Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

LGR Reviews Empire Earth: 500,000 Years of Real-Time Strategy

LGR is one of the many YouTubers I subscribe to that makes a fun mix of old hardware review videos and video game reviews. It's become one of the coolest channels I watch and I don't share a lot of it because it's not all video game related. That said, I think i'm going to start sharing more of them as Cheerful Ghost is a pretty retro friendly community and I think we all love looking back on crazy old hardware like Zip-drives and Tandy computers.

In one of LGR's more recent reviews he takes a peek back at Empire Earth, a classic RTS game that feels at home with Age of Empires and Rise of Nations.

"Review and retrospective on the RTS game Empire Earth from 2001! Half a... Read All

Genesis Announced!

Last year, Studio Wildcard (SW) received major backlash after posting a countdown on the Ark website (survivetheark.com), which ended up being an event that had dino skins (based on the new Jurassic World movie at the time) as rewards. Many fans, including myself, were expecting news of a new DLC, we were sure of it, but we were wrong. However, not much later, SW posted another countdown on the website, but this ended up being an announcement of a DLC, Extinction.

I’m not going to spoil the lore of Ark here. If you want to know it, you can find it easily enough on the Internet. However, it seemed Extinction would be the end of Ark, or Ark DLC. There was a subtle piece... Read All Last year, Studio Wildcard (SW) received major backlash after posting a countdown on the Ark website (survivetheark.com), which ended up being an event that had dino skins (based on the new Jurassic World movie at the time) as rewards. Many fans, including myself, were expecting news of a new DLC, we were sure of it, but we were wrong. However, not much later, SW posted another countdown on the website, but this ended up being an announcement of a DLC, Extinction.

I’m not going to spoil the lore of Ark here. If you want to know it, you can find it easily enough on the Internet. However, it seemed Extinction would be the end of Ark, or Ark DLC. There was a subtle piece at the end that hinted there could be more. There were also coded messages, which revealed another location in the Ark lore. This lead many to believe that this was not the end of Ark, as the story was still open-ended.

Recently, SW, posted a new countdown on their website. There were coded messages found on a website, which were decoded and showed SW giving us hints of something that’s coming. The way they did this was interesting and it was also very interesting to see people on the Internet who were able to decode these messages. One of the encoded messages stated, “this is not Ark 2.” People also were able to analyze the webpage code or scipt in Firefox and found a directory leading to a sound file. The directory was called “Genesis.”

It was a day before the end of the countdown and the Playstation store had a new post. It was showing a Genesis Season Pass along with some pictures of the new content. It seemed someone might be ready to lose their job after this leak. However, it turned out to be true. It wasn’t really a leak though. The page was supposed to go up yesterday on 8/8/19. However when for us it was 8/7/19, it was already 8/8/19 in Australia. SW pretty much just laughed about it in their announcement stream.

Genesis is “a new chapter” in Ark. You can see and hear in the announcement video that we are going some where where some one cannot help us, so she creates a cool robot-like thing and gives it her personality. This will make more sense if you’ve followed the lore of Ark, you’ll know who that “someone” is. This robot is called HLN-A (hint here). It’s designed to go along with us on this new journey and help us along the way. It can show us when there’s danger, react to our emotes, and encourages us to do things in the game. It seems it will guide us on our way to the end of the game or content. Surprisingly, this HLN-A is available now if you purchase the Genesis Season Pass (as I did). Right now, it’s pretty much a cosmetic “pet.” It’s expected to become much more of something when the content is released.

We got a look at some pictures, which show off new creatures and new biomes. Two pictures seem to clearly be on the first map, called the Island (in case you didn’t know), but SW says this new content will consist of two new maps. There’s a volcanic biome, ocean biome, and poisonous-looking biome. Part 1 of Genesis will arrive in December, while Part 2 will arrive in “winter 2020.” I assume they mean Part 2 will arrive about a year after Part 1, because SW always released new DLC a year after the previous one. So, this year, just like last year, many of us are back on the Ark hype train.

One of the new creatures was seen near an active volcano and it’s covered in molten rock/fire. This creature doesn’t like water, can be tamed, and acts as a mobile forge (for smelting iron). This is similar to how other creatures work in the game, for example the Giant Beaver acts as a mobile Smithy. Another new small four-armed creature looks adorable, but is Ark’s first shape-shifter. If it eats Element it turns into a larger wolf-like creature. It seems as though it will not turn on whoever it tamed, but can be used in some strategic ways.

