Glitches and Cheating: A Short Speed Run Rant

Never would I have thought in my life that idiots on the internet would get to me as much as they have with this one, here we go!

Speed Running is a thing I have enjoyed watching for a pretty long time, but only very recently have I got into trying to do them myself.  If you look a few posts down from this one you'll be able to see the first full run I've put on They Bleed Pixels.

Anyway, no matter if you're into speed running or not, as long as you're into games like Half Life and stuff, chances are you have seen the insane runs from a group of people going under the banner of Sourceruns on YouTube.  Their Half Life 2 and Portal speed runs are insanely good and between them they have managed to produce some really good times.

Now if you hop on YouTube and watch these runs, you may noticed that they are glitched to shit.  Lot's of accelerated jumping round levels, going out of bounds and all sorts of funky stuff that allows them to beat the game as fast as they do, but this is where the problem lies. 

It's not just these Half Life runs, it's basically ever speed run that involves glitches ever but there is always some moron in a comments section complaining about how "the run isn't legit! they used so many glitches!  They are just cheating!"  This is complete horseshit and I'm going to explain to you people why.

First of all, what's the point of a Speed Run?  Well it's to get to the end of the game as fast as you possibly can without cheating or modifying the game in any way.  This has of course evolved over time so generally speaking, what's known as "any%" runs will be extremely glitched out in a lot of cases while "100%" may not be as glitchy, or glitches will be used to make certain goals faster rather than skipping huge chunks of the game.  This is not the same as cheating, such as using codes or other tools like game shark to give yourself an advantage in order to beat the game.

A good example of this difference really, is with Sonic speed runs.  If you've ever watched a Sonic run you'll see the runner zipping his way through the walls of the levels to reach the end of the stage as fast as possible.  This is NOT the same as using a level select code or level skip code or a no clip in a game genie password or some shit because you still have to actually PLAY the level.  There is a degree of skill required to shove yourself inside a wall at just the right pixel and at just the right speed in order to make the zip happen, and the only thing making is happen is you and the controller.  THAT'S the difference between cheating and glitching.

So bottom line really is if you're going to pass judgements on people's Speed Runs, clue yourself in on how fucking Speed Running works before you start slamming the keyboard with your stupid hands.  A lot of work goes into these runs and its infuriating to see people dismiss them for such a stupid fucking reason.  If you don't like Speed Running, then fine, but don't shit on other people just because people are enjoying games in a way that you couldn't even begin to understand.

Goddamnit

Yu-Gi-Steam

This is something that popped up on Steam recently, and while I don't see the point, I fucking love it.

Steam Trading Cards is a feature that hit sometime last month I think and from what I can tell it's a feature where you can earn things like chat emoticons and other features for your steam profile. 

The system is very simple, certain games have card drops attached to them and by playing these games you get the cards.  Every game has a card drop limit of 3 or 4 but there are 8 cards in a set, so to get the full set of cards you must trade or use the steam marketplace in order to get the badge.  When you get the badge you unlock a load of stuff to use on your profile so you can customise your shit with a load of themed virtual goodies.

I personally think this whole thing is a load of shit and don't see the point, but that said all the cards are steam marketable, so I have no problem selling them off for a little bit of spare change to go towards my next game purchase, so there is some good that comes out of this whole thing even for those who don't really care.

Also if you have a Steam account above level 10 you can get foil card drops, but the only purpose I've seen for these is selling for insane amounts of dosh on the Steam market.  Still, I think they did a great job here of providing a fun and free little extra then benefits everybody, it'll be interesting to see what direction this thing takes when it comes out of beta.

Where is Half Life 3? (Or Episode 3)

I love me some Half Life, but I've got concerns for this series and I'm really hoping Valve proves me wrong on this one.

Half Life 2: Episode 2 was a game released in 2007 to follow up on the events from Episode 1 and Half Life2.  The game was intense as all hell and a shit ton of fun to play and got fans more invested in the Half Life 2 plot and universe with all sorts of crazy shit going on.  But the game ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and we have barely heard anything about an Episode 3.  It's been so long that people are thinking that Episode 3 won't even be a thing and instead we'll just get a Half Life 3 instead.

Now I've not really been following all the news too closely but after giving a quick skim of the Half Life wiki on news regarding the next game, there has been nothing super concrete and everything seems like a bit of a mystery.

What I'm worried about is that Half Life 3 will go the same way of Daikatana, Duke Nukem Forever or Too Human.  These games had huge development times and large amounts of hype, and then when they released they sucked ASS.  I trust Valve to not make a game that's shitty quality wise, but can they really deliver on the 6 years of hype that's been flying around since Episode 2?  Given the amount of time it's been, I don't think they will be able to do it, but I'm crossing my fingers and really hoping that they prove me very, very wrong.

3 scary games for the 31st

Well Halloween is finally upon us people!  Now, the big Halloween nights out around Japan all went down last weekend, since Halloween itself falls on a Wednesday and people are working and whatnot.  So! If you need some living room scares, I'm here to provide you with 3 games that may get the fear flowing.

In case anyone cares the game in the top picture is Fatal Frame (or Project Zero)

GAME NUMBER 1! THE BINDING OF ISAAC!

HOORAY! I finally get to talk about this thing again!  You may be scratching your head at this first pick since The Binding of Isaac isn't all that scary really, at least not at face value.  No, the Binding of Isaac is just disturbing, in both plot and imagery.  Apart from your enemies being all horrible disfigurations from a babies nightmare, if you spend enough time in the basement then you'll realise just how grim Isaacs tale really is, and once all is revealed, it's really quite unsettling.  So if you want a Halloween game that wont make you lose sleep at night, Isaac is the way to go!

GAME NUMBER 2! LONE SURVIVOR!

This little indie gem really impressed me when I fired it up for the first time.  It's one of the only horror games that is actually trying to be scary rather than just startling.  While you may not think a game with 2D pixel art could be all that scary, the atmosphere in this thing is oppressive as all hell.  It's not very long, but the feelings of dread and panic are delivered in such huge amounts that staying in the world of Lone Survivor for extended periods is quite a strain on the senses.

GAME 3! HALF-LIFE 2!

What the fuck am I talking about? Half Life 2? scary? Well hear me out.

When I say Half Life 2, I don't mean Half Life 2 itself, I mean the absolutely staggering numbers of mods available for this game.  Of that large number of mods, a good deal of them are scary mods, and good ones at that too!  Nightmare House 2 and Grey are 2 really good ones just to get you started, but you can find so many scary fucking mods for this thing it'll make your head spin.  So fire up google and get to it.

There you have it folks, a good way to burn a wednesday evening at home for halloween.  Also, don't worry if you are a gamer on a budget, the above titles are cheap as chips so you won't be breaking the bank for any of these games.