Keep on the Borderlands is one of three adventure booklets making up the Dungeons & Dragons Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set. Its organization is impeccable. Starting with approaching the outer gatehouse, winding its way through locations and services in the outer bailey, then to the inner gatehouse, taking you into the inner bailey, and finally to the fortress.

The outer bailey (think of it as a courtyard within a walled castle) houses every service a party of low-level party members could hope for—minus the hubbub of big urban cities. It's focused. It's perfect. It comes with everything from a barn to a bank, from a tavern to a temple.

Each structure gets one page. The Tavern, for example. Next to the header is a number corresponding to the structure on the map of the Keep. Next is a What You Need to Play callout box. This will list one or two NPC cards that come in the boxed set. Some even have a handout. The Tavern is called the Drunken Dragon. (I bet someone in the writers' room wanted to call it the Drunk & Dragon—D&D for short. The artwork on the page even shows a tavern stein with a gold dragon twisted into an ampersand.)

Then comes a little boxed text to read aloud to your players. Nothing wild. Nothing too long. Just some lite descriptive elements and perhaps a word from the character on the NPC card.

Then come the structure's features. A quick line or two about the Tavern Features, in this case. The taproom, the kitchen, and even an empty stage just begging to be filled with a player ready to break out of their shell.

Tavern Services come next. It mentions food and drink, which are listed in the separate menu handout in the box. There's even the ability to solicit rumors—with a random table to roll or select from—and even how much it would cost to buy the house a round.

Brilliantly, each structure also come with a quest. It's not a big quest. Big quests are for the Caves of Chaos and the Wilderness adventure booklets. But the quests in the Keep on the Borderlands booklet will help around the place and, generally, put you in good stead with the local populace. There are rewards in the form of gold and/or favors. But these aren't big enough adventures, per se, to level up your characters. For that, you will indeed have to venture out beyond the keep's walls.

While the Heroes of the Borderlands is (helpfully) broken out into three booklets, all three make up a D&D 5th Edition remake of the 1980's adventure The Keep on the Borderlands. It's a classic, written by one of the founders of D&D, Gary Gygax. This is the first time I'm encountering any version of this old school adventure, however. And the fact that a form of it is included in a starter set—40 years later—is testament to how enduring the principles behind OG D&D really are.

This is a wonderful starter set. You get an impossible amount of tokens and cards and maps and booklets for the $50 asking price. And it's the first starter set that's given me the confidence to make the leap from dungeon mastering online to DM'ing in person. It's just that good. The D&D Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set launches September 16.

Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Power Wash Simulator 2 is expanding its reach onto all the things. The recently announced addition of the Nintendo Switch to its release plans means that now all three major consoles will get the game at release along with the PC version. The original began as a PC/Xbox exclusive before landing onto the Playstation and Switch some time later. 

Power Wash Simulator is a bit of an odd pitch - you're just like, washing stuff, right? Yes exactly, but while the controls mimic a first person shooter, the experience is much more first person find-your-state-of-zen. And with the sequel we are also getting a new campaign, base-building, and new locations as well as co-op play both online and local split-screen. Find your state of zen... together.

While we still lack a firm release date, Power Wash Simulator 2 is expected to launch "late 2025" for Playstation, Xbox, Switch, and PC. 

I've been an avid VR gamer since day one of the PlayStation VR. Since then, I've been through five headsets, finally settling on the Quest 3 as my primary daily-use VR gadget of choice. I've had the Meta+ subscription for well over a year, and I find that it is one of the better gaming subs you can sign up for. Every month, there are at least four of five actually good games to check out, which save me a ton of money. One of these is Walkabout Mini Golf.

I'm not sure when Meta+ added Walkabout Mini Golf to my library, but it has been lingering on the "Oh yeah, I should check that out sometime" pile for at least six months, maybe longer. Last week, I was motivated to download it due to my sudden addiction to Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots, which inspired me to look for more golf-related content. 

By wild coincidence, Walkabout Mini Golf developer Mighty Coconut reached out the very next day to communicate about the game's fifth anniversary and some upcoming fun stuff. The universe seemed to be kicking me in the shins, telling me to check the game out. And now that I'm in, Walkabout Mini Golf has consumed my VR playing hours, finally pulling me (temporarily, I'm sure) from my beloved Zen Studios' Pinball FX VR. 

Stepping into Walkabout Mini Golf at this point is like walking into an MMO that has been circulating for five years; there is SO MUCH STUFF to do and look at. The base game alone has a ton of mini golf courses, each with an easy version and an unlockable hard version. Then there are the buckets of DLC courses you can buy, and after one round of mini golf on the introductory course, I immediately wanted to buy every single one of them. The game is so damn good, being laser focused on delivering a smooth and accurate mini golf experience, and absolutely accomplishing that on all sorts of themed courses. There is a course based on Jim Henson's Labyrinth, y'all, and it is stellar. 

