In the words of Jak himself, “If there’s one thing I can do, it’s race.” And what is a speedrun but one, massive race? A race against the clock, or other speedrunners competing for the best time. And the latter is exactly what this Speedrun Fast is all about. At Awesome Games Done Quick 2016, runners ThaRixer and HillaryPuff demonstrate a “No OoB” run of Jak 3, which means no out-of-bounds. The runners cannot leave the boundaries of the map during their race, but anything else is fair game. On your monk… get set… ride!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o44DxS-RlEo[/embedyt]
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After some warm-up and preparation in which HillaryPuff shows off an out-of-bounds trick, the actual speedrun race begins. The opening cutscene is paused to mark the starting line due to some randomness in the scene. As the racers make their way through the game, the tricks they use and the mechanics of the missions are explained to the audience, providing an interesting commentary to follow along with the action. ThaRixer falls a few seconds behind early on, but there are plenty of opportunities in Jak 3 to play catch-up, and even the final boss fight isn’t a guarantee.
Both runners finish the game in under 50 minutes. Afterwards, they show off a couple of glitches. ThaRixer shows us how to freeze the game during the credits while HillaryPuff demonstrates a super-fast speed bike trick utilizing the time-stopping eco power. The video above ends before all the glitches are shown, but skip to 1:05:30 in the one below to see the third and final one, another game freeze.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FITNc69bOlk[/embedyt]
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The Jak and Daxter collection, featuring the first three games, was released on the PS3 in 2012 on a single blu-ray disc. Many speedruns of Jak 3 are still performed on the older version of the game due to it being easier to pull off some of the tricks. New methods are also being found today, as ThaRixer’s tutorial video on speedrunning Jak 3 became outdated as of late 2014.