Speedruns and self imposed challenges.

[Tallim]

Having limited time recently I embarked on a play through of New Vegas with the express goal of trying to finish it without improving any combat skills beyond base level. I finished it with a time just short of 5 hours at level 10.

So my question is what games have you either speed ran or deliberately added personal challenges to and what were your experiences?

 

[IBlackKiteI]

I never really try to finish to an entire in a short amount of time, though I sometimes speedrun certain levels.

Though in Deus Ex I normally use non-lethal and melee weapons extensively and attempt to sneak and hack as much as possible.

 

[SirDeadly]

SO far I have speedrun through the entire campaign of CoD 4, WaW and MW2 on normal just to see what I was in for on veteran.

 

[scrambledeggs]

I did a speed run of portal, can't remember my time though.
It was fun.

 

[onewheeled]

When playing splitscreen with friends, I play Modern Warfare 2 with only the Magnum and tactical knife, nothing else at all. It's quite fun, and more effective than one would think.

Also, I'll occasionally try to play some songs on Rock Band 2 drums using only one stick, making the most of the time window you have to hit the notes. Now that's a challenge, especially on expert.

 

[SixWingedAsura]

Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons.

Three-heart only, No Death Counter, Cursed Ring Level 2 (You deal 1/2 damage and enemies deal 2x damage).

And for Ocarina of Time:

Three-heart only, No Death Counter.

 

[Steve B]

I've always had asperations to try a world record speed run of Super Mario World. I used to be pretty good at it, to a point where I felt almost confident that I could maybe someday hope to try to achieve something close to a world record. But I'm not at that level right now. Maybe someday...

Other than that I've never been one for speed runs. I did play through Legend of Dragoon in around 12 hours, maxing out every character, but that was more of a natural extension of my passion for that game than it was a challenge (I've maxed the gameplay cock [99hours 99min] at least 5 times).

I'm noticing that it's really hard to talk about these things without coming off as bragging about very trivial accomplisments.

Spoiler

I... I'm sorry?

One thing I've gotten a lot of my friends into, is playing Left 4 Dead "jumping up and down only using pistols". Pretty self-explanitory. It's

 

[Steve B]

Sorry for the dual post, I'm writing this on a phone and it's being a dick to me.

So, jumping up and down only using pistols.

It's a very simple modification to gameplay that adds a lot of hecticness to an already hectic game. For one thing, it really wrecks your aiming. Another thing is, it makes hordes terrifying. Being surrounded by 20 zombies that you can't quite hit because you are being ridiculous is very flustering.

A good story about that is, my friends and I were playing No Mercy, jumping up and down with pistols, hving at it. Due to people on the othr team either dropping out or

 

[MgR]

Portal speed run, my best time is just over 24 minutes.

 

[Steve B]

Damn it phone.

"Due to people on the other team either dropping out or just being generally terrible, by the time we got to the 4th level, we had a guarenteed win. As the 4th loaded up, we ended up with a team of very good players (who as I said were fucked), who immediately caught on to what we were doing and joined in. Even as the infected.

That ended up being one of the best matches I played of L4D. Both teams using this ridiculous handicap, it increased play time by at least a half, and both side were at an equal level, do to how hard the aiming is.

And the Tank. Oh my god.

 

[Flour]

I'm a natural speedrunner, every game I play has to be completed in the least amount of time.
But the game I'm the most proud of for finishing in as short amount of time as possible is:

MGS4 [http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9694/image041j.jpg], it wasn't serious or else I would have played on a higher difficulty(played on easy), but it is still interesting to see how few gameplay hours are in the game compared to cutscene hours(there's roughly 8,5 hours worth of cutscenes).

 

[EHKOS]

No death run on Timesplitter 3. Normal. That was actually on accident. I wanted to play it again and I beat it in one night. When I got done I realised I hadn't died once.

 

[linwolf]

I never speedrun, I prefer to explore the game.
I do however love self imposed challenges.

 

[Robyrt]

The only game I've intentionally challenged myself (besides speedruns) at is the old RPG Silver, which had difficulty set ridiculously low to match the poor Dreamcast controls. On the PC, the game only retained a decent challenge by going one-character, no-magic-allowed.

 

[Mr.Napier]

however many Pokemon my opponent uses I use.

 

[PureChaos]

i don't do speed runs but i do occasionally go for 100% completions

 

[Triangulon]

I once attempted to play through half-life without losing any health. Through the use of many, many quicksaves I eventually managed it (apart from a couple of sections where you are damaged by the environment eg. freezer part). As sad as it was I really enjoyed it. Funnily enough I wouldn't want to try it on any other game though.

 

[Rusty Bucket]

Me and a friend did a melee run through of Halo CE. Only allowed to use melee, grenades, fully charged plasma pistol shots and vehicle splatters. It was going great until we got to The Library.

 

[TPiddy]

I used to LOVE 'Ironman' runs in Diablo II.... where you'd not be allowed back to town and you had to subsist off of what the dungeon gave you. You could only go back to town when it forced you, and then you were allowed trade-ins and such. Makes it much harder to decide who gets what, and what to carry.

 

[Antitonic]

I don't get speed runs. If you've finished the game that much that you know where everything is and the only challenge left is do go as fast as possible, isn't it time for a new game? I cannot see in any way how it can be fun.

But of course this post = opinion, and I do respect the kind of obsessive skill it takes to speed run successfully, even if I don't agree with it.

Aaaaanyway, topic on hand. Given the chance, I try to do "one-character" runs. It sure made FF1 a hell of a lot easier and faster.