Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Site Feature Update: Comments, Posts & Profile Pages!

Travis and I have been busy during our spare time coding up new features on Cheerful Ghost and today are launching a new way to look at comments, posts and profile pages. Once upon a time Cheerful Ghost had a Membership system and it was a pretty good way for people that love the site to contribute to it but I always felt like it wasn't the best it could be. Because of that we're rebuilding the Membership system from scratch and it's starting today.

Comments, Posts and Profiles oh My!

If you click open a comment stream or look at a post you will see a new thing we call badges. Badges are a cosmetic thing bestowed on certain users for things like post authorship,... Read All Travis and I have been busy during our spare time coding up new features on Cheerful Ghost and today are launching a new way to look at comments, posts and profile pages. Once upon a time Cheerful Ghost had a Membership system and it was a pretty good way for people that love the site to contribute to it but I always felt like it wasn't the best it could be. Because of that we're rebuilding the Membership system from scratch and it's starting today.

Comments, Posts and Profiles oh My!

If you click open a comment stream or look at a post you will see a new thing we call badges. Badges are a cosmetic thing bestowed on certain users for things like post authorship, membership, site support and admin or mod status. These badges are shown on posts, comments and profile pages and can help give certain discussions some context. It's also a nice thank you to people that financially support the site or work closely with it.

If you have questions about what the user titles or roles mean, we have a handy page to explain it better linked below. If that doesn't work well for you drop your comments on this post.

Old Membership Is Dead, Long Live Memberships!

Since all former Cheerful Ghost site Members old memberships have lapsed they are now rolled over to supporters. We're still working on the new Membership system and process to become a Member again but the cosmetic enhancements were in place so we decided to roll those out now for comment. The new site Membership system should launch in the next bit the only real blocker here is me having enough time to come up with an interesting video about it. Right now we're thinking about using Paetron for site Memberships and we need to spend a bit more time to make that launch just right.

The Future

I don't want to talk too far in the future about what's coming but I do want to say that these changes are all in service of a larger goal that will become more clear later. When I think about what's the most fun about Cheerful Ghost for me trying to make that baked in to the DNA of this site sounds really interesting and hopefully these site updates get us there.

https://cheerfulghost.com/user/titles
https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/3655/introducing-the-ghost-scale

Interview with Game Creator Brad Smith on His All New NES Game Lizard!

It’s a pretty special time when a new Nintendo games comes out and Brad Smith has something with his latest entry to the NES lineup with Lizard. After reading about the game, playing the demo and quite enjoying my time with it I decided to reach out to him and ask him a few questions about the game and his process of creating it.

“Choose your lizard carefully. You can find six different ones scattered across the land, each with its own special ability.

You'll need these abilities as you make your difficult journey through many dangerous places. Carefully hop your way to the top of an active volcano. Surf down a surging river. Swim an underwater lake. Ascend a snowy... Read All

Blizzard Announces New Hearthstone Expansion The Witchwood

The new year is here meaning that Hearthstone will be rotating the amount of sets in standard. As part rotation a new expansion has been announced called The Witchwood. The above trailer seems like The Blair Witch Project meets... Hearthstone? It's a fun expansion reveal and the ending is well worth sticking around for.

The Witchwood is a traditional Hearthstone expansion but it seems the pre-order nets you 20 extra packs than it did before. Seems to be an adjustment on Blizzards part as it seems the general community consensus is the game is really expensive to play. Still is, but they seem to be tossing in more value, which is nice.

The Witchwood is also shipping with... Read All

It’s As If Lucky Charms Has A More Sugary Little Brother In A Smaller Box - Cheerful Ghost Reviews Super Mario Cereal!

In the 90’s Nintendo sold us everything from Mario underwear, trading cards and cereal. I was down to get all of it, or at least as much as Mom and Dad would buy me. One seemingly unattainable aspect of the 90’s Mario craze was Nintendo’s Cereal System that had a split box of Zelda and Mario cereal. The only time I ever had any was at my cousins house and it was pure magic to open the box, eat Zelda cereal and after breakfast play Nintendo all day. Fast forward to the dystopian hellscape of now and Nintendo doesn’t sell us trading cards or underwear anymore but the cereal thing is back in the form of Kellogg’s Super Mario Cereal.

At this time Super Mario Cereal is a... Read All

Steam Machines Are Dead? Long Live The Steam Link!

