The Gold Split - Week #8: Gamescom Games Gauged
Week #8 (August 22nd): Gamescom Games; Speedrun Summit; Marathon News; New World Records: Spongbob, Titanfall 2, Dark Souls, Final Fantasy XIII, Sonic Heroes, GTA III
Hello!
Just today, for the first time since I began tracking this (since Week #4), ULTRAKILL has been dethroned as the most active game on speedrun.com. The crown went to Chained Together, a game I wrote about in Week #1. Not saying The Gold Split caused this, but…
Otherwise, it sure has been a slow week in terms of news. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it does make my life a little easier, but it also means that I have to come up with a story of the week on my own. So, let’s have a look at some of the game announcements coming out of Gamescom 2024 this week, with a slight twist: how well they might lend themselves to speedrunning.
And once you’re done reading, go and watch Flame Fatales 2024!
Contents
I’d like to cover much more, but many great stories stay confined to the communities for a specific game or series and rarely get out. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should cover, go ahead and submit them here or in the Gold Split Discord! 📨
Story of the Week
Gamescom 2024 kicked off a few days ago with Gamescom Opening Night Live, a series of announcements and trailers that lasted over two hours. In this section, let’s have a look at some of these and as a twist, I’ll give them an arbitrary rating on how well suited for speedrunning they might be on a scale from Desert Bus to ULTRAK… Super Mario 64. If you missed it, this might be a good way to catch up, though the list isn’t comprehensive. If you’re already in the know, stick around to get a slightly different perspective.
A story grounded in Chinese mythology, Souls-like gameplay, apparent polish, and certainly a lot of hype. The developers don’t have the same track record as FromSoftware, but it’s hard to see this game not doing well in the scene. The leaderboards are still closed until August 30th.
Release Date: August 20th, 2024
Speedrunableness Rating: 8/10
A new iteration in a series that needs no introduction. To educate myself, I had a quick look at the leaderboard for Civilization VI. The Any% record is... 17 milliseconds? That aside, dedicated fans will always come up with better categories (and they exist), but it won’t reach a wider audience beyond the true enthusiasts.
Release Date: February 11th, 2025
Speedrunableness Rating: 1/10
We don’t know much about it, but it’ll more likely than not be more of the same, for better or for worse. Borderlands speedrunning peaked with Borderlands 2, and the third iteration never really took off nearly as much. Bonus points for the co-op potential!
Release Date: 2025
Speedrunableness Rating: 6/10
More of the same, yet again. It’s somehow surprising to me that this series is still going strong. What I like about the speedruns of the previous Sniper Elite games is that very little to no sniping is actually done. Most of the time, it’s just a lot of running.
Release Date: 2025
Speedrunableness Rating: 5/10
For a long time I was of the opinion that modern Call of Duty games are glorified interactive movies, very scripted and filled with cutscenes and autoscroller sections. If that was true, the skill ceiling wouldn’t be very high and we’d see very close leaderboards and not a lot of time difference between placements. But not only are the leaderboards for all Call of Duty games quite popular, there’s also a decent amount of separation between players.
Release Date: October 25th, 2024
Speedrunableness Rating: 7/10
Another self-proclaimed Souls-like. The trailer shows mostly battles, but how well it will do in the speedrunning scene is going to depend a lot on the world and character progression system. A demo version has been out for a while now, and a decent amount of runners have gathered on the leaderboard for it.
Release Date: September 19th, 2024
Speedrunableness Rating: 7/10
The original Mafia and also Mafia II were great for speedruns, but Mafia III was a bit of a letdown. The trailer doesn’t really show us anything, so it’s impossible to say in which direction this one will go.
Release Date: N/A
Speedrunableness Rating: 5/10
This is neat! A cool-looking Crash Bandicoot-like platformer that also includes couch co-op. Not sure if there’s more to say, the Crash community is huge.
Release Date: October, 2024
Speedrunableness Rating: 8/10
I’m definitely not just including this because of my own connection with Path of Exile. Early Access or not, I’ll definitely be playing this when it launches. And depending on how much of the game is included in that first version, there’s a window for speedruns. However, it will likely also follow a three-month cycle of new seasons and resets. Racing used to be huge in Path of Exile, but I doubt we’ll hear more about Path of Exile 2 speedruns beyond the occasional showcase of how fast you can really go with an unreasonable amount of in-game investment.
Release Date: November 15th, 2024 (Early Access)
Speedrunableness Rating: 4/10
It’s a climbing game! Maybe it is wishful thinking, but I’d like to think that this has potential. Inventory and resource management, series of precise inputs, and routing the fastest path up the mountain all seem like ingredients that could make this a decent speedrun.
Release Date: 2025
Speedrunableness Rating: 6/10
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle
I would love for this to be similar to modern Tomb Raider games, but I’ll remain cautious until we see much more. Movie character games tend to lean more towards being scripted and filled with cutscenes, but as long as those are skippable and the adventuring sections not too short, this could be good!
