This year’s Steam Summer Sale is over, so say goodbye to all the deals. But say hello to some rad-looking art! With the sale over, an artist at Valve is now free to share all the fake video game key art and covers that she helped create that were hidden inside Steam’s large digital catalog as part of the sale’s scavenger hunt. Sure, the games are fake, but I really want to play most of them.

The art for these non-existent video games was created by Valve developer Claire Hummel. She’s previously worked on games like Half-Life: Alyx and Westworld Awakening VR. And now, with the Steam sale over and its related time-traveling event ended, Hummel shared on Twitter all the cool covers she made for a variety of fake games spanning various genres.

For example, here’s what appears to be a fishing game about failing to catch fish. I’d play that.

And here’s some key art for a game about helping a very important king get to the bathroom. Yeah, I’d play that, too.

According to Hummel, the idea behind the art was to make it look “relatively convincing” so it would blend in with the thousands of other games on Steam. However, the art and game titles are just odd enough that you might notice something “a little weird on second glance.”

The various game names and ideas were created by Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton, longtime Valve writers. Once Hummel had a fake game name, she went to work making art for it.

“I just tried to match their energy in the final art,” explained Hummel on Twitter. “Super fun trying to make plausibly polished logos in a whole bunch of different styles/genres.”

This process led to some wonderfully strange but also very intriguing fake video games. For example, who wouldn’t want to at least see a trailer for Custard Castle Small Claims Court?

On Twitter, Hummel shared that creating all these fictional video games from the future “ended up being a whole lot of work” but it was still fun to do.

“I hope everyone got a kick out of finding each of these as much as we did making ’em.”

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<p>The post Valve Made A Load Of Fake Games For Steam Summer Sale first appeared on harchi90.</p>

It’s been a hot minute since I traded rungs in the middle of the hearthstone seasonal ranked ladder. But some players who recently returned to Blizzard’s take on Magic: The Gathering were greeted with a generous surprise: dozens of free card packs. Before you go getting your hopes up, however, the reward-spree was only for a random set of players in Europe.

One of them was a Reddit user who goes by access547. “Come back to hearthstone and enjoy 20 Card Packs, on us!” read a message from the game they shared on the subreddit. Ten of the packs were from the core set, while the other 10 were from the most recent Voyage to the Sunken City expansion for a combined value of over $25.

But that was at the low end of Blizzard’s gift-giving. Other players reported getting 150 packs. “Saw the post earlier, thought it was fake, got mine today wtf,” wrote Reddit user Altorode. Again, they were evenly split between the newest expansion and the core set, though this time with a combined value of nearly $200.

ace PC Gamer reports, this wasn’t a glitch or someone at Blizzard going rogue. Instead, it was part of a limited-time experiment specifically targeting players in France and the UK. “We run many different limited and targeted tests such as this to better determine what drives former, new or current players’ interest, which is a common industry practice,” a Blizzard spokesperson told PC Gamer.

A subset of “relevant players” were randomly sorted into groups and then each of those groups were randomly assigned free bonus packs for returning to the game between 20 and 150. Just like what cards players get in each pack, luck alone determines how many packs the lucky winners receive. Fitting for a game where RNG can sometimes play such a big role.

The Blizzard spokesperson didn’t say anything about whether this program would eventually circulate around to other regions as well. hearthstone‘s next expansion, Murder at Castle Nathria, launches in August. In the meantime, if you weren’t one of the lucky players in France or the UK, there are plenty of other card games to try out, including CD Projekt Red’s latest roguelike twist on the witcher mini-game Gwent called Rogue Mage.

And don’t begrudge the UK’s hearthstone players’ good fortune too much. You might not have heard but their government is currently in shambles. Though who are we to cast stones.

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<p>The post Hearthstone Randomly Awards Some Players A Ton Of Free Packs first appeared on harchi90.</p>

Up until now, reverse bullet-hell shooter Vampire Survivors, one of the year’s must-play indie hits, did not have a final boss. That’s no longer the case in the wake of a recent update, which adds a new version of the game’s final stage.

Still in early access, and technically first released in the twilight of last year, Vampire Survivors work a Castlevania-inspired survival game. Though it may look like a top-down bullet hell shoot-’em-up, the core concept isn’t really about dodging projects: You’re the one shooting them, obliterating thousands of enemies. And thanks to a handful of roguelike elements, Vampire Survivors can easily put you into that “just five more minutes” mindset. here’s Kotaku‘s Ian Walker:

Vampire Survivors‘ true power, however, is in its near-constant dopamine rush. It feels like a mobile game without all the mobile game bullshit, or maybe one of those mindless Flash distractions you used to secretly pull up on your school’s study hall computers. Not only is clearing the screen of baddies satisfying, but every so often rare, stronger enemies reward you with a treasure chest that showers you in additional items and money for unlocks with a flashy sequence that rivals even the best loot boxes.

