SecretAsianMan

The year may have just started but Awesome Games Done Quick waits for no one! This year's event runs from Jan. 3-10. For anyone not aware, Awesome Games Done Quick is a marathon gaming event where some of the best speedrunners in the world gather together to raise money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation by beating games as fast as possible. Many of the runs have donation incentives or bid wars such as the ever present Save/Kill the Animals for Super Metroid. There are also a large number of prize drawings during certain blocks of games. For more details check out the links below. Schedule Twitch Stream Donation Tracker Donate Page Official YouTube Channel

More AGDQ stuff. The official YouTube channel is here. I'm in the process of curating a (I promise I'll stop mentioning this). Korax is correct about most of the TAS stuff at previous events being in real time as opposed to video playback. They have to be very careful about how they set things up in order for the TAS program to execute in sync with the console, including down not running wires over each other. The Super Mario World showcase that Nick talked about where they get the game to execute code they have placed into memory to skip to the end is in this video ( ) There was also a Yoshi's Island race where they do something similar to skip to the end in the second stage

It's not about pattern recognition, it's statistical likelihood. They like to advertise that each number has an equal chance of occurring but they do some trickery in that area to try and force that to happen, the result of which is that certain combinations are less/more likely. I'm not a statistician so I can't really explain it properly (mostly because I don't fully understand it myself). Also I should note that this guy is insanely smart and most definitely not a gambler. This is maybe the second time in five years I've seen him actually do the pool.

The guy next to me at work has a large spreadsheet in which he's done a lot of statistical analysis of the lottery, including the changes mentioned. Part of that analysis is how they do small things to try and massage the outcomes to appear more "random". He's come up with a complex system that reduces the odds by a significant margin (from 1 in 292 million to about 1 in 1.5 million) but it's still a crazy long shot. He puts together a pool when the pot is big enough and I threw in a few bucks for the heck of it. Had it hit (and assuming there are no other winners) I would have gotten $17 million.

I know nothing about this game but I want the devs to team up with the creators of OlliOlli so they can make a sequel called Olli Olli Oxen Free

I'm going through the archive of AGDQ 2016 (I'll take this opportunity to once again plug the ) and the Yoshi's Island race reminded me of this episode. It's an extremely short race (about 5 minutes) and is more of a showcase than a full run. Danielle mentioned how speedrunning is almost like programming and in this case it literally is. The runners use very specific actions to put code into the game's memory, then use a glitch to crash the game and force it to run the code they previously entered causing the game to skip to the end. It's an extreme case of just how much the runners know about the games, as well as a testament to how dedicated they are to their art when they're still finding ways to break a 20+ year old game.

This is probably because my office just got IE 11 but almost all of the posting functions are broken for me now. I'm completely unable to quote anyone and any time I open a dialog box (such as trying to insert a picture or link) I'm unable to close it, even to cancel it. I have to reload the page. It's not a big deal since I can insert the tags myself but it's a mild nuisance. I only have this problem at my work computer so I'm pretty sure it's just the browser I'm stuck with.

I finished The Room Three which just recently came out on Android. I think I like the first Room game the most. They get progressively more complex but not necessarily in the puzzles. The first Room game was restricted to intensely scrutinizing one object at a time until you unlocked all its secrets. The second Room game had multiple objects in the same room that you were jumping back and forth between. The third Room game has multiple rooms with multiple objects in each room. As the physical space increased, I feel like the puzzles themselves have become less interesting. What made the first one fun was all the fiddly bits. Pressing buttons, flipping switches, turning knobs, all of which had immediate and noticeable effects. This game still has that, but because you now have to traverse rooms to see the effect of what you just did it kind of kills the pacing. It takes a few seconds to move from one room to the next and those seconds stack up into irritating waits while you search for the next step. If there's a Room Four I expect it to basically be the next Myst game.

Backing kickstarters at the top tier Becoming a patron of the arts An oculus rift

I'm glad AGDQ was brought up. I'm a huge fan of both marathons and constantly rewatch runs. I've started in some way if anyone is interested. One that I would suggest to the Thumbs (Chris in particular) is the Spelunky run. The category was all shortcuts, which means taking a new file and unlocking the shortcuts for each area then beating Olmec. There was also an incentive met for a Hell run. Additionally, Derek Yu and Andy Hull (designer and programmer) were watching the run and providing comments.

