It's almost time for the 2023 edition of the week-long Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) speedrunning marathon. This year's event takes place between January 8th and January 15th. As ever, AGDQ will showcase a bunch of skilled players racing to finish games as quickly as they can. Runners will go head-to-head in some games and we might see world records being broken too.
For the third year in a row, AGDQ will take place entirely online. The event was scheduled to take place in Florida with a live audience, but organizers decided against that plan due to the state's "continued disregard for COVID-19’s dangers (including anti-mandate vaccination policies) and an increased aggression towards LGBTQ+ individuals." They said that "we do not believe it is a safe place for our community at this time," but relocating to a "safer location" wasn't financially feasible. That means speedrunners won't have an in-person crowd to cheer them on.
As always, the schedule is full of some intriguing runs. Stray, Cult of the Lamb and Neon White(a game that's all about speedrunning) are among the recent titles making their first appearances at AGDQ. A bunch of fan-favorite games are in the mix too, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Cuphead and Portal.
I'm looking forward to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revengerun, as well as watching a crew of six players cleaning a bunch of vehicles in PowerWash Simulator as quickly as possible. I'm also curious about a run for a game called I'm going to die if I don't eat sushi!, which I simply had to buy after seeing it on the schedule. Unless it's added as a bonus game, though, there's no Elden Ring this time around.
AGDQ is once again raising funds for Prevent Cancer Foundation. The 2022 edition brought in a record $3.4 million for that cause. AGDQ and its sibling event, Summer Games Done Quick, have raised more than $41 million for charity since 2010.
The latest marathon will commence at noon ET on Sunday with an any-percent run of Splatoon 3(meaning the player can take advantage of glitches). You'll be able to watch the entire event on Twitch via the Games Done Quick channel. The stream is embedded below too. If you miss a run or can't watch AGDQ live, you'll be able to catch up on the GDQ YouTube channel.
EA gave Madden NFL 23 players an unwanted gift last week: corrupted save files. The publisher said on Saturday that anyone who tried to access the game’s Connected Franchise Mode (CFM) during a server outage has a 60 percent chance of losing their saved data forever.
The initial server issues occurred on Wednesday, December 28th and stretched into the following day. As a result, EA says files were corrupted for anyone who logged into franchise leagues during that period. (Save files should be unaffected for anyone who didn’t.) Unfortunately, EA’s development team estimates it will only recover 40 percent of the corrupted franchises.
Making matters worse, EA tweeted on December 28th that “users should now be able to play CFM without issue” — three days before delivering the bad news about lost saves. After apologizing, it encouraged affected gamers to “start a new franchise as the mode is up and running.” The publisher also directs customers to follow the Madden franchise account on Twitter for further updates.
Update!
After todays maintenance users should now be able to play CFM without issue. If you continue to have trouble please contact EA Help or let us know in this thread. Thank you!
The Madden series' franchise mode first appeared in Madden NFL 99, with the rebranded CFM arriving in 2013. (The latest version lets you control a player, coach or owner throughout a simulated career.) Considering how many hours it can take to build your league, it’s hard to imagine gamers with borked saves being content with EA’s advice to start a new file.
After a long delay, Sports Story is now available on Nintendo Switch. Fans of Golf Story have been awaiting the follow-up for quite some time. Sports Story was initially supposed to arrive on the console in 2020, but as has been the case with so many games over the last few years, it was delayed.
Sports Story features many of the same characters as Golf Story. It follows the events of the previous game and it has a similar blend of sports, role-playing and adventuring. You'll still get to play some golf in this one, and you can partake in tennis, soccer, BMX and (unsurprisingly, given that this is an RPG) fishing. You can also explore dungeons and abandoned ruins or simply hang out at the mall.
Prove your athletic prowess in sports of all sorts – Sports Story is out now on #NintendoSwitch!
Nintendo said last month that Sports Story would arrive sometime in December, and that held true. The company announced the sudden debut of Sidebar Games' latest title to close out a week of bite-sized indie game updates. Mortal Shell and dreamy puzzle game Melatonin were among the other surprise releases on Switch this week. Nintendo also revealed that a Risk of Rain remake, the charming-looking The Gecko Godsand the absolutely delightful dog photography game Pupperazzi are all coming to the console next year.
YouTube is ready for some more football. The streaming service has snagged the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which offers access to out-of-market games that air on FOX and CBS each Sunday. DirecTV, the current home of Sunday Ticket, has held the rights since 1994, but the bundle will move to Google’s streaming service next season.
Apple and Amazon were also believed to be in talks for Sunday Ticket. Apple was reportedly the frontrunner at one point, but it's said to have dropped out of the race last week, leaving Amazon and Google to duke it out.
