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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 19: Borderlands 2 Retrospective

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

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

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

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

Borderlands 2 is a first person shooter RPG that was released by Gearbox Software in 2012. It launched to nearly universal acclaim and won a bunch of awards including the Cheerful Ghost game of the year award for 2012! Borderands 2 got a junk ton of DLC and was one of the first games with a season pass that got even more DLC after that season pass DLC came out. Borderlands 2 dropped on PC, PS3 the XBox 360 and was later brought to Mac, Linux, PS4, XBox One, Vita and the NVidia Shield.

We wanted to head back to this game and talk about it because we think it deserves a second look and a bit more discussion.

Spoiler alert: Perhaps it's no surprise, we love this game and... Read All

Fortnite Battle Royale Is The Biggest Game Right Now And You Need To Play It

Six years ago Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games announced a new game called Fortnite that was aimed exclusively at the PC market. It was a co-op team shooter game set in a cartoony apocalypse where you can build structures to protect yourself and your teammates from the oncoming Zombie hordes. The game has been in development for over six years and is still in early access and has blown up with the launch of the in game Battle Royale mode. One huge inspiration for Fortnite Battle Royale was the early 2017 Player Unknown Battlegrounds also known as PUBG. When PUBG hit the scene it solid very well catapulting it to the top of the Steam and Twitch charts and Epic Games saw... Read All Six years ago Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games announced a new game called Fortnite that was aimed exclusively at the PC market. It was a co-op team shooter game set in a cartoony apocalypse where you can build structures to protect yourself and your teammates from the oncoming Zombie hordes. The game has been in development for over six years and is still in early access and has blown up with the launch of the in game Battle Royale mode. One huge inspiration for Fortnite Battle Royale was the early 2017 Player Unknown Battlegrounds also known as PUBG. When PUBG hit the scene it solid very well catapulting it to the top of the Steam and Twitch charts and Epic Games saw how well the Battle Royale formula did and they set out to rebuild it in Fortnite. One reason why Fortnite has gone on to overtake PUBG in terms of players is partly due to it's cartoony style, Epics amazing gameplay and Fortnite being entirely free to play. Fortnite's free to play model isn't pay to win as all in game currency goes to purchase in game cosmetics such as player skins, weapon skins, backpack skins and pickaxe skins. You can buy game currency outright to buy items in the store and/or you can buy the season pass which allows you to unlock certain skins by playing the game and leveling up your character. Some skins are available to unlock each season for free but if you want the really cool stuff that costs money.

What Is Battle Royale Mode?

The FPS Battle Royale mode is actually a pretty fun experience but not if you don't like dying... a lot. In Fortnite Battle Royale 100 players queue up and are literally dropped in on the game island via a flying Battle Bus. At the top of the match the Battle Bus flies overhead in a direction and you figure out where you will parachute from to land on the ground and start your search for weapons and items. In the Solo game mode the winner of the game is the last person alive and the goal is to either camp out and wait for someone to come by and kill them or take other players head on. As you exist in the map a cloud circles an area making the area you can exist in smaller confining the players to less and less space to push you closer to confronting each other. There is also a team mode where you and three other people can group up and see how far you can get together.

My Mini Review

So far I've only played a handful of matches and am still learning the games basic strategy. Since Fortnite is an Epic Games creation the gun play feels top notch and the third person over the shoulder camera really makes the whole experience feel fresh. The cartoony style graphics also make the game feel a bit more whimsical so when you die, it's not quite as soul crushing. That said, I've only manged to kill a handful of people so far as everyone... for the most part is way better than I am.

Since I have Twitch Prime(because I have an Amazon Prime membership) I got some cool Fortnite game skins that I can play with. It's nice looking a bit different than the main player skins but again, it's just cosmetic it doesn't make me better at the game. Fortnite is so huge it's basically now available on every platform including PC, Mac, PS4, XBox One and now iOS including iPhones and iPads. I have an iPhone 6S and the games graphics aren't as good as my PC but it's the same game and works really well considering it's a touch screen game. Fortnite is so popular right now Epic is telling kids to stop playing Fortnite during class, which I could see myself doing a lot of if I was in school right now.

