Latest news with #GameOfTheYear
Yahoo
07-08-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
2025 college football betting preview: Four games to bet now
Every summer, while most college football bettors are counting down the days to kickoff, sportsbooks quietly drop a slate of lines that sharp eyes immediately start circling: the Game of the Year matchups. These are the games that move the needle — rivalries, playoff shapers and narrative drivers. Remember, by the time these games actually kick off, the lines will look very different. Quarterback changes, injuries, hype cycles and early-season blowouts will reshape perception and change lines. If you can spot the right angles early, Game of the Year lines offer exceptional value because you're not just betting on a game, you're betting on how the season unfolds. Here are four early-season matchups that could offer serious closing line value: Oct. 4: North Carolina at Clemson (-13.5) When scanning these early lines, I'm hunting for positions the market can't accurately price, until reality sets in. Enter: Bill Belichick coaching North Carolina. In theory, the Tar Heels should be a solid team. But can we really trust that preseason optimism will hold up by Oct. 4? On the flip side, Clemson — finally embracing the transfer portal after years of resistance — has reloaded with talent. This could be one of Dabo Swinney's most complete rosters in years. UNC opens the year as an underdog in two of its first four games (vs. TCU in Week 1 and at UCF in Week 4). Meanwhile, Clemson is expected to be a two-touchdown favorite in three of its first four contests. If both teams play to expectation, I see this line drifting up toward -16.5 by kickoff. Bet: Clemson -13.5 Oct. 4: Boise State at Notre Dame (-16.5 at BetMGM) Boise State has long punched above its weight: blue turf, trick plays, Kellen Moore, Ashton Jeanty … the whole deal. But with Jeanty gone, this roster doesn't pack the same punch. Yes, they went toe-to-toe with Oregon last year, but that was the Jeanty show: 7.7 yards per carry, three touchdowns and a 70-yard highlight run. Without that level of game-breaking talent, I see this matchup resembling more of their 2023 opener against Washington, when the Broncos were crushed 56-19. Notre Dame, meanwhile, could come into this game undefeated. The Fighting Irish are slight favorites against Miami in Week 1 and will be laying more than a touchdown against both Texas A&M (Week 3) and Arkansas (Week 5). If they enter 5-0 with three quality wins, I expect this line to creep closer to -17.5. Bet: Notre Dame -16.5 Oct. 11: Penn State (-10.5, 46.5) at Iowa Yes, Iowa's offense might not be a total disaster this year. Yes, quarterback Mark Gronowski transfers in from FCS powerhouse South Dakota State. And yes, there's some excitement. But I'm not buying it — at least not yet. Gronowski was terrific at SDSU, leading them to national titles in 2022 and 2023, but that was behind a massive talent gap in the FCS. The jump to the Big Ten will test him immediately. Iowa's early games against Indiana and Wisconsin will give us a clue. If he struggles, the market could quickly adjust expectations back toward reality. Defensively, Iowa will once again be elite. But offensively? I'm fading the early optimism. This total has room to dip toward 44 if the Hawkeyes' offense sputters. Bet: Under 46.5 Oct. 18: Texas Tech at Arizona State (-4) Arizona State is one of the darlings of the 2024 season, but on Oct. 18, it will run into a live 'dog — and my Heisman dark horse Behren Morton. Texas Tech enters this season with as much upside as any team. The Red Raiders rank second nationally in NIL spending and return their starting QB, who quietly played through a Grade 3 AC joint sprain last year. With health and talent finally aligned, I'm in. Yes, Arizona State brings back a loaded roster and solid coaching staff, but that momentum has already inflated this number a bit. Before this game, the Sun Devils face Baylor, TCU and Utah — three games in which they could stumble. Meanwhile, Texas Tech's early schedule is soft, and if it handles business, the market will catch up fast. If the Red Raiders look sharp early, this line likely closes around +1.5. Bet: Texas Tech +4
Metro
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Baldur's Gate 3 devs reveal the weirdest and most bizarre fan stats
For the second anniversary of Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios has shared new player stats and a thank you from its CEO. This week marks the second anniversary of Baldur's Gate 3, the surprise smash hit of 2023, that managed to snatch that year's Game Of The Year award from the likes of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom and the Resident Evil 4 remake. To honour the occasion, developer Larian Studios has shared some new player statistics. Rather than the usual stuff about player choices and preferences, though, Larian opted to focus on the community's more… niche proclivities. This includes the number of people who respected their companions' character classes, with one especially unpopular choice prompting Larian to question some players' well-being, asking, 'Are you folks doing okay?' According to the stats shared on X, only 350 players opted to respec the character of Minsc (an optional companion you can only encounter in Act 3) from his usual ranger class into a death domain cleric. If you've played Baldur's Gate 3, you're probably just as baffled as Larian is, since this class simply doesn't suit Minsc from either a gameplay or character perspective, especially since it involves necromancy – a far cry from the ranger class that's all about nature and bonding with (living) animals. The death domain cleric class is more associated with Shadowheart, since she already starts the game as a regular cleric. Larian's stats reflect this, with Shadowheart being the most respecced companion in the game, at 4,890,005 times, and usually as a death domain cleric, if not a life domain cleric. