BCM548 - Control room exploration with a Banshee
(6:34) Level 8 ('Two Betrayals') on Easy. Well, it finally happened. After 547 movies I've finally got around to doing one for level 8! And actually a few more will follow right afterwards, as I cover the topic of exploration and fun in the control room. This first movie shows some set-up work plus basic exploration. And by the way, I'll be posting a detailed article on the control room shortly, replacing a brief one from long ago.
- Download: BCM548.mov (111.2 MB)
- Watch at HBO in full quality
Released February 12th 2025, gameplay recorded February 7th-11th 2025.
Commentary
00:02 (Setting up) This two-minute sequence is pretty self-explanatory so I needn't add much here, but I'll mention that I deliberately left the first Elite alive, to potentially have some fun with him later. Also, I elected to kill the loud music. The music might've been nice for certain activities, but I was expecting to spend a lot of time playing, and the music could've got a bit much. Plus, this saved me any concern with music segment mismatches in adjacent movie clips. With no music, I'd be free to put any two clips together.
One other thing: I neglected to top up my plasma grenade supply, for possible later use. Should've got a few on the way to the Banshee. However, it wasn't critical at all, just non-ideal.
02:01 (Visiting the bottom) At the bottom I get a nice view up with the sniper rifle. As for the place itself, there's not much to see, but while making the movie I noticed one thing of interest (almost missed that!), namely a blast effect oddity you can get when a blast goes off underneath a niche. That perhaps deserved a bit more footage, but with so much to cover in the movie, I kept to just a quick single example.
03:06 (Visiting the top) Up at the top, I dismount onto a perch (Spasmodic launched up onto one of these) and watch my Banshee fall. There's not much to do, but I take a look down with the sniper rifle, then demonstrate why you shouldn't step onto the more steeply angled surface!
04:11 (Big lights) Moving to the periphery below the platform, I focus on the big lights, highlighting one of the weird discs (see my forthcoming article for info about those), plus some additional strangeness with the light unit itself. And as a bonus I do a cheeky stunt-boarding of my Banshee! I hadn't actually planned that; I just went for it on the spur of the moment, and happily it went well.
05:40 (Death zone) These two clips highlight the death zone below part of the gangway, something you might not have known was there. I did quite a few takes, to try and get strong death cries.
06:05 (High view) This spectacular high view was a late addition to the movie, added after I found myself with a bit of movie time to play with, on account of shortening my death zone coverage (by using new shorter clips). The original idea for this sort of high view was to show the eight big lights, as part of my coverage on the lights. But in the end I thought I'd instead use such a view to give a sort of conclusion; a last view of the place.
06:18 (More to come) Except, here's the final clip to signal that there's more to come. I'm just enjoying a bit of skimming under the circular platform here, getting some engaging footage.
Closing remarks I really should've made a movie like this long ago, but Two Betrayals had never been much on my mind in regard to recreational fun. Now that I've revisited the control room topic however (having almost forgotten about it), I've actually found lots more to do there, making things more substantial. There was so much, I realised I'd need multiple movies to cover things, rather than a single one.
That in itself has added a few days to my getting this movie out, because I had to sort out how to structure my coverage across the movies. Having now covered set-up work and basic exploration, the next movie will focus on a new aspect. So don't go away!