I don't mean to give the wrong impression from my complaints, either. I had a lot of fun playing the game again, and you guys did a great job on upgrading the graphics.

After attempting to take Chrus' advice on how to beat the Gloktogi guards and failing to even avoid them before they both jump me at once and gang-rape me, I conclude that this part of the game is fucking impossible unless it's set on easy.

MY ADVICE IS SOUND. YOU JUST SUCK.

JAW, is there likely to be a patch for this?

Reason I'm asking is that I will be playing through it again in the next couple of months and would rather do it after it's patched (audio cutting out is main complaint from me).

I haven't been in the behind-the-scenes SWHD loop since the start of the year, but the patch for audio should be out this month or next.

So what's the quickest you can do the timed section at the end of the game?

On gamefaqs, there is a post from someone from JAW allegedly, saying that the run can be done 1:04.

Must be another shortcut or two I'm missing but I can't see how that is possible. 2:04, or 1:04 left on the clock seems more realistic to me.

I've actually gotten something around 2:34 left on the clock on the timed area one time.
I'll be sure to try to record to a run as close to that time as I can sometime today.

EDIT: I actually got a second better than I expected!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVST1RJcPUU

I'm going to be getting Strangers WrathHd as soon as possible. :D

What so, all us old hands have been effectively training with a handicap, and in this new one we switch hands and announce to a horrified Sekto Industries, "I am not left handed!"?

That new Hard mode must be a bitch.

It really is. We talked about how hard the game was originally and decided that easy mode had to be very easy, normal had to be easier than the original, and hard had to be harder than the original.

Potentially there is a gap there. But hard mode is supposed to be hard.

The game seems harder than the original, and I'm playing on Normal.

So basically there is no way to enjoy the original experience, difficulty wise.

That's a weird decision.

You cheated though.

Normal isn't much more easier than the original, the only real change is that you actually get upgrades with your armour upgrades in the later stages of the game. Seems to be an oversight by OWI back during original development.

The hardest thing about Hard is capturing the bosses alive.

Ha, that's pretty good.

How about doing it in a way us mere mortals can repeat?

EDIT: however, it does show that 1:04 as previously claimed is impossible when following a conventional route.

how do you use the sniper bees?!

shoot whilst zoomed in with the binoculars.

I think if you are very, very lucky, you might be able to do the timed section with 2mins left on the clock (on hard). I've managed to get to the tank at the top of the ramp with around 2:05 left but then the rocks always stop my progress and I'm a sitting duck.

I tried Bodd's route and couldn't stay alive after the first jump on to the roof. The amount of accurate bullets on hard is mental. It's also difficult to even make the jump because the snipers disrupt your charge.

After awhile playing it on hard, I just gave up trying to catch the bosses alive. It just wasn't a thing that happened very often after Jo Mamma.

You guys are making me want the HD remake more and more everytime you talk about how hard the Hard mode is! I need to get a new computer soon! :?

When I do the real speedrun, I'll be sure to do this run without invincibility, but this shows how quickly you could beat the level if you aren't killed by everything around you.

that speed run was pretty damn impressive.

Nice article on Digital Foundry

Agreed. I tried to, but it was impossible! I played through on easy just to get all the bounties alive, for the 20,000 moolah.

If I remember right, I think Glitch posted a while ago saying it is possible to bounty Looten Duke alive on hard, just that its incredibly difficult. I tried, and in my experience it was impossible- The only way I found to keep shooting him with the zapfly before his stamina regenerates was to get him stuck in the environment (bit of a cheat, I know! :p).

At the bottom of the ramp going down to the water facility, there's a stone platform on pillars. I found that if you lead him to this area, run through the tall grass and jump on top of the platform, Looten Duke stands still and doesn't shoot you, so I could repeatedly zap him without him doing anything!

With Duke having full health and stamina, I did nothing but zap him as fast as I could, and still found that his health drops quicker than his stamina. Every time I tried, he died. Considering I was zapping him as fast as possible, doing minimum damage, I'd say it's pretty impossible!

Has anyone here actually managed to get him alive on hard difficulty? Maybe there's something better than the zapfly for dropping his stamina?

Believe it or not, you can capture Looten with a bolamite as long as you hoover him up as soon as he is trapped. Somebody posted this on gamefaqs and it works. I felt quite stupid as I'd never tried it, thinking it too simple.

I think someone on gamefaqs managed to catch them all alive but they had far more patience than me. I normally had 6-8 attempts and moved on. They also mentioned having to trap some bosses in a corner so it's certainly not straight forward.

In addition, I didn't buy any of the ammo extender upgrades which would have made Packrat (as an example) possible as I ran out of ammo and he regenerated.

Boombats are effective later on as well as the normal Zapfly and Thunderslug.

I failed to capture 6 of them on my first run, bought the first knuckles upgrade (shouldn't have bothered) and ended up with 18.8k moolah.

JAW, any chance we can have the audio patch on it's own sooner, rather than waiting for the large patch that includes Move and 3dTV support later? Those last two things will have zero impact on me and I hope the code doesn't suffer by having those things added in.

Unfortunately, because of the way patching works through Sony, it's better for everyone if we handle it in one go. Shouldn't be much longer now though so hang in there.

Worth a try ;-)

Thanks for confirming.

Wait? Stranger's Wrath HD with PSMove? First I've heard of it.

It better be happening, because I just made the UI for it.