Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Assassin's Creed III PC available for pre-order

http://cdn.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/208480/header_292x136.jpg?t=1352424437

$50 gets you AC3 when it launches on November 20th.

$80 gets you AC3 Digital Deluxe Edition, which gives you a season pass for all the DLC, 4 bonus missions, and a few other extras.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/208480/

Lets Play: New Site Design

I think the new site re design is going well and decided to create the video showcasing a bit about it. The new design isn't a totally new shift, its a evolution and I think is an improvement over the original.

Sound off the in comments with your thoughts. I plan on starting the work to integrate the new design into the site soon so get your feedback in!

The video quality isn't stellar, for a higher res screenshot of the new design clicky click:
http://i.imgur.com/SdUBC.jpg

Travis Admin wrote on 11/08/2012 at 04:26am

Nice Half-Life 3 easter egg. ;)

Travis Admin wrote on 11/08/2012 at 04:31am

Or I guess I should be thanking myself, since I apparently posted it!

I really dig the new site design. It's going to make expanding and adding new features much easier in the future. I like the side-by-side, but I can see why some may find it distracting. If it's easy to do a toggle, that might be an option.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/08/2012 at 06:27am

I love the new look! I really like incorporating more pulldown menus, so there's less button clutter on the screen. The side-by-side threw me for a minute, but I think I'll like that a lot when I get used to it. Plus it'll be twice as much content to interest a new user!

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/08/2012 at 12:28pm

Yay I am in the video haha. So I wanted to make a few small comments. Love the new look. I personally really enjoy the side by side. However there's a small thing that I feel like can be done now because of the newly designed titles. As an ocd person I would love to be able to auto center them. I so want to see the title in the dead center of the post. Also in the new site design it'd be really cool if in the settings menu you could mess around with different colors. I love the colors right now but maybe I might want to mess around with them at some point. Colors of the backgrounds and font and such I mean. It wouldn't change for anyone else just like personal color settings.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/08/2012 at 05:55pm

@jacob I will look into centering the titles. That shouldn't be hard to do.

I will add a UI customization or theme option to my list. Not sure when I will get to it, but its a great idea!

Travis Admin wrote on 11/08/2012 at 06:25pm

If I may add a dissenting opinion, I'm not sure centered titles would look right considering the layout. With the avatar where it is, dead center wouldn't look centered because there would be less space from the avatar to the left edge of the title, and centering it in the space after that wouldn't look centered to the article text.

I do love the idea of user-configurable color/theme choices though.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/08/2012 at 06:50pm

@panickedthumb Good point. I prefer it the way it is but I will experiment with it either way.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/08/2012 at 10:45pm

hmm. That is a good point panicked. Hadn't really thought about that. I guess that probably would still bother me since it wouldn't line up with the text. That's a bummer. It's not a major thing I just get really ocd about titles in particular.

BR Supporter wrote on 11/09/2012 at 12:03am

I like the sleek new design. It makes the site look new and like it has a bit of depth to it. I'm back and forth on the side by side posts though. I feel like in some situations it would be nice, and in others it wouldn't. Haven't made my mind up whether I like it better or not.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/09/2012 at 12:56am

Thanks BR! I am too, I am leaning to not side by side right this minute though. Easy enough to bring back though.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/09/2012 at 02:28am

If not side-by-side, would you have it auto expand (to a certain point) so there isn't a ton of wasted space?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/09/2012 at 04:18am

Yes, it would expand to fill the entire space.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/09/2012 at 04:35am

Longer titles would be nice. "Assassin's Creed III PC now available for pre-order on Steam" was too long to fit.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/09/2012 at 04:40am

Yep longer titles would be good.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/09/2012 at 08:03am

Hm. About longer titles john. You think you'd be able to have like a sub context spot for the titles? On panicked's example "Assassin's Creed III PC" would be the title. With the sub-text being "now available for pre-order on Steam". There'd be a lot of instances I could see that coming in handy.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/09/2012 at 02:20pm

That's a good thought too. For another example...

John Carmack buys Zynga!
What does this mean for the future of Farmville?

