Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Into The Breach Launches Today - What Do You Think?

Into the Breach is finally here and i'm curious what people that picked it up think of it? The Steam reviews seem to be singing it's praises and my hope is that Into the Breach becomes just as important to my Indie library as FTL. You can get Into the Breach on Steam or GOG but right now on GOG if you purchase Into the Breach you get FTL Advanced Edition for free!

Ben Prunty wrote the music for FTL and also Into The Breach and you can listen or buy the soundtrack right now on Bandcamp.

https://benprunty.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-breach-soundtrack

http://store.steampowered.com/app/590380/Into_the_Breach/
https://www.gog.com/game/into_the_breach

Chrono Trigger Is Out On Steam And Getting Unfortunate Reviews

Chrono Trigger unceremoniously launched on Steam today and it seems the initial reviews of it... aren't great. Clipping out a few for your reading pleasure

"All you need to know is that this is a straight port of the mobile version, and includes a horrible font and disgusting sprite filtering."

"This is a port from mobile,
It only disappoints.
But Steam will refund
All my 15 silver points."

It's mostly all bad reviews but a few are positive.

"Chrono Trigger is one of the best RPG's ever made. I had it on SNES, then lost it. I am very glad it is finally on Steam. "

Chrono Trigger is one of the most beloved games of the 16 bit era and it seems like Square is releasing it's... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/28/2018 at 04:36am

Cool, thanks for the info. I was distracted by other news today, the release of the demo for Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition.

I think it'd be great to have this on PC. I'll have to look at it more to decide whether or not to grab it.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/01/2018 at 04:46am

I watched a gameplay video and there are some bizarre choices. Since it's a direct mobile port, there's a constant "menu" button on the screen even though you're playing (probably) with a gamepad and can't click it. Even if you weren't, the Esc key is always there.

And the weird filter they have over it is honestly a little uncomfortable to look at. The original sprites without any scanline emulation would be far preferable.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/01/2018 at 05:16am

I agree that the pixel art being chunky would be better than that OR just allow an option for original pixels or the smoothed out thing they are doing. It does that on the DS version but the screen is so low res it's not that noticeable. But you really do notice it when your at 1080p or higher!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/31/2018 at 06:03am

I just got it, so I'm jumping in after they've updated it at least once (there's another update planned). It looks fine to me with the "high resolution" graphics settings. The "original" graphics settings looks more pixelated, like the original lol. That menu button Travis mentioned does appear, but it's in the bottom of the screen to the right. It's not really too noticeable, I think it disappears sometimes, but it's also definitely unnecessary. I'm playing w/ a controller and I just hit that top button (Y on XBox 360 controller) to get into the menu. I really liked the opening cinematic, but I think maybe that was included on the PS version. Otherwise, my only complaint really is that it seems I'm stuck with gray boxes (for text and menu) when I'd rather customize it (to blue). I don't recall being able to do that in this game, but I remember I was able to do so on FFVII.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/01/2018 at 01:08am

Glad you got it. Love to hear your review of the game!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/01/2018 at 02:42am

So far I'm not disappointed, just wish I could change the color of the menu/text box. I didn't play the game until 2000 or so, after I was Travis's roommate and before 9/11.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/01/2018 at 02:48am

I am honored to be part of how you remember when things happened! :D

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/01/2018 at 03:03am

Well I was Jake's roommate at the time, so yeah you fit in there. Plus, I've been listening to Cowboy Mouth a bit recently. Hell, I still dream I'm at RU for some reason. LOL

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness Review

http://ultima1.ultimacodex.com/files/2012/05/ultima-1-title-screen.jpg

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

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

Will_Ball gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

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

I have toyed with the idea of sitting down with the Ultima games for some time now. I finally took the plunge with Ultima I.

Ultima I is a role playing game that was released in 1981 for the Apple ][. In 1987 Origin ported it over to the PC and DOS. This version came with enhanced graphics, more town and city variations, monsters traveling on the map, and some money enhancements. It is the 1987 version that I ended up playing.

