Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

The joys of couch multiplayer

WARNING: This video is from James Rolfe. If you're unfamiliar with him or his character the Angry Video Game Nerd, there is a lot of adult humor and language. You've been warned! :)

I was catching up on some AVGN when I found a new series with James Rolfe and Mike Matei just playing games and chatting about them. This one in particular got me thinking about the old days with friends all crowded around the TV in the floor, playing the new game you just rented obsessively. Much has changed with games getting huge and the internet enabling remote multiplayer, and not all for the better.

I can remember so many hours spent playing so many games, including but not limited to... Read All WARNING: This video is from James Rolfe. If you're unfamiliar with him or his character the Angry Video Game Nerd, there is a lot of adult humor and language. You've been warned! :)

I was catching up on some AVGN when I found a new series with James Rolfe and Mike Matei just playing games and chatting about them. This one in particular got me thinking about the old days with friends all crowded around the TV in the floor, playing the new game you just rented obsessively. Much has changed with games getting huge and the internet enabling remote multiplayer, and not all for the better.

I can remember so many hours spent playing so many games, including but not limited to Mortal Kombat, NHL, Double Dragon, and of course Super Mario Bros. 3 with friends. There's something special about sitting next to someone that is lost entirely in the internet multiplayer days. The experience just isn't personal. Even with voice communication, it's hard to really focus on everything at once. It's considered a distraction to just talk about whatever and react to things you find interesting or funny as you play.

It seems like there's a resurgence of this lately, to an unfortunately small degree. Games like Borderlands 2 allow split-screen on consoles. Serious Sam 3 even allows split-screen on PC with multiple keyboards and mice. And Nintendo is one major player that still keeps this going strong. Even in Super Mario Galaxy there were minor things a second player could do to influence the world. I couldn't have gotten all the stars without my wife's help!

But for the most part, multiplayer is online-only these days, taking social gaming into a less social place than where it could be. It's amazing that we can play games with people all across the world, but it's sad that some people will never experience the joy of couch multiplayer. Perhaps I'm just being a bit of a gaming hipster, and my gaming proclivities haven't kept up with the times. Maybe I'm wrong, and it's just that I'm nostalgic for a time when gaming was a brave new world to me. What do you think?

PVP & Dueling

Looks like we are getting a pretty interesting update to Diablo III early next year.

"First and foremost, if our original goal was to support dueling, then we're not achieving that goal very well if we don’t actually give players a way to duel in-game. You’ve been asking us for dueling for a while, so we're going to add it to the game soon. Dueling is currently scheduled to release with patch 1.0.7, which is set to hit sometime after the new year. (We'll be providing details about that feature very soon, so stay tuned.)"

Blizzard didn't ship PvP with Diablo III and instead opted to release it as an update after the launch of the game. It doesn't seem like progress on... Read All

2012 Cheerful Ghost Community GoTY Awards

After collecting all the community votes for game of the year the top 5 list is in.

*drumroll*

Borderlands 2

FTL: Faster Than Light

The Walking Dead

Diablo 3

Planetside 2

I am pretty happy with this list and want to thank everyone that voted! Feel free to submit your personal GoTY lists as well, I will collect mine and submit in the next few days!

TonyJapMayo wrote on 01/02/2013 at 02:48pm

I have the first n last.. Hopefully will be able to get the rest too =)

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 01/02/2013 at 04:55pm

Interesting that FTL did so well. It's a good game but I sort of stopped hearing about it much.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/02/2013 at 04:56pm

I was talking to @WhiteboySlim last night as he was playing it. Seemed to make a big splash earlier in the year but might not have with the regular gaming press.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/02/2013 at 04:57pm

I have yet to get it myself, I am kind of holding back on adding many new games to my list. Its on my "games to get" list though :D

Tungsten wrote on 01/03/2013 at 08:41pm

FTL is definitely on my list. It might have to wait for another couple of Steam Sales, though.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/03/2013 at 08:59pm

Yep, me too. Speaking of, I should put all the games I want on my Steam gift list. For that off chance Santa comes in July or whatnot.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 01/05/2013 at 08:47pm

A buddy of mine got me FTL for christmas, and I've sunk around 20 hours into it already. It's very good. I highly recommend it. :)

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PRGE 2012 Video Recap

I hit up Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2012 this year and am still surprised to see these video retrospectives come out so far afterward. That said, this is a good video overview of the event as it was back in the summer.

I am planning on hitting up the next PRGE and am working out a fun collab between Cheerful Ghost and Watch out for Fireballs. No promises, but if it works out, it could be fun.

One of my Gifts

I got this gift from some of my friends this Christmas. So awesome to have Spright as a little plushie toy!

Play Dune 2 in Your Browser Now!

http://play-dune.com/

Some consider Dune 2 to be one of the first, if not the first Real Time Strategy game. Some righteous soul has taken it on to see this classic playable in your browser.

To accomplish this awe-tastic goal they nabbed the source from the Open Dune project and used emscripten to convert the Open Dune C source to JavaScript to bring the browser love. Now if the same could be done for Warcraft: Orcs and Humans!

http://play-dune.com/
https://github.com/OpenDUNE/OpenDUNE
https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 12/31/2012 at 08:32pm

I tried playing this, and while it's great to see such an early RTS, without an manual, it was difficult to pickup lol. I scouted around with my troops and killed all the enemies, but it took me forever to figure out how to build something other than the concrete pads :)

Makes me want to go back and read the books though!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/31/2012 at 08:34pm

:D Yeah, I wonder if there are some directions online...

