Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Let's Play: Steam Big Picture Mode

With all the Steam on Linux news Valve is pushing pretty hard into to break into your living room. I know most of us have heard of the new Steam Big Picture Mode but we might not have all seen it in action. Recently it showed up on my Mac Steam client so I took a few minutes to make a video showing off what it looks like.

Overall, Steam Big Picture Mode is beautifully usable. Its so well designed for a first effort it really showcases the huge difference between Valve and the traditional console makers: Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. Sony just pushed a pretty large update to the Sony Online Marketplace and its better, but doesn't come close to the first version of... Read All

Even Cheaper Games

Just wanted to let yall know about a few great deals happening in video games this Thanksgiving holiday and the blackest Friday of the year. If you have anything to add, post it in the comments and ill keep this post updated with the goods as I find new ones.

Starcraft 2 digital is marked down to $20 on battle.net: http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=1100001122

Diablo 3 digital is $40 marked down from $60: http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=1100002016

Inflatable Personality Cores over at Think Geek. Not really on sale, but pretty awesome at $20. http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f128/

The Steam Autumn Sale is in effect. Check back every so often for new... Read All

Portal 2 PC Gets Splitscreen in Big Picture

Recently an update to Portal 2 included these updates:

Big Picture Support
- Added 2 controller splitscreen support for Standard Co-Op. Press X on the second controller inside the first Co-op menu to activate it.
- Fixed controller's ‘quick ping’ button causing the player’s movement to stop.
- Fixed not being able to exit Robot Enrichment or Create Test Chambers menus with the controller.

This is awesome news for people wanting to run Steam in the living room as adding the same console features to the PC version helps this. Recently Big Picture mode came to my Steam and my first thoughts of it were good. Over the next few days I plan on doing a bender of Lets Plays,... Read All

New Episode of Game Shop: "Pokemon is for Babies"

The episode sort of ups the writing ante and the results are good. I am one of those gamers that doesn't ingest every shooter that comes out so I think there is some truth to certain kinds of gamer stereotypes.

Plus its fun to laugh at game culture.

No, You Stop!

http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/680/locker/bloodlines6.jpg

For the 5th episode of Watch Out For Fireballs, we did a good example of what would almost become a standard for the show: Deeply Flawed Gems. I'm on the record as saying that the open ended, first person RPG is more or less my favorite genre. You know, Deus Ex, System Shock, Bloodlines...um, almost nothing else? Bioshock and Dishonored sort of scratch this itch but criminy, are there not enough games like this. I feel like each one is a national treasure. I want a Bloodlines related holiday some time in April.

Bloodlines, like all those other games, is about choice. Choice is what separates games from puzzles and pure narratives. Choice is the ESSENTIAL aspect of game.... Read All For the 5th episode of Watch Out For Fireballs, we did a good example of what would almost become a standard for the show: Deeply Flawed Gems. I'm on the record as saying that the open ended, first person RPG is more or less my favorite genre. You know, Deus Ex, System Shock, Bloodlines...um, almost nothing else? Bioshock and Dishonored sort of scratch this itch but criminy, are there not enough games like this. I feel like each one is a national treasure. I want a Bloodlines related holiday some time in April.

Bloodlines, like all those other games, is about choice. Choice is what separates games from puzzles and pure narratives. Choice is the ESSENTIAL aspect of game. If you aren't making choices, you aren't playing a game. I value games that value this. Bloodlines is ALMOST great at it. For most of the game, you can sneak or negotiate or kill or use powers or what have you. What happens about 3/4 the way through, however, is the Troika effect; the devs ran out of time and/or money and things get rushed and combat heavy. So god help you if you didn't roll a combat viable character.

The game plays drastically differently based on your choice of race in the beginning of the game, which points to the 2nd bit of choice being the essential aspect of game: you need to make choices, they need to matter. If you're a Malkavian, you are batshit insane, can spread your madness, have entirely different dialog the entire game. If you're Nosferatu, you can't allow yourself to be seen by humans without dire consequences. Other races impact your skills, abilities and dialog.

Still though, the story is dark and engaging, the quests are varied, the world is rich and interesting. More and more, I'm finding that almost all of my favorite games have a lot in common with table top gaming. Emulating that experience makes for a very different kind of fun than a mario or a zelda. Play this game when it goes on sale for five bucks on Steam.

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention The Oceanside Hotel. A haunted house mission where nothing can hurt you, you'd be hard pressed to find a more tense, lovingly crafted horror experience in games. I want an entire game of this, just haunted houses where nothing can hurt you but everything freaks you the fuck out. It's not the best horror experience in gaming (or even the best one we'd done on the podcast so far) but it's top shelf.

http://duckfeed.tv/woff/5

Developer Bits. Why Free to Play?

Recently I read a Google+ post from one of the Triple Town developers on why they didn't just make the game 99 cents on the App Store. He seems to think that buying games for a fixed price is a bad model and goes into detail on why. Ultimately because he doesn't see many indies survive in this way.

"Imagine free-to-play games as practiced by a private company that makes games with long term retention for passionate players in a tightly knit community. That fits my personal goals substantially better. So I'm experimenting. I'm learning. Spry Fox may not figure it all out this time, but at least we are driving in the right direction.

So why you don't see Triple Town being... Read All

Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight

A new Humble Thingy was dropped today in "Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight." Clipped from the site:

"Tim Schafer is revealing Double Fine’s never-before-seen game jam process!
Contribute and vote for your favorite game ideas to be prototyped (week 1).