You play the hero, who is given the quest of destroying Mondain, an evil wizard that has released monsters on Sosaria. This hero is customized at the beginning of the game. First you have to choose a race. The races consist of Human, Elf, Dwarf... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 02/28/2018 at 04:11am

Looks like there is an original Ultima pack on GOG of the first three. Is this what you played?

jdodson Admin wrote on 02/28/2018 at 04:12am

Love the graphics of the game. Because it started on the Apple II the graphics remind me a bit of Oregon Trail.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member Post Author wrote on 02/28/2018 at 05:41am

That is exactly what I played.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/01/2018 at 04:12am

Cool. Euclid bless GOG and the great work they do to bring this stuff back.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/01/2018 at 04:36am

I already have all the games on CD somewhere, that I got with Ultima 9. But I was able to get Ultima 1 - 9 on GOG for a total of $8 the other day, so I went with the lazy method. :)

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/01/2018 at 05:17am

Sounds like a good way to play it. Funny thing is installing games on CD is SLOWER than downloading it now with faster internet.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/02/2018 at 03:59am

I am definitely jealous Jon.

A 52x CD-ROM drive transfers at 7.8 MegaBYTES per second, which translates to 62.4 megaBITS per second. My recently upgraded 25 megabit internet and I could install a game (at optimal speed) two and a half times faster from disc than I could download it.

If it's from a DVD, and you have a 16x DVD ROM, that cuts the disc read time roughly in half, so (again at optimal speeds) you'd need around 120megabit internet to match it.

Now, 60ishMb and 120Mb internet is definitely available here, I just don't want to pay the insane prices Shentel wants.

*Shakes fist at markets with competition and cheap internet*

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/02/2018 at 04:31am

So I don't have anything that fast at all.

That said.

If you have a game on DVD and a game on Steam try installing them both sometime and see which is faster. To my eye, the Steam game is a faster install for a couple reasons. Firstly the raw install speed on a DVD doesn't always translate to actually being that fast IRL. I think a couple things contribute to it, but one is that for certain games they were encrypted on the disc and need to be decrypted on install. Half-life 2 comes to mind that does that, that install is CRAZY SLOW. If the game spans multiple CD's the spin up, down effects things too. I also think at times there is an unpack that games need to do to uncompress the assets. That can take ALONG TIME.

Steam, to my understanding, simply installs the flat files and then any kind of runtime the game needs. No uncompression, DRM is usually an auth server thing so the install is actually quicker than from media. This is all from eyeball tests, I haven't run anything conclusive.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/02/2018 at 02:06pm

There are some games that are stupid slow from disc. I bought DOOM 2016 on disc just to have something on my shelf and I’m pretty sure I would have been better off just downloading all of it instead of using the portion from the disc.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member Post Author wrote on 03/02/2018 at 04:52pm

I have 120 Mbps download speeds. So it is stupid fast for me.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

How Do We See Star Wars? A Video Series In Two Parts.

Culturally Star Wars is a big deal and maybe the biggest deal in all of cinema. Mikey Neumann, a former writer at Gearbox that wrote Borderlands, recently went full time with his YouTube channel Movies with Mikey. It's a great YouTube movie review channel and well worth a subscription and his latest two episodes are about How We See Star Wars. Mikey breaks down each Star Wars movie starting with the original trilogy and how they were reviewed when they came out. Spoiler Alert, people didn't seem to like the Empire Strikes Back at first but later went on to think it was the best movie of the series. If you are looking to tear into some fun Star Wars commentary hit up... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 02/27/2018 at 04:58pm

I watched these last night and I loved how he presented the reactions to each of the films. I wish Rogue One has been included but I also get why it wasn’t. It’s Star Wars but not the core of it.

I have warmed up to the prequels over the years. I, like the people he talked about in the video, was obsessed with episode 1 when it came out. I think I watched it three times in a week, and on that last one the illusion was broken. But time and age has made me appreciate things more and while it’s nowhere near as good as I thought it was opening week, it’s nowhere near as bad as I thought it was the week after.

