Since Valve talked about launching a new card game and that it wouldn't be free to play i've wondered how much it would be? Not only has Valve dropped the Artifact launch date of November 28th but also more information on how much Artifact will cost. You can buy two starting decks of 54 cards + 10 boosters for $20. Looks like each booster contains 12 cards and each booster costs $2. The base Artifact set will have about 280 cards so it would take a bit to get each card by opening packs but the good news is you can buy the rest of the cards straight up on the Steam store from other players selling them. Looks like Valve is implementing the same model you can use to play Magic the Gathering except that the game is digital and you get way more cards per booster pack.

Anything Valve does is super popular i'm just wondering how keen gamers are to a card game that costs actual money to play and has no free to play element? Are you going to get the Artifact $20 starter pack November 28th?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/583950/Artifact/

Hearthstones new expansion The Boomsday Project launches August 7th and if you sign on around that time you can grab three free packs and a expansion Legendary. The Boomsday Project is also launching single player puzzle content later in the month and if you check that out you will get 3 more free packs. I like the idea of splitting up the release in two chunks over the month and it's always cool to get a few free packs.

You playing The Boomsday Project when it launches?

"For a limited time after The Boomsday Project starts on August 7, log in to claim 3 card packs and a random Class Legendary minion (or Hero card)—both from the new expansion—for free!

Get 3 more The Boomsday Project card packs FREE when you log in after The Puzzle Lab launches starting August 21."

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/21964710

This might be the best episode of Ports Center i've seen. Ben starts things off talking about Skyrim and the ports to various systems and how the gaming community has looked at that. It's becoming a kind of meme that Skyrim will be eventually be ported to anything and that joke hit peak hilarity when Bethesda ported Skyrim to the Amazon Echo.

I don't want to spoil the video but it's a much watch and Ben brings it around for a solid conclusion while drawing parallels to fan reactions to The Last Jedi, a topic we've talked about quite a bit.

SuperHyperCube is a retro VR game that mixes up Tetris with a stylized sort of "tron-like" vibe. Created as a collaboration between Kokoromi & Polytron SuperHyperCube was initially released on Playstation VR and then later Steam VR. At the moment I don't own any VR gear nor am part of the overall VR movement. I think it's an interesting space to be in and I was able to play SuperHyperCube in a Sony store and thought it was one of the most fun VR experiences i've had. All that to say, the behind the scenes doc included above features one of the game developers Phil Fish who has a long and complicated career in gaming. He was the designer of FEZ, which I find to be one of the most delightful and special games i've played in a long time. That said, he had an intensity online that seemed to attract a certain kind of attention that led to Polytron being hacked and him stepping away from the games industry. And then SuperHyperCube released so it seems he might be partly back in, but it's possible he was just finishing out his last project.

I think about FEZ from time to time and Phil in particular. He was featured in Indie Game the Movie which is a complicated movie to consider BUT one thing that it did well was show how certain people handle launching particularly successful games. In a few words? It's a wild ride. That said Indie Game the Movie only showed the most successful games and game a generation of new Indie developers the wrong impression about how things work which may have slightly led to an explosion of Indie games. Not sure more art is a bad thing but it's rough to not make enough money to pay the rent.

Phil cancelled FEZ 2 as he was leaving the gaming scene but I hold out some hope for him to release it someday. I heard FEZ 2 was simply a musical album or something and if that was true would be very exciting.

How about another wrap up of some of the great speedruns from Summer Games Done Quick 2018? Yep, let's do it.

Pokemon Blue/Yellow 2 Games 1 Controller by MeGotsThis in 2:58:36 Two Pokemon games at the same time? These kinds of double speedruns are fun to experience along with the cleverness of the runners on such classic games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AsZf3JnCIg

Kirby's Adventure by swordsmankirby in 49:06 This Kirby run by swordsmankirby is one of the reasons why we're reviewing Kirby's Adventure for this months Cheerful Ghost Games club. The early Kirby games aren't very hard but the skill shown on this run by swordsman is impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY44JxszeFo

New Super Mario Bros. 2 by eddaket in 53:03 The Mario block at this years SGDQ was a treat and one big reason why I asked for New Super Mario Bros. 2 for my birthday was because of this run. It's a great run but more than that NSMB2 looked like a lot of fun and after getting it I can finally say that it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ4uO5PsE8E

Super Mario Maker 3v3 Blind Level Team Race The 3v3 blind level team race for Mario Maker was one of the best races of SGDQ 2018. Each team came in blind to the level so it's fun to see them talking to each other and working to complete each stage. The exhibition at the end of the race was fun to watch too as there were even crazier maps and one runner does a particularly crazy level entirely blindfolded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLJ4WDhlJ-o