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Fans are also baffled by other obscure player achievements. For instance, the fact that 598 players adopted a baby with companion character Wyll. However, their shock is more due to the fact that they didn't even know this was an option. 'Wait what? You can adopt a child with Wyll????' writes one baffled fan on Reddit. This has prompted several others to explain how to achieve this, followed by some admitting they now plan to pull this off for themselves. 'And now I need to try that,' writes one, 'How am I supposed to stop playing Baldur's Gate 3 if there are still things I need to try?' Other fans are more shocked by the stats for the game's Honour Mode. For context, Honour Mode is an extra-hard difficulty level that includes permadeath and a single save slot. So, if you die, the game ends, and you have to start over from the very beginning. The fact that some players have managed to beat the game on Honour Mode isn't itself surprising, but according to Larian, 4,647 players have achieved this with a level one character. 'How the f*** can you beat honour mode as a level one ????' reads the top comment on Reddit, with a fellow fan replying with, 'I'm certainly not going to find out.' More Trending It's definitely the kind of challenge you'd have to be a real masochist to attempt, although one fan suggests the strategy is to use 'many item exploits and tons of barrels.' Meanwhile, Larian CEO Swen Vincke shared his own message for the two-year anniversary, adding that it's thanks to the success of Baldur's Gate 3 that the team can work on 'our next crazy thing.' Exactly what Larian's next project is remains a secret. Beyond vague hints that it might be sci-fi, Vincke has offered no real information and only asked fans be patient: 'We're working hard to ensure you'll have plenty of fun. Like really – loads of it.' Larian is actually meant to be working on two new games, though neither is Baldur's Gate 4. Licence holders Hasbro and Wizards Of The Coast, however, absolutely want a sequel and have been speaking with other potential partners about it. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Baldur's Gate 4 was playable before it was cancelled admits Larian Studios boss MORE: Baldur's Gate 3 boss criticises 'boring' DLC and explains new five year plan MORE: 'Almost all video games should cost more' says Baldur's Gate 3 publisher
Fox News
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Donkey Kong Returns!
Nintendo's famous ape is back for a new Switch 2 adventure, and it's a strong contender for Game of the Year.
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
2025 college football betting preview: Four games to bet right now
Every summer, while most college football bettors are counting down the days to kickoff, sportsbooks quietly drop a slate of lines that sharp eyes immediately start circling: the Game of the Year matchups. These are the games that move the needle — rivalries, playoff shapers and narrative drivers. Remember, by the time these games actually kick off, the lines will look very different. Quarterback changes, injuries, hype cycles and early-season blowouts will reshape perception and change lines. If you can spot the right angles early, Game of the Year lines offer exceptional value because you're not just betting on a game, you're betting on how the season unfolds. Here are four early-season matchups that could offer serious closing line value: Oct. 4: North Carolina at Clemson (-13.5) When scanning these early lines, I'm hunting for positions the market can't accurately price, until reality sets in. Enter: Bill Belichick coaching North Carolina. In theory, the Tar Heels should be a solid team. But can we really trust that preseason optimism will hold up by Oct. 4? On the flip side, Clemson — finally embracing the transfer portal after years of resistance — has reloaded with talent. This could be one of Dabo Swinney's most complete rosters in years. UNC opens the year as an underdog in two of its first four games (vs. TCU in Week 1 and at UCF in Week 4). Meanwhile, Clemson is expected to be a two-touchdown favorite in three of its first four contests. If both teams play to expectation, I see this line drifting up toward -16.5 by kickoff. Bet: Clemson -13.5 Oct. 4: Boise State at Notre Dame (-16.5 at BetMGM) Boise State has long punched above its weight: blue turf, trick plays, Kellen Moore, Ashton Jeanty … the whole deal. But with Jeanty gone, this roster doesn't pack the same punch. Yes, they went toe-to-toe with Oregon last year, but that was the Jeanty show: 7.7 yards per carry, three touchdowns and a 70-yard highlight run. Without that level of game-breaking talent, I see this matchup resembling more of their 2023 opener against Washington, when the Broncos were crushed 56-19. Notre Dame, meanwhile, could come into this game undefeated. The Fighting Irish are slight favorites