Some early media reviews are coming in for Doom Eternal and they look great. I wanted to share one from one of my favorite YouTube channels LGR. LGR has a nice chill style and mixes top notch capture footage (seriously the game looks incredible in his video) and it running on his wide ASUS monitor.

One of the first things I noticed is that in Doom Eternal the starting weapon is the shotgun which is a great. The pistol in Doom 2016 was fine, but Doom Eternal looks to start you out with Doom's signature weapon which is as it should be.

If you are getting Doom Eternal soon let me know and what you think of the game once you play it.

The RetroTINK creators have released a new version called the RetroTINK 2X-Pro that is an upscaler/line doubler for retro consoles with analog, s-video and component inputs with an output to HDMI. Metal Jesus puts the new TINK through it's paces and it does quite well with a very minimal amount, if any noticeable lag. The TINK is an essential option if you want to plugin your old consoles to a modern television and only have HDMI on your TV to work with. That and the TINK is also great to convert old console video signals to HDMI for capture the video or streaming to Twitch.

The RetroTINK 2X-Pro is $140 brand new and is currently sold out. At the time I wrote this RetroTINK is also sold out of the classic as well so hopefully they can get more stock as it looks like they are fairly popular.

You can get Anodyne 2: Return to Dust, A Short Hike and Mutazione free on the Epic Games Store on PC right now until March 13th! Let's say you are finding yourself at home with a bit more time on your hands then now is the time to click buy on these games at a really incredible price of $0.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/anodyne-2-return-to-dust/home
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/a-short-hike/home
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/mutazione/home

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Warzone is a brand new Battle Royale game that launched for free on Battle.net, XBox and Playstation. So far the game is garnering great reviews calling it a fresh take on a pretty established Battle Royale genre. Warzone ups the ante by allowing a maximum of 150 players in a match, creating a much larger world map and adding two games modes in the normal Battle Royale mode and Plunder. So far, Plunder is the only mode I've played and it's great. You jump into the map Apex Legends style with a team and you work together to collect cash from loot chests around the map. The teams that collect the most cash are shown for everyone to come after and as part of the mode you can call in helicopters to haul your cash away.

Since Warzone is totally free and I enjoy playing Battle Royale games from time to time I decided to start up Battle.net and give Warzone a shot. It's nice that Warzone is free and integrates cleanly in Battle.net but the 70+ gig download is more than annoying. In the end I had fun playing Warzone and if you love games like Apex Legends or Fortnite and you are looking for something totally different this is well worth a shot. Linking to the video review from Digital Foundry above as they've played it quite a bit more and focus on the games engine and performance.

https://www.callofduty.com/modernwarfare/warzone

Nintendo and Lego are teaming up with a new Lego Mario set that looks like it will be a lot of fun for kids. If you were thinking Nintendo + Lego collection would just be any ol' themed Lego bricks then you'd be wrong as Lego seems to have added some digital gamification to this set. Not only does the new Mario figure speak but when you bop on a Goomba head you can collect coins as well as a few other things. Regular Lego set are already expensive so I'm curious how much this digital set will be? Regardless of the price I bet this will be a popular present come this holiday season.

Ultimate NES Remix is a 3DS games collection of the "best of" remixed classic Nintendo games that came to the Wii U in the form of NES Remix 1 and 2. Basically if you love retro NES games and want a fresh way to play them, Ultimate NES Remix is the perfect game for you.

"Take on a rapid-fire onslaught of challenges and mash-ups from 16 of Nintendo’s finest 8-bit games! Test your skills on a gauntlet of quick, tricky challenges and remix stages that combine parts of different games. The best mix of titles from the NES Remix and NES Remix 2 games is on Nintendo 3DS. Now you’re playing with PORTABLE power!

Link vs. Donkey Kong! Kirby vs. Boo! It’s mash-up mania in this celebration of all things NES! Race through to earn stars on increasingly tough tasks, like beating Ridley from Metroid or making Princess Peach save herself! Compete in Championship Mode’s blitz of challenges from the Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dr. Mario games, then compare scores with others in your region via online leaderboards."

As demand for the 3DS has gone down considerably I've been picking up 3DS games on the cheap such as a recent sale at a local store that had Ultimate NES Remix, Animal Crossing New Leaf and Pokemon Ultra Sun ultra-cheap. Since I don't have enough time to crack an Animal Crossing or Pokemon game right now I popped in Ultimate NES Remix knowing that it was a mash up of classic NES games and wouldn't require a massive time investment. Immediately Ultimate NES remix starts you out with a few classic games such as Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong and Dr. Mario to ease your way into the remixed challenges starting with the easy "accelerate on your bike" in Excitebike to more challenging scenarios like completing a race without crashing. Each challenge can net you up to three stars and many are timed making them quite fun. I'm an avid retro gamer and so far, none of the challenges have stumped me beyond a handful requiring a few attempts. I'm also going for a completionist run making sure for each challenge I net 3 stars. I've heard from a friend something fun happens if you complete the game this way so it's what I'm going for.

