I wish I could thank Radix, Nate, Mike Uyama, and Enhasa enough for this site. Thanks for hosting; thanks for transferring from DVD; etc. This site rocks. Also, thanks go to dragonGOD for some early advice. Btw, before you read too much of this, know that most of my comments are just play-by-plays of everything I do, so they can be boring. You've been warned.

This, incidentally, is the first Xbox360 run for Speed Demos Archive, which was certainly thrilling for me in the last two or three weeks of recording the run. That being said, it's just another run, and the graphics are not necessarily as pristine as you might imagine, anyway. Still, I hope the run makes for an entertaining watch.

This is a minimalist run. A 100% would probably consist of the same routes, but with many tangents so that one could collect all of the hidden metal pieces and bird carcasses, which, btw, are probably the coolest collectables, ever. But anyway.

Btw, keep in mind that I must ignore most gangmembers and hobos throughout this run, so if rooms appear barren, you can probably assume there were enemies waiting to ambush me somewhere whom I avoided. Most of the ones who were at all persistent met the taser at some time or other, and the ones I actually stopped and killed pretty much had to have been killed for the sake of the run. Also, the yellow bar is stamina or sprint. I mention this because you might have no idea what the bar does, since the speed boost it yields is next to worthless.

Note: Movies and cinematics *sighs* are NOT skippable. Also, there are often invisible walls preventing me from proceeding forward, usually instigated by scripted events such as phone calls, and these also lengthened the run. Finally, the video is profusely dark, so you might want to turn up your monitor until the control completely breaks off.

Okay then, we may finally proceed to the comments:

Weisman Office Building: The dawdling old man is impassable, sorry. Once past this, we have the first of many CSI-inspired crime scenes. Being the showoff that I am, btw, I simply had to put away and then whip out the "laser light" JUST as the lights were cut. Don't worry; no time loss. Oh, and after the following movie, listen carefully for the most blatant f-bomb in the history of the world.

I unloaded my full clip into an enemy because I was about to lose the gun anyway.

A little after I get the fireaxe, I incur totally unanticipated "phantom damage" from some thug or other once I taser the next guy. Due to this, I break the first rule of running the preliminary segment to any run: NEVER MAKE A WRONG TURN! Luckily, the mistake only costs maybe a quarter of a second. (Btw, the wrong turn is NOT at 8:10, it's at 12:09)

The rest of the level went better than perfect, time-wise. Although damage-wise, I was the victim of ANOTHER phantom hit just before I reached the exit.

Metro Station: This level was a chore if for no other reason than the obnoxiously long intro.

I was regrettably absent-minded when I spun around janking the file size of the segment to interstellar levels during the phone call.... sorry, wasn't thinking.

A little further on, I was impeded by two resilient thugs near the janitor's bucket. I attacked the first one, but he actually didn't die. I managed to finish him off while attacking the second thug whom I was actually able to run past without killing.

I again obtain the fireaxe (a recurring theme throughout the entire run).

After I killed the second hoodlum, I took some life which was not ultimately necessary; though, the typical randomness of an upcoming room justified it.

When I elevated up a level, you'll notice that I seemed to hang around the brown doorway for a while only to fight a pithy little addict. Staying in the doorway protected me from the reckless shotgun blasts of the guy in the next room for a moment, you see. But, I wish the addict hadn't blocked as much. Finally, the run does also suffer an additional loss of maybe three seconds from the camera in the newspaper clippings room, which was terribly out of focus at the outset. Though, I made up some time by pwning in the pysch-out fight, just afterwards. The level coasts from there.

Subway Central: Finally, no intro.

You may not believe this, but this level went almost perfectly, time-wise, even though awfully combat wise. Luckily, my combat efficiency hardly matters in this level; if I swing at a guy, it's usually just to get him out of the way. The ones who need to be killed ARE killed.

The first miss occurs when I routinely turned about to taser the thug following me (not to save time, but to conserve health). Usually, he is pretty persistent, but he must have gotten caught on a wall or something since he didn't follow me further. The next guy, who made a point to have a memorable entrance, somehow nailed a hit on me from maybe ten feet away with a 2x4, and then an addict shortly after appeared to be completely invincible for some reason. Doesn't it look like I should've hit him? Twice?

