Games Done Quick, the charity video game speedrunning series, is making its European debut in a live event at Germany’s Gamescom this summer.
GDQ’s marathon event will run for the duration of the three-day show in Cologne, starting August 28-30, and will feature popular runners and an on-site live audience. The event will be broadcast on Twitch and YouTube, with programming kicking off at 4am ET (one for all you early risers) daily and running until 2pm.
"We’re thrilled to expand Games Done Quick globally and to bring a live event to gamescom in Germany, an opportunity that’s incredibly meaningful to our team," said Ashley Farkas, Games Done Quick’s Owner and Business Director. "This partnership not only supports an amazing initiative, but also creates space for more runners to participate, especially those who haven’t previously had the opportunity to travel to the US."
Games Done Quick was established in 2010 and has since raised more than $60 million for charities worldwide. Its first event of this year took place back in January, and featured live speedruns of Super Mario Sunshine, Hades IIand Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, to name a few.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/games-done-quick-will-host-its-first-ever-event-in-europe-170637194.html?src=rss
To make up for an incredibly laughable inaugural event, Beijing is running back its humanoid robot half-marathon. Fortunately, the event that pits humanoid robots made by Chinese companies against each other across 13 miles went a lot smoother this year.
This year's half-marathon hosted more than 100 competitors, with first place going to Honor, better known for its smartphones, and its red-clad robot named Lightning. Living up to the name, the gold medalist finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. That's several minutes faster than the human record that was recently set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo last month.
Honor swept the other podium spots, with the important caveat that they all navigated the course autonomously, according to the state-sponsored television news agency CCTV. That's a massive improvement over last year, where the fastest time among 21 robots was achieved by Tiangong Ultra with a record of two hours and 40 minutes. Last year's event saw many of the bipedal robots receiving assistance from human operators who ran alongside them, as well as some comical mishaps, like falling at the starting line.
However, the BBC reported that around 40 percent of the robots competed autonomously this year, while the rest were remote-controlled. Despite the rapid improvements, this year's event still had its fair share of crashes, even from Honor's robots.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/beijings-robot-half-marathon-is-back-for-its-second-year-with-far-less-embarassing-results-191308396.html?src=rss
While I dabble in other Overwatch modes, I spend the vast majority of my time there in Mystery Heroes, a casual mode in which you load in as a random character and automatically switch to another one when you respawn. It's by far my favorite way to play Overwatch (which I do a lot!), since it helps me switch off and relax. Others play it as a warmup for competitive action. It requires a particular skillset, as players need a working knowledge of all 51 heroes to help them coordinate with teammates and know what the opponents have on deck. But with the arrival of the new Overwatch season this week, Blizzard changed Mystery Heroes, and made it much less fun to play.
The developers say they modified Mystery Heroes "to help keep the mode's casual pace intact while mitigating some of the more extreme pain points it's had in the past." That might have something to do with how the mode handled perks. In other modes, players earn perks (upgrades to their existing tools or entirely new abilities) throughout a match. In Mystery Heroes, they load into a round with random perks already equipped. That's fun! I love the chaos of Mystery Heroes and trying to make things work with whatever hero and perks I have.
Now, perks are gone from Mystery Heroes. I kind of get it. Nixing them helps players clock what's going on a bit faster — they won't feel the need to quickly check which perks they have when they're racing back to the action when the time is running out. Perks were only added to Overwatcha little over a year ago and they've helped make the game more enjoyable. Removing them from Mystery Heroes diminishes it compared with other modes, especially given that some heroes are now more oriented around their perks.
Overwatch
Blizzard Entertainment
The other major change in Mystery Heroes is a switch from teams of five players to 6v6. I'm fine with 6v6 in other game types, but it makes Mystery Heroes much worse.
In other 6v6 formats, you typically have two tanks, two supports and two damage heroes. In Mystery Heroes, the defense might load in with four tanks and two supports (teams are limited to three heroes from any class after respawns). While tanks generally have lower health pools in 6v6 modes, that's still an oppressive composition to run into. Attackers lack the agency to switch to other characters that can counter such a setup. For instance, if the attackers don't spawn in as heroes that can get behind a chokepoint and take out those supports, they might never break through. That doesn't make for a fun round. Trying to keep five other players alive as a solo support isn't exactly a blast either.
I’m not the only one who’s disappointed with these changes. In every single Mystery Heroes game I’ve played since the update, other players have lamented the loss of perks (the reaction to the 6v6 switch is more mixed). They're protestingonReddit and the Overwatch forums too.
