As an occasional Machinima maker and enthusiast, the possibilities for Halo 3 are really interesting to me and I intend to explore them fully.

The recorded games feature is, frankly, breath taking. Every game you play is recorded- not as a video file, but rather a data file. What’s the difference? If it’s data, it means you can place yourself anywhere in the action. Anywhere at any time. Freeze the game, move, hit play again. Incredible.

Below are some screen shots I took on my first day of a sniper shot I fired that I though was a head shot- turns out it was a shoulder hit.

Bobby takes it in the shoulder.

Actually it’s more like the armpit.

Thomasr firing from the Book Depository.

Another view of the shot that disappointed a nation.

aDre’s view of the shot that may have saved his life. Note the bullet trail is unique to the sniper rifle in Halo1/2/3. regular bullets have no such trail.

Thomasr firing again.

Unbeknown to me at the time was that if I hit the yellow button, it allows the camera to “roam free” and float in space. It is absolutely amazing. The possibilities are almost unlimited. Add in the yet-to-be-explored-by-me Forge feature that allows you to build maps and frankly you could shoot a film in a manner that will leave people scratching their heads. Factor in 1080 high def and wow, there’s a whole action movie making device in your Xbox 360.

I am going to have to make a short film using this technology. It’s just awesome.

Here’s my first attempt:

Update:

Machinima Makers – Read This
Okay, so I’ve got good news and bad news for you, if you make Halo machinima, and you want to know how to put your weapon down. The good news is, we’ve got that info for you, thanks to madmax. The bad news? It only works locally or in system link – it will NOT work over Live. Sorry. So: here’s the trick (and it really is a trick, you need a lot of fingers): hold down both bumpers, both sticks, A and DPad-Down for 3 seconds. (Three fingers per hand should do it.) To bring the gun back up, just pull a trigger. And oh, yeah – this works in both Multiplayer… AND Campaign. Update: Chris Burke, from This Spartan Life, sent in a correction – you don’t actually need to hold down the right stick. The other 5 buttons do the trick. (Louis Wu 19:41:03 UTC)

Hardly my fault…:

I’m easily led…

Astray.

See y’all in 2008!

As part of my weekend of fun, I interviewed Paul Marino for Cameron Reilly’s podcast G’day World.

See the video here