The new year is here meaning that Hearthstone will be rotating the amount of sets in standard. As part rotation a new expansion has been announced called The Witchwood. The above trailer seems like The Blair Witch Project meets... Hearthstone? It's a fun expansion reveal and the ending is well worth sticking around for.

The Witchwood is a traditional Hearthstone expansion but it seems the pre-order nets you 20 extra packs than it did before. Seems to be an adjustment on Blizzards part as it seems the general community consensus is the game is really expensive to play. Still is, but they seem to be tossing in more value, which is nice.

The Witchwood is also shipping with a new single player game mode similar to Dungeon Run of the last expansion called Monster Hunt. In this mode you play as one of 4 unique heroes where you take on 8 bosses to complete the Monster Hunt. This seems to be a cool extension of the Dungeon Run mode added in Kobolds and Catacombs which was my most played aspect of the last Hearthstone expansion.

I have a special fondness for Hearthstone but the thought of getting back on the daily grind makes me get all queasy. It's a great game and possibly the best free to play game ever made but you either have to sink a ton of time into it daily to get enough gold to open packs or spend more than $150 a year to open enough packs to remain competitive. Both prospects, right now, seem unfortunate to me but i'm really happy the game is continuing on and people seem to love it which is awesome because it's a game that should continue to be improved.

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/expansions-adventures/the-witchwood

In the 90’s Nintendo sold us everything from Mario underwear, trading cards and cereal. I was down to get all of it, or at least as much as Mom and Dad would buy me. One seemingly unattainable aspect of the 90’s Mario craze was Nintendo’s Cereal System that had a split box of Zelda and Mario cereal. The only time I ever had any was at my cousins house and it was pure magic to open the box, eat Zelda cereal and after breakfast play Nintendo all day. Fast forward to the dystopian hellscape of now and Nintendo doesn’t sell us trading cards or underwear anymore but the cereal thing is back in the form of Kellogg’s Super Mario Cereal.

At this time Super Mario Cereal is a bit hard to find in stores but they seem to be getting it back in stock and if you can’t find it the old fashioned way you can get it online. I luckily found some at a local grocery store for about $3 a box and picked up two. A few weeks later a work friend gave me some as a present(thanks Joe) so i’ve had enough Super Mario Cereal to make a grown Italian plumber stomp on some poor Goombas.

According to Kellogg’s Super Mario Cereal is 8.4oz which means super mario cereal is in a small box. It’s about the height as a normal-ish cereal box but it’s thin and it’s not as large as a normal box of Cheerios, think about the size of a box of Grape Nuts.

How’s Mario Cereal taste? Well… about what you’d expect if you’ve ever had Lucky Charms, Marshmallow Mateys, Flintstones Marshmallow Fruity Pebbles or Marshmallow Fruit Loops. Wait… Marshmallow Fruit Loops… *clicks some shit in Google* OH GOD THAT SOUNDS HORRIBLE WHO WOULD DO THAT TO A KID? *sigh* Since I don’t eat this kind of cereal nor subject my kid to stuff like it trying Super Mario Cereal was like a blast back to the sugar rush of my youth. The cereal isn’t really great outside of one bowl but that one bowl is pretty incredible if you like cereal that is way too sweet. Come to find out I do and eating a whole box was a fun ride down marshmallow lane.

Speaking of way too sweet if you read the ingredients one cup of Super Mario Cereal being 32 grams for each cup contains 10 grams of sugar. That’s right kids ⅓ of Super Mario Cereal is sugar. ⅓. But it’s cool because it has 3 grams if fiber so you know that 10% really buffers out the sugar part.

But who buys this stuff as health food? Super Mario Cereal is supposed to be a glucose spike with an amazing sugar crash just like Saturday morning intended. Oh and while your at it you can also swipe your box by your Switch in the Mario Odyssey game for 3 gold coins. Not sure that’s the worlds greatest in game reward but isn’t ⅓ content being sugar it’s own reward? I think so.

Super Mario Cereal nutrition information - https://www.kelloggs.com/en_US/products/super-mario-cereal.html#nutrition-modal
Game Explain scans Super Mario Cereal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9tNcTpOOJc

Bonus Cheerful Ghost + KIDS Review!

Timogorgon: As luck would have it, the same day I finally found a box of the Mario cereal Jon sent me an email saying he was going to do a review of it and wanted to know if I’d like to contribute to the post. I decided to rope in my children too, since kids are probably the target demo anyways.

I thought I knew what I was getting into since it looked like a lucky charms knock-off, but I was not prepared for the cereal itself being berry flavored. That was kind of an odd choice. It’s like someone took the marshmallows from Lucky Charms and then dumped them into a bowl of Fruit Loops. However, the berry flavor must be a coating on the cereal because after about a minute in the milk the “berry” flavor was basically gone.

