My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/BionicCommando.html
Marko 'MASTER-88' Vanhanen's 100% run
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Reason: It's a tight run.
Marko 'MASTER-88' Vanhanen's 100% run
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Verifier: Well i said I'd watch Bionic Commando and I did...
Verifier: First off, the sound is just naturally out of sync. By the end its ahead by like 3-4 seconds which really threw me off.. As I could hear and pre-think of what was going on.
Verifier: He performed well, all tricky things done very quickly with a few mess ups (minor .5 secs about) on screw ups. THere isn't much else to really point out in the flaw section.
Verifier: Unfortuntely as for flight paths I don't know of a faster one, and he gets to everywhere he needs to go. Handles it all quickly (even boot jumping off some little guys).
Verifier: Its tight, well performed, everything is gotten. no more can really be said...
Verifier: Accept, provided the sound issue is fixed
Verifier: yeah it has to do with his dvd recorder dropping frames
Verifier: it will be fixed in the final copy
Verifier: First off, the sound is just naturally out of sync. By the end its ahead by like 3-4 seconds which really threw me off.. As I could hear and pre-think of what was going on.
Verifier: He performed well, all tricky things done very quickly with a few mess ups (minor .5 secs about) on screw ups. THere isn't much else to really point out in the flaw section.
Verifier: Unfortuntely as for flight paths I don't know of a faster one, and he gets to everywhere he needs to go. Handles it all quickly (even boot jumping off some little guys).
Verifier: Its tight, well performed, everything is gotten. no more can really be said...
Verifier: Accept, provided the sound issue is fixed
Verifier: yeah it has to do with his dvd recorder dropping frames
Verifier: it will be fixed in the final copy
Quote:
This run was in some ways my brain child since I'm the one who posted the idea originally. (At least as far as I know.) So I'm probably going to be more harsh on it than I normally would.
Video quality is fine, audio quality is fine other than what seems to be a gradual desync with the video falling behind the video, on the order of several seconds by the end of the recording. Using the TimeStretch function in avisynth, it seemed to be about 4800ms off overall. Didn't spot any cheating or deaths.
All of the neutral zones were fine.
Comparison video for several questionable spots: http://www.uranium-anchor.com/speed/sda/bccompare.mp4
Area 1: Initial foray to the comm room is fine. After the comm room, however, the route can be improved as demonstrated in part 1. None of the soldier spawning is random, it is very, very controllable by using the same route (including the slight pause) that I do. Even my out of practice version is four seconds faster.
Area 4: Mostly fine. One extra swing after the final spike area, but not much of an error.
Area 5: A slight modification to the any% route makes the first section more reliable and not much slower, if it's slower at all. See part 2. This one is probably debatable.
Area 2: Mostly ok, but going under the final platform before the boss door is slightly faster if you do it right.
Area 3: On the second dropping elevator, it's possible to side hook and swing underneath, saving some time. See part 3. Even if you mess it up, which is easy to do, going left first loses time. The other parts are questionable, but I can't decide for sure.
Area 6: Mostly fine. A couple of questionable pauses but nothing terrible.
Area 8: First area can be done slightly faster. See part 4.
Area 9: An admittedly risky strategy saves a couple of seconds and has a clearer path. See part 5. You could shorten this a little bit more by bouncing off the fire but it makes it even riskier, especially this late in the run.
The rest of the fighting areas can be easily compared to Feasel's run. Most of the timing differences are in the comments, but my numbers disagreed with his on more than one occasion, but not by more than a second or two.
The overworld route seems to be pretty good. I'm not entirely convinced there isn't a better one, but I don't have any ideas and testing them is a giant pain in the ass.
Honestly, I'm torn. It's a generally well executed run that's not quite as good as Feasel overall. What bothered me more was some of the routes that he took that I know are slower, which suggests a lack of experimentation. It's still over a minute faster than my initial estimate for a 100% run of this game... so I'm going to give it a "meh".
Video quality is fine, audio quality is fine other than what seems to be a gradual desync with the video falling behind the video, on the order of several seconds by the end of the recording. Using the TimeStretch function in avisynth, it seemed to be about 4800ms off overall. Didn't spot any cheating or deaths.
All of the neutral zones were fine.
Comparison video for several questionable spots: http://www.uranium-anchor.com/speed/sda/bccompare.mp4
Area 1: Initial foray to the comm room is fine. After the comm room, however, the route can be improved as demonstrated in part 1. None of the soldier spawning is random, it is very, very controllable by using the same route (including the slight pause) that I do. Even my out of practice version is four seconds faster.
