KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
edited January 2019
I completely missed this year's event. Watching the Crypt VOD now and this looks nigh impossible.
Edit - And I just realized I missed out on The Yetee apparel :bigfrown:
Edit 2 - He just crashed the game. Also I just looked up The Yetee collection and I can't believe I missed that Twilight Princess shirt, fuck. The FFIX and Kirby ones are really good too.
There were a number of neat shirts this year, but nothing that made me pull the trigger. I already have 2 (Pyramid Head and DOOM), and as much as I love my nerdy shirt collection, I am starting to run out of closet space, so I'm trying to be a bit more selective.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
I got the Kirby one for me and the Octo one for my bro.
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Goose!That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered Userregular
I finally watched the rest of the FF9 run that I missed and it was great. Even the silly Eiffel 65/Blue stuff wasn't too unbearable.
Still have to check out some of the other stuff I missed during work days. The VODs on YT only go up to the Awful Block as of last night, hopefully they'll add more today.
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
-Castlevania block (Monday, from PSTV SotN to Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon)
-Silent Hill 2
-Super Mario Bros. 3mix
-The Messenger
-Celeste
-FFIV Free Enterprise*
-TASBlock
-Link to the Past
*I haven't finished watching the VOD yet but I'm about an hour in and loving it
Megaman Zero 2, in which a new WR was set
Super Mario Odyssey, especially the last hour
+1 for SMB 3Mix
+1 for The Messenger
+1 for Castlevania. The Jay_Cee runs were especially good because he and his couch are pretty damn funny/engaging
EDIT: Prey was pretty cool because they had the Bethesda community manager for that game on the couch
I caught the end of Actraiser 2 and that seemed solid. I also really enjoyed Halo Reach, though that may in part be due to my familiarity with the game. The DKC: Tropical Freeze race was a lot of fun.
Tomb Raider 2 was a really good run. Usually it's quite heavy in terms of resets in Venice, but SmoothOperator was true to her name and did a every good job
So what were the big highlights this year in terms of runs? I gotta bunch of catching up to do.
GDQ VODs usually throws up good ones on its main page from each event. I haven't gotten around to watching everything I wanted to see yet, but I enjoyed:
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Neat game insight. Quality couch interaction and commentary. Telvanni are still jerks.
Mega Man (DOS). Offers some game history and it's also ridiculous. People also voted for 4 color-mode.
Mega Man 10 (as Bass). Has very invested/energetic couch commentary. Also lots of more proper classic MegaMan.
Prey: Mooncrash DLC. Nice game mechanic information, game breaking and speed running. The runner/coucher rapport was sort of off-and-on, but usually good. Also full of Moon Shark hugs and crunchy chips. Convinced me to buy Mooncrash.
Silent Hill 2. Interesting from a game mechanics perspective and decent couch comedy. Bonus points for bonus dog ending.
Sonic the Hedgehog. Weirdly hyper-energetic runner and crowd. All the screen wraps, speedy boops and pixel-perfect positioning.
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Neat mechanics and decent couch comedy in a PSX-era game that's probably not very playable now. Also pod race spectator spectating.
Super Mario Bros. 3mix. If you need a classic Mario fix. I found the mari0 (Mario TASbot) a bit disappointing, so this is a good replacement.
Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2. Great comedy and interesting mechanics. The first 30 minutes is probably all you need unless you like the series.
[Edit]
Virtual Hydlide. Kotaku reminded me of this. Interesting, ridiculous, torturous and hilarious.
Which runs if any had developer commentary? Because those are always fun when you get reactions like "Yeah, we knew that was in there but figured it was safe to leave in because you can't really use it to get anywhere wait what just happened how did you do that."
How spoilerific is the Mooncrash run? I've beaten Prey but haven't played the DLC yet.
It doesn't give away a lot of the nuanced stuff from emails and actually listening to audio logs, but a lot of the bigger points are spoiled since the run does require completing the story for each character.
It takes time for them to get all the runs uploaded, give them a while.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
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Goose!That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered Userregular
Yeah they haven't uploaded anything to their YT in 2 days. Probably recovering/flying home, then whoever is responsible for that will continue. They've only gotten up to the Awful Block so far.
They've put a link to the start of the run in the description. That's a way bigger QoL improvement than an animated transition overlay (but the overlay's cool too).
