Awesome Games Done Quick 2022, the first of multiple charity speedrunning events run by the Games Done Quick Foundation, has ended with over $3.4 million raised for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

139 speedruns made up this year’s marathon, which began January 9 at 12 PM ET and ended at approximately 2 AM ET January 16. The exact amount raised by the event was $3,416,729, with all donations taken during that same time period.

🏁TIME 🏁
#AGDQ2022 has raised a total amount of $3,416,729 for @preventcancer! This is officially the most we’ve ever raised in the history of @GamesDoneQuick – ANOTHER WR🏆
Thank you to everyone who made this marathon possible, and thank you all for your generosity & support❤️

— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 16, 2022

Highlights of this year’s event included a Pokemon race with one player running Omega Ruby and the other Alpha Sapphire, runs in multiple 2021 releases including Resident Evil Village and It Takes Two, and a blindfolded run of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice completed in exactly two hours. Multiple world records were also set during the event, including:

Kena: Bridge of Spirits in 28 minutes, 35 secondsPumpkin Jack in 44 minutes, 18 secondsWebbed in 17 minutes, 21 secondsSonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 in 43 minutes, 47 seconds

Awesome Games Done Quick is an annual charity speedrunning marathon run in early January by the Games Done Quick Foundation. The foundation runs multiple marathons throughout the year, including Summer Games Done Quick and Flame Fatales. Each event raises money for a different charity, including the Prevent Cancer Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, and the Malala Fund.

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Esta raid foi estranha mas o mais interessante foi quando fui salvo pelo meu “Gorilla” ! LOOK ! — Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/decayed20

source

Acclaimed horror movie director John Carpenter is a big fan of Halo. The Halloween and The Thing director shared his thoughts on the game on social media, saying it’s the best game in the series.

“Halo Infinite is a fun shooter,” Carpenter said. “Immense beautiful production design. Best of the Halo series.”

HALO INFINITE is a fun shooter. Immense beautiful production design. Best of the Halo series.

— John Carpenter (@TheHorrorMaster) January 16, 2022

The replies came in fast and enthusiastically for Carpenter’s tweet. Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg said, “What an amazing tweet from a creative legend.” Elon Musk said “good campaign.” Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor replied, “This is now a dream! Phew. Time to rewatch Prince of Darkness.” Halo boss Bonnie Ross said, “Wow. Thank you for spending your creative time in our world.”

What an amazing tweet from a creative legend. 🙏🏻💚 https://t.co/uAlYzSr4y9

— Aaron Greenberg 🙅🏼‍♂️💚U (@aarongreenberg) January 16, 2022

In other news, this coming week is a big one for Halo Infinite, as the game’s BTB mode is finally being patched, while the new Cyber Showdown event is slated to kick off. Additionally, major changes are coming to the microtransaction store.

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In addition to a patch addressing Halo Infinite’s Big Team Battle issues next week, developer 343 Industries is planning a significant update for the game’s microtransaction store–and content is getting cheaper.

Starting with this coming Tuesday, January 18’s refresh of the microtransaction store, players will see some notable changes. Jerry Hook, the head of design at 343, said the overall goal is to reduce prices across the board, and 343 will conduct tests regularly to find what works best.

“We’ve been monitoring the discussions on the Shop, bundles, and pricing closely since launch. Using data and community feedback, we’re going to begin rolling out changes to how we package and price items in Infinite–and it all starts next week,” Hook said on Twitter. “Starting Tuesday, the Shop experience will vary week-to-week. We are focused on reducing pricing across the board, providing stronger values in our bundles, starting to put individual items outside of bundles, and more.”

“We will be trying new things throughout the rest of the season so that we can continue to learn and improve for the future. Please keep the feedback coming during this process…”

Halo Infinite is a free-to-play game and relies on microtransaction items to make money. Players have raised concerns about the price points for certain items, such as the recent Mister Chief pack. It remains to be seen what the new prices will be and how the perceived value will be accepted–or not–by fans.

Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest on Tuesday when the new store refresh takes place.

January 18 also marks the start of Halo Infinite’s next multiplayer event–Cyber Showdown. The event will let players unlock new cosmetic content, including a neon-colored holographic mohawk.

