Inside Gaming Best of 2010 Part Two

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[Be sure to watch part one if you have not yet, yeti!]

So? Did you like it? Good, because that was only part one. Part two is on its way and as a special bonus, here is a preview for the few of you who have discovered that your favorite show has a blog now.

MOAR WAYPOINT

I forget the exact number, but we did something like ten of these Halo Waypoint special videos. The first round was a little easier, we made most everything in Halo 3 and had the episodes replace our Wednesday show. Not so much for round two. I remember Ron, my boss, asking me to meet with him before we started our second batch of Waypoint fun. He said “You know it’s holiday time right? There is going to be way too much to cover, you have to do 3 shows a week. That includes Waypoint.” Everything after that is a little fuzzy, I remember feeling like Jodie Foster after an encounter with a pinball machine but that’s about it. Anyway, I like this scene because it illustrates how Hutch’s evil pink self can turn on you in a second.

STRIPPERS!

I remember few things from GDC ’10. I recall ‘trolling’ Gabe Newell, I remember Sark teaching us events should be made to look fun to the viewer and I most definitely remember the Activision strippers. Now to call them dancers would be nicer, I don’t recall a single nipple ever being shown or ass cheek shed. I do remember stumbling out of the party and following some Call of Duty reps to some diner at four in the morning. I pestered all night about the name ‘Black Ops’, was it true? Was there going to be a Cold War setting? And why the hell do you keep looking at me funny? I never got my answer but like I always say, that is what keeps the job fun. We get to be entertainment detectives, not that our findings will ever have the impact of something like Wikileaks but damnit, it’s fun.

QUAKE CON HELMET RAGE

It was a big deal when Shaun from Realm fixed my Halo helmet. Little did I know how fragile the thing had really become. The epoxy he used must have come loose on the flight over or something but in the end, the helmet broke again. We had fun making light of the situation though, and now everyone has to see my real life face for the rest of eternity. As for the helmet? It’s still sitting on the floor or my office, when we move I plan on making a mantle for it.

B.Y.O.C.

I love PC gaming, I love PC case mods and I love the smell of sweat and tears. People got on my case in the comments about not covering the actual specs on any of the PCs from the BYOC, but honestly that just isn’t my thing. Around the age of nineteen I got really sick of trying to keep up my busted ass PC and switched over to my first serious Mac. It was a funny transition but I was much more into editing/motion graphics and less interested in gaming at that time. Consoles have become much more attractive to me because I just need spend $200-$300 once and be done with it; the games play fine. I was wasting so much money on PC gaming that it started to get a little ridiculous. Paying $500 for a new graphics card to play the latest million+polygon touting title started to make less sense as rent loomed its ugly head. This segment was fun because we had nothing written, we just walked around for forty minutes as I talked into a mic off camera. The whole things still makes me laugh.

SARK’S FORGE RAGE

I first learned of Sark a couple years ago when we was doing his Sarkathlons over at G4. I never realized what a freak he really was when it came to Forge and Halo, the man is a menace. He wrote the aforementioned piece for our Waypoint coverage and it turned out perfect. It’s one of those things that makes me really happy and proud to be at Machinima: everyone who works here truly is a fan of gaming and has a creative outlet.

SEAN CONNERY TOMFOOLERY

As one of the few impressions I can do comically, I take any chance I can get to do an impression of my third favorite scotsman. I forget the relevance of this piece but does it really matter? John did an excellent job of interpreting my writing/VO and making a very silly skit.

ONLIVE INFOMERCIAL

When we hired John late last year I was told that my editing involvement when reduce drastically. So any chance I have to create my own skit or segment I get fairly excited. I remember how the camera we used for this part screwed up our audio, so we had to dub the whole thing. That’s just one of the many things I love about being on the web and not TV, we can get away with crap like that. If there’s one thing I try to remember always, it’s the line ‘Art through adversity’. More often than not, I welcome production problems; they often result in happy accidents and funnier segments.

TAKE SOME LOOK

This segment turned out much more somber than I had intruded it to be. All the footage from the piece was actual gameplay from the final day of Halo 2′s online life. I was attempting to be more tongue and cheek with my hate of Halo 2′s faults but I ended up missing them more than loathing them. Halo 2 was still strong in my early days at Machinima and I will remember it fondly and then fondle its member.

THE DANCE SCENE

Our original ending to our whole Waypoint coverage was much lamer. It went out with a whimper and we wanted to go out with a thumping, repetitive bang. Thankfully around this time we discovered the Halo Reach dance club easter egg and filmed the hell out of it. At the end I laughed, I cried and was happy it was all over. Seeing the two endings side by side was refreshing, it’s nice knowing you can still pull off a half baked idea in a couple hours.

So there you have it, just a taste of our Best of 2010 part 2. I hope all four of you enjoyed reading it, you have a very useful skill and it is your job to pass the word of our ancestors down for generations to come. Bye, love ya, later. Have a merry whatever you celebrate and we’ll see you again soon enough.