Ultimate NES Remix is one of those incredible games that begs for a Switch port and considering Nintendo hasn't Remixed the Super Nintendo era it seems like rich territory for a sequel. I'm certain i'm never going to get tired replaying classic games and when Nintendo puts an entirely fresh spin on them i'm totally in.

Today over lunch break I finally defeated Bowser in New Super Mario Bros. 2. I picked up New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the 3DS back in September of 2018 and i'll clip a bit from that initial review:

"New Super Mario Bros. 2 takes everything that worked about the previous games and continues to do that while focusing on coin collection. You have a running tally of coins you can collect that unlock things in-game making progression tied to coins and continually completing stages."

Ever since picking it up back in 2018 I've played when I got the itch as it's a perfect game for that kind of attention. If you are a player that likes to play everything a game has to offer New Super Mario Bros. 2 has a lot to do with re-playing stages to collect all the large coins, unlocking the Star World as well as the hidden Mushroom and Flower Worlds. When I started out I was quite attentive to finding all the large coins but as time passed I started spending most of my focus on completing stages. Leaving behind the large coins doesn't matter too much if you just want to defeat Bowser but you can only unlock the Star World if you collect 90 large coins and I'm a few short.

How Does New Super Mario Bros. 2 Rank In The Series?

Out of all the New Super Mario Bros. games I've played 2 feels the most accessable and fun. The attention to coin collection and the inclusion of the leaf from Super Mario Bros. 3 makes this entry fly above the rest. New Super Mario Bros. 2 never feels too difficult and this might turn off some hardcore platformer fans. That said the hidden stages might offer more of a challenge and the included coin rush mode literally allows players the ability to partake in challenging scenarios with others.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a great game and the saddest part about it is that it's a 3DS title and the system might soon be sunset by Nintendo. Many new fans to the Mario series might miss out because getting a 3DS isn't in the cards for them. As Nintendo ports the best of Wii U titles to the Switch I hope these best of breed Wii and 3DS games can get packaged for a newer audience too.

The 3DS Will Never Die - My First Impressions of New Super Mario Bros. 2

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3871/the-3ds-will-never-die-first-impressions-of-new-super-mario-bros-2

Looks like the development of Diablo IV is going well and as such Blizzard has released a few updates about what we can expect. A couple things I found interesting is that Blizzard is creating a more co-op friendly Diablo IV user experience. Before if you opened a menu in Diablo III co-op only one person could control their inventory at a time.
If you are playing with a friend on a console you might want to both open your inventories at the same time so they are working on providing a user experience where you can do that. Also, they are allowing controllers to be used on PC and be completely re-mappable, something Diablo III does not allow.

That a ton more is available direct on the blizzard Diablo IV blog link below.

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23308274/diablo-iv-quarterly-update-february-2020

Today Yacht Club Games announced an all new Shovel Knight game in development called Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeons.

"Delve with Shovel Knight into the depths of the Pocket Dungeon in an action-packed puzzle adventure mashup like none other! Join your mysterious guide Puzzle Knight as you shovel through scads of foes, procure new equipment, and battle bosses both familiar and new. Explore a tale with endless twists and turns, quest as your favorite heroes, and even challenge a friend for fast-paced head-to-head competition in Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon!"

No release date or platforms are announced yet but I hope the pocket part means smartphones as Shovel Knight on a phone needs to happen.

https://yachtclubgames.com/2020/02/shovel-knight-pocket-dungeon/

Microsoft unveiled a ton of new details on the upcoming next gen Xbox Series X today and one in particular caught my attention. Historically Sony has provided excellent backwards compatibility between the Playstation and Playstation 2 era of console to later drop it after a time during the PS3 and entirely on the PS4. It seems Microsoft has picked up the love for compatibility in that it seems the upcoming Xbox Series X will still be able to play some original Xbox, 360 and all Xbox One games:

"Four generations of gaming: Our commitment to compatibility means existing Xbox One games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, look and play better than ever before. Your favorite games, including titles in Xbox Game Pass, benefit from steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual fidelity – all with no developer work required. Your Xbox One gaming accessories also come forward with you."

I also appreciate that Microsoft is keeping compatibility with Xbox One hardware as well because typically console makers love to lock you in for a whole set of new peripherals. I've been considering the choice between Sony and Microsoft for some time in terms of a new console and unless Sony comes back to the compatibility fold I might stick with Microsoft for the foreseeable future.

For the entire info dump on the new stuff coming to the Xbox Series X head over to xbox.com below:

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/02/24/what-you-can-expect-next-generation-gaming/