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If 500 hours of Dying Light 2 somehow doesn’t sound like enough for you to sink your teeth into, rest assured there’s more where that came from. Techland Games, the studio behind the Dying Light series, is now stating they are “committed” to five years of game support for Dying Light 2: Stay Human following its release on February 4.

The announcement was made by Techland Games’ lead influencer, Sheri Kryeziu, who shared the news via Twitter earlier this morning. According to Kryeziu, fans can expect “More Story DLCs, More Events, More Locations,” and “More in-game items” to come to Dying Light 2 over the course of the next five years. He then wrote this commitment to keeping the game fresh and putting “gamers first” was “one of the main reasons” he joined the studio.

We’ll be committing to 5 years of game support post launch which means:
– More Story DLCs
– More Events
– More Locations
– More in-game items
Personally, this is one of the main reasons why I joined Techland in the first place. Gamers first.#DyingLight2 pic.twitter.com/wkBkoZmJxm

— Sheri (@YesIAmSheri) January 14, 2022

This ambitious announcement follows Techland Games shocking reveal that players will need “at least 500 hours” to complete Dying Light 2–a claim that shook the gaming community when it hit Twitter on January 8. However, Techland has since elaborated on its statement, explaining “500 hours is related to maxing out the game–finishing all the quests, endings, and exploring every part of the world.” The studio then added a “regular player” should finish the story, side quests, and quite a bit of exploring in less than 100 hours.

UPDATE:
500 hours is related to maxing out the game – finishing all the quests, endings, and exploring every part of the world, but a regular player should finish the story + side quests and do quite a lot of exploring in less than 100 hours, so don’t worry! 🥰 https://t.co/4R641zkLpg

— Dying Light (@DyingLightGame) January 8, 2022asd

The follow-up to 2015’s Dying Light, Dying Light 2: Stay Human takes places in a post-apocalyptic world where players must outmaneuver the living dead as they struggle to stay alive. Dying Light 2 launches on February 4 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and it will also be available via the cloud for Nintendo Switch. The game is also coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Just about every week brings something new to Destiny 2, whether it’s story beats, new activities, or interesting new combinations of elements that let players devastate each other in the Crucible. Iron Banter is our weekly look at what’s going on in the world of Destiny and a rundown of what’s drawing our attention across the solar system.

With most of the major content for the Season of the Lost out of the way, we’re more or less officially in the hype period–the run-up to The Witch Queen that’s going to see a deluge of details and hints before the expansion’s final launch on February 22. It got going this week with a new trailer for The Witch Queen that included a deeper look at the locale and some fun hints about what might go on there.

So, hey, guess who’s thinking about story possibilities–this guy [points at self].

There’s a lot of room for rampant speculation, but with the new trailer, we at least have some areas on which to focus. The big thing that interests me is the broader story of Savathun and her motivations, because I think everything’s about to get a lot more complicated in The Witch Queen.

Sister Act

I spent the early part of the week pouring over the latest Witch Queen trailer and breaking down everything it included, scrounging for clues about the story that Bungie might be trying to tell in the next chapter of Destiny 2. (Relatedly and at the same time, Saniya Ahmed dug deep on old Mars story threads that seem like they’re about to become very relevant.) It raised more questions than answers, sure, but there were a couple of tidbits that play into ongoing feelings I’ve been having about where The Witch Queen is headed. The main one is this:

Check out this chunk of Hive history.

That’s a statue of Oryx, the Taken King, fighting the worm god Akka. It’s a scene out of the Books of Sorrow, the Hive’s creation myth, which seems at least partially true but may also include its share of lies–much like everything to do with the Hive. But I think it’s more than just a cool reference to an intense lore thing (which you should absolutely read, as it’s some of the best story stuff in the Destiny universe).

I’ve been cultivating the opinion for a while that Savathun wants to be friends. That idea was somewhat born out with the Season of the Lost, when Savathun revealed that she had been impersonating Osiris and claimed that her (admittedly evil-seeming) manipulations of events had actually been tuned toward a helpful purpose. She claims she wants to be allies, even though she can’t help being super-creepy about it, and while The Witch Queen marketing seemingly paints Savathun as the villain of the expansion, the impression cultivated with trailers and hints so far does more to suggest that Savathun is guiding or pushing us in a particular direction through the course of the expansion, rather than just trying to kill us like the Hive usually do.

