Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

A Beautiful View in Minecraft With A New PC

If you've been following me, you know I just got a new spanking PC, an Alienware Aurora R4 with a GTX690. I've been working on copying files over the network from the old computer, installing, and setting up Windows 8.1. I do finally have Steam installed and configured, although I haven't played any of those games yet. I found out, while putting my Steam account on this new PC, that I got Dota2. Basically, when I logged into Steam, it told me about the new game, which apparently came bundled with my new computer. "Sweet," I thought, since Jon gave me a list of Free-To-Play Steam games and Dota2 was on that list. I think I was only aware of one of those games on his... Read All If you've been following me, you know I just got a new spanking PC, an Alienware Aurora R4 with a GTX690. I've been working on copying files over the network from the old computer, installing, and setting up Windows 8.1. I do finally have Steam installed and configured, although I haven't played any of those games yet. I found out, while putting my Steam account on this new PC, that I got Dota2. Basically, when I logged into Steam, it told me about the new game, which apparently came bundled with my new computer. "Sweet," I thought, since Jon gave me a list of Free-To-Play Steam games and Dota2 was on that list. I think I was only aware of one of those games on his list, Team Fortress 2, which I've never played.

Minecraft happens to be the first game I played on this PC. After installing, updating, and copying over my world from the old computer, the first thing I did was to go into the options menu. I set my render distance to it's max of 16 blocks. My old computer used the default setting and it slugged a little bit when I tried to increase it. This one handles that setting quite well. I maxed other settings and turned others on to test this beast.

I currently have a house on a "floating island" that the game mysteriously created for me, which I had been looking at from a distance. I wanted to get there and build my house, even though I have some holes in caves around my default spawn point, which was in a Jungle, exactly where I wanted to be so I could get a cat. This is my new spawn point, where I have a yellow cat, which hasn't been named yet.

Not far away from the base of my floating island house, I ran into monsters and was awed with the sound. My new Bose speakers are an upgrade from the cheap speakers I used on the old computer. So, it was cool to hear the Zombies moaning, Spiders sounded creepy. Of course, I ran into some Creepers. I really hate those things!

I went into a nearby cave, which seemed darker thank I was used to. Later, my son said that it was probably because my brightness setting was set to the default "Moody." It was, of course, I barely messed with that setting, but I put it at 64 and liked it much better. I then showed him my floating island and we both seemed wowed by how much of the world we could see (this is where that render blocks setting comes in). It was awesome!

In the meantime, I'm going to try to test out other games and see their improvements with the new PC. I don't expect FTL will be any different, but I'm sure Terraria will be as it has some sweet settings to tweak that make it look better. That may, in fact, be my next mission.

I've you've read this far, thanks. Jon volunteered a list of FTP games to play on Steam, what games would you suggest I try playing on my new PC? I did try Star Trek Online with the old PC and wasn't happy with it's performance. I'll have to try it on this one.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/07/2014 at 02:17am

That's a tough one, as there are so many games that would probably look really good on your setup. Some of my favorite shiny things are:

Skyrim
Fable 3
Dishonored
Planetside 2
Civilization 5
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine
Trine (1 or 2)
Dirt 3
Far Cry 3
Mass Effect 2
Tomb Raider (the new one)...

I don't know. There are so many others. If I had to pick one, based solely on pushing graphical performance, I'd probably go with Skyrim, and add the High Res texture pack, with maybe one of the water packs, like Pure Water. If that doesn't give a 'Holy Shit!' moment, I don't know what would.

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

There are always demos. You don't have to stay strictly free-to-play.

The Arkham games are awesome, and quite pretty. http://store.steampowered.com/app/200260
Bioshock is aging a bit but still one of the best FPS games I've played, and also quite pretty: http://store.steampowered.com/app/7670/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/07/2014 at 02:41am

Thanks, Scrypt! I have Skyrim on the PS3 and love it. I'm sure it'd be amazing on here! I've played a Warhammer game, but it's been a while. I've heard of some of most of those games you listed one way or another, but don't have much personal familiarity with.

Yeah, Travis, Jon just mentioned FTP games, although I'm not limiting myself to anything in particular, really. I'm not really sure I want to get into an MMORPG again, but maybe. I did enjoy Ragnarok Online years ago. I have FFXI for the PC and all or most of the expansions, but I don't think I'll play it again. I'm not surprised to see Bioshock and Mass Effect 2 listed as those seem to be popular games.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/07/2014 at 02:49am

And yeah, Skyrim. You can pull some amazing stuff out of that box with Skyrim. Crazy ENB stuff and depth of field can make it look photorealistic, like this: http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3230/130642458523.jpg

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/07/2014 at 03:26am

Whoa!

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/07/2014 at 03:30am

yeah, that's what I'm talking about. So gorgeous!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/07/2014 at 11:46pm

As I expected, I noticed no difference in FTL. Terraria, however, was better as expected. Before, when I turned on the optimal/high settings on the game, I noticed a little lag. It wasn't too bad. Now there's no lag at all. Some how, I swear the game just looked more beautiful. One of the things I noticed was how lit up things were around me when I held a torch.

As I mentioned above, I started to play Star Trek Online on the old PC. I got partially through the tutorial, to the planet where you had to fight off some Borg. On the old computer, this was quite messy and it made me realize that my old computer wasn't really giving the kind of performance I wanted to see in STO. With the new computer, I jumped back in where I left off in the tutorial and finished it. The game looked great!