It’s not like I’m averse to change. Blizzard has made a ton of updates to greatly improve Overwatch over the last few years. It added the big Stadium mode in 2025 and the game recently had a soft, successful relaunch. Even in this season, there are lots of positive tweaks, including some welcome hero updates (and some that are less welcome) and the return of post-match awards. New damage hero Sierra is rad too.
The Mystery Heroes changes, though, are a step in the wrong direction. I dearly hope Blizzard reverses course on those soon.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/blizzard-just-made-overwatchs-best-mode-much-worse-185114683.html?src=rss
Playdate is getting a third season of curated, surprise games, Panic announced today. We don't know much beyond the fact that Season Three is officially happening, but Panic's Head of Playdate Greg Maletic said in an announcement video that it will be here "in time for the holidays" this year. Considering we had to wait a whole three years for Season Two to come out following Season One's release with the console in 2022, that doesn't sound so bad.
Panic hasn't yet said how many games Season Three will include, or how much it will cost. While Season One had a total of 24 games — with a release schedule of two games per week for 12 weeks — last year’s Season Two had half the amount (plus Blippo+), and cost $39. But that drop in quantity thankfully didn't mean a drop in quality. Season Two was great, with a collection of games that felt stronger overall than the first. I, for one, can't wait to see what Season Three brings. In other exciting news, Panic also announced today that the much, much-awaited game Office Chair Curling is finally available for purchase on Playdate and Steam, with the option for online cross-play.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playdate-season-3-is-coming-later-this-year-181340117.html?src=rss
Riot Games released a pile of updates for its long-running MOBA League of Legends. One of the more noteworthy changes coming to the game is the official launch of WASD controls. This alternate option, allowing players to traverse the rift by keyboard rather than by mouse, is rolling out to ranked matches in patch 26.9.
Riot first announced that it was pursuing support for WASD controls last August. The studio said it wanted to ensure that the alternate control scheme wasn't more powerful than point-and-click movement; Riot said it was targeting a low win-loss rate difference between the options before releasing it to League players. "There's still a small delta in the win-rates between the control schemes, with Point and Click having a minor advantage," according to today's devlog dedicated to this new feature. "We expect that difference will decrease over time as players gain more mastery with WASD, but we will continue to monitor this stat in the future."
That blog post goes into more detail about how the team tested and gauged community responses to WASD, which is pretty neat stuff if you're a game dev nerd. League will be receiving a few new accessibility improvements, such as custom inputs for moving the mouse cursor and some new flexibility for keybinds, along with the new control scheme. Although Riot was clear to say that it's not adding official support for controllers or gamepads, players will be able to use WASD controls with a joystick.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/league-of-legends-new-wasd-control-scheme-will-be-enabled-for-ranked-later-this-month-193858052.html?src=rss
The hit mountain climbing simulation Cairn is getting a series of free DLC drops, under the banner On the Trail. The first will be released this summer and it's called Deep Water.
The DLC introduces three new climbing areas and plenty of "fresh challenges." There's also a new avatar, as players can now climb as Aava or the game's original sidekick Marco.
As the name suggests, there's some new water-based mechanics here. It looks like players will be able to fall into the water without automatically dying, though the developer hasn't shown how that works exactly. In the original game, a fall into a body of water would be treated just like any other fall.
This is the first in a series of new DLC releases, but we don't know what the other updates will entail. We do know that they'll all be free. The base game is $30, when not on sale, so this is a nice little perk for fans.
For the uninitiated, Cairn is a serious mountain climbing sim that forces players to keep a keen eye on balance and stamina. It's got a fairly complex control scheme, with a manual mode that mandates independent control of each limb. There's an emphasis on route planning and gear management. The game is also quite easy on the eyes.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mountain-climbing-sim-cairn-is-getting-free-dlc-this-summer-182908992.html?src=rss
The Banana Ball World Tour is coming to Roku. The platform has signed a deal to stream free content from the Banana Ball Championship League. This, of course, includes Savannah Bananas games.
If that last paragraph didn't make a lick of sense to you, here's a primer. The Savannah Bananas are a wacky baseball team, playing something called Banana Ball. The team has been called the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, and that's a fairly apt name. Players dress in funny costumes, step into ridiculously tall stilts, perform dance routines and do all kinds of things that could frustrate traditional baseball fans but tend to delight those looking for a unique night out.
To that end, Savannah Bananas games have become massive events. They've been traveling around the country the past few years doing exhibition matches, but the team's success led to the creation of the Banana Ball Championship League and the Banana Ball World Tour. There are now six teams involved and Roku will be streaming games from later this month until September.