They've put a link to the start of the run in the description. That's a way bigger QoL improvement than an animated transition overlay (but the overlay's cool too).
They've been doing that for awhile. It's just now that says 24 seconds in instead of 24 minutes in like has in the past.
I really liked the three-way Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze race. SpikeVegeta fell way behind in, like, the first level or something (I can't remember if he missed a trick or died or what), but maintained a really great attitude throughout (even when the commentator was dunking on him in a way that I thought was kinda unnecessary), and provided absolutely amazing commentary; he's really knowledgeable and always presents info in an engaging way. The other two runners, meanwhile, were completely silent for like 99% of the run. It would be easy to say that SpikeVegeta fell behind with no chance of recovery, so he didn't have to focus as much on the run and could chat more, except that after that initial mistake he pretty much kept pace with the other players, and he somehow managed to watch the other players' screens and directed the audience to the screen where some interesting trick was coming up. I was very impressed.
The race kind of made me realize that SpikeVegeta's one of my favorite parts of AGDQ from previous years. From what I've read, he knows and runs a wide range of games, and will jump in to fill in on a couch that's too empty - even for games he doesn't know, in which case he will do research on the game and chat with the runner in the time leading up to the run so he could educate himself and provide interesting commentary during the run.
The Super Mario Odyssey run is really good, too. The movement techniques are obviously crazy and like the peak of human ability, but a lot of it was just knowing all the shortcuts that aren't even glitches or skips, just a non-obvious result of the level layout in 3D space. (And, incidentally, SpikeVegeta is also on the couch for that one.)
They do one of these threads each year, and update it in real-time as Twitch VODs become available, and then replace those links with YouTube links as the runs get uploaded there.
I really liked the three-way Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze race. SpikeVegeta fell way behind in, like, the first level or something (I can't remember if he missed a trick or died or what), but maintained a really great attitude throughout (even when the commentator was dunking on him in a way that I thought was kinda unnecessary), and provided absolutely amazing commentary; he's really knowledgeable and always presents info in an engaging way. The other two runners, meanwhile, were completely silent for like 99% of the run. It would be easy to say that SpikeVegeta fell behind with no chance of recovery, so he didn't have to focus as much on the run and could chat more, except that after that initial mistake he pretty much kept pace with the other players, and he somehow managed to watch the other players' screens and directed the audience to the screen where some interesting trick was coming up. I was very impressed.
The race kind of made me realize that SpikeVegeta's one of my favorite parts of AGDQ from previous years. From what I've read, he knows and runs a wide range of games, and will jump in to fill in on a couch that's too empty - even for games he doesn't know, in which case he will do research on the game and chat with the runner in the time leading up to the run so he could educate himself and provide interesting commentary during the run.
The Super Mario Odyssey run is really good, too. The movement techniques are obviously crazy and like the peak of human ability, but a lot of it was just knowing all the shortcuts that aren't even glitches or skips, just a non-obvious result of the level layout in 3D space. (And, incidentally, SpikeVegeta is also on the couch for that one.)
SpikeVegita and Blechy are consummate pros. I was watching PJ's post-AGDQ stream where he was analyzing his ActRaiser 2 run, and he said that Blechy, who doesn't run the game, provided accurate commentary throughout the entire thing. They're both top tier commentators/hosts both for their engaging personalities and the work they put into making runs/interviews a fun show that flows well.
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Also spikevegeta and Jhobz do a weekly 'show' that is them commenting on a race, Speedrunning Underground I think it's called. It kinda beefs up their commentary chops and knowledge of games and the runs and where they're at with current tech and strategy. Though Hobz doesn't do couch commentary last I checked.
Also if spike doesn't know a game, but is going to be on the couch, he will watch practice runs and talk with the runners to learn more about it. He is probably my favorite runner /commentator just for his professionalism and sincere enjoyment of watching people go fast. Plus he is usually pretty good at insightful and humorous commentary instead of just filling dead air with whatever.
Yeah, I kinda didn't realize how big a deal he was until this year; I'm not super deep into the speed running scene, so for me he was just "oh yeah, that good guy with a sharp sense of humor and a party host's instincts". This year, it clicked how much of him I see and how good at this he actually is.
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Goose!That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered Userregular
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kinda wild to see the progression over the years. wonder when we'll see our next major style change.
