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Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/BaldursGate2ToB.html
Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal (Any %) (Segmented)
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Mark 'ExplodingCabbage' Amery and Eli 'Smilge' Chase!
Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal (Any %) (Segmented)
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Quality: yes, both great
WHAT THE HELL
ACCEPT
WHAT THE HELL
ACCEPT
Quote:
Video quality: Acceptable. Some blurring and compression artifacts. The BG2 engine shows its age with pixelated textures, spell effects, and heavily compressed video cut scenes. This seems to give the capture trouble in spots but it’s still generally decent. Audio quality is good throughout.
Gameplay quality: Excellent. The game has been dismantled to the point of being unrecognizable. Virtually nothing is done as intended or without major glitches and sequence breaking to speed up the run. I needed to watch the video at quarter speed most of the time and frame advance the battles to see the tricks being done.
Highlights are killing Gromnir using a wild surge to bypass his save (about a 1.5% chance), Viconia and Anomen landing consecutive 20’s to harm and take out Balthazar, and duping Melissan and landing 2 harms to skip the ridiculously drawn out end sequence.
Menuing is generally tight during dialog. There is some hesitation and navigation errors while in sewers and during spell selection but I think it’s at most 1-2 seconds lost throughout the run. It would be very difficult to improve the precision while duplicating the luck manipulation involved.
Timing: I got 5:13 using SDA time. Note that there is a save menu during the end battle that normally would not be counted but a glitch is used here to let the game continue to run in the background. Therefore, I counted that whole save as gameplay time.
Verdict: Accept. Crushes the existing run, no evidence of cheating.
Gameplay quality: Excellent. The game has been dismantled to the point of being unrecognizable. Virtually nothing is done as intended or without major glitches and sequence breaking to speed up the run. I needed to watch the video at quarter speed most of the time and frame advance the battles to see the tricks being done.
Highlights are killing Gromnir using a wild surge to bypass his save (about a 1.5% chance), Viconia and Anomen landing consecutive 20’s to harm and take out Balthazar, and duping Melissan and landing 2 harms to skip the ridiculously drawn out end sequence.
Menuing is generally tight during dialog. There is some hesitation and navigation errors while in sewers and during spell selection but I think it’s at most 1-2 seconds lost throughout the run. It would be very difficult to improve the precision while duplicating the luck manipulation involved.
Timing: I got 5:13 using SDA time. Note that there is a save menu during the end battle that normally would not be counted but a glitch is used here to let the game continue to run in the background. Therefore, I counted that whole save as gameplay time.
Verdict: Accept. Crushes the existing run, no evidence of cheating.
Quote:
video quality: no complaints. Certainly SDA worthy
Audio: good, again.
Gameplay: this run is the pinnacle of infinity engine speed running of which we could hope to achieve with all current known tricks, bugs and knowledge. It is truly remarkable to see such progression from the speed runs of old for these games. The run before us presents like the current diablo 1 speed run. Luck manipulation at every turn, near perfect execution, certainly for what a human can achieve. Many many segments, none of which make too much sense for the standard player, and above all else of course, a ridiculously fast completion time.
Improvement wise on the run I really can’t think of anything, which makes sense as I attempted to help in the planning. Though fell short compared to the minds that eventually created this masterpiece.
Timing: My video player is flaky with watching a video frame by frame so I can’t give an exact time run down as I might like too (perhaps someone can suggest a player that will allow me too, or maybe it is the file format or that I am incompetent). The player takes control at 00:33 into the run, there are various load screens in the run, and many that are not. I assume most have been edited out. The ones that are left in appear to be for segment breaks. I don’t know how much time is spent (or is edited to be spent at least) on each shown load screen but it appears to be about ¼ to 1/3rd of a second, like I said, my frame timing methods are inaccurate. Either way, assuming they are left in for segment breaks, then we should add (as a penalty for segmenting) a quarter of a second per segment (rather than half a second, due to added non-edited out load screens). Maybe the runner can offer some clarification on what was happening with respect to the editing, if I am incorrect.
ANYWAY. The run starts at 00:33. And the player loses all control of the main character, which occurs after the last boss is defeated and he finishes talking to a solar at 6:01, so not taking into account penalties for segment breaks we have a time of 5:28, and with segment breaks (17 * 1/4 = 4 seconds) I get a time of 5:32.
The other verifier got a time of 5:13 which means I probably timed something wrong, or they got the 1 and the 3 mixed up. So maybe I need correcting on this. So I think a time of 5:32 (or 5:31 it was going to be close anyway and as I said my frame timings were not particularly accurate), assuming I have timed it correctly.
Decision: accept, for it is beyond godlike
Audio: good, again.
Gameplay: this run is the pinnacle of infinity engine speed running of which we could hope to achieve with all current known tricks, bugs and knowledge. It is truly remarkable to see such progression from the speed runs of old for these games. The run before us presents like the current diablo 1 speed run. Luck manipulation at every turn, near perfect execution, certainly for what a human can achieve. Many many segments, none of which make too much sense for the standard player, and above all else of course, a ridiculously fast completion time.
Improvement wise on the run I really can’t think of anything, which makes sense as I attempted to help in the planning. Though fell short compared to the minds that eventually created this masterpiece.
Timing: My video player is flaky with watching a video frame by frame so I can’t give an exact time run down as I might like too (perhaps someone can suggest a player that will allow me too, or maybe it is the file format or that I am incompetent). The player takes control at 00:33 into the run, there are various load screens in the run, and many that are not. I assume most have been edited out. The ones that are left in appear to be for segment breaks. I don’t know how much time is spent (or is edited to be spent at least) on each shown load screen but it appears to be about ¼ to 1/3rd of a second, like I said, my frame timing methods are inaccurate. Either way, assuming they are left in for segment breaks, then we should add (as a penalty for segmenting) a quarter of a second per segment (rather than half a second, due to added non-edited out load screens). Maybe the runner can offer some clarification on what was happening with respect to the editing, if I am incorrect.
ANYWAY. The run starts at 00:33. And the player loses all control of the main character, which occurs after the last boss is defeated and he finishes talking to a solar at 6:01, so not taking into account penalties for segment breaks we have a time of 5:28, and with segment breaks (17 * 1/4 = 4 seconds) I get a time of 5:32.
The other verifier got a time of 5:13 which means I probably timed something wrong, or they got the 1 and the 3 mixed up. So maybe I need correcting on this. So I think a time of 5:32 (or 5:31 it was going to be close anyway and as I said my frame timings were not particularly accurate), assuming I have timed it correctly.
Decision: accept, for it is beyond godlike
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Mark 'ExplodingCabbage' Amery and Eli 'Smilge' Chase!
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