Evening Reading - January 13, 2023

Hello to everyone at Shacknews! Yes, yes, I'm back for reals this time. It's me, it's me, it's O-Z-Z-I-E, back home from CES and ready to bring you my edition of everybody's favorite nightly column. Time for news, memes, and entertainment! It's the Friday edition of Evening Reading!

In case you missed it at Shacknews:

• Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 Online: Watch Day 6 here
• 7 Tower Thoughts: Changes are coming
• Fortnite temporarily disables Hurdling after reports of it launching players into the sky
• Google & Nvidia express concerns to FTC over Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard
• Crypto.com lays off 20% of employees as a fallout of FTX shuttering
• Assassin's Creed Mirage will be a smaller, 'more intimate' game, says devs
• SEC charges crypto firms Genesis and Gemini with selling unregistered securities
• Guilty Gear Strive devs address R-Code exploits causing game crashes & bugs
• Wizards of the Coast revises divisive Open Gaming License (OGL) plans
• Massive Valve leak reveals assets from Portal, Half-Life 2, and TF2
• Sonic Prime interview - Executive Producer on 2D animation and future Sonic projects
• Shack Chat: What is your favorite Marvel Snap variant card art?

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

• Weekend Console Download Deals for Jan. 13: New Year Sales
• Weekend PC Download Deals for Jan. 13: First discount for The Callisto Protocol

Around the gaming horn

As part of the SMITE World Championship, we learned that SMITE will have a crossover with Magic: The Gathering later this year.

Season 4 for NBA 2K23 is starting up.

World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King is getting ready for its next stage.

A concert will be streamed to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Street Fighter on Sunday, January 29 (JST)!

📺 Video Visuals
🎵 Legendary Music
⭐ Star-studded Guests

Check the official website for the details and tickets:https://t.co/QauLObeS01 pic.twitter.com/786t4bFUX5

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) January 13, 2023

And get ready to celebrate Street Fighter music like never before later this month!

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

IT'S-A THEM!

Omg he talks. Hey hello Mario! 👋 pic.twitter.com/nr18skpHTh

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) January 13, 2023

There's a soft opening happening for Super Nintendo World in California right now. Geoff Keighley is doing the legwork to show us talking Mario and Luigi characters!

20 years of burnination

Sadly, I guess we're not celebrating the "S" is for Sucks dragon anymore.

History of Mel Brooks

This is loaded up with big name stars, as it should be. If the great Mel Brooks comes calling, you pick up that phone.

Nothing but the Hotfix Checking in on Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 Online

No Hotfix this week, because it's time for Awesome Games Done Quick! If you haven't been watching, then I'm here to help you catch up with some of the better runs of the week.

World records have been set this week! Check out a few of them with the Super Mario Galaxy 2 and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge runs.

Epic races with Shovel Knight and DKC 3!

And, of course, we're spotlighting the Awful Games Done Quick block. Office Race and Salamander County Public Television are just a small taste of one of the most fun stretches of GDQ every year.

When a weeklong GDQ event isn't happening, 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 discusses cameras in the 3D gaming, working off a center point, and why that's not necessarily the best thing.

This week in Shaqnews

Shaq recently bet big on TCU and, boy, did he back the wrong horse on that one, right? Having come out on the wrong side of this bet with Ernie Johnson, it's time for the big man to pay up by munching on some frog legs.

IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!

This hasn't been a fun week for WWE fans, so let me turn to a different corner of wrestling. Impact is having its big PPV tonight and it should be wrapped up by the time this post goes live. It is likely that this is the end of the line for the great Mickie James, so let's relive all of her matches during this Last Rodeo run.

Tonight in video game music

The Super Guitar Bros. have taken their most recent batch of releases and compiled them into one fine easy listening album. Enjoy!

That's it for the second Friday Evening Reading of 2023! 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. 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?