Travis Admin wrote on 11/10/2012 at 04:59pm

I'm working on something for tomorrow or Monday that would benefit from the ability to add images or embeds inline, rather than just the one at the top. The potential for overuse is quite high, but it would be convenient.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/10/2012 at 05:31pm

Hmmm. I want to seriously talk more about this. Lets take it up after the site redesign.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/11/2012 at 06:23am

If you're looking for some possible inspiration for a 404 page: http://i.imgur.com/fcHae.jpg

;)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/11/2012 at 06:28am

Heh. Hmmmm. Yeah, we could do something similar.... Hmmm.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/11/2012 at 06:58am

Thank you Mario! But the requested page is in another server.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/11/2012 at 07:00am

Or,
"This page is an illusion and is a trap devised by our servers. Go ahead dauntlessly! Make rapid progress!"

http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/a/ghosts.htm

Travis Admin wrote on 11/11/2012 at 07:01am

IMDB has something similar. It gives you random relevant movie quotes.

http://www.imdb.com/qweljhqerjqher

Just keep hitting F5

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/11/2012 at 04:05pm

I like the Mario idea. That's really clever!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/11/2012 at 08:25pm

Adding it to my list of things to do :D

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Add This Demo To Your Play Queue

I have a lot of game demo's I need to ry. I dusted off the recent XCOM demo I had in my queue recently and it was a surprising amount of fun.

Full confession as I haven't played any of the original XCOM games. So I don't have much in my mind in terms of if the game follows the originals legacy or anything. If you played the original and then this recent version shout out in the comments or another post, I am interested how that turned out for you.

XCOM is a turn based squad game. Basically its similar to something like Final Fantasy Tactics or the like where you take turns against the computer to overwhelm them. But don't let that absolutely bad description fool you, the... Read All I have a lot of game demo's I need to ry. I dusted off the recent XCOM demo I had in my queue recently and it was a surprising amount of fun.

Full confession as I haven't played any of the original XCOM games. So I don't have much in my mind in terms of if the game follows the originals legacy or anything. If you played the original and then this recent version shout out in the comments or another post, I am interested how that turned out for you.

XCOM is a turn based squad game. Basically its similar to something like Final Fantasy Tactics or the like where you take turns against the computer to overwhelm them. But don't let that absolutely bad description fool you, the game is pretty intense. The demo comes with a few missions and some compelling story to give you a good taste of what the game has in store. I enjoyed the intro missions and they really teach you how to play the game and then kick you into the action.

My only gripe about the game was really a demo limitation in that I couldn't save any progress. I didn't quite finish the demo in an hour or so but it doesn't allow you to save. That means when you come back to it you have to start at the beginning. I imagine this isn't a problem in the full meal deal.

One interesting feature I noticed as I was reading about the game on Wikipedia is the game comes with an interesting multiplayer mode. You start with an amount of points and can allocate them on certain things as you wish and go head to head with another player. Reminds me of dueling when I think about how that would play out.

In between your missions you have a base you can use to upgrade your units and do other stuff. The part of the demo I played didn't go too deep into that but it was cool to be able to see your upgraded units in your base. Oh right, XCOM brings an interesting feature to the table in that if you have units that survive missions they gain XP and get better. So you can have a badass vetran soldier you use in every battle. Just have to be careful because if they die it is permanent.

That all said install and play the demo as its available on Steam and the consoles(I played it on Steam) and let me know what you thought of it. In a world of mostly shooter games, its nice to get a tactical turn based game with some honest to God fun strategy elements to it.

iD To Release Mod Tools "Real Soon Now"

According to a recent Tweet by iD's John Carmack it looks like the Rage modding tools will be released really soon. Interested in seeing how this breathes some life back into Rage. I was really excited about this game and it would be awesome to see what the community can do with this.

I think one of the best parts of Rage was the split-screen co-op "Legends of the Wasteland." I also really liked the death match car combat as well. To the end of the game it got a bit stale, but overall I rather enjoyed Rage.

https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/260529465636040704

Travis Admin wrote on 11/07/2012 at 05:20am

Whoa... really? This may be too little too late. Most people have abandoned this. I'll probably dust it off though, if one can dust off a digital game.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/07/2012 at 06:07am

The bits are so stale we need to warm them!

Travis Admin wrote on 11/07/2012 at 06:18pm

Do you have it for PC or PS3?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/07/2012 at 06:48pm

Both.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 11/07/2012 at 07:31pm

I'd be up for some people doing cool shit with this. I'm a Rage apologist.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/07/2012 at 08:22pm

I am too. On both counts. Did you play it on PC or console Gary?

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 11/07/2012 at 10:25pm

PC. It came at the exact right time. I was in the mood for a semi intelligent shooter.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/08/2012 at 01:12am

That makes sense.

I am a iD fan, so I was extremely excited about Rage. I kind of had a roller coaster of experiences with it. My first experience was on PC and it was incredible. The first half of the game is really great. But I switched to PS3 when my copy arrive and had a bad go of it all as Rage was hard as hell with the controller(for me). Plus the load times and I died a lot made the game way less fun.

Went back to the PC version after WAY too much un comfort with the console version and had more fun. I came to the half way point and the story and pacing really changed I felt. It was less story driven and it started to lose me a bit.

