I’ve not played Fallout 3 for quite some time but my save file informs me that when I last did play – when I spent days on end roaming its Wasteland, fighting off droves of its super mutants, allowing it to consume almost every waking hour of my existence – I did so to the tune of 178 hours. My goodness. And that’s not even that bad/impressive: some forum-frequenting folks claim to have blown thousands of hours trawling post-apocalyptic Washington DC.
It may come as surprise, then, that someone – Rydou, a dedicated speedrunner – has bested Bethesda’s open-world sandbox in just under 15 minutes, capturing a world record in the process.
Series successor Fallout 4 earned its place in our best PC games.
Without doubt, beating any videogame in just 900 seconds is a pretty darn impressive feat – no less one of Fallout 3’s sprawling stature – but for professional speedrunners there are a few tricks and techniques that those unfamiliar with the trade might not immediately think of.
Rydou’s run, for example, was an “any percentage” run, which means that he quicksaves and loads to clip through objects and walls, leading him through a mess of repulsive glitchiness that’d force most to hit escape without a second thought. He manipulates a “speedcripple” glitch at the beginning of the run and plays on the ‘very easy’ setting so as to breeze through the few occasions when stray bullets catch him in flight.
But hey, that’s not to say the run is any less impressive, and mods and console commands are big no-no for this type of challenge. What’s more, I’d say it took me double the time to locate the exit of the Statesman Hotel than it took Rydou to save the planet! Check him out in action below.