Over the last year I have been enjoying watching the videos by YouTube sensation RetroLibery. Found his latest journey though the classic Super Nintendo game Hook to be particularly fun. Hook isn't a game I played much as lad but after watching this I wish I had. Not many video games made from film are good but a few on the Super Nintendo were. I particularly enjoyed Super Star Wars and always wanted to try Jurassic Park but heard it wasn't great.

That said RetroLibery's Hook review contains a mini-review of the film too so it's like a double rainbow neat. Drop a comment below with your thoughts on the Hook game or the film.

"As a new year begins, and with 5 very successful years in the digital gaming market, GOG.com takes a look at its past."

I dig GOG's style as a company and wish them a happy 5 more years. It's a really easy site to navigate and when you find the game you want to buy, it's available DRM free. Many GOG.com titles come with digital art, game book PDF's and the game score which makes buying from GOG special. One of the reasons I picked up the Neverwinter Nights collection from GOG was to finally have Jeremy Soule's amazing score in my collection as I couldn't find it from any other source.

"Alienware and Valve, the developers of the world's largest online gaming platform and the creators of the Half-Life franchise, have been collaborating on designing the first dedicated Alienware Steam Machine gaming console."

Valve is showing off the Steam Machines that will release in 2014 right now at CES. As it turns out, Alienware is one such brand to enter the Steam Machine mix and I am really happy about this. Dell's Alienware might be a bit on the expensive end but it provides a pretty great value for your gaming dollar. Alienware has said it's Steam Machine will feature an Intel CPU and Nvida chip but not much more as they plan to talk more about it in detail at PAX East.

The other companies that will be building Steam Machines are iBuyPower, Falcon Northwest, Materiel.net, Alternate, Next, CyberPowerPC, Origin, Digital Storm, Scan Computers, Webhallen, Gigabyte, and Zotac. With prices ranging from $499 to $6000 it seems like we will have a pretty nice range of choices. I can't imagine wanting to spend a ton on a Steam Machine but after the market settles out I bet the prices won't stay high.

I encourage you to check out the photos The Verge has of some of the Steam Machine boxes as they really all do bring something different with each design.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/6/5282122/valve-13-steam-machine-partners

http://www.gamespot.com/videos/a-look-at-the-alienware-steambox/2300-6416734/ ( gamespot has a really great video of the new Alienware machine )

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/06/alienware-announces-valve-partnership-steam-machines/

Steam Machines are coming but one critical thing is the games. Currently Steam on Linux has a few hundred games but Valve has been working with publishers to port more games. They said they will unveil that sometime after Valve Developer Days.

**edit**

Valve just released a press release about new Steam Machine partnerships and CES as well as a PDF listing Steam Machine specs and prices.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/12175/?snr=1_550_552
http://media.steampowered.com/store/steammachines/SteamMachinesBroc_WEB.PDF

Nintendo dropped a new trailer for the upcoming Zelda game Hyrule Warriors recently. Not a lot is known about the game but we can glean a few things from the video. First off it looks like you can swing your sword at bad guys. Secondly, it looks like you can attack many bad guys at once.

Seriously though, the game play does look great and I imagine because of the increased horse power of the Wii U they can make a Zelda game with a ton more enemies on the screen.

What do you think of Hyrule Warriors? With every new game it seems the reason to pickup a Wii U is more compelling as Nintendo is really hitting a segment of gaming that is very unique and interesting.

Game/Show is back in 2014 with a list of games they are excited about seeing this year. I am curious to see how Jonathan Blow's The Witness will be as well as the new Thief game.

That said, the video is missing any kind of video game clips and I wonder if this has to do with YouTube's new policy in regard to Let's Plays and reviews? I hope not as this episode, while good, lacks the fast pacing the entire first season had.

"PRGE is proud to present the Northwest Classic Games Enthusiasts video game swap meet at the Portland Doubletree Hotel on January 18, 2014. We are taking it old-school...back when it was all about getting buyers and sellers together to help build buyers collections and help sellers find good homes for their extras while preserving the cultural and historical aspects of videogames. Nothing fancy - just games, games and more games.

Doors open at 10:00 AM until 7:00 PM. Admission is $5.00 at the door. The event is child-friendly so bring the entire family"

Cheerful Ghost will have a booth at this years Northwest Classic Games Enthusiasts Swap Meet in Portland. Since Cheerful Ghost is one of the best places to talk about Retro and new games, we will be present! Stop by and say hi while you hunt down that copy of Mario Paint with a working mouse for your Super Nintendo collection!

http://retrogamingexpo.com/

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/events/51

"Midora (pronounced "mid-ora") is a love letter to the classic 2D RPG adventures like The Legend of Zelda or Mana that have frequented consoles and enamored audiences for generations. It's a charming world to explore, with new mechanics to learn and quests to fulfill all while hopefully tugging at your nostalgic heartstrings. Midora seeks to bring you the same tried and true feel of familiar titles, but with the grace of a new, modern experience, with in a beautiful, 100% pixel art setting.

