Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Bioshock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia

Doom: The Board Game is my favoriate board game of all time. So when I saw Plaid Hat Game's upcoming Bioshock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia I was pretty interested. The goal of the game is to build an army to fight booker for ultimate control of Columbia. It looks like you and the other players can have control of Elizabeth in some fashion but the details are a bit sparse as of now.

The game pieces and overall build look fantastic to me. I imagine ill see this in my local game store pretty soon and want to give it a shot when it does.

Have you picked up a board game for a video game before? If so how did it turn out for you? What do you think of Bioshock Infinite: The... Read All

Disney Closes LucasArts

"After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles."

Can't say as this is really surprising. Making games is hard and LucasArts really hasn't had a home run in some time. They did create some fantastic games of the retro era in Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Tie Fighter and a ton more.

LucasArts was working on Star... Read All

Terraria on the Playstation 3

I have been pretty excited to try out Terraria on the PS3 and today I took it for a spin. Its a fairly small download and it was running in a few minutes. The demo has Tutorial mode available and as such, played that.

The tutorial is fairly interesting as it runs you thorough a few game basics from mining to crafting a few pieces of starter gear. I never realized how much stuff Terraria packs in to the PC version. The console version has to make sense of all that and as such, its a very dense system of menus to navigate through and is a bit overwhelming at first. That said, after a few minutes I was fairly acclimated to things and didn't have a problem crafting and... Read All

Enhanced Game Platform Support

Today I launched the first pass at "ULTRA DELUXE SUPER-ENHANCED PLATFORM SUPPORT HD!" Which is to say, Game Platforms on Cheerful Ghost are now first class citizens.

Click around on the site and you will not see platforms as clickable tag links. Clicking a Platform tag will take you to the new Platform pages. Each Platform has its own page and a few bits of interesting data on it like a Wikipedia reference link as well as the most popular games the site has in reference to it.

Some platforms have a ton of games and some are very new and have only a few. Ill be working over the next bit to flesh out these pages even more with a description and other bits.

... Read All

Blue_Element wrote on 04/03/2013 at 12:34am

Is there a way to set a game to a certain platform? There are a few games on my list that are for Mac or PS3 but don't give me the option to change it to that.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/03/2013 at 12:37am

Yeah, hit me up with the games and ill add them as options!

Blue_Element wrote on 04/03/2013 at 12:48am

"AwesomeNauts" and "Portal 2" on PC are also for Mac. There are a lot of other games on PC that are for Mac as well, so I'll tell you if I find anymore.

Blue_Element wrote on 04/03/2013 at 12:49am

Also, there's a cool 2D pixelated online multiplayer game called "King Arthur's Gold" (KAG) that's for PC and Mac, and I was wondering if you could add it to the game list. :)

Blue_Element wrote on 04/03/2013 at 12:56am

Realm of the Mad God is also for Mac since it's a browser game, which got me thinking it would be cool if there was a platform option for "Browser" games. But technically the platform for browser games is actually just "Computers". So could you just add the "Mac" platform option to Realm of the Mad God? Haha.

Blue_Element wrote on 04/03/2013 at 12:56am

And I also realized I still can't delete games from my games list. :(

Blue_Element wrote on 04/03/2013 at 12:58am

Wow, I think this is the most I've commented on a post, like ever. :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/03/2013 at 01:11am

Added that stuff.

Blue_Element wrote on 04/03/2013 at 01:13am

Yay! Thanks! :D

Blue_Element wrote on 04/03/2013 at 01:17am

Also, "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2" is only listed for xbox, but it's for PC and PS3 too. And Crysis 3 is only listed for xbox as well.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/03/2013 at 01:56am

Added.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/03/2013 at 02:56am

PS King Arthur's Gold is awesome. Thanks for letting me know about it.

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FTL Wins GDC Awards & More

FTL recently won the GDC Audience Award and Excellence in Design. Both awards are very well deserved and FTL is the game I am playing right now. Each one of my games lasts an hour or less. I have made it about 75% of the way to the end on Easy and am currently refining my strategy to go further but I heard there is a boss battle at the end that I am kind of nervous about. Ill have a party when I beat this one.