You can play all of these courses in multiplayer, and if your buddies don't have one of the DLC courses you own, you can still invite them to play along with you for free. Though to be honest, they should just pony up the cash; each course is only four bucks. Each hole also features a unique hidden ball that you can find and play with going forward (finding enough balls on the easy version of a course is one way to unlock the hard version). The game also has a pretty good character creator, DLC avatar packs (you can be a Fraggle!), various game modes and events, and just a ton of other content to explore. 

I haven't gotten through all of the courses I have access to, but I fully plan on playing every course at least once before the next one drops. Mighty Coconut today announced that this December, it's 37th course will be available, based on Lewis Carroll's original 1865 classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Judging by what I've seen so far, players can expect some pretty mind-bending situations. Mighty Coconut does not shy away from Escher-like illusions and gravity shifts, which means that playing through the course will likely include some pretty radical surprises.

All I can say about Walkabout Mini Golf is that the dust has been removed from my eyes, and I am now wide awake about this fantastic living game, and will be covering it's new releases and content going forward. I'll stop my ranting for now (mostly because I want to go play), but you can bet that I'll be back for more observations as we get closer to the release of the Alice course. For now, suffice to say that I highly recommend that you hop in and start exploring Walkabout Mini Golf now, if you haven't already. 

Serbia-based developer, GFA Games, announced that post-apocalyptic MMO first-person shooter PIONER is heading to open beta on PC in October, though no specific date was given. Following a closed playtest earlier this year, the PvEvP shooter is one step closer to release on PC, with plans for a console version to follow.

PIONER is set on a strange Soviet-era island called Tartarus, which is over 50 square kilometers in size, where you will engage in both PvE and PvP first-person shooter combat. Storytelling is reliant on the player’s actions, with a focus on realism, including non-traditional health bars and leveling systems for deeper immersion. Thankfully, if you’re not much of a PvP person, it sounds like it will be limited to high-risk, high-reward zones called Shadowlands, which will be optional.

This is my first time hearing about PIONER, but this looks great. I’ll be looking forward to the console release. Check out the new trailer below:

The Wilderness is one of three adventure booklets in the D&D Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set. Between The Keep on the Borderlands and Caves of Chaos, the Wilderness is the connective tissue in this level 1-3 adventure. 

There's less than three miles between civilization and unmitigated evil, and a 10-foot-wide dirt trail goes past both. At only 15 pages, the Wilderness is the shortest of the three booklets, but its inclusion is of vital importance to worldbuilding. Without asking your players to traverse the (admittedly short) path between the Keep and the Caves, the map would simply feel like a fast-travel selection screen between point A and B.

But with the Wilderness, this particular world for the Heroes of the Borderlands adventure goes from being a mashup of one-shot adventures to one contiguous world. Even if that world is only a few miles square.

The Dungeon Master can decide where, exactly, to kick off the adventure. Do you use a classic D&D trope by having all your players meet in a tavern? Then start off with the Keep on the Borderlands booklet. Do you begin—boom—starting right in front of the first dungeon entrance and start rolling for initiative as soon as possible? Then start with the Caves of Chaos booklet (I did). 

But if you want your players to be immediately off-balance and with nowhere safe to turn, let the Wilderness be their starting point. With no place for a Long Rest to lay their weary heads, it's fight-or-flight time from the get-go. 

The Wilderness is made up of the aforementioned Trail. Said Trail will take them quickly and quietly (for the most part) to that other Point A and Point B that I mentioned earlier. But what happens if they step off that Trail? 

Difficult Terrain, first off. That's what happens. Without a smooth, hard-packed trail underfoot, you're now only traveling at half-speed to the further corners of the Wilderness map. It's not a huge map. There's nothing insurmountable about it. But you don't have to travel far past a city limit sign before the Wilderness gets wild and wooly. 

What the Wilderness booklet teaches a new DM:

• Don't sweat travel distances too much
• Don't be afraid to reuse maps
• Don't shy away from random tables

Regarding travel distances, the most you need to worry about is that the Wilderness is about two miles east to west, and about three miles north to south. Six square miles is completely manageable. It also ensures your players don't ever get so far away from homebase (the Keep) that they can't make it back by nightfall. 

Regarding reusable maps, there are four correlating to the four major locations in the Wilderness: the Trail, the Woods, the Fens (marshlands), and the Tamarack Stand (pine trees with fall colors). On those four maps, a couple different encounters can happen, so they're not one-and-done like the Caves of Chaos maps.

