Lives Online: CyberCultural Studies

Here’s this week’s machinima goodness: a music video to those upbeat kids, Breaking Benjamin, and their song, “So Cold.” Keep smilin’ guys!

The video was made by Paul Marino using Half-Life 2, and features a lot of footage from the game. (In fact, if you haven’t finished the game yet, there may be a few spoilers in here for you!) I think it’s a fascinating mix of the game’s narrative with the tone and lyrics of the song.

But wait, there’s more! Here’s a special bonus sorta-machinima clip for your edification and enjoyment!

GayGamer’s FruitBrute clues us in to the latest sorta-machinima video by Monty Oum: Haloid:

It’s “sorta-machinima” because Oum takes two iconic video game characters, Master Chief from the Halo series and Samus Aran from the Metroid series, and has them duke it out in the grand tradition of “Who Would Win: Batman or Superman” contests. In this match-up, fortunately, the fight takes an unexpected turn. However, because he’s combining franchises, he can’t use the games’ engines to create the video. He animates it himself. Thus, it’s like machinima, but this isn’t machinima.

The video is pretty darn good. The animation in the opening sequence isn’t great, but Oum’s sense of timing and his skills as an editor are on full display. And the fight itself is fun. I have a major quibble with his choice of music, though: when you’re going to rely that heavily on Matrix-style bullet-time and superhuman fighting skills, using the music from The Matrix just feels redundant.

Also, you should read Oum’s notes (scroll down to the FAQ) on making the video. They did a lot to make me feel better about Master Chief’s electro-tingle, but I really wish the gender play in this video were more about the fact that girl gamers roxxor hard, and less about the straight-guy fantasy that “hot lesbians are awesome.”

(X-posted on Digital Digressions)

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