Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Dat Firehose: Gabe Newell, TF2 Figurines & THQ

YouTube channel Lore made a video showcasing a bit of the story of Valve's Gabe Newell that takes a minute. Nerds rejoice.

Blizzard releases part 9 of the Starcraft Creative Development Q&A w questions by the Community. Proof that some gamers have little tact when asking questions.

http://us.battle.net//sc2/en/blog/8165399

Gaming Heads is selling some pretty awesome Team Fortress 2 stand up figurines. Now to the action figures with king-fu grip!

https://www.gamingheads.com/index.php?option=com_myphp&Itemid=3&product=105

The recent Humble THQ Bundle sold 800k copies and raked in a total of 5 million dollars. THQ is also considering Linux ports for future titles.

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Thursday Game Night! Vote for the game!

This Thursday, Dec 20, we will be having a game night at 9PM EST, 6PM PST. A few games to choose from-- Starcraft 2, Left 4 Dead 2, or Team Fortress 2. Hit up the comments to vote for which one you want to play, and we will meet up Thursday night to kick ass and chew bubble gum, only we'll be all out of gum. We'll make another post once the game is decided.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/18/2012 at 06:25am

Totally going to be doing this. What i'd like to play (in order):

1. SC2
2. LFD2
3. TF2

I will, of course kneel to the will of people and if more people have one game we can do that.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/18/2012 at 05:00pm

I'd go L4D2, SC2, TF2, but like you, I'm open to whatever.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/19/2012 at 06:55pm

I'll be unavailable until after 8pm, but if you guys end up going with TF2 and are still playing when I get on, I'll gladly join in. :)

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/19/2012 at 07:00pm

Sounds good, see you then @WhiteboySlim!

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/21/2012 at 03:27am

If anyone wants to join us, sign into steam and hit me up.

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Minecraft: The Story of Mojang

"Minecraft: The Story of Mojang is the second feature from game culture archivists 2 Player Productions... This feature-length documentary follows the young company over the course of its first year as their profile expands across the world stage and into the homes of millions of gamers. Featuring insights from industry icons (Peter Molyneux, Tim Schafer), journalists (Geoff Keighley, Stephen Totilo), tastemakers (Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade), and players profoundly impacted by the game (Yogscast, The Shaft, Minecraft Teacher), the film serves as a time capsule for one of this generation's most unorthodox success stories."

I am really interested in checking this... Read All

The great sandbox in the sky

Kerbal Space Program (known colloquially as KSP) is one of those diamonds in the rough. I started playing back when it was a fledgling little alpha where you could barely get into orbit, let alone get off of the pad in one piece.

The premise of KSP is this: You have a bunch of bits to build a rocket. From there, you can perform orbital maneuvers, visit the mun (KSP's version of the moon) or send a probe into deep space. Normally, this kind of game wouldn't pique my interest this hard... but the feeling you get when you get into a successful orbit just can't be beat. Seeing your rocket stage and surge through the atmosphere conjures feelings that the first aerospace... Read All

Pandas in the Mist.

http://huntsmanslodge.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/wow_pet_battle_system.jpg

I wanted to hate it. I wanted to mock it from behind my usual standbys of EVE-Online, TF2, and DayZ. For a while, I probably did hate it... Then I saw it was on sale and wound up buying it and re-activated my account.

"What the shit is this? What'd they do to my Druid?!?"

Class changes aside, I've grown to...actually...like Mists of Pandaland. One feature I thought I'd abhor was pet battles... Boy was I wrong. Remember waiting half an hour for Heroic queues while you ground away on a couple of dailies? Yeah, not anymore. You'll assemble your pet-battle team and go lay waste to whatever furry creature you can find in the forest. Oh, that one has a blue border? YOU'RE... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/17/2012 at 11:12pm

The pet battle system was the thing in the Pandera expansion I was the most interested in so its good to hear it worked well. The interesting thing about new entrants into the MMO space is that they have a bunch of awesome WoW expansion to contend with.

The other day I started Planetside 2 and had no idea what I was doing. Nothing letting me know what was happening, nothing giving me a pro-top to what to do next. The game is a cool concept, but the original Quake does a better job of teaching you how to play the game. This isn't a jab at Quake but a slight against a new MMO like Planetside 2 that doesn't really show you what the deal is.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/17/2012 at 11:13pm

Oh and how many pets have you collected so far?

