Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

I am really excited about a few games coming out. Diablo 3,

http://www.dota2-utilities.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DOTA-2-3rd-February-2012.jpg

I am really excited about a few games coming out. Diablo 3, Borderlands 2 and DoTA 2. I played the original DoTA at University in the CS lab and it was awesome. Ill readily admit I wasn't any good nor am I still, but I find the game to be quite a bit of fun.

I am excited for bots in DoTA 2. Reason is, im not terribly great at these games and don't plan on being the best but want to have fun. Bots for these kinds of games allow me to, you know, like actually play them and have fun. A problem with DoTA is that the second I start downloading the map I get kicked from War 3 for being a "newb." The other issue is if I get into a match and suck I get trashed talked by... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/22/2012 at 09:45pm

Ok, total noob question: What's DoTA stand for?

Tungsten wrote on 03/23/2012 at 01:56am

Defenders of the Ancients?

Something like that. I never played it myself, just a bunch of clones. It was kind of fun, but I've always wanted either something faster paced.

That said, I'm a bit of a Valve fanboy right now, so they could release a steaming pile of crap and I'd buy it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2012 at 02:02am

Yeah, Defense of the Ancients.

And I agree, I think I'd buy anything Valve as well. They just seem to release awesome stuff.

Tungsten wrote on 03/23/2012 at 02:19am

Did you see those Gabe Newell Stickers someone put up all over GDC? I want one.

http://www.destructoid.com/elephant/photo-m.phtml?post_key=223364&photo_key=216966

The promise that somewhere in that potent gaze lays half life episode 3... shudder...

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2012 at 02:23am

I saw those, they are cool. In a way.

On one hand people on the net seem to worship Gabe Newell. That doesn't seem horrible I guess as Valve with gaben at the wheel is doing amazing work. Then again, is it awesome to have yourself appear like that everywhere? Im not sure. Its cool to be adored but then again... ?

Tungsten wrote on 03/24/2012 at 03:42am

Gabe just seems to honestly want to make good games. The way he talks about actually reading all of the e-mails he gets from fans, or dressing up and taking a promo pic with the portal gun. I doubt he's really a wonderful sack of butterflies in real life, but his company has made at least 3 of the best games of all time, with several honorable mentions to go along with them.

He's like the thinking man's Cliff Bleszinski, or the dumb guy's Sid Meyer.

That said, I do think them trying to get the rights to the name "Defense of the Ancients" is a bit hinkey.

http://www.gosugamers.net/dota/news/18555-blizzard-challenges-valve-s-dota-copyright

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/24/2012 at 07:41am

Yeah, DoTA was a community thing. They did hire the lead developer so I imagine some ownership transferred. I wonder if the DoTA dev had a trademark?

I agree it's a strange case that isn't terribly clear.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/24/2012 at 07:41am

To me anyway.

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If you ever find yourself getting bored of ranked games you

If you ever find yourself getting bored of ranked games you should give some of the popular custom games a try! I have been playing ARAM and ARAB with my friends for a change of pace. These are the "all random all mid" style on summoner's rift and "all random all bottom" on the dominion map. If you're looking for something new to try in LoL you should give these a shot!

Blizzard Entertainment is offering a series of special

http://hothardware.com/articleimages/item1817/big_wow_front.jpg

"Blizzard Entertainment is offering a series of special charity auctions featuring server hardware originally used during World of Warcraft’s early days. We’ve since upgraded the game’s infrastructure with the latest technology to offer an even better player experience, but these 'honorably discharged' server blades are now unique collectors’ pieces. The net proceeds from the auction will go to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital."

Totally awesome to get your hands on one of these servers. For the plaque and historical nature alone. I imagine they wipe the drives before they ship them though :)

source:

... Read All

I know with the hype of Diablo III it almost seems moot, but

I know with the hype of Diablo III it almost seems moot, but being a Baldur's Gate fan, I thought I should share this. Baldur's Gate is getting remade with better graphics and new content. It's planned to be released in the summer. The sequel is going to be remade and released later.

http://baldursgate.com/

I'm so excited for this. I get to wield a trash-talking sword again!

