This week’s Games Done Quick 2024 includes Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3 and the world’s first speedrunning dog
Along with a race between Elden Ring and Sekiro
Charity speedrunning extravaganza Games Done Quick has kicked off its first week-long event for 2024. Among the highlights are speedy plays of 2023 highlights including Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies of P, along with a marathon from the world’s first canine speedrunner.
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Games Done Quick (this winter's event is Awesome Games Done Quick, or AGDQ) continues to be, in my opinion, one of the very best things in the video game calendar. Combining the immense skill of the speedrunning community with efforts to raise money for good causes - this week’s event will benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation - and a joyous celebration of video games and the people who play them, it’s a delight to tune into both impressive runs of well-known games and showcases of the more weird and wonderful titles people dedicate themselves to smashing into broken code.
Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 is no exception, with some of the PC highlights I spotted among this year’s schedule including a race between soulslikes Elden Ring and Sekiro, a modded three weapons race in roguelike Hades, a no-damage hardcore run in Resident Evil 2 Remake, and a Level 1% run in Diablo. Bluey: The Videogame and Skull Island: Rise of Kong are in there too.
There’s plenty of outings for fairly recent releases from last year too, including the Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 remakes (along with RE4’s Separate Ways DLC in its own slot), ‘Pinocchio Bloodborne’ Lies of P, an Any% run for Bethesda’s sci-fi epic Starfield - expected to take under 45 minutes - a New Game+ True Ending shot for Armoured Core 6 and a complete run through all acts of Baldur’s Gate 3, which should only take half an hour or so if you feel like looking at your 100+ hour save with a new light.
One of the biggest highlights, though admittedly not technically on PC, is the debut of Peanut Butter the dog, claimed to be the first canine speedrunner. The shiba inu will be playing Gyromite on the NES, serving as “Dog Assistance” to human runner JSR who will issue commands (and treats) to the pet pooch to get him to hit the buttons needed to progress. It is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the first such entry in the Dog Assistance category, though hopefully not the last.