The latest update, 0.8.0 (patch notes here), showers you with even more stuff, inching Vampire Survivors closer to a full release via a slew of new abilities, achievements, and weapons. But the biggest change is the addition of a reworked final stage, “Cappella Magna.” If you survive to the 30-minute mark, ace polygon notesall of the stage’s enemies will coalesce, Voltron-style, into a giant reaper. that’s the final boss. Once you defeat it the first time, “Cappella Magna” will revert to the easier—but still really freakin’ difficult—version. For your efforts, you’ll unlock the Great Gospel relic, which allows you to upgrade weapons beyond their max level.

If you haven’t played yet, Vampire Survivors is worth a spin. it’s part of the PC library for Game Passmicrosoft’s games-on-demand subscription service. Or, and this is key, it costs $3.

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<p>The post Vampire Survivors, A 2022 Best Game, Gets Final Boss In Update first appeared on harchi90.</p>

Publisher Nacon announced some new games today, and among them are RoboCop: Rogue Cityan upcoming FPS starring the famous cyborg police officer from the 1980s, and Terminator Survival Projecta survival game set in that universe’s bleak, machine-ruled future.

Let’s talk RoboCop first: destined for both PC and consoles (PS5 & Xbox Series X|S), it is being developed by Teyon, the studio responsible for Terminator: Resistance (I’m sensing a pattern here). Here’s the pitch:

Welcome to Detroit; crime runs rampant, the city on the edge of ruin. As things descend further into chaos, you are the solution, a cyborg officer, RoboCop. And it wouldn’t feel right without Peter Weller reprising this role. Become the RoboCop in June 2023! Coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

RoboCop is a classic sci-fi action-adventure and one of Hollywood’s most iconic movie franchises of all time. NACON and Teyon are working with MGM to develop an authentic RoboCop game experience that is faithful to the franchise’s DNA, while immersing gamers in an original story that enables them to play as none other than RoboCop himself. In the RoboCop movie, when good cop Alex Murphy is fatally wounded by ruthless criminals, innovative doctors are able to piece him back together as an unstoppable crime-fighting cyborg called “RoboCop.”

In some good news for fans of the original films, the Alex Murphy you’ll be playing won’t just look like actor Peter Weller—who “agreed to be the model for the game’s protagonist”—but will feature his voice acting as well , meaning you’re getting the most authentic “dead or alive, you’re coming with me” you can get.

Here’s the game’s trailer, which not only features gameplay—I am liking the implementation of the original film’s target lock-on visuals—but also shows this is looking like the kind of linear, singleplayer shooter that we simply don’t get enough of in this day and age.

It was also announced Terminator: Survival Projectwhich I’ll spend a lot less time on since they only showed a brief teaser trailer and said it’s “coming to PC & Consoles in the distant future.”

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<p>The post New Robocop And Terminator Games Are Coming To PC, Consoles first appeared on harchi90.</p>

Blizzard’s controversial Diablo Immortal to big numbers and high revenue launched. It also set off an ongoing debate about in-game purchases, digital gambling, free-to-play mobile games, and addiction. The massive publisher has mostly remained silent amid the negative headlines and criticism. But in a new interview, Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra has defended the game’s launch and its controversial monetization, citing high app store reviews to claim that most players enjoy the game.

In yesterday’s wide-ranging interview with the LA TimesBlizzard President Mike Ybarra talked about numerous topics, including the many issues Blizzard faces as it navigates the fallout from last year’s explosive lawsuit by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the ensuing flood of harassment and discrimination allegations directed at Activision Blizzard.

He also talked about the company’s most recent game, the mobile free-to-play action-RPG spin-off Diablo Immortal. While many have the game’s in-app purchases, low drop rates, and possibly exploitative mechanics, Ybarra defended the game, saying Blizzard built it so players could “literally do 99.5% of everything in the game” for free while still getting a full “Diablo experience.”

“The monetization comes in at the end game,” Ybarra told the outlet. “The philosophy was always to lead with great gameplay and make sure that hundreds of millions of people can go through the whole campaign without any costs. From that standpoint, I feel really good about it as an introduction to Diablo”

Ybarra also told the LA Times that he and others at the company are well aware of the online complaints and concerns. But he still defended the mobile ARPG by pointing toward its high rating on the Apple App Storethe implication seemingly being that the broader community of people playing Immortal don’t have a problem with the game or its in-app purchases.

