This weekend at Disney's D23 Expo there was a Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi panel and as part of that director Rian Johnson dropped a behind the scenes video that I found fairly surprising. From the looks of the puppets, effects and more it looks like Johnson is taking things in a slightly new direction while keeping the spirit of Star Wars intact. Or at least that's what the feature told me. I'm really happy to get these behind the scenes videos and trailers spread out over the months leading up to the December release date for this movie. It's nice to see how things are moving along and have fresh stuff to talk about while we all dig in for 5 months until episode VII comes. Seems like it was just yesterday when we were crazily awaiting The Force Awakens and now Episode 8 is nearly here.

It's a good time to be a Star Wars fan.

For many the thought of building up a retro game library of the games you want to collect isn't easy or cheap. It seems like more and more people are trying to collect these old games making stock limited and driving up prices. Even when new opportunities to own these classics comes up by way of the Nintendo or Super Nintendo Classic those options aren't available to everyone as again... stock is limited so what's a person to do? Well Cygnus Destroyer as a video about solutions to these problems by way of flash carts and bootlegs. Seems a bit odd to to me to play a Nintendo Game on a NES recreation like the RetroN and a flash cart when you could just emulate everything on your PC but... All that said, these are great options if you wanted to play a game you couldn't find on your original NES hardware with a flash cart or if your childhood NES broke like mine, replace it with something a bit less expensive and just as useful like a RetroN 3.

Now that the Nintendo Switch is out and the Wii U received it's last first party Nintendo title if you are interested in picking one up and the back catalog now might be a good time. Metal Jesus and Kinsey have a really great video that covers the system and some of the best games you can get. I still love collecting games for my Wii and getting a Wii U is a matter of time when the prices on the used market go low enough.

Another Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus video hit YouTube today from the alternate history gameshow German or Else! Apparently people in the United States have 173 days to switch over to speaking only German and the gameshow is a way educate people on the change. It's a funny concept until they take away the loser at the end for re-education. They end the clip with some in game footage and I really find the scene with the SS officers chumming it up with the KKK to be particularly disturbing.

October 27th can't come quickly enough.

The new Castlevania Netflix show dropped recently and last night I sat down to watch the entire first season. It's not hard to binge watch the whole show as it's only 4 episodes that clock in at about 30 minutes each. That said I really appreciated that the show didn't waste much time and completed it's first story arc in four episodes. My only real complaint by the end was that there wasn't more story waiting for me but Netflix has said that it's picking up another season of 8 episodes so if you liked the first season, more is on the way.

The basic premise of Castlevania is that Dracula lost his wife and wants to take his revenge on mankind for taking her life. The first episode focuses on Dracula and you really feel for him and understand why he decides to become a super villain. I was very surprised at how much I loved the story and how the choices the show creators made I didn't really expect. I was expecting some generic vampire hunter show and what I felt very fresh and original. The first season is an interesting take on religion, science and how power is used to control people. I didn't expect that Castlevania would start the show on such a pro-science bend but it does and it's an entirely surprising focus in a universe that is primarily focused on sword and sorcery. Kind of strange to consider but the Castlevania show expertly juggles science, religion, magic and monsters in such a way I was really impressed.

Simon Belmont is the main character of the show and he starts out as a defeated drifter who literally gets the shit kicked out of him when we first meet him. I really enjoyed Simon's character and the voice acting by Richard Armitage is superb. Other characters are brought in over the course of the four episodes but I don't want to spoil anything by telling you who it is.

The show feels like it's taking notes from Castlevania III and Symphony of the Night. Castlevania III is the highlight of the NES series for me but the show doesn't feel like it's a direct companion to the NES games. Frankly I really enjoy the fresh take on this universe, religion, science and the like so having the Netflix show have only light parallels to the video game is entirely fine by me.

If you have Netflix and are curious to watch the show I recommend you check it out. My only cautionary tale is that you take heed to the content as this show is very dark, bloody and contains some shocking stuff.

After each Games Done Quick stream is over I get a bit depressed because I honestly love watching the streams so much. The speedrunning community and organizers at GDQ create such a fun event it's sad when it's over.

This will be the first of a couple posts where I highlight the runs from Summer Games Done Quick 2017 so expect a few more of these over the coming weeks.

