speed-run
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Pokemon Blue speedrunner uses 'shortcut,' is super effective
Are you going through Awesome Games Done Quick withdrawal like we are? Those that missed some of the speedrunning marathon's fast-paced antics have two options: Attempt to mash through a game of their choice as fast as possible or catch up on the action with archived videos. Frankly, we're taking the easier approach, opting for this fascinating 21-minute speedrun of Pokemon Blue. Performed by "Werster," this run avoids save-file-corrupting tactics, instead taking advantage of glitches that manipulate the number of items in the speedrunner's inventory. Thanks to the item manipulation glitch, he reached Pokemon Blue's final scene in mere minutes after triggering a few events early in the game. Awesome Games Done Quick wrapped up this past weekend, raising over $1.1 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The marathon offered plenty of entertaining moments to Twitch viewers, including a marriage proposal. [Image: Nintendo]
ZeniMax invites you to watch other people play The Elder Scrolls Online
ZeniMax has just announced a streamed Elder Scrolls Online competition in which selected guilds will rush through one of the brand-new trials launching with the Craglorn patch... and you can tune in to watch them succeed or fail live on Twitch this coming Saturday. Trials are intended as 12-player raids with hardcore mechanics like limited resurrections and complex encounters. "When it's all over," says the studio, "the guild with the best Aetherian Archive completion time (if [it] can finish!) will be declared the winner." Here's the complete schedule of start times on Saturday and Twitch channels for each guild: 2:00 p.m. EDT (8:00 p.m. CEST): German Allstars, Reddithium 3:00 p.m. EDT (9:00 p.m. CEST): BIG Nation, Resurrection 4:00 p.m. EDT (10:00 p.m. CEST): Entropy Rising, Fate 5:00 p.m. EDT (11:00 p.m. CEST): The Noore
Half-Life world record speed run is fluid, frightening
I considered myself a pretty good Half-Life player, until now. This speed run video, which reportedly took four years of planning to execute correctly, proves I was completely wrong and should stop thinking so highly of myself. [Image: Valve]
Awesome Games Done Quick tops $1 million in last 24 hours
Awesome Games Done Quick, a charity marathon of video game speedruns that donates money raised to the Prevent Cancer nonprofit group, concluded its weeklong streaming session yesterday on what you might call "a high note:" a $100,000 surge during the group's final game pushed the donated total to more than $1 million - $1,007,136 to be specific. Some other stats, according to the AGDQ website (which is still being updated and refreshed): There were 27,171 donations, spread across 17,902 donors. These numbers would make the average donation amount $37, which is kind of crazy when you think about it - for roughly the price of a season of Breaking Bad per person, AGDQ raised more than $1 million for cancer research. Good job, Internet. [Thanks, Jonathan!]
Awesome Games Done Quick 2014 raising money for cancer research
You could probably trip your way into watching speedruns on the Internet at this point, but finding a week-long marathon of them in the name of charity? That's not an everyday thing! Awesome Games Done Quick has begun its crazy, fourth-annual set full of speedruns, which will take place from now until January 11. Donations will benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit group that invests in cancer research and education. If you need an incentive beyond helping others, donations that meet or exceed the minimum bids listed for prizes will automatically enter you into raffles for all kinds of gaming-related things. You can also contribute to bids to make bonus games or unique events appear on the stream. Want to see a Small Mario Run of Super Mario World or a torturous, Very Hard run of F-Zero GX? Donate to make it happen! [Thanks, Ken!]
Dark Souls speed run is a tour de force of tolerance
Generally speaking, speed runs fall into one of two categories: "That's completely nuts" and "I should feel bad for ever trying to play this game." Most speed runs can be classified as the former; incredible displays of memorization and timing that reduce hour-long sequences into minutes. They're fun to watch, and sometimes even educational. Speed runs like SexyShoiko's Dark Souls play-through, however, make us ashamed of the countless hours we've painstakingly bled into this unforgiving beast of a game. Over a series of seven YouTube videos (part 1 above, 2 through 7 after the break) SexyShoiko manages to topple the entire title in less than an hour and a half, which is completely bewildering. We'd call him/her a masochist, but that term seems inapplicable to someone who is quite clearly the master of their own domain. [Thanks, everyone who sent this in!]
