Poor little fella. Just lost his ride and now he's getting knocked about by a Banshee!

(6:54) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. This shows some mid-air ramming of a detached dropship turret, and some subsequent fun. Ramming is a possibility I cottoned onto while working on my previous turret movie BCM111. The opening clip is from that time and may well be the first time I rammed it. At any rate it's the earliest clip I've got. The final ram is also from that time, but the others were done specially for this movie.

Released January 20th 2015, gameplay recorded July 28th 2014 and January 16th-17th 2015.

00:02 (Introduction) Sometime while doing mid-air reboarding, I realized there was potentially time to ram the detached turret, which might be fun. Here's my earliest example. It's a bit clumsy and doesn't send the turret far, but as mentioned in the description, this may actually be the first time I rammed it. I expect I was pleased just to score a hit! Also, it was novel to be close to the turret on the way down.

00:28 (Not easy to hit) Giving the turret a good strong knock isn't as easy as you might think. It's quite tricky to judge your approach, partly because of the third-person view and partly because the Banshee is relatively slow to change course. Here are a couple of typical near misses, just to give you some idea.

00:41 (Onto the near bridge) In this example my first hit sends the turret up steeply, and I go for a second as it comes down. That's just enough to knock it onto the bridge, where I have a bit of fun with it.

01:14 This wasn't the first time I got it onto the bridge (there were a few times during the making of BCM111), so I already knew it could fire down through the deck, and that I could ram it from below the deck. In this case my ramming doesn't knock it far. After an additional shunt (not shown) it ends up in the doorway. Hovering underneath, I get a rather novel view as it looks down at me. Afterwards I try to push it indoors to see what might happen, but I quickly lose it through the wall.

01:54 Meanwhile covies have spawned behind me, and I do a bit of slaying (I was lucky to get clear of a plasma blast). If you like the way I deal with the two Elites, check out my Shark article.

02:20 (Over the bridges) After my reboarding I'm on the scene of the detachment very quickly, and the turret flies nicely into my path. I score a good hit which takes it over the bridges. There's a second hit also, as I give chase.

02:40 (Onto the far bridge) I spot the detached turret late but manage to give it a knock. It's only a clumsy one, but enough to send it onto the far bridge. After that (not shown), I decided to get a checkpoint so I could play about with it. These next three playing clips are in chronological order.

02:59 The first thing I show here is ramming it off the bridge from under the deck. I try to hit it with a Banshee blast as it falls, but miss.

03:10 Here I push it though the deck, and the glass lets you see it falling. In fact, when you push it along it's hard not to push it though the deck, it goes through so easily.

03:22 Next, I gently push it onto the side rim and have a spot of fun, before pushing it off with the Banshee. Down below I'm taken by surprise by the door guards, and the Banshee comes perilously close to being toasted, but I enjoy splattering a red Elite as I get clear. I subsequently got another checkpoint (unintended), which drew my playing to a close.

04:30 (Big hit triple) My mid-air reboarding technique for this ram is significantly different from the other five. I curve well away from the approaching dropship, hoping that the left side of it will eventually pass underneath. Actually it goes slightly to my left, but still, I end up being able to approach the turret at a better angle for being able to ram it almost straight up. I hit it good and hard - my strongest ram so far. Unfortunately I also scrape against the cliff which slows my pursuit, but I still manage to get a second hit, and then a final nudge.

05:00 (Back to the entrance) In this final example (from the time I was working on BCM111) I score a good hit and try to ram it again but it escapes, landing near the entrance to the area.

05:25 Hearing the sound of Marines fighting, I give it another few knocks to take it their way. It continues to focus on me until I hide - and then it finally gives the Marines some attention. Notice how they don't even fire back. It's up to the cyborg to save the team. For fun I try out a Shade on him, but as expected, it has no effect (he seems impervious to all fire and explosions). A tap on the head deactivates him.

Closing remarks Getting these clips took a lot of controller twiddling and it was quite taxing, so I hope you like them! I put several hours play into it (trying various flight plans for the mid-air reboarding), and picked out the best or most entertaining examples and subsequent play. I wasn't keeping track of my performance but it could easily take me several minutes to pull off a mid-air reboarding, and after that, my chances of performing a good ram were probably less than 50%.

I fired quite a few Banshee blasts at the turret in these clips, but as you may've noticed, I didn't hit it once. It's not easy! I wish now I'd been less ambitious and gone for some close-range shots instead, so you could've at least seen one hit. Maybe next time. Yes, I'll probably do another movie relating to this stuff; I've got a few ideas for aspects to explore.

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