Gaming Stuff

Returnal – Phrike Zero Damage Run

Back in September of 2022, while playing Returnal on PS5 for the first time, I finally made it to Phrike, the boss of the initial biome. Despite never having seen the boss before, my first attempt ended up being a zero damage run! Unfortunately, it wasn't quite a no-hit run as I was knocked over by a melee attack about half way through the fight. This game is stunning and so fun to play!

Sifu – Above The Skyscrapers Gold Stamp in 4 Hits

Following the release of Sifu's final update for the Arenas Expansion in September of 2023, I began working my way through the Tiger Arena Challenges. This clip in particular comes from a gold stamp run of the 'Above the Skyscrapers' arena, in which one has to beat waves of enemies while remaining below age 33 (i.e. without dying) in order to get all three regular stamps and do so while being hit fewer than 6 times in order to obtain the gold stamps.

The Last of Us Part II – I Didn't Know You Could One-Shot These Enemies!

The title really says it all! I was surprised that I actually made this shot, let alone that it insta-killed the brute. This was my second run through this area of The Last of Us Part II, so I wasn't exactly caught by surprise when the enemy appeared, however my previous attempt absolutely chewed through my resources as I ran around the interior of the shop. This run through was a lot more efficient!

Ghostrunner Demo – An Awakening in 1:27.15

This is a single-level in-bounds speedrun of the first stage from the Ghostrunner demo, namely 'An Awakening,' completed on PS4 in May of 2021. The route used was my own, based on the world record at the time, with a couple of the extended dashing tricks (like the air ground dash) replaced with more straightforward, yet slower, routing. As the in-game timer and death counter did not correctly display during the run, this attempt could not be submitted to the leaderboards.

Ghostrunner 2 – Full Demo in 6:07.97

Here is a speedrun of the full demo for Ghostrunner 2, completed in September of 2023 on PS5. Having messed around with running the demo for the first Ghostrunner game during the COVID19 pandemic, I just had to pick this up after it was announced. There is one trick I do not go for at 2:22 in the video, which involves doing a super jump off a ledge to skip having to set up the fan stored in the side room. I couldn't make the skip consistent at the time, but a little practice would probably make it viable.

Astro's Playroom – Climbing Run in 20.01

My attempt at speedrunning the Climbing Run challenge from Astro's Playroom on PS5 from September of 2021. This challenge utilised the adaptive trigger technology of the Dualsense and involved pressing the triggers at speed to climb a wall, where some of the rocks were fragile and would break if you pressed too hard. At the time this was recorded, I was grinding low times in all of the Network Speed Run challenges and reached 213th place globally.

Astro's Playroom – Hopping Run in 26.80

My attempt at speedrunning the Hopping Run challenge from Astro's Playroom on PS5 from September of 2021. Much of the challenge involved pressing/releasing the adaptive triggers to jump at the earliest opportunity upon landing and turning while doing so. Note, this run was re-timed by myself, since the recording did not include the challenge end-card. As such, the time is only approximate and likely an over-estimate.

Astro's Playroom – Jetpack Run in 37.73

My attempt at speedrunning the Jetpack Run challenge from Astro's Playroom on PS5 from September of 2021. Again this run utilises the adaptive triggers combined with motion controls to guide Astro-bot through a fixed course, with the player attempting to avoid obstacles and take corners as tightly as possible.

Astro's Playroom – Rolling Run in 32.86

My attempt at speedrunning the Rolling Run challenge from Astro's Playroom from September of 2021. Unlike the other challenges shown above, this one uses the trackpad to steer a rolling ball along a course, while the haptic feedback simulates the textures of surfaces such as mud and metal. Rhythm and steering are again the most important factors for this challenge.

Bloodborne – Sewer Skip (PS4 – Unedited)

In this clip, I demonstrate Sewer Skip from Bloodborne – a speedrun skip used to skip the sewers of Central Yharnam. This is done by jumping onto a railing above the sewers and walking along until you can drop off at the end and land on the bridge by the shortcut. In this clip I miss the fence and choose to reload, since when I touch the top of the fence on the way past, the game sets that as my last 'stable ground,' the place where the player is positioned when the game reloads.

Bloodborne – Old Yharnam Skip (PS4 – Unedited)

Here I demonstrate Old Yharnam Skip from Bloodborne – a speedrun skip used to reach the Blood Starved Beast boss without traversing the bulk of Old Yharnam (this also avoids Hunder Djura). We do this by abusing player jump height to clear the fence at the start of the area and get out of bounds. The rooftops have very little collision, but by carefully moving along the pieces that do, we can reach the street below. Note that the traversable regions do not match the parts of the roof that render in.

Bloodborne – Hut Skip (PS4 – Unedited)

This clip is a demonstration of Hut Skip from Bloodborne – a speedrun skip used to bypass the middle section of the Forbidden Woods area. We do this by rolling off a rock to clip out of bounds, traversing through out of bounds while avoiding objects without collision, and climbing onto a second stack of rocks. From here, careful camera positioning using an R1 attack lines us up with the corner of the hut, allowing us to roll onto an invisible wall that runs along the side of the building. We can then roll into the hut, since the wall does not have collision this high up.

The second part of this glitch abuses the collision of the wooden beams in the lift shaft inside the hut – we can land half way down (taking a little fall damage) and then drop to the bottom where we can then proceed to fight the Shadows of Yharnam.

Bloodborne – Yahar'gul Skip (PS4 – Unedited)

Now we have a demonstration of Yahar'gul Skip from Bloodborne – a speedrun skip used to reach The One Reborn shortly after entering the area. This skip is characterised by the poor collision of the fence shown at the beginning of the clip – with the correct angle and enough speed, you can just walk straight through it!

The setup used here makes the skip more consistent, since there are enemies off-camera targeting the player. We transform the Saw Cleaver, backstep, transform attack, and then use a charged R2 in order to clip through the fence. This ensures that we make it through and puts us far enough forward that we land on solid ground on the other side, rather than falling into the building.

Bloodborne – Nightmare Frontier Skip (PS4 – Loads Cut)

Finally in this series, we have a demonstration of Nightmare Frontier Skip from Bloodborne – a speedrun skip used to reach the Amygdala boss fight directly from the Nightmare Frontier lantern, via the shortcut lift. We do this by falling down the lift shaft and bouncing off a ledge, setting that as stable ground. We then quit-out (loading screens have been cut here) and when we load back in, we are on the ledge, far enough down the lift shaft that we no longer die due to fall damage when we jump down. An emote is used to line up the initial fall and time the quit-out.