Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

New Game Genre: Hero Shooter

What do you get when you combine a FPS with a MOBA? Apparently you get Battleborn, the newest announced game from Gearbox Software.

http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/community/articles/1198/get-ready-for-gearbox-s-newest-game-battleborn
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/07/08/game-informer-august-cover-reveal-gearbox-battleborn-654814351318.aspx

Today we’re happy to announce our newest creation, Battleborn.

We’re calling Battleborn a “hero shooter” in that it’s a first-person shooter focused on characters above all else. No first-person shooter has ever had this much character variety, and we’re excited for you to see the first batch of heroes today.

Battleborn... Read All

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/09/2014 at 06:45pm

This is exciting for me on two levels. One, a first-person MOBA and the 5-player co-op campaign mode, and two, not another Borderlands game. Anxious to see more of this.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/09/2014 at 06:53pm

This needs to be out now.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/10/2014 at 12:11am

I am with you guys, this looks really interesting.

Interested to see some gameplay footage.

That said, I like The Arcade Fire quite a bit and this song is pretty good, but it seemed a bit out of place for the trailer. That or i've heard it so much on the album it just seemed odd in this context.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/10/2014 at 12:23am

M83, not Arcade Fire. But still a great song ;)

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/10/2014 at 12:25am

Actually, I thought it was Band of Horses when I first heard it. Had to look it up :D

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 07/10/2014 at 12:29am

That wasn't New Kids on the Block?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/10/2014 at 02:38am

If they would have backed it with Hangin' Tough, I would have pre-ordered today.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/10/2014 at 02:38am

DAMN IT M83. Right I have that M83 album too.

Anyways, well, for whatever reason it didn't seem to entirely fit the tone.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/10/2014 at 02:39am

Honestly, Hangin' Tough would have made that trailer viral.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/10/2014 at 03:01am

As far as I know I've never heard that song before, but I agree that it was kinda misplaced.

Hangin' Tough would have been the most logical choice.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Found this interesting...

I can't say much about the Call of Duty series, i played it off and on from the beginning but never played it seriously until Black Ops II. However, i've been hooked on Dead Space since the first game, and i believe that the correlation between the two will make a very solid war game, as the guys in the video describe.

Plus the guys who do dead space obviously know what they're doing. I'm pretty sure the only survival horror game that compares to Dead Space would be Resident Evil: Directors Cut for the Playstation. The collaboration between the two should make a terrifyingly realistic war game that portrays the deepness of war while still being an edge of your seat... Read All

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/06/2014 at 06:52pm

Should change the category for this article from Dead Space to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, since that's the primary subject.

I am really interested to see how Sledgehammer handles a Call of Duty game. Bringing in Dead Space influence should only help to deepen (and darken) the experience, which should make for good fun and a nice change from the series' typical fare. I have kept my distance from Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 2, but I'm curious to check this one out.

Zach_Foster Post Author wrote on 07/07/2014 at 01:48am

I was going to post under call of duty, but couldn't find advanced warfare in the list yet. I agree the darkness should.. ahem.. brighten the game up a bit from the monotony of the series. I really want to believe that Sledgehammer will do a fine job with the game, and even if they don't, the series has already got such a strong following that I think the most it could do is slow it down. I have high hopes for it.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/07/2014 at 07:55pm

Looks like someone just added it to the database. We don't have very game in it, so if you want one added let us know!

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/07/2014 at 07:56pm

That said, as someone that is primarily not a Call of Duty fan I can say that anything they do to make the game appear to have more life, the better. If that is taking a few notes from Deadspace then that sounds awesome.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Mighty No. 9 Shows New Stages and Boss Battles

Comcept is continuing to release new Mighty No. 9 gameplay footage and this time it features some new stages and boss battles. With each video drop I get a bit more interested and it keeps looking more and more like it might very well be the best new Mega Man game without actually technically being a Mega Man game.

Game/Show: Can We Ever Stop Toxic, Racist, & Abusive Gamers?