When Valve started the hype train for Steam Machines in 2015 I was excited. I love consoles but I don't love having to re-purchase games for each device I own so the thought that you could by a game one and run it anywhere really interested me. Plus I love Valve and Steam so getting a dedicated Steam Machine for playing games in my living room seemed like a great idea. Since i'm not usually the first to adopt brand new tech I decided to wait for the reviews to come and had a thought to picking up a second or third generation machine because, by then, the kinks would all be worked out. Thing is... Steam Machines seem to be a first generation only thing because frankly,... Read All When Valve started the hype train for Steam Machines in 2015 I was excited. I love consoles but I don't love having to re-purchase games for each device I own so the thought that you could by a game one and run it anywhere really interested me. Plus I love Valve and Steam so getting a dedicated Steam Machine for playing games in my living room seemed like a great idea. Since i'm not usually the first to adopt brand new tech I decided to wait for the reviews to come and had a thought to picking up a second or third generation machine because, by then, the kinks would all be worked out. Thing is... Steam Machines seem to be a first generation only thing because frankly, they seem dead.

Are Steam Machines Dead?

Officially Steam Machines don't seem dead as they are still listed on Steam itself but PC Gamer did an interview with three Valve partners that released Steam Machines and they have basically discontinued them due to lack of interest.

“Nobody was buying it with SteamOS,” Digital Storm marketing manager Rajeev Kuruppu tells me over the phone. The manufacturer had already been building the Eclipse—which is still available with Windows—when Valve pitched SteamOS, and added a Steam Machine build mid-project. That version has since been axed, and Digital Storm no longer has an active relationship with Valve.

“I think over time as the demand from customers wasn’t there we basically had no reason to speak with Valve,” says Kuruppu. Digital Storm is still open to working with Valve, so long as its customers want what Valve is putting out. Right now, they don’t."

Valve Released The Steam Link And It's Incredible

I wonder if part of the reason why the uptake of Steam Machines wasn't high was because alongside Steam Machines Valve released the Steam Link. The Steam Link is a $50 steaming device that let's you transmit your PC Steam games to your living room in 1080p and it seems that users decided to go that route instead. And it's not a bad choice either because i'm using it right now and with all the updates Valve has brought to it.... it's incredible.

When I attended Steam Developer Days I got a free Steam Link and Steam Controller with the ticket. After my son was born I really didn't have much time for PC gaming so the Link sat in the closet and recently I dusted it off and hooked it up. After 10 updates I started streaming games from my ASUS ROG laptop. The streaming was great but, occasionally, the game would lose a frame or two. It wasn't a huge deal but it was noticeable and I remember reading reviews that suggested you use it over wired ethernet. The Steam Link and my ASUS ROG are both connected to wireless and my router supports 5G Wireless 802.11ac 2x2 (MIMO) so I figured all would be fine but there were noticeable hiccups. I have a PC gaming desktop that is connected to wired ethernet and I decided to give that a go and the Link streaming was perfect. So it seems that if one of the machines is connected to wired internet that can help considerably and moreso if both are.

I've tested a few games on the Steam Link but the game i've played the most is Death Road To Canada, which is perfect for the living room. Fallout 4 ran well and I didn't notice any kind of performance issues with it either. I don't imagine i'll be playing a ton of shooters that way for but platformers, adventure games and rogue likes playing Steam games in the living room is a great way to experience them.

https://www.pcgamer.com/what-happened-to-steam-machines/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/353380/Steam_Link/

Travis Admin wrote on 03/12/2018 at 03:16am

With wireless, the issue isn't the speed, it's the inherent latency. It's why even on 802.11b back in the day, even if your internet speed was 5mb and your wifi speed was twice as fast, people recommended you play online games while wired to the router.

The Steam Link is an amazing device. The only hiccups I ever noticed were when I was playing a CPU intensive game, since the pc you're streaming FROM needs some CPU cycles to encode the video on the fly.

I'm pretty OK with Steam Machines not going anywhere honestly, as long as Valve continues to support Linux. The work they've done for Steam OS has benefitted gaming for all Linux users, and I hope they keep that up.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/12/2018 at 01:29pm

It's also worth noting that the Steam Link goes down to like $5 on every major sale, so there's no reason not to try them. And it works with just about any controller you already have.