I havent been through Skyrim in about a week. I have Deus

http://vividgamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Tiny_Tower_Promo1.png

I haven't been through Skyrim in about a week. I have Deus Ex, game of the year to several institution, sitting nearly untouched. I have about 6 games from the last humble bundle that I haven't even downloaded yet.

Tiny Tower is dominating all of my time...

Tiny tower is one of those "freemium" games where you do something a little fun, but then it starts to take a lot of time unless you give them money. In this case, it is building a tower, filling it with apartments and businesses, and stocking those businesses with products and services.

It sounds inane, and it kind of is. But I can't stop...

Anyone else ever get hooked on this evilly addictive little gem?

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/18/2012 at 07:42pm

Installed.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/19/2012 at 04:35pm

Dude, this game is awesome. Love the graphics and the simple gameplay.

Very similar to a simplified SimTower!

vdogmr25 wrote on 03/19/2012 at 04:55pm

I play it too. I CAN'T STOP!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/21/2012 at 07:12pm

I picked this up last night. I can see why you guys like it. Although now I really want to go play Sim Tower!

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/21/2012 at 08:56pm

Sim Tower was en epic game.

Im gonna stitch together a picture of my entire tower and post it in the next few days.

Tungsten Post Author wrote on 03/21/2012 at 11:24pm

I miss Sim Tower. Someone needs to mod it to raise the elevator maximums. I would love to play it with another bit's worth of elevators.

Actually, I bet it exists. Non-existent award to the first person who googles it to figure it out.

Tungsten Post Author wrote on 03/21/2012 at 11:28pm

https://github.com/fabianschuiki/OpenSkyscraper/wiki

This is as close as I could find. Hey you, coders, I'm talking to you. Make this work on my computer. With gud grafix plz.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/22/2012 at 01:11am

What? Holy crap thats amazing!

I have SimTower and played it not that long ago! The end game was impossible and I couldnt figure out how to make people happy though. Totally awesome to see it live on beyond its commercial viability or whatever reason EA hasn't done rad things with it.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/22/2012 at 01:11am

PS... I can't stop paying attention to Tiny Tower every few minutes.....

Tungsten Post Author wrote on 03/22/2012 at 01:15am

Ya. The iPhone version > Android. The updates on your tower don't come through on Android. I still find an opportunity to check in every hour or so.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/28/2012 at 05:13pm

I recommend everyone save up tower bucks for the elevator upgrade. Its so much faster to get people up and down the building.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/28/2012 at 05:17pm

Oh and you can get a image of your tower by going to the menu -> share tower and then saving the image. I took screenshots and then GIMP'd the pictures together, yeah seems they make it easier to do that....

I use http://imgur.com/ to easily upload pics I can hotlink to, its nice.

Tungsten Post Author wrote on 03/29/2012 at 02:45am

I'm on the second elevator upgrade. It's great. Stupid game takes up all my time.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/29/2012 at 02:48am

:) Yeah, few games can be played easily in spare 30 second cycles as well as this one.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/29/2012 at 06:40pm

Yeah the elevator upgrades are nice. My play time has decreased quite a bit now that the newness has worn off, but I do still enjoy the game and check it a couple times a day. :) I'm currently trying to optimize my work force, kicking out bitizens with crappy skills and trying to find some with dream jobs that match the businesses I already have.

Tungsten Post Author wrote on 03/29/2012 at 10:52pm

I'm on a "dream job" kick too. Evicting bums is kind of satisfying. Makes me feel like a true capitalist.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/29/2012 at 10:58pm

Evicted someone that was straight up zero's. Felt good, those kind of people are not fun to work with at all.

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Claptrap just wrote all PC gamers a love letter outlining

Claptrap just wrote all PC gamers a love letter outlining what 2K plans to do for the console version of Borderlands 2. Its significant and it seems like they are treating PC gamers like they should, it seems the Borderlands 2 port won't be a hacked up console game.

http://www.borderlands2.com/loveletter?x

I am actually considering if PS3 is now the best choice or not, the PC list of features seems pretty awesome. I find it heartening to see companies actually caring about PC gamers again. Awesome trend.

