Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Both Games Reviewed

Azurephile gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Azurephile gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

I recently finished Star Wars: The Force Unleashed I and II and thought it was time to give them a proper Cheerful Ghost review. The second game is a sequel to the first However, the first game isn’t very great, especially compared to the second. I wouldn’t say it’s horrible, but one thing I absolutely hated was that it uses quick time events. These were often buttons you had to press at a certain time to do a certain finishing move. The second game has these, too, but does a much better job by having fewer of them and making them not as seemingly random. They weren’t as annoying in the second game as the first, though I still don’t like this game mechanic.

I was able... Read All I recently finished Star Wars: The Force Unleashed I and II and thought it was time to give them a proper Cheerful Ghost review. The second game is a sequel to the first However, the first game isn’t very great, especially compared to the second. I wouldn’t say it’s horrible, but one thing I absolutely hated was that it uses quick time events. These were often buttons you had to press at a certain time to do a certain finishing move. The second game has these, too, but does a much better job by having fewer of them and making them not as seemingly random. They weren’t as annoying in the second game as the first, though I still don’t like this game mechanic.

I was able to play both games via Steam on Windows 10 and with an Xbox One controller. I didn’t have to do any special configuration, though the second game included some graphical detail options, which weren’t automatically set to the highest, so I set them that way. It didn’t seem to have a 1920x1200 resolution, but 1600xsomething instead, which I don’t think was really noticeable anyway. In the second game, subtitles were automatically turned on and I turned them off.

You’ll start out in the first game as Darth Vader death marching your way through a Wookie village. One could say that Vader (and Anakin Skywalker) is the most iconic character in all of Star Wars, so it’s fun getting to play as him. It was also great to see him in the game, hear him, and watch him act. He was presented very well in both games. Eventually, you’ll change to controlling a character who is Vader’s apprentice. I didn’t know he had one. He said he wanted you to help him overthrow the Emperor. He’s helping you complete your training by sending you on some missions, which will have you fighting some Jedi. There aren’t a lot of characters here, there’s a droid which is used as a communication device to speak to Vader. He’s also funny in that his goal is to try to kill you and he keeps apologizing for failing. You also have a female pilot, which you needed after Vader killed your previous pilots.

This is an action game, you’ll be attacking enemies using Force powers such as Force Lighting, Force Grip, and more. When you get to the tutorial part in the beginning, I recommend getting comfortable and familiar with the controls before moving on, it can feel a little difficult to get used to. The second game doesn’t have a tutorial in the same way, but it will tell you things you can do, while you play, when they become available or relevant. As you progress in the game, more abilities will unlock. You’ll also earn points, which are used to increase your rank of each ability. Higher ranked abilities are more powerful than lower ones, so you’ll want to manage those points. There are Jedi and Sith Holocrons hidden throughout the first game. The Jedi Holocrons unlock special things like a Lightsaber Crystal, costume, or some other special extra. Sith Holocrons give you a temporary ability such as invincibility or health restoration, for example. This is different in the second game as there are four different kinds of Holocrons each with a different color and each will give different things, such as permanent health increase.

Lightsaber Crystals can be changed, in game in a menu. You may find these hidden throughout the games. They not only change the color of your lightsaber(s), but also have their own abilities, such as stronger lightsaber attacks.

There are “extras” in each game you can unlock, though I’m not sure exactly how to unlock everything as I didn’t look for a guide for that. I do know that you unlock cinematics when you see them as you progress in the games. However, I noticed that the second game still had some that I hadn’t unlocked. You can also unlock costumes and databank entries, which will tell you about something in the Star Wars universe. These entries are rather lengthy, at least in the first game, I didn’t look at them in the second game.

Over the course of the game, you’ll run into familiar Star Wars characters and locations. You’ll notice that almost none of the characters sound the way you’re used to, though Vader’s voice was done very well. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the voice of one character other than Vader. His is the voice of the clones in The Clone Wars, the same voice actor. It's fitting, in my opinion, that this is that character's voice. The one problem I had with the locations in the first game is that you go back to them a second time. There are a few different difficulty levels and I played on easy. I noticed the “unleashed” difficulty unlocked in the second game after I completed it. The first game had some instances of confusion, where it was difficult to know what to do or how exactly to do it. There’s one in particular that seems like it will take forever and does seem difficult to get right. The second game wasn’t like that.

So, if you’re interested in playing a Star Wars game and seeing a story about Vader with an apprentice, check out The Force Unleashed and it’s sequel. The second is definitely an improvement over the first.

