Half-Life - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Imogen Beckhelling)

Get your speedrunning shoes on and prepare your glitches: Awesome Games Done Quick has arrived for its yearly speedrunning extravaganza. As with previous years, the charity event is raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. It’s been live since yesterday evening and runs until this Sunday, and there are already some fab runs in the likes of Mirror’s Edge and Dragon Age: Origins to catch up on.

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Hades

Hello! And welcome to a special article where a bunch of us sit down to talk about our game of the year. And for 2020, that game is Hades. We hope you enjoy this conversation, and we hope you're leaving such an unusual year with some good memories of the games you've played.

Chris Donlan: There are a lot of Roguelikes and Roguelites - what makes Hades stand above the rest? Is that even the right lens to be viewing it through?

Malindy Hetfeld: I have a counter question if I may. Just to clarify. I'm not sure what the roguelike lens entails, because that means we all have a fixed idea of what that genre is about.

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Hades - kid_zomb
EDIT: Congratulations to the winners of The Steam Awards! And our heartfelt thanks to everyone who voted for Hades. While we didn't quite get there, it's amazing to have been in the running.
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On behalf of all of us at Supergiant Games, we are honored to see Hades nominated for Game of the Year in The Steam Awards! You had thousands of deserving games to choose from, ranging from some of the most spectacular blockbusters ever created, to some incredibly inventive titles from smaller teams like ours... and Hades made that short list. Thank you!! And now, voting begins to crown the winner.



We've been blown away by the accolades Hades has received thus far. It's been selected as 2020's Game of the Year by IGN, Polygon, Ars Technica, TIME Magazine, and The Washington Post, among others. It earned Best Action Game and Best Indie Game at The Game Awards, Best Action Game from PC Gamer, and Critics' Choice and Best Indie Game at the Golden Joystick Awards. This is an embarrassment of riches, well beyond what our previous games have achieved.

These accolades have demonstrated Hades has what it takes to really impress critics. So, how about you? If you think Hades deserves to win it all, we humbly ask for your vote for Game of the Year, here in The Steam Awards. It would mean so much to us.

Regardless of the outcome... our experience creating Hades, and launching it to such a warm and enthusiastic reception here, is something we will never forget. Having played Hades, you know that the blessings from the gods are key to keeping Zagreus going. In turn, your kind words and support -- your blessings -- have inspired us throughout development, and we're very grateful to be in this position at all.

So, thank you again. We hope you have a safe and restful holiday, filled with wonderful games.
Hades - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Hades artwork with Zagreus posing, flanked by Cerberus and Hades.

If you’ve liked Hades enough to buy it a second time, good news: you can now play the same save on both PC and Switch. Developers Supergiant Games last night launched the ‘Cross-Saves’ update on Switch, which lets you hook the game up to your Steam or Epic account and share saves through the cloud. So if you want, you needn’t start over fresh and unlock everything again on your Nintendo. That’s nice.

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Hades

There's good news for those hoping to make their Hades PC saves more portable, as developer Supergiant Games has announced Hades is getting cross-save between Switch and PC.

According to the tweet from Supergiant, all you need to do is open your Nintendo Switch version of Hades, select cross-saves in the main menu, then connect either your Steam or Epic Games account.

Oh, and there's some nice Hermes artwork to go along with the announcement too:

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Hades - kid_zomb
Hermes is here with some good news: Our Cross-Saves update for Hades is out now on Nintendo Switch!



This feature is for players who happen to have the game both on Nintendo Switch and Steam. It lets you transfer your save progress to and from Nintendo Switch.

Before using Cross-Saves, please be sure to read the in-game Help & Info section in the Cross-Saves submenu.

This update also includes various other improvements from our post-launch PC patches, details of which are linked here.

Thank you for all your incredible support and kind words about the game. We hope you enjoy using Cross-Saves!
Hades - kid_zomb

This patch contains additional minor fixes and improvements based on your feedback and reports since our v1.0 Launch Update. We expect this to be our final PC patch of the year. Thank you for playing!!

Note: 📢 indicates a change inspired by community feedback!

Infernal Arms, Aspects, & Abilities
Heart-Seeking Bow (Zagreus Aspect): increased Critical chance
Eternal Spear (Achilles Aspect): increased Skewer special charge speed; improved input buffering
Adamant Rail (Eris Aspect): reduced duration of bonus damage effect

Boons & Blessings
Sea Storm (Poseidon x Zeus): adjusted requirements for this to be offered; fixed interaction with Curse of Drowning (Poseidon x Ares)
Blinding Flash (Athena): fixed incorrect scaling from Poms on the Exposed Status Curse
Athena's Aid: reduced scaling from Poms
Parting Shot (Athena x Aphrodite): fixed interaction with Shadow Presence (Mirror)
Sweet Surrender (Aphrodite): normalized scaling from rarity and Poms
After Party (Dionysus): improved scaling from rarity
Black Out (Dionysus): adjusted requirements for this to be offered
Rare Crop (Demeter): fixed this not counting toward the bonus from Family Favorite (Mirror)
Killing Freeze (Demeter): fixed damage being locked at Common rarity; adjusted scaling from rarity

