My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: Doesn't exist yet.
Verifier Responses:
Decision: Reject
Reason: The planning was good, but an overall lack of optimization and excessive segmentation (i.e. too much backtracking) prevents this run from being SDA-worthy.
Verifier Responses:
Quote:
Quality (Capture)
Pretty good.
Quality (Gameplay)
Segment 1
Excellent all around, except the mission where he needs to fight Davis can be done faster if he has a firecracker, which I know he did. It’s a one-hit defeat.
Segment 2
Missing a firecracker on two guys costs him 8 seconds when it only takes out on of them, forcing him to fight the other. It’s at the beginning of the segment, so I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t have redone it.
He also crashes into many things on the way back to the girl’s dorm.
Segment 3
Oh man, for the first Halloween prank, it takes him about 8 seconds to stick a sign on someone’s back after a few failed attempts.
Segment 4
When approaching the third cage, there’s a 7 second mistake where he selects the skateboard from his inventory. After that, he has trouble lining himself up with the hole.
The fight against Russell goes well from what I can tell, even though he gets knocked down a few times towards the end. The rate at which he chips his health off with the strategy he uses is good.
I’m pretty sure he watches a cutscene or forgets to come back to his computer after the unskippable one. I don’t know if that’s the first point he can actually skip it or not.
I think there’s also a weird screw up near the end where he goes around the counter when he doesn’t need to. I’m not sure if he’s waiting for a save point to appear. If he is, he walks into it on the exact frame it appears.
Segment 5
Nothing really noteworthy here.
Segment 6
See above.
Segment 7
I think that ball tossing game could have gone better.
Segment 8
I think the fight at the end could have gone at least 5-10 seconds faster with better aiming of the firecrackers, especially if the guys were in groups.
Segment 9
I suspect him of watching cutscenes to after point where he can skip them.
Segment 10
I don’t get why he accesses the map or seemingly rides around before the mission for so long. Maybe it’s because it’s because he has to wait until a bit after 4 PM the next day, but it still looks bad. But I’m not saying to change it if he is waiting for the timer to advance.
Segment 11
I don’t blame him for missing a shot or two with the bat on the Christmas set he needs to destroy, because the game doesn’t let you lock onto them. He does use the firecrackers for total destruction and manages to avoid the elves somehow, and catches the bus right after it.
Segment 12
Has some bad luck with the bicycle rumble.
Segment 13
Accesses the menu for some reason during skateboarding, costing him 5 seconds.
Segment 14
It’s just a race, so there’s nothing to really say about this one. Well, there’s a fight at the end and he only uses one of the firecrackers to damage the first wave of guys.
Segment 15
Gets caught on some bad guys on the walkway and tackled. He even has to knock them down to move on.
This happens again in a doorway not to much later.
Good strategy to defeat Norton though.
Screws up on the biker rally under the crane when he misses the first guy and has to come back to take him out.
Side note: The reason you can’t use items in the last fight is that you fail the mission if you do. It’s nice of the game to tell you this AFTER you do it.
Segment 16
I wonder how many people get the 1138 joke?
Not much else to say about this one.
Segment 17
Is there a way to get ahead of the patrol lady into the washroom? If there is, that makes the extra time spent hiding worthless.
Segment 18
The mascot beats the shit out of him.
Loses the first round of dodgeball.
Segment 19
After failing to tag a poster, the police come during his fight and he has to run to the next one. This also forces him to return to it after. If he knew the two guys would be a problem, he should have taken them out first.
Segment 20
After being told to piss in the jock’s drinks, he runs the wrong way.
Segment 21
You can actually jump off the lower part of city hall and survive. Sure you’ll have no health left, but that shouldn’t be a problem for a segmented speedrun.
Segment 22
Nothing to say here.
Segment 23
Gets knocked off the bike by a police officer and doesn’t get back on it after giving him the low blow. He resumes riding the slower skateboard instead.
