Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

The Guild Wars 2 Score & Soule's Kickstarter

I picked up the Skyrim 4CD score from a music site and a month later I hadn't received it. I emailed them and they let me know they were refilling their stock and would ship it out as soon as it could. To tide me over for the time I didn't have the album they allowed me a digital download of the album and a bonus of the Guild Wars 2 score. I haven't played Guild Wars 2 yet and as such, wasn't familiar with the score. As I loaded it up in iTunes I noticed that the Guild Wars 2 and Skyrim score were both written by Jeremy Soule. Pleasantly surprised, I have been listening to it over the last few days.

As I listened to the first few tracks I started becoming more aware of... Read All I picked up the Skyrim 4CD score from a music site and a month later I hadn't received it. I emailed them and they let me know they were refilling their stock and would ship it out as soon as it could. To tide me over for the time I didn't have the album they allowed me a digital download of the album and a bonus of the Guild Wars 2 score. I haven't played Guild Wars 2 yet and as such, wasn't familiar with the score. As I loaded it up in iTunes I noticed that the Guild Wars 2 and Skyrim score were both written by Jeremy Soule. Pleasantly surprised, I have been listening to it over the last few days.

As I listened to the first few tracks I started becoming more aware of Jeremy Soule's style and started thinking back to Dungeon Siege. The Guild Wars 2 score seemed somewhat reminiscent of that and I did a bit more searching on Soule and as it turns out, he did indeed compose the Dungeon Siege score. Dungeon Siege is a game that is on my list of old classics that is amazing in the tone it conveys. The score is superb and the graphics and style allow you to feel immersed in the game.

Soule is a fairly prolific composer as he has worked on many games spanning his career some of them being The Secret of Evermore, Total Annihilation, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Dungeon Siege, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Unreal II, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, Guild Wars Prophecies, Dungeon Siege II, Company of Heroes, Oblivion, Prey, All the Guild Wars Expansions, Skyrim, Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandera.

I have some of the games listed above and am trying to figure out how I can obtain the individual scores for them. The Dungeon Siege and Neverwinter Nights score stick out to me as ones I particularly want to obtain. I played those games so much that I believe I have all the music forever burned into my brain. Being able to come back to it whenever I want particularly appeals to me.

Soule is Kickstarting his next project "The Northerner: Soule Symphony No. 1" and I have linked to it above. This is a interesting project as it is not tied to a video game like much of his work. As a fan of Soule's work I am going to back this project and think its pretty cool that the starting backing option is a physical copy of the album.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/499808045/from-the-composer-of-skyrim-soule-symphony-no-1

Super Time Force: Remember Life, She is For Living

Capybara Games upcoming game "Super Time Force" looks rad-tacular. Pulling many elements from sugary cereal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, GI Joe, Contra, Metal Slug and no-death-time-rewindy-amazing puts Super Time Force in "game-citement list in 2013." And it also has one of the most epically funny game videos I've seen in quite some time.

Clipped from the Capy site:

"THE PROBLEM: EVERYTHING’S GONE TO SHIT!

THE MISSION: FIX IT!

THE GOAL: MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR YOU AND ME + ALIENS!"

I can respect the "EVERYTHING'S GONE TO SHIT SO FIX IT" premise. I also respect the games about section being in all caps. Capy is showing this at PAX East and you are in the... Read All

Continuing The Journey

Anodyne is one of the most compelling games I've played in quite some time. Every time I mull over what game to play next, Anodyne lulls me back. Its a very uniquely paced game and as such mixes in some really surprising elements. For instance, Anodyne contains some very cool art for certain levels that really does harken back to an older Super Nintendo era. Each dungeon has a hook to it, like the old Zelda dungeons from Link to the Past onward. For instance, in one dungeon you must master a series of jump puzzles that gets a bit fiddly, but once you learn the ropes it isn't too bad.

Anodyne has a story that may be hard to follow but that doesn't mean I don't... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/28/2013 at 02:29pm

Did you get hit by a boulder on the way up?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/28/2013 at 02:47pm

Ha, no. At least, I don't remember seeing any boulder.

Blue_Element wrote on 04/01/2013 at 01:52am

Where can you get that game, and what platform(s) is it on?