I'd also like to point out that both games are short. Steam says I've spent 8 hours on the first, even though I restarted at least once, and 4 on the second. Higher difficulty would probably change these numbers. Also, really hunting down those Holocrons and such would certainly add some time, though I didn't do that.

This is funny, you should check it out, Honest Game Trailers for The Force Awakens: https://youtu.be/0ATGmaVwrIw

Travis Admin wrote on 06/22/2020 at 01:41pm

> However, the first game isn’t very great, especially compared to the second.

O_O

Hottest take about these games I've ever seen lol

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/22/2020 at 06:48pm

LOL I gave up playing the first one at least once, because of the stupid quick time events. I even uninstalled both games, but then reinstalled them almost immediately. The first wasn't really bad, but the second was really awesome compared to the second. I was so pleased with the improvements they made.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/22/2020 at 09:06pm

See I didn't even see any improvements. It just seemed like a few levels they didn't have time to put in the first game, strung together with a thin and weird plot. And if I'd been unlucky enough to pay $60 for it I would have really hated it, but since I got it for like $10 on a Steam sale it was fun, but it should have just been DLC, calling it a full game was a joke.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/22/2020 at 09:07pm

For what it's worth I ADORED the first game, I feel like it achieved making the player feel like a badass in ways that no other game had before it. The second game did the same but it felt very samey.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/22/2020 at 09:42pm

Yeah, I see your point of view, though I feel differently. LOL I'm sure I picked them up in a Star Wars bundle from Humble Bundle, so I didn't pay too much for them either. I did enjoy being a badass with Force powers, but I really hated those quick time events, especially in the first. As I think I said, they seemed to be more random in the first. In the second game, taking out a particular enemy would require you to usually press the same buttons initially, but then possibly change the last one. This made it easier to input them as I could predict more easily what to expect. Although, the first game put those in the center of the screen, while the second put them on the edges. I feel a couple of ways about that. It's easier to see if it's in the center, but it's kind of easier to interpret if they're on the edges. So, you see one on the right-hand side, you'll know you'll have to press the right-most button on the controller (B in the case of the XBox One).

Additionally, I was impressed when I saw the credits for the voice actors. The guy who plays Darth Maul in The Clone Wars does very many of the voices in the games. He did a good job, I think, at least I think his performance was done well.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/23/2020 at 04:02am

I do get the QTE thing. I don’t have any issue with completing them but I don’t enjoy them, they just kinda pull you out of the game. It’s kinda... lazy isn’t the right word. Just not what I’m into. But yeah the changes they made there didn’t really affect me but I could imagine if they frustrated you enough that might be a major point for you.

The only thing kinda like that when I played it was one big set piece moment in the first game where you had to turn the sticks a certain way, and the on-screen prompts had them backwards. I had to look it up and found a lot of people with the same issue. This was at launch, though, and I think they’ve fixed it since.

And yeah, Sam Witwer is amazing. TFU was the first time I saw him, but I recognized him from his likeness/mo-cap when I saw him in Battlestar Galactica a bit later. And I was thrilled to have him back to play Maul in the Clone Wars, Rebels, and Solo. And the emperor in the Clone Wars too!

Travis Admin wrote on 06/23/2020 at 04:02am

Er... in Rebels. He played the emperor in Rebels.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/23/2020 at 05:13am

Looking him up on IMDB shows who he was and yeah, I think I remember that episode he was in, but I didn't know about him then. It wasn't until maybe a few years later that I watched Clone Wars (for the first time). Looking at the credits of Phantom Menace and Solo, it seems that Ray Park was physically Maul, but Sam was the voice of Maul. I wonder why that is. Sam is a muscular guy. Anyway, this is still relevant to the conversation, because (you may remember) Maul does make an appearance in one of the games. Again, I think he did a great job as Starkiller, but I wasn't as impressed w/ his Emperor voice. I also see he's done other Star Wars voices in other games, which I have not yet played.

BTW, did you notice the voice of Boba? It's Dee Bradley Baker. I was surprised and delighted.

And...HOLY CRAP!!!! In all these years of being here on Cheerful Ghost I just now learned that you can resize the comment window!!!!!!! That makes things so much easier, especially copying, cutting, and pasting. Wow, mind blown, I feel stupid, LOL.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/23/2020 at 02:49pm

Yeah Witwer was the voice in Solo, Peter Serafinowicz (I may have butchered his name) was the voice in Phantom Menace. Apparently he recorded lines for Solo as well but they decided to go with Witwer since he had more screen time with the character.

And on modern browsers, unless you put forth the effort to limit resizability, you can do that anywhere with text boxes (not one-line input controls, but text areas)

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

The Humble Fight for Racial Justice Bundle is Another Great Way to Grow Your Backlog and Support Racial Justice

The itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice has just finished up, raising over $8.1 million, and now Humble is out with their version of this.

There are currently 50 games and 25 books, too many to list out here, but a few highlights are in the image above.

This is a starting price of $30 if you want to get the goods, but it's well worth it. Head over to Humble and support a very worthy cause!

https://www.humblebundle.com/fight-for-racial-justice-bundle

What Do You Think The Most Under Rated Consoles Are?

Metal Jesus made a video ranking the most under rated consoles and after watching the video I wondered what would be on my list? Frankly I don't think many consoles are as under rated as they were unpopular. The Wii U wasn't very popular but I think it's fairly well loved for being a low seller. What consoles do you think deserve more love than they get? I'd also put the Ouya on my list as well as it proved there was a market for indie games on your TV and then Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo noticed and then allowed anyone to publish to their systems.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/17/2020 at 01:54am

Steambox

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/17/2020 at 03:19am

Oh yeah, wow. I really wished those worked out but I never got one so...

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/17/2020 at 05:04am

Same. So much potential.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/17/2020 at 05:00pm

I still hope Valve creates a Steam handheld but that’s seems somewhat unlikely at this point.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/17/2020 at 11:08pm

I think an all in one VR headset would be more likely.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/17/2020 at 11:57pm

That's a good thought. I've heard rumors they are working on AR tech with Apple.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Listen to Tarn Adams Talk About How Fun Dwarf Fortress Bugs Can Be

Dwarf Fortress is one of the coolest games I've ever heard of but is so incredibly evolved i'm somewhat nervous to try it. Like D&D i've gone so long admiring it and not playing it I get lost admiring the complexity and lack of starting it.

That said, one highlight of going to PAX West a handful of years ago was talking with Tarn Adams for a good while about Dwarf Fortress and watching this recent No Clip video reminded me of that PAX. Tarn is a fun developer to listen to and Dwarf Fortress is one of those games that even if you might not have played it it's still an impressive feat and if games are considered art, and I think they are, Dwarf Fortress would rank at... Read All

Command & Conquer Remastered Looks Incredible!

We are in the age of classic game remasters and as many of these remasters are of games I love I enjoy the trend. The Command & Conquer Remastered Collection brings the original game + Red Alert a new coat of paint and a lot of really impressive tech under the hood to breathe life into these classic games. Personally I've played Red Alert the most and consider it to be one of the best RTS games around. It refined the original game and spun up the crazy style of Command & Conquer that was later made even better in Red Alert 2.

As usual Digital Foundry has run the new games through their paces and give them fantastic marks. Plus the collection is only $20 on... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/13/2020 at 03:25am

I pre-ordered this and have played it, so I have some input. $20 for this as a starting price is AMAZING! It's hard to believe it's so cheap. It contains remixed music and even new tracks. The original soundtrack for the game was completely awesome, in my opinion! The updated graphics are the most obvious feature of the remaster. An interesting thing to note is how easy it is to switch between original vs. remaster graphics. Just press the SPACE bar! After you finish a mission, you'll also unlock some bonus material such as videos that show the actors in front of a green screen. I don't see much value in that, though. One thing I love is the fact that you can change the difficulty from easy to normal to hard. Also, remember when you finished a mission and the map would give you maybe 1-3 different places to go to for the next mission? This could cause one play through to be different than another and it may cause the player to lose out on something (like a mission or full-motion video). However, this remastered version unlocks all next missions and you can select them from the main menu. So, finish a mission, it'll tell you the places you can go next, head back to the main menu, and select the mission you want to do. You can do one of them to progress or all of them.

To be clear, this contains C&C, Red Alert, and their expansions (like Covert Operations). It does not cover Tiberian Sun and later games, though I really hope this one is successful enough to encourage EA to remaster those newer games as well. I'd love to see Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 (including expansions) get this remastered treatment. They can be difficult to run on modern computers.

One of my earliest memories of the game is of a strategy I found in the earliest version of the game. You could use sandbags to trap your enemy in their base and keep them away from your's. Vehicles could not run over sandbags. Sadly, to me, this "strategy" was patched out even before the "Gold" Windows 95 edition was released. I'm quite sure I played the DOS version originally.

Bottom line: If you enjoyed C&C back in the day, you should totally get this and check it out!

