Evening Reading - December 8, 2023

Hey, everybody! By the time you're reading this, I'll be away at Day of the Devs. I don't want to leave you without some news, memes, and entertainment, so here we go!

In case you missed it at Shacknews:

• Alan Wake 2 gets NG+, new ending & Nightmare difficulty next week
• Shack Chat: What are your honest thoughts of Tesla Cybertruck

And, because it's the weekend, go find yourself something to play!

• Weekend Console Download Deals for Dec. 8: The Game Awards 2023
• Weekend PC Download Deals for Dec. 8: The Game Awards 2023

Around the Gaming Horn

Take a look at Diablo 4's first seasonal event and what the holidays mean for Sanctuary.

Get a fresh look at the English dub for Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased Your Name.

With the announcement of a new Jurassic Park survival game, now seems like a great time for some Jurassic World DLC to come to Minecraft.

Before yesterday's flood of announcements from The Game Awards, Crash Team Rumble put out a new trailer for Season 3. As some might have guessed, it's time for Spyro to join the party.

Finally, starting flag has dropped for Rocket Racing.

Hey all - let's talk about the game we love, Rocket League.

The same team that has been supporting Rocket League is still cranking on updates coming to Rocket League in 2024, both the core game and RLCS. It's a bit too early to share details, but expect more news on that in the…

— Rocket League (@RocketLeague) December 8, 2023

Psyonix is emphasizing that Rocket Racing's launch will have no impact on Rocket League.

For now.

And now... Other Stuff From The Internet!!!

Game Awards speeches that could have been

So we're all in agreement that Geoff Keighley's treatment of game developers on Thursday was trash, right? Let's take a look at just some of the speeches we could have heard, but we missed out on.

Was really grateful to have been nominated and recognized for Goodbye Volcano High at The Game Awards. Even though we didn’t win I wanted to share the short speech we prepared: pic.twitter.com/p9mHHKFxMq

— Saleem Dabbous (@Seemo) December 8, 2023

WE ARE GAME AWARDS BEST MUSIC WINNERS WTF?! @SOKENsquareenix CONGRATSSSSSS!!! go drink some Sake for me please!!!! 🎶✨😎🤘🏼

I’ll practice my acceptance speech for my next stream, but in the meantime here’s a clip of me literally learning it (in my hotel room in Bali between… https://t.co/1ZBIeBMRfP pic.twitter.com/2ONOAyA8tx

— Amanda Achen (@SingingAmanda) December 8, 2023

".. Making games is a team effort and I want to thank @Sam_Elkana , my team, my brother, parents, @popagendaco, @laundry_bear, Ontario creates, @TheVTran and @Ekanaut and finally Tamil itself. Nandri, vanakkam 🙏🙏" 2/2

— Abhi 🐝 (@brownmoney__) December 8, 2023

This isn't the way, Geoff. I proved it myself last night.

Do better.

Game of the Year battle gets intense

Carbot Animations, responsible for some great short videos for games like Starcraft and Hearthstone, weighs in on the 2023 GOTY debate.

Nothing but the Hotfix

We see good games run all the time. Let's watch a bad game get the speedrunning treatment. Here's Superman 64!

GDQ's Hotfix shows air every week and you can catch them all at the Games Done Quick Twitch account.

Under the learning tree with Masahiro Sakurai

Masahiro Sakurai started a YouTube channel! Let's learn from his decades of experience together by looking at one of his latest videos. This week, Sakurai talks about the power of suggestion.

This week in Shaqnews

I'm here for Shaq clowning on Stephen A.

IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!

Man, I don't know how many times I have to type "He's back" in relation to CM Punk. Hopefully, this is the last time.

Tonight in video game music

To celebrate Sega's announcements last night, let's go to OC ReMix with this new track paying tribute to Golden Axe.

That's it for the second Friday Evening Reading for the month of December! Be sure to keep the spirit of the classic Evening Reading alive by jumping into the comments about whatever you see here or whatever randomness you'd like to discuss. Join the conversation and dive into the Shacknews Chatty comment thread below. If you want to go new school and find different ways to leave your feedback or talk about whatever, join us in the Official Shacknews Community Discord. I'll see you all next week!

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?