Blue_Element wrote on 04/01/2013 at 01:55am

Wait nevermind, I see that it's on PC. :P But does it run on Mac?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/01/2013 at 03:53am

It's on Steam now and runs on PC, Mac and Linux.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/01/2013 at 03:54am

Played it on both the PC and Mac.

Sparklepop wrote on 04/06/2013 at 02:39am

I just got this game and so far I am enjoying it immensely.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/06/2013 at 02:58am

Yeah, its totally awesome! Did you get it on Steam or from their site? I picked it up before it was on Steam though the Humble Store and they just recently allowed everyone a free Steam Key! WOOT!

Love it when people do the right thing.

Sparklepop wrote on 04/06/2013 at 03:03am

I got it on Steam a few days ago for my birthday.

But, for people that are cheap like me and wanting to get this awesome game, it's currently in the Groupees Bundle with some other excellent titles at http://groupees.com/retro !

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The Firehose: Doom Garry's Mod, DD2 & SCII

Dungeon Defenders 2 pre-alpha footage was released and is embedded above. Fun to see early builds of games, I wonder how well this will stack up to the final release?

An awesome gamer is porting Doom to Half-Life 2's Garry's Mod. Yes, you heard right a mod is getting modded, now if I could mod the doom mod on the mod...

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/19/garrys-mod-doom/

Blizzard likes to release bits of the Starcraft and Diablo universe in the form of short stories and art. They just dropped the latest short story "Just an Overlord" for you to read on BattleNet as well a free PDF download.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/lore/short-stories/just-an-overlord/1

Knights of Pen and Paper: +1 Edition

"Set out on a grand adventure in this turn-based retro style pixel-art RPG, inspired by the great titles of the 90's, where players take on the roles of in-game players taking on the roles of their characters in a traditional pen and paper RPG session.

Players are able to control both the playing characters AND the dungeon master, and they choose which battles to fight. Put together a bunch of monsters to make for a challenging fight, your efforts will be equally rewarded!"

Knights of Pen and Paper looks really interesting. It boasts launch support on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS which is pretty awesome. Having someone play AS the Dungeon Master that facilitates... Read All

The joys of Gaming as a couple

Let me share with you all my favorite thing about this game. Since the original Deus Ex well over a decade ago, the main draw of the series has been the ability to choose your route through any given area. I pride myself on my (admittedly lackluster) stealth skills, and as such, made a point of taking on the terrorist mission early in the game (The one where you had to rescue the hostages and defuse the bomb) with a decidedly low-profile approach. I had some difficulty navigating the room just outside the hostages without being spotted, and eventually just paused and walked away in frustration. My wife asks me to run around the corner to pick her up a snack from our... Read All

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/27/2013 at 02:32am

Sharing passions, or even just being able to communicate and understand those passions, is a valuable thing in any relationship. Very cool that you have this!

Travis Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 03:08am

That's awesome. My wife games, but not as much as me. She loves watching me play some games though, and is really digging Bioshock Infinite.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:04pm

Grenades and Throat Punch? Awesome. :D

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:06pm

Some of the coolest moments in gaming happened during my play sessions with Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 playing on the couch with my wife beside me reading or doing a puzzle. Her reactions to the game were pretty awesome.

I recently ran through the Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm BluRay and watched all the cinematics and she was really interested in the story and how it turned out. She seemed to dig Kerrigan and Jim's story too. LEGACY OF THE VOID CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:34pm

That is so rad man!

Just last night I was at my girlfriend's house, and we were going to watch The Golden Girls (something I'd never thought I'd say, but check it out, it's pretty fantastically funny) and before we did, I threw in her copy of Grand Theft Auto 4. We had a blast just running around the city, punching people's cars and causing a riot. Gaming with a partner can be a ton of fun!

I suppose that should be obvious to me, looking back at my childhood. Gaming with friends is what every day revolved around. I remember putting my Super Nintendo in my backpack after school and biking to my friend's house so we could play games together. Not to mention all the Super Street Fighter 2 and Killer Instincts battles I had with my brother :)

Travis Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 06:56pm

Don't knock the Golden Girls. That show was hilarious!

Sparklepop wrote on 03/27/2013 at 07:17pm

That is awesome!