The one feature of the PS3, allowing split screen multi-player with my friends is a hard feature to pass up, but the PC only features are really great too.

Tungsten wrote on 03/17/2012 at 07:58pm

Steam has been great. It's DRM that gamers don't seem to mind. Combine that with Steam Workshop, Steam Sales, easy social/multiplayer capabilities, and it really is a win-win-win.

Borderlands is going to be good: I loved the first one, and it looks like this one is going to be better. Remember, the last one almost got scrapped at one point, and it had a major makeover before being released. This time, they know what they're making from the beginning, and I think they can really emphasize what made the first one great, and fixing what made the first one extremely frustrating at times.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/18/2012 at 01:00am

I am not sure id call the digital download locker that is steam DRM. Some games on Steam may have DRM, but that doesn't mean they all do, like Halflife 2 for instance.

I think that having a serious online component to a game doesn't equal DRM. It just means the game is meant to be seriously played online.

I didn't know Borderlands was almost scrapped, cool thing they stuck to it and made it awesome, the game is still great.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/18/2012 at 01:02am

Some people have said the Diablo 3 online only requirement is DRM, I don't think it is. Its just a game where they want online to be a major component of it. Its actually a cool thing in my mind that when I am playing Diablo 3 I can see if my friends are and we can chat and join each other if we want.

I am so old school if I had a choice I wouldn't go online and then I would miss out on an opportunity to play with them. Happened a few times in SC2 and it was fun.

Tungsten wrote on 03/18/2012 at 07:18am

The Diablo thing actually became a big pain for me while playing the beta. My connection can be iffy at times, and every once in a while, the game played like it was lagging. I was the only player in the game! That's not to mention when it just booted me entirely.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/18/2012 at 04:12pm

Ah yeah, that would he a problem. I imagine they are sorting out battle.net issues but if you connection is flakey? That would be bad.

I think they can sort out the battle.net issues cause I've played WoW and SC2 and it's never been a problem for me yet. Don't play them all the time though.

Tungsten wrote on 03/19/2012 at 03:19am

I have faith in Blizzard.

I stopped pirating games long ago, but even now, does it seem like DRM actually stops anyone? From what I can tell, the only people it affects are those who go for the legal copy. 10 minutes after the thing is released, some on has a hacked exe with a keygen ready to go, DRM completely stripped. Shoot, more than once I've been tempted to use a pirated version of a game that I already own just to get around obnoxious installation quotas and disc/internet connection requirements.

I love the minecraft model: pay for the game once and we'll just keep making it better, but that isn't really practical for all games.

Tungsten wrote on 03/19/2012 at 03:23am

The original borderlands was a good example: the normal version of the game is relativley light on the DRM, but the second 2 DLC packs have securom. Not only are the limited number of installations obnoxious, but the software itself is buggy, and can often screw you out of the game just because it doesn't like your optical drive or some other running process.

I have the GOTY Borderlands on my PC, but I never installed those DLC packs because of the securom (that and I got it on Steam Sale, I never really seem to follow through on those things)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/19/2012 at 05:10am

Yikes. Securom is lame, hopefully in Borderlands 2 they left it out!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/19/2012 at 05:10am

And I don't pirate games either, its not really worth it games are not too expensive and the amount of free stuff is pretty staggering. Mostly I just need more time :)

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Figured it would be good to ring in Saint Patricks Day with

Figured it would be good to ring in Saint Patricks Day with a free phone & tablet game for Android and iOS called Lep's World. Yeah, the name ain't great but the game is pretty fun.

The game is a serious clone of Super Mario Brothers. Its cool because as I play Lep's World I am reminded how much I love Super Mario Brothers and how much I want to play it on my iPhone.