Gamasutra recently posted an Interview with the FTL devs about the games design.

“We started with a very vague idea for a concept and used that as a guiding light for the entire project,” said Davis. “By having one singular focus we were able to abandon... Read All

Cheerful Ghost purchased by CBS Interactive

Hello all,

We come to you today with some awesome news about the future of the site. Effective immediately Cheerful Ghost has been acquired by CBS Interactive. In the coming weeks, we will be moving the site over to CBS Interactive’s server farm, and a few of us will be moving into the Gamespot offices.

We will be incorporating many useful features from Gamespot’s network, including the awesome reviews and GameFAQs forum integration! This will push the Cheerful Ghost community forward with trusted reviews and the friendliest forum around.

We do need to point out some other changes to how we operate.

Non-paying customers will be limited to two comments per day.

The... Read All

Blue_Element wrote on 04/02/2013 at 12:33am

Wow, that seems like a horrible decision. I'm done with Cheerfulghost, forever.

Blue_Element wrote on 04/02/2013 at 12:34am

XD APRIL FOOLS!!! Now I got you! Funny post by the way. :D

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/02/2013 at 12:39am

I'm a huge fan of micro transactions, and I think the charge-per-comment is an excellent way to move that idea forward, while narrowing the comments to serious posters only. Who says freedom of speech has to be free?

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/02/2013 at 01:08am

I agree, honestly its just a way to allow people to realize the awesome value of transactional content.

I really appreciate CBS Interactive for this because it allows us to focus on bringing value to shareholders!

Blue_Element wrote on 04/02/2013 at 01:25am

I can't wait to pay $1 to enter contests! That seems like a great idea! And I totally didn't notice the sponsors in the last post at all!

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/02/2013 at 02:09am

I almost forgot about the shareholders! And now I feel guilty, because I should have been thinking of them this whole time. They do so much to bring us the experiences that we never knew we wanted, and really what do they get in return? Money!? Psh... money grows on trees these days. I just planted two money trees in my backyard last summer, and they should be ready to harvest come Autumn.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/02/2013 at 03:24pm

Bills must be paid and investor value must be..... /shoots self

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Bioshock Infinite Review: part 1

Let me just start by saying this game is visually stunning. The graphics really pop on my Sony Bravia 3D TV. I think we've now gotten to the point in gaming where the graphics improvements in future generations really won’t change the industry as much as they have in the past. I can’t imagine a higher polygon count making this game any prettier. Sometimes I just had to stop and look at the beauty in this game. This gave me a great opportunity to take a break for some Doritos and Pepsi while I sat back and enjoyed the beauty that the game could push through my Sony Bravia TV before jumping into the action.

The gameplay is solid. The shooting mechanics feel basically... Read All

Fifteen Years in the Koprulu Sector

Blizzard recently celebrated the 15 year anniversary of Starcraft. And in other news, I feel very old.

"Following its release on March 31, 1998, StarCraft warped millions of us through time and space to the 25th century, where we explored the unruly Koprulu Sector for the first time. We built armies and brought ruin to countless enemy bases as we helped the terrans, protoss, and zerg wage war against each other. The release of StarCraft: Brood War just nine months later saw the Queen of Blades become one of the most iconic villains of all time, and the popularization of professional StarCraft competition in South Korea....

Blizzards post gives a good brief of Starcraft... Read All

Battlefield: The Best Game Franchise of All Time

I need to take a break from playing amazing EA games to talk about the crown jewel in its chalice of badassery, the Battlefield series. Battlefield is the best franchise of all time and EA is the best company in the industry to bring us this series of games. We totally need to all slam a Pepsi as the ensuing bro-dom sugar rush as I take us back to look at this franchise.

You’d better put on them headphones, because I am going to RAWK you EAStyle!

