That high-explosive is getting a bit too high if you ask me…

(6:42) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Normal. This shows a dropped plasma grenade rising to somewhere around head height over the course of 16 minutes, edited to under 7. The phenomenon of rising (and sinking) grenades wasn't new to me, but this one looked like a pretty fast mover so I started recording, and decided it would make a nice movie. I noticed it while working on my megabattle movie BCM90.

Released January 19th 2014, gameplay recorded January 13th 2014.

00:02 The footage starts just after I've wiped out the covies in a twin bridges megabattle save. Actually I think I may've been engaged in killing covies merely to count them, because here I've clearly been busy with a sniper rifle, which isn't what I was using for the megabattling of BCM90. Anyway, I noticed this grenade already well off the ground and it immediately struck me as being a fast mover. It's rising fast enough to be easily perceptible to the naked eye at a normal sort of distance, but in this opening footage I also include some zoomed views and speed things up fourfold.

01:13 After a bit of a look around I crouch, and soon line things up for another zoomed view. This time I get the dead Grunt in the background, partly for reference and partly for cuteness. That view lasted almost three minutes, and I later used it to estimate that the grenade was rising at a rate of about 0.89 plasma diameters per minute, or about 53 per hour.

02:10 The grenade shadow is getting faint now, and will soon be gone. I move in close and the camera intersects the grenade a few times. I swap my launcher for a plasma pistol, to have a weapon that doesn't take up much of the screen, then get a nice close view of the grenade. Very pretty! The view is so nice that I let it play out in full, lasting about 40 seconds. But I initially forgot to move my weapon intermittently to prevent the weapon-fidget animation.

03:29 I move around a bit, then go in close again. The camera intersects the grenade, giving an interesting effect for a while. Eventually the grenade becomes visibly whole again, and when it goes above the rim of the trough, it looks like a giant blue thing rising in the distance. Nice! There's a bit more weapon fidgeting in this clip. I think I was so busy admiring the grenade that I forgot again!

04:15 Here's a brief view standing up and looking down towards the Jackal. The rise of the grenade is quite easily perceptible.

04:21 Another standing view, this time zoomed and with the dead Grunt again. This view gets continued briefly at the end of the movie (after a cut of about 76 seconds).

04:32 By now about 13 minutes have passed since the opening view. I already knew the grenade would be non-solid, and I do some swiping and shooting to demonstrate. Sniper fire gives the impression that the grenade shakes, but actually it's only the rifle (or camera).

04:56 Now about 14 minutes have passed. The grenade is up around head height and I pretty much get under it for a novel upwards view with the pipes and bridges in the background. You can see it rising up, and also enjoy the beautiful blue patterning.

05:40 After cutting about 44 seconds of footage during which I was moving around trying to line myself up nicely, here's another upwards view for a while.

05:51 Almost 16 minutes have elapsed now, and I decide to finish up, as it's high time I got on with BCM90. At first I was going to grab the grenade out of the air, and accordingly I offload one of my plasmas to make room. But then I decide to try and set it off instead; and I'm glad I did because it's a lot more interesting, and makes a much better finale. The grenade actually gets moved to the ground when the first bang goes off. I show a replay at half speed to give you another look (during which the sound is rather hissy, which I put down to iMovie's crude handling).

06:30 To end the movie, here's a peaceful continuation of the view from earlier.

Closing remarks I was pleased with how that unplanned footage turned out, when edited. Could've done without the weapon fidgeting which I twice forgot to guard against, but it didn't matter much. Later on I plan to do some investigation of the rising and sinking business (sinking is shown in BCM92 which I'm releasing at the same time), and I'll probably do another movie, showing more examples.

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