"Can't we all just get along? The nastiest, most hateful things are being said over voice chat, in chatrooms, and turning up in your inboxes. And while this is a problem across the internet, it seems particularly acute in the online gaming realm. Will online players ever play nice? The hate speech can ruin perfectly fun experiences, and abuse and alienate innocent players. What can be done? and even if you don't participate yourself, is doing nothing adding to the problem?"

What do you think, will we ever clean up the toxicity in gaming?

Travis Admin wrote on 07/05/2014 at 03:22am

I'd counter that with "can we ever stop toxic, racist, and abusive people?"

It isn't at all unique to gaming-- it's just that in real life you might have to deal with repercussions, and gaming is when you're at your most anonymous, with the least repercussions, and with the frustration of defeat or getting carried away in victory.

To fix it, you'd have to fix human culture.

Zach_Foster wrote on 07/06/2014 at 03:09am

I agree with Travis. To change the attitudes of people you have to change people, and that's nothing that will happen soon. I think there's something to be said for in-game voice auditing, and blocking people for swearing, but it can't catch everything. Cyber bullying is becoming a terrible problem. I played Call of Duty: Ghosts the other day and was placed in a room with what sounded from their voices like a bunch of ten and twelve year olds, and they were swearing at each other like sailors. it doesn't help that it's a violent video game, but the idea that kids are playing these games, and talking to each other the way they do is disgusting.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/06/2014 at 06:43pm

Trash-talking in sports picked up momentum in the 60's and has been snowballing ever since. Now, it's actually an encouraged tactic for victory, even so far as getting the fans involved. It's gotten to the point where people don't seem to care about respect anymore. How do you give millions of these same types of people microphones in dark rooms, and expect them to behave?

When I was in school, they used to give out a trophy for good sportsmanship, and while it wasn't the most sought after award, it was at least a public recognition of competing with honor. The NBA started handing out such a trophy in the mid-90's, the NFL has a similar award that's been around since the mid-80's. I think rewarding good behavior is positive approach, and video gaming has the best environment to promote this. In-game items, achievements, titles... all can be tailored to promote good gaming behavior. Riot Games' system, mentioned in the video, is a prime example. Giving in-game badges in multiple fields to help promote helpfulness and friendliness is a start.

Personally, I use the mute button if the game has one (and most do these days), or play without a mic. I hate to say it, but I think Nintendo was the wise one in all of this. Only allowing online interaction with someone you choose to play with could be the best solution. It kills the matchmaking aspect of every online multiplayer game, but maybe that's the kind of overhaul that needs to take place?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/07/2014 at 08:01pm

Thanks for that script! Whereas sportsmanship awards are a bit odd in a social way, that kind of positive incentive is a great idea.

I think each game implementing it's own mechanism that's right for the game is best. That said, if I had to do something to handle a toxic community I'd look at Riots community tribunal model.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/09/2014 at 01:17am

I've been struggling a bit with Jamin's attention to the Bystander Effect, and how relevant it really is to the issue (Jamin states that it's the biggest problem that he's seen regarding this issue). How would you even know if other players were remiss in their duties as gaming citizens to take action against abuse? What are the paths of action we can actually take as gamers witnessing this type of abuse? We can report it (probably the most prominent option available), or we can actually make a stand in the chat/game space to defend the victim, or try to diffuse the situation. I don't think that anyone has a problem reporting abuse. I'll bet that most people have done it at least once, and a large chunk of people do it often. Intervening, however, can be tricky, and I'd argue that, in this situation, doing nothing could be much better than doing something that could totally backfire, and perpetuate more abuse. Regarding the abuse toward females, white-knighting it is largely looked down upon these days, and is just asking for more abuse. In the nastiest cases, I've been in chat spaces where all you have to do is open your mouth and you're a target for abuse. Again, it seems like the mute button is the best option. Jamin also mentions that witnessing positive behavior has an area effect of altruism, but I don't know how relevant that is to gaming, either. Maybe in some games it's easier than others, but in the games that are garnering the top abusers (let's face it, it's the FPSs), there isn't really a way to act as a Good Samaritan (or is there? anyone?).

