machinima podcast

S5 E186 WoW: I’m So Sick (June 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 18, 2025 Leave a reply

Our latest deep dive into machinima history, and this month we focus on Baron Soosdon, a Finnish creator whose work is legendary among us. The film pick, I’m So Sick, is an excellent example of the type of work he produced during his machinima career (circa 2006-2011) which, shockingly, never actually won an award – it was however runner up at a Bitfilm Festival. The film is a WoW fan fiction and a cultural mashup of its era, including subtle references to some of the key happenings in niche entertainment at the time: release of Edge of Remorse by Jason Choi (machinima), Ergo Proxy’s classic anime series, appearances by the WoW legendary band L70ETC, the BlackWingLair level play-throughs and Lacey Sturm’s incredible primal scream and the Flyleaf music video, song of the same title. Enjoy the discussion.



YouTube Version of This Episode

https://youtu.be/UN92SAzYMgI

Show Notes & Links

I’m So Sick by Baron Soosdon, released in September 2007

For those interested in the back story about the Elite Tauren Chieftain band, the fan wiki has some interesting dates and appearances here and here is a video about the band –

This is Flyleaf’s music video of I’m So Sick –

ETC’s best known song, Power of the Horde, was recorded by LFP Gaming in 2009 –

and here is a link to an Ergo Proxy playlist, the anime series mentioned in the discussion and included in the backgrounds of the film –

This is the film that inspired Baron Soosdon to create WoW machinima, back in 2006 –

and here is Baron Soosdon’s alt ego channel’s latest release, as a musician –

S5 E185 Starfield: Dark Side of Luna (June 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 4, 2025 Leave a reply

Yup, there’s nothing to do in Starfield, except this kind of thing! Seriously, we love how this teases a potential mod by the creator, Starfield Cinematic, and we reflect on the portrayal of the characters, the juxtaposition of the narrator voices and the pacing in what is essentially just a teaser. One thing we all agree on is just how stunning this game world is.



YouTube Version of This Episode

https://youtu.be/SQhEA-an2NA

Show Notes & Links

Starfield: Dark Side of Luna – Unofficial Teaser by Starfield Cinematic, released 1 Sept 2024

Barely Not Monkey’s Adrift Part 1 (Star Citizen), just as a reminder –

S5 E184 NPC vs Man: Rat Bait (May 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes May 28, 2025 Leave a reply

If you are going to troll the griefers in GTA, this is surely the coolest way to do it, without actually becoming a griefer yourself! In this short, by Putther Uncut (released 5 June 2022), we follow a let’s play style narrative of the creator pretending to be a rat NPC. The video is hilarious – who knew rats could be so dangerous!



YouTube Version of This Episode

https://youtu.be/FZzMaQ1HONM

Show Notes & Links

I Pretended To Be a RAT NPC in GTA RP and Trolled the ENTIRE SERVER | DonDada RP, by Putther Uncut, released 5 June 2022

S5 E183 Total War: Battle of BADR 624 AD (May 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes May 21, 2025 Leave a reply

This week we delve into the use of a total war game to recreate historic battles. In our focal video, the Battle of Badr 624 AD: Rise of Islam by Bellum et Historia released on 16 November 2024, we reflect on the modding and creative process, the use of game technologies and the types of documentation used to achieve the outcome.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Battle of BADR 624 AD: Rise of Islam by Bellum et Historia, released 16 November 2024

For those that may be interested, there is a playlist of shorts –

Mod for conversion on Steam, link here

and for those interesting in the Roman history series we discuss, here’s the link to our previous episode –

S5 E182 Machinima News Omnibus (May 2025)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes May 14, 2025 Leave a reply

Our monthly roundup of all things we enjoy about this crazy world of machinima.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Projects

AFK’s Season 3 Star Wars Parody ‘supercut’, created in UE5 –

Second Life’s Fantasy Faire, Pryda Parx Studio’s run through covers 18 regions in total – as ever, great work by everyone being showcased –

and here is the Fantasy Faire Second Life YouTube channel for videos submitted to the Film Festival Machinima Competition, hosted by Chantal Harvey

The GTA6 new trailer release… check out Brian in the first few seconds!

Mans1ay3r’s Skyrim short, called Beware the Daughter of the Troll – a Bard’s Tale, a really stunning song, beautifully produced –

and ToCoSo’s song called If We All Haul Together, celebrating the community is Elite Dangerous –

Drunk Physicist’s Mission on a Tiny Planet – available on Instagram here

genAI updates

AI Animation Contest winners hosted by Curious Refuge, supported by Promise Studios and Luma AI – the show reel is worth a run through –

Films made with AI will be eligible for the Oscars, although decision-making will of course consider its role and that of human creators – article here

Flawless’ Watch the Skies AI dubbing technology is a Swedish scifi that’s now acceptable to those who can’t speak the language – impressive stuff –

Runway’s Gen-4 is also worth taking a look at, producing multiple styles for a single character –

Sora AI‘s Red Dead Redemption 2 1970s style Western Movie –

Phil’s AI copyright discussion link for Suno AI

Tools & Resources

Reallusion’s CC5 teaser

and Solomon Jagwe‘s thoughts –

A new Star Wars game afoot?

How to create smart hair

April Phil

Minecraft Speedrunner vs 3 Hunters –

and don’t forget to check out Phil’s latest machinima series, Ralph & Chuck