 of donations in aid of Prevent Cancer. GDQ announced the $2.6 million figure on <a href=)
Twitter after the event concluded, and thanked all the runners and those who’d donated.
A number of speedruns throughout the week-long event smashed world records for their respective games and categories too, including PC runs of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and my own personal GOTY from 2022, PowerWash Simulator. You can watch the AGDQ 2023’s record-setting No Soap PowerWash Simulator run below, and weep into your coffee at the sheer cleaning ability on display.
42 song previews are available.
Can you believe we’re only just over a month away from Octopath Traveler II‘s release? Well, ahead of the game’s launch on 24th February, Square Enix has shared some previews of the game’s soundtrack over on its Japanese site (via NoisyPixel). And my goodness, if there’s one thing we can be sure of, the music sounds like it will be special.
Was there any doubt, with Octopath Traveler composer Yasunori Nishiki returning to the help? Of course not. And from every single trailer we’ve had so far, the music has sounded magnificent. But Square Enix wants to hammer that home and has shared 42 samples (!!!) of the upcoming soundtrack. That’s the first two discs of this behemoth six-disc OST.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Developer Game Science has announced that its Chinese folklore RPG Black Myth: WuKong will be released during summer 2024 in a wild new trailer.
The bizarre two-minute short film (below) shows a young rabbit trying to install the game on an out of date PC before it finally falls apart and they’re forced to buy another.
Upon finally installing the game, however, only a countdown clock appears and, years later, the aged rabbit finally gets to see Black Myth: WuKong in action.
No more specific release date was given outside of the summer 2024 window, but this at least confirms roughly when fans can get their hands on the highly anticipated RPG. Black Myth: WuKong was first announced almost three years ago in February 2020 and Game Science has been quiet for a while, last releasing an update in August 2022.
The game is based on the Chinese folklore established in the 16th century novel Journey to the West, retelling the classic legend of the Monkey King in Unreal Engine 5.
Black Myth: WuKong’s original trailer was incredibly popular and attracted widespread attention to Game Science, but the developers promised they wouldn’t let the hype get to their heads and would simply focus on making a good game.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Here’s a sentence that I never thought I’d type: The Last of Us airs its first episode tonight on HBO and HBO Max.
It’s a surreal feeling. Just think: In a few short hours, Joel and Ellie will be introduced to the entire world in a whole new medium. I’m incredibly grateful to the team at Naughty Dog, HBO, Sony Pictures Entertainment, PlayStation Productions, and of course the cast and crew members that helped get us to this historic moment.
I’m particularly thrilled that we found Pedro and Bella to play our iconic leads, Joel and Ellie. I can’t wait for the world to experience their portrayals and the rest of these unforgettable characters in an entirely new way.
Naughty Dog’s Co-President Neil Druckmann also wanted to drop by with a quick message for you folks:
“It’s been an unimaginable honor (and one of my life’s highlights) to collaborate with Craig Mazin and the team at HBO to bring The Last of Us to life as a TV show. Intense pride doesn’t begin to describe my feelings to how the show turned out. I deeply believe it captures the soul of the game that so many of you have fallen in love with. As you can imagine, I’m extremely excited (and extremely nervous) for PlayStation and Naughty Dog fans to dive into the first episode and experience for themselves the love the cast and crew has poured into this adaptation. From myself and everybody at Naughty Dog, thank you! It is due to your incredible passion and support that this show exists! We are forever grateful! Endure and survive!”
– Neil Druckmann, Co-President, Naughty Dog
And another quick note for you The Last of Us veterans. The HBO show follows the broad beats of the overall story from the game, and is quite faithful in tone and spirit. But hopefully it won’t come as a shock that this isn’t a beat-by-beat, line-by-line adaptation of the games. Neil, Craig and the production team took this opportunity to weave in new characters, themes, and locations — only where they felt true to the characters and the world, the “soul” of The Last of Us. Sometimes this was done to expand on ideas only briefly explored in the games, or because it better served the narrative structure of an episodic show.
But rest assured, The Last of Us stays true to the soul of the games. I hope you’ll join us tonight, and definitely let us know what you think!
Undead and docked.
Every decade or so, something big happens to bring zombies back into our lives. Whether it was the release of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead in 1978, the publication and subsequent adaptation of The Walking Dead, the hugely popular ‘Zombies’ mode in the Call of Duty series, or the meteoric rise of The Last of Us, we love a date with the undead.