Release Date: December 9th, 2024
Speedrunableness Rating: 6/10
These are just a few games on a longer list of announcements and I completely ignored multiplayer-only games and new content for existing games. Overall I had wished for fewer continuations of series, less of the same, and more innovation and indie games. It’s been the trend for a while now, but I don’t mind not extending my backlog for once.
Up to Speed
🏔️ Speedrun Summit lineup of featured streamers completed
GSA announced their final lineup of 12 featured streamers, who will be raising money for Urban Arts during the Speedrun Summit between September 27th and 29th. As is often the case with these events, we mourn the lack of diversity, but I still hope they manage to raise a significant amount for a good cause.
🐱🏍 Speedrunner Zunou showcases catching all 150 Pokémon in Pokémon Green… without glitches
We are very light on news this week, so I’ll also throw in my favourite speedrun from RTA in Japan 2024. As many of you might know, Pokémon games always come in two versions, and in order to complete the Pokédex in one of them you will need to trade with the other version. That means, in order to catch all 150 Pokémon in the 1st generation games on your own and without the use of glitches, you need to also play the other version, ideally at the same time. Zunou focused on Pokémon Green while also playing Pokémon Red at the same time, wielding two modified SNES controllers in each hand for most of the run, lasting almost 5 hours 30 minutes. Even if you don’t speak Japanese, this is a great watch!
Marathon News
Finished:
BSG Annual 2024 raised $7,229 for MIND
Completithon 2024 raised $2,001+ for Girls Make Games Scholarship Fund
InstaYabathon 2024, raised £172+ for Yellow and Blue
Running:
Until August 24th: Flame Fatales 2024, raising money for the Malala Fund (Schedule)
Upcoming:
Starts August 23rd: UKSM Summer 2024, raising money for Special Effect (Schedule)
Starts August 23rd: SpeedDocsAThon 2024 Weekend One, raising money for Save the Children (Schedule)
This Week’s Top Times
🥇 First Place:
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (Any%) in 00:41:35.000 by SHiFT
Video • Twitch • YouTubeTitanfall 2 (Any%: Standard) in 01:13:12.000 by ClipBoardGuy (Any/All)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeGeometry Dash World (NG+: iOS) in 00:05:25.300 by Swifferwetjet (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeKirby and the Forgotten Land (Any%) in 01:34:41.000 by hirahira
VideoDark Souls (Any% No Wrong Warp) in 00:37:27.000 by xmonkeh (He/Him)
Video • TwitchRatchet & Clank (Any%) in 00:26:28.000 by joukkari
Video • TwitchPokémon Ruby/Sapphire (Any% Glitchless: ENG, Console) in 01:56:47.000 by Gunnermaniac
Video • Twitch • YouTubeFinal Fantasy XIII (Any%: PC) in 04:25:43.000 by Z3R01337
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSonic Heroes (Team Rose: Limited Tech Selection) in 00:32:29.000 by Katie4 (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeGrand Theft Auto III (All Missions) in 02:28:38.000 by Kamiks0320
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSecret of Evermore (Any%) in 00:56:01.000 by Cliqz (It/Its)
Video • Twitch • YouTubePrince of Persia: Warrior Within (Any%: Standard) in 00:12:26.000 by renzero (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥈 Second Place:
Metroid Fusion (Any%: Normal) in 01:11:12.000 by monkeysmb (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeResident Evil Village (Glitchless NG+: PC) in 01:26:10.000 by Tinix
Video • Twitch • YouTubeMafia: The City of Lost Heaven (Any%) in 02:26:33.000 by st4nzzz
Video • Twitch • YouTubeFinal Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster Any%: Any% No boost) in 02:26:06.000 by 6chi8
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥉 Third Place:
Portal 2 (Single Player: No SLA) in 00:56:50.532 by hero622
VideoSlime Rancher (Any% Glitchless: 1.0.1 - 1.4.4) in 00:12:19.283 by Jfred (He/Him)
Video • TwitchSekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Shura: PC, Glitchless) in 00:28:25.000 by Yeruka
Video • Twitch • YouTubeOneShot (Any%: Glitched) in 00:22:19.766 by Kazoeru (They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
Fun Stat of the Week
📊 The name with the longest game name1 on speedrun.com is Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist, clocking in at 76 characters.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are several extremely short game names:
👋🏻 And that’s it for this week! See you next Thursday, August 29th 2024. 👋🏻
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Special shoutout to my incredible wife and co-conspirator Niamh for all the visuals. Let her know how awesome those dividers are!
Special shoutout to Sarim for supporting with some copywriting. Find the words he writes over at gameluster.com!
Only full-game, non-miscellaneous, and non-archived leaderboards of games that had at least 20 runs in total were counted.