Balatro is one of the hottest Indie games to come out in quite sometime and continues to win big after earning five nominations at The Game Awards 2024. This holiday I was gifted Balatro on Steam and on Christmas Day I decided to install it and give it a go.

First thing, I am not a Poker expert and as such don't have any particular winning strategies. I didn't feel like that was a huge deal and if you don't know much about Poker like me, there is an easy chart in Balatro to let you know what kinds of hands you can win. Balatro is a poker based deck building game where you try and level up your cards and collect enough Jokers to score big during enough rounds to win a run. I've played quite a few deck builder rogue-likes and Balatro seems like one more my speed. The basic Poker game is simple and adding on that is easy to understand and build on from run to run.

In other modern Rogues like Vampire Survivors you can unlock more powerful cards during runs making each subsequent run a bit easier. That said, getting a great run isn't guaranteed and that's what makes each game fun.

I've been playing the game on couch on my Steam Deck and I heartily recommend playing it this way. That said, you can pick it up on nearly any modern system with a game store and since it's a light retro graphics based game it will be incredible in nearly any context.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 Valve has released a ton of new content for the game as well as releasing it for free in it's entirety for a limited time! There is also a Half-Life 2 documentary that I've embedded here for you to view, I haven't seen it yet but plan to watch it as soon as I can. Seems like if you haven't played Half-life 2 yet or wanted to get back in, now is a great time.

Some of the changes in the new version:

* Episodes One and Two are in the box. Half-Life 2 now includes the complete Episode One and Episode Two expansions along with the base game. They’re accessible from the main menu, and you will automatically advance to the next expansion after completing each one.
* Developers Commentary for Half-Life 2. While the Episodes have always had commentary tracks, the base game never did... until now. We got the team back to record three and a half hours of new behind-the-scenes commentary for Half-Life 2.
* Integrated Steam Workshop support. Browse, install, and play user-created content for Half-Life 2 without ever leaving the game. Look for it in the Extras menu!
* Bug fixes and new graphics options. Visual pops, missing sprites, and mismatched lighting introduced in updates over the years have been scrubbed away. And we've added some settings to push the visual fidelity of Half-Life 2 farther than was allowed in the original release.

https://www.half-life.com/en/halflife2/20th
https://store.steampowered.com/app/220/HalfLife_2/

When I turn around at my desk and count the number of Blizzard PC boxes on my shelf I hit nine. When I think of the amount I've bought digitally plus physically I get a bit woozy. Prepare thy pocket book as there is another Battle Chest that just launched today that looks worth buying.

The Warcraft Remaster Battle Chest includes updated visuals and more for classic Warcraft Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II & Warcraft III. The games look to push things into the new age with 4K visuals and a ton of update to Warcraft III that look to sate fans that criticized the release some years ago. At $40 this won't break the bank, even if you already have these games in a much older form.

https://us.shop.battle.net/en-us/product/warcraft-remastered-battle-chest

"Introducing Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo, an interactive alarm clock that’s out of the ordinary! Alarmo responds to your body’s movement with game sounds, so you can feel like you’re waking up in the game world itself. Set an alarm inspired by five Nintendo games, with more alarms on the way as free updates as they become available. "

So Nintendo is making an alarm clock and as the kids say, I'm here for it. I'm not sure who asked Nintendo for this, seems like folks are more interested in the Switch 2.... that said, if you needs some help and want to wake up with Nintendo themed fun, this is for you. Alarmo is up there with strangely lovable Nintendo stuff like the Virtual Boy and Nintendo Cereal System (bring this back please). I'm surprised folks think this is too much at $99 as that seems about right but you can only get one at the moment if you are a Nintendo Online subscriber or live close enough to a Nintendo store.

I'm going to say that this will be a highlight at Christmas if it's available but it's hard to say how useful this could actually be. Still I'll most likely buy one because even if it's not something I use every day Nintendo products that go out of print are collectable and can hold value well into the future.

"Jeremy Jayne reveals the remarkable tale of how a teenage hobbyist (Dave Johnston) accidentally made one of Counter-Strike's most iconic maps. And then accidentally did it again."

Counter-Strike is the reason why I originally bough Half Life. Dust was and is one of the most iconic Counter-Strike maps and perhaps one of the most popular multiplayer maps of all time.