Let’s pause for a second and acknowledge that Savathun is the Hive god of deceit, so anything could be a lie or a machination to confuse and obfuscate because she literally feeds off tricking people into believing her lies. That said, Savathun’s actions over the course of more than a year have backed up the feeling that she really has switched sides and is now an active enemy of the Darkness, the evil power in the Destiny 2 universe, and the worm gods, which have empowered the Hive for eons. Her own sister, Xivu Arath, is hunting Savathun and seemingly intent on killing her in service of the Darkness. And in past seasons, Savathun has worked to keep us Guardians away from the Darkness’s influence. Whatever other lies she’s telling, given the events we’ve seen and the fights we’ve actually fought, that Savathun is actually fighting the Darkness seems to be a truth.

So okay, take it as proven that Savathun doesn’t want to be a slave to the Darkness or the worm gods anymore. This statue then might just be a cool piece of art with which Savathun commemorates Oryx’s battle against Akka. It could be a tribute to family, or a monument to the first defeat of the worm gods, since Savathun isn’t a fan anymore. But it could also be something more.

Perhaps Savathun’s ultimate deception is that she’s mean.

There’s been something of a fan theory floating around for a while that a burgeoning Hive goal is to resurrect Oryx. After all, we left a vacancy on Oryx’s throne when we killed him back in Destiny 1 and nobody has filled it–something that was a major theme of Forsaken and all our visits with Toland the Shattered in the Ascendant Realm. Shadowkeep is about factions trying to rise to take over the Hive hierarchy and dissent about Hive leadership. And though Savathun might be lying to us, something she said that actually rings true in the Season of the Lost was about her dedication to family. While the Hive gods warred on each other countless times over the millennia, they always considered these attacks to be love meant to strengthen one another–to force evolution through what is essentially their religion, the Sword Logic. I think it’s true that Savathun feels for her siblings even now.

So maybe this monument isn’t just tribute to past deeds of Oryx or historical recollection of a worm-god ass-kicking, but some reverence for the Taken King. I think it’s possible Savathun wants to bring Oryx back–through, you know, some kind of weird Destiny space magic–and if that’s the case, I think Savathun wants not only to free herself from the Darkness, but Oryx too.

So that’s my big fun fan theory of the moment. The truth we’re going to learn about Savathun is that she wants to resurrect Oryx and release the Hive from the worms altogether. The Witch Queen expansion sees Savathun gaining the power of the Light, and while we’ll stand against her, Put me on record as seeing that as another manipulation–by the Darkness this time, not Savathun herself. We’ll see the error of our ways eventually.

Ultimately, I think, it won’t be the forces of Light that stand against the Darkness, but the forces of life. We’re already finding allies among the Eliksni and the Cabal, alien races who were our enemies for years (if not, in the story sense, centuries). We’ll join with the Hive eventually too, I think, and probably the Vex. It’ll be life fighting against death, with all of us living beings demanding a right to exist.

I mean, what if they resurrected Oryx and the Taken King was our friend? How sick would that be?

Would you like to hear about my Orb?

Orbs of Atrocity

In the This Week at Bungie blog post this week, the developer outlined a relatively minor change that has kicked off the outrage that the Destiny 2 community sees from time to time. Venture over to the r/destinythegame subreddit to see what I mean. It boils down to this: Guns aren’t going to generate Orbs of Power through Masterwork anymore. With The Witch Queen, you’ll equip certain mods to your armor, which will cause guns of a specific type to generate Orbs for you.

The ostensible reason for this particular change is to remove the requirement that players must gather Exotic catalysts for certain Exotic weapons. If you’re unfamiliar, catalysts are certain items you can find or earn in Destiny 2 that equip to Exotic weapons, and once you’ve completed whatever their requirements are, amp up that particular gun. They also generate Orbs of Power. A bunch of catalysts are only available through random drops in certain activities, which means a lot of people don’t have them, and it can take a long time to get them. Sometimes you get lucky. Often you don’t. Until you do, that spiffy Exotic that you like doesn’t generate Orbs. This new mod solution remedies that.