Are there alternatives to abate abusers outside of muting, reporting, or stepping in?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/10/2014 at 12:14am

I think the best thing to do is to not be abusive in the game, but most people on Cheerful Ghost are not idiots so that doesn't take us too far here.

I'd say after that, yeah, reporting as much as possible. Stepping in can be useful, but I wouldn't recommend telling the griefers to stop, i'd focus on the person being abused. I'd maybe just say they are doing fine and to ignore the haters(or something to that effect given the circumstance).

The worst thing good people can do in a bad situation is nothing, but it's not entirely obvious what the good thing to do is. I can't stop people from being dicks on the internet, but banning, reporting and saying a kind word to something is something.

Largely it's up to the game developers to act on the data they collect.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Virginia, a damn fine cup of drama

From the game's site: VIRGINIA is a first person interactive drama. It is the story of a recently graduated FBI agent and her partner as they seek to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a young boy. In the birthplace of America nothing is quite what it seems.

Virginia is coming out next year from Variable State, a team comprised of industry veterans from titles like GTA and Battlefield. It's inspired by a mutual love of 90s mystery shows, specifically The X-Files, Twin Peaks, and The Outer Limits, Virginia puts you in control of your own episode of 90s TV.

The first screenshot, above, already shows off the inspiration. Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks... Read All

Interview With Evan Greenwood of Free Lives About Broforce!

Broforce is a pretty unique game to hit Steam Greenlight made by great people at Free Lives. I have followed it's progress and have paid close attention to each new release as it comes. Broforce is great with a controller and is especially fun playing it with friends on couch co-op. Recently Free Lives has hinted at the next Broforce update titled "Death From Above" that will come sometime this week and I can't wait to see what it ships with. I reached out to Free Lives so I could ask them some questions about Broforce and what makes it the most amazing direct video game translation to a "freedom face punch" in existence.

... Read All

A good jumping off point.

As someone who's never written anything about video games before, i figured this game would be a good one to start with.

Final Fantasy VII has held title of my favorite video game for about twelve years now. When i got my first copy in 1999, i didn't know anything about it. in fact, I believe my father got it for me as a gift as a mistake, thinking it was another game that i had asked for. It was terribly exciting to me when i started playing it, as a six or seven year old, because it had bad words in it like "damn" and it made me feel very adult and grown up, so it peaked my interest. At the time, i didn't quite have the capacity to undertake a game as involved as... Read All As someone who's never written anything about video games before, i figured this game would be a good one to start with.

Final Fantasy VII has held title of my favorite video game for about twelve years now. When i got my first copy in 1999, i didn't know anything about it. in fact, I believe my father got it for me as a gift as a mistake, thinking it was another game that i had asked for. It was terribly exciting to me when i started playing it, as a six or seven year old, because it had bad words in it like "damn" and it made me feel very adult and grown up, so it peaked my interest. At the time, i didn't quite have the capacity to undertake a game as involved as this one, so i grew bored with it about halfway through the first disc and i set it aside.

A few years ago, i picked it back up again, hearing that it was gathering monetary value as a cult following game and that it might be worth some money. I was not too turned by it's value, but instead by it's refound popularity. i decided to give it another go and ended up playing through to the part where Cloud and Cid (and whomever else is in your party at the time) fight Palmer and his goons and take off on the Tiny Bronco, and got stuck at that spot due to an error in the disc. i held that spot for several months waiting to find a cheaper copy at my local used game store. I ended up getting a very nice black label copy for i believe $20, which was incredible since at the time it was going for $75-150 on ebay depending on it's condition. I took it home, popped it in the playstation, played through the battle several times (I was rusty), and jumped for joy when the Tiny Bronco flight scene played through without a hitch, and i continued the game. A few weeks later, finding little bits of down time here and there to play, i finally beat the game, and it was one of the most accomplished feelings i had ever had in my life. So, now that i've poured out my soul, i will talk about the game.