Midora is set in a welcoming fantasy world, one shaped by the elements countless lifetimes ago. Of course, not all can be peaceful in lands such as this, and the threat of a history changing upset is just beginning. And that's where our hero comes in: Snow, a young girl on her adventure to restore harmony to her world."

I was impressed watching the Kickstarter video for Midora as it already looks very good. Midora seems to pay homage to Zelda and The Secret of Mana while brining in it's own flair. As with nearly every new Indie titles Midora will ship on Mac, Linux and Windows and they have stretch goals into other platforms like iOS and Android.

Currently Midora is 3.6K of funding to the 60k goal so if you want to fund it now, you should.

YouTube reviewer @DubiousGamingOnline reviews one of Capcom's classic NES games Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. I remember playing this one for the first time at a friends birthday party. They rented it and we played the co-op and loved every second.

When the Starbound beta launched I decided I would limit my time with the game due to the frequent game wipes. I have been interesting in checking out the game since I played it last and decided to try the latest Beta, Angry Koala. After tinkering around with the game for a few hours I found out nearly everything has been changed and for the most part, I like all the changes.

I really like the new tree planting system as the game didn't seem like a proper mining game without it. The first thing I did when I started my game was plant trees. They grow back rather quickly which allows for easy farming. You can also burn wood into Coal which seems to work pretty well. It takes 10 wood to make 1 coal and all told that isn't much.

There are more items available and since it's the holidays you can make a elf woodbench which allows you the ability to craft a lot of special Holiday items. You can see some of what I made in my screenshot above, but there are many more items available to craft. A new item resource called "Holiday Spirit" drops from enemy kills allowing you the ability to craft the Holiday items.

The game gives you WAY less pixels than when the beta initially hit but penalizes you less pixels for dying. That said, needing pixels to craft armor is annoying. Why do I need another resource to craft armor and weapons beyond ore? I get why you would need pixels for other kinds of stuff, but armor and weapons?

The ore placement and planet generation seem way better than when the game initially shipped. Things seem more organic and I am very happy with the amount of ore I found digging deep in my starting planet. I think they have things humming along here and I love the improvements.

I found many more bases and treasures chests than I did with previous betas. You don't seem to go too far without finding something interesting to explore. If I had one suggestion it would be to stock them with more interesting stuff. I love how the bases are generated and I find the enemies and NPC's they spawn interesting enough, they just seem.... kind of empty. That said, they are better than what I found in the early beta and I love the improvements.

I found a _TON_ more seeds and fruit to farm. The farming system seems largely untouched but if I had a recommendation it would be for something to farm that gives you plant fibers.

Overall I really think they are heading in the right direction with the game and am looking forward to more changes they make through the beta. If you are loving Starbound but getting tired of the constant game wipes, it seems Chucklefish will do one final character wipe in the new year. Unsure if this means they might do a world wipe, but it's something anyway.

"Final character wipe will be included with the next patch, for everyone asking! So…as soon as possible. In 2014. :D"

https://twitter.com/StarboundGame/status/416696077950390272

Introversion let loose a pretty massive Holiday update to Prison Architect in the form of Alpha 16. They added the ability to generate prison maps with lakes, trees and different terrain types. They updated the AI and enhanced the ability to segregate your prisons by prisoner threat. They also fixed a pretty long standing bug in that you can now build multiple kitchens and the cooks properly work with that. One new feature I find really interesting is the ability to plant and harvest trees. You can immediately sell the trees OR you can take them to your workshop to process.

Oh and if you wanted to forever immortalize yourself within the game, you can now.

"For starters, all ‘Name in the Game’ customers can now customize the size, face type and colour of their prisoners by using our new Name in the game system which you can find here. For two weeks only, we're offering all alpha customers the chance to upgrade to our Name in the Game tier for only $10. This will enable you to name a prisoner, write a short bio about why he's inside and customize his look. This is your opportunity to permanently stamp your personality on the game and prove that you were one of the generous few that helped Prison Architect to become a reality."

Read the entire update list here:

http://forums.introversion.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=46615

There have already been some awesome prisons posted on the Steam Workshop. Take a peek at the time lapse video, it's neat.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=204431832