To say this cereal is sweet is kind of an understatement. For the record I do normally like sugary cereals, but this one was a bit much even for me. The box is pretty small, which depending on your point of view might be considered merciful. All four of us each had a bowl and the box was nearly empty afterwards. I’m glad I found a box and got to try it, but I have no plans to purchase another one.

But what do kids think of this? Let’s turn to our panel of judges:

Mia (age 9): I think it tastes really good and that it should be one of the top five cereals. (I asked her what the other “top five” cereals are and she informed me that they are: Fruit Loops, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Raisin Bran.) I like the fun marshmallows a lot.

Briley (age 8): Super duper good! I want this all the time. It tastes sugary good, really sweet. My favorite part is the marshmallows.

Micah (age 5): Two thumbs up! (I asked him if he wanted to say anything more, to which he answered “Nope!”)

Timogorgon: In closing, let me say that the resulting sugar rush for all three kids was pretty epic.

When Valve started the hype train for Steam Machines in 2015 I was excited. I love consoles but I don't love having to re-purchase games for each device I own so the thought that you could by a game one and run it anywhere really interested me. Plus I love Valve and Steam so getting a dedicated Steam Machine for playing games in my living room seemed like a great idea. Since i'm not usually the first to adopt brand new tech I decided to wait for the reviews to come and had a thought to picking up a second or third generation machine because, by then, the kinks would all be worked out. Thing is... Steam Machines seem to be a first generation only thing because frankly, they seem dead.

Are Steam Machines Dead?

Officially Steam Machines don't seem dead as they are still listed on Steam itself but PC Gamer did an interview with three Valve partners that released Steam Machines and they have basically discontinued them due to lack of interest.

“Nobody was buying it with SteamOS,” Digital Storm marketing manager Rajeev Kuruppu tells me over the phone. The manufacturer had already been building the Eclipse—which is still available with Windows—when Valve pitched SteamOS, and added a Steam Machine build mid-project. That version has since been axed, and Digital Storm no longer has an active relationship with Valve.

“I think over time as the demand from customers wasn’t there we basically had no reason to speak with Valve,” says Kuruppu. Digital Storm is still open to working with Valve, so long as its customers want what Valve is putting out. Right now, they don’t."

Valve Released The Steam Link And It's Incredible

I wonder if part of the reason why the uptake of Steam Machines wasn't high was because alongside Steam Machines Valve released the Steam Link. The Steam Link is a $50 steaming device that let's you transmit your PC Steam games to your living room in 1080p and it seems that users decided to go that route instead. And it's not a bad choice either because i'm using it right now and with all the updates Valve has brought to it.... it's incredible.

When I attended Steam Developer Days I got a free Steam Link and Steam Controller with the ticket. After my son was born I really didn't have much time for PC gaming so the Link sat in the closet and recently I dusted it off and hooked it up. After 10 updates I started streaming games from my ASUS ROG laptop. The streaming was great but, occasionally, the game would lose a frame or two. It wasn't a huge deal but it was noticeable and I remember reading reviews that suggested you use it over wired ethernet. The Steam Link and my ASUS ROG are both connected to wireless and my router supports 5G Wireless 802.11ac 2x2 (MIMO) so I figured all would be fine but there were noticeable hiccups. I have a PC gaming desktop that is connected to wired ethernet and I decided to give that a go and the Link streaming was perfect. So it seems that if one of the machines is connected to wired internet that can help considerably and moreso if both are.

I've tested a few games on the Steam Link but the game i've played the most is Death Road To Canada, which is perfect for the living room. Fallout 4 ran well and I didn't notice any kind of performance issues with it either. I don't imagine i'll be playing a ton of shooters that way for but platformers, adventure games and rogue likes playing Steam games in the living room is a great way to experience them.

https://www.pcgamer.com/what-happened-to-steam-machines/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/353380/Steam_Link/

Gabe Newell gave a presentation at the Valve offices about their upcoming game Artifact - The Dota Card Game. The big news isn't that Artifact is coming but that it seems Valve is focusing more on shipping games.

"Artifact is the first of several games that are going to be coming from us. So that's sort of good news. Hooray! Valve's going to start shipping games again."

It seems Valve has been focused on hardware in Steam VR, the Steam Controller and Steam itself which has taken focus away from making games which seems to now be coming back.

"The positive thing about the Vive is, in addition to making sure that nobody created an iOS closed platform for it, was also that it gave us the opportunity to develop our in-house expertise in hardware design. Five years ago, we didn't have electrical engineers and people who know how to do robots. Now there's pretty much no project in the hardware space that we wouldn't be comfortable taking on. We can design chips if we need to, we can do industrial design, and so on. So that added to that."