I wish my boyfriend was awesome like that. We play WoW together but if it's any other game, if I get stuck, he just laughs at me. He never helps or will even hint about how to get around something. *grumblegrumble*

And Golden Girls is awesome! I wanna be like them, when I grow up. =)

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/28/2013 at 05:32am

Gaming as a couple is awesome! My wife and I use to play MMO's together, but now we mostly stick to co-op console games like Borderlands. We're still working on Borderlands 2, but our gaming time together is a little more rare now that kid #3 is here. :)

Nick_Donahoo Post Author wrote on 03/28/2013 at 07:08pm

Ooh. tempted to get the wife interested in Borderlands. Hadn't thought of that before. I think I have the first one somewhere. Wonder if she'll dig playing Lilith.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/07/2013 at 06:38am

I finally got around to watching trailers for this game. It seriously could be a movie. Looks spectacular!

Travis Admin wrote on 05/07/2013 at 12:57pm

It is, I'd say it's one of my favorites of the past few years.

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Revamped Profile Pages & More

We launched a revamp to everyones Profile page as per the list of features we had slated to release this month. The new design is much more distinct than the old one and highlights certain things the old profile page didn't. If you are new to the site, this might be what you are used to, but for people that have been on the site for longer this will be a pretty big departure.

A few examples to look through:

http://cheerfulghost.com/BigBadGoat (the avatar alone is worth the price of admission)
http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis
http://cheerfulghost.com/scrypt

We also now have a much better feedback form now. The old one was simply a Google Doc Form that backended to a... Read All

This was a Triumph.

Hello, *Insert Test Subject Name Here*, and welcome to the Aperture Labs Modular Testing Facility. You are no doubt the pride of *Insert Test Subject's Hometown Here*. For this next test, we have replaced the defective test facility with a live fire course designed for military androids.

A few days ago, I made the discovery that my wife had never experienced the majesty that was the original Portal. A few dollars on steam later, we set about remedying this unfortunate oversight. "So, what the heck is this? A First-Person Puzzle game?" She asked me, a bit incredulous. "That sounds kind of dumb:"

Having not steered her wrong on games before, she was willing to give me... Read All Hello, *Insert Test Subject Name Here*, and welcome to the Aperture Labs Modular Testing Facility. You are no doubt the pride of *Insert Test Subject's Hometown Here*. For this next test, we have replaced the defective test facility with a live fire course designed for military androids.

A few days ago, I made the discovery that my wife had never experienced the majesty that was the original Portal. A few dollars on steam later, we set about remedying this unfortunate oversight. "So, what the heck is this? A First-Person Puzzle game?" She asked me, a bit incredulous. "That sounds kind of dumb:"

Having not steered her wrong on games before, she was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. She delved into Aperture Labs, oblivious to the trials and tribulations ahead of her. She hears the calming tones of GLaDOS pushing her along, encouraging her to continue testing. She laughed as she realized lining up a pair of portals on the ceiling and floor makes for a lot of speed, and the right portal afterwards sends her ceiling-bound. Promises of cake kept her moving to the next test chamber,

Then came the Rattman. She stumbled upon a broken section of wall, and curiosity got the better of her. "What's this?" She wondered aloud. "The Cake Is A Lie? But she promised!" Suddenly, that wide-eyed joy was replaced with a hint of concern. She wondered who to trust. The dulcet tones that have led her every step of the way so far, or the hasty, erratic graffiti obviously scrawled by a desperate, if not mad man. We moved on, a bit uneasier, but still completely enthralled.

By now, we've met most of the cast. GLaDOS has been whispering in our ear the entire time, and the Rattman has left his mark on our test chambers. As she stepped out of the elevator, our last cast member introduced itself. Muck like our beloved Chell, it is silent, resilient, reliable, and a little bit adorable. The Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube has found its way into our lives, and she couldn't be happier. As she smiles and hops along with her new friend, I'm filled with an increasing sense of dread, knowing what comes next...

To Be Continued.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 12:05am

For sure. When I lost the companion cube I remember my wife was in the room and she was like "Hey, wait what, YOU DIDNT HAVE TO DO THAT!" I was like, "yeah I think I did." Funny how nearly everyone reacts badly to that scene.

Have you played Portal before?

Nick_Donahoo Post Author wrote on 03/27/2013 at 12:42am

I played it years ago. I was surprise when I realized she hadn't. I was watching her more than the game, It's kind of a surreal experience knowing the twists when the other person doesn't.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 01:01am

For sure. Before Portal 2 came out I played the original again. It was still very fun and enjoyed myself.

Have you played Portal 2?