The game, in my humble opinion, holds its own today against modern video games as far as plot thickness and the ability to convey an extremely lengthy story while still being an action packed RPG. It has everything! Romance, comedy, suspense, confusion, even a twist! The sheer depth of this game still blows me away as something that came out on the original playstation platform. Yes, it had three discs, but it was hours of gameplay. i mean HOURS. the first time playing all the way through, i logged about 56 hours into this game. A ridiculous amount of time. (though it pales to the over 150 hours i have into Fallout 3 on my pc...) There's just so much going on in the story of this game, it's like an interactive television series, with all it's twists and turns, new characters, new areas, plot twists, good guys, bad guys, good guys who turn out to be bad guys but are still kinda on your side in the end, side quests, and for the most part, it's an open world game. Sure, you have to follow the story line, but you can go pretty much wherever you want.

I'm not terribly good at writing about things. You should just go play the game.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/01/2014 at 09:19pm

I think you're just fine at writing about things. And yes, Final Fantasy VII is an incredible game. I also loved VIII, which many people seem to dislike. It was different in quite a few ways, but I have probably put more hours into it than any game besides Elder Scrolls games, Fallout games, and Terraria.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/01/2014 at 10:52pm

Travis, who commented here before I did, was the one who introduced me to Final Fantasy VIII. I agree with him with regards to how much I love FFVIII. It is actually my favorite of the Final Fantasy games. Aside from the game play, it's probably also because it was the first one I was really introduced to and loved so much. Since he introduced me to FFVIII, I decided to play all of the others that I could. FFVII is definitely one of the greatest of the series and likely the most popular of the series. You're right, that the game is hard to find now, extremely popular, and worth a lot of money. I can't recall how many times I've played it, but I've played it plenty of times. I didn't play it until I went off to college even though I've had a demo of it from PC Gamer for a very long time. I remember when the PS3 came out, we were all hoping that Square was going to give us a Final Fantasy VII remake, after all they did tease us with a trailer. Sadly, the game has not yet been remade. Still, there's a movie out for it. If you really enjoyed the game I suggest you find a copy of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Even still, if you have a PSP, I recommend getting Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. It's basically a prequel and is a really great game. I must admit that I cried at the end of it, but found out that I'm not the only guy who felt so emotional at the end of it. There's also Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus for the PS2. That game is about Vincent Valentine (the guy that I decided to name my son after). It was a short game and I don't think it was well received, but I think I liked it, but I've only played it once or twice. Thanks for posting!

Travis Admin wrote on 07/02/2014 at 01:34am

Crisis Core is a reason to own a PSP. It's so good. Very different, but so much fun.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/02/2014 at 02:02am

Not only that, Travis, but many other of the Final Fantasy games were made for the PSP and are awesome! I have FF Tactics, FFI-III, Crisis Core, and FFIV: The After Years, although I played it more on the Wii and very little on the PSP.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/02/2014 at 03:19am

Yeah, IV on the PSP is basically the definitive version. I need to actually play it. It's sitting on my hard drive... er... I mean... game shelf, yeah, that's the ticket... just waiting to be played.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/02/2014 at 04:29am

The after years really interests me. Hope it comes to Steam at some point.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 07/02/2014 at 05:48pm

I remember this game blew my mind back in the day, such a deep and engaging story line. Always great to read about it!

Zach_Foster Post Author wrote on 07/03/2014 at 12:16am

I have crisis core and i agree that if you didn't have a reason to own a PSP (which i already did), that game would be that reason. As a prequel i believe it exceeded my expectations. I also have Dirge of Cerberus, which was an off-base sequel to FFVII that followed the story line of Vincent, who was a lesser known almost secret character of FFVII, but ultimately one of the coolest characters in my opinion. The movie was pretty good, i do enjoy watching it. I also have a copy of FFVIII and a sealed copy of FFIX (i've never played it). FFVIII is alright, but i've not had enough hours into it to get a real feel for the game yet as i picked it up pretty recently.

