt like I was in a different place experiencing something totally unique.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/03/2015 at 05:14am

That's cool. I knew Minecraft had an Oculus Rift option. You're right about my price guess. I may be off and yeah that would be kind of steep. I'm just assuming the hardware would be expensive, but you make a great point that at that price tag, it wouldn't really be affordable to many consumers. Maybe, also, they would have had to wait for the technology not only to be able to create such a thing, but also so that it would be affordable. Maybe since the PS4 is about $400, this technology will be similarly priced.

Ah, this is another reason I wish I lived over there on the West Coast. If I did, I might actually be able to go to one of those events and try this cool stuff out. Maybe GameStop will have the Steam VR and have a "demo" console that gamers could try out before buying (like they do with some consoles).

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New Cheerful Ghost Vinyl Sticker Prints & The New Ghost

I wanted to show off the new Cheerful Ghost Vinyl Sticker Prints because they are so damn pretty. Cheerful Ghost has been a great video game community for more than 3 years now and it's been obvious to me for some time that we could improve some of our art. Last year a fantastic local game artist Hagen Deloss talked to me about remaking our sticker. We talked over a few weeks, had a few video chats and started tossing around ideas about how we could re-imagine the Ghost.

Firstly the Ghost needs to be happy. One choice I made early on with Cheerful Ghost is to design the site to appeal to people of a pleasing temperament. One part of gaming I dislike is how negative and... Read All I wanted to show off the new Cheerful Ghost Vinyl Sticker Prints because they are so damn pretty. Cheerful Ghost has been a great video game community for more than 3 years now and it's been obvious to me for some time that we could improve some of our art. Last year a fantastic local game artist Hagen Deloss talked to me about remaking our sticker. We talked over a few weeks, had a few video chats and started tossing around ideas about how we could re-imagine the Ghost.

Firstly the Ghost needs to be happy. One choice I made early on with Cheerful Ghost is to design the site to appeal to people of a pleasing temperament. One part of gaming I dislike is how negative and cynical it is. I want to build a community of likeminded people that were more interested in talking about the things they loved as friends than tear each other apart. I don't mind debate or disagreement it's just served better if all parties are more than civil. My thought was from the color choices of the site to it's mascot we could attract a different kind of gamer. One other requirement was that the new Ghost must be at home and familiar with the old design.

I really appreciate how Hagen interpreted the old Ghost and how that was brought to the final design on this sticker. When people try and convey gaming to a wider audience often times you have the art not reflective of what it's trying to portray. In the case of our new sticker design, Hagen combined a few unique elements I don't often see in video game stickers, branding or advertising. Most notably that the Ghost is having fun talking on a headset playing on a PC. I've seen game site art that may look good but doesn't reflect the site or community. Cheerful Ghost is a community of people that have a deep love for gaming and most notably on the PC. Not to say we didn't all grow up on Nintendo and other consoles, it's just that Cheerful Ghost is mostly a site of PC* lovers.

I encourage everyone local to Portland to reach out and grab one of the new sticker prints from me. Wick and I will be showing Starship Rubicon this summer at a few events and i'll be handing them out there too. At 5" this sticker is ready for your laptop and it's Vinyl construction makes it great for the bumper of your car. As the site marches forward I am going to continue to work with Hagen on integrating the new Ghost design into the site as well. No ETA on when that will happen but it will be in 2015.

If you are interested in checking out more of Hagens work check out his website or talk to him at any PIGSquad event.

http://hagendeloss.tumblr.com/

Bonus image for reading to the end(I snapped that immediately after I opened the package).

http://i.imgur.com/uhu9tRF.jpg

* When I say PC I mean Linux, Mac and Windows.

Prison Architect Alpha 30 Coming to Tablets + Tidy Wires

The great crew at Introversion has dropped the latest in the Alpha series for Prison Architect. They have been hard at work on a Tablet port of the game coming to newer iPads and high powered Android tablets. They've also added some really useful features like the ability to untangle your wires and feed prisoners confined to solitary. This release also contains the ability to get a one time payment for new prisoners to help you fund the construction of your prison. Currently, the early game of Prison Architect allows you to get money through grants and your monthly prisoner income. If you've played the game you know this is a pretty tight fiscal scenario as you often... Read All

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