Sunday Ticket will be available as an add-on for YouTube TV subscribers or as a standalone option on YouTube Primetime Channels, an à la carte service that debuted last month. YouTube hasn’t revealed how much it will charge for Sunday Ticket yet. Sunday Ticket plans for the 2022 season on DirecTV started at $294.
YouTube and the NFL didn’t announce the terms of the deal. According to The Wall Street Journal, YouTube will pay $2 billion per year in a seven-year pact. That's around $500 million more per season that DirecTV is paying. However, DirecTV is believed to have between 1.5 million and 2 million Sunday Ticket subscribers, and it has been losing money on the package for years.
In a statement, the NFL said it and "YouTube will work together to determine additional ways to support distribution of NFL Sunday Ticket in commercial establishments such as bars and restaurants." The Journal suggested that could lead to YouTube paying the league another $200 million per year.
The NFL and YouTube have been partners for several years, dating back to the debut of the league's main channel on the platform in 2015. Two years ago, YouTube TV subscribers gained access to NFL Network and NFL RedZone. Those will stay on YouTube TV under the terms of the expanded pact. Additionally, the two sides will grant some YouTube creators access to certain NFL tentpole events for content opportunities.
The Sunday Ticket agreement is a major coup for Google. YouTube TV is already home to other sports networks, such as those from the NBA and MLB, but having exclusive rights to a bundle that offers many out-of-market NFL games is likely to draw more users to the streaming service. Amazon Prime Video has an 11-year deal to stream Thursday Night Football games that started this season. Apple is pushing further into live sports as well, with a 10-year deal to stream every Major League Soccer game via Apple TV starting in 2023.
Gone are the days when free games equated to ropey puzzle games and knock-off clones of games that had a price tag. These days, courtesy of in-app payments and the ease of offering both a sample of a title alongside its full-fat version, there are actually plenty of great games to play without spending a dime. Following the continued success of titles like Fortnite, the level of quality across mobile, PC and consoles has never been higher. Put your card away, and consider this your starting point.
Genshin Impact
Hoyoverse
At launch, many of us assumed Genshin Impactwas a tenuous Zelda: Breath of the Wild copy with impressive anime graphics and not much else. But this turned out to be a very different game Nintendo’s action RPG, with over 50 characters, at this point, to play as. The world is rich and varied. It’s also a huge accomplishment for a free game that’s found a huge chunk of its audience on smartphones.
While battles with foes form a major part of the game, a lot of the joy and satisfaction comes from customizing that army of characters, building up a collection of loot and strengthening them further. While there is an entire microtransaction system baked into the game, much of the game is playable (and enjoyable) without having to spend a dime. Did we mention it’s totally gorgeous?
Even though Blizzard has improved the onramp for new players this time around, Overwatch 2still has a steep learning curve. Stick with it, though, and you’ll get to indulge in perhaps the best team shooter around. Overwatch 2 has a deceptively simple goal — stand on or near an objective and keep the other team away long enough to win. It’s much more complex in practice. To the untrained eye, matches may seem like colorful chaos, but Overwatch 2 has a deceptively simple goal — stand on or near an objective and keep the other team away long enough to win.
It’s much more complex in practice. Blizzard reduced the number of players on each team from six to five. That, along with across-the-board character tweaks, has made gameplay faster-paced and more enjoyable than the original Overwatch. There's a greater emphasis on individual impact, but you'll still need to work well with your teammates to secure a victory.
Now featuring a cast of more than 30 heroes, each with distinct abilities and playstyles, you’ll surely find a few Overwatch 2 characters that you can connect with. The first batch of new heroes are all a blast to play. There are many great (though often fairly expensive) new skins to kit them out with too. The game looks and sounds terrific too, thanks to Blizzard’s trademark level of polish. At least until you figure out how to play Overwatch 2, you can marvel at how good it looks.
Fortnite is a social space as much as it is a game. Where else can you see Spider-Man doing John Cena's "You Can't See Me" taunt next to Indiana Jones dancing to a Dua Lipa song, or Ariana Grande hanging out with Goku while you catch up with friends in voice chat? It also happens to be a great video game with a clear path to victory. Drop onto the island, grab some weapons and gear and try to be the last player or team standing as a storm pushes survivors closer to each other.
Epic made Fortnite far more approachable earlier this year when it introduced a Zero Build mode, which prevents players from building structures for cover. If you have the skills to box an opponent into a skyscraper in mere seconds, by all means, go for it in the other modes, but Zero Build levels the playing field for new players.
Fall Guys is a different flavor of battle royale. Sure, there can still only be one player or squad standing tall at the end, but there are no guns in sight here. It's essentially a platformer in the vein of MXC or Takeshi’s Castle, in which only a certain number of players will qualify from each obstacle-laden round.