Skyrim can be beaten in just over two hours (if you're a developer)
It's true: in two hours and change, Sam Bernstein, a member of Bethesda's QA team, managed to reach the end of the main campaign in Skyrim. Sam's time was 2:16:10, a mere 20 seconds faster than his competition, level designer Jeff Browne. The two are actually no stranger to the Bethesda speed run circuit, having participated in a similar event a few years ago in Fallout 3, in which Sam was also victorious. So what does Sam win, aside from immortal glory on a video game blog? Well, he gets a pumpkin pie from Todd Howard and he also gets the trophy you see above. What's Dragon-speak for "winner?"
Mythos orders up a PvP Battle Royale with cheese
Loving the mindless slaughterfest of Mythos but wishing that the mobs showed a little more intelligence? Now you'll be able to pit your wits and reflexes against other players for the first time in the game with Mythos' new Lamento PvP system. In this forthcoming update, players can form "Lamento Teams" on Heaven Island to participate in 1v1 or 2v2 battles in the heated arena pit. To make matters more interesting, the arenas will offer additional challenges for participants other than merely facing off against human players. Monsters will be roaming about (since some builds require corpses for skills) and potions will be disabled for fights, requiring gladiators to stay on their toes. Victors will rack up Lamento Points which can be used to purchase weapons, armor and pets. This Mythos update also includes a level cap increase from 50 to 51 and a new "Dungeon Master" speed run feature.
Speed Demos Archive playing through 100 games in four days for charity
As far as altruistic gaming marathons go, we can't think of any quite as ambitious as this: Speed Demos Archive, a group of gamers who've trained their thumbs and minds into razor-sharp, game-beating machines, are currently attempting to beat 100 games in four days. If you feel like rewarding the group for their tenacity, you can make a donation, all of the proceeds from which go directly to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Lucky givers might even receive a special prize relating to whatever game the group is currently plowing through. It's still pretty early on in the proceedings -- early enough that their sanity hasn't yet been utterly decimated. Check out the Speed Demos Archive's official site to watch them devour some great games, or check out the marathon's official page for a speed run schedule.
Quake completed in under an hour
Yes, Quake has been around for some time now, but that doesn't make this achievement any less incredible: A team of trained Quake speed-runners have completed the game (while finding 100 percent of its secret areas) on its hardest difficulty in under one of our Earth hours.
Portal finished in under 10 minutes sets a world record
You may not agree with YouTube user DemonStrate's methods, but you certainly can't argue with the results: the world record for fastest Portal playthrough. What took you hours only took him minutes -- specifically, less than ten of them. It's kinda the thing of note here.
Wings Over Atreia: Taloc's Hollow speed runs
The tropical breeze rustling through the branches. The exotic wildlife. The blessed solitude. While reminiscing about your previous excursion to famed Taloc's Hollow, you find yourself wanting to relive those great moments. OK, maybe you just want to tank up on some XP and loot. And who can blame you? Taloc's Hollow is one of "the" destination hotspots in Aion for those over level 51 to gather both kinah and experience. If you are in it for the XP, chances are you want to just clear everything in your path; after all, it isn't often you get to be in deity-mode, killing elite mobs on your own. However, there comes a time when you simply you don't want to or can't spend a couple hours clearing the instance out. Then what? Well, then you aim for a speed run. These runs are often considered money-maker runs and are factored into a Daeva's wealth portfolio. While decent loot can and does drop off the trash mobs, many people reach the point that they only want to focus on a boss run and ignore everything else possible. Can you do it? Yup. Dash past the cut for hints to help you get through Aion's highest-level solo instance quickly and efficiently.