Then, after I killed shotgun Tex, I missed yet ANOTHER guy with an axe swipe. At this point, you'd think the X360 was overheating or something. After I take scripted phantom-damage and fall like an oaf down the stairs, I taser a criminal and again am nearly killed by a gunshot as I scamper past. At the end, I jump on the subway's caboose, use my apparently superhuman strength to rip off the handrail, and sit through a partially uneventful rail scene. Though, the camera really glitches up (overheating?), and the unrelenting addicts came as close to killing me as possible.

Subway Tunnels: This is the last of the levels with natural transitions. I believe this is my worst segment.

You'll notice that most of the enemies in this level are "crawlers,"Bigboy who pose nearly no threat whatsoever.

Anyway, after I once again use the sluggish shovel inappropriately as a hacksaw, and scurry over and off the hanging scaffoldings, I then hustle to the first of many now-defunct subway cars and basically sit there for a couple of long minutes while some strangers brawl outside the car. Once I bludgeon the anemic girl, I make a small time-costing mistake by using the recently stolen sledgehammer twice on the Bigboy (or disgruntled ex-fireman, not sure) instead of kicking him to finish. One second loss, maybe.

In an upcoming room, you'll notice it takes me a second or two to activate the valve. This is a good example of how sluggishly all such prompts respond. Usually if a green prompt pops up, you can assume I was slaughtering the button long before the button press registered in the game.

Next, I jump down two ladders and MISERABLY fail to kill the hermitic crawler in a timely fashion. In my defense, many of my swipes sure look like they should have hit. The combat system in this game is completely broken, which must be why the sequel's combat system is on steroidsÖ though still sucks.

I then kill another heroine family, grab a medkit, and ascend a nearby ladder. Okay, mistake number two. I embarrassingly miss a taser shot on the big boy, causing me to lose a substantial portion of my lifebar. Luckily, a medkit rests at the top of the next ladder, but I must waste plenty of integrity and a couple of seconds in order to obtain it. In the room where I next cut another alarm pad with my shovel (seriously, wtf), it might appear like I waste too much time in a couple more disgraceful battles with standing crawlers (oxymoron). Actually, since I cannot leave the tight walkway until I've killed the third guy who comes in on a timed queue, and since I kill HIM pretty well, I don't lose any time. Well, I'm contented to say that the next large room, the one with possibly six criminals, three of whom carry guns, went splendidly. Firearms are nearly worthless due to their utterly insufficient amounts of ammo, and since they never replenish your bullets, ever, the only reason I typically ever take one is to disarm the sorry sap who brought it. And note: one of the thugs uncharacteristically sneaks away from this fight, way in the background, and unexpectedly comes back a few moments later. Caught me by surprise, anyway.

After I grab the crowbar, I make the third annoying mistake. Yep, I get caught on a table. Ugh.

After I get on the last abandoned subway car, I again begin to spin in a fit of ennui. Damn phone calls. Sorry about that, 56kers.

If you listen in the final fifteen seconds, you can hear someone with a gun chasing me down, and getting nearer and nearer with his blasts.

Bart's Department Store: D'oh; an intro movie. And I think either Ethan had some peanut butter stuck to his palate, or the character model artists neglected his "angry" face. This level is a nice change of pace, and this segment is nearly, if not, perfect. And yes, that's a mannequin arm I'm using for my first weapon. It's not bad, either.

After I kill some mannequin-impersonating hoodlums and run around aimlessly (you know, the usual), I eventually reach another investigation scene with a scripted femme fatale scurrying away in the background. You'll notice that even when girls are filthy rotten murderers, they still run like little prissy fairies.

Anyway, I eventually acquire the sledgehammer, again, and break open another inexplicably locked door. If I lost any time, it may have been here, as the door begins to shut again, but it probably only cost half a second, (though part of the pause actually came from the automatic progress save).

Immediately afterwards, I take the most "phantomest" damage of the entire run when I run down the escalator; I've honestly NO idea what hit me.

After I ONCE AGAIN find a lonesome fireaxe, I make my way back upstairs and into a disturbing dressing cubical. I'm sorry this scene is so atrociously long. Well, no more Mr. Matchmaker. Too bad; he was always keepin' it real.

After this, I first avoid and then kill a thug in order to let the upcoming villains spawn and kill each other while I fight. The perp with a rebar cement really wallops me, but I survive. After Ethan further tortures his cell phone bill, I dash to the exit and barely survive the final addict, yet again.