Nick_Donahoo Post Author wrote on 03/27/2013 at 01:14am

*ahem* I'm in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Um, yes. I have. It was a masterpiece. And half of it was voiced by Nolan North, who you might recognize as the voice of EVERYTHING. I have a thing for good voice acting, and this was incredibly well done. Absolutely everything was right about it. I should be doing a write up of my wife's first playthrough. Heck, that might just become a thing. "My Wife Plays ____" The story of a gamer sharing his lifelong passion with his until recently non-gamer wife.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 01:15am

Hahahaha that sounds awesome.

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DRM: Its 2013 and it Still Won't Die

Recently Tommy Refenes posted on IndieGames.com about Piracy and DRM and you really should read it.

http://indiegames.com/2013/03/team_meats_refenes_apathy_and_.html

Its a well written piece and he brings up several points I want to highlight.

“We are closing in on 2 million sales and assuming a 10% piracy to sales ratio does not seem unreasonable. As a forward thinking developer who exists in the present, I realize and accept that a pirated copy of a digital game does not equate to money being taken out of my pocket.”

He goes on to say...

“In the digital world, you don't have a set inventory. Your game is infinitely replicable at a negligible or zero cost (the cost... Read All

Sparklepop wrote on 03/26/2013 at 07:09pm

Agree 100%. And this isn't a hard concept to understand. Well, at least not for us little people.

IceMice wrote on 03/26/2013 at 10:42pm

i'm just gonna be sharing this over on facebook now...

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/26/2013 at 11:13pm

This is good stuff. I like Tommy's article. The argument that piracy equals lost sales never made sense to me. Value and respect go hand in hand, and the idea of creating something valuable, rather than creating a product that you put a value on, is an essential concept. Radiohead experienced a similar thing with their pay-what-you-like digital release of In Rainbows:

http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&title=did_radiohead_s_in_rainbows_honesty_box_&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/27/2013 at 12:02am

I picked up that Radiohead album and for me, yeah it brought with it a new way of thinking about buying stuff. They should have tagged it better and added album art BUT it opened peoples eyes to a new way to delivering the rad.

I think people in the ivory towers of mega-videogame-corp-o-tron don't understand that paying customers are not evil. I don't pirate software but I have a shitload of Steam titles. You can't invent DRM that works with me cause I don't pirate games, I buy them. I have met people that pirate as a way of life, they just want free stuff, no amount of coaxing will get them to think otherwise.

Anyways ill get down off the soapbox :D

Travis Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 03:49am

I'm OK with certain DRM. Steam is fine. It's something that you have to be logged into, or have logged into in the somewhat recent past, in order to play. It's totally unobtrusive and doesn't put up roadblocks every step of the way.

But like you and everyone else has said, if it's good enough, it's going to be broken and spread all over the net. They aren't punishing pirates in any way, they're punishing paying customers.

If I download a movie I open it and it starts playing. If I buy one it takes at least a minute or so to get through all the crap to get to my movie.

If piracy is providing a better product than you are, you're doing something wrong and need to change your model.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/27/2013 at 06:28am

"If piracy is providing a better product than you are, you're doing something wrong and need to change your model."

That is exactly true.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:03pm

@Travis: I think there is a difference between "always online DRM for single player games," "online multiplayer games" and Steam.

* Always online DRM: Must be online to start start and play single player game.
* Multiplayer Online Game: Games like WoW and DoTA 2, must be online to play, kind of the point of the game.
* Steam: Must download game before you play it. Can play most games offline unless its like DoTA 2 or some other online multiplayer game.

Just because you need to download something before you play it doesn't mean its DRM, that's like saying Firefox is DRM'ed too. Does Cheerful Ghost employ DRM because you have to be online to use it? :D

Travis Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:15pm

No, Steam is DRM because you have to sign into Steam in order to play most of the games you have purchased. There's a significant difference between always online DRM and Steam, I wasn't trying to equate the two, but Steam *is* a kind of DRM. Or I guess more correctly, DRM is a part of Steamworks. It isn't just a download manager for your games, it provides its own DRM for publishers to use. This is most notable in (for me) its only downside-- If you've signed out incorrectly or if you've failed to install an update and sign in once afterwards, you can't use Steam offline and you are locked out of your games.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:16pm

The relevant bits from the FAQ:

"Steam's DRM solution (called "CEG" by Valve) is just one of many Steamworks components game developers may use, alongside achievements, cloud saving, the workshop, matchmaking network code etc.; just like with all the others, implementing it is not required to distribute a game on Steam. A game can use the other Steamworks features and still remain DRM-free."

