SpeedrunOneWord Ep01 - Portal

[Kathleen]

n this new series, James puts Adam through his speedrunning paces. Every episode, James selects a world-record speedrun, and gives Adam twice that time to complete the game. Today's episode: Portal!

Due to the time used in our video having been beaten just days ago by BiiWiX (who also held the previous WR time we used for this run) they have since removed their now obsolete run and posted the new run here. Congrats on the new WR BiiWiX!

[Omega Lairon]

I really enjoy speed runs in general, so this LRR flavored take on it was a nice surprise. Having watched it, on the whole, it was excellent all around, but not without a few teeny wrinkles. But hey, it's a first episode thing - you don't expect to nail it perfectly on the first attempt.

Specific thoughts on the show in general. First the good:
* Slick intro. Very nicely done.
* As above, I love the concept, and James/Adam have very good chemistry. I'm hard pressed thinking of a better cast for this kind of show.
* Audio balance started a bit heavy in favor of the game audio, but it was corrected early and sounded great for the rest of the episode.

Regarding this episode / game specifically.
* It's... kinda weird to see people who don't know or haven't played Portal. Still, fun though, and Adam seemed to pick it up very quick.
* James was magnificent as the "sort of helpful, but often trolling" co-pilot. I like how while he had a walk-through ready, it was very much read and explained on the fly. Really added to the comedic timing.

As mentioned above though, I noticed some very minor wrinkles.

* For a show where a running timer / countdown plays such a key role, it was a little odd that it wasn't continually visible.
* Similarly, with the camera angle changes, while I'm not opposed to cutting between just the game video, and a splitscreen of game and hosts, I felt like maybe the screen sizes on the split might have been just a bit off? It might be worth making the game screen just a smidge larger during split screen?
* During times with a lot of camera motion, there seemed to be a bit of tearing / v-sync issues, resulting in mild nausea. Not sure to what degree it can be fixed... maybe just messing around with the display options on a game by game basis.

Ultimately, not big problems, just what I noticed. Still thought it was a fantastic first episode regardless. I'm super hype for the next one. ^_^

[romangoro]

I liked the idea, but I think, (feel maybe?) that the presentation needs a bit of work. It felt too much like a semi-improvised stream to be a prerecorded thing, if that makes sense.

Also, I understand that the objective is comedy, and therefore it makes sense to chose games that Adam has never played, but maybe mix it up sometimes? I'm pretty sure getting close to it and failing (and here I'm betting not a single one of these videos will end with the record beaten) would be just as entertaining.

[OneirosGolem]

So my biggest problem is that I didn't know exactly what the goal and roles were here. Maybe this was worsened because I had heard some buzz about this video before it debuted so I had preconceptions, but I had no idea what the 'rules' were on how much help James was allowed to give Adam to try and complete the run. All we were told is that James would "run him through it".

So by the end of the video, James seemed weirdly inconsistent to me. At certain points he wasn't giving away anything, and others he was coaching Adam with deliberately obtuse instructions (read off the entire chamber guide once before Adam could start the stage, then explain nothing else), and then others he was being genuinely helpful. I really, really think that the video would be benefited by a quick run-down at the start that states exactly what James will and won't tell Adam.

My other complaint is it seemed like the walkthrough James was using was a completely vanilla playthrough. I know it's not really feasible to get Adam to perform some speed-run techniques, but some of the tricks are things like not needing to use one cube in chamber 13. (Around the 23 minute mark in the video, 7:50 ish in the world record run) It makes a huge difference to the completion time of a chamber, and perfectly executing the vanilla solution would still take at least twice as long as the speed-run method.

It seemed a little unfair to Adam, is all.

The other suggestion I have is to consider playing a video of the speed run at half speed when Adam goes through the same segment. It could make for an entertaining comparison, but maybe it's not feasible to use a speedrunner's video like that (even with proper accreditation).

[Aeralis]

Now, I'll say that Episode #1 being a puzzle game that Adam has never played before is hilarious. However, for future videos, I feel like "puzzle games' and "games Adam has never had any contact with" are both generally poor choices. Especially if the cocktail leads the video to being more or less James just shouting directions at Adam.

Like the idea, enjoyed the actual episode, and Portal was a funny one-off idea, but the format could use some tinkering for future installments.

[nightmanflock]

Definitely like the idea, was very entertained.

One potentially entertaining run, though more so if not already versed in the game, would be Eversion. There's an any% and 100% time, both being under 15 minutes for the true ending. The speedrun for the bad end is under 3 minutes, so I feel like that one might be a bit.... optimistic. Playing this game blind there's no way I'd have been able to finish it in under 6 minutes (I don't think).