Podcast Episodes Archives - Page 36 of 56

S3 E64 Film Review: Half Life 3 (Honest Game Trailers) by Fandom Games (Feb 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 9, 2023 Leave a reply

This week’s episode reviews a film by Fandom Games called Half Life 3: Honest Game Trailers, released 31 March 2015. The film is a throwback style of satire and even if you’ve not been following Valve’s Half Life developments, you’ll enjoy this. For those less in the know, HL3 is a game that never made it beyond the hype, despite its avid fan base waiting patiently (or impatiently) to play it for 20 years! We reflect on Fandom Games origins in Jimmy Wale’s Wiki technology. We also discuss our approach to ‘healthy criticism’ on the podcast.

YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

The film –

The Fandom wiki site link here

Video Game Leak’s commentary on the expectation for HL3 –

Article by Eurogamer on the recent leak of Valve’s video game assets

S3 E63 Film Review: The Backrooms – Reunion (Feb 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes February 2, 2023 Leave a reply

Starting Feb 2023 off with a meme, Tracy selects a machinima that has been released as part of a massively co-created story involving numerous creators since it kicked off in mid 2019, The Backrooms. This short is called The Backrooms – Reunion by @kanepixels, released 8 Dec 2022. Is this really machinima, yep it certainly is – but we’re all blown away with the realism of the actors’ performance in this, and of course, the whole Backrooms Creepypasta phenomenon is just something else to behold too. We give you a bit of the background, just in case you’ve not come across it in your travels across the internet.

YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

The Backrooms – Reunion by Kane Pixels, released 8 December 2022

The Backrooms (Found Footage), released 7 Jan 2022

History of the Backrooms in videos

The Backrooms creepypasta thread discussion

The Backrooms game on Steam

The Backrooms game website

Weird Fiction and recent revival of the movement, referred to as New Weird, on TVTropes website

Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation novel, that Ricky made reference to

Freud’s The Uncanny essay, notes by the Freud Museum

S3 E62 Film Review: So I tried to Take a Holiday… (Jan 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes January 26, 2023 Leave a reply

This week, Damien selects a Star Wars short by @Bombastic , released 5 Nov 2022, made with LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga game. This is a totally zany edit of a let’s play improv performance, by a creator who clearly has every detail of the SW Canon nailed to his bucket and spade… if only you can keep up with the camera. But maybe we’re just a bunch of old fogies?

YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

So I Tried to Take a Holiday by Bombastic, released 5 Nov 2022 –

S3 E61 Film Review: INTERLOPER: Half Life 2’s Greatest Unsolved Mystery (Jan 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes January 19, 2023 1 Comment

This week, Phil has selected a couple of films by @Anomidae, INTERLOPER: Half Life 2’s Greatest Unsolved Mystery (released 25 Oct 2022) and Interloper 2 The Source Engine’s Deepening Mystery (released 20 Nov 2022). These are astonishingly well done conspiracy documentaries, examining the strange phenomenon of the periodic appearance of alien-like grafitti in a little explored area of Half Life 2. The documentaries are so well done that even after we discussed them at length, Phil remains unconvinced its a hoax! What do you think?

YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes and Links

INTERLOPER: Half Life 2’s Greatest Unsolved Mystery by Anomidae, released 25 October 2022

Interloper 2 The Source Engine’s Deepening Mystery, released 20 Nov 2022

Kardavshev’s theory, article in Science Focus

War of the Worlds radio play, ready by Orson Wells, reviewed in Smithsonian Magazine online here and recording link below to the complete broadcast –

S3 E60 Film Review: Team Fortress 2 – Law Abiding Engineer by TrueOneMoreUser (Jan 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes January 12, 2023 Leave a reply

This week’s film is Ricky’s pick, a Team Fortress 2 composited trailer of Law Abiding Citizen (film) made using Source tools. We discuss the throwback to the mid 2000s and how well the film has stood up to the test of time, the Saxxy Awards and another TF2 film which we also really enjoyed, Demoman (Pure Pwnage ep 15 Intro) by GiigoPwNs.

YouTube Version of this Episode