Podcast Episodes Archives - Completely Machinima

S5 E191 Machini-ick: Happy Wheels (July 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 23, 2025 Leave a reply

In days of yore, when Machinima ruled the digiwaves, they commissioned stuff like this week’s pick… we have a rather more heated discussion than usual about the pros and cons of the choice and the commissioning strategy. Check out our thoughts and let us know what you think. Maybe you were caught up in this mess, we certainly hope not… or at least, we hope the lesson was well learned. Ricky tells it from his experience, as part of the Hollywood set – seen it all before. Enjoy the show!

YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Happy Wheels: The Series (machinima), released 15 November 2016 by BMP Digital – episodes available on the Internet Archive here.

Eps 1-4 on JeffX Zavier’s channel –

This was the trailer for the original series –

Information sources worth checking out –

‘Happy Wheels’ Series Trailer Litters the Street With Blood and Guts, Bloody Disgusting.com, 2 Nov 2016 https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3413174/happy-wheels-series-trailer-litters-street-blood-guts-exclusive/
Creators Going Pro: CEO Ryan McNulty Is “A Serial Entrepreneur” Whose First Business Was His Own YouTube Channel, 28 Aug 2019 https://www.tubefilter.com/2019/08/28/creators-going-pro-ryan-mcnulty/

About Bunim/Murray Productions – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunim/Murray

John P Roberts https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10847638/

Gil Goldschein https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2251455/

About go90 channel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go90

About Happy Wheels: The Series https://happywheels.fandom.com/wiki/Happy_Wheels:_The_Series

S5 E190 Unreal: Rally (July 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 16, 2025 Leave a reply

To think this film’s creator knew nothing about animation prior to making this short is absolutely astonishing. Of course, as we discuss, many crossed this path as a consequence of the pandemic, but there are few gems we’ve found like this. The film, Rally, draws heavily on Santiago Menghini’s experience as a live action director and producer. What’s fascinating, in our analysis, is our evaluation of ambiguity and how its clever use makes up for the animation and limitations. Watch the movie, check out our comments and add your own.

YouTube Version of This Episode

https://youtu.be/AxIjycwnhNo

Show Notes & Links

Rally by Santiago Menghini, released 20 Nov 2024 –

About Menghini’s filmmaking approach, courtesy of an interview with The VFX Process podcast –

S5 E189 RDR2: Arthur (July 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 9, 2025 Leave a reply

“Courage is not the absence of fear, it is acting in spite of it.” Yep, never a truer few words than said in jest. This week, we discuss a cutscene extravanza of Arthur’s life story in the game, apparently endorsed by Roger Clark himself. Its a story told in three acts, supported by some great musical choices, even if we don’t completely agree on that. What we do agree on is that Charles Liu has done a superb job of selecting just the right shots to portray the character. Check out our review, watch the film and do add your own thoughts.

YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Arthur. By Charles Liu, released 11 Oct 2021 –

The mod used in capturing the footage is here

About Roger Clark’s inspiration for the character, the great Toshiro Mifune – a review and comments about the iconic Japanese actor can be found here

S5 E188 Retro: The Naked Gun (JuLY 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 2, 2025 Leave a reply

This brings back so many memories for us, the 1980s and 90s, Frank Drebin’s utter incompetence and Leslie Neilsen’s brilliance. Hat Loving Gamer has excelled himself with this interpretation, taking in a bunch of retro games – everything from PacMan to Mario and then adding in a bit of Halo and GTA for good measure. Our selection of this film also has absolutely nothing to do with the launch of NS2 or the announcement of a new NG movie… Enjoy the discussion.

YouTube Version of This Episode

https://youtu.be/wKcZ2R3HJXs

Show Notes & Links

The Naked Gun by Hat Loving Gamer, released 24 April 2025

An HD version of the same sequence from the film – classic! The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988) –

NintendoLife’s review of games that are backwards compatible here

OMG, Liam Neeson and the new NG – what was he thinking? Here’s the trailer –

S5 E187 Machinima News Omnibus (June 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 25, 2025 Leave a reply

Another packed month of updates – lots of projects, a few games releases, the usual genAI avalanche and Predator, the world’s first BIG BUDGET machinima! Click the links, check out our comments and do add your own.

https://dashboard.transistor.fm/shows/and-now-for-something-completely-machinima/episodes/s5-e187-machinima-news-omnibus-june-2025/edit

YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Machinima projects –

I spent 30 days in a dead game by Globert –

The GTA6 trailer but made in GTA5 by Gu1maz –

I Modded Fast Traffic Into RDR2. Now It’s a Horror Game by Blurbs –

Cyberpunk 2077: POV Hyper-Realistic Motorbike Ride on RTX 5090 with DreamPunk 3.1.1 Graphics in 8K by NextGen Dreams –

Haruki made in UE5 by Bad Decisions Studio –

IMicky Mouse by Mickey Mouse, made by J C Thornton –

Not machinima

Solstice 5: Forgotten archives by Paul Chadeisson –

generative AI projects

Corporation War by Solo Films –

Purely artistic using an aesthetic of origami by Kelly Boesch AI Art –

Where’s Alice by Aaron Sims Creative –

On genAI developments

Eleven Labs launched v3, check out the video update –

v3: 70+ languages from 33 with coverage from 60% to 90% of the world’s population; Dialogue Mode: Handles natural interruptions, tone shifts, and emotional flow across multiple speakers; Audio tags: Guide delivery with tags like [whispers], [angry], [laughs], or [door creaks]—controlling performance in fine detail. Its impressive stuff!

Veo3 about here and demo vid here –

A bit of Game News

The Elden Ring Nightreign DLC came out in the last month and was downloaded a record 3.5M times in 5 days… I wonder how many of those were Ricky? And, what’s the verdict on it?

007 First Light put out a first trailer –