Your players may balk if they see the exact same squiggle of Trail, or the same marshy islands for the second time. But that's ok. We're all using our imaginations here in this game called D&D. Pretend it's a different stretch of trail. Pretend it's a different set of dry islands in the middle of the wetlands. Or use the uncanny situation to your advantage as a Dungeon Master: Why yes, this is the exact same bend in the road where you last ran into the [fill in the blank]. Or: Of course, it had to be the exact same spot where you lost a boot in the mud the last time you were ambushed here.

And random tables are a DM's best friend. You're not beholden to exactly what you rolled up on any one random table. You can just select what you want from the list rather than rolling dice to see what randomly emerges on the map. Or the random table perhaps only serves as a guideline. You rolled up Goblins, but maybe it's time for a Brass Wyrmling dragon instead. Let random tables inspire you more than restrict you.

Random encounters get a bad rap with some D&D groups. And that's fine! If you decide they're not for you, because they feel like filler or they distract from the adventure's mainline story, by all means, ignore random encounters.

But don't knock it till you try it (as us kids used to say in the '90s). Random encounters in the Wilderness may feel too side-quest-like if you're on a focused mission to knock out the Caves of Chaos and nothing else.

Those random encounters remind players that the Wilderness is not a safe place to be—at least it's unadvisable to just loiter in the woods. It helps players build an appreciation for those beacons of civilization out there in the wild—beacons like the Keep on the Borderlands. 

So, while it's the thinnest of the three adventure booklets, the Wilderness is the glue that holds this starter-set adventure together. It lets players know that adventures and locations can be episodic in nature, but still provide a throughline of travel and adventure between.

The new D&D Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set (secretly trying to be a board game) releases September 16 in stores and on D&D Beyond online.

The big announcement to end today's Nintendo Direct was the announcement of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, the next game in the mainline series of Fire Emblem games and it will be releasing in 2026. 

Not much is known about the overall story but oh my is that adult Sothis at the end? The Three Houses discourse will continue! and oh my lord if the music that is playing in this trailer is the battle theme I am going to be sitting on that screen for so long just listening to that amazing music.  

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave releases in 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2.

Full disclosure. I did absolutely nothing special for my milestone 40th birthday. No one joked "lordy lordy, he's 40", nor did they buy me a cane, and sign me up for an AARP membership. It was uneventful. I think I definitely turned up the heat on birthday number 42, but that may be besides the point.

Much like my friends and family thought it was going to be THE event, we thought Nintendo was going to come in Fire Flowers blazing. We thought we could get a new 3D Mario, or at the very least, the permanent return of the amazing Super Mario 35. Neither one of these things happened. I'm not mad, just...

Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2 was announced, and they will release together, and separately, on October 2nd. Nintendo promised new visuals, and more pages to the in game story book. There will also be a physical Story Book, exclusively sold at the MyNintendo Store. If you already have 3D All Stars, then the only thing you have to grab is Super Mario Galaxy 2. In line with this, the new movie will be titled The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, with all the main voice actors from the first movie returning. There were two Amiibo announced as well, coming next year. 

Mario Tennis: Fever was then announced, boasting 30 characters, and the ability to use the joy-cons as Tennis rackets. Fans familiar with the series will be able to pick it right up, but there are new additions, like Trial Towers and full on Adventure Mode, starring the baby Mario Brothers. The Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive releases February 12th. 

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is getting DLC via a Nintendo Switch 2 edition. The DLC is titled Meetup at Bellabel Park, and will offer competitive and co-op experiences. No word if it will include online features, which it should at least via game chat. We didn't get a lot of info, but it won't release until Spring 2026. This is also in line with a physical, non conversing Talking Flower. While it will just talk when it wants to, it doesn't respond to you, nor is it triggered. A Talking Flower assistant like a Amazon Echo would've made this a day one purchase. Moving on. 

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book will be available in Spring as well. There wasn't much given on this title. A Book named Mr. E has enlisted the help of Yoshi to navigate through the book and investigate unusual creatures. Sporting a different art style, as Yoshi games do, this felt like more of an announcement, and less informative. 

Even Donkey Kong Bananza has DLC coming. Titled DK Island and Emerald Rush, it's more of an expansion on the endgame. Once you finish the game, you can be hired by Void Inc to go Emerald hunting. As you're smashing through the terrain, you'll receive rogue like powerups to get helpful skills. These perks reset for every run, and you will be able to for each layer in the game. Rewards include statues to decorate the island with, as well as more outfits and colors for DK and Pauline. 

I suspect this can't be it for Mario's 40th. We have to be getting something else. I mean if the Virtual Boy can come back, we can't get Super Mario 40!? I'll pay good money for it! 

Happy 40th, Mario. I'm sure there are more presents for us. Maybe in the closet? In the basement perhaps?

We finally have a release date for Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. It will release October 30th, digitally, for all the things. You will be able to pre-order it starting September 12th for all systems and PC, except Nintendo Switch 1 and 2. Atari and Digital Eclipse have also told people to stay tuned, as games like this in this format, have had add-ons. C'mon Shaolin Monks... 

