Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

The Lackluser AI in Aliens: Colonial Marines May Have Been Due to a Typo All Along

I did a quick review of Aliens: Colonial Marines a couple years back to see if it was as bad as people said it was. I didn't thik it was, but it did have some problems. Read more here: https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/1538/aliens-colonial-marines-is-it-really-that-bad

That review wasn't a deep dive, nor was it meant to, but the biggest issue I still had with it was the buggy enemy AI. At least it felt buggy. The Xenomorphs just seemed to run around like morons. The embedded gfycat video above is an example.

Well, jamesdickinson963, a modder working on an unofficial patch for the game, may have found a very simple answer. As it turns out, that seems to be caused by... Read All

What Happened During That Mario 3 Race? - Summer Games Done Quick Wrap Up II

Here's another round of awesome SGDQ runs that you might want to check out. But... Jon why? Read on friends!

Super Mario Bros 3 All Forts Race of MitchFlowerPower v GrandPOOBear in 58:34 This run is embedded above and is not only an amazing test of skill by Mitch and PooBear but it also contains two really unfortunate soft locks. After Mitch's console soft locks the first time they are able to restart the run together but after that PooBear takes the win. It's hard to see this kind of thing happen in a race but both players are cool about it and you can see that in the interview afterward. It was reported that PooBear kicked Mitch's console but that's not quite what... Read All Here's another round of awesome SGDQ runs that you might want to check out. But... Jon why? Read on friends!

Super Mario Bros 3 All Forts Race of MitchFlowerPower v GrandPOOBear in 58:34 This run is embedded above and is not only an amazing test of skill by Mitch and PooBear but it also contains two really unfortunate soft locks. After Mitch's console soft locks the first time they are able to restart the run together but after that PooBear takes the win. It's hard to see this kind of thing happen in a race but both players are cool about it and you can see that in the interview afterward. It was reported that PooBear kicked Mitch's console but that's not quite what happened, it seems Poo stomped the ground as he was getting into the fun of the match and that may have rattled Mitch's console.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures by Zmaster91 in 2:08:59 I didn't know you could play Zelda Four Swords on Gamecube single player but Zmaster91 shows that you can and does it well. It's a really chill run to watch so if you're looking to relax and watch some Zelda, this is it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQvEQK8KMcU

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD by Linkus7 in 1:28:27 Linkus Wind Waker runs shows off just how crazy speedruns can get when the community finds amazing glitches. It's been recently found that if you pause buffer in Wind Waker that you can gain incredible swimming speed allowing you to swim to locations that previously required the boat. This allows runners to skip the first part of the game and other major parts making Wind Waker HD a run you can do in an hour and a half. If you watch anything watch Linkus setup the crazy pause buffering swim glitch then watch the rest because it's awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPLytsTfCcE

Kirby's Dream Land by eBloodyCandy in 12:51 Kirby's Dream Land isn't a very hard but BloodCandy's run adds quite a bit of strats to the game I wasn't aware of. I really love Dreamland and this was a fun run to watch because it's really quick and a fun game to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfQylC7rt2E

Anodyne 2: Return to Dust Is Coming In Early 2019

Anodyne was the Indie Zelda-like released in 2013 that was a fan favorite on Cheerful Ghost during that time. I love the game so much we did a couple interviews with the studio that made the game(linked below). They released a follow up to Anodyne called Even The Ocean to great reviews and recently dropped news of an Anodyne sequel Anodyne 2: Return to Dust. It looks to harken back to the Nintendo 64 3D era which really works for the tone of the game and feels like a proper Anodyne follow up.

For me Anodyne wasn't just an awesome Indie game it also contains one of the best game soundtracks around. I listen to it still and the music is so iconic to me it sort of... Read All

And I'm Out As Quickly As I Came In

When the last Hearthstone expansion The Witchwood dropped I opened the free packs and played the single player content. The single player missions were quite fun and if you completed them with the Witchwood quests you could get a few more free packs to open. I didn't open a ton of Witchwood cards but the single player stuff was fun enough to keep me playing daily. Then one day turned into another and I was back playing Hearthstone each day grinding dailies for gold. A while back I left Hearthstone because I was tired of the grind but things seemed fresh and playing it was fun again.

For the last month there was a special time event where they gave everyone a free arena... Read All When the last Hearthstone expansion The Witchwood dropped I opened the free packs and played the single player content. The single player missions were quite fun and if you completed them with the Witchwood quests you could get a few more free packs to open. I didn't open a ton of Witchwood cards but the single player stuff was fun enough to keep me playing daily. Then one day turned into another and I was back playing Hearthstone each day grinding dailies for gold. A while back I left Hearthstone because I was tired of the grind but things seemed fresh and playing it was fun again.

