oh lol, i was reading both in minutes. I'm actually playing Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars right now. The first C&C game I've tried. Got it a few days ago and its fun so far. I also got Red alert 3 but havent installed it yet.
Not only the speed at which you course through the program, but the number of kills made plus items taken count toward your finishing the planned mission (following orders). If you have sufficient weapons store, then yes you can outpace the enemies and make the exit faster. But that may require specific passkeys or keycards.
Some of those "par" score times seem a bit unrealistic as to time [par :45 seconds, you did it in 3:05?].
Skill, too. There's a particular quest/mission in SWG that me and seven other of our guild worked out a strategy for. After a couple of days practice, we could run the quest from the point of entry into the instance, through the maze full of mobs, into the room for the quest reward, kill the two high-level secondary bosses, then the main boss (Necrosis) five times, while another group from a different guild could only make it halfway through the tunnels, give or take. Once you figure out the secret, it's blindingly easy.
Faster than the speed of snot
Two wrongs don't make it right, but I sleep pretty good at night