Heroic speed runs
Most of us have been running heroics since the daily random quest was first introduced with TotC, and since then we've been running them every day, on every one of our 80s, for what seems an eternity. Even over-gearing them and short dungeon finder queues can no longer keep the heroic grind from being mind-numbingly dull. Enter speed runs. By speed runs, I'm not talking about just going fast. Even PUGs these days move pretty quickly through heroics. I'm talking about going as fast as you possibly can. Racing through the heroics, pulling crazy numbers of mobs, skipping everything skippable. Not only will your heroic run be much shorter, but it will suddenly be much more dangerous too. When you're pushing line of how much you can do, even slight positioning errors or DPS pulling aggro can result in wipes. Speed runs have the potential to put the challenge back in heroics, and today we're going to talk about how to pull of the best time that you can.
P.B. Winterbottom competition underway, global pie deficit looming
When we look at the charming puzzler The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, we don't think of it as a high-stakes competitive sport; however, 2K Play and The Odd Gentlemen recently announced a contest for the game's speedy completionists. Each week for the next month, a level from the game will be designated as a gruesome battleground, where players with the top ten fastest times will be eligible to receive P.B. Winterbottom-branded 360 faceplates and t-shirts. Click past the jump to see the four levels on which you should start tirelessly practicing your insidious pie-thieving craft.
TheSpeedGamers aim to catch every Pokemon in 72 hours for charity
The idea of a three-day speed run of Pokémon, in which the runners would attempt to capture all of the pocket-sized monsters therein, would have been a lot more feasible back in 1998. Today, the number of in-game species has ballooned from 151 to 493, a number that can only be appreciated when depicted in words: Four-hundred and ninety-three. The charitable gaming experts of TheSpeedGamers plan to accomplish this near-impossible goal while taking donations for Ally's House, an Oklahoma-based children's cancer foundation. It sounds like a really great cause -- why not show some support on the group's livestream? Even if your "support" is just you repeatedly singing the Pokérap over and over, ad infinitum.
15 Minutes of Fame: PvE players on a speeding frenzy
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about. This subject of this week's 15 Minutes of Fame officially rates a mere five minutes of fame – they just blast by that fast. Not that you'd have time to notice. Fusion-H of Turalyon (US) has zipped onto the record charts for speed runs of PvE instances, along with a growing number of U.S. and European guilds that are bored with taking things at the same old pace. Karazhan 11/11 53 minutes, 17 seconds -- Slashcry, EU Kazzak Zul'Aman 6/6 29 minutes, 27 seconds -- Pugnas Rache, EU Alleria Mount Hyjal 5/5 1 hour, 7 minutes, 20 seconds -- Showdown, EU Kazzak Black Temple 9/9 1 hour, 48 minutes, 15 seconds -- Clarity, EU Ravencrest Gruul's Lair 2/2 5 minutes, 57 seconds -- Fusion, US Turalyon Sunwell Plateau 6/6 2 hours, 15 minutes, 52 seconds -- Pugnas Rache, EU Alleria Heroic 16 5 hours, 21 minutes, 52 seconds -- Equinox Prophecy, EU Al´Akir It all started with a speed-run thread on the EU forums, where players devised set rules for 10-man, 25-man and all-heroic content. Then the speeding frenzy spread to the US servers. We caught up with Bazz, GM of Fusion, which holds the current record for clearing Gruul's Lair in a ridiculously brief 5 minutes and 57 seconds, for peek at how one of WoW's top speed-demon guilds makes short work of PvE instances.