I really appreciate that people are commenting on this. I found a flier for this site from my trip to PRGE last year and thought i'd give it a go if for no other reason than to compile a list of all of my games and consoles. Thank you for making this website!

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Mac Version & Achievements Coming To Terraria

Cenx, the Creative Director of Terraria just posted a teaser of a few new updates that may come to the game. They are working hard on new content to the game as well as Steam achievements and a Mac port.

"Again, there is always a chance for disaster. We are not promising or guaranteeing that we will release this. It is our intentions to do so but we will not release it unless it plays how it should."

Whereas it's not final and they might not ship the port at all, it's a good sign that they are working on it. Hopefully this paves the way for a SteamOS/Linux port which would pretty much be some of the most amazing news of the year.

... Read All

Blue_Element wrote on 06/30/2014 at 08:21pm

I am beyond excited for this, and I really hope everything works out. I have been able to play Terraria 1.2 using a wrapper, but it's kinda buggy/slow. And whenever there's an update, I have to open a trial version of a Windows emulator to login to Steam, update the game, and transfer the exe and content files in order to update the wrapper. It would be amazing to be able to play it natively.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/30/2014 at 08:23pm

I agree, the wrapper solution while getting the game to technically work, isn't awesome. Native ports are always the better solution, even if harder to do. I play quite a few games on my Mac and if I could Terraria from it? Awesome news.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/30/2014 at 09:25pm

I have a feeling this is also using a wrapper, just done by the official channels. Since the game was made in XNA, there's no native way to port it to Mac.

But yeah, I'd take a wrapper made by the devs behind the game over a wrapper someone posts on the forums any day. They work, and they work pretty well, but there are always problems.

Similar to Bastion-- It was done in XNA as well, and Ryan Gordon did that Linux port I believe, when it was in the humble bundle. It used a wrapper and it worked so amazingly.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/30/2014 at 10:01pm

"I have a feeling this is also using a wrapper, just done by the official channels. Since the game was made in XNA, there's no native way to port it to Mac."

This isn't technically true actually. That said, I have no idea what they are doing to port it BUT lots of games were written in XNA and later ported by... well I forget his name but he is the primary developer of the SDL bindings for C#. He ported Escape Goat 2 native as well as a bunch of others.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/30/2014 at 10:33pm

Well, hmm... I suppose wrapper may be the wrong word here. The only way of porting besides wineskin that I've heard of for Linux (maybe Mac) there's something called monogame that has to be used. It's not a wrapper in the same way wineskin is, but basically you run it through an interpretation layer, for lack of the proper term that eludes me, so you're compiling it through a "wrapper" that interprets the non-native code.

Now that I've written all that out (and I'll leave it there because it explains my thought process) this all just sounds like a third-party .net framework, full stop. :)

If there's another way of doing it I'd love to hear about it though, because that would be exciting!

Travis Admin wrote on 06/30/2014 at 10:38pm

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/192209/from_xna_to_monogame.php

That's what I was talking about. I just hadn't thought it through yet :)

Travis Admin wrote on 06/30/2014 at 10:44pm

OK, I just checked-- Escape Goat 2 was ported using monogame so we're talking about the same thing :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/30/2014 at 11:02pm

Awesome. Yeah, there are XNA -> Native translation layers for different platforms. I hope that's what they are using as it would make a possible Linux port way less strange than a Wine translation.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/01/2014 at 03:25am

monogame is almost definitely what they're using, which allows for Windows, Mac, Linux, a ton of consoles, iOS and Android, pretty much everything.