Segment 24
Nothing bad to say about this one actually.
Segment 25
Can’t seem to get a pipe off the wall at the beginning of the final Edgar phase.
Segment 26
Yeah, he not only gets shot back down the ladder as soon as he reaches the top, but he misses a ramp jump as soon as he gets back up, forcing him to climb AGAIN. He loses 30 seconds alone here.
Timing
The in-game timer from the end menu reads 3:38:51.
Importance
Man, this guy must be very new to SDA, because it’s evident that he’s not trying very hard in almost all of these segments. Some of it is greenness, most is just not knowing when to restart because it’s beyond saving. There is one thing that people will probably ream him for that they shouldn’t, and that’s the targeting system during fights, or lack thereof I should say. It doesn’t let you target and lock-on to specific guys to fight, so you could be in the middle of beating one up and suddenly your finishing blow will deflect to another guy for no reason. Aside from that, he gets caught on things, misses firecracker tosses, goes the wrong way at times, screws up during a lot of fights, and seems to forget what he’s doing most of the time. There really isn’t a whole lot of luck to be manipulated here either, so he doesn’t have an excuse for his poor preformance.
Pretty good.
Quality (Gameplay)
Segment 1
Excellent all around, except the mission where he needs to fight Davis can be done faster if he has a firecracker, which I know he did. It’s a one-hit defeat.
Segment 2
Missing a firecracker on two guys costs him 8 seconds when it only takes out on of them, forcing him to fight the other. It’s at the beginning of the segment, so I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t have redone it.
He also crashes into many things on the way back to the girl’s dorm.
Segment 3
Oh man, for the first Halloween prank, it takes him about 8 seconds to stick a sign on someone’s back after a few failed attempts.
Segment 4
When approaching the third cage, there’s a 7 second mistake where he selects the skateboard from his inventory. After that, he has trouble lining himself up with the hole.
The fight against Russell goes well from what I can tell, even though he gets knocked down a few times towards the end. The rate at which he chips his health off with the strategy he uses is good.
I’m pretty sure he watches a cutscene or forgets to come back to his computer after the unskippable one. I don’t know if that’s the first point he can actually skip it or not.
I think there’s also a weird screw up near the end where he goes around the counter when he doesn’t need to. I’m not sure if he’s waiting for a save point to appear. If he is, he walks into it on the exact frame it appears.
Segment 5
Nothing really noteworthy here.
Segment 6
See above.
Segment 7
I think that ball tossing game could have gone better.
Segment 8
I think the fight at the end could have gone at least 5-10 seconds faster with better aiming of the firecrackers, especially if the guys were in groups.
Segment 9
I suspect him of watching cutscenes to after point where he can skip them.
Segment 10
I don’t get why he accesses the map or seemingly rides around before the mission for so long. Maybe it’s because it’s because he has to wait until a bit after 4 PM the next day, but it still looks bad. But I’m not saying to change it if he is waiting for the timer to advance.
Segment 11
I don’t blame him for missing a shot or two with the bat on the Christmas set he needs to destroy, because the game doesn’t let you lock onto them. He does use the firecrackers for total destruction and manages to avoid the elves somehow, and catches the bus right after it.
Segment 12
Has some bad luck with the bicycle rumble.
Segment 13
Accesses the menu for some reason during skateboarding, costing him 5 seconds.
Segment 14
It’s just a race, so there’s nothing to really say about this one. Well, there’s a fight at the end and he only uses one of the firecrackers to damage the first wave of guys.
Segment 15
Gets caught on some bad guys on the walkway and tackled. He even has to knock them down to move on.
This happens again in a doorway not to much later.
Good strategy to defeat Norton though.
Screws up on the biker rally under the crane when he misses the first guy and has to come back to take him out.
Side note: The reason you can’t use items in the last fight is that you fail the mission if you do. It’s nice of the game to tell you this AFTER you do it.
