Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Microsoft Has Purchased Zenimax Media, and Now Owns Bethesda, id, MachineGames, and More

In what may be the biggest gaming deal ever, Microsoft has purchased Zenimax for $7.5 Billion. That's almost twice what Disney paid for Star Wars, just to put that in perspective.

This means they now own Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios.

This gives Microsoft a huge swath of exclusives going forward. While they've said they're excited to bring these games to Xbox and PC, they haven't specifically said that new games from these studios won't come to PS5, but it's very doubtful they'd pay $7.5 billion and keep making games for their competitors. While... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 03:56pm

https://i.imgur.com/3IaBXRa.gif

Thoughts:

* Everyone with Game Pass should be elated by this news. So much more value here.

* Microsoft still could release games in a standard way on Playstation and if they kept Beth games to Game Pass streaming/sub exclusively that might be worth this deal entirely. This seems like a Game Pass play to me but I could be wrong.

* If Bethesda _NEEDED_ to be purchased, and I'm not sure it did, I'd prefer Microsoft due to it's focus on PC games and Steam lately. At some point new Beth games might be exclusives but at least they will come out on PC? I'm not sure how exclusive they will be given what Microsoft has done with Mojang as an example.

* Microsoft bought Beth for 7.5 billion in cash. Just you know, had it in the couch cushions. Dear Euclid that's some couch!

Questions:

* Does this mean John Carmack might be allowed to engage with iD Software again? I certainly hope so, he needs to be around in some form to talk about the classics.

https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1308069857913720832

* Will Microsoft focus on existing games IP or have Beth push for some new stuff? I love Beth but one note is they haven't dropped a ton of new IP lately and I think that might be good while they keep the hit train rolling.

* What's going to happen to the Beth.net launcher in the mid/long term? Will all our purchases transfer to the Microsoft store or something? I think Mojang still has it's launcher but didn't we all get Minecraft on the Microsoft store?

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 03:58pm

Prediction: Microsoft will purchase Epic Games in one year or less.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/21/2020 at 04:00pm

"Does this mean John Carmack might be allowed to engage with iD Software again?"

Isn't Carmack owned by Facebook?

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 04:00pm

(In)sane wish: Microsoft focuses iD Software and releases a Doom II.5 that is a follow up to Doom II in the old engine with some new modifications releasing an entirely new 3 chapter game Mega WAD.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 04:02pm

> Isn't Carmack owned by Facebook?

Employed, yes. With that, he had a beef(suit) with Beth/Zenmax over VR. It's caused a rift and hasn't allowed him to be involved with classic iD games such as the recent Quake soundtrack re-release.

https://kotaku.com/quake-soundtrack-features-shenanigans-between-bethesda-1845084718

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 04:14pm

Another question for folks WITH Game Pass. Will you buy Beth games moving forward now that they are coming date and day to Game Pass?

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 04:24pm

"Future Bethesda games will be on Xbox, PC, and "other consoles on a case by case basis.""

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1308062702905044993

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 04:36pm

https://twitter.com/Obsidian/status/1308044609604341763

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/21/2020 at 06:08pm

I have Game Pass and I love Game Pass, and I am not elated. It's going to lead to less choice for the player which I'm never happy about.

I'm not sure I'll always keep a game pass subscription going. I may just renew it once in a while to play some games then let it lapse. So I imagine I'll buy new games I'm really into, especially since Bethesda games are not short.

And as I'm sure Will will agree-- physical is always better.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/21/2020 at 07:16pm

I'll get Game Pass when my physical backlog is 0

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/21/2020 at 07:38pm

WRT Carmack: "I think Microsoft has been a good parent company for gaming IPs, and they don’t have a grudge against me, so maybe I will be able to re engage with some of my old titles."

https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1308069857913720832

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 07:38pm

> I'll get Game Pass when my physical backlog is 0

Hahahaha, so as soon as I get Game Pass then. 🤣

> I have Game Pass and I love Game Pass, and I am not elated. It's going to lead to less choice for the player which I'm never happy about.

That's a great point Travis, I suppose I was thinking about a particular user. So there is that $25 a month Series S that comes with Game Pass for two years and this news seems like great news for them.

