During the Christmas holiday I was gifted a copy of Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster on Steam. I decided to tuck in and play it all the way to the end and I'm close to besting the final boss Golbez! Firstly I think it's worth noting that the pixel remaster of Final Fantasy IV is incredible. Historically the version we got on Super Nintendo in the US, Final Fantasy II was quite different than Final Fantasy IV in Japan. The game was made easier for the folks in the US and many special abilities were removed entirely like Cecil's darkness attack and more. Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster adds a few quality of life improvements like a quick save feature to save anywhere you are as well as the ability to press A to speed up your movement, which is a life saver in long dungeons. Ultimately the game is harder and closer to the original with some incredible graphical improvements and a completely remade score. You can switch back to the original Super Nintendo audio if you wish, but for this playthrough I'm listening to the new audio.

If you love the Final Fantasy games this pixel remaster is well worth a shot and if you wanted to replay it this is the best way to do that. We'll always have the original Super Nintendo game from the 90's but if you wanted something more like the original Japanese release, this is it.

"The Kingdom of Baron sent their elite airship fleet, the Red Wings, to attack the surrounding countries. Distressed by his mission, Cecil, a dark knight and captain of the Red Wings, decides to fight against the tyrannical Baron with his trusted friend and his paramour at his side.

"The game brings the groundbreaking action movie ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ to life with the trademark adrenaline-pumping arcade gameplay and glorious pixel artwork the Bitmap Bureau team are known for. Check out this behind-the-scenes look at how the team tackled the challenge of translating one of cinema’s most enduring cultural touchstones into a complete arcade experience, capturing the unforgettable scenes and moments that helped shape a generation."

A new Terminator 2 game launching on all the platforms on September 5th? No problemo.

Awesome Games Done Quick will be running all week to benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Please tune in and donate!

" For over 10 years, Games Done Quick has been a charity fundraising organization that raises money for charity via speedrunning. Volunteers play games at incredible speed ("Speedrunning") for entertainment. Our events are streamed live online, non-stop, and all donations go directly to the charity. Games Done Quick events feature runners playing games from every generation of gaming history! They play their games live, and explain in detail the many tricks and glitches they use to get the fastest times.

During our events, be sure to take a look at the various donation incentives, which can include additional challenges, new content, and even quirky things like naming in-game characters! Be sure to take a look at the list while you're filling out your donation. "

https://gamesdonequick.com

https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

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.