If you want to play Fortnite on PC or Mac you will have to download the Epic Games client as it's not available on Steam. It makes sense as Fortnite is free to play and is funded by in game purchases and Epic saves money if it doesn't share 30% of those transactions with anyone. That said, the Epic Games client isn't hard to get or annoying in any way I noticed.

If you are looking for a cool game to try and have wanted to give the whole Battle Royale mode a shot I recommend installing Fortnite. It's hard sure, but it's fun and jumping back into a match is pretty quick as it's currently being played by basically everyone in gaming right now.

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/buy-now/battle-royale

Travis Admin wrote on 04/01/2018 at 03:15am

A first person shooter on iOS? How does that work exactly?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/01/2018 at 03:38am

Virtual thumbstick on the left for moving, thumbstick on the right for aiming. There is a button to jump and you tap the screen to collect items. Works better than it sounds but it's not my preferred way of playing it. Epic has mentioned it will add support for iOS MFI controllers at some point which should basically make it akin to playing it on a console.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/01/2018 at 04:45am

As long as they let you join games with only people on mobile that do NOT have controllers that sounds like it could work well.

I popped in for a couple matches and suuuuuuucked. I'm pretty ok with knowing I'll never win one but it's fun.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/01/2018 at 05:30am

Yeah, it is fun. I killed someone in a match, that was great. Then I was in another match where I was in the last 10.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/01/2018 at 05:47am

That sounds basically identical to my night. :D

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 04/02/2018 at 05:03pm

I tried it last night. Got killed right away.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/02/2018 at 11:17pm

In a game where people run around killing each other, i'd expect that.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 04/04/2018 at 12:02am

I just came in 31st. I am soooo awesome. :)

Travis Admin wrote on 04/04/2018 at 12:39am

You're practically godlike!

...compared to me ;)

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 04/04/2018 at 01:55am

Ha! My number was inflated by the fact that I landed in an area that nobody was in. I ended up getting one kill before getting killed.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 04/04/2018 at 02:13am

19 and the storm killed me. I floated to the very outside of the map and tried to make my way in. It was a good way to learn a little bit about the game.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/04/2018 at 03:20am

That's kinda the problem I have. I wish there was a bot mode where you could set AI difficulty, just to get a handle on the mechanics without worrying about survival.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/04/2018 at 03:48am

Right. But I find that part of the fun. It's a game you can't get too attached to because it doesn't last very long. I find that kind of experience really... in a way... freeing because it's not about being very good. I really enjoy it for the loner aspect and trying to figure out the best way to land in an area no one is around, find some weapons and derp my way to a kill or survival.

Sometimes I get into a gun fight right away with someone but I try and hit the edges of the map and survive until pushed in but by the time it's just me and 20 other people they are SO much better than me. But it's still fun to play.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 04/04/2018 at 04:23am

Jon, it sounds like we have the same strategy. :)

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More StarCraft 20th Anniversary Celebration Freebies & Livestream!

http://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/blog_header/w6/W68CINWEIMYA1522156038117.jpg

Blizzard is continuing the StarCraft 20th Anniversary celebration by giving away Fenix as a free StarCraft II co-op commander.

"Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we are giving away the Co-op Commander Fenix for free! From March 29 to April 3, you’ll find the Protoss champion sitting in the gift tab ready to be claimed."

I didn't have Fenix as a commander yet, so it's cool to be able to get him to try out.

https://starcraft2.com/en-us/news/21667305

Blizzard is also having an all day live stream event tomorrow and if you are interested in watching that check out the Cheerful Ghost event link below for more information.