Episode 2 though. That movie does a lot of great things but... a lot of not great things too.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 03/02/2018 at 05:00pm

I couldn't finish this. The video was too overproduced imho.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/02/2018 at 05:43pm

Wow, we had very different reactions. My wife and I liked it so much that we are going through this entire series and adding any movies we haven't seen to a watch list, so that we can watch the Movies with Mikey reviews of them.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/03/2018 at 05:32am

Yeah I like how much production value he puts into his videos. I've watched all his videos that were for movies I've seen and enjoyed all of them. And it's not just because he loves Edgar Wright movies as much as I do. :P

Travis Admin wrote on 03/03/2018 at 06:03am

I want him to do one for Baby Driver. Mikey's editing with cuts on the first beat of a musical phrase in his background music... he'd have a field day with Baby Driver.

And I STILL need to see The World's End.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/03/2018 at 03:34pm

The Cornetto Trilogy is incredible and The Worlds End is my favorite one.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

All The Ways You Can Own Star Wars The Last Jedi

I liked Star Wars: The Last Jedi a lot and will be heading to the store when it gets a physical Blu-ray release to pick it up on release day. If you were wondering when all that was coming out and wanted to plan your move to own it, i'm going to break it all down in this post to help make your choice a bit easier. And if you hated the movie, and apparently some people did, then doing nothing is even easier than that.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be available on Digital & Movies Anywhere March 13th and on 4K & Blu-ray March 27th. With that, if you want to own it digitally i'm not sure why you just wouldn't buy it on Blu-ray and redeem the digital code for the... Read All I liked Star Wars: The Last Jedi a lot and will be heading to the store when it gets a physical Blu-ray release to pick it up on release day. If you were wondering when all that was coming out and wanted to plan your move to own it, i'm going to break it all down in this post to help make your choice a bit easier. And if you hated the movie, and apparently some people did, then doing nothing is even easier than that.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be available on Digital & Movies Anywhere March 13th and on 4K & Blu-ray March 27th. With that, if you want to own it digitally i'm not sure why you just wouldn't buy it on Blu-ray and redeem the digital code for the digital copy and own an actual thing. Like the digital code you get with the Blu-ray is the same and the price is about the same to so ... you know... why not? That said if you plan on buying an actual physical copy there are a couple of versions you might want to be aware of.

Target film-maker edition + Book + Porg exclusive Looks like Target is getting a Blu-ray exclusive edition with a special Porg behind the scenes thing. It also contains a pretty sweet art book that looks like Star Wars collector bait. It's not 4K but, to me, this looks like the premire edition of the film that i'll be getting on launch day. It seems like the Porg exclusive is digital only.

Best Buy 4K Steelbook Looks like Disney is working with retailers to get exclusive versions and Best Buy is selling the 4K steelbook. It contains the same special features as everything else.

Best Buy Blu-ray Steelbook I don't know, it's just the Blu-ray release with a special steelbook cover. I guess if this is what you crave you should get it.

The Last Jedi is getting loaded up with a bunch of behind the scenes features including 13 deleted scenes! Rian Johnson seems to really understand what I like from these releases and has loaded it up to the hilt with the goods. Read all about it and the special releases at starwars.com below

http://www.starwars.com/the-last-jedi

If you are looking for an in-depth breakdown of the special features Den Of Geek has a nice write up you can check out below.

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/star-wars/271098/star-wars-the-last-jedi-dvd-blu-ray-release-date-bonus-features-details

If you plan on picking up The Last Jedi let me know which version and where you plan on picking it up from!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/27/2018 at 04:41am

I just put an event on my calendar to remind me to pick this up from the store on launch day. I did it for The Force Awakens and Rogue One. Each release the packaging got better, and this Target edition looks to be even better.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 02/28/2018 at 12:28pm

I wonder if the digital release date also includes cable on demand purchases? That's the only way I could understand someone buying it digitally, for the convenience of watching it on my tv with no effort at all; it would be just like watching something off my DVR. I've never bought a movie through Xfinity (my cable provider), but I do rent movies occasionally through it. They're more expensive than say going to Redbox, but I'll occasionally pay for the convenience (they're unusually $4 or $5 for a 24 hour rental).

