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Ok so Im not sure if this game qualifies for retro but it is

Ok so I'm not sure if this game qualifies for "retro" but it is pretty old at this point, so I'm busting it out for Retro Tuesday.

If you're unfamiliar with the Harvest Moon franchise, this series of games usually revolves around working on a farm and turning it from a rundown field of rocks and tree stumps into a profitable ranch, all while trying to get married and make friends with your neighbors. It sounds really lame but the games are actually a lot of fun. It's one of those rare games that is fun without any kind of fighting at all.

This was the first Harvest Moon game I ever played and from what I've read on-line it's considered by a lot of fans to be the best in... Read All

For Retro Tuesday I am going to nerd out on a game from a

For Retro Tuesday I am going to nerd out on a game from a galaxy far far away.... Queue John Williams please....

In a world where movie tie in games go horribly wrong Star Wars is one franchise that does pretty well for itself. More recently with the Knights of the Old Republic MMO Star Wars has had good luck with its tie-in games. One such game I played was Super Star Wars on the Super Nintendo.

Super Star Wars is a fast paced action side scroller where you played Luke Skywalker starting the game with a simple blaster. As you progressed you could upgrade your blaster and after meeting Obi-Wan you got the lightsaber. At one point you can play as Han Solo but I never... Read All

Downloaded this demo on the PS3 after hearing in a podcast

Downloaded this demo on the PS3 after hearing in a podcast that the game was exceptionally violent and gory. It is. The first few seconds of the demo shows your enemy knocking rail road spikes into your hands while you dangle on a cross. Some vivid imagery and then the game pulls you into a flashback.

The games tone is very Godfather-ish but the voices are as if people are mocking Italian Americans. The demos first few minutes are not too hard as you just hit X a few times and try to kill a few guys though I missed most of them and it didn't seem to count against me.

If you are familiar with The Darkness, this game is similar. You are the host to "The Darkness" which is... Read All

Traveling this week and without PC and console wondering

Traveling this week and without PC and console wondering what games people are playing on their phones? Ive been playing Sword and Sworcery, Harbor Master & Ticket to Ride in the down moments between stops. Harbor Master is fun as my wife and I play it a bit before bed and on flights to pass the time. Harbor Master is a game much like Flight Control where you tap a route for boats to unload cargo. There is a free demo for Harbor Master on iOS.

Still playing Tiny Tower off and on, that said it has lost much of its appeal after a few weeks intially. I have about $650k and growing if I put a few days into it ill have a cool million. No real reason, just hoarding... Read All

I love playing board games. One game I am looking forward

I love playing board games. One game I am looking forward to is Descent 2nd edition. I signed up for the preview game event at Rainy Day Games and will pre-order the game the second I am able to. Recently Fantasy Flight released the PDF rulebook that you can check out to be up to speed on how to play the game before it drops. I put it on my iPhone for easy access and ill be reading it over the next week.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3353

I have a pretty limited time set these days and can only really put time into so many new board games, this being one of them.

If you are interested in going to the preview event with me let me know.

Valve continues to amaze me! Bravo.

Valve continues to amaze me! Bravo.

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/category/economics/

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/15/2012 at 09:03pm

Awesome article. Valve really seems to "get" that making the game great for your users involves being expert at things like economics. Especially when digital currency is being integrated much more into our games.

Plus getting an email like that from Gabe is awesome too.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 06/16/2012 at 03:17am

That is actually very cool. I didn't realize any of the valve games used digital currency though. I know a lot of their games have micro transactions (for example: TF2) using real money, but which of their games use digital currency?

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/16/2012 at 04:30am

I think it's a new thing they are looking into? Seems like they want to merge their games and do new stuff.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/16/2012 at 07:27pm

Dude, that's a really rad article!

Tungsten wrote on 06/16/2012 at 11:42pm

You could even use the steam trades. if someone plays 10 hours of tf2 to get the materials for a new hat, many off those hats can be traded to games like spyro knights.

That should be the valve currency btw: hats.

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Latest episode of Wil Wheatons TableTop they play the

Latest episode of Wil Wheaton's TableTop they play the awesome Ticket to Ride.

Few video game companies tinker with hardware like this.

Few video game companies tinker with hardware like this. Taking a mounted display and making it work really well with your video game is amazing. John Carmack is well suited to this because he deeply understands how this technology all works and I envy him for being able to talk the time and dabble in this kind of work. The video is a fascinating look into the tech he has been working on with head mounted displays. Have to admit, slapping a screen inches from my face doesn't appeal to me, but it the game adjusts to my movements that does appeal to me.

The video drops a few tid-bits about Doom 3 BFG edition in that it will ship with 3D and a few other features. A recent... Read All Few video game companies tinker with hardware like this. Taking a mounted display and making it work really well with your video game is amazing. John Carmack is well suited to this because he deeply understands how this technology all works and I envy him for being able to talk the time and dabble in this kind of work. The video is a fascinating look into the tech he has been working on with head mounted displays. Have to admit, slapping a screen inches from my face doesn't appeal to me, but it the game adjusts to my movements that does appeal to me.

