Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

More Time with the Wii U

This weekend I made my way to the Mall for a bit of Holiday gift retrieval. As I made my way through the morass of Holiday Shopping Victims I noticed a Wii U Kiosk. I navigated my way through the Horde and spent some time watching kids play and asked the attendants some questions about some of the games.

One thing I took away from checking out the Wii U is that the games are very pretty. The New Super Mario Brothers Wii U & Scribblenauts HD look stunning.

One game stood out to me as a pretty fun example of the new Wii U tablet style controller was Nintendo Land. Nintendo Land is essentially a set of Wii style party games similar in tone to Wii Play & Wii Sports.... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 12/11/2012 at 02:01pm

It really does look unique, interesting, and fun. But so did the Wii, and with the exception of first-party titles, I barely ever touched it. There were a few good ones, like MadWorld and No More Heroes, but it's been collecting dust since Super Mario Galaxy 2. Nintendo made something amazing, but the lagging graphics and tons of shovelware kinda pushed out third-party developers.

Hopefully the Wii U is different, but I worry that once the new round of consoles that MS and Sony release will push it to the same spot as the Wii.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/11/2012 at 05:20pm

The last game I played seriously on the Wii was Super Mario Galaxy. My wife and I still pull out the Wii for the Just Dance games at parties. We just picked up Just Dance 4. I have a soft spot for the Wii, but like you it mostly goes unplayed. In the end, my Playstation 3 did more so hopefully the Wii U can fill that void.

I am wondering what Microsoft and Sony are doing next, so far I have no idea what that is but I will hold off until I know more for sure.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/11/2012 at 06:22pm

I'll admit that up until a couple weeks ago, everything I heard about the Wii U had been kind of underwhelming. But now that the system is out and people are getting some hands on experience with it, I'm seeing a lot of really positive reviews. Hopefully this enthusiasm will stick better with the Wii U than it did with the Wii.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/11/2012 at 09:37pm

I think the Wii U made some choices to give it lets over the next generation better than the Wii. A few reasons:

The Wii U is compatible with all your old Wii Stuff.

The Wii U is essentially a PS3 or XBox 360 horsepower wise. I believe this is important because the PS3 and XBox 360 will be supported well into the next generation. Whereas the PS4 and XBox 720 might look better, I believe publishers will still make PS3 and 360 ports well into the next generation.

Its $300. This is a good price to start at as it starts reasonably and will drop over time.

That said, for me the most exciting platforms are the PC, Steam in your Living Room and Apple TV with apps.

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Happy Holidays with Minecraft!

Like many of you, when my Holiday time off comes around I plan on playing some games. Minecraft will no doubt be played and it seems that Mojang will be updating it so you can ring in the New Year Minecraft Style.... Minecraft Style.... OP, OP, OP!

From the Mojangs mouth:

"What’s this? This doesn’t sound like a redstone update at all!”, you say. “Indeed,” we say. Thing is, we* suddenly decided we wanted to make sure that you have fireworks for New Year’s Eve, so we’re working in several parallel branches of the code now. One is for the 1.5 “Redstone Update,” and one is now for a 1.4.6 patch update. This update will be out before Christmas, and 1.5 will wait until January... Read All

Mew-Genics Title Music

Just adding another post to the continuing trail of cat parts littering the road to the launch of Mew-Genics.

"So we really splurged with the soundtrack for Mew-genics, the game will feature a full album of over 20 studio recorded songs, with more than half of them with lyrics! we really wanted to make the games music feature extended themes of the game or small stories within each song, kind of how Katamari did it in a way, except all our songs are about cats!"

I really dig the title track and am really looking forward for this release.

http://supermeatboy.com/129/Mew_Genics_Teaser_week_7/#b

gogonlinux: Games from GOG in Linux made easier

A community of GOG fans has released the first beta of gogonlinux, a tool to make playing your GOG games easier in Linux.

http://www.gogonlinux.com/about/

Installing it requires a few steps (you can read up on them on the "Getting Started" page) but using the software seems straight-forward. Just log into your GOG account, and it handles downloading and installing the games for you.

There are currently only a few games present. It isn't currently using Linux ports, but things like Wine, Dosbox, and Scummvm to run games with the most compatible configuration.

Hopefully with Steam's Linux client looking toward release, and Desura's presence for some time now, GOG will do... Read All

Street Fighter X Mega Man to release Dec 17

You read that correctly. A new 8-bit Mega Man game that pits our blue hero against the characters from Street Fighter.

It drops Dec 17 on PC, FOR FREE, in celebration of both franchises' 25th anniversary.

I feel like I should say more but at this point you should probably just drool over the video. Enjoy!

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/09/2012 at 06:26am

I had to check on this, not because I didn't believe you but because ... I don't I just had to read more about this.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/brelston/blog/2012/12/08/street-fighter-x-mega-man-coming-december-17

A unique paring for sure!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/09/2012 at 06:32am

I've been doing some digging as well. It appears this is a fan-made game that got Capcom's blessing and they're also doing promotion and distribution. So official, yet not. This is awesome of Capcom.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/09/2012 at 06:38am

Yeah, it is. Good on Capcom!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 12/10/2012 at 05:50pm

Dude! So rad!

