Archive for the ‘GoldenEye’ Category

Procrastination at its Finest, Summer Looms…

So I’m aware we haven’t had a front page update that holds any relevant content in regards to the latest world records or other significant events (minus Silo DLTK of course), and I blame that on me being pretty busy/lazy and the fact that streaming activity has significantly dropped in the last few weeks! A few players continue to hang on, however, including Marc Rutzou with his Bunker 1 00 Agent 1:03 (a 2nd place tie), and myself – nothing terribly special out of me, but inching ever close to that soughtafter top 10!

With myself and that other fellow Marc out of the way, I want to highlight 2 other GoldenEye players who continue to show their impressive pure-strafing skill. Luke Szklarz, an Australian native, has skyrocketed into the top 12 in points lately with his influx of insane PRs – he currently sits in 7th in Agent points but 18th in 00 Agent points! The other player is the notoriously entertaining Ryan Lockwood, whom right now is currently trying his luck on achieving an incredible Silo Agent 1:01. Ryan has dedicated a countless amount of hours into proving he can achieve the time, conquer the troll of a level, and establish himself as one of the best Agent players in history.To round out GoldenEye, I give a shoutout to Stefan Persson who got his very first world record with Archives Agent 0:16 way back on April 5.

In the world of Perfect Dark, we have one significantly active player who’s actually doing a fair bit of damage there. Cedric, a Japanese player, has nailed a few good records. We’ll start with Defense Agent 0:49, the 7th person to do so. He also got a very slick Chicago SA 0:26, the 5th person to do so. Cedric’s records are highlighted by an incredible 3:09 Attack Ship PA however. This record, a 2 second untied, continues to improve what used to be the longest standing untied of all time (by Greg Lewis for over six years). Cedric for now is the last hope for Perfect Dark to continue any activity and generate interest until Boss and Ace decide to play again.

There’s usually not much to update in the summer months, that’s what the headline suggests. Be on the lookout for summer contest headlines, and meet highlights. Have a great rest of May, folks!

An Elite Milestone of Biblical Proportions!

Back in 2004 when Ilari Pekkala created the “Dark License to Kill” league for Goldeneye, players have slowly accomplished the incredible feats of beating each level one by one as strategies were optimized. Some of these completions when it was all said and done reached times beyond the one hour mark, showing that players need incredible patience to beat levels with these incredible guard statistics (maxed to 1000% on all four options).

With this information established, the last few levels to be beaten was Streets, Train, and Cradle in late 2009/early 2010. With 19 of 20 levels completed, the only one remaining was Silo. Silo was considered to be impossible by nearly every player almost exclusively because of the 8:30 timer that automatically starts on the 00 Agent/007 difficulty. Many players in the last 3 years have collaborated and worked the level to a science, optimizing the most out-of-this-world strategies to clear out 63 total guards in less than 9 minutes with limited ammo and space to work with.

3 years, 330 hours, and $175 USD in bounties later, Adam Bozon presented us with the following video; loaded with annotations and more information than one could ever imagine. One must note that this kind of run requires 3 grenades and incredible patience to get a remote chance at making the final lift intact. The utmost of congratulations go out to Adam for conquering the final frontier in Goldeneye DLTK; may this accomplishment be remembered forever by all of us as time goes on. Enjoy everyone!

Extremely busy, or lazy?

I’m sorry guys. For the 4 total people who read the front page updates when I post them, I apologize for not being on the dot with my “monthly” new world record updates. I assure you however that I have not forgotten about anything, and I promise that the next update will be as epic as I can make it!

Things could be worse, mind you. Need I remind you that David Clemens had this happen to him. The title in the Youtube video is wildly appropriate and accurate.

Move over Michael Jordan, someone else owns the #23!

After standing for 3,217 days on the rankings (May 23, 2004), Bunker 2 Agent 0:24 has been dethroned as the 6th-longest standing tied record in Goldeneye history. Watch as Marc Rützou uses robotic perfection and a strat envisioned by Karl Jobst to nail 0:23 – perhaps the finest Agent record on the rankings right now.

Remember, 18 people had 0:24 before this (including Marc) after the recent surge of new 0:24s by several players. With this surge, Karl Jobst developed a new strategy utilizing that annoying “warping guard” while also showing great timing for the critical keycard guard kill. Karl might not have been the first one to actually execute 0:23, but he contributed greatly to its cause. Special credit also goes out to David Clemens who also participated in the race to 0:23.

Goldeneye’s longest-standing untied ever finally tied!