Burnback Alley: Even though this brief level only took a couple of hours to practice and record, the segment goes really well. And, it's the only segment which does NOT feature the precious fireaxe at some point or other! After I grab what is shockingly the most ideal weapon, the small pipe (unless you're into quick attacks and prefer the weaker rebar), I kill the addict, trigger the guy who grabs me from behind the wall, and run past two others to kill a third. After the next guy bursts through the wall (you know, whoever has been constructing the walls and floors around here needs to be fired), I skip taking his shotgun, and I then SOMEHOW skip a phone call!

I'm supposed to be again interrupted by a call from Rosa just before reaching the window, but I don't and thus save maybe five to ten seconds. I've only ever witnessed this glitch once before, so I was fortunate. In the large fight scene, I very luckily only encountered five criminals when I normally face seven. I don't know why, and I don't care. For most of the scene I let the gangsters fight amongst themselves, taking the occasional cheap shot whenever opportune, and keep my eye on my health. In retrospect, I think I could have helped out the fight a tad more, but the danger in that is staying alive afterwards since all surviving enemies will come after me if I do so.

Had anyone brought a fully-loaded gun or a rebar w/concrete into this fight, which does occasionally happen, I would've switched weapons. Seeing as this was not the case, though, and since locker doors and 2x4's absolutely blow, I was compelled to stick with the small pipe. After I kill the last thug, I avoid the pistol man on the rooftop, taser the vagrant who collapses behind the fence gate, and quickly hop into the dumpster, which is apparently resting in an alleyway recently slicked up with eight hundred pounds of grease. This portion went remarkably well, also, as I only needed to thwack the assaulters three times between the two of them.

And why didn't the policeman, who looks suspiciously like the deceased Officer Becker, see me run into the door maybe half a second ago?

The Library: I loath this level. Loath the hell out of it. This segment took approximately seventy-five attempts to successfully record because of one thirty second section. Yes, it was even more difficult than the Raptor jump. At least this attempt went almost perfectly.

Normally, I would have made this much more entertaining for the viewing audience, but I was in the sourest of moods during this attempt, which I was sure was doomed to fail like all the others.

After a few scripted events, I grab the super-taser (which seems less effective, as it always requires a follow-up attack), and go through a couple more scripted events. Yay! Paper cutter!

After Rosa is SOMEHOW kidnapped at arm's length distance, I run to an ultimately pointless investigation scene (none of them in this level are ever explained, btw), and then trigger the axe-hobo to break down the door. The next couple of rooms can be deadly if you don't know what you're doing. I only kill maybe six of the maybe dozen plus guys in them, so, again, remember there are more enemies than you're seeing.

After I nab the fireaxe, and kill two guys, you'll notice that I arbitrarily peek behind a bookshelf. I do this as, nine times out of ten, some asshole with a pistol is waiting here to put a couple in my backside. For whatever reason, he does not appear, so though I still waste a second searching, I saved time by avoiding the fight altogether.

When I enter the dreaded elevator, realize I am about to undergo the most grueling experience known to my gaming life. When I reach the top, I am reacquainted with an immense room that NOW has three muggers in it, EACH with his own gun. One has a pistol, one has a shotgun, and one has the first sub-machinegun in the game! Now, I initially ignore these fools, open the gate, and run up the stairs while dodging the debris, only taking a couple of shots from behind. However, after I kill the next thug and steal his pistol, I enter the above room where the three gunmen from below are actually able to SHOOT UP THROUGH THE FLOOR!!!!

The bastards.

You wouldn't believe how long I examined every nook and cranny of that room to find who had been attacking me and causing me to die on so many attempts. Only when I noticed my own blood ON THE CEILING did I realize the shots originated from below. Once I drop down to find Rosa, I'm finally in the clear from all the gunfire.

Awww, Mr. Serial Killer X didn't know how to use the interweb.

After another torturously long scripted event, I follow Rosa (if I precede her by enough and leave her little invisible bubble of safety from enemies, I am again susceptible to the gunfire damage from below) to the counter, take both medkits, and make my way into the labyrinth, also known as the cindered remains of the library. This maze is somewhat difficult to memorize, and every inch of the place looks identical to the ones before and after it. However, I have the route more than rehearsed at this point, and proceed past it and fall through yet another poorly supported floor. Thought I was just looking at my feet for no reason, didn't ya? A couple more fight scenes finish out the level, both of which went very well. Watch as Rosa eats my venting. Stupid Rosa.