Of course, buying a digital copy through Xfinity would be the ultimate DRM. I have no idea what happens to your purchases if you were to cancel your cable, but my guess is you'd never see them again lol

Travis Admin wrote on 02/28/2018 at 11:15pm

The digital release is through Movies Anywhere (formerly Disney Movies Anywhere, but they have more partners now).

It ties into your iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and a couple others. So when you activate it on Movies Anywhere, it unlocks on all the platforms you've connected to it.

Basically, if you have an internet connected device connected to your TV, it's a couple clicks away. A while back they had a promo that gave you some free movies, and I've activated a few on it, and the process is seamless and painless.

I feel like a Movies Anywhere commercial but it's really that good. Still DRM, but about as "open" as a DRM-encumbered file can be.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/28/2018 at 11:17pm

It's iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and Amazon. That's the one I was forgetting.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 16: Excitebike

Excitebike is a Motocross racing game developed by Nintendo as part of the original NES launch lineup. In Excitebike you can choose to race Solo or against other computer players and you can qualify for the Excitebike championships by coming in at first or third place time. In Excitebike there is also a design mode, allowing you to build and race your own tracks.

In season two of Cheerful Ghost Radio we are doing bite-sized NES Classic review episodes. We want to make you all part of these episodes, so comment below if you have ideas for more of these, and head on over to the Cheerful Ghost Events section to join in on the discussion for our next NES Classic review,... Read All

Blizzard Giving Warcraft III Some Amazing New Updates!

When WarCraft III launched back in 2002 I was hooked. I played a ton of WarCraft II and as a fan I was really excited to play the next installment and WarCraft III's focus on heroes, amazing 3D graphics and the story made it one of my most played RTS's of that era. I believe WarCraft III is an important game and since many have been getting the remastered treatment it seems like Blizzard might agree.

"Warcraft III's PTR is back and ready for your scrutiny. Join us in testing widescreen support, hero balance changes, and updates to Map Pools for 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's and Free-for-All. We've also added some experimental modes like 24 player support for custom games. "

... Read All

Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 Switch Trailer!

Capcom is releasing the Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 as part of a single release on the Switch which seems like a must buy for Switch owning Mega Man fans. That said, it's not all 8-bit perfection as it looks like Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 is the only release physically on the Switch cart as Collection 2 is a redeemable code. It's not a matter of size either, both games could fit on a single Switch cart. But beyond not putting all the games on a single cart the fact that we're getting Mega Man 1-6 and 7-10 in one release is awesome.

Oh and Capcom is adding a rewind feature to both games which looks like it will make getting past those tricky Mega Man areas... Read All

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle Review

Story

Mario and Rabbids existing in the same game? How can this be? Ubisoft found a way. Here is how Ubisoft explains it: A girl sitting in her basement has a device that can merge two objects into one. Using AR, she has an AI (named Beep-0) that helps her out. It should also be noted that she is a big fan of all things Mario.

When the girl leaves her basement, a time traveling (and dimension traveling?) washing machine shows up. Inside of this washing machine are the Rabbids. The Rabbids get out of the washing machine and start causing mayhem. One of the Rabbids picks up the girl’s AR device and starts merging objects. This in turn starts off a chain of events. The... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 15: Ice Climber

Ice Climber was released Jan 30th 1985 by Nintendo R&D1. Nintendo R&D1 made other games such as Donkey Kong, Dr. Mario, Excitebike, Mario Bros., Metroid, Kid Icarus and Tetris. In Ice Climber the characters Popo and Nana head up 32 different ice mountains to get an eggplant from a huge thieving bird vulture thing. In season two of Cheerful Ghost Radio we are starting out doing NES Classic reviews and being things with Ice Climber. We are thinking these reviews can be a more bite-sized episode format and are interested in what you think and if you have any ideas for future episodes!