XBox had a direct recently and it was one of their best. That said, it was the first deep dive we've received for Starfield and it feels like the most in depth deep dive I've ever seen for a video game before launch. In fact, I've heard some video game pundits say it may have gone too deep and some of what they showed should have been better experienced by playing the game, but honestly in a world where game launches go so badly, it's good to see most of the game beforehand. All that said, the game looks incredible and I'm going to play it on launch day.

True story, I don't believe I've picked up a Triple A big release since Fallout 4 which launched back in 2015. Fallout 4 was pretty good but nothing has really caught my attention that I just had to have on launch day. (Well, Shredder's Revenge, but that's a much much smaller game in scale).

I think the standout parts of the game to me is that this looks like a different take on No Man's Sky that looks to bring in a narrative and flesh out a lot more. I'm not trying to knock No Man's Sky, but Starfield looks like the right kind of game that promises to do much of what No Man's Sky is and does. When Bethesda showed off that you can get into dogfights with spaceships and board them to steal the ship for your own I was sold. I just hope the promise of running cargo AND being a space pirate as well as the single player and run and gun stuff is as strong as what they showed.

Starfield will be a game I play day on at launch but I'm not sure how I'm going to play it. I have a few months of Game Pass I could play it with or pick up a copy on XBox. Either way, I'll let you know what I think when it comes out.

https://kotaku.com/starfield-60fps-30fps-performance-mode-xbox-series-x-pc-1850548127

https://kotaku.com/starfield-shattered-space-preorder-release-dlc-1850530859

In partnership with Krool Games, McDonalds released Grimace's Birthday a themed game that ties in with the Gimace's Birthday meal celebrating everyone favorite purple McNugget. That sentence might sound like it's entirely made up, but it's not and Grimace's Birthday on Gameboy Color is actually really really good. It's only a handful of levels long, and not very hard, but why does every game have to be Dark Souls and 5,000 hours long? Grimace's Birthday isn't and it's so fun my seven year old son likes playing it. I was happy to have been able to beat it in my second setting in 4m33s. Currently as of me writing this the Speedrun record for Grimace's Birthday is by CheeseSodaPunch at 4m23s which may be as fast as is humanely possible.

That said, you can play it right now in your browser on your phone or desktop OR in your Gameboy Color on your favorite emulator or flash kart on your system.

Browser: https://grimacesbirthday.com/

Download: https://archive.org/details/grimaces-birthday

#1 Speedrun: https://www.speedrun.com/grimaces_birthday/run/ywrk210m

Currently the developers released 1.4 to the website and the Internet Archive currently doesn't have that but you can download it through your browser by inspecting the network traffic and plucking the .gb file out of it. That's pretty technical so you could also wait for the Internet Archive to update the 1.4 file or play 1.3, which is plenty fun anyway.

Rabble, rabble!

The new Minecraft 1.20 Trails and Tales update is coming this June 7th!

For all the information on what’s included check this:

https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/trails-tales-update-coming

"Capcom transitions the Street Fighter franchise onto its excellent in-house RE Engine, so how does it look across consoles old and new? Tom checks out the recently released demo running on current and last-generation PlayStation consoles, plus there's a look at Xbox Series consoles too. Specs and performance may change with the final game - but this is how the game's shaping up via Capcom's own public-facing demo code."

If you have an XBox S/X, Playstation 4 or 5 or a PC running Steam you can download and play the new Street Fighter 6 demo! Remember those? You can play two of the new characters and try out the new avatar and world fighting mode against other players in the demo. Capcom is giving everyone the chance to try out the new goods and I appreciate them for it as not many big game companies release these kinds of demos.

https://www.streetfighter.com/6/en-us/demo/

Mortal Kombat 1 was announced today and looks to reboot the series entirely and was announced for a September 19th launch. It seems the Fire God Liu Kang is rebooting the Mortal Kombat-verse and whereas the game looks very Mortal Kombat-like they are promising a new re-visioning of the game.

"Mortal Kombat 1 ushers in a new era of the iconic franchise with a new fighting system, game modes, and fatalities!"

The trailed doesn't really get specific on any new game mechanics but I'm interested to know more about how they are bringing the series into a new era. I thought Mortal Kombat 11 was incredible and offered a really fun modernization on the game, frankly I'm not sure what more they could do but I'm open to a new "punch your friend in the face game" while we are hanging out together. One big part of Mortal Kombat 11 was the extra DLC characters such as the Terminator, Rambo and Joker. Hopefully this version of the game comes with quite a few memorable cross-over characters too! Hopefully Nintendo allows Pikachu and getting Eric Cruise from Mac and Me would be ideal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5le9sYdYkM

"This new expansion brings classic Age of Empires style and gameplay as a brand-new self-contained experience with all 16 original Age of Empires civilizations and the new Lac Viet civilization.