Travis Admin wrote on 06/13/2020 at 03:50am

> $20 for this as a starting price is AMAZING!

So just to be clear, "starting price" sounds like it's the bottom level and the price goes up based on your selections, but I can't find anything to suggest that there's any price *other than* $20.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/13/2020 at 04:21am

I said, "starting price," meaning the price of the game at launch before any sales. So, I mean that $20 isn't a discounted price, it launched at that price, which I think is pretty amazing for a game, these days. And, as I said in my comment, I believe that it's totally worth it! It's possible it will go on sale during the Steam Summer Sale, but I don't expect it to be heavily discounted any time soon.

I see how my comment was confusing, my apologies. Although, there is a special, much more expensive edition at limitedrungames.com (https://limitedrungames.com/products/command-and-conquer-remastered-special-edition?_pos=1&_sid=afe61ff44&_ss=r).

Travis Admin wrote on 06/13/2020 at 04:55pm

Aha, gotcha! I see what you meant now.

And yeah I love Limited Run's stuff.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/15/2020 at 05:07am

I got the uber edition ordered from Limited Run.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/15/2020 at 05:45am

I'm so jealous! It is very tempting!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/15/2020 at 03:37pm

Here is the version I ordered: https://limitedrungames.com/products/command-and-conquer-remastered-anniversary-edition

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/15/2020 at 06:24pm

Wow!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/15/2020 at 08:34pm

The Uber edition is incredible.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Get Ark: Survival Evolved For Free On EGS Now!

One of my most favorite games, Ark: Survival Evolved is now a freebie on the Epic Games Store. I strongly encourage you to go grab it while you can! I've put in an insane amount of hours into the game and I'm still playing, because they keep creating content. At the moment, we're celebrating the game's 5th birthday with an Anniversary Event and a new map, Crystal Isles. Kill Party Dodos, get Cake Slices, cook them in a cooking pot, and you'll get a special pet chibi.

Yes, this is a survival game. If you get hurt, you'll heal, but you'll get hungry. However, there are plenty of things to eat, like berries you can easily harvest from plants. Can you survive in the... Read All

Bill & Ted Face The Music

Be excellent to each other.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/09/2020 at 04:59pm

I miss George Carlin.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/09/2020 at 05:03pm

Yeah, me too. I’ve heard they do mention him so I’m looking forward to how.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/09/2020 at 05:06pm

This is a most excellent trailer.

It made me realize how long it's been since I've seen the Orion studio splash in front of a movie.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/09/2020 at 05:07pm

Rumor has it that this movie uses the same crew that worked on Jay & Silent Bob Reboot.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/09/2020 at 08:47pm

Excellent!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/10/2020 at 12:51am

A bit of a detailed look: https://youtu.be/dI0Vo3HwqoQ

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Mavis Beacon: The Original E-Girl

YouTube Retro Game Reviewer Bobdunga dropped an incredible retrospective on the legacy of the Mavis Beacon series of educational PC games. I'd put the Mavis Beacon games next to some of the great educational games such as The Oregon Trail, Odell Lake, Number Munchers and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Even if you've never experienced the Mavis Beacon series of games you should treat yourself to Bobdunga's retrospective as it highlights the importance of these games to the early Internet and computing.

"This week, we take a look at the classic Toolworks program known as Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, which I'm sure many of us who were born in the 90s remember to... Read All

Time To Head Back To Rapture? Get BioShock: The Collection on Switch.

BioShock: The Collection released on Switch recently which contains BioShock, BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite plus all the DLC. There have been some questions about what's included if you decide to buy the Switch physical release and I do want to say that the box does come with a game cart and that game cart has the opening acts of all 3 games. I can confirm all three games do play just fine BUT if you want to play the full games you will have to download the full games clocking in at 31GB. So if you don't care about owning a box to put on your shelf the digital release does make sense to get.

I played BioShock Infinite when it was ported to Mac and all the DLC but... Read All

Support Racial Justice and Get Thousands of Dollars Worth of Games for $5 (Minimum)

There's a massive bundle on itch.io that will probably continue to grow. At the start, a few days ago, there were only a few dozen games in this bundle. Now there are 740+ works total (not all games, but a huge majority) from 560+ creators. All proceeds go to two non-profits fighting for the cause of racial justice, and I can't think of anything more worthy of our support.

I'll let the itch.io copy speak for itself:

We live in a time of racial injustice, inequality, and police brutality against black people. We hope that everyone takes a stand in any way that they can. We’ve partnered with creators from all across our platform to support organizations that are working... Read All