... Read All

The Humble Store Keeps The Free Steam Games Flowing With Spec Ops The Line

The Humble Store is keeping the free games coming strong with it's new freebie Spec Ops: The Line available for the next 24 hours. This version of Spec Ops reviewed quite well for it's approach to narrative but like many games out of 2012 I haven't yet made time for it but now that it's in my collection ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE!

Spec Ops: The Line is free on Humble for Steam and runs on PC, Mac and Linux.

"Spec Ops: The Line is a new original title from 2K Games that features provocative and gripping Third-Person modern military Shooter gameplay designed to challenge players' morality by putting them in the middle of unspeakable situations where unimaginable choices... Read All

Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition Comes To Steam!

Getting a fresh new port of Neverwinter Nights is a pretty great thing to finally see launch as I wore out my original CD's playing the game and it's expansions. The Enhanced Edition on Steam comes with the base game, Shadows of Undrentide, Hordes of the Underdark & three premium modules they released later on titled Kingmaker, Shadow Guard & Witches Wake. Undrentide & Underdark were proper physical box copy releases and later Kingmaker, Shadow Guard and Witches Wake were packed up as part of a big box release too. Some premium modules were only released online using some odd form of DRM which meant I didn't actually play them such as Infinite Dungeons,... Read All

The Humble Bundle 19 Kicks It Into LIGHTSPEED!

It doesn't feel like we've experienced 19 Humble Indie Bundles over the years but the fact is that we have. I remember when the Humble Bundle came on the scene with World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Penumbra: Overture, Lugaru HD & Samorost 2 and no Steam keys. In fact, getting Steam keys didn't make sense to me as why would anyone use Steam if they had a DRM free download? Times have changed but the Humble Indie Bundle is still going strong and the 19th edition looks to be quite good.

I haven't played any of the games in this bundle, which is good, but from what I know of the games included and what's more my style the top of the bundle seems to be Halcyon 6 Lightspeed... Read All

All Of The Ways You Can Play RollerCoaster Tycoon

RollerCoaster Tycoon is one of the best Sim games to come out of the 90's. Created by Chris Sawyer it spawned a ton of sequels such as RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, 3, World as well as a 3D version and some releases on mobile and PC such as RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic which is a modern port of RollerCoaster Tycoon and it's sequel. Needless to say there are a lot of ways to play it and since I've been a longtime fan I've got my original RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on CD from back in the day. RollerCoaster Tycoon was available for digital download first on GOG and later came to Steam and I got the original deluxe version as part of a Humble Simulator... Read All RollerCoaster Tycoon is one of the best Sim games to come out of the 90's. Created by Chris Sawyer it spawned a ton of sequels such as RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, 3, World as well as a 3D version and some releases on mobile and PC such as RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic which is a modern port of RollerCoaster Tycoon and it's sequel. Needless to say there are a lot of ways to play it and since I've been a longtime fan I've got my original RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 on CD from back in the day. RollerCoaster Tycoon was available for digital download first on GOG and later came to Steam and I got the original deluxe version as part of a Humble Simulator Bundle on Steam.

RollerCoaster Tycoon: Deluxe on Steam, GOG & CD

If you love the original game and want to play it the good news it still, mostly, runs on Windows 10. It's easy to find on nearly any PC digital store and it's cheap and comes with all the expansions. The only downside is that it doesn't run very well on Windows 10 as the game window only stretches so far and you can't mouse away from the game while playing it as it sort of locks up your PC from anything else. When I close the game my Windows 10 PC is unresponsive for a bit but after a minute things come back and all is well. Even though the original game runs strangely on my PC, for some people it doesn't run at all. Publisher Atari just took the original game and the XP update and packaged it up for release and while it still runs, it's not the best way you can play it.

RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic

Is a modern remastering of the best games in the series RollerCoaster Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 and all of the expansions and ported to PC, Mac and tablets. I haven't played it but it reviews well and seems to be what fans have been wanting for quite sometime. That said, the PC version does use the same code as the Tablet version and as such the menus look at bit odd in that context but it doesn't seem unplayable because of it.