This fascination with these brain-munching beings has inspired games by the boatload. Yes, there are the two aforementioned series, but the list of great zombie games goes on. The Switch, for the most part, has steered clear of these big titles. There are a lot of zombie games on the console for you to sink your teeth into, but the number of them that we would actually recommend playing? That’s a much shorter list.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Awesome Games Done Quick, the week-long 24-hour video game speedrunning marathon that raises money for charity, has just raised over $2.6 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
According to Game Done Quick’s official website, AGDQ 2023 featured 150 speedruns and raised a total of $2,644,770.41 from 39,857 donations from 21,519 donors. The max donation was $100,000, the average donation was $66.36, and the median donation was $25.
?TIME?
#AGDQ2023 has raised a total amount of $2,642,493 for @preventcancer!Thank you to everyone who made this marathon possible, and to all of you for your amazing generosity & support ?
See you all next time at #SGDQ2023 from May 28th to June 4th ⏱️ #ThankYouMike ? pic.twitter.com/h3lkCmg0J7
— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 15, 2023
AGDQ 2022 set a new Games Done Quick record by raising over $3.4 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and while this year’s event didn’t quite break any new records, it’s still an incredible accomplishment the team accomplished that will make a difference for so many.
The next big event from Games Done Quick will be Summer Games Done Quick 2023 from May 28 to June 4. Last year, SGDQ raised a total of $3.01 million for Doctors Without Borders.
Throughout the event, which ran on Twitch from January 8 – 15, speedrunners from around the world showed off their amazing skills for a good cause. There were a ton of incredible moments during the marathon, including when @NotImJhay set a new world record for Super Mario Galaxy 2.
In case you missed it or want to see it again (who wouldn’t??), BIG GGs to @NotImJhay for getting the WR in Super Mario Galaxy 2! GGs to HardcoreGaming, @SuperT302, and MutantsAbyss for the great race as well, whew! #AGDQ2023 pic.twitter.com/vQgCluJ9rP
— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 10, 2023
You can check out all the speedruns from Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 on Games Done Quick’s YouTube Channel, where you can see such games as Pokemon Yellow, Final Fantasy VII, Portal, and many more completed in a speedy fashion by some of the best players in the world.
Prior to AGDQ, Games Done Quick announced that its founder, Mike Uyama, would be stepping down from the company after 13 years. Since the first event that was held in Uyama’s mother’s basement in 2010, GDQ has gone on to raise over $41 million for such charities as the Prevent Cancer Foundation and Doctors Without Borders.
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
Out next month.
Digimon fans will want to make some space on their Switch with the arrival of Digimon World: Next Order next month. This new version of the 2016 PlayStation Vita release comes with a brand new ‘Beginner’ mode on Switch and also other features like the ability to run faster.
Additionally, there are improved specs. As highlighted via a translation, the official Japanese game website has revealed the title is “largely a 60 FPS experience”, but can drop to 30 FPS in certain circumstances. In terms of resolution, the game will run at 1080p docked and 720p handheld. In contrast, the PS4 version runs at a consistent 60 FPS, with a resolution of 1080p.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Revenge is sweet.
Hello folks, welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!
Last time, we took a look at Metroid Prime: Hunters on the Nintendo DS and the end result was pretty unanimous. The vast majority of you prefered the western design over Japan’s, with North America and Europe winning with a whopping 86% of the vote! Clearly, the more abstract approach from Japan just didn’t sit well with folks.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
“Step back into the virtual world”.
Following the launch of Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris last September, Bandai Namco has now locked in the release date of DLC 1 “Blooming of Forget Me Not” – announcing it will be launching on the Switch on 18th January (that’s next week).
This DLC contains an increased max level, new story, divine beasts, new maps, dungeons, weapons, outfits and much more:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Can we have the game now as well?
There have been a number of stories over the years about possibly reviving The Simpsons Hit & Run – a Grand Theft Auto-like title set in the fictional town of Springfield. While we don’t seem to be any closer to a comeback, earlier this week fans of the 2003 title noticed how the game’s soundtrack has now been uploaded to services like Spotify and Apple Music:
Unsurprisingly, it’s got some wondering if the game might return in the near future. Back in 2021, Matt Selman – an individual who worked on the animated show since 1997 – mentioned how he would “love” to see Hit & Run revived, but said it would be “complicated” to bring back (via IGN):
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