After 1,812 days – just a hair under 5 years – Bryan Bosshardt’s Statue 00 Agent 2:18 was finally tied, and althought it wasn’t actually used in Marc 00 Agent run, it yielded a new strat that might make that time the new standard for our top players. Marc Rutzou’s ingenious find of a small tweak in the route to and from the Trevelyan meeting has proven to save anywhere from 0.4-0.5 seconds if executed perfectly. Suddenly, a 2:18 sweep seems imminent with a possible 2:17 00 Agent on the horizon.

Side note: After tying 00 Agent, Marc promptly tied Jimmy Bauer’s only untied record with Secret Agent 2:18. The video linked is recorded live with all of Marc’s reactions out there for everyone to hear. He explains some of the facts behind finally achieving that coveted 2:18.

The March Update – Got Bunker 0:24 Yet?

The headline isn’t a joke. Since February 10, seven different players have gotten this world record in what is easily the biggest surge since Surface 2 Agent 0:49 in April 2010. Poor folks like Shawn Johnson, Eddie Lovins, and even our active rankings administrator Axel Zakrisson have all lost points simply from not hopping aboard this record bandwagon. There wasn’t a whole lot of record activity in the previous month if 0:24 is taken out of the equation, but without further ado, I give you our players of the month:

Rayan Isran: Surface 1 00 Agent 1:48, Silo 00 Agent 1:22 (both tied records, both insane obviously)

Luke Szklarz: Bunker 2 Agent 0:24, Runway Agent 0:22 (OOOOOOH….. SHIT!)

David Clemens: Egypt SA 0:45 (1.2, the man’s way)

Wouter Jansen: Bunker 2 Agent 0:24 (w000000ter)

Ryan White: Bunker 2 Agent 0:24 (2.2 CRUISE CONTROL like a boss)

Ryan Koch: Bunker 2 Agent 0:24 (Nicely done, d00d)

Guilherme Alberto: Bunker 2 Agent 0:24 (great job passing Shawn Johnson!)

David Witten: Bunker 2 Agent 0:24 (Keep it up, Dwit!)

Karl Jobst: Bunker 2 Agent 0:24 (my prediction for the guy that actually gets 0:23 first)

An Outstanding Fan Video – Producer Approved!

I received a private message from the Elite’s Facebook page from a fellow named Greg Johnson, an avid Goldeneye fan who led the creation of one of the neatest soundtrack medleys ever created for the game. Grant Kirkhope and Graeme Norgate, creators of the original soundtrack, both gave their outstanding approval and I felt the need to also share it with the rest of the Elite. Enjoy!

I’d also like to point out that the comment section below has been upgraded and finally works! Feel free to post your thoughts as freely as you’d wish.

The February Update – Trimming the Fat, Cutting Back

Hello folks. Starting this month, I am going to update the front page monthly (and on time!) with the content that really matters – world records! I originally wanted to do a point rankings differential to track progress each month for the top 25 or so players, but I am unable to find an accurate listing of the rankings on exact days in the past. With that, I leave you with a list starting from the very top!

- Jim “Jimbo” Barrett

Rayan Isran: New Goldeneye points champion! Surface 2 SA 0:49, Aztec Agent 1:25 (untied!), Depot SA 0:40, Silo SA 1:09, Egypt 00 Agent 0:45 (untied!), Egypt SA 0:45 (untied!); Rescue SA 2:17 for Perfect Dark. (way to steal the show, unbelievable)

Karl Jobst: Archives SA 0:54 (Shaking off that rust, solid world record)

David Witten: Streets SA 1:55, Bunker 1 Agent 0:17 (Well done here!)

Ilari Pekkala: Surface 2 Agent 0:48 (So boring, but solid time!)

Greg “Funky Buddha” Lewis: Deep Sea PA 3:06 (untied!)

Guilherme Alberto: New player in the top 10! Egypt SA 0:46, Egypt 00 Agent 0:46 (They were great at the time)

Ryan White: Egypt SA 0:46 (It was great at the time)

Luke Szklarz: Surface 1 Agent 1:02, Bunker 1 Agent 0:17 (1:02 is boss, nice job!)

Marc Rutzou: Egypt Agent 0:45, Egypt SA 0:45, Egypt 00 Agent 0:45 (killer sweep!)

David Clemens: Extraction PA 1:29 (untied!)

Patrick “Neo” Johannessen: Duel PA 0:09 (Better late than never)

The January Update – The Elite’s Ace in the Hole!

With the passing over of the new year, one must now look back at the last 366 (leap year!) days of 2012 to truly appreciate how far the Elite has come. With the new implementation of twitch.tv integrated into the habits of mostly every Eliter, we have created and showcased 27 individual channels with a multitude of interactive videos and highlights that will be saved and remembered forever. Along with some actual world records being set live on stream, one can now appreciate a few live player reactions along with countless chatter’s reactions when such a moment happens.