Open RollerCoaster Tycoon 2

Is one of those open source projects that make you happy that awesome people have free time. Meant to be a complete source recreation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, ORCT2 is a very well established project that is extremely faithful to the originals. It's a recreation of the sequel but you can point at your install of the original game to play the original park scenarios if you want. If you are looking for an amazing way to play RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 and the original scenarios on Windows, Mac or Linux and you have the original games you need to check this out.

One tip is that if you can find the original RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 demo you can use that as the demo timeboxed you to 1 hour and the open source version does not. That said, getting RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 isn't hard and any version will do.

https://openrct2.org/

The Darkness II Is Free On Humble For The Next 24 Hours!

Humble is giving away The Darkness II on Steam for PC and Mac during the next 24 hours. I played the heck out of the Darkness II demo on PS3 back when I first got my PS3 and that one level was incredible, even after playing it 15 times. I imagine it ports over well to PC and Mac and since it's not quite a cutting edge game, I imagine it will run extra well on your gaming PC.

"Inspired by the popular comic book series produced by Top Cow Productions, Inc., The Darkness II is an intense first person shooter that delivers a twisted and gripping narrative of tragedy, modern crime drama, and supernatural horror.

Players will be taken down the brutal and personal path of... Read All

Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition Review

Azurephile gives this a "Meh" on the Ghost Scale

It’s not amazing, it’s not bad. This is ok but you may want to choose another title.

Azurephile gives this a "Meh" on the Ghost Scale

It’s not amazing, it’s not bad. This is ok but you may want to choose another title.

Review

DLC & Tutorial

Multiple AI controlled characters

Open-world, travel on foot or by car or chocobo

You can see enemies, no "random" encounters, seamless combat, everything happens in real-time

Final Fantasy X: Windows Edition was recently released. It includes some new features and currently available DLC. I was told that this is a short game, that is if you don’t do many of the side quests. I did some of them and finished in about 45 hours, the first time. I then unlocked New Game+ and finished a second time. After doing more side quests and the DLC, I now have over 100 hours into the game. I did play on easy, so I may replay the game on normal difficulty.

... Read All Review

DLC & Tutorial

Multiple AI controlled characters

Open-world, travel on foot or by car or chocobo

You can see enemies, no "random" encounters, seamless combat, everything happens in real-time

Final Fantasy X: Windows Edition was recently released. It includes some new features and currently available DLC. I was told that this is a short game, that is if you don’t do many of the side quests. I did some of them and finished in about 45 hours, the first time. I then unlocked New Game+ and finished a second time. After doing more side quests and the DLC, I now have over 100 hours into the game. I did play on easy, so I may replay the game on normal difficulty.

You are in control of the main character, Noctis. There are three other characters that are controlled by the AI and are almost always with you. Each character has their own specialization or skill. Noct is a fisherman. Ignis cooks at camp, which can provide temporary bonuses. He can also drive. Gladio “picks up” items at the end of a battle. His skill increases the more he walks. Prompto is a photographer. I think the characters are good and likable. I felt like they were true FF characters.

The demo and tutorial do a decent job of helping you figure out how to play, but they don’t dive too deep into things. It took me a while to realize that Tech abilities level up the more you use them. They do reach a max, but you can also switch them out outside of battle. Each AI character has their own Tech abilities, each with their own strengths or purposes.

I wasn’t too sure about the Ascension grid, so I looked up some helpful tips as it can be a bit overwhelming at first. The Exploration part of the grid helps you gain Ability Points, which you spend in the grid. You can gain AP by doing things such as making camp or making long trips via car or chocobo. These are good to have early on to help you gain more AP.

There was a patch released to fix the one main problem me and other players ran into, summoning destroyed your fps. After that, the game crashed on me a few times after playing for a while. Otherwise it usually ran pretty smoothly. The game is beautiful and it reminds me of many games, like GTAV and The Witcher 3. It’s nice to see such a beautiful open FF world. It makes me wish other FF games could look like this one.

