Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

The Elder Scrolls Online: New Trailer and Beta

Bethesda released a new epic trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online today, as well as opening a sign up page for the limited public beta.

I've been out of the MMO scene for a while, but I signed up. I'm interested in seeing what they can do with this. The lore aficionados are a little upset that this seems to go against established canon, but I'm not incredibly worried about that if the game is good.

The trailer is certainly pretty, some uncanny valley stuff in there to be sure, but it's all pre-rendered, no gameplay. The gameplay trailers have looked interesting, but not convincing one way or the other-- I'm just going to have to get my hands on it.

The sign up page can be... Read All

Anyone else signed up?

http://webcdn.pathofexile.com/gen/image/YTozOntpOjA7aTowO2k6/MjthOjI6e3M6MjoiaWQi/O2k6MjY1O3M6NDoic2l6/ZSI7czo3OiJwcmV2aWV3/Ijt9aToxO2k6MTt9/9cd0f57e2a/act3_screenshot6.jpg

The public beta begins tomorrow and it looks like something worth checking out. It seems to be the answer to the question "What would happen if you let a bunch of huge Diablo 2 fans make Diablo 3." Oh, and its Free-to-Play... so why not try it?

It's not gaming but...

I've tooled around with Blender before, but I've left it alone for about 6 months now.

Enter Cycles

Cycles is Blender's new renderer and I must say that it is a thing of beauty. It's fast, it's practical, and, most of all, it makes lighting and materials make sense, something that has been a major hurdle in my modeling hobby. Oh, and the near real time renders (for small resolutions) help tremendously.

The image I've attached took about 20 minutes to model (and I'm really bad), but the real key is that the lighting and materials took about 2min.

For someone who actually knows what they're doing see: http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/introduction-to-cycles/

Interview w Sleep Ninja Games Justin Baldwin

Back this on Kickstarter!

Recently I saw an amazing Kickstarter for a new gamed called "Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake." The game focuses on amazingly lush visuals and a puzzle styled game play similar to early Legend of Zelda Games. I immediately had to know more about the Kickstarter and Sleep Ninja Games the company behind the magic.

jdodson: The “Monster’s Ate My Birthday Cake” Kickstarter page reminisces of the time before the Wiki where we shared secrets and game lore by word of mouth. What lore or secrets have been burned into your brain you can’t shake?

Justin Baldwin: It's been a long time, and I remember it for tons of games. I really more or less want to try to bring that experience... Read All

Heart of the Swarm Beta

Hello Friends,

I totally dig Starcraft. So much so that I pre-ordered the Collectors Edition of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm. The collectors edition packs in the game soundtrack, making of DVD/BluRay, art book and other digital bits. A week or so before the launch of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm I plan on doing a video un-boxing of all my Collector Edition's to share with everyone.

That said, since I pre-ordered the game I was given access to the beta and decided to take it for a spin. They are only making the multi-player aspect of Heart of the Swarm available for Beta customers so I won't be able to comment on the Single Player until game launch in March. That... Read All Hello Friends,

I totally dig Starcraft. So much so that I pre-ordered the Collectors Edition of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm. The collectors edition packs in the game soundtrack, making of DVD/BluRay, art book and other digital bits. A week or so before the launch of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm I plan on doing a video un-boxing of all my Collector Edition's to share with everyone.

That said, since I pre-ordered the game I was given access to the beta and decided to take it for a spin. They are only making the multi-player aspect of Heart of the Swarm available for Beta customers so I won't be able to comment on the Single Player until game launch in March. That said, I played two matches as the Zerg, my race of choice.

The two new Zerg units I played around with were the Viper and Swarm Host. The Viper is a flyer that can move enemy units closer to you. So if an enemy ship or unit is hitting you from a distance you can pick it up and lift it closer to you. It was fun using the Vipers to bring enemy fliers inside my Hydralisk swam and watch them die. Allowing the Zerg more methods to mess with an enemy is an awesome thing. The other new Zerg unit is the Swarm Host which is a siege unit that when burrowed spawn Locusts that spit acid. While interesting, I never found the right formula to use Swarm Host to the point where I loved it but I imagine I just need more time with the unit.

Heart of the Swarm doesn't seem to add any new structures or change any of the other multi-player game mechanics that I noticed.

Looking forward to talking more about the single-player of Heart of the Swarm when the game is launched in March. Speaking of, are you planning on picking up this expansion?

Pre-Order the Game on Amazon and get early Access to the Beta:
http://goo.gl/6uCOl

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/unit/viper
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/unit/swarm-host
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/heart-of-the-swarm-preview/
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/ (section on the new units to Heart of the Swarm)

Hunting For Steam Game Easter Eggs

The other day I wondered what hidden bits of rad one would find by looking through the files Steam installs for the games I played. What I found was pretty interesting as some games install some cool files and stuff they don't advertise. Understand that all I did to find this information was click around in in my Steam games folder for this information. I recommend you do the same and post your findings to this post or make your own post about it.

Together lets find all the awesome stuff in our Steam games.

But first the steps to finding Steam game Easter Eggs:

Open Steam

Go to your game Library

Right click on a game and select Properties

Select the LOCAL FILES tab

... Read All

Mew-Genics Update: "We are Rediculon" CAT FIGHT!

After watching this I am WAY more excited about Mew-Genics than I was as this soundtrack seems totally level 50 max level awesome-rad.

CAT FIGHT, CAT FIGHT! So very catchy.

Yeah, this will be a day one purchase for me and I have no idea what the game is about yet.

A Glimpse Into The Future of Next Gen Consoles

One of my friends on Twitter @groveronline asked me what I thought of a recent Reddit post by KR4T0S, an industry insider with some knowledge of the next generation console hardware. Its a really interesting read and I recommend you check it out.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/16tttt/orbis_unmasked_what_to_expect_from_the_nextgen/c7zfgtg

I want to respond to a few points he brings up:

"If both the 720 and PS4 are running AMD CPU's then that is a revolution, what that means is every developer working on consoles and PC will have a grip on the architecture of all three platforms. The 720 is a Windows PC, the PS4 is a Linux PC. I was wondering how Valve were going to... Read All

Another reason I love the PS3: The Unfinished Swan

So I had just wrapped up The Unfinished Swan, and I gotta say that I wish all games told stories this well. Granted it's short, sweet, and looks to be for a slightly younger audience, but it's still fairly engrossing. Also, the game is simple in a good way. You simply walk, jump, and throw globs of paint, or water to interact with the environment and progress through each level. What gets thrown changes from level to level giving each area it's own mechanics without really changing the game feel. My only real complaint with the PS3 exclusive is the $15 price for something as short as it is. It took me around 2-3 hours, and the replay value isn't fantastic. At the same... Read All

Community Interview with Will Owens

The next entrant in the Cheerful Ghost Community Interview series I have been doing is Will Owens. Will is the creator of Backlog Killer, a blog dedicated to completing his large pile of awesome games.

jdodson: You are playing through Ultima Underworld right now. How is that going?

Will Owens: Slowly but surely. Ultima Underworld is actually one of the two or three games that motivated me to begin writing the Backlog Killer blog last year. The problem of too little time and too much to play remains, but I now have a system that allows me to focus and not be distracted by other games that may be laying around, too. I usually only have the opportunity to play games three... Read All