What I liked about that race was how it felt like watching a regular sporting event. The audience was totally silent and apart from the game sounds all you heard was the commentators speaking in a quiet and technical manner. It's not quite as exciting as a race like the Mario Maker race where people groaned and cheered but it was still quite interesting to see, not to mention impressive as hell.

The Room 3 is out on the Google Play store today

I'm adding runs as I watch them but I'm certainly open to suggestions I should note the playlist is ordered by date of upload. It should roughly be in the order on the schedule.

I've started curating a I think are good or interesting in some way. I'll probably add some notes on the individual videos about why they're on the list as I go. And contrary to the normal advice, I'd suggest looking at the comments for the videos. The first one usually has a timestamp for the start of the run.

I wish the comma was a standard key on a keyboard number pad.

I assume DOTA stuff.

Marc Laidlaw has left Valve. Someone on Reddit sent him an email about HL3 and he responded saying that he's no longer with Valve. Laidlaw himself confirmed his retirement. What does this mean for HL3?

Danielle is on the Beastcast this week! Now if we can just get Vinny or Austin on Idle Weekend...

It's similar to the way amateur is used in relation to sports. In the strictest sense it just means you're not playing at a professional level but the word amateur can have a negative connotation in certain contexts. Casual in the speedrunning world means just for fun rather than a competitive goal.

I'm still slowly progressing through the GOTY stuff (I'm only halfway through day two) but I'm so glad that Austin is there this time around. He's not only articulate and thoughtful in his arguments, but he also doesn't immediately jump on the opposition in the same way that someone like Jeff or Brad does. Even though his tastes differ from mine, I find that I like hearing from him the most because of that. While I like Brad, I am getting tired of his arguments which mostly boil down to "you're crazy".

I was bummed when I saw on the schedule what time Lagoon was being run since it's way too late for me. I've seen runs done by PJ in the past (I think he's literally the only runner of that game, with good reason) and was amazed that he finally submitted it to AGDQ after joking about it for years. I remember trying to play Lagoon myself as a kid and being completely destroyed by that game and it's tiny, tiny sword.

I meant to watch the Mario Maker race and I totally forgot. I'm super annoyed at myself. I'll have to catch up on it later.

I maxed everything out the other day. I had all the things that I actually use fully upgraded a while ago and was slowly finishing off the rest. Rather than get into the end game I've been joining lower level games to help people get gear and generally just mess around with things I wouldn't do in a serious run like bringing four Shredder missiles along and just nuking everything. Some things I've learned from doing this: I rather like the Commando (the homing rocket launcher). It's effective on the bugs and Illuminate due to the homing and ability to fire more than one shot before needing a reload. It's less useful against the cyborgs, specifically the tanks. But if you couple it with a Recoilless it's a great combo. The Recoilless can take care of the tanks and fully armored heavies while the Commando deals with the regular heavies since the rockets hit from above making their shield useless. Plus they can reload each other since they both use support packs. I think the most reliable anti-tank is the Demolisher. The Scorcher is a fun weapon and I prefer it over the Suppressor due to the ignition attribute. While I can appreciate the Paragon and Rail Gun, I just can't get into using them. Normally I love precision weapons but in this game I find it works against me. I'm actually finding the Patriot to be a lot of fun to use. It's surprisingly effective against the cyborgs due to the high rate of fire and bayonet for the dogs, but also requires a lot of ammo. The Knight is my favorite one handed weapon and is stronger than it looks due to the fire rate and stun. The only shotgun I can stand using is the Breaker. The arc weapons are terrible and not even that fun to use. The Jump Pack is probably my most frequently used strat outside of ammo resupplies. There's almost never a time I don't want one. I like the Shield Generator as well (the bubble shield not the directional one). It's got a number of neat side effects such as keeping cyborg dogs at bay (they won't charge you when the shield is active) and making you immune to both Illuminate control reversing and slowing (such as bug poison or the Static Field). The Obsidian is fun to use even though I think it's really only effective against the Illuminate since anti-tank is unnecessary.

Is that the trick where they morph ball in a corner and do some shenanigans that break the game or is this something new?

I've not played any Twine games but I agree with this entirely. I find smaller chunks easier to digest and understand. It gives me a mental pause to absorb what I just read instead of having a wall of text and trying to parse it all at once.