The planet from the original Metroid is spelled "Zebes" yet some people pronounce it differently. Is it pronounced "Zeebz", "Zeebees", "Zehbiss" or "Zebeth?" Personally I grew up pronouncing it "Zeebs" but I've heard it said a couple different ways. Gaming Linguistics offers a nice discussion of the original Metroid games and then digs in to the official word on how Zebes is pronounced. The answer he comes to may surprise you! Just kidding, it's not that surprising but it's a fun journey and I want to try my hand at more clickbait-like phrases to see if it causes more discussion. Spoiler alert, it doesn't seem to at all!

I really enjoy Cygnus Destroyers Innocent Until Proven Guilty series and he has recently updated the format to include reviews of video game films. The first video game films he reviewed is Mortal Kombat Annihilation and you need to watch it to see if it's found guilty of being.... ok, like who am I kidding the movie is terrible and he finds it guilty. I wonder if he will review a terribly panned video game movie and give it the not guilty verdict? Who knows, but I do know that I like that he is reviewing video game movies... now if he can get around to reviewing the Street Fighter movie?

If you have an old 486 PC sitting around the house and you wanted to connect it to a modern BBS, Lazy Game Reviews has an amazing guide on how to do that. Apparently someone has created a Wifi card that translates a wifi signal to a Hayes compatible modem which allows you to connect to modern BBS's that people run online to play games like Legend of the Red Dragon and Tradewars! Optionally you can just head over to the BBS Guide and use your modern computer to relive those magical moments too but this seems way more amazing.

http://telnetbbsguide.com/

Mikey Newmann is the creator behind the YouTube Series "Movies With Mikey" and is/was one of the leader writers working for 2K Games on the Borderlands series. Recently he stepped away from 2K and is focusing on his YouTube channel full time and one awesome benefit of that is that the show PortCenter is back!

In this episode Ben Paddon talks about the two Doom ports on the GBA for Doom and Doom 2. He dives in to what versions of the game they are based on and that Doom II wasn't based on the original Doom II source at all. I didn't know Doom was ported to the GBA, but it makes sense it was as it's been ported to nearly everything.

Nintendo announced a new 3DS Metroid game remake of the classic Gameboy game called Metroid: Samus Returns today at E3. Samus Returns aims to bring the 3DS remake treatment to Metroid II: The Return of Samus and I'm really happy to see Nintendo do this. I picked up the original Metroid II on Gameboy last year and had a lot of fun replaying it. That said, Metroid II suffers from the same problems I had with the original NES game in that if you don't bomb every wall and the like it's really hard to figure out how to progress. I didn't have that same problem with Super Metroid, which was the first Metroid game I actually ever completed. One of my hopes for this remake is that Nintendo can make progression a bit easier to understand as again, that was my biggest problem with the original games. Couple the fact that when I played the original games as a kid I had nearly unlimited time to play them, I still had issues progressing and just kind of played the beginning of the game over and over again.

All that to say, this remake looks really interesting as Metroid II really kicked the series into a new story telling focus which this game seems to bring back in spades. In Metroid II you are hunting down the final Metroids and you need to take them out one by one.

Nintendo seems to be upgrading the game quite a bit and some of the new game features are below:

• This intense, side-scrolling action platformer has been completely remade with engaging and immersive 3D visuals and a rich, atmospheric color palette.


• Classic Metroid II: Return of Samus gameplay is joined by a wealth of new content, including a set of brand new abilities that utilizes a mysterious energy resource called “Aeion,” a powerful melee counterattack, and 360-degree Free Aim Mode.


• There are plenty of secrets to find—and if you uncover enough of them, you may even start to unravel the mystery of Planet SR388’s past.


• Two new amiibo figures*—Samus Aran and Metroid—will be released as a set alongside the game. This game is also compatible with the Zero Suit Samus and Samus amiibo from the Super Smash Bros. series. Functionality details will be revealed at a later date.


• While supplies last, fans will be able to purchase a special edition of the game, which includes a physical copy of the game, a sound-selection CD featuring 25 tracks from across the Metroid franchise, and a reversible title-sheet insert for the game case.

Metroid: Samus Returns drops this September 15th on the 3DS!

https://e3.nintendo.com/games/metroid-samus-returns-3ds

Fallout Shelter is one of the better freemium mobile games i've played. Bethesda has done a great job supporting it and after launch they added a ton of standout content such as quests. After hanging up Hearthstone a while ago I realized I wanted to play something else and an out of country vacation a couple months ago made me consider playing Fallout Shelter again. One of my goals, besides to play a fun game and try out the new stuff, was to get to the endgame get a 100 dwellers in the vault so I could build a Nuka Cola Bottling Plant.