It’s also maybe the goofiest and purely enjoyable multiplayer game around. You don’t necessarily need to win to have a good time. It’s hard to feel aggrieved, even when another player shoves you off a ledge to knock you out. It rarely feels mean-spirited even when another player messes with you.
With developer Mediatonic adding more levels and cute cosmetics fairly frequently, the game rarely feels stale. Whenever you return to Fall Guys after a break, you’ll probably run into a new type of bedlam.
From the studio that brought you Titanfall, Apex is a 60-player deathmatch with teams consisting of three people each. The goal is for your team to be the last one standing in Kings Canyon, where you’ll have to loot and fight your way to survival using characters like Octane, an adrenaline junkie whose ultimate move is deploying a jump pad that catapults you into the air for sneak attacks.
You can download it and use the majority of Apex’s characters without having to spend any money. That said, you will have to shell out some cash to access to certain content, including weapon skins and new characters such as Wattson. If you don’t like the cartoonish aspect of Fortnite, and if you’re a fan of the action-packed Titanfall gameplay, it doesn’t get much better than Apex.
Dota 2 has one of the steepest learning curves of any game. Only after sinking hundreds upon hundreds of hours into the five-on-five MOBA can you even begin to understand the deep game mechanics, 100+ unique characters and team strategies. But the fact Dota 2 is so challenging makes those big plays and hard-fought victories all the more satisfying. The sky-high skill ceiling means there's always something to learn, and if you eventually make it into the pro ranks, one tournament win can turn you into an overnight millionaire.
When Pokémon Go launched in 2016, there were some obvious omissions, such as trading and player-versus-player trainer battles. Now, almost every problem and missing feature has been addressed. The game isn't perfect, but the fundamentals — walking around outside, spinning Pokéstop signs and catching critters — make this a truly unique and health-beneficial experience for Pokemon fans. The daily "research" quests and timed events, which boost the appearance of certain monsters, are a great excuse to log in every day. Niantic continues to expand the Pokédex, too, so that your collection is never quite finished.
For years, Fortnite was the battle royale of choice for younger players, until Call of Duty: Warzone came along. Boosting by interest during the pandemic, the free-to-play battle royale has persisted through numerous iterations of the Call of Duty franchise, with new maps, game modes and weapons helping to push the player base above the 100 million mark. The core game requires you to either drop in solo or as part of a team and duke it out with up to 149 other players, running between different points of interest to forage for weapons, tactical items and vehicles. If that wasn’t enough, a wall of gas will force you into increasingly tight areas.
Warzone offers some fresh takes on the traditional battle royale formula. For example, if you die, you will be sent to the ‘Gulag’ to fight with other downed players for a one-time chance to redeploy back into the game. Should you lose, teammates can still ‘buy’ your return, but requires them to first earn enough in-game money to afford it. Following the release of Modern Warfare 2, Warzone was overhauled. It got a new map, Al Mazrah, which is the largest playzone in the game’s history. Loadouts – a system that allowed players to customize a Primary and Secondary Weapon, Tacticals, Lethals and three Perks before the game – have been changed too.
Soccer megastar Lionel Messi finally secured the one prize that had eluded him during his illustrious career this weekend when Argentina won the World Cup. Afterward, the best player of the 21st century (yeah, I said it) added another record to his resume, as he now has the most-liked post on Instagram.
Messi posted a slideshow of him and his teammates celebrating after winning the World Cup. At the time of writing, the post has more than 65.8 million likes. The previous record-holder, a stock photo of an egg, claimed the top spot in early 2019 and currently has north of 57.3 million likes.
It's not super surprising that Messi broke the Instagram record. As The Verge points out, the majority of the most-liked posts on the platform are from footballers, with the Paris Saint-Germain forward holding eight of the top 20 spots.
Messi is also the second most-followed person on the platform with 404 million followers. Instagram's own official account has the most followers overall. In second place, one spot ahead of Messi, is his old rival Cristiano Ronaldo with 520 million followers. Bet he'd rather have a World Cup, though.
Game developer King said today it’s shutting down Crash Bandicoot: On the Run. The Android and iOS title didn't last long, as it had just launched in March 2021.
King announced on its Facebook page (via Eurogamer) that it would shut down the game’s servers on February 16th, 2023, after which you’ll no longer be able to play. All in-app purchases are already turned off, and players will have until the game’s last day to spend any purchased purple crystals.
The game was an auto-runner in the vein of Temple Run. Holding their phones in portrait orientation, players used touch controls to move the furry marsupial from lane to lane, dodging obstacles, breaking boxes and firing projectiles.