Since January 1, 2012, Goldeneye has seen a time cut of 18 seconds. This is insane for a 15-year old game of course, and its greatest contributor could very well be Rayan “Ace” Isran, but we’ll get to that later. Perfect Dark has seen a total time cut of 44 seconds, primarily because of Ilari Pekkala’s Investigation Agent findings (see: The JUNE Update!)

Lets start at the very top, and assuredly the Elite’s player of December 2012 by a wide margin. As noted in the previous update, Rayan Isran completely destroyed Jungle in now what is Goldeneye’s 2nd untied streak on one single level (Marc, Train). As a player ranked barely in the top 15, I can only marvel at Rayan’s amazing consistency at levels that troll the living hell out of all of us. A perfect example in this case is his tying of Silo Agent 1:01, a record previously held by only David Clemens and Marc Rutzou. Rayan’s level of play would rise however, and the Elite would find its collective self checking the board tops every day for new untied records – those being Control Secret Agent 4:05 (a TWO SECOND untied), Facility Agent 0:43 (primarily because of a strategy tweak), and Facility Secret Agent 0:52 (just insane overall). To cap off the year, Rayan added a Frigate Secret Agent 1:01 and Surface 2 Secret Agent 0:49 – both records having an average completion rate to a normal Eliter of about 1/5,000!

Fresh off his re-addition and welcome-back to the Goldeneye rankings, Henning Blom kept active and posted a sweet Caverns Secret Agent 1:19 – only the 4th player to tie this record. With his re-addition, his times are under constant monitoring and ultimately need to be approved by the rankings moderator Axel Zakrisson before any new time makes it onto the rankings. Henning currently sits in the 4th spot, just ahead of Bryan Bosshardt.

Speaking of Bryan, his notable accomplishment of the month was finally taking out Greg “Funky Buddha” Lewis’ longest standing untied record of all time – Attack Ship Perfect Agent 3:12! After weeks of slaving away at possibly the most trollish level in either game, Bryan posted a sweet 3:11 and ended an era of a 6 year untied record. In total, Greg held the record on Attack Ship PA since Summer 2005 – an INCREDIBLE run!

Greg Lewis was not about to lose his credibility in Perfect Dark however. Good old FB posted some slick new Deep Sea world records, including an Agent tie of 2:27 and a brand new untied of Special Agent 2:56! Greg was in danger of having 0 world records in Perfect Dark thanks to Bryan’s determination to take out 3:12, but Greg saved himself just in time.

Strangely enough, rounding out the bottom of the world record achievement list is Marc Rutzou and Luke Pettit. Marc’s typically strong months have cooled down just a bit in December, probably from a burnout of playing the game so much. Marc posted a Control 00 Agent 4:08 TIE of David Clemens, and a Control Secret Agent 4:07 before Rayan blew that record out of the water. One must also note that Luke Pettit finally nabbed himself a common world record – Archives Agent 0:16

On the personal record front, a few players have been absolutely on fire lately. Eise Smit has gained a bazillion points over the last month has has climbed to 27th in the overall rankings. Luke Szklarz has kept up his run of PRs and has climbed all the way into the top 50 from out of nowhere. Yours truly, teh Jimbo, with my somewhat entertaining streams and endless hours of playing has finally cracked the top 15 again with the temporary passing of Wouter Jansen (who nailed Archives 0:55s to pass me back) and barely edging out Axel Anderson. Ryan Koch successfully held off the charge by Jimbo by posting a Control Secret Agent 4:16 – enough of a point and time gain to discourage me from playing as I take my routine beginning-of-the-year break for a few months. Finally, Guilherme Alberto secured his 12th spot on the rankings by posting a solid set of Control times, as well as Bunker 1 Secret Agent 0:23 and Surface 2 00 Agent 1:32.

Awesome Games Done Quick – REPRESENT!

The Elite has been featured on other speedrunning websites before, but the buck stops at Speed Demos Archive! Our very own Alex Anderson (20th in Goldeneye) will be featured on Thursday, January 10, at 9:30 EST. Alex will get one attempt (no resets) to beat GoldenEye on a 100% speedrun in front of 10,000 viewers plus a live audience of nearly 50 people!

Cheer Alex on at www.speeddemosarchive.com and if you wish to donate, all the money will be going to the Prevent Cancer Foundation – a very good cause

Best of luck Alex, may Dr. Doak have mercy on you.

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