It's only taken 600 days and 14 people, but Half-Life 2 has finally been completed in under 1 hour and 28 minutes. The speedrun I've embedded below is the product of Source Runs team, and it reduces Valve's opus to a dramatic, comedic relay of astonishing keyboard gymnastics. Each player passes off their best run through to the next, completing the game as a team. There are 200 segments covered in the same time it would take to watch Paranormal Activity. In fact, some might say what you're about to see is parano - [*snip* We'll have none of that - segue Ed].
What cracks me up are the pre-canned remarks that just float into the air like a child's lost balloon. Marc Laidlaw slaved over those lines, the actors probably spent hours in a booth recording them, the animators tweaked the face to match the line. It was all lined up perfectly, and the intended audience zoomed on past like a freight train in trouble.
Things to look out for: the guy covering a fair chunk of Ravenholm with only 1 health and 0 suit strength. The fantastic way the Lost Highway is traversed is probably my favourite speedrun, ever: he leaves the car behind and instead runs and jumps backwards. It's absolutely exhilarating. It could do with snipping the inappropriate buzz zooming and teabagging in the quiet moments, though.
Half-Life 2: DWaHMoV - Half-Life 2 Speedrun - 1:27:51 Watch on YouTube
Via the regretful Tom Francis.