My hope is that physical games go strong well into the era of services like Game Pass and game streaming. I mean, I own Doom 64 digitally on Switch and I'm still gonna get it from Limited Run this Thursday! ❤

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 07:40pm

Some have also said this is bad news for Sony and I suppose in the long term it could however I think this is abysmal news for Stadia. Why would Microsoft license anything to Stadia at all moving forward? The more companies like Sony and Microsoft buy up studios is horrible news for upstart game streamers. Odd to say Stadia is an upstart, but it is as it is relatively new and doesn't own any game IP I'm aware of.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 09/21/2020 at 09:00pm

I haven't heard a ton of great stuff out of Stadia. And with Game Pass (especially the 25 a month series S financing with Game Pass) there's not a ton of reason to pay for the 4k Stadia. Game Pass is closer to a Netflix for Gaming than Stadia, and with Stadia you never own anything really and are dependent on a constant internet connection.

So in short yeah I agree.

Thinking more about how it affects me personally, none. Except perhaps that Zenimax under Microsoft will be run a bit more... eh... nicely? I love Bethesda's games but the corporate side of things has gotten some reasonable criticism. MS could be better or worse here and I wouldn't be surprised with either.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 11:20pm

In an unrelated yet related thought. I’ve been hearing rumbles of a 4K Switch, which is welcomed news. That said I hope Nintendo always has a physical card option in each of its consoles. Physical Switch ownership on that platform is incredible and could be one way to differentiate as Sony & Microsoft move to a digital only world.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/23/2020 at 09:24am

I read that MS CEO said they plan on leaving Zen/Beth alone. There are a couple articles on www.gamefaqs.com if you want to look (it's where I get my daily gaming news and vote in the poll).

As for the 4K Switch, I seem to recall reading or hearing about the possibility of a new Switch model coming out some time, though I'm not sure of the source. Honestly, the Switch is the only console I care about. Though keep in mind I'm not considering PC to be a "console," because it's not functionally exclusive to gaming and video streaming, etc.

So, I'm pretty much strictly a PC/Steam player and I don't really have much of a reaction to this news (MS & Zen), because I don't believe it's going to affect me, at least not very much or in a negative way. Here's hoping that MS provides Zen/Beth w/ a decent Quality Assurance team! I know MS is a software giant, but I've always viewed MS favorably. I loved every new version of Windows as I saw it improve over the years and I'm pretty happy w/ Win10.

Oh, I don't think MS did much to Mojang/Minecraft. You can get the Win10 version of Minecraft, which is the same as the current console versions, but you can also get the Java edition. There are significant differences such as performance and the fact that Java is the one for mods. Yes, there is still a Mojang launcher, though mine only has Minecraft (Java) and Minecraft Dungeons (which I think I pre-ordered via the MS Store).

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It's Hard To Say Goodbye - Nintendo Discontinues The 3DS

In an unsurprising move Nintendo seems to be silently discontinuing the 3DS. This makes a lot of sense as the 3DS isn't selling as much as it once was and Nintendo can now focus entirely on Switch and other new hardware production such as the new Game and Watch. Nintendo has historically been at the top of mobile gaming starting with the original Gameboy and continued that dominance with the DS, 3DS and Switch. I picked up the 3DS late in it's life-cycle and was able to get a lot of incredible DS games and 3DS games as Nintendo started focusing more on the Switch. In fact, if you wanted to start collecting for the DS and 3DS now is a great time as many stores will... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/20/2020 at 02:18am

I saw this days ago and am still confused as to whether this only pertains to the 3DS models or if it also includes the 2DS models. I can understand getting rid of the former, I didn't get much from the 3D aspects of featured games. It kind of doesn't make sense that they'd get rid of the latter though, at least that's what I think. However, they could have decided to replace the DS w/ the Switch. I think I've owned every version of the 3DS, including the 2DS XL. It's kind of sad to see it go away and yet again a bit more so if they're discontinuing the DS entirely (I've owned many versions of the DS). The DS is an evolution of the original Gameboy, which I had when I was much younger.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/20/2020 at 11:44am

I think it’s the whole lineup but I’m not certain of that. The thought and still think the 3D effect is really neat. Played a lot of games that way and really liked it. If a future Switch gets a webcam I hope they add it back, that would be really neat.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/20/2020 at 06:42pm

The 3D was the best. It worked best on the New 3DS.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/20/2020 at 06:55pm

The New 3DS was all I’ve ever had so maybe I was somewhat spoiled in that way?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/21/2020 at 01:18am

I'm thinking that if they were discontinuing the DS family, they would have said DS instead of 3DS. I don't know though, I'm still confused.

