So, I was wondering what people thought about the categories for GTA IV speedruns, I was thinking about picking this game up one day as I actually did like this game no matter how much I complain about the driving/PC port. I used to watch eTholon and Dispersor when they did runs of Classic% but ever since they stopped doing it I've been itching for some speedruns.

Classic% has some limitations over Any%, which are: "autosave disabled, vehicle density 33%, no fast travel via taxi service." which make the game more like the 3D GTA games and remove a lot of RNG and setting manipulation to get taxi spawns, however its just so much slower than what Any% could be (You need to go into the graphics settings mid run and change the vehicle density to its maximum when you're looking for a Taxi, but then turn it back down to its lowest when driving so there are less cars on the road).

I'm not one to like arbitrary categories, but I really think running Any% would be a pain in the ass. I just really can't make my mind up over what I'd rather run and just wondered what anyone else thought

EDIT: Also, does anyone even know what the WR for Any% is? I can't find anything about it, if anyone has even done Single Segment runs of it

EDIT2: Ok so I did some digging and it seems no one has done a Single Segment Any% run and submitted it anywhere, the only Any% run I can find is the heavily segmented SDA one from years ago.

I smell E Z W R

I thought I would start the post because I had a few questions, but I'll summarize for those who don't know about it.

BubbleBobbler has been planning to do a collaborative Any% Segmented run for awhile now, and submit it to SDA to replace K9's extremely old segmented run on there, however planning out a segmented run like that is a pain because saving throughout all of Los Santos is extremely slow, so it comes into question how many segments should even be done.

But there is another way, using a "Save Anywhere" mod (like http://www.gtagarage.com/mods/show.php?id=4002) we could insert a lot more segments into the game easily, at least for Los Santos. A mod like that simply lets you access the save menu from anywhere, the save files themselves are completely unmodded and you can open them in an unmodded game.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask (and make the answer public since its kind of important for those wanting to do it) how are we planning to record and edit it? Are we using lossless recording, such as FRAPS, and then just sending Bubble all the files who then edits it, or are we just using our standard streaming software to record which would be much lower (and differing) quality and then sending it to someone? Are we planning to all use the same video settings? Like Widescreen on/off and resolution, brightness etc...

I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of crazy things can be done with a segmented run, as I know there's quite a few crazy strats that could be used, I think someone needs to make a route doc or something though :P