We don’t have all the details about the Orb situation, it must be said, because Bungie is dropping additional details later. However, it sounds like Orbs will factor into the new weapon crafting system and that more alterations to the Orbs system altogether are likely happening.

But this is one of those things that has players pretty upset, and it’s possible to see why. Currently, you can generate Orbs with all three guns in your arsenal, provided you either Masterwork them or have their catalysts if they’re Exotic. And Orbs are very useful in gameplay, since they help you gain your Super faster and can give you additional benefits, like health or ability energy regeneration. When you build a current Destiny 2 loadout, you think about Orbs.

With the mod change, it sounds like instead of having three guns for Orb generation, you’ll have…fewer, most likely. Each mod is tied to a certain damage type for Orb generation, so it seems like you’ll have to equip a mod to make your Arc guns generate Orbs, or your Void guns, and so forth. That has players annoyed because it’ll hinder the ability to swap guns on the fly. Instead of just going from Arc to Void as the situation dictates, they’re seeing the need to swap mods off their helmets to make sure they’re still generating Orbs, or worse, swapping the entire helmet for another one with preset mods ready to go.

The idea that Masterworked weapons might not produce Orbs fo Power anymore has a lot of people annoyed.

I’m usually at odds with the community reaction to changes like this, because personally, how my guns generate Orbs of Power is not a thing that gets my blood up. It’s a minor mechanic to me that barely affects how I play the game 99% of the time and thus I don’t really care. I feel that way about a lot of things in Destiny 2, to be honest. This just isn’t really that big of a deal.

And I do think a lot of these reactions are, in fact, over-reactions. Most activities in Destiny 2 just aren’t that difficult and don’t require that much care or attention for loadouts or build-crafting. That’s by design–the game is largely accessible and you can breeze through it with some challenge but not min-maxing-level attention to detail. The places you might have to care about whether your guns generate Orbs in all situations are those highest-level activities like Raids or Grandmaster Nightfalls. In most of those cases, where the game is so hard that every piece of armor, weapon choice, and mod attachment matters, well, you’re probably going to be equipment-locked anyway. You’re not going to be making weapon swaps or mod adjustments. So the scenario in which you’re swapping to make giant switches to your loadout to make sure you’re still generating, again, Orbs of Power, is just not one I think is realistic.

Maybe the Orb change is going to make a drastic difference to how Destiny 2 plays, or maybe it’ll just make things a little more annoying; it’s tough to speculate at this point. We’ll find out more soon as Bungie drops more details and when The Witch Queen actually drops. But I’m doubtful this is a change that anyone’s really going to be thinking about in roughly two months.

But hey, maybe I’m wrong. Feel free to argue with me in the comments below–I’m interested in some reasonable takes about the situation, for sure, especially because while I pay some attention to build-crafting, I know there are a lot of people out there who are much more expert. That said, I’d rather talk about your Witch Queen predictions, your Hive lore deep-dive thoughts, and your Oryx friend date dream scenarios.

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Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is getting another free event next week, with the available rewards set to bring a cyberpunk aesthetic to 343 Industries’ shooter.

The event, called Cyber Showdown, kicks off January 18. A brief trailer shows off some of the new rewards, including a neon-colored holographic mohawk.

There’s no official word on how long the event will last or what other rewards will be up for grabs, but dataminers look to have already uncovered much of that information. Based on the leaks, the event will run two weeks and end on February 1. Players can expect to unlock a bright pink armor and weapon coating, a stance, a visor color, weapon charm, and more.

The event will work similarly to that of previous Fracture: Tenrai events, where players will need to complete specific event challenges in order to make progress in the free event pass. According to dataminers, the Cyber Showdown will also see the introduction of new game modes like Attrition and King of the Hill.

Once the Cyber Showdown event ends, players won’t have to wait long until the next event starts. Halo Infinite’s Fracture: Tenrai event will pick back up for on February 1, giving players more opportunities to unlock various samurai-themed cosmetics.

343 recently announced a hotfix will be coming to Halo Infinite in the middle of next week to address ongoing Big Team Battle matchmaking issues. After the patch has been applied, players who log in will be able to score five XP boosts and challenge swaps as compensation from 343 for issues with the game mode over the holidays.

