This past week was packed with breakthroughs, TAS wizardry, and some fun community chatter. From Half-Life 2 to Jurassic Park SNES, here are the biggest highlights.
🔥 World Records Shattered
- Half-Life 2 Done Quickest (HL2DQ) – The SourceRuns team dropped a blistering 16:18 WR, further pushing the boundaries of movement and physics abuse in Valve’s iconic shooter.
- Super Mario Bros. Anti-Pacifist WR – Aryais (🇮🇩) set a new 5:55 record, shaving off a full second from the world record and a huge 13 seconds from his personal best. He climbed from 3rd place straight into 1st.
- Blindfolded Mario 64 Magic – Bubzia, a legend in blindfolded runs, set a 20:50 WR in SM64 16 Star (No LBLJ). Pure memorization and audio cues carried the day.
- Jurassic Park SNES – Halderim broke new ground with the first sub-40 run, a huge milestone for this classic.
- Portal Jumpless TAS – Evanlin96069 pulled off the seemingly impossible with a 7:52 TAS, proving once again how far Portal tech can be stretched.
- Mario Kart Madness
- nanew’s Acorn Heights WR (1:57.976) hit a rare milestone: the first record to last 30 days.
- Just two days later, Demon (🇺🇸) snatched it with a 1:57.957, ending the streak at 32 days.
- Technical (🇺🇸) dropped a 3:56.195 Rainbow Road WR using a slick new wall ride strat.
- Rjohn1277 (🇺🇸) secured a 3:59.515 shroomless Rainbow Road BKTime.
- Other Notables:
- Sonic Racing CrossWorlds: 2:07.416 WR.
- NSMB2 TAS by Glitchman24, poipole807, & J_duude in 26:37.13, saving 13.28s.
- Project Zomboid B41 Tutorial% cracked the under 1 minute barrier (00:59.267 WR).
🎮 TAS & Challenge Runs
- Hollow Knight Any% No Major Glitches TAS hit 24:49.25, showing just how optimized bug-free HK routing can be.
- MGS2 Pacifist 5-in-1 Challenge – Cluster7TV took on European Extreme with Pacifist | Ghost | No Weapons | Big Boss | Speedrun Strats all in one run, finishing in 1h59.
- Pantheon 3 (Hollow Knight) All Bindings was cleared in 7:46, showcasing mechanical mastery.
🏆 Personal Bests
- Earnest Evans grind – ThatPunk_ brought the cursed classic down to 9:56, then 9:38.550 PB, pushing for top 3.
- Path of Shadows – hunterforreaal clocked a fresh PB at 4:05.
- Max Payne (GBA!) – joons88 shared a full speedrun of the portable noir shooter.
📺 Community & Discussion
- Video production gems: KenshiroTheKid dropped a thought-provoking deep dive, “Is the Perfect Diving Game in OoT Even Possible?”
- Tutorial spotlight: ThatPunk_ followed up his Earnest Evans runs with a casual speedrun tutorial.
- GDQ nostalgia: A thread tried to recall the “terrible furry RPG” from a past Awful Block.
- Tech talk: Discussions ranged from adding LiveSplit to OBS recordings, to FPS uncapping in Unity games like Chants of Sennaar.
- Weekend watching: The community chimed in on who’s streaming and worth checking out for September 5.
⚡ Final Thoughts
This week was all about milestones and endurance—from Half-Life 2’s newest breakthrough to the long reign (and sudden fall) of nanew’s Mario Kart WR. Add in blindfolded wizardry, TAS optimization, and the grind of personal bests, and it’s a reminder of what makes speedrunning so special: endless passion for shaving off just one more second.
Source: reddit.com