Travis Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 02:27pm

DS is the old generation, which also included the DS Lite and the DSi. The 3DS generation includes the 2DS, and the New 3DS and new 2DS.

Nintendo and their names, amirite?

Travis Admin wrote on 09/21/2020 at 02:30pm

Also Greg the article in Jon's post specifies the 2DS.

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/9/17/21441096/nintendo-3ds-production-discontinued-total-sales

The listings for all 3DS/2DS models show as out of production.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/21/2020 at 03:37pm

Right, thanks for clearing that up. Maybe I just don't want to believe it LOL.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/21/2020 at 04:03pm

Yeah, it's sad. Wit h that they haven't made any new 3DS games and it hasn't got a lot of 3rd party games either. Seems like a good time to say goodbye.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 82: High Score Review (first half)

In this episode we're dusting off our favorite old consoles as we take a trip back to the early days of gaming, in our review of Netflix's new documentary series, High Score. For this review, we covered the first 4 episodes.

Go Deep In Historic Doom Mapping With The Dean of Doom

A week ago I discovered YouTuber MtPain27 who has recently published a new YouTube series of videos that looks back at classic Doom megawads and reviews them on some fun criteria. Most YouTubers focus on Doom or Doom II and the main wads and there hasn't been someone that has gone deep on the community megawads.

MtPain started things out reviewing The Plutonia Experiment and recently TNT Evilution which are the two megawads featured in the Final Doom release by iD Software created by community wad teams. On a fun side note if you want to play these they are available as free downloads in the recent Doom Unity remasters.

So far MtPain has reviewed the original 1993 3... Read All

Gearbox Digital Showcase at PAX Online 2020

Right now in Oregon the state wildfires are destroying so much forest the air is hazardous and when you look outside it reminds me of the worse scenes from an apocalypse film where we've lost control of our environment. Needless to say it's pretty bleak here so I wanted to share something a bit more upbeat in a recent Gearbox Digital Showcase from PAX Online. As time marches ever onward Gearbox is positioning itself as more of a top tier video game company and is expanding heavily into game publishing and during this Showcase it's on full display.

Some highlights of the Digital Showcase were a table read by the voice talent from the recent Borderlands 3 DLC Psycho... Read All

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Coming in November

Nintendo has just recently announced Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and it's coming in November. This is one more reason why I wish I owned a Switch. Nintendo has acknowledged that they're working on a sequel to Breath of the Wild, but this new game is actually a prequel as it is set 100 years before Breath of the Wild. The original Hyrule Warriors game on the Wii U was probably my most favorite game on the system. I really enjoyed it. Hyrule Warriors is a mix between The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors games. If you haven't played the latter, basically it's an action war game where you control one character battling a whole army. The individuals in that army... Read All

Red Dead Redemption 2: A Steam Version Review

Azurephile gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Azurephile gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

I just received the 100% completion achievement for Red Dead Redemption 2, so it’s time to write about it. This game is great. It is pretty much exactly what I wanted in that it was a deep game that had a lot to do and took a long time to complete. It made time disappear quickly. It was one of those great gaming experiences I was wanting. I decided to grab it while it was slightly discounted during Steam’s summer sale. There are three versions of it. The most expensive version comes with additional content for single player mode and Red Dead Online. The one that’s a little cheaper only comes with the additional single player content, while the cheapest version comes... Read All I just received the 100% completion achievement for Red Dead Redemption 2, so it’s time to write about it. This game is great. It is pretty much exactly what I wanted in that it was a deep game that had a lot to do and took a long time to complete. It made time disappear quickly. It was one of those great gaming experiences I was wanting. I decided to grab it while it was slightly discounted during Steam’s summer sale. There are three versions of it. The most expensive version comes with additional content for single player mode and Red Dead Online. The one that’s a little cheaper only comes with the additional single player content, while the cheapest version comes with none of the bonus content. I decided to get the middle one, as I’m not really interested in Red Dead Online. I didn’t really enjoy Grand Theft Auto Online, so that’s why I’m not interested in RDO. However, there was a weapon you can unlock in the game if you do a certain treasure hunt on GTAO, I did that.

