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Bethesda QA Tester Beats Skyrim In 2:16:10 In Speedrun Challenge
Bethesda estimates that you'll be able to put as many as 300 hours into its epic RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. However, the company's top QA tester just beat the game in a mind-boggling 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 30 seconds during the company's Speedrun Challenge IV.
The official Bethesda Blog posted an account of the Speedrun Challenge, which is a traditional event staged at the studio when its close to finishing production on a new game. The Speedrun Challenge lets the a top QA tester square off against a member of the production staff.
This year, the contestants were Sam "I Am" Bernstein (pictured above) and Jeff "Live the Dream" Browne. The two had faced off in the Speedrun Challenge for Fallout 3, with Bernstein coming out on top by mere seconds.
This year, the contest was extremely close -- and even a bit controversial. At first it appeared that Browne had won with a time of 2:16:30. However, Bernstein had been forced to roll back to an earlier save (which had been approved by the judges) and so, in the final calculation, actually completed the game in 2:16:10.
No matter the winner, both put up an extremely impressive show of gaming prowess.
Bethesda also revealed that the Skyrim speedrun took a full hour longer than the speedruns for Oblivion and Fallout 3.
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