Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Coming Back to an Old Friend

When Lord of the Rings Online went free to play a few years ago I created an account and started my adventures through Middle Earth. I didn't know much about the game when I created an account so I picked a Dwarf Guardian. The game impressed me with its size and it ran really well on my underpowered hardware. I told a few of my friends about it and we started playing it together. Lord of the Rings Online was my first proper MMO experience and as such it has a special place in my heart. I picked a crafting tree where I can harvest Lumber, Ore and make armor. Right away I loved collecting wood and ore and refining it into lumber and ingots. I find crafting my own armor... Read All

Game Shop: Crash Bandicoot Walkthrough

New episode of Game Shop. Really starting to enjoy this show. The first few episodes didn't really hook me, but these later ones are.

Humble THQ Bundle

https://www.humblebundle.com/

"Seven legendary titles to rock your gaming library. The Humble THQ Bundle is here with a colossal onslaught of esteemed titles. Pay $1 or more for Steam keys for Company of Heroes (and its two full-blown expansions Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valor), Darksiders, Metro 2033, and Red Faction: Armageddon. And if you pay over the average price you’ll also receive the extraordinary Saints Row: The Third!"

Where to begin. First off gratz to the Humble folks, this is a pretty cool next step for them. Its cool seeing the Bundle be able to keep doing Bundle after Bundle. They have tried some awesome stuff, the Android Bundle, The Author/Book... Read All

BR Supporter wrote on 11/30/2012 at 04:42am

I picked up this bundle for metro and red faction. I already had everything else but who could pass up such a great deal. Sadly, you do not get giftable copies of the games you already own.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/30/2012 at 04:57am

Ah that makes sense. I think I will pick this up too at some point as I really don't need any new games for the time being.... So... many... games...

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/01/2012 at 12:59am

I just picked it up. Excited to crack open Metro 2033.

BR Supporter wrote on 12/01/2012 at 04:18am

Tried a bit of red faction Armageddon today. It was pretty fun but i haven't got all that far in it. I do hate the fact that there is very limited graphical changes. Made the game not run as well as it should be able to on my PC.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/01/2012 at 06:37am

I have a powerful rig and Metro 2033 is a slideshow with down resed graphics.

BR Supporter wrote on 12/01/2012 at 05:43pm

Mine is pretty crap. I can usually get games to play well if i can turn down the graphics though.

Will_Owens wrote on 12/03/2012 at 02:34pm

I got this mostly for Metro 2033. I hope it runs better than what you all are describing.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/03/2012 at 02:56pm

If you do let me know what you did to make it work well. Eventually I need to upgrade my video card but so far Metro 2033 was the only game that seemed to need it.

BR Supporter wrote on 12/03/2012 at 03:32pm

I was talking about red faction

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/03/2012 at 04:11pm

Right, I should have used the @will. That said, @br what settings are you running red faction with? At some point I am going to install that too.

BR Supporter wrote on 12/03/2012 at 08:45pm

Lowest settings it allows, which isn't much. It doesn't really look any different on any graphical settings. At least to me it doesn't. I got a very slight performance boost from lowering the graphics.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 12/04/2012 at 09:51pm

Picked this one up for Metro 2033 and Red Faction, as well. Ok. That and the SR3 soundtrack, so I'd own a legitimate copy of it.

Haven't seen the graphics issues you're describing in Metro 2033 and my current PC rig is a core i3 with an integrated Intel HD 3000. Of course, I had to set the graphics to low, resolution down to 1280x720 and it stutters a bit, but it's playable.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/05/2012 at 02:23am

Yeah I ran it in 720p, DirectX 9 and it was a pretty bad slide show. Ill check again, maybe I am doing something wrong.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 12/07/2012 at 10:52pm

Do you have a DirectX 10 option? I think that's what finally made it playable for me. I know Saint's Row was unplayable in DX9, but DX10 got me around 20 fps.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/07/2012 at 11:42pm

I was using DX9 and 11. Ill try 10 :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/12/2012 at 05:42am

Ok, good call @beanismyname I just tried DX10 and it works SO much better. So smooth, I might be able to upscale the resolution.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/12/2012 at 05:43am

Yep it can totally handle the higher resolution too. Strange DX9 and 11 both didn't work well.