King left plenty of room for confusion before today’s announcement. Some fans noticed last week that it had been delisted from Google Play and the App Store without explanation. Twitter user Festive Charlie reached out (via Crashy News) to King customer support asking about the removal, and a representative responded, “Rest assured though that the adventure is far from over. Our technical wizards in the Studio are already busy putting their finishing touches to more exciting features and islands which will be available very soon.” Although it isn’t shocking that a developer’s (possibly outsourced) customer-support team would be left in the dark about an unannounced cancellation, it’s harder to excuse suggesting to a fan the game is about to receive exciting new content when it was actually on its deathbed.
Crash Bandicoot fans still have adventures to look forward to on bigger screens. Next year, the multiplayer Crash Team Rumble will bring 4v4 arena matches to PS5/4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.
Google Search recorded the highest traffic in its 25-year history during the FIFA World Cup yesterday, CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted. Google effectively became an information hub for the final, a strong contender for the best in FIFA men's history. With records already smashed for group stage and Round of 16 matches, it's also likely to be the most watched final in history once figures are released.
Search recorded its highest ever traffic in 25 years during the final of #FIFAWorldCup , it was like the entire world was searching about one thing!
With updated Search features released ahead of the World Cup, Google made it easier for users to keep up with the action. Searching "World Cup" showed a dedicated section at the top with a list of upcoming matches, for instance, including dates and local times. You could also set up notifications on mobile for specific teams by tapping the bell icon and choosing the squad you wanted to follow.
It was also aided by the nail-biting action and strong storylines. Those include Lionel Messi finally getting his World Cup, Kylian Mbappe's legendary performance, France's late second-half comeback, an incredible extra time with two goals scored and a nerve-wracking shootout. All of that was capped by the celebrations and outpouring of emotions by players and fans alike.
Riot Games is trying to extricate itself from its League of Legends Championship Series partnership with FTX. On Friday, the studio filed a motion with the court overseeing FTX’s bankruptcy case to end the seven-year sponsorship agreement the two companies signed last August.
In a brief spotted by crypto critic and Web3 is Going Just Great creator Molly White (via PC Gamer), Riot says the exchange still owes half of the 12.5 million it agreed to pay in 2022 for the studio to display FTX branding at LCS events. Riot adds the disgraced firm will owe it another nearly $13 million in 2023, with the first quarterly payment of the year due on January 2nd. FTX’s yearly payments to Riot are scheduled to increase through the end of their agreement in 2028.
Riot Games just filed a motion in the FTX bankruptcy case to end their deal, pertaining to the League of Legends Championship series.
FTX still owes $6.25M (about half the payment) for 2022, and will owe $12.875M for 2023. Per the agreement, the payments escalate through 2028.
Riot also has a personal stake in the case. More than a year before he was arrested on fraud charges, FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried admitted he was “(in)famous for playing League of Legends while on phone calls.” SBF’s gaming habit became something of a joke when it came out that he wasn’t very good at the game.
“Images of Mr. Bankman-Fried playing League of Legends were displayed alongside text describing his cavalier attitude towards investor meetings and irresponsibility with corporate funds. These images created a public narrative that Mr. Bankman Fried’s interest in League of Legends, once relatable and human, was now reckless and juvenile," Riot states. “Even Mr. Bankman-Fried’s ranking in League of Legends has been the subject of online commentary with public figures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elon Musk weighing in.”
If you think Riot is ready to swear off crypto because of one high-profile implosion, think again. The reason the studio wants a court to void its agreement with FTX is so that it can move forward with a new sponsorship. “The longer Riot is prevented from commercializing the crypto exchange sponsorship category and the broadcast assets currently owned by FTX, the more damages Riot incurs.” Here's hoping the studio doesn't find itself in a similar situation sometime in the future.
In 2021, Apple was considered the frontrunner to secure streaming rights to the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket package. Now, a year later, the company has reportedly dropped out of negotiations. The tidbit comes from a Puck article about Bob Iger’s surprise return to Disney. According to author Dylan Byers, Apple recently said no to the NFL “not because they can’t afford [the package], but because they don’t see the logic.”
With Disney reportedly bowing out of the negations as well, the talks have become a two-horse race between Amazon and Google. “Amazon can use [the deal] to drive Prime subscriptions; Google can use it to fuel its YouTube TV business,” adds Byers. Of the two suitors, Amazon is probably the best fit given that Prime Video is the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football for the next decade.
Last year, The Athletic reported the NFL was asking for more than $2 billion per year for Sunday Ticket rights, a price that was at least $500 million more than what DirecTV had been paying to air Sunday games. In a press conference earlier this week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Sunday Ticket negotiations were at “a very critical point” for the league. That seems to have been an understatement.