against Miami in Week 1 and will be laying more than a touchdown against both Texas A&M (Week 3) and Arkansas (Week 5). If they enter 5-0 with three quality wins, I expect this line to creep closer to -17.5. Bet: Notre Dame -16.5 Oct. 11: Penn State (-10.5, 46.5) at Iowa Yes, Iowa's offense might not be a total disaster this year. Yes, quarterback Mark Gronowski transfers in from FCS powerhouse South Dakota State. And yes, there's some excitement. But I'm not buying it — at least not yet. Gronowski was terrific at SDSU, leading them to national titles in 2022 and 2023, but that was behind a massive talent gap in the FCS. The jump to the Big Ten will test him immediately. Iowa's early games against Indiana and Wisconsin will give us a clue. If he struggles, the market could quickly adjust expectations back toward reality. Defensively, Iowa will once again be elite. But offensively? I'm fading the early optimism. This total has room to dip toward 44 if the Hawkeyes' offense sputters. Bet: Under 46.5 Oct. 18: Texas Tech at Arizona State (-4) Arizona State is one of the darlings of the 2024 season, but on Oct. 18, it will run into a live 'dog — and my Heisman dark horse Behren Morton. Texas Tech enters this season with as much upside as any team. The Red Raiders rank second nationally in NIL spending and return their starting QB, who quietly played through a Grade 3 AC joint sprain last year. With health and talent finally aligned, I'm in. Yes, Arizona State brings back a loaded roster and solid coaching staff, but that momentum has already inflated this number a bit. Before this game, the Sun Devils face Baylor, TCU and Utah — three games in which they could stumble. Meanwhile, Texas Tech's early schedule is soft, and if it handles business, the market will catch up fast. If the Red Raiders look sharp early, this line likely closes around +1.5. Bet: Texas Tech +4
Digital Trends
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Can we all just be normal about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for a second?
Whether or not it actually wins the award come December, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the Game of the Year. No 2025 release has sparked so many long-lasting conversations usually reserved for tentpole releases like Grand Theft Auto or Zelda. It has been gaming's main character for months, standing in as a shining example of what a modern video game should rise to. Yet for all the mainstream conversations that it has generated, so few of them actually seem interested in Clair Obscur. Instead, Sandfall Interactive's critically acclaimed RPG has been submitted as evidence in on-going litigations against what gamers paint as a stale industry in need of new blood. While there are meaningful conversations to have about what game studios can learn from Clair Obscur's success, the way that it has been weaponized and reduced to a piece of confirmation bias in any landscape-shaping argument it fits into leaves me hungry for more substantial dissections of the games we love. Recommended Videos It was clear that Clair Obscur was going to be a big talking point when it launched in April to a wave of glowing reviews. Critics and fans hailed it as a generational RPG that revitalized turn-based combat, delivered an emotional story, and crafted an astonishing original world. 'Game of the Year' talk came fast, which is par for the course when a new game breaks the 90 mark on Metacritic. But the watercooler chats didn't stop there. Soon, mainstream conversations yearned to place it in a broader gaming landscape. Its originality was painted as a shining light in a sea of perceived 'AAA slop.' It wasn't just a good game, but a blueprint for how a boring industry could be saved. Even this very site opined about that immediately following its release. That over-the-top idea only ballooned as the months went on. Sandfall Interactive's slim team size became a talking point. Articles popped up that praised the studio for creating such an accomplishment with only 30 people — a figure that was quickly debunked once critics started adding up all the external developers involved. That didn't stop the disingenuous factoid from setting the stage at Summer Game Fest, where host Geoff Keighly used the number to sell the idea that he was presenting viewers the future of video games. Tons of trailers for smaller games followed, with Keighly often pointing out how many people made them as an indication of quality. My growing frustration with that trend reached a boil this week thanks to a different debate that Clair Obscur has been unwittingly roped into. For years now, some RPG enthusiasts have lamented the death of turn-based games. That anxiety seemed to come most from franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest experimenting with real-time action. Clair Obscur is a loud and proud turn-based game, which made it the perfect spoiler candidate for an industry abandoning a classic way of play. Never mind the fact that turn-based gaming hasn't gone away. Octopath Traveller 2, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Metaphor: ReFantazio (a game that released just last year to similar praise) have all proved that major studios are still very much invested in the subgenre. And yet, the narrative persisted. It all came to a head during a Square Enix investors call, in which the company reaffirmed its commitment to turn-based games and acknowledged Clair Obscur's existence