Oh well, thanks for the tip!

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Skrillex Quest is a Fantastic Browser Game

http://www.skrillexquest.com/

Skrillex Quest is a gamevertisement featuring his latest single Summit. The game is styled after Zelda, Binding of Issac and Sword and Sworcery. Oh right and did I mention its totally awesome? I beat it a 15 minute sitting so its not too long. The premise is you are Player 1 and The Glitches are destroying your world. Its not entirely clear what you need to do but as you do stuff, you just kind of advance. One hint, try to collect as many Dead Princess Keys as you can.

The image is of my final score after my first play through. I imagine now that I know what to expect and what to do it would be easier a second time.

Getting out into the Big Blue Room

http://debian.mcmillan.net.nz/misc/niantic_cross.jpg

Ingress is an Alternate Reality Game. I first came across this when someone on G+ commented that they "had just gone for a 20 minute walk to hack some Ingress portals before bed", which sounded intriguing so I signed up for the trial.

A couple of days later I checked my inbox and I'd got lucky! I visited the Google Play store to download the game, but couldn't find it. It seems the game is "not available in your country". Go figure. So I googled around and managed to find the APK and install it anyway, and it turns out that I live in the one city in my country with a reasonable number of 'portals' that can be 'hacked' and I was on my way.

The objective of Ingress appears... Read All Ingress is an Alternate Reality Game. I first came across this when someone on G+ commented that they "had just gone for a 20 minute walk to hack some Ingress portals before bed", which sounded intriguing so I signed up for the trial.

A couple of days later I checked my inbox and I'd got lucky! I visited the Google Play store to download the game, but couldn't find it. It seems the game is "not available in your country". Go figure. So I googled around and managed to find the APK and install it anyway, and it turns out that I live in the one city in my country with a reasonable number of 'portals' that can be 'hacked' and I was on my way.

The objective of Ingress appears to be capture these 'portals' which are sources of 'exotic matter' and to place 'resonators' on them to power them up so they can be linked to other powered up portals. When three portals are linked to surround an area that area delivers a number of 'Mind Units' to the faction you are playing for - either the "Enlightened" or the "Resistance". As you level up you gain the ability to use higher level resonators, which increase the range of your portal links and you fairly quickly realise that the real power is in portals at the edges of the cities.

As a starting out player you can feel fairly powerless, but once you get going it is possible to build power fairly quickly, especially as you capture areas, which i the action providing the most 'AP' towards levelling up.

The game is still in closed beta at the moment and the full details have yet to unfold, but so far it's been fun. Having the portals located primarily on public artworks is a great idea and I've enjoyed finding a few new sculptures and murals I wasn't previously aware of.

At this stage it is not clear to me how the game will evolve over time. Will it run for a period and some faction be declared winner before starting it all over again? Will more rules and story become apparent and this just work up into one epic battle? From the way the hype is being managed it looks as though this will all become clear around the end of the month.

Meanwhile I better head off to defend my portals...

Interview with Ryan C. Gordon about Linux Gaming

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Ryan-Gordon-SELF-2009.png

Recently I asked Ryan C. Gordon some questions about his work in porting games, the current state of gaming in Linux, and where he sees it in the future. For those of you who aren't familiar with his work, Ryan has been involved in porting many games and other software to Linux and Mac OSX. Most recently he has been working with the folks at Humble Bundle to ensure their games are cross-platform.

Without further ado...

