Burnie Burns

S5 E176 Red Faction Guerilla: Optimism Bias

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes April 2, 2025 Leave a reply

A viewer nominated series, this week’s ep is another great example of brilliant writing. Optimism Bias was directed by  @AndrewGoodKnight  and originally released in 2013 having been showcased at the Melbourne International Animation Festival  @melbourneinternationalanim3991  – its Australian comedy, deeply rooted in game lore, at its very best.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Optimism Bias by Andrew Knight of Recycled Media was released originally as a 20 minutes film for the Melbourne International Animation Festival in 2014, but later re-released as a series in 2015 on their youtube channel – episode 1 is here but do take the time to watch the whole series –

Interview with Andrew Knight

You can also check out the interview Tracy did with Andrew, released at the same time as our review. Audio version only of Tracy’s interview with Andrew –



YouTube version –

Courtesy (and copyright) of Andrew, here are a selection of shots from the making of Optimism Bias and the early days of machinima in Melbourne.

LAN party at Andrew’s place –

Creating the frame for the film –

Production challenges! Cooling off the kit –

Voice recording (dodgy looking tash there…) –

On the programme, Melbourne International Animation Festival 2014 –

The early days at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) circa 2004-5 with RoosterTeeth crew members Burnie Burns and Gus Sarola and Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences CEO Paul Marino, and friends –

Completely Machinima History with Ben Grussi: Halo Machinima

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 23, 2022 Leave a reply

In this episode, Ben reviews notable releases from the first days of Halo, including Steve Jobs reveal, the promotion of Nvidia’s GeForce2 GTS, Randall Glass’ classic Warthog Jump, the legendary Red Vs Blue release and others. See show notes and links on the CM website.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

0:47 May 1999, Steve Jobs (Apple) and Macintosh presentation reveal for Halo

Steve Jobs reveals Halo game, 1999

1:57 2000, Halo promo for NVIDIA Geforce2 GTS 

3:16 15 November 2001 Halo for Xbox released

3:40 First machinima for Halo, released 6 June 2002, Warthog Jump by Randall Glass 

5:04 Red vs Blue premieres, 1 April 2003, by Rooster Teeth Productions

7:04 Halo released for PC on 30 September 2003

7:31 Fire Team Charlie starts up in 2003

7:56 Halo PC Custom Edition released on 6 May 2004 and a recently made Halo PC Custom Edition Fan Documentary by Subpixel, released 17 April 2020

8:57 On 6 June 2004, the seed of Sponsors Vs Freeloaders is planted –

12:09 HaloTV.net was launched on 10 July 2004 – this channel (pre-YouTube) offered 24/7 Halo machinima primarily of clan matches with commentary plus had a dedicated Red Vs Blue channel

13:10 The Matrix (Halo Remix) by Halo1007 released (Halo Footage – Matrix Voice-Overs, released on 5 September 2004

Matrix (Remix)

14:01 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Dave Anderson, released 13 October 2004

14:55 Halo 2 released 9 November 2004 and Burnie Burns reports from Camp Bungie on the secret machinima test they doing in the game

16:26 The Codex series ran for 21 Episodes with an average run time 3-5 minutes and it’s prequel The Heretic, by Edgeworks Entertainment, released in 2005

17:39 This Spartan Life by Damien Lacedaemon aka Chris Burke premiered in May 2005

This Spartan Life

19:07 iGod… Holy Halo series by Fuzion Church, Crossroads Baptist Church and Chi-Ro Ministries, a Halo-based machinima to promote a Christian weekend retreat and to promote Christian principles in general – the episodes are covered on Halo.Bungie’s fan website (see Purple and Pink Mirrored), released 12 April 2005

20:55 First green screening machinima by AmandaJ3162, merging Sims 2 and Halo in You’re Fired, released 10 July 2005

You’re Fired

24:41 Company Rulz by Z-Studios and Krad Productions, a Microsoft game usage rules explainer, released in 2007