But in effect, the list of games that choose not to use it is very small.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:38pm

Huh. Well, I didn't know they did that. So yeah, apparently it is. It seems just like a download manager to me and I have played offline to boot.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:45pm

Yeah I've played offline a bunch, in fact I may have once or twice... heard about... a friend... sharing accounts with people to and after signing in blocking Steam via the Windows firewall to force it offline so two people could play single player games on the same account. But it requires that sign-in, and if Steam ends abruptly or thinks it needs to do something you're screwed until you sign back in.

I think you have to sign in once every 60 or 90 days for offline mode to continue to work as well. Can't remember the cutoff.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/27/2013 at 04:54pm

BUT! I think it speaks volumes about Steam's DRM implementation that it was so unobtrusive you were unaware that there was any DRM there. It's DRM done right. At this point DRM is still a necessary evil if we want games from most publishers, and Steam has a way to do it almost transparently and without being detrimental to the customer.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/29/2013 at 03:24am

For some reason it just now, more than a day later, occurred to me that my previous comment could be taken like "haha you didn't know Steam had drm you stupid head." That wasn't my intention at all- just pointing out how well that Steam had implemented it, so that it's almost entirely transparent to the user.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/29/2013 at 03:39am

I didn't take it that way :)

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Bioshock Infinite Giveaway winners!

http://img.wallpaperstock.net:81/bioshock-infinite-wallpapers_24451_1920x1200.jpg

First off, congrats to our winner on SteamGifts! That winner isn't online at the moment, but once all the dust has settled from that giveaway and it's delivered, I'll edit this post for proper congratulations.

Now, what you've all been waiting for! This has been the hardest contest to judge. It came down to two entries. We were in agreement on who the top two were, but we agreed that both were equally awesome. So we decided to flip a coin to pick. BUT THEN we decided to throw that coin out the window and just buy a second copy!

Congrats to our two winners, Sparklepop and Nick_Donahoo!

Nick's post was beautifully written, and anyone who had yet to play the game could get... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:22am

Congratulations to @Sparkelpop & @Nick_Donahoo! I want to also thank everyone for entering, you guys are all wicked awesome!

BigBadGoat wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:23am

Well deserved winners. Congrats!

Sparklepop wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:36am

Thank you so much! I am literally freaking out right now!

Thank you so much! I never win anything so to win a game in a series that is my top 5 of all time is incredible!

Oh...happy...dance....incoming!

Sparklepop wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:37am

I also tried to get out raiding tonight in WoW so I could still be happy...even though wiping forever tonight won't phase me, I think!

Nick_Donahoo wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:38am

If you kind folks would excuse me, I think I just wet myself. going to go change my drawers, and possibly do a silly dance.

Brandon_Waters wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:40am

Grats all!

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:41am

@Nick_Donahoo: Hahahaha, well you know if you did it would be cool because its the Internet and its not like anyone would know unless you said... oh wait. :D

Spencer_Lingo wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:51am

Congrats lads! Now I'm left wondering how many people entered...

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/26/2013 at 01:53am

@Spencer_Lingo: Id say around 30 on the site, but that's just a guess.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/26/2013 at 04:08am

Congrats to the both of you! Very good posts!

mate211 wrote on 03/26/2013 at 05:47am

Congrats! :)

Jason_Kabir wrote on 03/26/2013 at 08:56am

Nicely done chaps!

samauditore522 wrote on 03/26/2013 at 05:59pm

congragulations !

Nick_Donahoo wrote on 03/26/2013 at 08:10pm

many thanks to everyone with their kind words. I doubted I was going to stand a chance, and I still feel like SparklePop trumped me, so the generosity of the folks that run this site is absolutely astounding. Ask my wife, I was still doing a silly dance about it this morning.

Sparklepop wrote on 03/26/2013 at 08:56pm

Yes, thank you for all the congratulations!

I'm still happy dancing over this. (But come on, who doesn't happy dance?!)

Nick_Donahoo wrote on 03/26/2013 at 09:01pm

Hey, I still am, too...

IceMice wrote on 03/26/2013 at 10:37pm

congrats :P

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