I found combat to be a bit different than other FF games. You can see monsters, beasts, and enemies roaming around. You can try to avoid them or get within range of them to initiate combat. There is no separate combat screen like in most FF games, everything happens in real time. It also seemed that the game was more full of fetch quests than being in a state of constant combat. In the end, I think it’s not a bad FF game, but it doesn’t quite capture my heart like FFVIII.

Hardly Any Phones Destroyed Because Life Is Too Short

jdodson gives this a "Meh" on the Ghost Scale

It’s not amazing, it’s not bad. This is ok but you may want to choose another title.

jdodson gives this a "Meh" on the Ghost Scale

It’s not amazing, it’s not bad. This is ok but you may want to choose another title.

South Park Phone Destroyer was announced at 2017’s E3 and based on the good reviews of South Park Stick of Truth my interest was peaked. Even though I was really interested in playing it Phone Destroyer somehow the game launched and I didn’t hear anything about it. That changed when I recently saw it in the App Store and since it’s a free to play game I installed it.

Cowboys VS Indians

I’m going to start things out by noting that South Park gleefully revels in offense. At this point South Park has made fun of just about everything so saying that South Park might offend people isn’t really news. Some give South Park a pass because they spread out the satire and mockery... Read All South Park Phone Destroyer was announced at 2017’s E3 and based on the good reviews of South Park Stick of Truth my interest was peaked. Even though I was really interested in playing it Phone Destroyer somehow the game launched and I didn’t hear anything about it. That changed when I recently saw it in the App Store and since it’s a free to play game I installed it.

Cowboys VS Indians

I’m going to start things out by noting that South Park gleefully revels in offense. At this point South Park has made fun of just about everything so saying that South Park might offend people isn’t really news. Some give South Park a pass because they spread out the satire and mockery to everyone but that doesn’t get it off the hook for sometimes being a bit mean spirited. That said, when South Park is at its peak it’s witty satire is biting and contains a socially relevant message.

Phone Destroyer picks up right after the events in The Stick of Truth where the kids are done playing Elves and Orcs and want to play Cowboys and Indians. Whereas it was common for kids to play Cowboys and Indians in the 80’s, 90’s and earlier it seems like this form of play has lost fashion. Parly because other forms of pop culture are more popular such as Superheroes and Star Wars but also because of cultural appropriation and many Native Americans taking issue with it. Satire at its best has a larger message to inform the audience and in the case of Phone Destroyer it seems that Cowboys and Indians is merely a backdrop. If it’s some kind of political or social satire I didn’t get far enough in the game to see it so it just seems to be… offensive because it can be?

Get To The Gameplay Partner!

The core gameplay of Phone Destroyer kept my attention longer than something like Animal Crossing Pocket Camp but that’s not high praise. The game does feature ace voice acting and innovative story beats such as other characters calling you in game requiring you to turn your phone to actually take the call.

Like many free to play games you can buy in game currency in gold coins and cash. These can be used to buy in game card packs and give you access to materials to upgrade cards or buy new cards themselves. Advancement is through a PVP leveling system and a Candy Crush like set of game levels. You get free cards packs every couple hours so the free to play aspect of the game isn’t too punishing. In fact the game isn’t all that bad itself it just suffers because it’s core gameplay, like many free to play games, is repetitive and boring. Like, why do I care about PVP again? Come to find out I don’t and the most interesting part of the game, it’s character interaction and paper thin story beats don’t come enough to keep me interested. When I realized that I had unlocked all the base level cards and I needed to be PVP 5 to continue and i’ve mostly stopped playing because of it.

TLDR

Phone Destroyer is a fine free to play game and if you love South Park you should check out. I didn’t love it but it contained enough fun elements to keep me playing for a few hours.