Area 4: Mostly fine. One extra swing after the final spike area, but not much of an error.
Area 5: A slight modification to the any% route makes the first section more reliable and not much slower, if it's slower at all. See part 2. This one is probably debatable.
Area 2: Mostly ok, but going under the final platform before the boss door is slightly faster if you do it right.
Area 3: On the second dropping elevator, it's possible to side hook and swing underneath, saving some time. See part 3. Even if you mess it up, which is easy to do, going left first loses time. The other parts are questionable, but I can't decide for sure.
Area 6: Mostly fine. A couple of questionable pauses but nothing terrible.
Area 8: First area can be done slightly faster. See part 4.
Area 9: An admittedly risky strategy saves a couple of seconds and has a clearer path. See part 5. You could shorten this a little bit more by bouncing off the fire but it makes it even riskier, especially this late in the run.
The rest of the fighting areas can be easily compared to Feasel's run. Most of the timing differences are in the comments, but my numbers disagreed with his on more than one occasion, but not by more than a second or two.
The overworld route seems to be pretty good. I'm not entirely convinced there isn't a better one, but I don't have any ideas and testing them is a giant pain in the ass.
Honestly, I'm torn. It's a generally well executed run that's not quite as good as Feasel overall. What bothered me more was some of the routes that he took that I know are slower, which suggests a lack of experimentation. It's still over a minute faster than my initial estimate for a 100% run of this game... so I'm going to give it a "meh".
Quote:
Overall a pretty tight run. A few minor mistakes, but this is quite understandable in a long SS like this. The grapple choices looked good. It's hard to see where there might be room for path improvement. The overworld-map route looked pretty good - if there is a better way i sure don't know what it would be.
Area 1
Love the jump up at 1:07 onto the platform with the boss-room door. Very fast boss-shooting.
Area 4
Done without the flares, which requires some memorization. Runner executes it well. Again, very fast boss-shooting, and i like how the riot-shield-guy doesn't even realize he's getting owned until it's too late.
Area 5
At 4:47, runner probably should have just shot the guy. I understand that it's possible to save some time by doing a hop without killing him, but i think this is such an error-prone spot that it would have been worth spending the 3/4 of a second that it would take to shoot him in order to avoid the high probability of a several-seconds mistake.
Again, there's some impressively fast shooting at the boss.
Area 2
Nice damage boost off the crane-guy. Boss room went quickly.
Area 3
Seems like the outdoors area could have been done faster. A slight change of route may have been able to avoid that butterfly. (But wait -- manly men are not afraid of butterflies, even the giant mutant variety).
Area 6
Route in the first half is quite good. It's a significant improvement over the any%. Route in second half may be a slight improvement over any%; both runs contain errors so it's hard to compare accurately.
Area 8
The swing over the guy right before entering the first door is a nice move. Boss room had some hitches, but it's a relative tough one.
Area 9
I'm glad to see the runner is using the lower-route, even though it went less-than-ideally this time. Should have waited another split second before doing the vertical grapple.
In the boss room, i'm not sure what the runner was trying to accomplish with the early-detach on the second grapple. I don't think it's possible to head-bounce over the bazooka guy. Probably wasn't intentional.
Area 7
This level is a potential run-killer, but the runner manged to get through without hitting any of the usual snags.
Area 10
I'm unsure about the route choice immediately after the swing-through-laser-blasts part; going back left to stand on those boxes. Everything else went fairly smoothly, though.
Area 11
Another potential run-killer level, but the runner handled it well. He missed the orange sphere, but he had a plan-B and it turned out not to be much time lost. Boss room is possibly the most difficult one in the game, and the runner pulled it off without getting hit. Nice.
Area 12
Swinging in the first vertical shaft rather than walking is risky, but faster. It worked flawlessly in this case. The second vertical shaft was a little messy both on the way down and back up. Having so much health to burn, some clever damage-boosting might have been possible, thus avoiding having to wait for the spark and getting up onto the topmost platform a little closer to the door. There was some time lost at the bottom of the last elevator (next to the long spikey floor). It would have been faster to do a horizontal grapple to the right and begin the first swing like that, rather than riding the elevator all the way to the very bottom and then starting with a diagonal grapple.