If you’re not familiar with the series, this is actually the third game in the Red Dead series that started with Red Dead Revolver, which I’ve never played. It was followed up by the very successful and great Red Dead Redemption, which I now intend to replay to piece the two games together. Basically RDR is like GTA, but a Western version of it, so horses instead of cars. I really loved the horses. I only ever had an Arabian breed as my main horse for a long period of time, but there are lots of other breeds you can get. I found out early on what the best horses were and how to get them. There’s a white Arabian you can tame near the bigger frozen lake up North. In this game, you’re pretty much a gunslinger named Arthur, who’s in a gang. I personally think the story is fantastic and emotionally moving. I won’t give away spoilers, but even when I discovered a spoiler, I was still quite affected by some of the events of the game. It’s interesting that I love this game so much, because I’m not into guns, hunting, and thieving, but this game puts them together and does a really great job of it.

Unfortunately the game is not without it’s flaws. The majority of issues I saw were minor, but visual as some object didn’t render properly. I visited one character who had a floating candle in front of him. I decided to share that with Rockstar tech support/customer service and it seems to have been fixed. However, this wasn’t the only bug I spotted and shared with Rockstar and about half the time I found their representatives to be quite unhelpful as though they hadn’t even read my ticket. Eventually, I pretty much gave up on reporting these issues as I had a few bad experiences with them. This I find to be unique as most other companies have excellent tech support customer service representatives. The game did not always do well with the Steam overlay, so I disabled that after a while. Sometimes, after using the overlay’s web browser, the overlay/web browser would stay on screen even though I had told it to close or tried to close it with TAB and SHIFT. This in turn made me rely on ALT-TAB to look up things on the Internet and keep track of that 100% completion checklist I was working on. Unfortunately, sometimes this caused the game to crash. Sometimes the game would stutter for a few seconds, but this was uncommon and didn’t last very long. I think perhaps something else was going on with my PC, but perhaps I’m wrong. Still, it was uncommon enough to live with. Other than that, the game ran smoothly, extremely well. I was impressed! In fact, the game’s benchmarking tool ran a lot smoother than GTAV’s, which made me think about how they’ve optimized the engine. I thought RDR2 ran better than GTAV, but after playing the latter again for a bit, I noticed that it doesn’t render the same way in-game as it does in the benchmark. In the benchmark, things pop in on screen instead of naturally gradually, maybe it’s that the view distance is short, but I didn’t see this in RDR2, except in one area later in the game.

There is a lot to do in RDR2. The story is set in chapters. Chapter 1 gives you an introduction to the game’s controls and mechanics. There are only a couple of missions, before it moves on. Once you’re in Chapter 2, the world opens up, but not completely. There is one area you cannot go until much later in the game. Even if you avoid the law, you will be killed by “invisible snipers.” In a way, this is disappointing that a big part of the game is locked, because it prevents you from completing some tasks, such as studying all the plants in the game. In Chapter 2, it’s a good idea to do some of the story missions to get you started. One will open up a fence, which is someone you can sell stolen goods to, who also accepts wagons. Another will take you on a hunt for a Legendary animals. These are rare single animals in the wild you can track, kill, and trade in their carcass or pelt to the trapper and get another material you can take to the fence to create a trinket. Trinkets give you a permanent bonus, so it’s a good idea get these as soon as possible. Otherwise this is a perfect time to go exploring and doing a lot of non-story things. The game will tell you about some of these things, for instance there are Challenges where you need to do something to complete and when you do, you’ll rank up and eventually complete it. When you complete Challenges, the trapper will have new improved equipment unlocked that you can buy. This equipment often does things like increase ammo capacity and reduce maintenance needed for your guns. Having a completed set of this equipment will unlock a bonus to one of your stats, depending on the equipment. Stats in the game include health, stamina, and Dead Eye. The latter is kind of like V.A.T.S. in Fallout, it slows down time and allows you to aim and shoot. It can even highlight the areas on the animal or person you want to shoot for a critical hit. Although the full part of this feature isn’t unlocked until later in the game. It’s a very handy skill, one of the most important indeed. You’ll want to keep your Dead Eye bar filled as you may be wanting to use this often. You can replenish it with food, tonics, or getting kills without using it.