in the process. According to Automaton, those typical business responses were mistranslated and blown out into a larger story: Clair Obscur's success had convinced Square Enix to start making more turn-based games. Finally, the video game industry was saved. Mission accomplished! Every conversation like this is so riddled with holes that you couldn't get them across a puddle, yet they are inescapable. Fans want it to prove their long-standing theories about the video game industry right and treat its success like an irrefutable data point in every argument. It's not a new phenomenon either; this cycle tends to happen with lots of both successes and failures. Baldur's Gate 3 inspired a wave of talking points about what players actually wanted from games. That line of thinking was met with backlash from developers who cautioned against using a very specific win as a crusade. Black Myth: Wukong became a rejection of Western ideology. Concord was viewed as proof that live service games are dead. I both understand where this comes from, because I'm as guilty of it as anyone. It's fun to search for meta-narratives in the things we care about. I'm a football fan (go Pats) and I love nothing more than creating a story out of a Super Bowl matchup. This year's clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles became more exciting to me when I viewed it as the Chiefs needing the win to finally prove they were every bit as good as the Tom Brady era Patriots, but they'd have to beat the giant killers who previously thwarted Bill Belichick at the big game. That added stakes to a matchup I wasn't invested in, even if it was imaginary. This sort of meta-breakdown of video games follows a similar line of thinking. Sandfall Interactive becomes the Eagles circa 2018 in this story. As harmless as that can be in small quantities, its forced nature has become unbearable when trying to navigate conversations around Clair Obscur. It's not enough for it to be a great game. It has to be a masterpiece. It has to be a counterpoint to everything we don't like. It has to be the savior of the RPG genre. What's ironic is that none of those hollow platitudes actually tell us anything about the game itself. Engagement with what Clair Obscur actually has to tell us has taken a backseat to imperfect armchair analysis. That's a shame, because there's meat on that bone. Clair Obscur asks us to think about how we, as a species, push on in the face of mass grief. It's a story of sacrifice, where expedition after expedition fights in the face of extinction. Many die for that cause, but their sacrifices aren't in vain. Each one helps the next party get a little closer, asking us to rethink success and failure in the context of long-term collective action. It's a thematic cousin to Death Stranding and its sequel, games that stress the importance of human connection as a means of making the world easier to navigate in times of crisis. Perhaps that's just as much a reason why Clair Obscur is resonating with players as the fact that it's turn-based or made by an indie studio. There's a familiar trauma in it, as the fictional Gommage and its impact on the world can be connected to the Covid-19 pandemic. We just went through – and are still going through – a period of mass suffering. Those wounds are fresh. I still remember seeing the pop-up morgues on the streets of Brooklyn. I remember watching the infection rates fall and then spike again, ripping any hope I had for an ending from me. I remember how hopeless it all felt. But I also remember how many people put in hard work to stop it together. Even if some people refused to do their part, many masked, stayed home, kept six feet apart, and anything else they could to stop the spread. It was a collective effort built on selfless sacrifice. I feel all that fueling Clair Obscur's emotional resonance. It begs to be discussed, because what is the point of something being a generational classic if we take nothing else from it? One of the only meaningful conversations I've had about Clair Obscur came before it was out. I had been playing it alongside our reviewer, Tomas Franzese, at the time and we dissected its themes together in isolation. We both cooled on it significantly in Act 3, taking issue with its sudden pivot into a meta-reflection on the nature of art and its role as an escape from grief. It felt like a betrayal on its more human focus earlier on; a needless swerve into a piece of art evaluating its own importance. It was a memorable discussion that helped crystallize where I felt Clair Obscur worked best and where it ultimately fell apart. I hope that discussions like that become more common as the hype settles down. Just as I felt turned off by the 'art about art' pivot in Act 3, I am similarly bored by the tedious talk about how Clair Obscur is changing the industry. None of it does anything to honor Sandfall Interactive's vision, even if it is designed to gas the studio up. Real engagement comes from critics like Ian Walker and Kenneth Shepard, who respect the game enough to interpret what it has to say. It comes like podcasts like Girl Mode that aren't afraid to criticize where the story is ineffective. If you love Clair Obscur, really talk about it. Not what it represents, but the actual game in front of you. If you find that you don't have nearly as much to say about it as you do its influence, maybe it's worth questioning whether you love the game or just the idea of it.