Kyatto Ninden Teyandee OR Samurai Pizza Cat is a relatively unknown NES Japanese game in the states. Usedpizza blows through the game with ease and it's a fun run to watch because it's always good to see games i've never heard of be played quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP3055kYHq8

Marble Madness by Elipsis in 2:56? I don't think I ever beat the third level to NES Marble Madness but this madman beats it in 2:56? Yowzer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK3FSiuZNzc

Startropics by thetantalus in 1:07:12. Star Tropics is a really interesting RPG that is fairly well known but doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. Most likely because Star Tropics came out in 1990 and the Super Nintendo dropped in 91 and it was looked over in favor of the amazing 16-bit crunch of the Super Nintendo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaOiNx4JALM

Portal 2 by Azorae in 45:19 sounnds normal except that it's the co-op missions and both parts are played entirely by Azorae. Azorae uses two sets of inputs to beat this game in 45 minutes, something I'm not sure I could do without having my brain explode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4huoBsSXHM

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse by Chelney in 31:54. Dropping this run here because Castlevania III is the highlight of the series for me. Chelney's run is really good and at 31 minutes, he has it down to a science.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S57R6imAFo

Doom (2016) by TheFuncannon in 1:18:35 might as well be called "Rail jumping, the guide to doing crazy shit in Doom 2016." Basically The Funcannon exploits broken jump mechanics to clip out of bounds to skip a ton of the game. He does actually shoot the gun a couple times though and I wonder with further refinement if you could complete Doom as a mostly pacifist run?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRLeA22jdfk

Super Mario 64 by cheese05 in 1:41:40 is a fun run to watch because not only does Cheese collect all 120 stars very quickly but the couch does a great job of explaining whats going on. A good run is made by a good runner but the better the running commentary the better the run and this is a good example of that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smworYLyRmg

Super Panga World by DoDeChehedron in 33:23 is great run of an insane Super Mario World ROM hack called Super Panga World. You can really only beat Super Panga World if you have an incredibly deep understanding of Super Mario World and DoDeChehedron absolutely does and makes this nuts ROM hack look easy. The commentary on this one is also quite funny and very interesting making it well worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt-unq5i_oU

Metroid Fusion by JRP2234 in 1:31:46 was an inspiring run primarily because of how skilled JRP is when he runs it. He makes few mistakes and pulls off some very challenging strats for a run I couldn't stop watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrkDH8PMCZU

For many years, CD's were the best way to listen to music and play video games. Streaming seems to handle what CD's were traditionally used for but from the 80's to early 2000's CD's were the way to go. I still primarily buy music on CD and still think it's a great way to listen to music and even now I find curating my digital music collection is still something I really enjoy. Lazy Game Reviews CD-ROM Retrospective video is an interesting look in the computer CD-ROM and how that shaped PC and console gaming.

"Taking a nostalgic look back at the 'compact disc read only memory' experience! Especially in regards to computer gaming and software in the 1990s. Redbook audio, full motion video, a vast 650+ megabytes of storage, ahh good times."

Feral Games is updating Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor with an all new Nemesis update that adds the ability to see your different nemesis Orcs that will carry over for you to play against in the games sequel Shadow of War. This is a cool update in that it gives the original game a bit more to do and sort of acts as a way for new people to get into the franchise if they were interested in upcoming Shadow of War.

Feral Games is putting Shadow of Mordor GoTY on sale for $4 and to sweeten the chance you give it a shot making the game entirely free to play for the next couple days. $4? Totally free to play for a couple days? Seems like a good time to try it out on PC.

Knights of the Frozen Throne is an all new expansion coming to Hearthstone in August. It features a new card type that changes all the in game heroes to Death Knights that are themed to the class. The announcement video shows off Deathstalker Rexxar which has a battlecry that attacks all enemy minions for 2 and changes his hero power to create a Zombie Minion. Knights of the Frozen throne also look to bring back Deathrattles, a card type that we saw a bit less of after the last set rotation. This expansion is also the first to include an all new single player component that costs no gold or money to play.

"The first steps you’ll take to join the Knights of the Frozen Throne will be within Icecrown Citadel. There you’ll be faced with eight Missions – new single-player content for Hearthstone. Beginning with the Prologue, and then proceeding through grueling battles with Icecrown Citadel’s mightiest denizens, your trial will culminate in a showdown with the Lich King!

Though you risk your soul merely by entering Icecrown Citadel, the Missions will cost you nothing! The rewards for braving them, however, are enticing indeed: after completing all the Missions, you’ll receive a total of three Knights of the Frozen Throne card packs. Completing the Prologue mission will also add a random Legendary Death Knight Hero card to your collection!"

What do you think of Knights of the Frozen Throne? Does this expansion look like something you will play when it comes out in August?

https://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20888401/join-the-knights-of-the-frozen-throne-7-6-2017

Games Done Quick is back with it's yearly summer speedrun and so far it's as amazing as ever. If you can spare some time to watch the runs and donate to Doctors Without Borders I encourage you do to so. The next speedrun that will drop in a few minutes is of Doom 2016 then Half-life 2 and Silent Hill 2 wraps up the day. That said if you are up late, Summer Games Done Quick is up all night with you streaming round the clock until this Sunday at midnight!

The Games Done Quick charity run is something I look forward to watching twice a year and it's always good to donate to a great cause!

https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule