Gaming at the Movies #4
‘Gaming at the movies’ is a weekly movie review feature which brings you the latest, the greatest and other combinations of gaming movies to stream or download every Wednesday. Now turn off your mobile phone and quiet please, the show’s about to begin.
This week’s box office offers eight movies from movies of Nordic semi-pros keiz and bjERKE to fast paced Quake action in the form of ‘defraging is not a crime’ and ‘This is Quake 3’. As usual there’s a classic treat included at the end that’s sweeter than the most expensive popcorn.
Name: kicked & removed
Editor: AHXNXA
Runtime: 6:26
Released: 2007
Game: Q3 CPM
Description:
A compilation of CPM kills by AHXNXA (editor of “it’s pekka” and “Lippu”) and ovo on dm6.
Review:
This is a cool movie which really shows off well what CPM can be at its best. The sheer speed certain sequences display is intoxicating at times as the air acceleration allows the players to reach limits vq3 players can only dream of. Likewise the air rockets and weapon switch time really allow for some incredible kills. There are some truly spectacular kills in this movie, ones which satisfy every time you watch them.
The soundtrack is camp as fuck but I like it, it’s not the kind of thing you hear in frag movies, it’s fast paced and it’s catchy so it does its job on all accounts. The editing is not in your face at all and you don’t really ever need to think about it. The capture method is really nice as the speed the action takes place at can really be felt. The SK stream of this one doesn’t do it justice in that respect, it needs to be downloaded to be properly appreciated.
Thorin Rating: 8/10
Name: FalleN – Undisclosed Desires
Editor: oly
Runtime: 8:24
Released: 2010
Game: CS
Description:
A compilation of coL.br player FalleN’s kills.
Review:
This is a movie I was quite looking forward to watching when I heard about it because FalleN is the newest hot top player out there so I knew he had footage which was movie-worthy. Sadly this movie really underwhelmed me in a lot of regards. Firstly it is over-edited in a way which really detracts from the action and entertainment. I feel like good and great frag movies always get into a certain rhythm where the kills and scenes flow together with some pace and you get a kind of euphoric feeling watching all that great action unfold in front of your eyes. This movie doesn’t have any of that whatsoever.
As far as I can tell there were some good, even very good kill sequences, but firstly all of the footage is quite laggy HLTV sourced. Secondly the editing involves lots of cuts, sometimes even on scenes where the actual action doesn’t have anything taken out of it. Also there are way too many cut-aways to third person replays of a kill happening. As in you see the kill and then immediately you see it replayed as essentially a model just undergos the death animation. This happens over and over to the extent that some scenes might have 3-4 kills in them and you’ll have the sequence of kills interupted each time with this death cam style of editing over and over. A kill, fade to black, cut to third person replay of the guy’s body falling over and dropping a gun and then cut again to go to the next kill.
The flow I spoke about before is nonexistent in this movie. That really hurts the movie because even scenes which seem like they should be good are reduced to feeling like individual kills so they become less impressive. Even if my brain consciously knows a certain set of kills were all from the same round my subconscious seems to take them in as though they were one kill rounds of their own. That’s not a good thing by any stretch of the imagination. These things happen so frequently there’s not really any point citing examples either, it’s so prevalent you can’t miss what I’m pointing to.
The soundtrack was actually one of the better parts of the movie, I found most of it pretty listenable and even nice at times. Unfortunately it became a point of irritation also because effects were applied in time with it which didn’t do anything but annoy or frustrate me. Many sequences in this movie are way too bright because of some kind of lens flare effect that makes me feel like I’m trying to watch a TV which is next to a window with the sun blazing directly into my eyes. I try to squint or look away and then my mind remembers I’m supposed to be watching a frag movie and enjoying the action so I’m going through this cycle of being blinded, squinting/looking away and then instantly trying to refocus.
The worst examples of effects in the movie would be the Metal Gear Solid shoulder peeks and the Muse bass solo epilepsy seizures. The former is where after some kills or scenes the camera for some reason moves diagonally to the left or right, like in Metal Gear Solid where you peek around a corner. That’s really distracting for the eyes, which are trying to focus on the center of the screen at FalleN’s shots. Then there’s the lighting which is synched with the music so that certain elements make the scene suddenly brighten for a split second. During the bass section in the Muse song it becomes almost seizure-inducing and way overboard.
Even with all of this in mind a part of me feels like there were good kills in the movie, I’m just not entirely sure purely from this viewing experience because of how they were cut up, edited and repackaged. Instead it became some kind of bizarre Counter-Strike music video of player models doing their death animation in slow motion one after another.
Thorin Rating: 3.5/10
Name: ParadokS Tribute
Editor: Zalon
Runtime: 4:18
Released: 2008
Game: QW
Description:
A tribute to the play of Slackers player ParadokS’ dm6 duel play.
Review:
I’ve always liked the play of ParadokS because he manages to walk the line between being a successful elite level player and at the same time entertaining with an aggressive and movement-orientated style. This is basically a mini tribute movie and it’s only of dm6 kills from duel play so mainly it’s single kills but I still enjoyed watching it. QuakeWorld for me has an awesome balance of graceful movement, potentially breakneck speeds and satisfying weapon violence.
This is a short movie and it’s not mindblowing kills in any way but it is a nice little showing of kills from one of the great dm6 masters. Even if the movie was made with a tongue in cheek tone I liked it.
Thorin Rating: 6/10
Name: cogu
Editor: IntellecT
Runtime: 19:59
Released: 2007
Game: CS
Description:
A compilation of kills from cogu, now retired former MiBR player and widely considered to be the best Brazilian player of all time.
Review:
This movie is complete garbage on every level imaginable. There are scenes which literally could induce fits in epileptics, the soundtrack is insanely overplayed and uninspiring and there are sequences of kills shown from a third person point of view and then never first person. There are single everyday level kills shown from certain matches such as a normal single mp5 kill. 100% of the footage is from HLTV demos and some of it is laggy.
There is footage from saves and anti-eco rounds where the enemies just rush cogu with glocks. The kills seem to literally be in order of the round and demo they came from, with a bunch of them coming against noname Brazilian teams you have never heard of. Oh and it lasts almost 20 minutes. So why would you ever watch this movie and why would I feature it?
The only reason to watch this movie is if you’re a fan of cogu. In that sense it’s a movie worth watching and there will be people out there who will want to watch it. A lot of these kills come against South American teams so it’s highly unlikely most readers of this piece will have scoured those HLTV demos and seen these sequences. Add in that cogu is one of the best CS players of all time, and that some of the sequences in the movie are good, and there’s a reason to watch it.
For anyone who is not a big CS fan, not a cogu admirer or who only wants to watch good movies steer clear. 2/10 because there are about 17-18 minutes solid of cogu kills and amongst those, many of which you’d never put in the time to seek out, there are some good kills occasionally.
Thorin Rating: 2/10
Name: glm DeFrag Life
Editor: glm
Runtime: 12:18
Released: 2010
Game: Q3 DeFrag
Description:
A compilation of glm’s Defrag runs.
Review:
This is a defrag movie which was a bit on and off for me. The first third of the movie, the length of the first track, didn’t really do anything for me. Even though the music playing was nice enough the tempo felt off, a little too slow and a lot of the runs I saw too much third person action which felt kind of redundant to me. The other two thirds of the movie were a significant improvement I felt. There was still a bit too much third person action in a way which didn’t really work for me, even though it does in other movies quite often, but not all of it fell under that description.
The runs themselves also got better as we got onto some big maps with mindblowing potential where you can really start to let your mind soar and enjoy the best of defrag. When a run is on a really amazing map which unfolds before you at immense speeds and you feel immersed right in the run that’s when defrag is at its best I feel. It’s like a sensation of something intangible you’ve felt in a dream at some point but couldn’t communicate or rediscover while waking. It’s a rush, a genuine thrill when the physics of the world seem to be bent to those extremes. Now this is not one of those movies where that happens a lot. It tends to be a bunch of scenes which are ok and good but then every now and then one of those sublime runs gets thrown in and elevates the viewing experience.
It helps that the other two tracks, covering the last two thirds, were good too. The second one is a nice enough rock/nu-metal type track which passes the time well enough. The last track is one I have affection for, something I listen to outside of movies as it is, so I liked hearing it combined with a few good scenes even if it did seem to end a little abruptly.
This isn’t a defrag movie which is gonna stand out in my mind as a great example of the genre or one with a lot of replay value but it was worth the first watch and there are a few scenes in it which can take your breath away and excite the engines of your imagination, even if only for half a minute before the action descends a level or two again.
Thorin Rating: 7/10
Name: WCG 2010 presented by SteelSeries
Editor: SK
Runtime: 6:40
Released: 2010
Game: CS
Description:
A compilation of kills from WCG 2010, presented by SteelSeries.
Review:
This movie is terrible. Once you’ve begun it the best thing is that it does end, and not after too long even if it might feel like a minature eternity. This is every bad event movie blended into one. HLTV frags which are nearly always way too laggy to get anything close to a thrill out of seeing. Scenes on train where 3-4 people die but since they’re at the CT end of outer you can’t even see the person being killed, you just see an AK/AWP fired and an obituary appear in the top right.
The theatrics of the movie only bring it down further as we are treated to a buildup as though this was going to be an epic masterpiece. Instead we get cheesy hype followed by utterly pointless third person views which apparently will be the scenes we see later on in the movie. One scene of some CTs with USPs walking alone nuke rafters is even shown twice despite the fact the sequences doesn’t warrant being in a movie once.
The kills are largely against ecoing opponents and/or bad teams. The music is as throwaway as it comes and all in all the movie doesn’t excite me or entertain me. It wasn’t the kind of bad which actively made me hate it, I just felt like I was seeing nothing worth retaining and I could turn my brain off until the credits hit. Of course we sadly can’t literally turn our brains off so even the prospect of that momentary rest is an illusion. The ESWC movie this guy made was pretty crap too but this one outdoes it in that regard I think.
Thorin Rating: 2/10
Name: Zyppe – A Walk To Remember
Editor: maxxie
Runtime: 6:10
Released: 2008
Game: CS
Description:
A compilation of the kills of Zyppe who has just retired and previously played for Begrip.swe, H2k and Concode.
Review:
I’ve already previously extolled my love of the movies of semi-pro Swedish players who crush online and this is a movie which slots right into that subgenre. Zyppe is another player with wicked aim who had can pull off three single bullet deagle headshots one after the other and close rangle spray headshot people again and again with the colt. This is definitely impressive stuff and entertaining viewing.
On the downside the music at times can be a little uninspired and the movie itself isn’t that long so once the intro and outro are subtracted you’re looking at about 5 minutes of actually fragging. Those are a good 5 minutes though and I enjoyed the viewing experience. There are effects and changes in camera POV but they don’t get in the way so you can ignore them or assimilate them into the experience.
Thorin Rating: 7.5/10
Classic movie magic
Name: pure old school – scandinavia
Editors: optimizer
Runtime: 12:18
Released: 2002
Game: Q2
Description:
A compilation movie of kills from some of the great Scandinavian Quake 2 players such as Damiah, Purri and Thaigo.
Review:
This one is a classic for many reasons. The frags are nice throughout. Some have aged a bit but there are still plenty which satisfy as well as some truly wild kills mixed in amongst them. The soundtrack is a nice and catchy mixture of rock, metal and punk which keeps you in the flow of the movie. The editing is fairly minimal except for the replays which often are necessary for the better shots. It’s not all single kills either as there’s a few pretty nice sequences. All in all a nice nostalgia piece for Quake 2 and a good go-to when you want to see the kind of great kills Q2 can produce, by some of its legends no less.
Maybe the rating doesn’t seem that high because time and movies released since this came out have opened up new heights for gaming movies but all the same this is a bonafide classic and one to kick back and enjoy again and again over the years when the feeling strikes you.
Thorin Rating: 7.5/10
What rating would you give each movie? Leave your answers in the comments section.
‘Gaming at the movies’ will return next Wednesday with another batch of movies to excite, infuriate and entertain you