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades
Dash Nova (Blade): increased Sturdy duration; fixed dash sometimes moving you to the wrong position
Heavy Knuckle (Fists): increased attack speed; no longer locks you in place while attacking
📢 Draining Cutter (Fists): life drain now works under the effects of Lasting Consequences (Pact)

Keepsakes & Items
📢 Companion Rib (Skelly): increased health for summoned companion; takes less damage from you
Myrmidon Bracer (Achilles): now also works vs. trap damage
📢 Skull Earring (Megaera): increased active threshold
Shattered Shackle (Sisyphus): increased power level
----- of the ---- (???): reduced max number of stocks; updated text description to be more accurate

Mirror of Night
Abyssal Blood: increased power level

Level Design & Environments
• Minor fixes and improvements to several chambers

Art & Visual FX
• Added unique visuals for the Aspect of Eris damage boost
• Minor improvements to Final Boss intro animation

Music & SFX
• Updated sounds for the third strike in the Aspect of Guan Yu attack sequence
• Updated sound for big slow radiating blasts generated by certain attacks
• Added emote for when the Minotaur sets up the 'Bull Horn' combo attack

Voice & Narrative
• Slightly increased priority of events in the subplot that unlocks Hypnos' Affinity Gauge
• Increased priority of Zeus events required for the epilogue
• Increased priority of Orpheus events once you've started playing the Splendid Lyre
• Fixed rare cases where the Night and Darkness prophecy was not fulfilling when expected
• Fixed event requirements for Final Boss acknowledging if you can get there without Olympian Boons
• Fixed event requirements for Thanatos and Achilles acknowledging specific Weapon Aspects
📢 Other minor fixes, changes, and improvements to various narrative events

Miscellaneous
• Improved feedback when highlighting upgrade buttons for each Companion in the Keepsake Screen
📢 Various fixes and improvements to localized text in different languages
📢 Minor text fixes, updates, and clarifications

Bug Fixes
• Fixed an old, elusive issue that sometimes caused text keywords to appear in the w r o n g f o n t
• Fixed instances where Gorgon projectiles could be destroyed using the Shield of Chaos
• Fixed Deflect causing higher-than-intended damage against the Furies and Bone Hydra
📢 Fixed the damage preview for Hazard Bomb (Rail) not being quite the right size
📢 Fixed interactions between Ares' Doom Status Curse and Aspect of Gilgamesh Maim effect
📢 Fixed issues using Poms on Flood Shot (Poseidon) with Blizzard Shot (Demeter x Poseidon)
📢 Fixed Pool of Purging showing non-zero sell costs while you are affected by Pauper's (Chaos)
📢 Fixed additional cases of Codex Index screen displaying incorrect requirements for Boons
• Fixed Aspect of Hestia reload tutorial objective never clearing while testing it in the Courtyard
• Other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch
'The dead? O gods, the dead! Yes, I know who you mean.'
~The Choephori (Aeschylus; P. Vellacott translation)
Hades - kid_zomb
After a great deal of support and feedback from our community, Hades exited Early Access development this fall, and has become our most popular, most highly acclaimed game yet! If you've enjoyed your time with it, and feel Hades stands out even among the many fantastic games released this year, then please consider nominating it in the Steam Awards for the year's top honors: Game of the Year.



You can only nominate Hades in a single category, so if it's not your Steam Game of the Year pick, we would be grateful if you considered it in other categories, such as Outstanding Story-Rich Game, Best Soundtrack, or Outstanding Visual Style.

When we first envisioned Hades, we were drawn by the idea of creating a rogue-like / rogue-lite game with rich atmosphere and storytelling, that could create a unique experience for you every time you attempted to battle your way out of hell. Your support in Early Access meant we were able to make this game much bigger and better than we could have on our own. It's already been nominated for eight awards in The Game Awards (including Game of the Year!), earned Critics Choice Game of the Year and Best Indie Game in the 2020 Golden Joystick Awards, and most recently been named TIME Magazine's #1 Game of 2020!

We are honored to have earned that recognition. Yet, the Steam Awards are uniquely meaningful to us, as longtime Steam users ourselves. We know you have many excellent games to choose from. So, having your vote would mean an awful lot. Thank you for your consideration.
Hades - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lauren Morton)

Winter is coming and so are The Game Awards. I’ve double-checked my calendar and, sure enough, the yearly awards show presented by Mr. Game Awards man Geoff Keighley is less than a month away. The nominees for every category have been announced, so it’s time to vote for your picks for everything from the ever-competitive “Game of the Year” on down to “Best Multiplayer” and “Best Esports Team”. Get your opinion hat on.

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Half-Life - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Imogen Beckhelling)

Artwork of Hades character Zagreus, stood looking really cool in the middle of some Hyrda heads.

While next year’s Awesome Games Done Quick won’t be held in-person, the charity speedrunning event is still going ahead, and it looks like it has some brilliant runs in store. AGDQ 2021’s game list was revealed over the weekend, and oooh January can’t come soon enough. From the new mythological roguelike Hades and charmingly difficult platformer Celeste, to old favourites like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead 2; there are some absolute belters in the lineup.

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