It's also really cool from a tech perspective. And kudos to them for making what they do open source.
Edit - And I just realized I missed out on The Yetee apparel :bigfrown:
Edit 2 - He just crashed the game. Also I just looked up The Yetee collection and I can't believe I missed that Twilight Princess shirt, fuck. The FFIX and Kirby ones are really good too.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Still have to check out some of the other stuff I missed during work days. The VODs on YT only go up to the Awful Block as of last night, hopefully they'll add more today.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Awful block.
-Castlevania block (Monday, from PSTV SotN to Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon)
-Silent Hill 2
-Super Mario Bros. 3mix
-The Messenger
-Celeste
-FFIV Free Enterprise*
-TASBlock
-Link to the Past
*I haven't finished watching the VOD yet but I'm about an hour in and loving it
Super Mario Odyssey, especially the last hour
+1 for SMB 3Mix
+1 for The Messenger
+1 for Castlevania. The Jay_Cee runs were especially good because he and his couch are pretty damn funny/engaging
EDIT: Prey was pretty cool because they had the Bethesda community manager for that game on the couch
The hour and a half all bosses Dark Souls 3 was real good.
Kotaku's opinions on the best runs from last week
GDQ VODs usually throws up good ones on its main page from each event. I haven't gotten around to watching everything I wanted to see yet, but I enjoyed:
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Neat game insight. Quality couch interaction and commentary. Telvanni are still jerks.
Mega Man (DOS). Offers some game history and it's also ridiculous. People also voted for 4 color-mode.
Mega Man 10 (as Bass). Has very invested/energetic couch commentary. Also lots of more proper classic MegaMan.
Prey: Mooncrash DLC. Nice game mechanic information, game breaking and speed running. The runner/coucher rapport was sort of off-and-on, but usually good. Also full of Moon Shark hugs and crunchy chips. Convinced me to buy Mooncrash.
Silent Hill 2. Interesting from a game mechanics perspective and decent couch comedy. Bonus points for bonus dog ending.
Sonic the Hedgehog. Weirdly hyper-energetic runner and crowd. All the screen wraps, speedy boops and pixel-perfect positioning.
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Neat mechanics and decent couch comedy in a PSX-era game that's probably not very playable now. Also pod race spectator spectating.
Super Mario Bros. 3mix. If you need a classic Mario fix. I found the mari0 (Mario TASbot) a bit disappointing, so this is a good replacement.
Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2. Great comedy and interesting mechanics. The first 30 minutes is probably all you need unless you like the series.
[Edit]
Virtual Hydlide. Kotaku reminded me of this. Interesting, ridiculous, torturous and hilarious.
It doesn't give away a lot of the nuanced stuff from emails and actually listening to audio logs, but a lot of the bigger points are spoiled since the run does require completing the story for each character.
They've been doing that for awhile. It's just now that says 24 seconds in instead of 24 minutes in like has in the past.
The race kind of made me realize that SpikeVegeta's one of my favorite parts of AGDQ from previous years. From what I've read, he knows and runs a wide range of games, and will jump in to fill in on a couch that's too empty - even for games he doesn't know, in which case he will do research on the game and chat with the runner in the time leading up to the run so he could educate himself and provide interesting commentary during the run.
The Super Mario Odyssey run is really good, too. The movement techniques are obviously crazy and like the peak of human ability, but a lot of it was just knowing all the shortcuts that aren't even glitches or skips, just a non-obvious result of the level layout in 3D space. (And, incidentally, SpikeVegeta is also on the couch for that one.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/ad3lp0/agdq_vod_thread_2019/
They do one of these threads each year, and update it in real-time as Twitch VODs become available, and then replace those links with YouTube links as the runs get uploaded there.
SpikeVegita and Blechy are consummate pros. I was watching PJ's post-AGDQ stream where he was analyzing his ActRaiser 2 run, and he said that Blechy, who doesn't run the game, provided accurate commentary throughout the entire thing. They're both top tier commentators/hosts both for their engaging personalities and the work they put into making runs/interviews a fun show that flows well.
PSN:Furlion
Luzbelheim, the world record holder and one of the 3 runners from the AGDQ 2019 FF9 run managed to improve his WR yesterday by about 2 minutes.
Did the route change, or was it primarily due to what I have to assume is outstanding RNG?