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
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 Steam so why not give these classics a try?
"It may be 25-years-old, but Command & Conquer remains one of the greatest strategy games ever made - and the recently released remaster is a simply exceptional piece of work. Alex Battaglia has the full lowdown on the modernisation of a stone-cold classic."
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!
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.
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
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 environment with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures? Go check it out! This opportunity is way too good to miss!
This isn't just a survival game, but it's also a crafting/building adventure game as well. You'll first need to punch a tree to get some wood and thatch (sound familiar?), then pick up some stones to craft a pick. Then, you'll want to use that on a bigger rock to get flint to craft a hatchet, which you'll want to use to get wood. It continues from there and goes on for quite a while. You don't have to do all your resource gathering by hand, though, as you can tame some creatures who specialize in getting certain resources. For example, the Ankylosaurus is used for gathering metal. Many creatures have their own special talent and there is a large variety of them.
This game was mostly designed for multiplayer, but I suggest playing in single player mode, that's just my preference. There are a variety of great mods to use as well. Feel free to find the game on Cheerful Ghost to see the posts I have made or just hit me up in the comments and let me know what you want to know. Beware, though, Ark is pretty graphically intense even at 5 years old.
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
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 some capacity! I take you through the history, inception, and legacy of the fictional typing instructor! Stay tuned to the end for a little surprise! ;)"
Maybe you can help me out here. I've tried to figure out exactly what an E-girl is but I don't get any clear definition. It seems mostly related to kinda crazy fashion?
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 06/14/2020 at 11:58pm
Yeah. The kids know what it means. We're fucking old man.
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
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 the original BioShock game has always been something I've wanted to play to the end. When I heard about the Switch release of The BioShock Collection that seemed to be a good time to jump in and I have to say that Rapture looks and plays fantastically on the Switch. Is it as good as playing on a top of the line PC? No. But I did play the original BioShock for a handful on minutes on the PS3 and I can't tell a huge difference between the PS3 and Switch in handheld mode. Plus kicking back on the couch and playing BIOSHOCK in handheld just seems like some magic.
I've only clocked in a bit of time on the game itself and so far it's a fantastic experience. The dark tone and storytelling are top notch but for a game that came on in 2007 that's hardly new information.
If you've played BioShock a ton already this Switch release might not excite you but this collection brings three awesome games to Switch giving it a wider audience of younger gamers ready for something a bit different.
2K released a few older games to Switch recently along with The BioShock Collection including The Borderlands Collection and XCom 2. As a huge Borderlands fan I do plan on picking that one up as well because I love collection well ported games on the Switch I want to play again.
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
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 directly with those affected.
We reached out to our community and an unprecedented number of creators donated over 740 projects to be part of what we believe is the largest bundle ever. Over $3,400 of paid works are available Pay-what-you-want with a minimum donation amount of $5.
All proceeds will donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund split 50/50.
This is a great way to start your library on itch.io if you haven't used it much before, and it's a cause worth supporting. Please give as much as you can and get some pretty great games.
You may not know this, but we recently unlocked latent psychic abilities, and in this episode we are here to tell you exactly what's coming to gaming in the next ten years. But this episode is not the most important thing right now.
While we usually boost ourselves on social media when we drop a new episode, but this time we aren't doing that. Right now, the world is hurting. If the pandemic wasn't enough, the senseless murder of George Floyd has resonated throughout the world, and this seems like the wrong time to try to boost ourselves. We hope this episode provides you with a welcome distraction, but we aren't going to try to spread it around. Instead we'd like to... Read All
You may not know this, but we recently unlocked latent psychic abilities, and in this episode we are here to tell you exactly what's coming to gaming in the next ten years. But this episode is not the most important thing right now.
While we usually boost ourselves on social media when we drop a new episode, but this time we aren't doing that. Right now, the world is hurting. If the pandemic wasn't enough, the senseless murder of George Floyd has resonated throughout the world, and this seems like the wrong time to try to boost ourselves. We hope this episode provides you with a welcome distraction, but we aren't going to try to spread it around. Instead we'd like to boost those who are working to make a difference right now.
Instead, we want to boost those who can make a difference.
If you want to protest or help financially, or just help by boosting others, there's a cardd on cardd.co that's being updated with resources to help out.