I think I've tested all the games I wanted to test on here, or at least the ones I own. I'm sure Skyrim would look sweet on here, but I'm not sure if I want to get it for the PC, since I already have it on the PS3 and spent over 300 hours on it. Still, I'm kind of not sure what to play. Star Trek Online is ok, kind of complex, especially since I'm new at it. I really want to play Minecraft some more.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/12/2014 at 10:30pm

As I'm playing Minecraft, I'm thinking of some things that are in Terraria that I wish were in Minecraft. I really wish Minecraft had its own version of Terraria's Magic Mirror. It would be so cool to be able to teleport to my last spawn point (my bed in my house). This would be extremely helpful, especially for all those times I get stuck in a cave and can't find my way out. It would also be cool if Minecraft had a grappling hook and wings (so I can fly in Survival Mode). Bosses in Minecraft would be cool, too.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/13/2014 at 01:28am

I agree with you Greg. Wonder if they have a mod for that?

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Hotline Miami Lore: It Really Is That Strange

I played Hotline Miami after I picked it up in a Humble Bundle and really enjoyed it. The story was interesting and vague and after playing the game I had a sense the main character was schizophrenic. The game was both violent and also self reflective about it. Oh and the music was top notch too.

Hotline Miami 2 should be out sometime this year and I can't wait to head back in and stomp some faces Drive style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SVfEuUTufU (warning, this is a pretty intense clip from Drive)

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable S2 E4: BioShock Infinite

In this episode of The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we are talking all about BioShock Infinite. This episode is special in that it features the guys from Sleep Ninja Games making the upcoming Indie awesomery, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake. We talk a little about what we've been playing, what we are drinking and I do a quick Q&A about how Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake development is going.

We then tear into a rabid discussion about the amazingness that is BioShock Infinite. I warn you as with things we love, we have some critiques of it. Put your nerd-fi hats on, this episode clocks in at a whopping 2+ hours. And really, did you want it any other way?

What We are... Read All

New Blizzard Video Shows Off The Huge Diablo 2.0.2 Update

If you are still a bit hazy as to what the new Diablo III 2.0.2 patch contains, Blizzard made a pretty cool video explaining the big points. Diablo III 2.0.2 is pretty much a new game and if you have Diablo III and haven't checked it out, I seriously recommend you do.

You can read about the entire set of Diablo III 2.0.2 changes here:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/12671560/

Crawl: An Upcoming Multiplayer Dungeon Crawler

After hearing that Crawl hit Steam Greenlight today I decided to watch the trailer. The Indie scene is packed with current and upcoming pixel based hack-n-slashes but the Crawl trailer really got me interested. Crawl seems to focus on multiplayer and part of that is you taking your turn being the bad guy. Looks like you can use whatever is at your disposal to take down the "good guy" and then after you kill them take your turn as the good guy while everyone else tries to kill you. Seems like a really unique take on some FPS modes like "Last Man Standing" or "Mutant."

Take a minute to watch the trailer and if you like what you see, give it an upvote on Greenlight.

... Read All

Escape Goat 2 Beta: Puzzle Based Platforming Done Right

I am pretty excited to be part of the Escape Goat 2 beta. If you haven't played the original Escape Goat, I recommend you head to Steam and check it out. I have only played the first few levels of Escape Goat 2 and so far it already exceeds my expectations for a sequel. I really liked the pixel art quality of the original but find the hand drawn nature of Escape Goat 2 to be more to my liking. In fact, every element of Escape Goat 2 seems way more polished from the original. The play control, levels and game pacing all seem to be much tighter this time around.

If you are curious how the new game looks and plays, I made a quick video above showing off the first few... Read All

Twitch Plays Pokémon has beaten the game

If you haven't heard of Twitch Plays Pokémon, here's a brief synopsis: The people behind the channel set up a bot that would pass commands entered in the chat window to an emulator running the original Pokémon.

Of course, with anything like this, trolls were rampant. But the Borg collective of Twitch users playing the game managed to get through all the trolls throwing them off ledges and worked together to beat the game. It took about 16.5 days but they did it.

A message on the stream says that a new adventure will be starting in 19 hours as of this post, so we haven't seen the last of them. I wonder how far they'll take it? I'd love to see it keep going through all... Read All

Learn fission vs. fusion with GLaDOS

NASA got Ellen McLain to voice a supercomputer in this educational video. It does a fantastic job of explaining just what these concepts mean, while also staying true to character.

I mean it's corny, yeah, but it's fun.

Prison Architect Alpha 18: Reform Programs & Tazers

"It’s been another massive month, with several major successes. This month we tackled one of our big end game features : prisoner reform. You can now run prisoner reform programs which aim to train, educate and reform your inmates. Reform programs are expensive to run, take a long time to complete, and the success rates are often very low unless your prisoners are very well taken care of. Some bring substantial benefits to your prison and the inmates that take part, others are a longer term investment in your prisoners that may provide little short term benefit.

We have continued to expand the armoury originally introduced in alpha 17. You can now unlock tazers for... Read All

Game/Show: What Makes NPC's Great?

"NPCs (non-playable characters) are a massively important part of the gaming experience, so we thought we'd show our love and appreciation. Though they're fictional computer-generated characters, we often develop real feelings for these beings. Sure, they serve functional roles, guiding you through the game. But their presence and personality can allow us to form strong bonds and real emotions, leading us to truly care about their wellbeing. So which NPCs are our favorites?"

What NPC's have stuck with you over time?