Half-Life Free Running: An Amazing HL2 Speedrun
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.
Via the regretful Tom Francis.