And finally, check out the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on Twitter for more info on the current up-to-date happenings of these protests, and help spread the word.
This is a stain on our history, but it is also a source of hope. What happened to George Floyd is inexcusable, and the conduct of the police during the protests is as well, but the rising tide of support for Black Lives Matter and meaningful police reform is a heartwarming reprieve from the suffering.
We usually try to stay away from politics on Cheerful Ghost, but this is too important. We 100% stand with Black Lives Matter, and hope we can do our part to spread awareness and support.
Azurephile Super Member
wrote on 06/04/2020 at 09:04am
Agreed! #BlackLivesMatter
Studio Wildcard was set to give us a new today. This is similar to other non-story maps that they have released, which were not created by SW. However, because of these events, the release of the new map (with a new creature) has been delayed. A lot of people on the website aren't taking it very well, though. Although, I think that the more people become affected by a situation, the more likely change will occur. I certainly hope for change.
LGR is one of those really unique YouTube channels that focuses on all kinds of retro tech and one of his latest videos hit me right in the feels. My Grandmother had an IBM PC XT 286 and it was one of the coolest computers I used as a kid because it was my first experience dialing up a BBS. On one visit to my Grandmothers she showed her new computer that could dial up the Library and that you could search through the book catalog and put something on hold. The whole process of dialing up the library was magical and I remember staying up late just searching the library for books like The Hobbit and The Big Friendly Giant. There wasn't much to do beyond looking for... Read All
LGR is one of those really unique YouTube channels that focuses on all kinds of retro tech and one of his latest videos hit me right in the feels. My Grandmother had an IBM PC XT 286 and it was one of the coolest computers I used as a kid because it was my first experience dialing up a BBS. On one visit to my Grandmothers she showed her new computer that could dial up the Library and that you could search through the book catalog and put something on hold. The whole process of dialing up the library was magical and I remember staying up late just searching the library for books like The Hobbit and The Big Friendly Giant. There wasn't much to do beyond looking for books but the next time I came over I had a few BBS numbers and dialed those up and tried a fun game called Legend of the Red Dragon which was the inspiration for Tale of the White Wyvern.
The IBM PC XT 286 is a beautiful computer and LGR is able to restore one to working order from the parts of two systems he had around. If I had more space in my house i'd have more classic PC systems so until then I can dream vicariously through him.
"Cleaning, upgrading, and overall reinvigorating a vintage IBM computer system from 1986! The Model 5162 here is a bit of an uncommon beast at this point, combining the classic case design of the XT with the 286 internals of an IBM AT. Let's fix it!
"Noclip travels to France and Texas to tell the story of Arkane's twenty year history. Featuring exclusive first looks at the gameplay of three cancelled projects; The Crossing, LMNO & the Half-Life spin-off "Ravenholm"."
Noclip, the YouTube documentary channel is back at it with a very strong documentary about Arcane Studios the creators of Dishonored and Prey. One thing I didn't know before watching this was that Arcane was working on a Half-Life 2 episode that featured Father Gregory that looked pretty damn cool until Valve cancelled it.
"Noclip travels to France and Texas to tell the story of Arkane's twenty year history. Featuring exclusive first looks at the gameplay of three cancelled projects; The Crossing, LMNO & the Half-Life spin-off "Ravenholm"."
Noclip, the YouTube documentary channel is back at it with a very strong documentary about Arcane Studios the creators of Dishonored and Prey. One thing I didn't know before watching this was that Arcane was working on a Half-Life 2 episode that featured Father Gregory that looked pretty damn cool until Valve cancelled it.
If you somehow missed playing Borderlands 2 or Borderlands The Pre-Sequel or simply don't own them on PC yet you are in luck as they are both free on the Epic Store.
Borderlands 2 is one of the best looter shooters and the Pre-Sequel is well worth checking out and now that they are free it's even better.
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!
> $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.
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).
Aha, gotcha! I see what you meant now.
And yeah I love Limited Run's stuff.
I got the uber edition ordered from Limited Run.
I'm so jealous! It is very tempting!
Here is the version I ordered: https://limitedrungames.com/products/command-and-conquer-remastered-anniversary-edition
Wow!
The Uber edition is incredible.