Segment 16
I wonder how many people get the 1138 joke?
Not much else to say about this one.
Segment 17
Is there a way to get ahead of the patrol lady into the washroom? If there is, that makes the extra time spent hiding worthless.
Segment 18
The mascot beats the shit out of him.
Loses the first round of dodgeball.
Segment 19
After failing to tag a poster, the police come during his fight and he has to run to the next one. This also forces him to return to it after. If he knew the two guys would be a problem, he should have taken them out first.
Segment 20
After being told to piss in the jock’s drinks, he runs the wrong way.
Segment 21
You can actually jump off the lower part of city hall and survive. Sure you’ll have no health left, but that shouldn’t be a problem for a segmented speedrun.
Segment 22
Nothing to say here.
Segment 23
Gets knocked off the bike by a police officer and doesn’t get back on it after giving him the low blow. He resumes riding the slower skateboard instead.
Segment 24
Nothing bad to say about this one actually.
Segment 25
Can’t seem to get a pipe off the wall at the beginning of the final Edgar phase.
Segment 26
Yeah, he not only gets shot back down the ladder as soon as he reaches the top, but he misses a ramp jump as soon as he gets back up, forcing him to climb AGAIN. He loses 30 seconds alone here.
Timing
The in-game timer from the end menu reads 3:38:51.
Importance
Man, this guy must be very new to SDA, because it’s evident that he’s not trying very hard in almost all of these segments. Some of it is greenness, most is just not knowing when to restart because it’s beyond saving. There is one thing that people will probably ream him for that they shouldn’t, and that’s the targeting system during fights, or lack thereof I should say. It doesn’t let you target and lock-on to specific guys to fight, so you could be in the middle of beating one up and suddenly your finishing blow will deflect to another guy for no reason. Aside from that, he gets caught on things, misses firecracker tosses, goes the wrong way at times, screws up during a lot of fights, and seems to forget what he’s doing most of the time. There really isn’t a whole lot of luck to be manipulated here either, so he doesn’t have an excuse for his poor preformance.
Quote:
1) Watch an entire run.
2) Make sure the video and audio quality is fine, such as no audio sync problems or missing portions.
3) Make sure the player isn't cheating.
4) Check for consistency between saves. For example, if one segment ends with 5 bullets and the next starts with 7.
5) Tell me if they're impressed with the run, or if the run is below SDA standards.
6) Help me with timing start/end points, if the game doesn't have a timer.
There were no audio, video, or syncing problems.
There was no cheating.
Although there is no existing Bully speedrun, this run appears to be a bit below SDA standards. First of all, there are too many segments. In some games, that wouldn't be a huge problem, but in this game the runner sometimes takes several minutes to travel to and from a save point even after only running 1-3 missions. The quality of the run also degrades a little as it goes on as if the runner were impatient to get it done. After about half way through the run, there are numerous errors which should have triggered restarts. Tenements was sloppy; at least twice the runner gets caught and avoidably slowed down for 10+ seconds. A similar thing happens in poster tagging mission; the runner is slowed by enemies for a significant chunk of time. Also, in that one-mission segment he runs his skateboard into a car right near the beginning. Lastly, the vehicles are not used effectively. There are many opportunities to use the skateboard that are ignored or are started late.
Its not a terrible run. Besides the things I mentioned, its really not bad. The planning appears to be solid. Also, like I alluded earlier the first half of the run was very good other than still using too many segments that require going out of the way for save points. I really wanted to recommend that this run be accepted, but there is just too much wrong with it at present. I hope the runner goes back to it, though.
Decision: reject
2) Make sure the video and audio quality is fine, such as no audio sync problems or missing portions.
3) Make sure the player isn't cheating.
4) Check for consistency between saves. For example, if one segment ends with 5 bullets and the next starts with 7.
5) Tell me if they're impressed with the run, or if the run is below SDA standards.
6) Help me with timing start/end points, if the game doesn't have a timer.