"We've always been a little bit jealous of companies like Nintendo," Newell said. "When Miyamoto is sitting down and thinking about the next version of Zelda or Mario, he's thinking what is the controller going to look like, what sort of graphics and other capabilities. He can introduce new capabilities like motion input because he controls both of those things. And he can make the hardware look as good as possible because he's designing the software at the same time that's really going to take advantage of it. So that is something we've been jealous of, and that's something that you'll see us taking advantage of subsequently."

Seems like Valve is setup to drop a few games and i'm really interested to see what they come up with. Not too interested in VR games but if they are great, who knows?

https://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-hooray-valves-going-to-start-shipping-games-again/

Mikey Neumann of the Movies With Mikey fame runs the incredi-dorbs YouTube channel Film Joy. Film Joy also includes the saucy Ben Paddon show Ports Center and in his latest episode he covers Street Fighter II and it's ports to the Amiga. It's a good look at Street Fighter, it's beginnings, influence and movement to it's most beloved incarnation in Street Fighter II.

"In this episode, Ben looks at three very different attempts to bring Street Fighter II to his home computer of choice, the Amiga."

Starting today Blizzard is celebrating 20 years of StarCraft with a bunch of free in-game loot.

• Log in to StarCraft: Remastered after March 6 to receive a commemorative 20th Anniversary UI Skin for StarCraft: Remastered.


• Log in to StarCraft II after March 6 to receive a special UI Skin for each race. Additionally, log in between March 6 and April 3 to receive a Portrait and Decal.


• Log in to Diablo III after March 6 to receive Dominion’s Revenge, a fearsome Battlecruiser-themed Pet.


• Log in to Heroes of the Storm between March 27 and April 7 to receive a 20th Anniversary Portrait for Protoss, Terran and Zerg.


• Play a StarCraft-inspired Tavern Brawl between March 21 and 25 to receive three Kobolds & Catacombs packs!


• Between March 31 and April 6, /salute one of the following StarCraft-themed companion pets – Zergling, Grunty, Mini Thor, Baneling, or Zeradar – to receive the “Salute to StarCraft” Feat of Strength.


• Log in to Overwatch between March 6 and April 3 to receive the Sarah Kerrigan Ghost skin for Widowmaker.

Blizzard is also launching a new StarCraft video retrospective StarCraft is Life: A Celebration featuring some of StarCraft’s biggest fans as they look back on their favorite memories from the past 20 years. If that's not enough for your StarCraft appetite on March 30 & 31st there will be a special 20th anniversary streaming event live on https://www.twitch.tv/starcraft.

https://starcraft2.com/en-us/SC20

On February 16th Super Mario Brothers Speedrunner Kosmic got the new world record ANY% in 4:56.462 besting Darbian, the previous record holder. The run is incredible and if you were wondering the tricks he used to do it you need to watch the video linked above. It goes over every part of the run and also explains how Speedrunners have broken it down to a very particular science. The current theory is that at some point humans might not be able to optimize the run further but it's possible someone might find something new that breaks that assumption wide open.

LGR has a great video out that showcases Snood, a crazy popular Puzzle Bobble / Bust-A-Move clone that dropped in the 90's and was very popular even in to the 2000's era. It was created at the height of the shareware craze and was brought from it's early Mac version to PC, GBA, DS and most recently iOS. I remember many people at University that played Snood but it wasn't something I wanted to really play. I'd played Puzzle Bobble and other games like it before and I think what initially turned me off to it wasn't really the game itself. It was introduced to me by someone I didn't personally like at University and I think that initial introduction to the game soured me on the idea of playing it. Since Snood is freely available on iOS i've decided that it's finally time to give it a try.

Did you Snood?

After Analogue's Super Nt released a couple weeks back I posted about it along with a review by Metal Jesus. I really enjoy Jesus's reviews but if you are looking for an in depth tear down of the system I recommend Digital Foundry reviews and DF Retro. DF Retro took a look at the Super Nt and from the testing it looks like the system is one of the best ways to play Super Nintendo games on modern TV's.

"This week, DF Retro tackles Analogue's Super Nt - an FPGA based console designed to play Super NES games via HDMI. Analogue boasts perfect accuracy but is that really the case? We put the system to the test using challenging games known to cause problems with most software emulators. How does it stack up? The answers and more in this week's episode of DF Retro."

https://www.analogue.co/pages/super-nt/

Into the Breach is finally here and i'm curious what people that picked it up think of it? The Steam reviews seem to be singing it's praises and my hope is that Into the Breach becomes just as important to my Indie library as FTL. You can get Into the Breach on Steam or GOG but right now on GOG if you purchase Into the Breach you get FTL Advanced Edition for free!

Ben Prunty wrote the music for FTL and also Into The Breach and you can listen or buy the soundtrack right now on Bandcamp.

https://benprunty.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-breach-soundtrack

http://store.steampowered.com/app/590380/Into_the_Breach/
https://www.gog.com/game/into_the_breach