The video drops a few tid-bits about Doom 3 BFG edition in that it will ship with 3D and a few other features. A recent Penny Arcade article goes over the head mounted display and some of the Doom 3 BFG edition design points.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/hands-on-with-doom-3-bfg-and-the-terrible-secret-behind-the-original-games

From the article:

"There was controversy over the flashlight in Doom 3 when the game was originally launched. You couldn’t have the flashlight on while you had your gun out, and the player had to choose which one to use, and flip between them quickly. I thought it was inspired, other people wondered if the future existed without duct tape. The flashlight is mounted to your body armor in Doom 3: BFG, so you can finally use it while a gun is in your hands, although the battery life is limited. My thought on the matter? id sold out. "

I heartily agree with this statement. Doom 3 made a bold choice in many situations between seeing and shooting. In a jump/scare shooter this was magical for me. I know the flash light feature had its haters but I loved the difference. Many times I had my flash light out and enemies would jump out and I would scramble for a weapon. Often that meant I took a beating in the scramble. Sometimes I did fine but it was a choice I had to make.

I hope there is a setting to turn it back to the old method. That said, I have the original box copy so I can always go back to playing it as it was I suppose. Feels a little like some of the changes made to the original Star Wars because of my mad love for Doom. Regardless of how this all shakes out, ill still pick it up as the new stuff really interests me.

Whimsyshire Is Brutally Cute Fun!

Recently panickedthumb and chowda helped me get to Whimsyshire. Whimsyshire being D3's version of Diablo 2's cow level. Grinding for the items took an evening of solid runs on items but after a few hours I had all the gear to craft the Staff of Warding. It was nice of panickedthumb to walk me through the parts he had done as it was my first time in a game grinding for certain loot drops. Not too bad but you should expect things not to drop more often than they do. Or said another way, it can get tedious. The payoff is well worth the time spent though.

Oh and the total amount of money it takes to get the normal Staff of Warding is 150k. 100k for Wirts Cowbell and 50k... Read All

Ben_Dodson wrote on 06/14/2012 at 06:55am

"There is no Cow Level." Best line from the ghost.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/14/2012 at 05:02pm

The cow king is cool. I like how Whimsyshire is a zone you can keep going to if you want.

When did you grind for the staff?

Ben_Dodson wrote on 06/14/2012 at 05:27pm

I haven't. I was brought there by people who have it

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/14/2012 at 08:20pm

Oh cool.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/18/2012 at 03:58pm

That staff starts getting expensive. 200k to upgrade it for Nightmare, and 500k for hell. A whopping 1.5 million for Inferno.

But the way gold is dropping in Hell, I don't think it's going to hurt my gold pouch too much.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/18/2012 at 04:25pm

Yeah one of my friends who farms Inferno act 1 lent me 50k for the orig staff. He could get that in a quick run too.

Are you in Hell now? How is compared to Inferno?

Travis Admin wrote on 06/22/2012 at 03:53am

Sorry for the delay in responding. Diablo 3 to play :)

Hell is fun. It's harder, but not cheap. The extra affixes on packs of blues make for a harder time judging how you're going to fare, so you have to be on your toes.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/22/2012 at 04:42am

Cool. When I Played Nightmare last of wasnt too challenging so it will be good to up the ante in Hell :)

Travis Admin wrote on 06/23/2012 at 05:28am

I think the initial difficulty adjustment with Nightmare is more shocking, since you don't know what to expect and Normal is *really* easy. Act 2 Hell has me dying about as much as Act 2 Nightmare, but that's because I've gotten better. The difficulty scaling is generally pretty good. Until Inferno, from what I gather, when you get smacked into submission.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/23/2012 at 08:48pm

Awesome. Looking forward to Hell.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/07/2014 at 12:16am

I just found out about this (over two years later) and I'm going to work on getting there.

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Todays Retro Tuesday is an old DOS game I loved as a kid

Today's Retro Tuesday is an old DOS game I loved as a kid called Fairy Godmom. It wasn't as well known as Doom or Mario Brothers but it was fun. Some games I can't forget and this was one of those games. It wasn't amazing, but it was fun and I spent many hours playing in on my old DOS machine.

Back in the day DOS systems had a few graphics layers. Basically at a certain point you had a CGA, EGA or VGA graphics card. Since we didn't have the top of the line computers for many years we have a DOS CGA computer. Many shareware games could run in CGA, EGA and VGA mode. VGA being the pinnacle of awesome computer graphics. I remember playing Commander Keen on a VGA system and... Read All

Cathy_Clouston wrote on 11/27/2018 at 12:36am

I LOVE this game. In fact, I just very recently (read yesterday) discovered there was such a thing as DOSBox and that F Godmom was still out there, avoiding crabs! So, I've downloaded DOSBox and relearned the DOS commands, good grief loaded FGodmom and have been playing almost non stop since! I discovered a few videos on YouTube, but nothing for the level I'm stuck on right now. I'm so frustrated. Doesn't anyone else play this game? Anyway, I'm looking for some help. John Blackwell didn't label the levels individually when he created the game, but I know it's beyond level 11 by a few. It might be 13, 14, 15 maybe, Around in there. Going to try posting a screen shot of the opening of the level, maybe you, or someone who is as obsessive and neurotic as I can help me out. There's got to be a better way than what I'm trying. I've made a video, just in case I find someone that can help, and I've added it to my YouTube channel. PLEASE please help an old lady out here. Please??

Cathy_Clouston wrote on 11/27/2018 at 12:39am

Tried posting a screenshot, and couldn't get it to work, but here's the addy for my YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH45cIynTMA

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/27/2018 at 11:42pm

Hey Cathy, looks like a level I remember beating ALONG time ago but nothing comes to mind.

Good luck.

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