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us. Let's start with a very broad one-- how do you see the state of Linux gaming today?
It's making progress. We're turning out to have a pretty big year, with Unity3D coming to the platform, and Valve... Read All

Mike_Sackett wrote on 11/30/2012 at 07:55pm

I am a college student majoring in Computer Science at a two year school. Next semester I am transferring to Ithaca College, and I plan to minor in gaming. My goal is to become a Linux game dev and help port games to linux. Do you have any suggestions for me to get a foot in the door of the linux gaming/porting scene?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 11/30/2012 at 08:44pm

Mike, I passed the word on to Ryan that you had a question on the interview. I'll comment here again if he responds.

Mike_Sackett wrote on 12/01/2012 at 03:13am

Thank you

Martin_D wrote on 12/03/2012 at 12:52am

I'm also a college student majoring in Computer Engineering and Software Development.And i would LOVE to know more about developing games/software for Linux and other FOSS projects.

Robert_Schofield wrote on 12/03/2012 at 03:39am

You will be able to make Linux games with Unity on a Mac or PC.... NOT on Linux ... They have added Linux export to the for metioned versions and are not releasing a Linux version of Unity itself

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/03/2012 at 03:42am

At least no time soon, yeah. Which is unfortunate. Also, there are entirely too many things called Unity.

Mike_Sackett wrote on 12/03/2012 at 04:34am

That is unfortunate, and I do agree, way too many things called Unity.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/03/2012 at 07:40am

I went to PIGSquad tonight(PIGSquad.com) and many people were talking about Unity. It's something I am going to learn more about. As a developer I really love learning more about new tech :D

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Point and Click Masterpiece

http://d1vr6n66ssr06c.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/the-walking-dead-video-game-screenshot-1024x574.jpg

The Walking Dead, by Telltale games, is a point and click adventure game based on the comics by Robert Kirkman. The series on AMC is also based on the same comics as the game. The game follows a character named Lee Everett through the zombie apocalypse. You go through the game making extremely tough decisions for Lee that will later effect how others view you and even who lives or dies.

I picked this game up during the autumn sale on steam wanting to give it a try. This game completely blew me away, I'm so glad I bought it. My first playthrough took about 11 hours which I spaced out over about 3 days. The game's story is very well written and there are plenty of... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 04:46am

Point and Click adventure games have never really grabbed me. I keep looking at The Walking Dead and thinking, maybe this is the one, but not picking it up. Kinda wish I had during the Autumn sale, but the Winter sale is just around the corner.

Missile_Drop_Kick wrote on 11/28/2012 at 08:18pm

It's up for game of the year. I have two play throughs of episode 4 and 5 up. It is probably one of the year's best.

BR Supporter Post Author wrote on 11/28/2012 at 11:31pm

Working on my 2nd play through of the entire game right now. Just as amazing as the first. I love this game.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 11/30/2012 at 11:35pm

It's the one, Panickedthumb. It's the one. This game is going to be up for game of the year everywhere. It's that great.

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/04/2012 at 06:12am

I will pick this up this Holidays Steam Sale. Like the TV show ill start it when it's over ;)

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/04/2012 at 06:12am

And plus I have heard from everyone it is awesome. Plus the booth at PAX was epic!

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/04/2012 at 06:13am

Speaking of Game of the Year... Keep your lists in mind for CG game of the year coming late December!

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Dat Firehose: SimCity, Minecraft & Game Genie.

I have lots of little bits of gaming info that don't make sense in a larger post. Every week I will release them in a General Discussion post called "Dat Firehose." I will keep all the updates to two or less sentences and a link.