Jason_Taylor Post Author wrote on 12/18/2012 at 03:45pm

Something like 65 I think? I meant to check last night but I was busy trying to build an epic space station in KSP.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/18/2012 at 06:10pm

Nice. I was playing Dragon Age: Origins last eve. So fun, gonna write about it soon.

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Day Z: ERMAHGERD, ZERHMBIES.

I really wanted to like DayZ, and for a while I think I legitimately did. I still remember getting chills the first time I heard a zombie aggro me, running through some shitty town on the coast of Chernarus in the dark. DayZ is not without its fair share of problems however.

DayZ, for those of you who don't know, is a Zombie Survival mod for Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead. You start out with next to nothing and have to scavenge food, weapons and other various supplies to ensure your survival. The multiplayer component can be co-op, but is largely PVP based. "Who's shooting in Cherno?" being a common question of neophytes. Congratulations, you just gave up your position and... Read All

DoTA 2: A Friendly, Fun Experience

A few nights ago @WhiteboySlim and I decided to get together around 8PM PST and play some games together. We didn't have a game in mind but we wanted to play.

After meeting up I had the idea to play DoTA 2. Recently I went into the game and noticed you can create a lobby match and play with bots. In fact, you can play just yourself with all bots if you want to.

After pinging a few folks on the site, @panickedthumb, @WhiteboySlim & @Jacob_Richardson joined us for the match.

After getting everyone in the lobby and spending a few minutes figuring out how to start the game we started. I had no idea what any of the characters did, so I picked one at random. Our first match... Read All

New Rage DLC: The Scorchers

Totally excited for this new Rage expansion and the official press drop illustrates why:

"Battle an all-new maniacal bandit clan, wreak havoc with new brutally efficient weapons and explore undiscovered areas in RAGE’s new official add-on pack, RAGE: The Scorchers. Fight alongside new allies to thwart the Scorcher clan’s deadly plot to destroy the Wasteland.

The add-on pack also includes ‘Ultra-Nightmare’, a new high difficulty mode, as well as an ‘Extended Play’ option that allows you to play past the original ending of the game - giving you the opportunity to finish collecting items and achievements."

I appreciate the Extended Play option as it allows you to circle back... Read All

Self Imposed rules of gaming.

So sometimes when I'm playing a game I've played and beaten multiple times, I start to come up with "rules" for myself to make the game more interesting. For example, sometimes when I play Final Fantasy tactics, I'll start to ban myself from using certain abilities because they're too powerful, or restrict the gear I'm allowed to use, such as no Knight swords. I've also tried going through Ocarina of Time for as long as possible without a shield just to see how far I could get.

I was wondering if anyone else does that, and if so, what are some of the rules or limitations you put on yourself?

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/15/2012 at 11:58pm

I am going to do a Let's Play about this sometime, but one thing I do in The Legend of Zelda for NES is max out my hearts, get the blue right and white sword and such before I hit level 1. That said, that makes level one easier... So. Harder...

Hm.

Well I had a dream with the Legend of Zelda that one could beat it without the sword entirely. I tried it a few times but couldn't seem to crack the nut, but some great souls have.

http://faqs.ign.com/articles/559/559800p1.html

Travis Admin wrote on 12/16/2012 at 02:21am

In the Elder Scrolls games, I always set out to make different characters with different stats and different focuses, but I always end up playing a sneaky thief archer/dagger wielder. So I'll frequently put these self-imposed rules on myself to force me to play in a different way. I just love that play style, it's hard not to go back to it, but it's worth it to see all the different ways you can play.

vdogmr25 wrote on 12/16/2012 at 06:01am

If a game has a difficulty setting, I usually choose the hardest available for my first play through. There's a few games where this doesn't work out; namely the Command and Conquer games, but it keeps things challenging. In games like Elder Scrolls, I try do at least one run though using fists only. There's a strange satisfaction in punching a giant to death.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/16/2012 at 06:18am

vdogmr25-- Elder Scrolls unarmed reminds me of this. If you haven't seen this, it's hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw

MAJOR language warning on this. Don't watch unless you're ok with numerous f-bombs.

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StarCrafts: NASL 4 Grand Finals

The latest Starcrafts Episode is a promo for the North American Starcraft League. As I was watching the video on the YouTube page I noticed this comment:

"Why did the Infestor fall down the stairs?

because its imbalanced"

ZING! :D Good one Fenix855!