Also!
http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/an-update-on-things.154239/page-2#post-3100377

So yes, it looks like if the Mac port goes well, Linux is the next stop.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/01/2014 at 03:45am

Hot damn that's some of the best news in gaming this year. Totally incredible.

My list of reasons to use Windows just got a hell of a lot smaller. :godmode:

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Heroes of the Storm: Lets Play Diablo, Starcraft & Warcraft

A few weeks ago I was let in to Blizzard's latest game to make it to beta, Heroes of the Storm. Blizzard calls Heroes of the Storm a team brawler that at first glance seems to be yet another MOBA like DoTA or League of Legends. While the similarities abound there are some really huge differences and at the end of the day, for me, Heroes of the Storm is more my style.

Heroes of the Storm is part of Blizzards latest push into the Free to Play game genre. Starting with Hearthstone and now Heroes of the Storm, free to play is a pretty big push. Heroes of the Storm takes a page from League of Legends in that there are a few heroes that randomly unlock for you to play from... Read All A few weeks ago I was let in to Blizzard's latest game to make it to beta, Heroes of the Storm. Blizzard calls Heroes of the Storm a team brawler that at first glance seems to be yet another MOBA like DoTA or League of Legends. While the similarities abound there are some really huge differences and at the end of the day, for me, Heroes of the Storm is more my style.

Heroes of the Storm is part of Blizzards latest push into the Free to Play game genre. Starting with Hearthstone and now Heroes of the Storm, free to play is a pretty big push. Heroes of the Storm takes a page from League of Legends in that there are a few heroes that randomly unlock for you to play from week to week and if you want to use them permanently you have to buy them. You can buy them straight up with money or earn in game gold to do it. As with League of Legends and DoTA 2, Heroes of the Storm allows you to purchase skins to give your Heroes a unique flavor. Heroes of the Storm takes it a step further and also allows you the ability to purchase in game mounts.

Whereas DoTA 2 or League of Legends allows you to only play on one map, Heroes of the Storm ships with 4. Each map has a unique flavor and different objective to give your team a winning advantage. On one pirate themed level, beyond pushing to destroy the enemy teams base, you can collect gold coins to give to a pirate and if you collect enough he will bombard the enemy base.

One of the things that has kept me away from embracing League of Legends or DoTA 2 is how flippin' hard the game is to learn. Blizzard has stripped down the gameplay of Heroes of the Storm to it's basics and forgoes any kind of in game item purchasing. All you have is your hero and with each level you make choices about what skills to focus on. I really like the simplified gameplay and as such had no problem figuring things out. As someone that loves playing video games but doesn't have a zillion hours to master it, Heroes of the Storm is great.

I was skeptical Blizzard could bring another MOBA to the table that offered anything new but after playing Heroes of the Storm I can say, this isn't DoTA 2 or League of Legends, this is very different and it's good.

Oh right, the game is also beautiful. After turning up everything to the max the game looks incredible. The game didn't suffer from much lag either, but all the matches I played were against bots so that may be why.

I think it goes without saying that as a pretty big Blizzard fan, playing a game with Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft characters in it all fighting together is pretty awesome. It's also pretty strange to have Jim Raynor deal a killing blow to Kerrigan and and then Diablo in the same game. Each of the different universes characters fit really well in the game and it didn't ever seem strange to have them together for a minute.

Heroes of the Storm seems really polished to me and I hope they unleash the beta to more players soon so you can check it out. If you have tried it out, i'd love to hear what you think of the game.

The Firehose: Mario Kart Toys & The History of Cheat Codes

It looks like Nintendo will be partnering with McDonalds to bring us Mario Kart 8 happy meal toys. Now I haven't set foot in a McDonalds in years but this might be thing that gets me to head back.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/06/mario_kart_8_toys_boosting_into_mcdonalds_happy_meals

Redbull has an interesting article on the history of the video game cheat code. Some of this information is well known and some isn't but it's still neat to see it laid out well.

http://www.redbull.com/en/games/stories/1331660993180/the-history-of-the-cheat-code