Half-Life has an incredible new speedrun record

pcgamesn.com:

Half-Life, Valve’s seminal sci-fi shooter, has a brand new speedrun world record courtesy of an incredible playthrough from YouTuber Muty, who has managed to beat the previous time by an intensely tight four seconds.

If you are not familiar with the world of Half-Life speedrunning, essentially it involves glitching, exploiting, and jump-running your way through the classic FPS, to the point that entire levels can be skipped, and Gordon Freeman becomes nothing more than a frantic, orange blur. Muty’s run, clocking in at a mere 26 minutes and 38 seconds (yes, the entire game), represents a significant time save on the previous record, given that Half-Life speedruns, after all these years, have become so optimised and perfected. The previous record, also set by Muty in May, totalled 26 minutes and 42 seconds. It takes a month of practice to trim off just four seconds – now that’s hard work.

So how is it done? There are a variety of strategies which exploit bugs or unfinished aspects of Valve’s original game code to speed things up. At the end of the second level, Unforeseen Consequences, for example, instead of getting into the elevator, if you simply press the button again to close the doors, the game assumes you’re inside and instantly loads the next mission, saving precious seconds. There are also various points where you can skip ladders, stairs, or even entire levels, by just jumping down holes and ventilation shafts – you don’t die, because you land precisely where there’s a seam between two panels of level geometry, and the seam isn’t coded to register fall damage.

The most impressive skip, however – and one that Muty nails, with aplomb – is at the start of the fifth mission We’ve Got Hostiles. Normally there is a