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Everyone can have slow days, even machinima authors. It seems X-Cross had one of those days, and he was feeling less-than-entertained. Out of those idle hands, he authored Herpi Derpi I was bored. I'm featuring it today because X-Cross has created quite of bit of good work, so something by him is relatively newsworthy. And, even though I'm not proud to admit it, it somehow made me laugh.

As you might expect from the title, Herpi Derpi I was bored isn't exactly a groundbreaking feat of storytelling and fine-tuned graphics. It's a quick, short sight gag, followed by some relatively standard anti-elf ranting. This probably isn't the most high-brow comedy we've ever feature, but I enjoyed it.

So, while this video was funny, I hope X-Cross has relieved his boredom, and will be back around with a more fully developed piece soon. I'm particularly anxious to see Fi5ve.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

Hot on the heels of Steak Sandwiches, Oxhorn also released Gnome Overboard. This new installment in the series of Oxhorn's Short Shorts actually reminds me of the older, pre-Inventing Swear Words work done by the Tauren Maestro.

The story is not complicated. Three men decide to go hunting whales. (A perfectly reasonable thing to do in Northrend, mind you, as the whales there aggro from about a hundred miles away.) Despite their better judgement, the three men are convinced to let a gnome go with them. This proves to be a complete and total disaster, as gnomes are, apparently, filled with curses and spite. They all die.

Gnome Overboard is the resurgence of another favorite aspect of Oxhorn Brand Machinima. His music is creative, fun, and interesting. While I admit the voice in this song seemed to struggle a bit, his lyrics were amusing and cleverly written. On that subject, Oxhorn has also made his music available for purchase on Amazon.com, so if you like his work, you can pick it up fairly easily.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

Over the weekend, America celebrated its Independence Day on July 4th. And while Azeroth may not have exactly the same holiday, certainly most folks are aware of the fireworks that happen to take place on the same day.

Maestro of Comedy Oxhorn released the new video over the weekend, celebrating America's Independence Day. The video, called Steak Sandwiches, only features two of Oxhorn's regular characters. Oxhorn and Mortuus take a break to enjoy a favorite past-time of Oxhorn's Horde. That past-time, specifically, is strapping gnomes to rockets and firing them into the air.

This video is pretty short, and has the same, endearing sense of comedy that Oxhorn displays in all his movies. The combination of his scripting, music, and voice acting always seems to nail the subject just right. While I find gnome punting jokes tiresome usually, something about the way Oxhorn delivers his comedy even gets me laughing out loud.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

Ready Check is a twice-a-week column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. Today, we step back a little and look at endgame in the context of sports.

Let's recap Ulduar so far, shall we?

You've wrecked the Flame Leviathan. With a touch of kindness in your heart, you euthanized Razorscale. In a moment of vengeance, you laid some justice down on Ignis the Furnace Master. Guffawing in humor at his odd voice, you looted Deconstructor.

Then it came time to "bridge your experience" by beating up Kologarn. The Assembly of Iron proved to be no difficulty for your incredible raiding prowess. Even Auriaya and her small legion of adds gave you little pause.

Now, however, you're on to the big leagues. It's time for you to showdown against the Keepers of Ulduar. Immediatley after defeating Auriaya, you get to fight none other than Hodir himself.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, (Raiding) Ready Check

TaintedLore is back with a new video titled Take My Quest. This video was created by ViKarious Productions. (That's not a typo -- the "K" is capital in their name.) Of course, the singing itself is by Sharm. I think I may need to brush up on my pop music, because I couldn't be sure whether the song is a parody, or a completely original work.

At any rate, the video work in this piece is pretty good. It's got a good variety of action and models, all which come together in proper harmony with the song. I've not seen anything by ViKarious before, so this was a pretty good break onto the scene for them.

My only complaint, of course, is the return of Auto-Tune. I've always enjoy Sharm's singing, and think she could be fairly talented. Like I said when Why I Raid? was released, I guess auto-tune could be being used for artistic reasons, but it's just not necessary. The voice work is great without it.