There were no audio, video, or syncing problems.
There was no cheating.
Although there is no existing Bully speedrun, this run appears to be a bit below SDA standards. First of all, there are too many segments. In some games, that wouldn't be a huge problem, but in this game the runner sometimes takes several minutes to travel to and from a save point even after only running 1-3 missions. The quality of the run also degrades a little as it goes on as if the runner were impatient to get it done. After about half way through the run, there are numerous errors which should have triggered restarts. Tenements was sloppy; at least twice the runner gets caught and avoidably slowed down for 10+ seconds. A similar thing happens in poster tagging mission; the runner is slowed by enemies for a significant chunk of time. Also, in that one-mission segment he runs his skateboard into a car right near the beginning. Lastly, the vehicles are not used effectively. There are many opportunities to use the skateboard that are ignored or are started late.
Its not a terrible run. Besides the things I mentioned, its really not bad. The planning appears to be solid. Also, like I alluded earlier the first half of the run was very good other than still using too many segments that require going out of the way for save points. I really wanted to recommend that this run be accepted, but there is just too much wrong with it at present. I hope the runner goes back to it, though.
Decision: reject
Quote:
I have verified the Bully run.
The audio/video quality is good. All the segments line up in terms of items, health, and time of day.
There are some segments in this run that I think could be improved. You see him running around not doing anything useful in segments 11 and 12, but this is because he has to wait for certain tasks to become available, so this isn't wasted time. However, there are segments later on where improvements could definitely be made:
Segment 17: He gets confused in the maze in the Funhouse, wasting a fair amount of time. Not a BIG deal though.
Segment 18: He tries to throw marbles at the mascot, instead of immediately using his slingshot which is clearly the better method. Then when he fights the mascot in the pool he doesn't use any weapons at all! Slingshot/firecrackers/stink bombs/spud gun seemed like they would've helped quite a bit here.
Segment 19: He wastes time fighting students and gets in trouble with a cop when he could've just run to tag the next picture.
Segment 23: He gets knocked off his bike by a motorcycle cop. This and the interaction with the cop, as well as having to skateboard to and from the asylum instead of using the bike, wastes a decent amount of time.
Segment 25: Wastes time fighting guys in the warehouse when he should've just run to the next switch.
There are other small mistakes here and there, but given the length of the segments those are no big deal. And given that the complaints above are fairly minor, I'll go ahead and recommend that this run be accepted, though it would've been nice to see a few segments improved.
The audio/video quality is good. All the segments line up in terms of items, health, and time of day.
There are some segments in this run that I think could be improved. You see him running around not doing anything useful in segments 11 and 12, but this is because he has to wait for certain tasks to become available, so this isn't wasted time. However, there are segments later on where improvements could definitely be made:
Segment 17: He gets confused in the maze in the Funhouse, wasting a fair amount of time. Not a BIG deal though.
Segment 18: He tries to throw marbles at the mascot, instead of immediately using his slingshot which is clearly the better method. Then when he fights the mascot in the pool he doesn't use any weapons at all! Slingshot/firecrackers/stink bombs/spud gun seemed like they would've helped quite a bit here.
Segment 19: He wastes time fighting students and gets in trouble with a cop when he could've just run to tag the next picture.
Segment 23: He gets knocked off his bike by a motorcycle cop. This and the interaction with the cop, as well as having to skateboard to and from the asylum instead of using the bike, wastes a decent amount of time.
Segment 25: Wastes time fighting guys in the warehouse when he should've just run to the next switch.
There are other small mistakes here and there, but given the length of the segments those are no big deal. And given that the complaints above are fairly minor, I'll go ahead and recommend that this run be accepted, though it would've been nice to see a few segments improved.
Decision: Reject
Reason: The planning was good, but an overall lack of optimization and excessive segmentation (i.e. too much backtracking) prevents this run from being SDA-worthy.
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