Plus, if you're a tinkerer you may choose a $5 Steam Link over a Raspberry Pi depending on what you're after(retro emulation and Kodi, for instance, can run as native apps on the Steam Link)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2018 at 03:35am

Native apps is a great step. I wonder if subsequent versions will allow usb storage and a larger hard drive to make a mini steam machine? I mean, it already is but the storage is somewhat limiting.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/03/2018 at 11:52pm

https://kotaku.com/a-brief-history-of-steam-machines-1824290873

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

Yeah, this doesn't surprise me. Again, as long as Valve continues pushing the Linux market (which they seem to be, and Steam OS seems to still be in active development for the time being) I'm totally ok with the fact that Steam Machines never went anywhere.

It was an interesting experiment, and I was way wrong about how effective the experiment would be, but in the process we got way more Linux support for gaming which, honestly, is a win for everyone, not just Linux gamers.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/04/2018 at 02:01am

And here we go: http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/1696043806550421224/

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/04/2018 at 03:27am

Thanks for that update, it's awesome to hear that Valve is very committed to Linux. There is a hacking community for the Steam Link and you can install things on it using the bit of disk it has available. I wonder if Steam Link v2 that may potentially do 4k or more will have more disk and it will allow for certain games to install. Or maybe a Steam handheld? Who knows but his

"At the same time, we're continuing to invest significant resources in supporting the Vulkan ecosystem, tooling and driver efforts. We also have other Linux initiatives in the pipe that we're not quite ready to talk about yet; SteamOS will continue to be our medium to deliver these improvements to our customers, and we think they will ultimately benefit the Linux ecosystem at large."

Can't wait to hear more.

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Introducing the Ghost Scale

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.

Hey everyone, we’d like to share an awesome new feature on Cheerful Ghost. You may have heard us using the Ghost Scale in our reviews on Cheerful Ghost Radio over the past couple of months, and now you can use the Ghost Scale on your reviews here!

When you’re creating or editing a post, just check “This is a game review” to show options for the Ghost Scale. You can give your game review one of four ratings that will show on the post:

Skip it :
Whether due to bugs or other issues, people may have a hard time finding fun in this game.

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

Rad :
This is a fun game, with very... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 17: Black Panther

Black Panther’s claws are tearing it up the box office making this recording setting movie a main event in this review episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio!

T'Challa, the King of Wakanda, rises to the throne in the isolated, technologically advanced African nation, but his claim is challenged by a vengeful outsider who was a childhood victim of T'Challa's father's mistake.

Directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa

Artifact Will Be The First of Several New Games From Valve

Gabe Newell gave a presentation at the Valve offices about their upcoming game Artifact - The Dota Card Game. The big news isn't that Artifact is coming but that it seems Valve is focusing more on shipping games.

"Artifact is the first of several games that are going to be coming from us. So that's sort of good news. Hooray! Valve's going to start shipping games again."

It seems Valve has been focused on hardware in Steam VR, the Steam Controller and Steam itself which has taken focus away from making games which seems to now be coming back.

"The positive thing about the Vive is, in addition to making sure that nobody created an iOS closed platform for it, was also that... Read All

PortsCenter Reviews Street Fighter II on Amiga

Mikey Neumann of the Movies With Mikey fame runs the incredi-dorbs YouTube channel Film Joy. Film Joy also includes the saucy Ben Paddon show Ports Center and in his latest episode he covers Street Fighter II and it's ports to the Amiga. It's a good look at Street Fighter, it's beginnings, influence and movement to it's most beloved incarnation in Street Fighter II.

"In this episode, Ben looks at three very different attempts to bring Street Fighter II to his home computer of choice, the Amiga."

Celebrate 20 Years of StarCraft With Free Blizzard In-Game Loot

Starting today Blizzard is celebrating 20 years of StarCraft with a bunch of free in-game loot.

Log in to StarCraft: Remastered after March 6 to receive a commemorative 20th Anniversary UI Skin for StarCraft: Remastered.

Log in to StarCraft II after March 6 to receive a special UI Skin for each race. Additionally, log in between March 6 and April 3 to receive a Portrait and Decal.

Log in to Heroes of the Storm between March 27 and April 7 to receive a 20th Anniversary Portrait for Protoss, Terran and Zerg.

Play a StarCraft-inspired Tavern Brawl between March 21 and... Read All