I don't think I grasped the lineup at first, but seeing it at a glance, it's astonishing. Kombine it with a full museum of interviews, artwork, screenshots and features, on screen move lists, rollback netcode for online play, a full training mode, including a fatality trainer for all the games, and I feel like this is exactly what everyone wanted. Look at this list. LOOK AT IT! 

Mortal Kombat – 1992 (Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear)

Mortal Kombat II – 1993 (Arcade, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, 32X)

Mortal Kombat 3 – 1995 (Arcade, SNES, Genesis)

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 – 1995 (Arcade, WaveNet Arcade, SNES)

Mortal Kombat Trilogy – 1996 (PlayStation)

Mortal Kombat 4 – 1997 (Arcade)

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero – 1997 (PlayStation)

Mortal Kombat Special Forces – 2000 (PlayStation)

Mortal Kombat Advance – 2001 (Game Boy Advance)

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance – 2002 (Game Boy Advance)

Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition – 2003 (Game Boy Advance)

This is a day one for me. There is no question about it. Argue with Goro. 

The SSX series was one of my favorite extreme sports series of games growing up, especially SSX Tricky and SSX 3. Unfortunately we haven't seen a new game in the series since 2012 and while that game was okay, it wasn't nearly as good as it could and should have been. Skip ahead to 2025 and former publishers Acclaim have been revived and one of the first games they have announced is HyperYuki: Snowboard Syndicate and to me this is something that is right up my alley. 

This game looks like something you would have seen on the Dreamcast and looks like SSX and Jet Set Radio had a baby together. I absolutely love the art style in this game and just from this short trailer, the layout of the mountain looks just like mountains you would shred down in SSX, especially with some of those rail placements. Just like SSX as well it looks like you can hit massive air and perform some pretty crazy tricks in the air as well like breakdancing on the board in mid air. Great stuff. 

From the description the game will have three game modes including a challenge mode where you have to complete challenges to advance and unlock new levels. A race mode where you can race against NPCs and what's called "chill" mode which seems to be an endless mode where you can ride down the mountain at your leisure. The game will also include both online play where you can compete with up to seven other players or local via split screen.  

HyperYuki: Snowboard Syndicate will be available on PC and no release date has been announced as of yet. 

Next week's launch of the Dungeons & Dragons Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set is a throwback to a 1979 original: the adventure module The Keep on the Borderlands. This adventure was packed into the D&D Basic Set some 46 years ago, making it one of the most played (and to this day one of the most popular) D&D adventures ever written. 

This new Heroes of the Borderlands adventure is deconstructed into three adventure booklets.

The Keep on the Borderlands adventure booklet is 19 pages and covers the titular military installation. The place is all crenelated walls, pointy wizard hat turrets, and garrisoned soldiers. In addition to the fortress, the Keep has a barn, private apartments, smithy, provisioner's shop (lanterns and rope), trader's shop (weapons and armor), bank, inn, tavern, guild house, and temple.

As far as your D&D adventures are concerned, I think that about covers it.

The Wilderness adventure booklet is 15 pages and leans into the exploration pillar of D&D. While it's only a few miles between the Keep and the Caves, there's still plenty of adventure to be had on (and off) the trail. From the woods to the fens to the tamarack stand, there's wild fey, occult secrets, territorial lizardfolk, and giant spiders.

Sorry, arachnophobes. There's no Session 0 in the Starter Set. No discussion of dealbreaker topics. You will simply have to face your fears—and eat them.

The Caves of Chaos adventure booklet is 27 pages, serving as the meat and potatoes of The Heroes of the Borderlands adventure. Something is attracting an inordinate number of evil creatures to these caves. While they're broken down into bite-sized locations, altogether the caves make up a 65~ish room complex. Welcome to baby's first megadungeon. Just remember to step out for some fresh air every now and again. 

Don't come here for the plot. In collaboration with the Dungeon Master, players will come up with emergent storylines. Sure, Curse of Strahd introduces one of the most popular villains in any media. And adventures like Shadow of the Dragon Queen do it for the plot, as they say. But Heroes of the Borderlands is a sandbox. Follow the players' instincts. They'll come up with their own "big bad evil guy."

I love me a good hardbound D&D adventure book. But I'm appreciative of the Starter Set breaking it down into booklets. At any given time, I'm within 15 to 27 pages of all the prep I need. The cover art for each booklet is evocative. And the Keep itself looks safe enough to turn into a base of operations—while promising D&D's bread and butter—of dragons and dungeons—to only be found if you bravely venture forth. Go to.

The Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set releases September 16. This has been the first face-to-face roleplaying I've done in 30 years. I can't think of a better boxed set to help me through it.