Secondary School: After the seventh level, ANYTHING is easy. This level went very well, but it did feature a couple obvious mistakes. After my brief but ultimately postponed encounter with The Butcher, I then proceed through a couple of classrooms, killing more students who REALLY chose the wrong school. After, you guessed it, another faulty floor and some more damage to Ethan's perpetually suffering internal organs, I run through a couple more rooms of crawlers and jump over a bar. This section went perfectly. I clobbered the oblivious thug who sprints into the room, evaded the other, killed the pistol guy with minimal damage, and then fried the bewildered hobo before confiscating his sub-machinegun. A few rooms later, I finally arrive at the meat locker.

Okay, god knows why the Butcher thought that meat hooks straight to the spine would help her minions defeat me, but that's what makes her unique. That, and her disgustingly rotund physique.

Even though she's the first of three bosses in the game, she's quite easy to kill, and I believe I scored 100% in head shots! I would've shot more relentlessly, of course, but the damn gun only has about three seconds of ammo; believe me, you do NOT want to fight her with the butt end of a sub-machinegun. Of course, my victory was slightly marred by an unresponsive button prompt just afterwards, but ah well.

Anyway, I then reach the gymnasium, lower the hoop, kill the lingering thug with another taser shock, and then make the most blatant of all mistakes in the run. For whatever reason, I accidentally put away the camera before using it! Well, four seconds lost. And who knows how in the hell Mr. Tibbits freaking ARM wound up in the basketball hoop net, which was incidentally raised to the ceiling. For that matter, who knows why he was still at the school, since, according to seventh level, the place has been closed for five years!

I eventually reach the playground area and observe myself lying dead on the ground, preluding a very difficult fight scene. There are always five men, here. The first I promptly kill, the second I kill just after, the third I think was the cause of the phantom damage and then disappeared or something, the fourth was shooting on a rooftop, and the fifth arrived EARLY, allowing me to leave through the newly-opened gate after I killed him, ALSO EARLY (five to ten seconds, even). Glitches ftw.

After another CSI moment, I run through some rooms, kill a few mutinous thuglings, and make my way to the notorious locker scene. If you are squeamish, you may want to shut your eyes. But if you're squeamish, then you shouldn't download speedruns like this.

Once Rosa has seemingly conveyed her life story, I grab the shovel and eventually find myself at the pool. Now, dragonGOD claims you can skip this imaginary fight scene, but I tried quite a number of times to no avail; it just wouldn't work. Maybe only certain X360's allow for this. After I completely massacre the brood, I get out, grab the umpteenth fireaxe, and obliterate the door. Though this is the only door I've found in the game that does NOT allow for a double-chop. From here, I pretty much just run to the end of the level and sit through some more unremitting scripted events.

Apple Orchard Estate: This went almost if not perfectly. If you're NOT speedrunning this game, the ninth level can take an obnoxious length of time to finish. Most of this level revolves around clue-hunting. In fact, only the basement and attic hide criminals until the outside gauntlet begins to infiltrate the house.

After spelunking the first floor and basement for the first three clues (which you HAVE to find), and killing some crawlers with the small pipe, I head upstairs for the fourth and also for the sledgehammer. The damn things grow on trees, I tell ya'.

I then ascend to the attic, kill the first ninja in the game relatively quickly, and wait for the wooden planks to completely vanish before my eyes. Oh yeah; caught that on tape, baby.

The fifth clue is in the room below. Stairs? No, a hole straight down, as always.

From here, we return to the basement and discover the secret room even before Rosa reveals the answer to the cryptic riddle. More investigation and me playing around. Hark! An unidentified noise upstairs!!! Well, once I get up there, I then have to fight a lengthy sequence of burglars who enter the house on TIMED QUEUES that is to say NOT by the death of the previous one. So, as long as I kill the last addict somewhat quickly, I can't lose time here, only health. Though, I do a mighty fine job of killing each of them quickly, anyway, if I do say so myself. Btw, I think I counted eleven intruders. The first six I anticipate, but the seventh just sort of disappears..? You can hear him break in from somewhere, but he doesn't emerge until later when he sneaks up on me after I kill the ninth criminal. Btw, what's with the guys in green overalls? Anyway, once I'm back upstairs, the pre-boss cutscene begins, where we see our Ethan's witty plan completely fail. Once it's over, watch my glory as I kill this normally quite involved boss in about one minute flat.