First up, the Savannah Bananas face the Party Animals on April 26 at Yankee Stadium, which streams live at 3PM ET on the Roku Sports Channel. The Party Animals are Savannah's main rivals, making them the Washington Generals of Banana Ball.
Roku has published a calendar of streamed matches, but it doesn't include the actual championship game. This inaugural Banana Bowl is scheduled for October 10. Engadget has reached out to the platform to see what their plans are for the final game of the season. Many games are also available to stream on ESPN via Disney+.
The company also says it's working on some kind of "interactive platform" for Banana Ball fans. The matches have a lot of audience participation, so this could be some kind of riff on that. Roku promises to share more details at a later time.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/roku-will-stream-savannah-bananas-games-along-with-the-entire-banana-ball-championship-league-153329667.html?src=rss
Disney has inked a deal with the Korea Esports Association that will bring several gaming tournaments to its streaming platform. Disney+ will be the global live streaming home for Esports Champions Asia Jinju 2026, the 2026 League of Legends KeSPA CUP and some preliminary events ahead of the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026. This agreement expands KeSPA's arrangement with Disney, which only streamed its esports events to viewers in Asia last year.
Esports Champions Asia is the first event on the calendar, occurring April 24-26 with professional teams from across the continent squaring up in tournaments for games including Street Fighter 6, The King of Fighters XV, TEKKEN 8 and the eFootball series. Disney+ will also be an official streamer for the PUBG Mobile and Eternal Return competitions during that weekend.
It could be helpful for western esports fans to have a single location for watching the major events happening in Asia. However, many tournaments are currently free to watch on Twitch or YouTube, so now needing a Disney+ subscription to catch some of these international competitions might feel onerous. Esports might run the risk of turning into the fragmented set of rights deals that plagues traditional sports leagues, where a game could be on one of a half dozen different paid services each night. It's also likely going to mean co-streamers take a hit to their viewership, since Disney seems unlikely to offer the same sort of broadcast access that has made the practice popular on Twitch.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-league-of-legends-kespa-cup-will-air-globally-on-disney-224455083.html?src=rss
Ahead of its premiere, Dave Filoni has revealed that the Star Wars animated series Maul: Shadow Lord will return for a second season. The Lucasfilm co-president revealed that season 2 is already in the works, telling Esquire that "at the end of the day, people like that character."
Filoni didn't reveal any other details about the plot or release date for season 2. However, the news isn't a great surprise given Lucasfilm's past history with its animated series — The Clone Wars ran seven seasons, Star Wars Rebels four seasons, Star Wars Resistance two seasons and Star Wars: The Bad Batch three seasons.
Maul: Shadow Lord explores the Zebrak Sith Lord's story about a year after the time of the Clone Wars. Season 1's 10 seasons will stream twice a week on Disney+ starting on April 6 and run through May 6. It covers Maul's plot to rebuild his criminal syndicate "on a planet untouched by the Empire," according to Lucasfilm. "There, he crosses paths with a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan who may just be the apprentice he is seeking to aid him in his relentless pursuit for revenge."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/star-wars-animated-series-maul-shadow-lord-season-2-confirmed-054036065.html?src=rss
Basketball player Stephen Curry has long collaborated with Google, and last year took on the role of “Performance Advisor” at the company as part of a multi-year partnership. It appears the first product of this union is “coming soon,” based on a video posted to Curry’s Instagram account. The 15-second clip shows shots of Curry playing with a basketball, and a gray-and-orange band sits conspicuously on his left wrist. Interspersed are the words “A new relationship with your health coming soon,” and the video ends on the Google logo.
We reached out to Google for comment and details, and the company said “Our Performance Advisor has been working with the team to cook up something special 👀. More to share soon.”
In a voiceover in the video, Curry says, “I’m excited for what this is going to mean for the world, for health, for wellness. It’s the first of its kind in a way. I won’t spoil it — you kind of have to see it for yourself.”
Based on what we see in footage, the band seems to resemble a Whoop wearable, although a screen or any module is never shown. It’s unclear how Google’s product would be different, although it wouldn’t be a stretch to guess that AI might feature somehow.
Whoop was started in 2012, and announced today that it had raised $575 million with a valuation of $10 billion. Whoop’s investors include athletes like LeBron James and Cristiano Ronaldo, among other celebrities.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/googles-performance-advisor-steph-curry-teases-probable-new-wearable-183612209.html?src=rss