According to the LA Times, Blizzard explained in a follow-up email that the “vast majority” of players are not spending money in the game, but wouldn’t share any specific details. Ybarra seems to suggest that’s a feature and not a bug, but let’s be clear: If this game ever stops racking up millions of dollars, it’s unlikely Blizzard will keep it running out of the kindness of its heart.

Of course, while many players (myself included) continue to play and enjoy Diablo Immortal, there is no denying that it is possible to spend a lot of money on it if you wish to reach the top of the leaderboards and/or want to max out your character’s gear or stats. Blizzard doesn’t seem to have created any real protections to save people from sinking thousands of dollars into the game to get high-ranking gems, and with the game’s abysmal drop rates, it can become a dangerous situation for people unable to control themselves.

Based on what Ybarra has said, and how much money Immortal is bringing in dailyit seems very unlikely that the game will be changed anytime soon to address concerns players have with it and its economy.

Many players are now worried about what to expect from next year’s big entry into the series, Diablo IV. According to Blizzard, it won’t be anything like Immortal and will only include “cosmetic” microtransactionsbut even that might feel like too much for some observers.

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<p>The post Blizzard Defends Diablo Immortal’s Microtransactions first appeared on harchi90.</p>

Few racing games are more therapeutic than Funselektor’s Art of Rally, a minimalist, top-down arcade rally racer with an emphasis on driving feel and pleasant vibes. It’s a singular experience — the kind of racing game that rightfully garnered plenty of attention and praise from novices and experts alike. An interview posted today with the game’s chief developer, Dune Casu, teases into what makes it so special.

Unlike many other modern racing games, Art of Rally is played from a pseudo-top-down perspective, as was more common in the days before polygons and sprite scaling. Personally, as charmed as I am by the game’s visual style and zen-like approach to driving, that’s always been a sticking point for me; I’ve never got on well with top-down racers. However, a fan-made mod for the PC version was actually created to address that, bringing the camera close down to the ground, directly behind the car, like a chase cam in a more traditional racing game.

ace youtuber DustinEden says, it completely transforms the experience. It also causes some graphical and logistical issues, as Art of Rally was never intended to be played from such a vantage point. Those flat-shaded, minimalist assets that previously merged to paint a rich landscape when seen from a distance now seem a little too plain, a little too undercooked this up close. The sense of speed is also heightened, and DustinEden reports a compulsion to brake and lift more frequently out of a fear of losing control.

But the bigger issues actually pertain to pace notes; or rather, the lack of them. In rallying, your co-driver’s warnings of turns and hazards ahead is essential to successful run on a course you’ve never seen before. These notes must also be relayed at precisely the right time, in the right cadence and obviously in a variety of languages ​​for every territory in which the game releases.

Funselektor, however, is a small team that lacks the resources to record pace notes with the level of care they require. By pulling the camera up and back, the player could glean a better sense of what lies ahead without having to rely on verbal warnings. Casu explains this in a little more detail, in his interview with DustinEden, which you really should watch if you’re interested in this sort of stuff, or are a fan of the game.

The interview begins at about the 9:15 mark. Casu starts by explaining how the idea for the top-down camera came from a previous project:

originally with Absolute Drift it was a bit of an accident. It was supposed to be a third-person camera, like Need For Speed or the classic racing games. I was trying to make a main menu, like an interactive 3D main menu, so we just took this camera out and I brought it to this video game meetup, and someone said “oh this is way better, I like it better.” That’s the whole reason we did that.

the camera quickly became the glue that held the entire experience together; Casu recalls she having continually tweaked it “almost up until launch.” Still, he appreciates the chase cam mod presenting another option to the players that want it:

Some people seem to like it! It’s definitely an interesting mod that’s come out, it’s pretty cool to see. People would ask for it to be in the game, a chase camera like that. But then, since it’s a rally game you need pace notes, and the original goal of this game was to have a more minimal rally experience. By having this camera you get to do away with the pace notes. Because pace notes can [require] a lot of skill for a game, especially for localization — we have 12 languages ​​in the game — and getting that for like all the voice acting for everything, and also tuning it so it’s right… I’ve played rally games where the pace notes were a bit off and it forces you to crash. So having it all zoomed out, being able to see everything, that’s like the core of the game.