Then, Double Fine will create prototypes of the top four ideas and live stream the process (weeks 2-3).

Contributors get to download the finished prototypes for Windows (Steam keys too!) Plus, you get two protoypes from past jams right away."

Sounds like a cool way to contribute to the next steps of Double Fine's internal demo process. If you want to vote on any of the games they could prototype, head over donate and vote!

... Read All

Torchlight Devs confirm a Thanksgiving Steam Sale

http://bigfootnetworks.com/fragmore/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Steam-Autum-Sale-300x193.png

I think we all assumed it was coming, but Runic has confirmed that a Thanksgiving sale will be happening, and that Torchlight 2 will be on sale! No dates have been spilled, but I'm excited to get TL2 for cheap.

http://www.torchlight2game.com/news/2012/11/16/happy-thanksgiving/

What are you hoping to snag?

Valve give hints of something to be excited about.

Because I run Ubuntu primarily and don't have winders around it's exciting to watch the ever changing Valve foray into GNU/Linux support.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/16/3652756/valve-big-picture-mode-steam-os-linux-game-console
If they release a spec, I'd build a Steam Box.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/18/2012 at 07:05pm

They keep denying that they're working toward a Steam Box, but they keep doing things that make it look more likely. Who knows whether they will or not, but I'd certainly pre-order one. :)

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/18/2012 at 10:11pm

With big picture mode, Linux support and some hardware rumors coming from Valve a console seems very likely. I hope they have success with big picture and Linux too because I would love moving from a Playstation to a Steam box. :D

Robert_Lount Post Author wrote on 11/19/2012 at 04:40am

Or to get a Steam client on a LinuxMCE type box plugged into a nice TV. I might get to join the modern world!

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/19/2012 at 05:42am

Honestly instead of steams own system I would be much more happy if steam was linked between all consoles and pc. That way if I buy something on console or pc I can still play it on the opposite. I'd also buy more console games because there would be the amazing steam sales.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/19/2012 at 05:44am

Actually I just had a thought even better. What if we could load a game on our pc and use the console to play on it. That way you could use the controllers the game was meant to have. Without having to pay for extra controllers for your pc for every ported console game.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/19/2012 at 05:55am

One of the reasons I though Portal 2 was so cool. If you got the PS3 version you got a Steam code for a PC copy. I played single player on PS3 then later made some levels on the PC version. I want this for everything.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/19/2012 at 03:14pm

Jacob, for what it's worth, I use my PS3 and 360 controllers on my PC to play games. Haven't bought a PC controller in years.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/19/2012 at 03:16pm

And Jon, yes. I thought it was amazing to start up Portal 2 and sign into Steam... ON MY PS3! I wish other games had taken that route-- buy it on PS3, get it on PC for free. Even better, with Steam cloud sync, saves and stuff could transfer between the two. Want to max out your settings and get harcore? Play it on PC. Get tired of sitting in an office chair and want to lounge on the couch? Continue where you left off on PS3.

This is what I hope Steam can achieve with whatever future products they work on, whether it's a Steam Box or something we haven't thought up yet.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/19/2012 at 05:36pm

You can us le your PS3 controllers on your PC? Whoa, going to look into that!

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/19/2012 at 10:59pm

Panicked to be fair though didn't you have to buy something extra to use those controllers on your PC? They don't just work by default. Which is what I was referring. If that is not the case I would love if you could share how you did that.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/20/2012 at 04:17am

No they do work by default. Well, the 360 one does if it's wired. The ps3 controller just requires some software.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/20/2012 at 04:26am

Further info. The wired 360 controller just needs a driver download on older versions of Windows, but is just plug and play with newer versions. For the wireless controller, you'll need one of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HZFCT2?ie=UTF8&tag=brihub02-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000HZFCT2

The PS3 controller is a bit trickier, and requires a third party program, but it works smooth as silk once you install it: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/45610/how-to-use-your-ps-3-controllers-as-a-joystick-for-your-windows-pc/

Benefit to the PS3 controller, if you have a bluetooth receiver in your PC you can do it wireless or wired. If you don't have a Bluetooth receiver, just use a standard mini-USB cable.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/20/2012 at 04:28am

I'm not sure about the Mac situation, but for Linux the 360 controller (even if you're using the wireless dongle) is built in to the kernel. No hacking required.

The PS3 controller is only a little bit of a chore. Here are some Ubuntu examples:

http://www.ehow.com/how_7729420_use-ps3-controller-ubuntu.html

Maybe this whole thing is deserving of its own post?

Travis Admin wrote on 11/20/2012 at 04:37am

One important caveat. A wireless 360 controller with a charging cable is not the same as a wired 360 controller. For some reason they didn't make it work like that. Annoying, but there you go.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/20/2012 at 11:29am

Ya we have wireless. Thanks for all the info on it. The usb cable is the thing that I was talking about that I know you needed. We don't have one of those. The program though I didn't know about thanks for the link.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/20/2012 at 11:31am

Strange. Clicked the ps3 link a few times with no connection then wrote a post saying so and clicked it again and it worked fine.

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Welcome to Depression Island

I hate to say. This is the worst random map of Minecraft that I've ever played. The island is tiny. Super tiny, it is literally small enough to walk across all directions without traveling a whole day. I died 6 times and got 3 dogs killed because resources (food) are hard to come by, and it is ultra depressing because animals do not spawn very often. I actually hate this world. I have recorded every play through on this island. I do not know how much longer I will because this place drives me nuts. Enjoy