Top 5: Nintendo on YouTube
When describing people like us, the media tends to churn out some pretty hideous labels. One of the more sickening terms is "the YouTube Generation." As though our entire existence revolves around Miss Teen South Carolina and Rickrolling. Though the generalization is annoying, one does have to concede that the video-hosting website has a fairly large effect on our society. Coupled with the fact that many people carry phones with the ability to record video, the public is now a walking telescreen whose surveillance potential would make Big Brother blush. Particularly in the heat of a presidential election, Senators Obama and McCain have to keep on constant alert for that all-powerful snafu. One slip of the tongue and they may find themselves having their own macaca moment. Privacy issues aside, YouTube is a great place to take the pulse of a culture. Just type in a subject, and instantly you're provided with news stories, film and television references, artistic responses, editorial presentations, and individual observations. Given the gaming community's incredibly strong presence online, YouTube is packed with videos of/for/about gamers. As to be expected, there are hundreds of thousands of videos inspired by or based on Nintendo's history. Indeed, a simple search for the word "Nintendo" yields about a half a million results. Aside from the usual dead horse-beating of people acting out "Mario in the real world!" (OH WOW LOOK HE WENT DOWN A PIPE JUST LIKE MARIO DOES), there's a wealth of quality Nintendo-related videos that all should experience. Here is our top five. 5. Zelda Rap - There are embarrassing memories that, despite all best efforts to forget, will replay in one's mind until the brain isn't supplied with oxygen anymore. Eventually, however, the awful moments can desensitize the public such that the original matter loses its acidity. It's similar to a hot fudge sundae-induced brain freeze. At first, it's shocking and awful. But then you start to grow used to it, and before long you're dying for one due to its association with ice cream heaven. This basic principle applies to Nintendo's 1986 "Zelda Rap" commercial. As a couple of kids are sitting on a couch, the nerdier of the two asks, "Did you see the latest Nintendo newsletter?" (I've always loved how commercials choose to ignore the way people actually talk) While one might expect an immediate wincing reaction to the crispy freestyle that follows, the more common response is similar to a post-Jim Norton joke: "wow, he really went there ... like, all the way there without looking back." A week after viewing, you may find yourself reciting your own NES-influenced rhymes.
The Boss Extreme, beaten in under three hours [!]
The most hardcore MGS4 players are going to go for the Big Boss achievement trophy emblem, which requires masterful play with no deaths, no alerts, no kills, no recovery items, no stealth suit and no special items. To get the emblem, the entire game must be completed in 5 hours, but Tyndis from YouTube has managed to do it in less than three hours.Obviously, because the entire game can be seen in these videos, it should be obviously that this is one giant spoiler. If you haven't beaten the game yet, come back to watch it later. But for those that want to see Metal Gear greatness, enjoy.[Via Joystiq]
Four Zelda games in 48 hours
We've all, at some point, had a game that we decided not to put down until the closing credits. Whether you uncompromisingly soldiered on through a Warcraft III campaign, or decided to topple Bowser before turning in for the day, we're all familiar with marathon gaming. However, a small gathering of Zelda enthusiasts are attempting a seemingly impossible gauntlet of non-stop dungeon raiding -- all four 3D Zelda games (Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess) in just 48 hours.That's four water temples, three Ganondorf confrontations, and a whole mess of heart containers, stretched over a two day period. With nearly thirty hours to go, the CameronBanga.com team have already bested Ocarina of Time, and are currently trudging through the most tedious of all the Zelda titles, Majora's Mask. We can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday night than watching these goons sink into sweet, Hyrulian madness via their live webstream -- but then again, we're what most camp counselors would call "indoor kids".
Guinness book of gaming records coming in February
Think you've got the fastest speed run of Sonic the Hedgehog's Green Hills Zone? The highest single-quarter score on Galaga? The most legendary hip-hop masterpiece on Kriss Kross: Make my Video? Sure, you can make these claims on the boundless boasting box known as the internet, but there's never been a method of truly officializing your universal gaming dominance. Until now, that is.The Guinness World Records company recently announced that they would begin releasing a Gamer's Edition of their wildly popular series of books on a yearly basis, the first of which will be available at most games retailers on February 8. The book will focus on fast completion times, sales records, and various record setting gameplay elements. Check out their interactive preview of the book -- maybe you'll see one of your own gaming achievements, and wonder if it's a fitting reward for the hundreds of hours you spent mastering the pixel-perfect jumps in world 1-2.
