From Other Suns: Gameplay Trailer

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During last year’s Summer of Rift, I decided to take the plunge into Virtual Reality with pricing approaching the consumer market. The available games have varied in terms of polish and replayability. Some are still fairly gimmicky VR experiences, while others leave you wanting for more content. One of the games I keep coming back to is From Other Suns.

A first person shooter roguelike in space, with the structure of FTL, the shooting feel of a laser-based Robo Recall (with the robot recall missions to boot!), and the impending danger of the Aliens franchise, From Other Suns has been a barrel of fun. The multiple free movement locomotion options make it easy to get immersed in the universe and find yourself ducking behind cover as you move through occupied stations, derelict ships, and infested space hulks.

The best part of this experience is had when playing with friends, as I had a regular group of spacemans to join up with on our race to reach Earth before the impending alien death machine that was on our heels. Taking advantage of the tactical map I was able to function as a scout for our party, alerting us to upcoming danger or to flanking enemies. We had our fair share of failures, close calls, and victories along the way, and so far it has been one of the most engaging and rewarding experiences I have had in VR, a few technical issues here and there aside.

To showcase some of what we experienced along with introducing others to the game or technology, I decided to create a gameplay trailer from the hours of footage I recorded of our play sessions, picking out some of the memorable events along the way to tell the story of our time in this game and what it has to offer. Everything shown is recorded in-game, including the audio (the Rift has a pretty good microphone), with the exception of one small soundbyte I added in for comedic effect.

As seen on Reddit

Elite: Dangerous – The Return Trailer

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Recently, Frontier released a Teaser Trailer for their 2.4 patch. It heralds the return of the Thargoids, a legacy antagonist from the original Elite games. They are ominously shaping up to become the Big Bad in the Elite: Dangerous universe.

How bad could the return of a hostile alien race be? Well, it is Independence Day, so what is the fourth without an impending alien invasion? I decided to take the original short teaser trailer, and expand it into a full cinematic trailer, using another great audio track from Really Slow Motion. Following along with The Canonn Research Group’s efforts and pulling in the lore elements, I constructed this trailer based off those sources of inspiration.

It certainly wasn’t easy to get some of this footage that was dependent on ingame RNG elements. With enough time and effort though, I got what I needed to craft a compelling visual story, matching it up with a narrated script I wrote to give viewers some background on this part of the Elite universe, and the context for why someone unfamiliar should be concerned that some strange aliens are popping up now. This trailer contains some of the latest Elite: Dangerous content, so spoiler warning if you would prefer to see the great set pieces in this game for yourself!

As seen on Reddit

Star Citizen: Unofficial P52 Merlin Commercial

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Let it be known that I like space. I really, really, like space.

My penchant for exploration, the ideals of a future world where space travel is readily accessible, and the possibilities it carries for the stories to be told are among the many reasons for this. So when I was approached about offering to help provide narration for an entry in The Next Great Starship Commercial competition for a ship in the Star Citizen universe, I jumped on it and gave it what I had to sell viewers on the latest addition by the trustworthy and proven Roberts Space Industries: the P52 Merlin.

PlanetSide 2: Fight or Fall

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Called out of my PlanetSide 2 retirement to once again inspire the troops of Connery, I set to writing another one of my pre-Server Smash speeches. My process for this usually involves setting the tone with background music, which offers a cinematic backdrop to build the emotion alongside the words I speak. In this case, the words for this speech stemmed from that background music track, “Fight or Fall.”

In typical fashion, p4nda has taken a post-processed version of this speech and used it as a backing compilation commemorating this particular Server Smash event, where Connery went on to narrowly defeat long standing rival server Emerald. I wouldn’t claim my speech tipped the scales, but listen to it for yourself and see if you feel inspired to do battle to the end!

Elite: Dangerous – My 200th Rescue as a Fuel Rat

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It has been some time since I posted my last behind the scenes video for the Fuel Rats’ 2000th Rescue (we’re now approaching 15,000 CMDRs rescued!), and I wanted to share with you my 200th rescue as a Fuel Rat, a goal I set before taking a break, and it was certainly a rescue worth remembering.

This case is one of the toughest types of cases to pull success from, where the client is running out of time on life support and you do not have a good fix on their location to know where to be when they log in for a rescue, due to them having undergone an extended supercruise transit before running out of fuel.

Check out the video to see how this rescue played out!

To Me, To You – An Elite: Dangerous Challenge

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As part of a new two week challenge series hosted by the Elite: Dangerous subreddit, I was contacted to provide some narration describing the challenge details, while NotOnlyHere provides the visual backing to wrap up the introductory package to each challenge.

For this challenge, pilots will be performing a relay race of sorts using a canister of cargo, passing it To Me, To You. After picking up 4 cargo canisters and flying outside of the no fire zone of the station, the cargo will be exchanged between pilots and then returned to the station, with the clock stopping when the second pilot successfully lands at the station. The quickest time wins, with extra points for those Commanders that attempt the difficult task of exchanging cargo with flight assist disabled. Check out the challenge page for more details and to check out the competition!

Station Griefer – An Elite: Dangerous Challenge

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As part of a new two week challenge series hosted by the Elite: Dangerous subreddit, I was contacted to provide some narration describing the challenge details, while NotOnlyHere provides the visual backing to wrap up the introductory package to each challenge.

This time, pilots will be attacking a station and seeing how long they can last under the retaliatory fire from the station and its defenders, as a Station Griefer. A true test of tanking and evasion, those who survive the longest will end up highest on the leader board, with special bonuses for Commanders who attempt this dangerous challenge with their flight assist software disabled. How lucky do you feel? Head on over to the challenge page to post your times!

FA-OFF Docking – An Elite: Dangerous Challenge

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As part of a new two week challenge series hosted by the Elite: Dangerous subreddit, I was contacted to provide some narration describing the challenge details, while NotOnlyHere provides the visual backing to wrap up the introductory package to each challenge.

This fortnight, pilots are challenged to dock with a station in the least amount of time, demanding speed and precision as Commanders race to their landing pad to compete for the best time, with bonus points awarded to those commanders who disable their flight assist software, creating the FA-OFF Docking Challenge. Feel like testing your piloting skills? Head on over to the challenge page to post your times!

 

Case Red: A Fuel Rat Rescue Cinematic

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I have always been a sucker for a good narrative, and for the past few months there has been no greater opportunity for me to craft one than in my time with the Fuel Rats. Over the past month, I sat down and came up with a cinematic adaptation of one of the most intensive rescue situations in Elite: Dangerous — a Case Red scenario. With a client’s fuel reserve exhausted and their emergency oxygen reserve draining, every second lost is a second closer to death. With the clock ticking on a client’s survival, the Fuel Rats have to quickly jump into action. What happens next? Check out the video for yourself:

To get an idea of what goes into a rescue in the somewhat less sensational reality, check out my video for the Fuel Rats’ 2000th rescue.

Fuel Rats: An Interview with Polygon

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With growing publicity for the Fuel Rats, the player based emergency refueling community in Elite: Dangerous, much like the amount of players that have been rescued, Charlie Hall at Polygon contacted me about doing an interview to get some of the background on the group, for those unfamiliar with how they came to be or how they operate.

You can also check out the 2000th rescue video that I produced for a behind the scenes look of what a rescue looks like. Since then the Fuel Rats have surpassed 7000 rescues!

The full post on Polygon can be viewed here.