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It’s been just over a month since Activision Blizzard employees went on strike following the unexpected termination of 12 contractors working on the Raven Software QA team. In that time, employees have repeatedly gathered to share their demands of the company in an effort to “foster a transparent and trusting relationship” and enter peaceful negotiations. However, despite their best attempts, a current Raven Soft employee has now said there have been no steps made towards reconciliation.

In a recent report by Inverse, the outlet spoke with both former and current Activision Blizzard employees about the company’s working conditions as well as the ongoing strike. Jessica Gonzalez, the founder and organizer of ABetterABK (A Better Activision, Blizzard, and King), says that despite requests for the QA team to meet with leadership to discuss the ongoing crisis, leadership “hasn’t opened a dialogue” with the workers. Her claim was then backed by two current Raven Software employees, both of which chose to remain anonymous.

“QA has not been involved in any of these discussions,” the first employee told Inverse. “Our request to meet with leadership has been met with radio silence.”

The second employee then expanded upon the comment, stating:

“Activision’s silence is something we expected, but were nevertheless disappointed to see. The company continues to publicly state how it wants to develop a clear line of communication between management and employees while actively going against its claims of transparency behind closed doors. ABK is not looking to change its toxic ways and improve the company culture anytime soon.”

The article also delved into the general mistreatment many QA testers experience in the industry, from grueling hours and crunch to not being offered benefits, stability, or proper recognition for their work. According to another anonymous source, “Many testers stay with the company for years but are forced to take unpaid breaks between contracts so they can legally remain ‘temporary employees.’ Temporary contracts do not include the benefits or bonuses given to regular full-time employees. QA workers are stuck working full-time hours and frequent overtime, doing vital work for the development process without ever receiving the benefits that are given to other departments.”

Unfortunately this report is merely the latest development in lengthy timeline of corporate wrongdoings by the company behind Overwatch, Diablo, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and countless other titles. Since July 2021, Activision Blizzard has been under investigation due to numerous reports of sexism, discrimination, and unethical working conditions made against the company. While some members of leadership have stepped down from their positions, CEO Bobby Kotick remains in power at the company–despite claims that he actively covered up workplace harassment as well as threatened a female coworker.

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Torchlight fans looking for a new way to play now that Torchlight III has been out for over a year will soon find it, as the mobile entry of the hack-and-slash action-RPG franchise Torchlight: Infinite will be entering closed beta on January 18.

Developer XD Inc. announced the upcoming beta with a new gameplay trailer, showing off some of the game’s flashy skill combos. Those who signed up on the Torchlight: Infinite website in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand will receive instructions on how to download the beta if selected.

The beta will feature four playable heroes and 24 talent trees offering over 180 abilities, according to the official press release. All dungeons, encounters, and loot drops will be randomized, and there will be no cooldown or stamina system that will prevent players from enjoying the beta. Finally, everything in the beta can be unlocked for free, including heroes, skills, maps, and items.

Torchlight: Infinite is set 200 years after the events of Torchlight II, and “spawns players in the prosperous Era of Ember Tech as they embark on an epic quest to stop Aember – the Ember Blight – from corrupting the sacred land of Leptis” according to the official release. It is the first game in the franchise since Torchlight III, which launched on consoles and PC in October 2020.

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Sony’s God of War releases on PC today, opening up the game to a new audience, some of whom might play the game using an Xbox or Nintendo controller. Technical production boss Matt DeWald was asked by Game Informer about how he feels about people playing God of War with an Xbox controller, and DeWald said it’s “awesome.”

The PC release was specifically designed with the idea that some people would use a controller from a rival company, DeWald said. “We even put in all the glyphs for you so you don’t get confused by the button press. Yeah, we have no problems with that,” he said. “You can even use a Switch controller here as well. You can definitely use any of the third-party controllers.”

DeWald added: “We tried to add as many options as possible because why limit people who want to play the game?”

God of War launched in 2018 as a PlayStation exclusive, and it performed exceptionally well, selling 19.5 million copies by Sony’s latest count. The game was technically already playable using third-party controllers, since it was released on PC through PlayStation Now.

For more, check out GameSpot’s gameplay video above to see God of War in action on PC. You can also read GameSpot’s updated God of War review and see what other critics think of God of War for PC.

The next God of War game, Ragnarok, is scheduled for release later this year on PS5 and PS4.

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