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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 45: The 2018 Holiday Special!

Pour yourself some eggnog, cozy up by the fire, and join us for the Cheerful Ghost Radio 2018 Holiday Special! We talk about some recent news that Blizzard is scaling back Heroes of the Storm, chat about what we've been playing over the past month, and discuss some of our favorite games to play and films to watch around the holidays.

Links and notes about topics we discuss this episode:

Unforeseen Consequences: A Half-Life Documentary: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3960/unforeseen-consequences-a-half-life-documentary-is-a-must-watch

The Future of Diablo: https://kotaku.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-diablo-1830593195

Heroes of the Storm: ... Read All

Sony Just Released A New Lemmings Game on Mobile

Sony just released a brand new Lemmings free to play game on iOS and Android which is a interesting turn as just yesterday I pined for a new mobile release. It's a classic franchise that deserved an updated version and after I heard the news this morning I downloaded it and gave the first few levels a try. So far, the game is fine, it uses energy that slowly refills over time or you can purchase an instant refill for money. That energy is what you use to activate your Lemmings abilities to float to the ground, build up and dig. It lacks some of the polish of the DOS original but as I've said, so far it's a fine port. I'll do a more formal review later but I wanted to... Read All

LGR Looks Back At Holiday Lemmings

Lazy Game Reviews is a YouTube channel about game reviews, retro reviews as well as retro PC hardware reviews. It's one of my favorite channels and I wanted to share one of his latest videos that was seasonally appropriate. Holiday Lemmings started out as a few level demo and got a full fledged release later on. I had all the Lemmings demos I could get my hands on but never was able to buy the full versions. It's not a hard game to find now but I wish Sony would do more with it and release a new Lemmings game on all platforms including mobile.

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 44: Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame Trailer Special

Marvel dropped trailers for Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame in the same week, and our heads exploded in anticipation. RIP Jon, Tim, and Travis. But we were prepared for this: our hosts have been replaced by Life Model Decoys.

Captain Marvel Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1BCujX3pw8

Infinity War Endgame Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee1172yeqyE

Cheeful Ghost Game of the Year Awards 2018 Nominations

It’s that time again, folks! We are gearing up for our Game of the Year awards, and we need your nominations!

Please listen closely, as our menu options have changed. We have changed up the categories a bit this year, so please read those carefully.

Then drop your nominations in the comments below, and we will compile them into polls for final voting.

Best AAA Game: This category is for the Call of Duties and the Fallouts, the big games with big publisher backing.

Best Indie Game: The games that go their own way, sometimes self-published.

Best DLC/Expansion/Update: Any addition to a game that had a very positive effect, from something as simple as an update or... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/17/2018 at 08:52pm

Best AAA: Fallout 76
Best Indie: Jurassic World Evolution (I think it's indie)
Best DLC: Jurassic World Evolution: The Secrets of Dr. Wu & Ark Survival Evolved: Extinction
Best Ongoing: Minecraft

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/17/2018 at 09:09pm

Best ongoing: Terraria & Fortnite

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/17/2018 at 09:42pm

Best mobile: Egg, Inc.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/17/2018 at 11:19pm

I'd like to give best ongoing to Terraria, but it's been too long since it's been updated. I expect next year we'll finally see an update.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/18/2018 at 03:26am

Yeah Terraria hasn't even gotten an update since April 2017, hard to call it ongoing for this year but I think it's fair game since development is ongoing.

Frontier Developments did JW Evolution. They're kinda on the cusp. Like AA instead of AAA. I think you could reasonably count them in both camps.

Here are mine.
Best AAA: Red Dead Redemption 2 . Game of the Decade. Hat tip to God of War which I was convinced would be my GotY until I played RDR2.

Best Indie: Graveyard Keeper. I still can't drive past a graveyard without thinking about it.

Best DLC: No Man's Sky NEXT

Best Ongoing: No Man's Sky for basically killing it and coming back from the brink of hatred.

Best Mobile: Egg Inc came out in mid-2016 or I'd call it my mobile GotY. I'm going with Alto's Odyssey.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/18/2018 at 04:18am

I think the only 2018 game I played this year was Revenge of the Bird King. I don't really count the re-release of Shenmue for Xbox One/PS4 a new game. I vote for Revenge of the Bird King for every category!

vdogmr25 wrote on 12/18/2018 at 06:22am

Best AAA: Monster Hunter World
Best Indie: Monster Prom
Best DLC: Little Nightmares: The Residence
Best Ongoing: Starcraft 2 (manily co-op mode getting more maps and commanders)
Haven't played anything from this year on mobile.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/27/2018 at 12:53am

Best New Early Access Game & Most Improved: Atlas :)

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:35am

How is it possible for it to be most improved when it just launched? Did they release a patch that fixes the massive launch mess?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:35am

Also, you just made up those categories

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/27/2018 at 05:19am

Yes, it suffered a horrible launch, but was resolved. I also call it the most ambitious. So, Best New Ambitious Early Access Game & Most Improved: Atlas. LOL And yeah, I made up those categories, although Best Early Access seems like a good one to add, officially.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:24pm

I could see the benefits but I would worry about a few things

* I think people are wary of Early Access, at least the crowd here, and don't use it much (though I could be way off on that)

* People use Early Access for different levels of testing. Some games will be amazing ideas but still quite broken, some will be practically finished, with Early Access just being used as a pre-order where you get to play it early, and some games remain in Early Access long past the point where they should be, so the developers can use it as a crutch: "Oh you're having issues? Well it's still in early access, don't worry. Here buy our new DLC for our game that hasn't been released yet!"

* It's hard to judge games that aren't done cooking yet

* Early Access devs can just disappear and leave people with a wasted purchase, and it would suck to give something the CG Early Access GotY and then it ends up being vaporware.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 01/01/2019 at 10:27pm

Nominations are closed, voting is open!

https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/3974/cheerful-ghost-game-of-the-year-awards-2018-voting-round

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Angry Video Game Nerd Reviews The Home Alone Games With Macaulay Culkin

Macaulay Culkin has been showing up in a few YouTube shows I watch regularly including the most recent episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd talking about all the Home Alone Games. The Nerd has reviewed a few Home Alone games before but talking about each one with Mac himself is pretty incredible.

Macaulay Culkin has also showed up in two Red Letter Media shows re:View and The Best of the Worst. In re:View Jack and Mac talk about the 90's incredi-bad film Hackers and in Best of the Worst he reviews a couple terrible films alongside Home Alone 4!

re:View (Hackers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM7_oyCZqj0

Plinketto (Best of the Worst) Prototype, Quigley & Home Alone... Read All

SIGIL Is An Upcoming Free Megawad For Doom by John Romero

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Doom, designer John Romero is releasing SIGIL a free Doom megawad that continues the original Doom campaign. Can't use enough words to say how badass this is and how simple the concept is. John Romero is releasing a free Doom wad you can play for free but also, if you want, get a Limited Run pressing of it for a $40 box and $166 Beast box.

The box copy comes with a 2 CD jewel case with the Megawad plus original music by Metal God Buckethead. For original Doom fans the Megawad seems like a must play and for avid PC game collectors this Limited Run pressing seems just as important. Please believe I'll be playing the Megawad on launch... Read All

Blizzard Halts Heroes of the Storm E-Sports And Cuts Team To Focus on Other Projects

"Over the past several years, the work of evaluating our development processes and making hard decisions has led to new games and other products that we’re proud of. We now have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in the company’s history. We’re also at a point where we need to take some of our talented developers and bring their skills to other projects. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to shift some developers from Heroes of the Storm to other teams, and we’re excited to see the passion, knowledge, and experience that they’ll bring to those projects. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to make tough choices like this. Games like... Read All "Over the past several years, the work of evaluating our development processes and making hard decisions has led to new games and other products that we’re proud of. We now have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in the company’s history. We’re also at a point where we need to take some of our talented developers and bring their skills to other projects. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to shift some developers from Heroes of the Storm to other teams, and we’re excited to see the passion, knowledge, and experience that they’ll bring to those projects. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to make tough choices like this. Games like Diablo II, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Overwatch, and more would not exist had we not made similar decisions in the past.

Despite the change, Heroes of the Storm remains our love letter to Blizzard’s worlds and characters. We’ll continue actively supporting the game with new heroes, themed events, and other content that our community loves, though the cadence will change. Ultimately, we’re setting up the game for long-term sustainability. We’re so grateful for the support the community has shown from the beginning, and the development team will continue to support Heroes with the same passion, dedication, and creativity that has made the game such a unique experience.

We’ve also evaluated our plans around Heroes esports—after looking at all of our priorities and options in light of the change with the game, the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm will not return in 2019. This was another very difficult decision for us to make. The love that the community has for these programs is deeply felt by everyone who works on them, but we ultimately feel this is the right decision versus moving forward in a way that would not meet the standards that players and fans have come to expect."

Heroes of the Storm is a very cool MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena) set in the Blizzard-verse where characters from Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft and the Nexus get together and duke it out. Heroes of the Storm is different in that it's a bit more accessible, exp is earned as a team and has a huge assortment of different maps and objectives(most MOBA games feature just one map). That said, it's struggled to find a massive audience even though it's totally free to play and has the backing of Blizzard in the wake of titans such as League of Legends and DoTA 2 and it looks like that struggle has cause Blizzard to halt it being a top tier game in it's crown after 3 years.

The good news is that Blizzard supports games for a long time after they've been released so the servers should remain online nearly indefinitely. The sad part is streamers, pros and the community will falter a bit and eventually lessen to a dedicated few. Still, Heroes of the Storm is a great free game to get in and play with friends and if you are looking to give the whole MOBA craze a shot I can't think of a better game to start with.

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/22833558/heroes-of-the-storm-news

Unforeseen Consequences: A Half-Life Documentary

The latest documentary from Noclip is out and it's all about the history of Half-Life. Noclip wasn't able to talk to anyone from Valve about the game but managed to create an incredible documentary from interviews with Geoff Keighley, Scott Smith, Randy Pitchford and a lot more. One thing I learned while watching this is that Gearbox got It's feet wet as a game developer making a ton of Half-Life expansions and then jumped into their own IP to create the Borderlands franchise. The doc covers Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike and other Half-Life mods and maps as well as Episode 3 and Mac Laidlaw's Epistle 3 as well as fans trying to finish up the Half-Life story... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 43: Castlevania NES Review

We're in a Castlevania mood this month! If you liked our recent review of Castlevania on Netflix, then listen to us talk about the game that started it all, way back in 1986, and started one of the most-loved game series of all time!