Lep's World is a side scroller where you are a Leprechaun trying to collect your lost coins from your pot of gold. Instead of the Leprechaun getting a fire flower, he can collect acorns he can throw at enemies. In the typical Mario fashion, Lep can hit bad guys on the head. Some enemies have spikes so... Read All Figured it would be good to ring in Saint Patricks Day with a free phone & tablet game for Android and iOS called Lep's World. Yeah, the name ain't great but the game is pretty fun.

The game is a serious clone of Super Mario Brothers. Its cool because as I play Lep's World I am reminded how much I love Super Mario Brothers and how much I want to play it on my iPhone.

Lep's World is a side scroller where you are a Leprechaun trying to collect your lost coins from your pot of gold. Instead of the Leprechaun getting a fire flower, he can collect acorns he can throw at enemies. In the typical Mario fashion, Lep can hit bad guys on the head. Some enemies have spikes so the only way to dispatch them is to shoot them with an acorn.

100 coins nets you an extra life and points can get gained by hitting blocks and killing enemies. One difference in Lep's World is that you have a life meter of three shamrocks you can refill by finding other shamrocks that move very similarly to mushrooms. Another difference is when you stomp on the grubs that operate a bit like a Goomba they leave behind a coin, acorn or shamrock. Nice.

At the end of each main stage is a castle level and I expected a boss fight a the end themed appropriately. Unfortunately there was no Leprechaun Bowser.

Level 2.1 starts off strangely by you being chased by a hornet and becomes a runner game. So far, it was just level 2.1 and the level wasn't hard it was just out of place. Kind of adds to the games charm, if not a totally random addition.

Many of the sound effects seem to be lifted straight out of Zelda. When you pick up a pot of gold it sounds eerilly like when you pickup an item in Zelda. Many of the other sound effects seem like other Zelda effects as well. Fun to hear them, they really brought me back to the old days.

Overall this game is a huge Mario clone but that didn't bother me as it was so much fun and most of all its totally free. Have a great Saint Patricks Day this weekend and if you want to increase your mood for green, snag Lep's World.

Blizzard just dropped the launch date for Diablo 3 of May

Blizzard just dropped the launch date for Diablo 3 of May 15th. Pre-order already made and I am marking my calendar.

Is this a game on your radar?

News:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2012/03/diablo-iii-launching-may-15/1

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/d3/

Tungsten wrote on 03/15/2012 at 03:38pm

Oh boy. I may hold off on launch day, but it will happen someone. I just have to watch out because our is totally a game that could take over my life, and the family wouldn't appreciate that.

Chowda wrote on 03/15/2012 at 06:35pm

So glad we finally have a date for launch! Now where's the fast-forward button on the real life remote?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/15/2012 at 07:03pm

I know right? TAKE MY MONEY TAKE it!

Ben_Dodson wrote on 03/20/2012 at 02:33am

Got it ordered from the WoW Annual pass. Looking forward to playing it

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/20/2012 at 02:41am

I am too. I plan on scheduling some meet ups on battle.net with other people here when it ships.

Gonna be sweet.

Chowda wrote on 03/20/2012 at 05:18pm

If I wasn't burned out for life on WoW I would have done the annual pass. That was a really good idea on their part.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/21/2012 at 01:38am

The annual pass is a great idea. Rewards your most loyal customers with awesome stuff.

Considered the WoW pass because of the D3 option but passed in favor of the collectors D3.

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BioShock is one of those games that builds a world you feel

BioShock is one of those games that builds a world you feel immersed in from the start. Playing the game I really got into the character and mood of the game and it was very creepy. As far as the start to a game goes, BioShock does it better than most ive experienced. I started with the PS3 demo and then was given the full meal deal from a friend on my cake day.

100% full disclosure, ive never completed it. I haven't completed it because I can only play it in 10-20 minute increments. The game looks fantastic, has a interesting plot device and the game mechanics are good its just that ... I don't want to exist in that world doing that stuff very long. I find it... Read All

Sure, this game was impossible without the Konami Code,

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6664943/best-of-dorkly-nes-ninja-turtles-theme-song

Sure, this game was impossible without the Konami Code, but still, this song brings back fond memories...