Bosses
The albatross fight was pretty quick. It could have been done in 1 less cycle. Doing the vertical grapple from the rightmost flame-jet won't get you close enough or leave you enough time to kill the thing before the horizontal flame jet fires (AFAIK). It is a bit safer this way, and this is a really error-prone spot regardless of which strategy one uses, so it's an understandable compromise.
No problems with the cockpit shot. Could have used an extra swing in the corridor with Hal, instead of walking the last portion of it (i know it lands you on top of the box, but you can avoid this by retracting the line mid-way through one of the three swings).
Escape sequence went well. Glad to see the runner didn't get snagged as he slipped past the guardian.
Without doubt, this is an ACCEPT. I think that further improvements to the time could come simply from fewer minor mistakes rather than from improvements to routes or less hesitation (both of which are pretty good in this run; the runner has spent much time planning his grapples and he executes them without hesitation). Congrats -- the runner should be extremely proud of himself for this one. This is a tough 100%, given that a lot of the really risky stuff comes late in the game.
Area 1
Love the jump up at 1:07 onto the platform with the boss-room door. Very fast boss-shooting.
Area 4
Done without the flares, which requires some memorization. Runner executes it well. Again, very fast boss-shooting, and i like how the riot-shield-guy doesn't even realize he's getting owned until it's too late.
Area 5
At 4:47, runner probably should have just shot the guy. I understand that it's possible to save some time by doing a hop without killing him, but i think this is such an error-prone spot that it would have been worth spending the 3/4 of a second that it would take to shoot him in order to avoid the high probability of a several-seconds mistake.
Again, there's some impressively fast shooting at the boss.
Area 2
Nice damage boost off the crane-guy. Boss room went quickly.
Area 3
Seems like the outdoors area could have been done faster. A slight change of route may have been able to avoid that butterfly. (But wait -- manly men are not afraid of butterflies, even the giant mutant variety).
Area 6
Route in the first half is quite good. It's a significant improvement over the any%. Route in second half may be a slight improvement over any%; both runs contain errors so it's hard to compare accurately.
Area 8
The swing over the guy right before entering the first door is a nice move. Boss room had some hitches, but it's a relative tough one.
Area 9
I'm glad to see the runner is using the lower-route, even though it went less-than-ideally this time. Should have waited another split second before doing the vertical grapple.
In the boss room, i'm not sure what the runner was trying to accomplish with the early-detach on the second grapple. I don't think it's possible to head-bounce over the bazooka guy. Probably wasn't intentional.
Area 7
This level is a potential run-killer, but the runner manged to get through without hitting any of the usual snags.
Area 10
I'm unsure about the route choice immediately after the swing-through-laser-blasts part; going back left to stand on those boxes. Everything else went fairly smoothly, though.
Area 11
Another potential run-killer level, but the runner handled it well. He missed the orange sphere, but he had a plan-B and it turned out not to be much time lost. Boss room is possibly the most difficult one in the game, and the runner pulled it off without getting hit. Nice.
Area 12
Swinging in the first vertical shaft rather than walking is risky, but faster. It worked flawlessly in this case. The second vertical shaft was a little messy both on the way down and back up. Having so much health to burn, some clever damage-boosting might have been possible, thus avoiding having to wait for the spark and getting up onto the topmost platform a little closer to the door. There was some time lost at the bottom of the last elevator (next to the long spikey floor). It would have been faster to do a horizontal grapple to the right and begin the first swing like that, rather than riding the elevator all the way to the very bottom and then starting with a diagonal grapple.
Bosses
The albatross fight was pretty quick. It could have been done in 1 less cycle. Doing the vertical grapple from the rightmost flame-jet won't get you close enough or leave you enough time to kill the thing before the horizontal flame jet fires (AFAIK). It is a bit safer this way, and this is a really error-prone spot regardless of which strategy one uses, so it's an understandable compromise.
No problems with the cockpit shot. Could have used an extra swing in the corridor with Hal, instead of walking the last portion of it (i know it lands you on top of the box, but you can avoid this by retracting the line mid-way through one of the three swings).
Escape sequence went well. Glad to see the runner didn't get snagged as he slipped past the guardian.
Without doubt, this is an ACCEPT. I think that further improvements to the time could come simply from fewer minor mistakes rather than from improvements to routes or less hesitation (both of which are pretty good in this run; the runner has spent much time planning his grapples and he executes them without hesitation). Congrats -- the runner should be extremely proud of himself for this one. This is a tough 100%, given that a lot of the really risky stuff comes late in the game.
Decision: Accept
Reason: It's a tight run.
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