Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Achievement Unlocked: Game Complete.

So I beat the single player missions of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm. This time I put it away in less than a week, which is a personal best. I drew out Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty to take 2 weeks to complete because I wanted to savor the game more. I can't say which experience was better, but I am a bit biased to Heart of the Swarm. Not sure if its because it was a better single player experience or because I just played it.

tone & story

Tonally the two flow well together. Wings of Liberty single player might be a tighter game and overall a bit better experience but Heart of the Swarm takes it up a few notches. All said, I really appreciate the ambition of... Read All

Zelda Starring Zelda

"Earlier this week, I read about that awesome dad who edited Donkey Kong to let his daughter play as the Princess. I wished I had someone who could have done that for me. Then I remembered. I'm an adult now. If he could work it out, I could too.

I'm hobbyist animator and my boyfriend is a professional video game programmer. I sent him the article and I asked, "How do I do this?"

"I think he's just using an existing rom editor, so he just went in and changed the sprites."

"I want to switch around Link and Zelda."

That got his attention. We'd been talking about a Zelda-centric game ever since the first Tropes vs Women in Games video was released. He's a huge fan of the... Read All

I Totally Want This Card

Its pretty good too, regenerates and only costs 3 mana? Not bad.

Means the only way this thing goes bye bye is with some kind of lock down or exile.

A New Feature: Post Tracking

I just rolled out a new feature many of you have been asking for called "post tracking." Post tracking is the star to the right of the comment button. The star lets you know by it being highlighted or not if you are tracking a post.

If you track a post you will get notifications whenever anyone comments on the post. If you want to stop getting notifications on a post, click the star to stop tracking it.

If you create or comment in a post you will automagically track it.

Tracking specifies you and everyone else's interest in the post over time. You might be interested in a post in the beginning and over time might want to exit the conversation. You also might just want to... Read All

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/16/2013 at 11:49pm

Woot!

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/16/2013 at 11:53pm

Fantastic news.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/17/2013 at 12:17am

Very cool new feature!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/17/2013 at 12:55am

Thanks everyone, its been a long process of thinking about it after all that it was really only maybe a few hours to add it in.

BR Supporter wrote on 03/17/2013 at 01:16am

Yay, now I won't get 1 million notifications when I comment on something. :P

All jokes aside, this is a really cool, and simple to use, idea.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/17/2013 at 01:19am

Glad you guys like it! Personally I love getting notifications and only recently didn't know people didn't like that. :D

Travis Admin wrote on 03/17/2013 at 03:19am

Yeah there has yet to be a conversation I wanted out of, but I can understand with things like the Terraria server, if you weren't in on it and didn't need to get updates, etc.

Looks awesome!

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GCW Zero. An Awesome Looking New Handheld.

For many years I have wanted a mobile gaming handheld that is better than my iPhone. For some the iPhone is an amazing device for gaming and it has some great games, but I find the touch interface to be a bit limiting. So much so that I find the original Gameboy to be a better gaming device than the modern iPhone. I know some may not agree, but its not about the power of the system or the graphics its about the games, gameplay and controls. Maybe my mind is forever set on thumb controls for mobile games, maybe its just a better way to play them?

Even if the touch screen can be made to work with an old game port, often its totally crapped up to the point of being a... Read All

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/16/2013 at 11:52pm

I currently have my retro gaming needs handled pretty well with my hacked wii, but I would love to have that experience in a portable. I've been playing PSone games on my PSP lately, and it's been awesome. I might look into this when it hits the general market if it's not too expensive.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/17/2013 at 12:54am

Ill let you know how much it is. I am fairly certain ill pick one up if I can and of course report back :D

Travis Admin wrote on 03/17/2013 at 02:26am

WBS, you can hack your PSP quite easily and get emulators there as well. I've played SNES games on my PSP more than actual PSP games.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/17/2013 at 05:59am

Already hacked. :P I didn't feel like buying all my PSone games again on the PSN store just so I could play them on PSP. I haven't looked into an SNES emulator though, but that would be cool.

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Speaking At GameStorm 2013

GameStorm is March 21st-24th at the Hilton in Vancouver Washington. I am going to be speaking on a few panels this year about some really cool topics. Ill also be frequenting the event over the weekend in between my panel time as well with my laptop hacking on Cheerful Ghost when I can.