Hunting and fishing is an activity you can do, which I enjoyed even though I don’t hunt or like hunting in real life. Non-Legendary animals come in three qualities; poor, good, and perfect. If you kill a perfect animal with a critical shot that doesn’t damage the pelt, then you can get a perfect pelt from it. These are often needed for crafting different materials and also an optional hunting quest you can do. You use your Dead Eye ability to slow time and it will show you trails of animals that you can track and follow. No matter what animal you kill, you’ll get some meat from skinning it. You’ll want to set up camp often as sleeping restores your stats and it allows you to cook and craft items. You can then later eat the food you’ve cooked or found while you’re in a gun fight. There are herbs you can use as seasoning that will give the meat you cook certain advantages; like one will give you a bonus to health. However, I very rarely used any of the meat I cooked nor any of the food items I picked up in the world. Still, I enjoyed looting everything.

When you complete a story mission, you’ll be given a bronze, silver, or gold reward for it. These pertain to hidden objectives within the mission. If you complete all of them, you get a gold reward. I’m not sure if there’s anything related to getting gold in every mission, but it seems like a lot to do. This isn’t that different than GTAV’s missions.

There is really a lot about this game to talk about and it’s kind of hard not to find spoilers if you’re looking for information on something. I wanted to work on the 100% completion achievement, but by finding out what I had to do for it, I ended up meeting some spoilers. Although that didn’t change the game for me, I still enjoyed it very much.

I definitely recommend playing this if you’re into this kind of game or if it sounds like something you’d be interested in. It’s not too incredibly flawed and I got really attached to the characters and my horses. This is a game that will keep making you want to come back for more and play it all that you can, or at least that was my experience with it.

Oh, I also recommend using the keyboard and mouse controls instead of a controller. Even though this game was born on consoles, it translated quite perfectly to the PC’s keyboard and mouse. The mouse aids in aiming and guiding your horse or looking around. My only recommendation would be to change the Dead Eye key from the mouse scroll wheel button to CAPS LOCK as it can be tricky to trigger in it’s default setting.

So, what do you think about this? Have you played this game or RDR? Does Red Dead Online appeal to you? What did you think about it? Let me know what you think. If you want to talk about spoilers, I could create another post so we can do that.

Doom Source Port Breakdown

Recently I completed the original 1993 Doom campaigns Knee Deep in the Dead, The Shoes of Hell & Inferno. My recent dive back into the original Doom and subsequent focus is still going strong and one fun part of that is that I've tried out many of the major Doom source ports. If you want to dive back in to Doom it might not be obvious the best way to play so I hope this post helps that.

I'm going to order the Doom ports top to bottom as a sort of recommendation system where the top most, I recommend most.

The Official Doom Unity Port

iD Software worked with Nerve to create these modern Doom ports built on the Unity Framework. Whereas originally these ports weren't... Read All

Two Essential Runs From Summer Games Done Quick 2020!

The Simpsons Arcade Game by LRock617 in 20:33 One thing that makes LRock617 absolutely demolish The Simpsons Arcade game is the Japanese version adds more brooms making it possible to do some very powerful jump attacks. That said, LRock's skill is genuine and it's The Simpsons Arcade game so why not watch it?

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link by EnchantressOfNumbers in 50:59 I've played Zelda II a handful of times but was always stopped by it's difficulty. I enjoy watching Zelda II runs because they make the game seem easy something I know in bones is not true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0H5Pnp7K7Q

Digital Foundry Showcases Sonic Running on the SNES

TiagoSC on the NES Dev forums brought an early version of Sonic to Super Nintendo. Some have said Sega does what Nintendon't but apparently it's more like NintenDOES! Digital Foundry has a great break down video of it and some of the tradeoffs TiagoSC made. The SNES version is cut down visually a bit but I appreciate the SNES soundchip for Sonic a bit more than the original.

http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=20638