The Elder Scrolls: Castles launched last week on iOS and Android and I've been playing it a bit each day since. It's a good tippy tap phone game that Bethesda boasted is a spiritual sequel to Fallout Shelter. And yeah, they were totally right, it's the same basic gameplay of Fallout Shelter but with an Elder Scrolls theme. It's not just a reskin as they've improved upon many of the game mechanics in that the time passes differently and there is a bit more to the game to keep track of. Still, it's a very similar game and they launched with a bit more than the original Fallout Shelter had but already after a week I'm not sure what may keep me playing it? Is it a fun game worth check out? Absolutely. If you've played everything Fallout Shelter had does this add much more? Well, generally no it has about what Fallout Shelter has and for that I'm curious if they plan to add more to the base game?

I'm impressed with what they've done here and the focus on hand drawn graphics in the Elder Scrolls universe is a choice I didn't expect. So far, I've built everything you can and am not really sure where to progress with it. I'll keep it installed on my phone and hope that more comes but since it's free and I've already had a lot of fun, so I'm not sure what more to expect. If you love everything Elder Scrolls or the original Fallout Shelter this game is a must play. Plus it's free so there isn't much reason not to install it and build your kingdom!

On October 2nd Nintendo will open it's first museum in Kyoto Japan. When I finally make it for a visit to Japan this will be one of the places on my list.

As I was watching this video with one of my friends we decided that this game looks like a mashup of Ocarina of Time + Breath of the Wild. Echoes of Wisdom drops September 26th and I can't wait to play it when it does.

"Castles is the spiritual successor to Fallout Shelter, the popular vault-building mobile game that puts you in the role of an Overseer. In Castles, you’ll take on the role of the right hand of the king (or queen) and manage your kingdom. You’ll build the castle of your dreams, rule over your subjects, and make critical decisions about your kingdom’s future as you build your dynasty.  "

I love Fallout Shelter so a new free to play game from Bethesda sounds incredible. Fallout Shelter started on phones and eventually was ported to everything including PC so I hope the same thing happens here. Also.... Fallout Shelter 2? This may be the next best thing.

In 2019 iD Software re-released Doom to nearly all the modern systems. It was a solid release, yet didn't have LAN or online multiplayer and it wasn't as configurable as it could be. During this years 2024 Quakecon iD Software partnering with the incredible team at Nightdive Studios released the definitive remake of Doom in Doom + Doom II. What does this re-remaster include? A whole lot and by default includes all the levels from Doom + Doom II as well as Master Levels for DOOM II, TNT: Evilution, The Plutonia Experiment, No Rest for the Living, Sigil & Legacy of Rust (a new episode created in collaboration by individuals from id Software, Nightdive Studios and MachineGames).

DOOM FINALLY INCLUDES ONLINE MULTIPLAYER and an all new Deathmatch map pack featuring 25 maps! I've spent quite a bit of time playing Deathmatch online and it's a really fast paced wild cacophony of shootery goodness. Right now, it's not hard to jump in and play with people so jump in while you can and enjoy the 90's deathmatch glory. I also appreciate that it's VERY easy to play with anyone on any platform. While I don't pay for online for the Switch or XBox, when I'm Deathmatching on Steam it's neat to see Switch & Playstation people Dooming alongside me.

Oh and, they've released a WHOLE NEW OFFICIAL DOOM CAMPAIGN! I've wanted this for quite a while as I consider Doom to be one of the, if not the greatest game of all time that deserves new regular releases. I know there is a vibrant community of incredible maps and mods created, but I hope with this release we see iD Software making an effort to release a new official campaign from time to time.

"Created in collaboration by individuals from id Software, Nightdive Studios, and MachineGames, Legacy of Rust is the newest episode for DOOM, and the first official episode since DOOM II to feature new demons and weapons."

Like many of these iD + Nightdive re-releases if you previously owned Doom on any platform this is available for free. So if you bought it on Switch, you can search for it and download the new version which is side-by-side with the old iD version.

Coming back to Doom with this new release I have a new goal and I don't care how long it takes me to achieve. For quite some time I've wanted to play all of the official Doom + Doom II levels and now I will be. I consider all of the content added in this new Doom + Doom II release to be official and I'll be going through it all. Not really focused on completing it in any particular order, just going through all of the hellish Doom goodness! So far, I've started with Doom II and have been having a great time going through it on my Steam Deck & PC.

If you want to dig in to all what's included in the Doom + Doom II release check out the official notes below or watch the Quakecon stream on YouTube where they go over it and show off the new campaign Legacy of Rust and Multiplayer.

https://slayersclub.bethesda.net/en-US/article/doom-doomii-release-notes
Quakecon Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThQd_UJaTys&list=WL&index=46
Quakecon Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o58IzkTV144&list=WL&index=50

Even though this release is as close to perfect as it gets, one suggestion is for a feature to DISABLE weapon switching on pickup. It's not the worst but annoying in multiplayer. Also, bots. Bots would be lovely for when there aren't as many people to frag with you online as we'd like.