For the last month there was a special time event where they gave everyone a free arena run, made the quests easier and included dust and gold rewards for dailies. That free arena run was the best i've ever had and the deck I made took me to 7 total wins. Since i'm not a heavy arena player I thought that was a really reasonable showing as a perfect arena run is 10 total wins. Throughout the time I was playing Hearthstone I never looked up the current meta decks to see what the best decks to use were. I simply built my own decks based on cards I had and what I liked to play and what was good enough. One of my favorite classes to play is Hunter and I love beast decks so most of the time I was playing with a Beast Hunter sort of mid range deck and did really well with it. I played each day until the special event ended and the old quests came back and the daily grind just didn't seem as fun. I hope they bring back those special quests because, while easy, they changed up how I played the game. It wasn't about winning, it was about winning quests around really fun and stupid stuff like "Play 3 Dragons" and "Summon 20 1 cost minions" or "Summon 20 battle cry minions." Easy sure, but fun and why does grinding for daily gold have to be a chore?

The next Hearthstone expansion has been announced and the game is still just as expensive as ever and I plan on playing the new content but I don't think i'll stick around as long as I did for The Witchwood. Happy to have fun in Hearthstone again but getting back into the game again proved to me that the base grind is still around and still not something I want to do a lot of.

Rukus The Crusher Rage 2 Special Edition

Rage 2 was one of my most anticipated games out of E3. They teased a Rukus The Crusher talking head and it looks like it's a thing you can buy with the upcoming collectors edition. It doesn't seem to steeply priced at $119 considering it comes with Rukus, the base game on the platform of your choice(as long as it's only three systems) and a steelbook case, a collector’s poster, an exclusive mission, & wasteland wizard cheat codes. There's also a bit more DLC included such as a monster truck, an armor set, and the... BFG. Looks like all pre-order versions of the game get the "Cult of the Death God" exclusive mission, settlers pistol, Nicholas Raine armor, and a... Read All

The Boomsday Project Is The Explosive New Hearthstone Expansion

It's that time again for a new Hearthstone expansion and this next one looks like a lot of fun and it's called The Boomsday Project. Doctor Boom is an old Hearthstone Legendary card that was one of the most overpowered in the game before he was rotated to wild. He's back and in his own expansion that looks like it fuses explosions with Hearthstone SCIENCE! Speaking of fuses a new mechanic MAGNETIC is for Mech cards allowing MAGNETIC cards to fuse to other mechs giving them the stats and abilities of the MAGNETIC card. It's a lot like Deathstalker Rexxar's Build a Beast ability but for mechs which looks to be very interesting.

A side note... the Hearthstone team is... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 28: "Solo: A Star Wars Story" Review, Part II

In this episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio we’re going to bring you the second and most important part of our two part Solo: A Star Wars Story Review. Tim couldn't make it for the last review, so we get his thoughts on Solo and some comments about what we said in the last episode.

We also talk about the future Star Wars movies we may see, and how Solo's somewhat limited box office take might mean for those.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/11/2018 at 03:47pm

Tim: "[The Fans] ruined Star Wars"

Rian Johnson did. :P

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/11/2018 at 04:14pm

I am kind of glad this did not perform the way they wanted it to. I want them to focus on new characters rather than playing it safe with old characters. Star Wars is a big universe, so there should be no need to just keep focusing on characters that we already know.

My dream is that they do big tent-pole Star Wars movies followed by smaller Star Wars movies. It would be great to get films that pushed the boundaries without worrying about them making a huge amount of money.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/11/2018 at 07:56pm

Yes. Some smaller movies that are free to experiment with genre and don’t have to be these huge productions.

And some new characters/events.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/11/2018 at 11:09pm

> My dream is that they do big tent-pole Star Wars movies followed by smaller Star Wars movies. It would be great to get films that pushed the boundaries without worrying about them making a huge amount of money.

I like that idea a lot. I wonder when we'll get a small Star Wars movie? Hopefully soon.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 07/19/2018 at 05:59pm

> Rian Johnson did. :P

I disagree about him ruining Star Wars, but I'll never forgive him for killing Luke. :P I'm still not over it!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/19/2018 at 08:32pm

>but I'll never forgive him for killing Luke.

JJ will retcon it. Episode 8 will be a Finn fever dream while he is recovering from the wounds he got in Episode 7.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/20/2018 at 02:31am

> JJ will retcon it. Episode 8 will be a Finn fever dream while he is recovering from the wounds he got in Episode 7.