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/10/2012 at 09:56pm

Hadoken!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/11/2012 at 06:15pm

This is pretty awesome. A lot of companies would have just slapped the fan made game with a take down notice, but Capcom has done something awesome instead. And after the whole on-disc DLC thing, they can really use the good publicity. Good job Capcom!

As for the game, I will definitely be checking this out. I gotta get a controller for my PC now!

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Valve does have plans for a SteamBox! ...Kinda.

Gabe Newell gave an interview with Kotaku last night where he discussed the possibilities available for PCs in the living room. In summary, Gabe says that Valve's current goal is to make PCs better for the living room. The next steps for them are to get Steam out of beta on the Linux platform, and get Big Picture Mode working well for Linux, which will give them more flexibility for their own hardware.

He doesn't think Valve will be the only players in the game though. Newell expects other hardware providers to join in as well, selling PC's that connect to your TV and play Steam games right out of the box, and these PCs will be competing directly with consoles.

This is... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/09/2012 at 05:36am

I really hope this pans out to be awesome. I saw how this would work with Portal 2 on PS3. Buy one game, play everywhere you can. I got a PS3 game and a copy for Steam on PC. I played the single player on my console, then when they released the map editor I made those on PC. It was magical and I want more of that. Steam console should allow this.

Plus Steam is way more awesome that the current console generations. Even the next gen won't be as awesome as a Steam summer sale. I see the NextBox and PS4 doing more with digital but with the same prices and same kinds of DRM we have now.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/09/2012 at 06:07am

I tend to agree with you there. Signing into Steam when launching Portal 2 on PS3 was a moment of clarity for me. It was a realization of what *could* be. I'm not sure this will work to make that more common, but if this new hardware is treated like a console by those selling it and buying it, the effect will be similar.

And yeah, there will be a bigger focus on digital distribution next gen, but I can't imagine the big console providers going for the massive sales like Steam.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/10/2012 at 06:42am

I don't either, they can do sales now to compete but they don't. Its as if consoles are immune to market forces. Well, they are because you can buy a game second hand and it can be marked down after launch. That said, the digital component doesn't seem to slide much. I remember when they had a sale on the Pixel Junk games and you could get em' all for cheap. I was going to spring for them all but was stopped by how hard it was to give my PS3 money to buy it. Seriously, after 35 minutes of trying I stopped.

Much simpler to pay Steam.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/10/2012 at 07:03am

This has been making the rounds today: http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/12/07/182217/valve-begins-listing-linux-requirements-for-certain-games-on-steam

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/10/2012 at 02:32pm

That's odd, I've never had trouble with purchases on the PS3. Do you remember what the problem you were having was?

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/10/2012 at 02:57pm

Not knowing how to give them my money in the checkout process.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/10/2012 at 03:48pm

Hmm, I've always hit "add funds" or whatever it's called, popped in my cc info, and told it how much to add. I've actually always been impressed with that process. But without seeing what you saw, who knows what the problem could have been...

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/10/2012 at 04:31pm

I don't think you can do that during the checkout process. Which later I realized you need to add funds before you checkout, or at least appeared to be the case.

Oh well, I saved a few bucks anyway.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/10/2012 at 04:49pm

Nope, that's where I always add mine. Go to check out, it tells you that you don't have enough funds, so you hit add funds and it takes care of it for you.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/10/2012 at 05:25pm

You may need to add a credit card to your account first, though. I'm not 100% sure.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/10/2012 at 09:56pm

Yeah, it was something... Next time I might just buy a PS3 card at the store and redeem that. After the breach I am not really in love with giving them my CC info.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/10/2012 at 10:16pm

That's a very good point. It can happen to anyone though, MS, Steam, Amazon...

In Sony's case, it seems there was some significant fault to place on them for having less than stellar security, but I think after that they straightened up. At least I hope they would. They should be having yearly (if not more often) internal and external penetration tests and audits to make sure that kind of info can't get out again.

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Dat Firehose: Elder Scrolls Online & Portal on TI

Bethesda's Elder Scrolls Online Team recently released a story from the ESO Universe. This one focuses on Jorunn the Skald-King:

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/misc/leader-profile/ebonheart

Some awesome people released Portal for the TI Calculator. Video linked above. Nab the code for your TI:

http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=841

THQ stock jumped 40% after its latest Humble Bundle went live:

http://m.pcgamer.com/2012/12/03/thqs-stock-rises-nearly-40-thanks-to-humble-bundle

Some have noted the Wii U is better for Indie Games. Great even:

http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/12/03/1549213/cheap-indie-games-make-wii-u-a-better-value

Crysis 3 specs... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 12/08/2012 at 04:06am

Hey, I think I might be able to pull off Crysis 3 at almost recommended!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/08/2012 at 06:18am

Awesome! You must have some awesome hardware!