That said, I still come back and co-op legends of the wasteland with my friends and will complete Rage single player at some point. The is also very pretty. Really pretty on PC.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 11/08/2012 at 05:10pm

The halfway point of Rage is about 80% through the game, unfortunately. I was seriously blindsided by the ending. That's my main complaint.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/11/2012 at 09:21pm

I just beat Rage. Will write my full bit on it. Interesting ending.

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Shove Pro

I'm excited about this game. Strange because it is an iPad and iPhone game. Check it out.

DoTA 2! Woot!

I was gifted a copy of DoTA 2 from vdogmr and I just wanted to say thanks for that. Ill give it a shot and of course, report back my findings :D

Thanks again!

Steam for Linux is now available to 1000 users.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/11/download-1.jpg

http://store.steampowered.com/news/9289/

Unfortunately, I am not one of them. They are going to be gradually expanding their test, so get that Ubuntu partition ready!

This also coincides with a new NVIDIA driver release that appears to double framerates in some cases. You definitely want this if you are an NVIDIA user and do any gaming in Linux.

http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/Releases/NVIDIA-Delivers-Massive-Performance-Boost-to-Linux-Gaming-8ac.aspx

There is Another Skywalker... Err Dragonborn!

Bethesda just announced a new expansion for Skyrim called "Dragonborn." As always it will be released on XBox 360 first for a mere 1600 Microsoft points($20).

The trailer boasts Dragon mounts and a new quest line for Skyrim where you find out your not the only Dragonborn in Skyrim. From the video I couldn't tell if this new Dragonborn is evil or not? I guess he/she must be because they wear some pretty scary armor. That said, it could be like the Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny Devito film Twins. Plenty of "Ill be back" references and your Dragonborn twin yelling loudly.

That or something about evil resurrected and a bunch of stuff hanging in the balance or whatever.

... Read All

Zillions of Things Attached to Transients

Borderlands 2 is quite a lot of fun. As I continue on with it I keep running into quests and events that make me smile. The loot I am collecting is pretty bad-ass too. Compared to other loot based games like Diablo 3, Borderlands has it beat in my view. I never feel like any weapon I collected in Diablo 3 held any advantage over another save attack power going through it the first time. I have nabbed a few items now in Borderlands 2 that are not just overpowered awesomeness, but have unique abilities that actually can change how you play the game.

For instance, I got a shield that when depleted, explodes a few times. When the shield depletes and the explosions start I... Read All

War Z Beta

http://gamergrub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/The-War-Z-Zombie-MMO.jpg

So, today a friend gave me a key to the War Z beta. I had hopes that this would be a good experience but didn't really think the game was going to be amazing. Now, I realize this is in beta and they still have a lot of changes to make, but I feel like its almost too late for some of the issues.

First off, the animations are dreadful. Running and jumping throughout the game just makes me laugh because the animations are just THAT bad. It makes me not able to take the experience, a game like day z has or war z should have, seriously. I feel like the game should have a serious, life or death, feeling to it, but it doesn't. Its just a laughable clone of day z that can't be... Read All So, today a friend gave me a key to the War Z beta. I had hopes that this would be a good experience but didn't really think the game was going to be amazing. Now, I realize this is in beta and they still have a lot of changes to make, but I feel like its almost too late for some of the issues.

First off, the animations are dreadful. Running and jumping throughout the game just makes me laugh because the animations are just THAT bad. It makes me not able to take the experience, a game like day z has or war z should have, seriously. I feel like the game should have a serious, life or death, feeling to it, but it doesn't. Its just a laughable clone of day z that can't be taken seriously.

Second, the building and towns. Almost every single town in the map is exactly the same and has the same buildings with the same layouts. There was almost no effort in making the map feel dynamic. If you didn't start out with a map, it would be impossible to tell a town apart from another besides for the surrounding hills and trees. This makes the experience very dull and repetitive.

Lastly, the game in general. There is nothing in the game that makes me think of it as an independent game. I feel as though almost every aspect has been stolen from the day z mod. There is zero creativity involved in this game. The only difference is the inventory system and the fact that you can see a weapon a mile away because it glows extremely bright. When you die, you lose all your stuff and must wait an hour to play that character again. This is pointless because you are allowed about 5 characters. If they are worried about you logging back in with the same character to get your stuff back, they should of made it to where you cannot join the same server. The fact that you can make multiple characters defeats every purpose of locking your dead character from being played again for 1 hour.

Really, War Z did not have a good impression on me at all. I feel as though the day z mod is a million times better. There is really no point in me playing war z again as I feel that I would make better use of my time if I played Day Z. If any of you guys want to criticize my judgement than go ahead. I'm just stating my opinion on the game. I just wanted to warn anyone who wants to play this game to not get their hopes up before hand.