Apparently, (as revealed by SW), people have been asking for another creature from the devs for quite a while now. SW stated that they just didn’t have anywhere to put it. This is the new giant turtle looking creature. It functions as a mobile island, you can build your base on it, and harvest the plants/materials that grow on it. It can dive underwater and when it does, it creates an oxygen bubble, so you won’t need to wear SCUBA gear. This creature is massive and as such Genesis will have an ocean biome that this giant can live in, where it can be tamed.

There are a couple more things mentioned by SW, but I recommend (if you’re interested) to watch the stream, which has been posted on YouTube (https://youtu.be/zC7ArMfwz8U).

Last year, I was really excited for Extinction, but was a bit disappointed by it, mostly because of the amount of things that feel nearly impossible to do alone in single player mode. I don’t want to be let down again, but I can’t help but to get excited about Genesis. However, it does make me wish that devs wouldn’t tell us long in advance about something they’re working on and make us wait months or years at a time. Instead, I kind of wish they would just make the announcement when they release the content. The days do seem to pass more slowly when you’re eagerly awaiting something new to be released.

So, what do you think about this? Are you excited? Have you purchased the Season Pass for this? It’s only about $35 and seems like a great value for Ark content released in two parts. Let me know what you think.

Digital Foundry Reviews The Newly Released Classic Doom Collection Ports

A few days ago I wrote about iD Software releasing the original Doom, Doom 2 and Doom 3 on mobile, Switch, XBox 360 and Playstation 4 during this years Quakecon. Some of the games launched with a few issues that Bethesda has fixed(like requiring you to create a Bethesda.net account) but how do these ports run on modern systems and stack up to the originals? Digital Foundry are some of the best reviewers around and run all the new ports through the paces in this video that's a must watch if you are considering playing these classic games again.

Kung-Fu Heroes & Vice: Project Doom Coming to Nintendo Online August 21st!

Nintendo is adding two new classic NES titles to it's Nintendo Online service this month called Kung-Fu Heroes & Vice: Project Doom. These are really unique games to add to the service as they are not top tier NES games but help fill in the Nintendo Online collection to be more than just a library of greatest hits. I'm excited to get these added to the service because as someone that hasn't played either, this seems like a great way to jump in.

DuckTales: Remastered Leaving All Digital Storefronts This Week

If you've been putting off buying DuckTales: Remastered, it's time to make a decision. Unfortunately, it will be leaving digital storefronts in a few days. Steam and Xbox will lose the game August 8th at 8PM EST, and the Wii U shop and Playstation 3 will lose it on the 9th at 8PM EST.

Bonus, it's getting a 75% off sale most places as a farewell sale. For under 4 bucks, this is a steal.

It saddens me that this game is leaving. There's no reason stated, but it's likely licensing issues with Disney. That's a common thing with licensed games. If you want to read more about my thoughts on this game, I covered those here... six years ago. Wow, it's been that long!
... Read All

The State of The Wyvern Inaugural Address

Greetings, Adventurers and thank you for reading the inaugural edition of The State of the Wyvern. The State of the Wyvern is a periodical that will drop every few weeks that snapshots the state of Tale of the White Wyvern, highlight certain games and player rankings as well as talk about recent changes to the games and our plans. We're also open to hearing what you think about the game as it moves through time so feel free to chip in your thoughts.

Current Player Leaderboards

Tale of the White Wyvern has a few in-game places where you can see how players are currently ranked. The first is the current player rankings you can view by (L)ist Players -> (S)ee all... Read All

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 08/03/2019 at 08:56pm

Thanks for the State! GG top players!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/03/2019 at 11:30pm

I tried to put my horse armor on Tiberius, but he just ended up killing me. Be warned, Tiberius does not like to horse around.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 08/04/2019 at 05:35pm

So far, it's going great! I'm really enjoying the game!

Tim wrote on 08/09/2019 at 10:40pm

The game is great, I forgot how much I enjoyed playing these kinds of games.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/11/2019 at 05:13pm

What’a the secret to leveling up so fast? Is it player fights?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/11/2019 at 05:44pm

> What’a the secret to leveling up so fast? Is it player fights?