If you are planning on attending GameStorm you should totally let me know so we can hang out. Plus this will be my first set of speaking engagements about Video Games since I launched the site.

The Panels I Will Be Part Of:

* What's On Kickstarter Right Now: Friday March 22nd @ 11am. http://schedule.gamestorm.org/sessions/708
* Community Organizing: Friday March 22nd @ 3pm. ... Read All

Call of Juarez: gunslinger trailer

Looks like call of juarez is going back to it's roots. Can't wait for this game. Western atmosphere done right.

More Heart of the Swarm Goodness

Bear with me people, Starcraft: Heart of the Swarm was released and apparently I love it. Apparently I like sharing bits related to it that I find awesome. So yeah, Starcraft.

PC Gamer covered the HoTS launch with a few videos that are pretty awesome. The one above featured above features the actor that played the voice of Jim Raynor. They also posted a longer video that covered more of the launch event you can watch below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngTFih13HXk#!

"I won't give up on you Starcraft, so don't give up on us!"

Games Fellowship in 2013: Gabe Newell

"Valve's Gabe Newell was honoured with the Academy Fellowship at the British Academy Games Awards in 2013 for his outstanding and exceptional creative contribution to the Games industry."

Yeah, that makes sense. Under Gabe's wing Valve has done amazing things with its games and Steam. The video above, starts with a nice mashup of some of Valves more amazing titles and then goes right into his acceptance speech, which is quite awesome. It follows up with a fun interview where he talks a bit about Valve and its growth.

They asked about Half-Life 3. Watch the video for the answer.

Tomb Raider: The first hour

The first hour of Tomb Raider may be one of the best hours I've spent gaming. Seriously.

We're reintroduced to Lara Croft, a version of her prior to her previous exploits, and seemingly a different character. This Lara is a young archaeologist out to find ruins of a lost civilization. Immediately, chaos erupts, and Lara is thrown into danger with only the clothes on her back.

This Lara isn't the over-sexualized Lara we have been playing for years. Even though as each game went on they seemed to tone down the focus on T&A, it was still ever-present and in need of a reboot like this. Lara 2.0 is far more real. Yeah, she's quite attractive, but she's wearing... Read All The first hour of Tomb Raider may be one of the best hours I've spent gaming. Seriously.

We're reintroduced to Lara Croft, a version of her prior to her previous exploits, and seemingly a different character. This Lara is a young archaeologist out to find ruins of a lost civilization. Immediately, chaos erupts, and Lara is thrown into danger with only the clothes on her back.

This Lara isn't the over-sexualized Lara we have been playing for years. Even though as each game went on they seemed to tone down the focus on T&A, it was still ever-present and in need of a reboot like this. Lara 2.0 is far more real. Yeah, she's quite attractive, but she's wearing reasonable clothing for an archaeologist-- a camisole shirt (I think, I'm terrible at what different shirts are called) and cargo pants. This is someone you might meet in real life, and her motivations are academic.

As soon as you get control, it plays like a survival horror game. You're injured, you have no weapons, and there are crazy people after you. And you're in for quite a ride.

The graphics are splendid. This is the first title in a while to really push my PC, and the payoff is great. I've read that this is optimized for AMD cards (and even has an option to render each hair individually if you're rocking AMD) but my GTX 550 ti handled it on normal settings, and pushed a few higher settings before the sputtering started. The lighting really controls the mood early on. You need a torch to get around, and you're functionally blind past a certain point. The shadows are fantastic, and add to the horror feel.

The real star is the voice acting. Every little action seems to be scripted. Hearing Lara gasp "Oh god!" when she's slipping or timidly say "OK, I can do this" when there's a big jump enhances the mood. When you find an abandoned camp to escape a storm, the fear, cold, and hunger are entirely believable thanks to the animations and voice acting.

Once you find a bow after a good night's sleep, the game changes. You can hunt for food, you can defend yourself. You see Lara's confidence growing little by little. The action and adventure quickly replace the horror, and the Indiana Jones feeling you're used to in these kinds of games is ever-present. And it's fun, the mechanics are all there, the puzzles are satisfying if a bit easy (though I'm still in the early game). It's still quite a good game.

But in that first hour, I experienced that rare anomaly of complete immersion, where the line where I ended and the game began was blurred to the point of non-existence, and it was *me* who was fighting for my life. I won't soon forget that, and I hope the rest of the game upholds the expectations the intro set.