Travis Admin wrote on 12/08/2012 at 12:35pm

Not really. I think it's mostly that I got a video card recently. It wasn't even the best or anything, just a $125 NVIDIA that was significantly better than the ATI I was running.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/08/2012 at 04:20pm

Also, Portal on the TI looks surprisingly functional.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/08/2012 at 04:50pm

Yeah, it really does. That TI font... Reminds me of college.

BR Supporter wrote on 12/08/2012 at 06:16pm

Well...I know what I will be spending my math class doing now.

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Great Moments in World Building Vol. 1: Dishonored

http://www.gamefreaks.co.nz/wp-content/gallery/dishonored-screenshots-april-27/dishonored-06.jpg

The Link's Awakening discussion made me think of this. World building is one of my all time favorite parts of video games and I wanted to start a series/discussion about concrete, specific moments that contribute to it. It's easy to say, "Oh, I was just totally lost in the world of Ico, it's so ethereal and wonderful!" It's much harder to point to specific moments and assets.

So I want to talk about my 3rd or 4th favorite game of the year, Dishonored. Dishonored creates an incredible world, a "whale punk" setting that I've never seen before. But I want to mention, specifically, food in dishonored. Just like in Bioshock, you can constantly chomp on bits of food to regain... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/08/2012 at 01:16am

Those are some really great design choices for the game. I was thinking about world building today actually as I was watching a YouTube video showcasing how to play Dwarf Fortress. It was interesting because part of Dwarf Fortress is starting the game and watching time pass quickly. At some point you stop the world flying by and say "I want to start my game at this point in the worlds history." Trees grow and fall as do mountains and entire cultures. Its a really interesting process.

Its interesting because lately I have been playing Minecraft that has these elements too. Its a world and the story is how the world evolves and how you interact with it. From what I gather Dwarf Fortress logs the history of your world in terms of who is born and what happens to them. Its an interesting concept for a full procedural world.

Lately I have been playing a bit of Lord of the Rings Online. Its a free to play MMO and its pretty well done. Recently I went into the Barrow Downs and had a quest where I had to talk to Tom Bombadil. It was interesting because when I entered his house he was dancing around the room. Dancing isn't too popular unless its a Just Dance game, but from what I remember of the Hobbit books he was a dancin' guy. I went on a quest at his bequest and after killin a bunch of stuff, I came up to a Boss fight I couldn't win. He came in a zapped it and the quest ended by him telling me to avoid the dark corners of the earth and stay in the light.

Thing is I don't disagree with him, but I wonder how interesting Lord of the Rings Online would be if I avoiding fighting, a major staple of questing.

Will_Owens wrote on 12/09/2012 at 03:15am

I enjoy world building a lot, but it seems like there are two ways to do it. One is to present a back story about the environment and what makes it up. This is often too overwrought and makes the whole mythology unbelievable. Games like Dragon Age pour it on very thick through codexes and, even though it helps to flesh out the world, it doesn't seem organic. Then I think of games like Fallout or STALKER where the environment is only presented but I am forced to fill in the gaps. Hints and small stories can be dropped to make it more realistic, but my own imagination often fills in blanks much more interestingly than writing could. I guess I just like being left out of the loop a little bit because I don't know what's going on in THIS world that much either. If I know all the information, it just doesn't seem right.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/10/2012 at 06:39am

I think that's a good point Will. I am currently playing Skyrim a bit at at time. They have tons of books all over the game you can read. I think that is pretty cool for some, but I don't really attach to it.

Gary_Butterfield Post Author wrote on 12/10/2012 at 05:05pm

My favorite games end up doing both. They're both optional and likely to be missed by a lot of players but you can choose your poison. The 3d Fallout games are great at this and an entry is forth coming.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/10/2012 at 09:57pm

Look forward to reading it.

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Game Stop: Episode 7

In this action packed episode with those wacky kids at The Game Shop, the Game Shop loses power! I am pretty impressed with how much they are able to do with just a Game Shop and a few characters.

Quake II Turns 15 Today!

This just in from the "I am getting old Department" it seems Quake II marks its 15th birthday today! Bethesda and iD Software rang in the occasion with some interesting tidbits from iD's Tim Willits.

Only three artists made all the 2D and 3D art for the entire game.

One of the original suggested names for QUAKE II was WOR, but the game’s fast-paced, tactile feel felt closer to a QUAKE game than a new franchise.

‘The Edge’ (Tim’s favorite deathmatch level in QUAKE II or any other game), has over 50 trick jumps possible in the map. Tim only designed two of them, and the rest were discovered by the QUAKE II community.

... Read All

More Time with the Wii U

Happy Holidays with Minecraft!

Mew-Genics Title Music

gogonlinux: Games from GOG in Linux made easier

Street Fighter X Mega Man to release Dec 17

Valve *does* have plans for a SteamBox! ...Kinda.

Dat Firehose: Elder Scrolls Online & Portal on TI

Great Moments in World Building Vol. 1: Dishonored

Game Stop: Episode 7

Quake II Turns 15 Today!

Valve does have plans for a SteamBox! ...Kinda.