SimCity's creative director Ocean Quigley puts in his two cents about the new UI in the upcoming SimCity 2012:

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/27/simcity-creative-director-shows-off-more-of-games-interface/

FigurePrints is a company that takes your digital things in Minecraft, World of Warcraft and XBox Live and prints them out for you to own.

http://www.figureprints.com/minecraft/Default.aspx

Castle Into Darkness is a new Indie game that recently... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 04:03am

Whoa... Game Genie. That said, I don't see any mention of it working for PC, just that you can transfer your saves to PC for editing.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/28/2012 at 04:50am

Thats how it works, it edits game saves.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 04:11pm

Right, but it edits PS3 game saves, not PC game saves. It doesn't mention editing PC game saves anywhere on the site.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/28/2012 at 04:45pm

Oh yeah, its for PS3 and DS. Correction made!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/28/2012 at 06:45pm

Isn't making 3D prints of Minecraft called "playing with Legos?" ;)

J/k, that's pretty cool.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 08:48pm

Adym, especially with this.

http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-6021886-Minecraft-21102/dp/B007PVHMCG

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/28/2012 at 08:57pm

Ha!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/28/2012 at 09:55pm

Hey, if it can be thought of there needs to be a company for it. Hard economic times and all that :D

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Nintendo Zappers "Shopped" in Movies

Nintendo Zappers Photoshopped into movies has been making the rounds on the intar-tubes and I felt it was worth sharing. Something seems awesome about seeing the Terminator holding out the classic orange plastic light gun.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Zappers/5951853

Let's Play: Super Star Wars

For today's Retro Tuesday radness I am sharing with your my latest Let's Play: Super Star Wars. I make it through four levels bulls-eying Wamprats and slaughtering Jawas. No, I didn't play as the Empire I was the farm boy from Tatooine.

I took a swing at this lets play once before but was seriously clobbered in the Sand Crawler level to the point that it wasn't fun to watch. So I played it up a bit and came at it fresh with this much more interesting video. Ultimately my rustiness took hold and stopped the video inside the Sand Crawler.

I put Super Star Wars pretty high on my list for really good Star Wars games next to Tie Fighter, Yoda Stories and... not much else. I... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 04:07am

There are a ton of awesome Star Wars games. The Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series is a masterpiece. The Battlefront games are incredible, and yeah the KotOR games are supposed to be awesome. The Force Unleashed games were good mindless fun, but not much in the way of substance.

Overall I think I prefer Star Wars games to the movies themselves.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/28/2012 at 04:47pm

I don't know, I love the films myself I don't think any game I have played is better than the films yet.

I still need to play a battlefront game.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 08:49pm

I loved 4-6, the prequel trilogy is a bit iffy. After playing Dark Forces/Jedi Knight, Kyle Katarn became my favorite Jedi, and I really hope he shows up in the new movies.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/28/2012 at 09:56pm

I agree the originals are the best of the lot by a lightsabers margin. I saw you nabbed the Star Wars pack on Steam that has Dark Forces, I think I have a new goal for the Holiday or Summer sale.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 10:25pm

The reason I got that one, to be quite honest, was that I have almost all of those games in iso and burned CD format. I wanted to go legit.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 10:27pm

I will say that the original Dark Forces and Jedi Knight are probably a little hard to play these days. The graphics haven't aged well. If you jump in with Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, you'll get Quake 3 level graphics (on the Quake 3 engine, actually).

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/28/2012 at 10:55pm

Quake 3 graphics are fine to me. I can even do Ocarina of Time but that actually does age well due to Nintendo's use of solid colors instead of bad textures.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/28/2012 at 11:14pm

Nintendo are the kings of graphics that age well.

I don't suppose Jedi Knight has aged *that* poorly: http://i2.listal.com/image/826134/600full-star-wars-jedi-knight%3A-dark-forces-ii-screenshot.jpg

Dark Forces is a little worse: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ce/Dark_Forces_Gameplay.png

It's weird, first you had Dark Forces, then Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, then Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, at which point they just dropped Dark Forces altogether. That's not as confusing as what Squaresoft did with the Final Fantasy numbering in the US.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/28/2012 at 11:16pm

Yeah. Well, I have been playing the original Doom on PS3 (Doom 3: BFG) and I think the original Doom aged really well. That kind of looks similar to Dark Forces.

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