Yep. PvP is a pretty big experience boost. With that, you have to balance it with not being equipped properly. For instance you can level faster but if you don't have a high enough weapon or armor, forest fight become hard. So it's a push and pull thing.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/11/2019 at 06:08pm

Thx!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 08/12/2019 at 02:17pm

Seriously, I've been stuck at level 4 for a while now because I had enough exp to level up, but now not good enough equipment to beat the level 4 master lol

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/12/2019 at 04:27pm

I’ve been through that, Adam.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 08/12/2019 at 04:40pm

PvP nets you a crazy amount of XP when you win. The hardest part is keeping gear leveled with you.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 08/13/2019 at 04:28pm

The addition of the outhouse is most welcomed. The forest was getting pretty nasty with everyone doing their business out there! :P

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/13/2019 at 04:42pm

> The addition of the outhouse is most welcomed.

All Travis and I work on are the most important things for the game!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/13/2019 at 04:43pm

🤣

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Watch The Whole QuakeCon 2019 Keynote

I know this is already "aged news" but Quakecon is something fun I watch every year and wanted to share this news drop with y'all.

Apologies, I've been busy with the Tale of the White Wyvern and haven't had a whole lot of extra time to write as much as I'd like.

That all said, if you are a first person shooter fan or just a fan of iD Software and Bethesda you need to clickity clack that play button and let the entirely of the Quakecon keynote envelop your eye holes.

Noteworthy Things

* The Rage 2 free update train is still rolling and out now. If you thought Rage 2 was easy apparently they added a new mode that should make you cry tears of pain.
* Doom, Doom 2 and Doom 3... Read All

The Outer Worlds Is Coming To Switch But Not Right Away

The Outer Worlds is the upcoming Fallout-like RPG by Obsidian Entertainment and was recently announced as coming to the Switch! This is great news if you want to play The Outer Worlds on the go but Obsidian hasn't said when the game is launching on the Switch only that it would come after the initial launch.

Are you planning on picking up The Outer Worlds and if so does the Switch port change how you might play it?

"Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the furthest edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later than you expected only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the Halcyon colony.

As you explore the furthest... Read All

The Original Hype Launch Campaign: Get Your Free Wyvern DLC!

Jon and I want to thank everyone for checking out Tale of the White Wyvern, it was an incredible amount of fun! Now, after giving you all a taste of the game, we are going to be sharing the game with the larger world, and if you help us you can earn some free in-game DLC! Starting today, if you retweet or share the game on Facebook or Reddit, we will send you an Original Hype DLC code for 500 gold, 2 gems and the Original Hype player title!

Cheerful Ghost Tweet to RT:
https://mobile.twitter.com/_cheerfulghost/status/1155849834366156800

If you shared the game on Facebook or Reddit let us know in the comments and we will message you the DLC code privately here on Cheerful... Read All

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered!

I think this was already reported on here during the E3 stuff, but it's come more to my attention due to a friend sharing info with me on Facebook. At first, I ignored this news. I thought it was just for the Switch (which I may still get) and I believed that the Steam version was "remastered." But, it seems I was incorrect (please correct me if I'm wrong). I played it a few years ago on Steam and didn't have a problem with it, it looked fine to me. Although, I must admit, I never really complained about the graphics. I know the non-FMV stuff wasn't perfect, but kind of blocky/not smooth, but that never affected the love I have for this game. Apparently the "remake"... Read All

LGR Reviews Empire Earth: 500,000 Years of Real-Time Strategy

Genesis Announced!

Digital Foundry Reviews The Newly Released Classic Doom Collection Ports

Kung-Fu Heroes & Vice: Project Doom Coming to Nintendo Online August 21st!

DuckTales: Remastered Leaving All Digital Storefronts This Week

The State of The Wyvern Inaugural Address

Watch The Whole QuakeCon 2019 Keynote

The Outer Worlds Is Coming To Switch But Not Right Away

The Original Hype Launch Campaign: Get Your Free Wyvern DLC!

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered!

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Wyvern 0.9.7 Update Drops this Thursday(Hats + Rogue Update)!

Wyvern 0.9.7 Update Drops this Thursday(Hats + Rogue Update)!

Wyvern 0.9.7 Update Drops this Thursday(Hats + Rogue Update)!

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