There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to either camera position, and Funselektor decided this one would be the best option for the type of game they wanted to make — a love letter to rallying presented as a diorama, with a stunning degree of physical depth. Art of Rally is still getting new, free content almost two years on, and Indonesian stages are due to be added in the coming weeks. It’s also available on pretty much every modern platform now, so if you haven’t had the chance to settle in yet, now could be the best time.

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<p>The post How a New Camera Angle Completely Transforms Art of Rally first appeared on harchi90.</p>

Rockstar Games has confirmed what many already doubted: There will be no major content updates for Red Dead Online moving forward. Instead, the company is shifting resources to focus on the next installment in the Grand Theft Authe series. It also confirmed more updates and quality of life improvements are coming for its wildly popular open-world crime simulator, GTA Online.

Of a blog post released today on Rockstar’s official websitethe publisher laid out its future plans for both GTA Online and Red Dead Online. And while Rockstar had a lot to say about the future of its online GTA game, it said very little about its online open-world western. What it did have to say wasn’t great, as the publisher basically announced the game is on life support and will no longer be a priority for the company.

While Rockstar thanked the RDO community and fans for sticking with the game over the last few years, it had some bad news for folks still enjoying RDO. According to Rockstar, it has been “steadily moving more development resources” toward the next entry in the GTA series, long rumored to be GTA 6. It says it wants to “exceed players’ expectations” with that next game, and resources once devoted to RDO have moved to GTA 6 instead.

This lines up with what Kotaku has heard from sources about the company dedicating more and more of its resources to the next GTA game, to the point of even canceling plans for future remasters in the process.

Rockstar will still continue to hold month-long events of Red Dead Online and does plan to add some new Telegram missions.

However, the publisher confirmed that it has no plans to release any bigger themed content updates for RDO moving forward, like the previous Blood Money or Moonshiners.

Alongside seasonal special events and experience improvements — plus other changes to enhance and maintain a healthy Red Dead Online environment — we plan to build upon existing modes and add new Telegram Missions this year, rather than delivering major themed content updates like in previous years, and we will continue to highlight and share the creative efforts of our Red Dead community at every opportunity via the Newswire and beyond.

It’s not the news Red Dead Online players have been hoping for, but it’s also not surprising either. At this point, many in the community have been calling the game dead, and some are even planning to hold a funeral later this month to mourn the game’s lack of updates and dearth of support.

With this news from Rockstar, the publisher has essentially put the game on life support, and while it will remain active and receive some tiny updates down the line, the reality is that Rockstar is now entirely focused on GTA Online and GTA 6 instead of digital cowboys and the horses they rode in on.

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<p>The post No Major Updates Coming For Red Dead Online first appeared on harchi90.</p>

The coolest part of halo 2 never made it into halo 2. If you’re at all a fan of the series, you know exactly what I’m talking about: the “Earthcity” demoshown off during Microsoft’s E3 presentation in 2003. That level never made it into the full release of halo 2but nearly two decades later, a playable build is in the works, 343 Industries announced today in a blog post.

Just to give you a sense of how earth-shatteringly cool this is, here’s my real-time reaction upon learning the news, copied directly from Kotaku‘s Slack channel:

wait

no fucking way

no

fucking

way

gemr2cmt4p4t3p2m8mp2340u9[m[0m19t

sry sry

my face fell onto my keyboard

In the cold light of today’s fidelity arms race, you might not get this impression looking at the clip’s lo-fi visuals, but it’s hard to overstate just how spine-tingling Halo 2’s E3 2003 demo was. Two years prior, Halo: Combat Evolved—and this almost goes without saying—redefined the first-person shooter. But that game was set entirely off-planet, on a ringworld called Halo. The “Earthcity” demo showed a look at a broader Halo canon—the primordial ooze for a sci-fi universe that’s spanned decades of games, spinoffs, comics, novels, a canceled film, and a recently renewed TV series.

The general scenario of “Earthcity”—a human metropolis is getting attacked, you’ve gotta protect it—is more or less replicated during the second and third levels of Halo 2. And certain gameplay elements the demo shows off, like the ability to wield two weapons at once, were also included in the full game. But the plot details diverged. Near the demo’s end, Master Chief boards a ghost, a typical ground vehicle of the covenant, Halo’s primary antagonistic force. He tears it full speed down a highway. He crashes, and then the demo pivots from real-time gameplay (eye-poppingly impressive for the time) to a pre-rendered cinematic. A number of covenant drop pods fall from orbit, elites wielding energy swords emerge and surround Chief. He pulls out a plasma grenade.