Edit: There's a rumor this may be a parody of the Destiny's Child song, Say My Name.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

It's become almost a cilche that when you see a machinima trailer, you must take it with a healthy grain of skepticism. Very commonly, the exciting movie that's been promised by the trailer will never actually come to fruition. Dtbn has bucked that trend, however, with the release of The Avenger.

The visuals in the movie are outstanding. I think Dtbn has really done an amazing job in instilling the in-game models with life and activity. The fight scenes are surprisingly complex, and the mis en scene is compelling. There's a few places where there's a bit more repetition than I'd like, for example when the Vrykul keep getting cut in half. However, I chalked that up to the main character's favorite move being "Blazing Vrykul Bifurcation Attack!" Really, Dtbn has created popcorn-munching, fun-to-watch action here.

Some of the storytelling in the movie felt like it could use some refinement. The main character is meant to be empathetic, but I'm not sure we ever really got to root for her in a clear, unmuddled way. She seems to miraculously come by "better" equipment, without much explnation of why or how. The gnome necromancer's role is never really explained. Dtbn says that his storytelling skills aren't the best, but I can definitely see how he's growing as an author. I think the next movie will be a lot tighter with its characters.

Click here to see it for yourself.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.

Ickmon from Executus is a 2200+ ranked Priest, working in both the 2v2 and 3v3 brackets. The changes to Arena rating requirements, Resilience, and balance in patch 3.2, however, could mean a lot of big changes for Arena players like Ickmon. Despite the uncertainty of change, though, this Priest isn't particularly worried about the changes -- he thinks that things will be fine, and the new Resilience benefit might be a good thing.

We were able to spend some time talking with Ickmon about his team, playstyle, and those 3.2 changes. Check out what he had to say behind the cut.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, The Colosseum

Adroit machinima fans are probably already aware that Myndflame has been diligently working on the third installment Illegal Danish. The premise of this new Illegal Danish is that Van Kraken has created his ultimate brew, the Flask of Ten Thousand Souls. The flask is so powerful that only by combining it with the power of the Illegal Danish can it be consumed without fear of death. The bad news for Van Kraken, though, is that it can only be used by a gnome. So, obviously, Van Kraken needs to find and corrupt a gnome to do this deed. The new movie looks to be the same riotous fun as the previous Illegal Danish films, so it was pretty exciting when we learned Myndflame released the Illegal Danish 3 Prelude.

The prelude focuses on the star character, an ambitious gnome named Dirti. In this series of events, he undergoes a dark transformation into "Dirti G", making him incredibly powerful under the supervision of the sinister Van Kraken. If you didn't realize it right away, this prelude is a parody of Blizzard's own preview for StarCraft 2. I'm obviously a pretty big fan of the video, and it actually made me (briefly) considering a new Rogue.

Check out the preview yourself by clicking here. It's definitely worth your time.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

Today's WoW Moviewatch is a little bit of a repeat, but in an odd way. Shadowline1990's A Death Knight's Tale - The Battle for Light's Hope Chapel Cinematic Movie is another revisit version of the Death Knight closing cinematics. You might recognize Shadowline1990 as the guy who made The Culling of Stratholme - a WoW Cinematic Movie. This movie is, admittedly, more of the same idea.

Shadowline1990 took pieces of the in-game animations and voiceovers, and tried to make it into a more compelling cinematic experience. Shadowline1990 isn't the first person to do this with the Death Knight storyline, though, and he's very upfront to say he gives credit to Invisusira for having given the story this treatment first.

I'm not sure if Shadowline1990 knocked A Death Knight's tale out of the park the same way he did The Culling of Stratholme. While I think he did a (generally) good job with it, it didn't scream to me the same way Culling did. The video is attractive and well pieced together. The final product feels a little too-full. It seemed to drag on a little bit, but some of that is caused by the slower cadence of the voice acting.

In other great news, Shadowline1990 reports that his follow-up to Culling of Stratholme piece is nearly done. So, ultimately, there's a lot of good news to be had from him right now.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch