Game trailer, fan movie and machinima compilation
by Conrad Quilty-Harper 
{ Aug 28th 2005 at 12:00PM }
Sunday is typically a slow news day in the
gaming blogosphere, probably because everyone is playing the games they were talking about during the week. This
creates a decent opportunity to list some of the slightly off-topic content that wouldn't cut it in the weekly trawl
for news. Anyway, recently I discovered Google Video, which is where Google
users can upload fan content or movie trailers to share with anyone who wants a look. I discovered a lot of decent game
trailers and fan movies which can be played back pretty much flawlessly (ie. no pausing) on a decent connection. Plus
because the files are on Google's servers, all the links work. There are also a few videos which really shouldn't be on
there (copyrighted) so it wouldn't be ethical to link you to them here. Although all it takes to find them is a bit of
imagination in the search box. Without further ado, here's what I've been watching on web lately.
To start with, here's a link to the controversial Xbox advertisement that was banned in the UK last year. The first time you watch the commercial it can be a bit shocking, but after repeat viewings it leaves you to marvel at how they managed to put birth, life, death and video gaming into one 30 second segment. It's still pretty gross though.
For our first bit of machinima, here's the Lenny and Larry Presidential campaign which was shown at the Machinima Film Festival in 2003. It's a great satire of the US election race, created by modding Quake II.
Also on the archive.org site is a machinima movie shot in the Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 titled; Soldats sans Merci (Soldiers Without Mercy). This ones a bit more gameplay orientated than Lenny and Larry.
Of course, you cant write an article on machinima without mentioning Red vs Blue. Currently on its third season and 59th episode, this Halo based series is full of gags and gamer jokes. Its probably the most high profile machinima out there.
I bought a PC recently to play games like Half-Life 2 which will probably never come to come to the Mac (let alone be playable on my Powerbook). This video demonstrates the power of the Havok engine for setting up mouse trap style traps. And this ones just the HL2 bad guy getting his ass kicked.
If you havent done it already in-game, heres a short video of the GTA: San Andreas jump from Mount Chiliad with a motor bike and parachute.
Finally, Ive been checking out some of the commercials in Gametrailers.coms TV spot section. Living in the UK means I dont get a lot of the US game advertisements on the TV.
Thats a summary of what Ive been looking at lately, but Im sure theres a lot of other decent video gaming content out there to check out. If youve got any links, whether youre personally affiliated with or just stumbled across, leave us a comment and well update this blog entry.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
vladimir cole @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
That Xbox commercial was FANTASTIC. Why was it banned in the UK?
Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,53016,00.html?tw=wn_story_related
They got over 100 complaints from people misinterpreting it! *sigh*
Nathan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
How exactly are you watching these videos from Google? I'm using Safari on 10.4.2 but Google says I need the Google Video Viewer, which is only for Windows.
Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Ah, I also have a PC. So that's how. :)
You can see the Xbox commercial here:
http://www.hatch.org/blog/2002/12/27/xbox_commercial.php
But I can't find the Half Life 2 physics movies or the GTA jump movie elsewhere online. Other than that the rest of the movies should work in Safari.
guises @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
misinterpreted how? i can't think of any way anything controversial, sexual, or violent could be read into this. excepting possibly and extremely vague connection to abortion.
it's a bit of a downer, i'll grant. that doesn't seem worthy of banning.