“Betcha can’t stick it,” Cortana, Chief’s AI companion, says.

“You’re on,” he says.

In Halo: Combat Evolved, elites with energy swords were arguably the toughest enemy unit. Facing one or two was usually tough enough. But seven? In close quarters? The demo couldn’t have ended on a more precipitous cliffhanger. As a player, you knew how much danger Chief was in—and you needed to know how he, how you, would fight your way out of it.

Though there’s no release date, 343 Industries is planning on making the stage playable in PC versions of “modern retail Halo 2.” (Halo 2 was released as a remastered version in 2014, which is also included as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.) The chance of it being playable on console is totally up in the air, in part due to the high technical hurdles for this endeavor.

“We originally didn’t have a lot of assets lying around for the map from previous analysis of leaked builds and the like,” General_101, a modder working with 343 on this project, wrote. “Just the source JMS files for the BSP and a few scenery objects. However, once the source map files turned up it was only a matter of time before we had all the data we needed.”

Beyond Halo 2’s E3 2003 demo, 343 is working with modders to add a ton of cut content to Halo: Master Chief Collection. For longtime Halo fans, there’s a ton of other fascinating stuff in the pipe, including the original elite models and a number of other renderings that never made the final cut. You can read it all here.

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<p>The post Halo 2’s Iconic E3 Trailer Will Be A Playable Level, Someday first appeared on harchi90.</p>

In its first month of release Blizzard’s controversial new mobile game, Diablo Immortal, has racked up nearly $50 million in reported revenue across 10 million downloads. Even as debates and criticism swirled around the free-to-play RPG, data shows that the game has made at least $1 million a day since launch.

ace first reported by mobilegamer.bizdata from AppMagic seems to indicate that Blizzard’s Diablo spin-off is raking in the cash. According to the data, in the game’s first week it was downloaded 6.85 million times. By July 3, that number increased to 10.35 million downloads. And while not all of these players likely stuck around or spent money, enough players did that on June 11 Immortal racked up $2.4 million in revenue, its best day so far. 30 days after release, Immortal has earned $48,988,970, according to AppMagic’s data.

Keep in mind that all of these numbers don’t include the PC version of the game. Also, AppMagic’s data is based on what developers earn after Apple and Google take their cuts. So with that in mind, it’s very likely that Diablo Immortal’s total revenue is far higher than the reported $48.9 million this data shows. For many of you reading this, that’s probably not the news you wanted to hear.

Diablo Immortal‘s had to walk a rough road pretty much since it was announced. Things only got worse after it came out. Many voiced concerns about the game’s in-app purchases and the amount of money it would reportedly take a player to max out their character and gear. at least one streamer spent far too much money proving just how rare and hard it is to get the best gems in the game. For its part, Blizzard has remained mostly silent, likely counting its money and developing Diablo IV.

me? While I acknowledge some of the absurd drop rates in Immortal, it has remained a perfect time killer for me. And now that my fiancée has picked up the game on her new phone we chill in bed when we first wake up on weekends and kill demons together for an hour or two like any good couple should. I’ve not gotten a five-star gem yet, but I also don’t really care.

Still, my ability to enjoy the game separate from its in-game store doesn’t change the fact that absurd drop rates and complicated in-app economies are not what many players are looking for. (Hell, to be clear: It’s not what I want either!) And some countries are fighting back, leading to some games—including Diablo Immortal itself—delaying or even canceling their releases to avoid anti-loot box legislation and restrictions.

All of this has raised questions about what to expect from next year’s Diablo IV. Blizzard says it will only include “cosmetic” microtransactionsbut even that might be too much following the controversial Immortal.

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<p>The post Diablo Immortal Earns $1 Million A Day, Data Shows first appeared on harchi90.</p>

In a week filled with fantastic live speedruns at Summer Games Done Quick 2022a one-hour playthrough of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance still turned heads. Even more remarkable was the encore, unlocked through community donations: a frantic race through the game’s Blade Wolf DLC campaign which ended up setting a brand-new world record. Or at least it would have, had it been real. Instead, a few days later the speedrunner behind it confessed to having faked it using a pre-recorded video compiling his best times from previous runs.

speedrunning culture is incredibly online, with players swapping strategies on forums, livestreaming their practice and world record attempts from all over the world, and later uploading the best times to record-keeping sites like Speedrun.com. One of the things that makes annual events like SGDQ is that some of the most talented players behind all sorts of different games get to come together in person and showcase their craft live for fans and casual viewers alike. In this context breaking records is rare, and all the more special because of it. Substituting pre-recorded footage for live attempts, on the other hand, is sacrilege. But that’s exactly what a speedrunner who goes by Mekarazium admits to doing last week.