Robert_Lount wrote on 01/12/2013 at 06:35am

I'm having fun.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/12/2013 at 05:22pm

Awesome! If you want to play it offline, check OpenDune.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/25/2014 at 03:21am

Wow, cool stuff! I remember playing Dune 2 way back in the day on my very first Windows PC. I think I had first played Command & Conquer, but a friend was playing Dune 2 and it didn't take me too long to start playing it. There have been a couple (to my knowledge) Dune games, such as Dune 2000, although I've only played Dune 2. Good memories of staying up until dawn during Winter break in high school playing Dune 2. =)

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2012: Year in Games

Fun video illustrating some highlights of this year in games. No Borderlands 2 or The Walking Dead jokes?

"MMEEEEEEEHHHHHH!"

Interview w Spaceward Ho! Developer Peter Commons

Recently I wrote about a classic game I love called Spaceward Ho! You can read my thoughts about the game here:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/853

For quite some time I have been wanting to do an interview with the developers responsible for such an amazing classic. As luck would have it, I was able to talk to Peter Commons the original developer of Spaceward Ho! I found it awesome to be able to bat around questions with Peter about a game so close to my gamer DNA. If you are not familiar with Spaceward Ho! it is available now on the iPad, iPhone and Mac.

jdodson: Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to answer my questions today. Spaceward Ho! is one of... Read All

Continuing the Age: On Dialog & The Story

I marked this post with spoilers because I want to talk a bit about the plot. For yall that have played before, chime in with if the game was different for you in some way.

I am continuing my current game as an Elf Mage.

After the Mage Origin story I was tossed into the King's warcamp as they were assembling against the Blight. Basically some people in my world were corrupted somehow and became "The Blight". The good guys have to rise up every so often and beat back The Blight and now seems to be the time yet again. The Blight minions kind of look like Orcs from Lord of the Rings so nothing really scary or new in the way of the game antagonists.

One thing I have noticed... Read All I marked this post with spoilers because I want to talk a bit about the plot. For yall that have played before, chime in with if the game was different for you in some way.

I am continuing my current game as an Elf Mage.

After the Mage Origin story I was tossed into the King's warcamp as they were assembling against the Blight. Basically some people in my world were corrupted somehow and became "The Blight". The good guys have to rise up every so often and beat back The Blight and now seems to be the time yet again. The Blight minions kind of look like Orcs from Lord of the Rings so nothing really scary or new in the way of the game antagonists.

One thing I have noticed about DAO is that they seem to be kill off characters quickly. Already I have met a few interesting characters and the murdered them before my eyes. After a huge battle where the King and his Army were double crossed all that was left in my party was myself and a Grey Warden fighter. I blacked out after the battle and awoke in an old Witches house I had met earlier in the game.

I kind of liked that they sort of "reset the game" at the Witches house because it stripped the game away of an uninteresting King and the notion of fighting for some kind of country I had no association with. I also like that the odds are stacked entirely against us. Right now I am a rather low level Mage in a world crawling with a ton of Blight minions. So it was a good way to sort of clear away the cruft that RPG games seem to accumulate in terms of really generic and uninteresting plots. Clear it away in that now all those uninteresting characters and tropes are now dead. Fun.

I really like the in game dialog. At first I was annoyted because the game the seemed so chatty. Annoyed until I sort of broke through to an understanding about it. I can shape my characters relationship with others through my choices. At least it seems like I can. If I am pity, the other characters react to that. If I am too nice sometimes they question that. If I am a jerk they call me out on that. Its interesting to play a game where those kinds of things actually matter.

Tower/Base defense with Ratchet & Clank. Why?

Having recently played through the first three R&C titles again, when this became available as a demo on the PSN, I rushed to download it. After about 30 minutes, I rushed just as quickly to delete it, vowing that I would not be suckered in by the promise of a new Ratchet & Clank title again.

Full Frontal Assault is a tower defense game and little more. You protect your base by building towers, laying mines and manually attacking the incoming alien hordes. To power your base, you attack nodes and link them a la Unreal Tournament. The only time the game bears any resemblance to a past R&C title is when you're off collecting bolts to upgrade or build new... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/28/2012 at 04:50pm

At first I was interested in this, a Ratchet and Clank platforming tower defense game? That could be pretty awesome, but clearly you didn't think it was.

When you get into the platforming is it timed or just not enough time? I think its a cool idea to break up the Tower Defense with platforming though, kind of a between stages thing where you could get power ups and such. Interesting idea for sure.

beansmyname Supporter Post Author wrote on 12/28/2012 at 10:15pm

The platforming is between waves, but there's not really enough time to explore.

My biggest complaint is that this is only marginally a Ratchet & Clank title. It could just as easily have been Jak & Daxter, Kratos & Athena, Sly Cooper & Bentley or anything else. The platforming, puzzle solving, shoot-from-the-hip wackiness isn't there.

Additionally, the asking price is $19.99 with a whole slew of $1.99 addons for multiplayer skins. Just feels like Insomniac was looking for a fast buck. That's just my two ¢.

hardeyez wrote on 12/28/2012 at 10:34pm

I got it for Christmas, but I haven't played it much yet (just a quick hour or so co-op with my daughter). It was fun, but the split screen for co-op is annoying, especially after All4One with it's easy co-op. Also, FFA is only 2 player co-op on the same ps3, which fully disappointed my daughters (we played a lot of All4One via 3 player co-op)

I wouldn't worry too much about Insomniac abandoning the series, every few R&C titles they do a much different one. The last time they did that was the battle-zone focused one (Deadlocked)...

beansmyname Supporter Post Author wrote on 12/29/2012 at 12:07am

@hardeyez That's a great point about the series. I didn't play any co-op and that could dramatically change the gameplay as one player could gather resources while the other builds defenses.

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