The first Battlefield game was 2002’s Battlefield 1942. This game was solely unique in that it offered all us dude-bros a way to live our shared dreams of fighting in World War 2. No game to that point brought us gamers the... Read All

BR Supporter wrote on 04/01/2013 at 07:12pm

Don't you just love EA? Such great people :)

vdogmr25 wrote on 04/01/2013 at 08:10pm

This post gave me cancer. All the cancer.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/01/2013 at 08:33pm

But Brah, why don't you like Battlefield? Its so Epic!

Chris_Schetter wrote on 04/02/2013 at 04:22pm

This post should feel free to die in a fire.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/02/2013 at 04:55pm

It was very tedious to create, at the end I skipped two Battlefield games. I was like "fuck the rest, I want to end this." :D

vdogmr25 wrote on 04/02/2013 at 06:58pm

I enjoyed BF2 quite a bit and 2142 was alright, but the "bro" gamers kinda killed it for me.

BR Supporter wrote on 04/02/2013 at 07:19pm

In all honesty I enjoy BF3, I just can't play it very well cause my computer sucks.

Its not a great game but it is fun to play every once and awhile.

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A Quest from the Other Side of the Counter

http://www.carpefulgur.com/recettear/about_3.jpg

Ever notice how, in your garden-variety RPG, the shopkeep gets to sit behind a counter all day while you quest up and down the countryside slaying monsters and looting dungeons... yet the shopkeep seems to be the one to wind up with all your gold by the end of the game? Ever wanted to switch places for a day?

Meet Recettear. This game is all about the business end of the RPG world. You get to manage stock, decide which of your wares to showcase, haggle over prices, and, pay off an outstanding debt. Nope, not even kidding - paying off the debt, in fact, is the main storyline of the game. In a nod to traditional dungeoneering, you do get to hire adventurers to explore... Read All Ever notice how, in your garden-variety RPG, the shopkeep gets to sit behind a counter all day while you quest up and down the countryside slaying monsters and looting dungeons... yet the shopkeep seems to be the one to wind up with all your gold by the end of the game? Ever wanted to switch places for a day?

Meet Recettear. This game is all about the business end of the RPG world. You get to manage stock, decide which of your wares to showcase, haggle over prices, and, pay off an outstanding debt. Nope, not even kidding - paying off the debt, in fact, is the main storyline of the game. In a nod to traditional dungeoneering, you do get to hire adventurers to explore procedurally-generated dungeons for you, and you get to control them (while your actual main character tags along behind, invincibly, to do the beancounting), but the big moments of the game happen while you're behind the counter.

This is a *very* Japanese game. The translation to English was done just fine, maybe even better than most imports, but the culture was preserved. For example, nobody is "slightly" anything. The game's "broke adventurer" fellow isn't just hard on his luck; he's found in the park trying to suss out which plants are safe to eat. The game's "rich snob" makes a special trip to your shop to explain how she's going on an excursion for the express purpose of eating foie gras. Your character berates herself every time you fail to make a sale; the sound effects and visuals would be right at home in any manga or anime piece you could imagine, and so on and so on and so on.

It's a fairly easy game. I won't go into spoilers here, but I will say that there's only so bad that the game will let you be. I've "beaten" the game - yes, I'm sure, because the characters actually broke the fourth wall and thanked me for beating the game on behalf of the studio - but they also point out that there's a lot more content to be enjoyed in the game's "endless" mode. To that end, I don't feel qualified to fully evaluate the story... but I will say that when I beat the game, there were some pretty glaring loose threads that none of the characters even really felt like acknowledging. I'm not sure if that's reserved for a Super Special Secret Plus Plus Plus Hooray ending, or if the characters are just like "whatever" about these points, but I was definitely left waiting for something that never came.

All in all, I'd give this one a 7/10. I don't know that I'll ever play it all the way through again, but I feel like I enjoyed my time here. And the next time I fork over 100,000 gold for a Diamond Sword, I'm going to hesitate just that one moment longer. Now I know for *sure* this shopkeep's job isn't as hard as he's making it out to be.