“The Blade Wolf DLC run incentive people paid for is a pre-recorded segmented run,” the speedrunner told an SGDQ rep on Discord over the weekend. “I haven’t mentioned it anywhere, neither during the submission process or the email that I sent to the committee. It was supposed to be a real-time run, but I’ve changed my mind at the last second after switching the saves.”

Mekarazium, who was streaming remotely for the event on June 30, pointed out a few of the differences between his NG+ Hard playthrough, which was live, and the bonus run which edited together multiple perfect partial runs of the DLC. for one, the Blade Wolf campaign playthrough didn’t have any sounds from his keyboard and mouse. The checkpoints also didn’t quite line up, and as PCGamesN reportedsome viewers also noticed after the fact that the in-game camera was still moving at one point even after Mekarazium had removed his right hand from his mouse.

“I’ve done an actual bad thing and I shouldn’t have done this on the event,” he told GDQ.

But why he did it remains much harder to figure out. His SGDQ run ended with a rambling speech condemning leaderboards for monopolizing too much of the status and attention of speedrunning communities. He also seemed to want to make the case that more players should be focusing on exploring and crafting unique approaches to speedrunning rather than just chasing new world records.

“I feel empty and deranged, denied one last epiphany and ushered from the stage,” Mekarazium said near the end of his SGDQ appearance, quoting “This Godless Endeavor” from the ’90s heavy metal band Nevermore.

As a result of the stunt, GDQ has removed Mekarazium’s run from its YouTube channel and told Kotaku he’s been banned from performing at the event in the future.

“This is absolutely unacceptable and attempts to undermine the integrity of the speedrunning community that we love and support,” a GDQ spokesman wrote in an email. “The exact result they desired was unclear from the document, but it is clear that they believed we would not be willing to speak out about their behavior. However, we believe it is in the community’s best interests to know why this run was removed by GDQ.”

In his original message to GDQ, and in a follow-up response to Kotaku, Mekarazium said he made the decision to switch to a pre-recorded segmented run in part because his NG+ speedrun of the base game had gone so well and he wanted to cap it off with an even more impressive showstopper. “The following run had to be even higher in quality, which would become a grand finale,” he said over Discord.

To unlock the Blade Wolf DLC run, SGDQ viewers had to collectively donate $25,000 to Doctors Without Borders during the speedrun of the base game, and so they did, with hundreds contributing. What they got in return was impressive in theory—the run came in at 6:55.7, a whopping 25 seconds below the previous world record set by Mekarazium—but it wasn’t the live performance they had paid for, unbeknownst to anyone in the audience at the time. they cheered. Mekarazium feigned surprise, saying “holy shit” when his time was announced.

“Truth be told, that was a scummy thing to do,” Mekarazium now says on the issue of tricking the people who had donated. But he doesn’t seem to feel the same way about the rest of the stunt, instead claiming its deeper meaning is some sort of “puzzle to solve.”

“This is a taunt,” Mekarazium told Kotaku. “[A] taunt to every single person that watches speedrunning events and haven’t asked yourself some questions.” He said content makers for profiting off the work of speedrunners in exchange for free publicity, and GDC for putting its “brand needs” ahead of the community’s “passion,” saying the event will “take a massive hit to image” for removing “ one of the highly-rated runs that was well-received by everyone.”

“People will focus on the fact ‘omg he cheated,’ and not on the sheer amount of preparations done to ensure [the] run will go well, and the segmented run will go unnoticed.”

Mekarazium’s explanation only got more cryptic from there. “If you want to see some things change, there’s always [a] price to pay,” he said. “I am paying with my reputation of a marathon runner, a speedrunner, a commentator and a very passionate person to make others think about the things you’re ready to do in the name of said passion. So that others might change their opinion on the speedrunning as a whole.” He declined to elaborate further.

The speedrunner admitted he was also sleep-deprived at the time of his performance, due to scheduling delays. Whatever his true motivations, he seemed to know his antics would eventually come to light and get him banned back when the credits rolled last week. “We won’t be meeting again I think, some people just want to watch this world burn,” Mekarazium said at the end of his SGDQ appearance. “Good night, there will be more godless nights.”

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<p>The post One Of SGDQ 2022’s Coolest Speedruns Was A Lie first appeared on harchi90.</p>