Conqueror your enemies through three new, fully-voiced campaigns, improved AI, and historically driven gameplay, all while unlocking new achievements on your Xbox or Steam account. Plus, get the bonus Romans civilization in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition!"

Microsoft released Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition which is a complete remaster to the original Age of Empires II with new visuals and a game core for modern PC's and 4K displays. It hit the scene in 2019 and Microsoft has continued to support it with updates, DLC and now with a new expansion Return of Rome. If I had my way Age of Empires would continue on indefinately and Microsoft seems to be doing that with a steady drip of Age of Empires II releases as well as as Age of Empires IV with seasons.

Mighty DOOM is the latest franchise shooter entry that dropped on iOS and Android phones as a free to play game. Even though I first played DOOM as Shareware sometime ago, this is the first DOOM game that I can think of that's a free to play mobile game. After blasting my way through the Demon Hordes in Mighty DOOM for a day I'm happy to say the game is a worth game that earns the DOOM name.

One of my fears with mobile free to play games is how annoying the gameplay will be to get you to pay money. I don't fault developers for doing what they need to do to pay rent, that said, I prefer buying games up front. That said, that's not how things often work on phones so free to play it is and Mighty DOOM is nice in that it doesn't seem like you need to pay for anything. Well, I could see a time where advancement might be so slow that paying makes sense, but I imagine i'll stop playing before that becomes a problem.

Mighty DOOM is a top down bullet hell shooter where you play through each stage one level at a time. I'd say Mighty DOOM feels more like a space shooter like Galaga than the traditional DOOM first person gameplay. That said, the bullet hell styled game play is on point and there is quite a bit of strategy you can employ in each stage to keep the gameplay fresh. There is a progression system by which you collect coins to upgrade your weapons and armor. Some weapons and armor have different abilities that can change your gameplay well worth experimenting with. For instance, if you want to stand back and shoot things from afar you should level up the rifle but if you want to get in close for more close quarters DOOM gameplay, you need to upgrade the shotgun.

So far, I've barely scratched the surface of Mighty DOOM and it's already a lot of fun. If past Bethesda mobile games like Fallout Shelter or Elder Scrolls: Blades are an example, Mighty DOOM should have a long life slaying demons ahead of it.

Bethesda released a video today letting us know the September 6th release of Starfield. This may be the only new game I'm interested in playing this year. Last year I made a goal to play more games than I buy, and as part of that have artificially limited myself to the purchase of three games all year long. So far I bought nothing, but Starfield may be it. That said, I still have a three month Game Pass subscription I have yet to activate, so either way, playing this game looks good.

Besides Skyrim in space, I really don't know much about what this game may be? I'm sure it's not "Skyrim in space" but Bethesda hasn't released a whole lot of details which they seem like they are going to start doing with a Starfield Direct on June 11th.

Curious who all will be playing this at launch? Let me know in the comments.

https://bethesda.net/en/game/starfield

I enjoy great remakes of classic games I love. In 1997 GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 was the first shooter some played and for many, the first taste they had of how incredible multi-player gaming can be. I had many get togethers with friends over GoldenEye and remembered how badly I got wrecked by the people that actually had a Nintendo 64. Even though I wasn't very good, GoldenEye was incredible and recently Microsoft announced that they were remaking it for Switch and XBox and it dropped some time ago. If you purchased the digital copy of the Rare Replay Collection you'd get it free otherwise you can buy it or it seems to be included in your Switch Online subscription. Luckily I got the Rare Replay Collection cheap on sale some time ago, so I was able to download GoldenEye to my XBox.

Bottom line it, it's a good remake but falls short of being great. It brings back the game you love with a modern control scheme, 16x9 graphics and 30 fps gameplay. But it doesn't do a lot more and I feel like when you compare this to Night Dive Studios remakes like Quake or the Blizzard StarCraft remake some time ago, this seems barebones. I don't mind a spartan re-release and this is the classic game, but a few more touches would have been nice, like glowing up some of the graphics a bit.

Still, the single player game is just like you remember and the split screen multi-player on XBox brings back the nostalgia and offers a fun alternative to the fast paced modern shooters of today. If you have fondness for this classic or want to check out an important entry in gaming history, you need to play this.

Metal Jesus dropped a video recently where someone asked him what his top played Switch games were. It's an interesting question as it's not a best of or favorites list, it's just the top games you've played on the system. I was curious what my top Switch games were and I suppose it's not too surprising:

1. Link's Awakening Remake: 30 hours or more


2. Diablo III: Eternal Collection: 25 hours or more


3. Super Mario Maker 2: 20 hours or more


4. Fortnite: 20 hours or more


5. Minecraft: 15 hours or more


6. Minecraft Dungeons: 15 hours or more


7. New Super Mario Bros Wii U Deluxe: 15 hours or more


8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 10 hours or more


9. Shredder's Revenge: 5 hours or more


10. Super Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury: 5 hours or more

Let me know what your list is in the comments!