I'm not sure if this is a joke or not but I've heard that JJ will recon a lot as possible Episode 9 plot lines and I really don't think he will and if he does it will be in a clever way that isn't obvious. I'm not sure what The Last Jedi did that needs retconning, I mean yeah Luke died and that was a kind of finality I didn't love (because i'd like more from his character) but it worked in the story and was a fitting end to his character.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/20/2018 at 02:32am

What I mean by heard is that Ep 9 rumors are making the rounds and that's one of them and it doesn't really seem like it's a thing that will happen to me.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/20/2018 at 02:50am

Yeah there's no way that's a legit rumor. I think it's wishful thinking.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/20/2018 at 03:23pm

> I'm not sure if this is a joke

JJ called me and told me it was true. Now he could be joking, but he doesn't typically call me, so I think it is real.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/20/2018 at 04:12pm

Wow I’m two degrees of separation from JJ. Thanks Will, I feel special now.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/20/2018 at 04:41pm

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Celebrate Prime Day With 19 Free Games On Twitch!

If you have Twitch Prime head over to Twitch now to collect on all the free games you can! Amazon Prime is a pretty big day and since Amazon bought Twitch it's now partaking in the festivities giving away a ton of indie games for Prime members such as Metal Slug 3, Broken Age, Brutal Legend, Tacoma, Next up Hero and Qube 2.

With all the free game giveaways on Twitch by having Twitch Prime I have an ever growing Twitch catalog. Curious if Twitch is going to position itself as a competitor to Steam, GOG and Origin as it's already ramping things up to become an interesting digital store.

... Read All

Jurassic World Evolution Review

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/648350/header.jpg?t=1530634318

Azurephile gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Azurephile gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Review

Recommended

Jurassic Park/World simulation, with dino breeding, expeditions for DNA, and even a bit of a strategy game

If you ever thought it’d be cool to create your own Jurassic Park (or World), then the time for you has come! Jurassic World Evolution is pretty much a Jurassic Park/Wold simulation game that was recently released and seems pretty popular (especially on YouTube). It’s an interesting game and I’ve played some of it, so I thought I’d share it with you.

You’ll start off on one of a few different islands (not Isla Nublar, which you unlock later). You’ll have a basic structure going on, such as a large pen already built. You’ll still need a few... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 07/08/2018 at 05:37am

Looks like someone's a dino fan :D

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/08/2018 at 01:19pm

Hell yeah! I went to Jurassic World Extinction. I have the other movies on Blu-Ray and I just recently finished re-reading the first book.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/09/2018 at 05:47pm

Awesome. I can't wait to see Fallen World myself! I also have all the movies on Bluray and even liked Jurassic World!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/09/2018 at 06:10pm

Fallen World, I thought it was Extinction, getting confused with Ark. LOL

Travis Admin wrote on 07/09/2018 at 06:43pm

> and even liked Jurassic World

Huh, I thought it was pretty well liked. JP3 on the other hand...

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/09/2018 at 07:02pm

JP3 is my least favorite, although I still like it. JW was apparently "divisive" as I've seen around the web. I liked it, too.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/09/2018 at 09:44pm

I guess everything is divisive these days.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/09/2018 at 10:47pm

Jurassic Park 2 is the worst. All others are good.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/09/2018 at 10:53pm

Minus the latest, I have yet to see it.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/10/2018 at 02:11am

That's an interesting take! If someone only dislikes one of the films, it's almost always the third. You may be the only person I've heard of who cared for the third, actually.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/10/2018 at 03:06am

I am weird. :)

Travis Admin wrote on 07/10/2018 at 03:47am

I rank Episode 3 higher than Episode 6 so yeah me too :D

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/10/2018 at 04:01am

There are things that are universally loved but movies do seem ... I don't know if divisive is the right word but.. well commented on? I suppose because any yahoo can have a podcast every yahoo does. I feel that's a fair critique as I am on such yahoo. That said, people seemed to dislike it because it was too much like the original, not good enough for various small plot reasons or large plot reasons or mildly pedantic to large issues depending on your perspective. Personally I liked it because it had Dinosaurs eating people and that's what I watch Jurassic Park movies for. It was big and dumb and quite fun. I think some people didn't find the fun part. Odd thing is all the critique is valid for other movies I love so I don't get why some movies it's OK to not say it's bad and others it is?

I'd say Jurassic World is just as good as Tremors or Predator and Jurassic World gets way more disdain.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/10/2018 at 12:35pm

I think a lot of the movie criticism I can’t get behind comes from people taking something too seriously.

I saw an argument shortly after TLJ. Someone giving the example of Yoda controlling the weather as an example of how TLJ doesn’t care about established lore.

Like in this movie about freakin’ space wizards you guys are arguing about whether one space wizard who can come back from the dead would be able to pull a lightning bolt out of a storm cloud? That’s an insurmountable problem?

Your take on Jurassic World harkens to that. It’s a film that’s meant to be fun and fantastical (in a way) sci-fi action but people take it too seriously. I guess I can see why. The first Jurassic Park was big and important. It was fun but took itself seriously. I don’t think any of them have done that since and that’s not a bad thing.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/10/2018 at 03:29pm

> Like in this movie about freakin’ space wizards you guys are arguing about whether one space wizard who can come back from the dead would be able to pull a lightning bolt out of a storm cloud? That’s an insurmountable problem?

Right, I agree. The Emperor shoots lightning from his hands yet the thing that's hard to understand is that it can come from the sky? That's the most believable part, because lighting actually comes from the sky. If the force is everywhere then all Yoda did was spark the force to do the natural weather thing, which seems canonical to me if not done before.

So if many people's problems is that Star Wars does too much new stuff, then I think when everyone complained Force Awakens was a retread needs to rethink that. Sounds like it would be the best sequel ever. It did new stuff, but it's basic plot and themes were very similar.

> It was fun but took itself seriously. I don’t think any of them have done that since and that’s not a bad thing.

Yeah and the biggest parts where the film breaks down is in basic genetics. Like copy pasting from Frog DNA wouldn't really create Dinosaurs and if it did they'd be really strange looking. The basic premise of Jurassic Park doesn't work yet that's not what the main problem with the series is? Paper thin characters are pretty common in campy films but I think people expect each film to be Chaucer, which I think movies like Fallen Kingdom are clearly more like Mad Magazine.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/10/2018 at 03:42pm

Also, people don't have to agree on what's good. People also don't need to be consistent, i'm not. I guess i'm just raging(not really) against the notion of some kind of art based consensus. It can exist in communities, but it's OK to think differently and we don't need to all agree.

Form your own way. That's a big reason why this site exists else i'd just be posting game reviews on Facebook.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/10/2018 at 04:32pm

Amen! Enjoy things when you can, move on when you can’t. The idea of things being “objectively bad” seems rampant these days which I cannot get behind.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/14/2018 at 11:59pm

I may have to edit my review of this game, now that I've spent more time with it. This is a good game, perhaps much better than I originally thought. It's not just a Jurassic Park/World simulator, it's a strategy game! It's also challenging. There's so much to do and plenty of things take a lot of time to do (like analyzing fossils for DNA and completing a genome). I actually do wish the game was a bit easier, but there's no difficulty setting. The easiest it gets is when you unlock Isla Nublar, which is the game's "creative mode." Here, you don't have to worry about money and you can turn off storms and make it so dinos won't try to break out of their pens. If only I had those options for the other islands! I feel like this game is pretty much worth full price, even though it's definitely not cheap. In a way I want to pull myself away and let go of the various goals in the game. I've unlocked all the islands, but I keep wanting to play it, there's still more to do.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/28/2018 at 05:10am

Checkout this really hilarious Jurassic World Evolution game review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmiUuRmeGsI

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/28/2018 at 05:41am

LOL Yeah that pretty much covers it.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 12/31/2020 at 11:49pm

FYI, this game is currently (temporarily) free on Epic Games, so hurry up and grab it while you can! I recently bought the DLC I was missing (some dino packs, Claire's Sanctuary, and Return to Jurassic Park) and have been playing it lately. It's still a great game and I feel like it was easier this time around. I've spent nearly 200 hours playing this game. Luckily, I'm not done yet and I still want more. I'm really loving it. I think I'd like to reiterate that it's not just simply a park builder, but to me it also feels like a strategy game, but still very fun! Now that I think about it, I think I'm going to change my review from "Rad" to "Must Play." I think it's that good!

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The Sims 4 Review

https://eu.playgames.dk/9397/the-sims-4.jpg

Azurephile gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Azurephile gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Review

Recommended

Human/household simulation, that’s a fun, calm, easy-going, and interesting game.

Lots of expansions

I wouldn’t call myself a die-hard Sims fan, but I have played some of the games in the series, starting with the first one. I’ve also played The Sims 3, as it was given away for free on Origin. However, there was a recent sale and I was able to buy The Sims 4 for just $10. I thought that was a great deal, so I got it. Unfortunately, I was pretty blown away with how many expansions there are for the game and there doesn’t seem to be an all-in-one version, which I think would be cool, although probably a bit expensive. I figured if I liked the game... Read All