Basically, I developed a formula and used it to determine from where he would next attack when I approached spot X. Routine: take shotgun, pace twice to both ends of the hallway, shoot Serial Killer X at far end five times, retrieve firepoker in original room, grab one health kit (no more, no less) in bathroom, pummel him as he comes from the hallway, chase him into the ending room, and get yo' self knocked the hell out (this last part being a scripted event).

Processing Plant: Another perfect segment. Btw, the level is so dark and umbrageous, I was essentially forced to alter the video settings. The level you see is roughly 50% brighter than default. Hardly made a difference, right?

After Ethan has been Frodo-fied, I grab the 2x4-on-fire and head out of the incendiary barn. Despite that the damn thing brightly illuminates the screen with its fiery presence, the weapon kind of fails to deliver the damage. Oh well. After I pass over the bridge, you may notice a distracting graphical error. I can't determine what caused this on the DVD, but I'm led to believe that the fire causes this effect as it requires an intensive graphical display and it overtaxed my recorder. I don't know. Anyway, you'll probably only notice the discrepancy in HQ and IQ, anyway. The rest of the level is pretty much just running from point A to point B, grabbing various weapons along the way. Once I reach the climactic processing center, though, and after they've FORCED me to collect the first and only bird carcass in the run (damn them for ruining my streak), I enter the final room. I attack The Hate as he stands on the floor above, as this, I discovered, causes the crawlers to assault me earlier. I save maybe ten to twenty seconds just from this. Anyway, after a barrage of thugs, the Hate eventually jumps down right when I accidentally almost leave the fireaxe when I'm attempting to attain a medkit, and begins the final fight.

As you've probably noticed by now, the most formidable attack method for this level is the fireaxe poke, which kills large thugs and Final Bosses alike. A few hits, and I dismantle his shoulder armor via a finishing move assigned to the directional pad (I don't use these anywhere else in the run, but I must in order to proceed with this fight). One laughably tardy crawler later, and I must finish him off. Four or five more hits, and there goesÖ ughÖ his pull cord? Well, whatever it is, I bet it hurt like f*ck to have it ripped out. After we visit the "vision" world, I bamboozle him for the last time and pull out his metallic jaw. So, he ALREADY lost his jaw? Geez. And after a quick snap of the neck, down he goes. I guess he represents the innate hatred within us all or something... I guess. Of course, the disjointed level hasn't ended yet. Oh, you were fooled, weren't you?

After a cutscene, I must make a choice to either kill or spare our odious Serial Killer X. It's quicker to put a bullet through his face, so that's what I do. In fact, since I'm positively SLAUGHTERING the trigger button during the cutscene, you'll notice that he's dead almost before you can tell what happened.

And with that, the run and comments are finished. Wow, you actually read all that? You're awesome. I still think the whole story was all in Ethan's head, but of course Rosa has to come and spoil my fun. A cult? Oh, only the most stereotypical explanation, ever.

I really, really, really hope everyone enjoyed this run and my comments. And if you're into survival horror games, I suggest purchasing or renting this title. Happy mugging.

Like always, a huge thanks to the SDA staff and everyone involved in making this possible.

I'm not going to go in-depth with these comments, they're just some general info about the run. I'm not a very good writer anyway.

Basically, I only kill the enemies that I absolutely have to kill, and those that are faster to kill then to avoid, of course. I try to use guns as much as possible, since even though your ammo is always very limited, they are the best way to kill anything. I really only go into melee when there is no other option at hand. As for glitches and skips, I couldn't find that many in this game, most likely since your movement is so restricted. There are a few however. In the first level, I found that if you walk againt the door that the cop kicks open, you can get into the next room before him and trigger a cutscene earlier. In the ninth level, I found out that you can kick while moving in certain areas (only works in this level). This turned out quite handy since it doesn't drain stamina to move this way, so I can move forward at running speed without getting tired. It even works on some staircases.

I know that there is one thing in this run that might seem weird, also in the ninth level, but there is an explanation for it. In the attic, I encountered a bug after killing the guy with two sticks. The wooden planks blocking the door are supposed to disappear automatically, but for me they didn't. I googled this issue and found that other people were having the same problem, but that waiting for a few minutes made the bars go away. This was obviously unacceptable in my speedrun, so after a bit of testing I found that saving and loading sometimes made the bars disappear. So this is the only place in the run where I used a quicksave to segment, all the other segment breaks were checkpoints.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me on the SDA forum.

Thanks for watching, hope you enjoyed it.