Pepsiman by theboyks in 25:48 This Pepsiman run was a donation incentive that was met during SGDQ. It's been run at previous events as it's a crowd favorite being that it's a sort of "so bad it's good" endless runner. It also looks like it's super hard, yet theboyks makes it look easy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeYOmLlzz3E

As Minecraft is now one of the most influental and popular games of the last decade it made sense that someone would make a book about it. In fact a ton of books have been written about Minecraft but the one that I saw sold in stores and advertised the most is Scholastic's 2014 "Minecraft The Essential Guide." It's priced right for it's audience and at $7.99 it's an impulse buy for anyone curious about what the game is. So many copies of this book have been sold that I found it used at a second hand thrift store for $3. Since I own a few video game guides and this one is the right kind of pocket sized hardback in great condition, purchasing it seemed like the right thing to do.

If you've played Minecraft for a while now nothing in this book will be new to you. In fact, it's already aged as there are things in Minecraft the guide doesn't cover. That said, if you like collecting stuff about the games you love then this will be a fun romp through the high points of Minecraft. The book has a brief history of Minecraft and contains a really good primer on how to get in and play the game quickly. It even features sections by Paul Soares Jr, Notch and Jeb that really light up the book with a bigger context to the history of the game and some of it's biggest players. For Mincrafters like me that haven't memorized every recipe, it's nice to have this guide tell you but obviously an Internet search could yield the same result. Still, it's nice to have it all in this little book and if the Internet goes out and you HAVE to play Minecraft and need to craft a bucket this is a nice option.

This book is so well put together that it feels like Minecraft from the header fonts it uses that mirror the base game to how the pages are laid out. It really feels like a Minecraft field guide that you'd want if you were inside the game and I bet the kids that got this as a present loved it. The practical tips it gives are also spot on and one specifically from Paul Soares Jr. about building a house and putting a light on top of it you can see from a distance to not lose your house are super helpful.

If you love Minecraft or want to get a fun gift for someone this book hits the sweet spot at $7.99. But if you don't like Minecraft or the thought of owning some dead trees turned into a physical book isn't your thing, skip it.

If you were wondering how No Man's Sky faired on the XBox One Digital Foundry has an incredible(as always) analysis. The video even goes over the new stuff to No Man's Sky as well as a bit of a retrospective on the game at launch. Looks like XBox One X users are in for a special 4K treat even if the framerate isn't always as consistent. Still the game looks amazing at those frames and someone you might want to look into if you an ultra fan of the game.

Some big Star Wars Episode IX news dropped today that I wanted to share with you all. Not only is Luke Skywalker coming back for Episode IX but so will the entire principal cast of the The Last Jedi including Lando Calrissian! Wasn't sure if they'd bring Lando back but it was confirmed along with some awesome news on how they plan on including Carrie Fisher from the director of Episode IX J.J. Abrams:

"Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughter, Billie, we have found a way to honor Carrie's legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII."

I've heard a ton of footage of Leia was shot in The Force Awakens and never used so I guess they are glad they didn't include it all in deleted scenes on the Blu-ray!

Star Wars Episode IX starts filming August 1st and will drop in theaters December of 2019.

When Unbreakable hit in 2000 super hero movies weren't as huge as they are now. I think saying it's a super hero movie is a huge spoiler anyway considering what the film is but it's 18 years old so you've had plenty of time to see it. M Night's Unbreakable was part of the power trio of his early films that solidified him as one of the best directors of that era. M Night followed up Unbreakable with the sequel Split and he plans on ending the trilogy with the upcoming Glass. As a fan of Unbreakable and Split i'm really looking forward to Glass and curious if anyone else is? With the super hero movie hype in effect it's a good time to finish the trilogy and if the movie is as good as this trailer looks it might be the best film in the series.

Cygnus Destroyers latest video reviews Cuphead and I'm sharing it because it doesn't paint the game in an entirely all positive light. His critiques of the game are valid and frankly I didn't really like Cuphead that much either. It's a fine super-ultra-hard platform shooter that's basically Contra but it never stuck with me. It wasn't quite the difficulty, I own really hard games, it just never really gelled because I wasn't sure what the point was. For people that love super-ultra-hard games Cuphead is amazing but beyond the art style the game just didn't click with me.

I know Cygnus review video and my opinion might be a bit controversial but i'm curious what you all thought of Cuphead?