It's the last thing you can build so it must be awesome right? Recently I hit 100 vault dwellers and was able to build a Nuka Plant and was really excited to bottle my first Nuka when I realized the Nuka Plant just makes water and food... at the same time.

*sigh*

Needless to say I was really disappointed in spending so much time getting to the endgame to realize that the final room just optimized food and water creation. That's useful sure, but at that point in the game I have no problems keeping everyone fed and watered. All that said, I don't actually use much of the in game Nuka Cola that allows you to speed things up. As you can see from my in game screenshot I still have 96 bottles. I think the waiting aspect of Fallout Shelter is completely fine and I never felt like I had to use them. Occasionally i'd speed something up but mostly just to see how it worked and out of a kind of boredom novelty, not to get anything done faster.

Fallout Shelter is a very well done freemium game in that you can unlock everything by simply playing it and I never felt like I needed to buy lunchboxes to accomplish anything. I've heard that Fallout Shelter made Bethesda a mint and I can see why but for me, I don't get the draw of spending money unlocking anything. The quest system gives you enough lunchboxes and when you finally can send out groups for even more quests the amount of items you can collect goes up considerably. Still, I can see that some people might like to open lunchboxes and get that sweet hit of pulling that slot machine and buying more gets you more of that.

If you haven't played Fallout Shelter I recommend you give it a shot or check it out again if you've been away for a while. That said, I found the endgame lacking but if you love sending out dwellers on quest after quest there is more than enough of that to keep you busy for quite some time.

UbiSoft is working with South Park Studios to release two new South Park games this year. South Park: The Fractured But Whole(say it a couple times to let that sink in... cough) and the newly announced mobile title South Park: Phone Destroyer. Phone Destroyer will be a totally free to play South Park game that competes with other card battle games like Hearthstone, Faeria and Gwent. It will be totally free to play and according to the FAQ on the official website:

"Everything can be earned in the game without paying, but you can choose to spend real world money if you wish. The game is designed so that nothing is ever locked behind a paywall."

I'm interested to see how they roll the free to play aspect of the game because some games are more stingy with earning in game stuff than others and I hope Phone Destroyer edges on the side of more fair. I don't mind playing a game to unlock more cards if it's not too grindy. Whereas this is an official South Park game it doesn't seem to be a direct sequel to The Stick of Truth but is obviously in that universe.

Oh and you can kill Kenny.

South Park: Phone Destroyer drops on mobile sometime this year.

http://southparkphonedestroyer.com/

It's satire. And then starts things off with the conference presenter firing a gun in a crowded theater. Then they show a new game called Ruiner that looks neat. Then they show off a special innovation they are brining to gaming allowing people to throw money directly at the screen so they can take it. Then a guys arm is taken off and blood squirts everywhere and then things... devolve... to get even more weird. Which is great because this "press conference" is some A+ satire that I found both entertaining and also quite disturbing.

But you know, don't take my word for it, click to watch because I assure you that it amps up from there and the ending is quite the crescendo.

Age of Empires is a classic RTS that helped bring in a new wave of multiplayer gaming that later blew up with Age of Empires 2 and StarCraft. If you play the original Age of Empires now, besides not possibly not running at all on Windows 10, it suffers from low screen resolutions that make it practically unplayable on a modern monitor. That said, some modern port projects such as the "UPatch Age of Empires Rise of Rome Unofficial Patch" seem to fix many of those problems giving the original Age of Empires the same treatment as Age of Empires II HD on Steam. In fact, i've installed the UPatch and it's a solid community patch making giving my original Age of Empires install discs some usefulness beyond collectors nostalgia.

All that said, it seems the Forgotten Empires team wanted to kick up the Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and as such are remastering the original graphics in 4K, re-recording the audio as well as other improvements. Information on the systems they are bringing the Definitive Edition to are sparse but it seems like it's coming to XBox One and PC. Again, no details on if PC means Steam or the Windows store but when it's announced i'll let you know. I think one of the reasons why Age of Empires II HD is a great version of the game is that the Steam integration is top notch. So having Age of Empires 2 HD on Steam and then the only version of Age Of Empires: Definitive Edition on the Windows Store seems odd to me. I don't mind if it comes to the Windows Store and Steam because giving people more choice to places is buy the game is a great idea to me.

If you are looking to dust off your original Age of Empires discs you can check the Unofficial Age of Empires patch check on the website linked below and while you are at it let me know what you are thinking of the new announced Age of Empires: Definitive Edition!

http://upatch-hd.weebly.com/

YouTuber SuperDoTheGames has an interesting 5 part video series called "Life in Hearthstone." It's hard to describe but it's something like a "hand drawn personal hearthstone poetry reading" but... stranger and more honest. At least it seems like these videos are a somewhat autobiographical process for the creator or just some really dark satire. Maybe both.