BS Angel News and a Look at Her Corpse Alphabet

It's September 13th and there is one thing on every Halo enthusiast's mind:

BS Angel has accepted a position with 343 Industries (including working directly with Halo Waypoint, future Halo releases and Master Chief himself).

Congradulations, Angel!  How amazingly cool!

BS Angel is the creator of a VERY well known and followed, crazy blog about Halo and gaming in general.  She also manages a killer virtual photography website focused on Halo screen shots.  Being a virtual photographer myself, I really love that site as well.

hawtymcbloggy.com
 
halo3screenshots.com

Now I am going to smoothly, subtly segue into the blog post content I had ready to release about Angel, just a day before she announced her position with 343 Industries, and leave it as is, so that people will fully believe this was all one fully informed, current, coherent post featuring her.

* * *    

Back in 2008, BS Angel created the Halo Corpse Alphabet.  Every letter in it is produced by the shape of a player's corpse from Halo 3.

It’s an amazing, morbid concept, and can be found here:  Halo Corpse Alphabet   

It was a seriously fulfilling, wonderful moment when my letter “Y” submission made it into the corpse alphabet.  I spent days talking excitedly about it on the phone to friends and relatives, who were mostly non-gamers but who still politely congratulated me.

It cannot be confirmed whether BS Angel is currently working on an actual, real-life corpse alphabet, but a friend of hers (who insisted on anonymity) said that BS Angel has quite a few mortuary phone numbers on her cell phone address book.  You may want to email her and grant permission for the eventual use of a photograph of your own corpse.  It might be good to include the state you live in, just in case she needs to send the necessary forms.   

I decided to make some virtual greeting cards using her alphabet, including a Mother's Day, Birthday and 2 Baby Announcement cards (special thanks to Dr. Thomas Dendril for providing the ultrasound of a baby --who somehow had an X-Box controller in the womb-- for the Baby Announcement cards).  

Feel free to use these and please let us know about any responses from loved ones you send them to.  The actual font is more readable since it has the letter backgrounds removed, but I love the images so much I thought I'd do the cards this way. 

With Halo: Reach coming out soon, it is hard for me to imagine BS Angel not doing a Halo: Reach Corpse Alphabet.  You know it will be cool. 

BS Angle has huge amount of incredible content on her blog and her other sites, and she recently had an interview on Halo Waypoint on X-Box live.  It's all totally worth checking out if you haven't already seen it. 


hawtymcbloggy.com
 
halo3screenshots.com

Halo Corpse Alphabet


Thanks BS Angel!

(and like, total congratulations!)


P.S. In other news... Halo: Reach comes out at midnight tonight.  There's been almost no coverage of this release, so you may want to let your Halo playing friends know about it.  It looks like a really neat game and I'm way psyched to play it before I sleep next.

In the Belly of the Beast

We learned a few posts back, that AnGeLiNeItOr lost his life in an “Elephant” Marine War Vehicle, which had been blown high into the sky.  It had been packed with continually resetting explosives.

Good news… his family recently cleared for public viewing the footage recovered from within the vehicle, and for a price much lower than we actually would have paid them.

Here's a previous promotional/awareness flier:

The “Exploding Elephant Effect” demonstration is still not allowed in military air shows, but progress has been made in that direction and as soon as any are scheduled we will release dates and locations. 

This film shows AnGeLiNeItOr’s death close up, and is not recommended for people who don't have a troubling sense of morbid curiosity.  We dedicate this film to AnGeLiNeItOr’s short, brave life and his contribution to the public’s entertainment in general.

Halo: Reach Beta - Stunt Kills

Earlier this year I played in the beta test for Halo: Reach.  Of course, I looked for stunts to do while playing this great new game.  I didn't know the movie files would only be temporary unless finalized and downloaded, so I lost most of my footage.  But I did get a few films saved and luckily, some were of my favorite stunts.

Reach will have fusion cores, but the beta only had smaller gas tanks-- and they were great to do stunts with.  They are hard to balance on and not tip over (especially while holding a cumbersome chain gun that took forever to haul all the way to that spot).

There are also now jet packs in this new game.  They have limited use and require constant momentum adjusting; it takes practice to get the jet pack working for you instead of against you.

It occurred to me it may be possible to jet pack hover down onto a gas tank without tipping it and do a stunt kill.  It took me at least 40 tries before I landed one, and then many more landings before I finally got a kill from one.  I think I got about 14 hover landing kills, but only have 4 or so on video.

Luckily I do have footage of my trickiest ones:  one hover land with a headshot kill, and one hover land with an alien grenade stick.  These are both in the video here.  There are also some good comedy/fluke kills.  I have more and they’ll be out before the release as well.

Halo: Reach releases in less than a month (on Sept. 14th).  Since rarity of context makes a stunt possess more coolness, I will be trying the following challenge on it’s release:

Get a kill in a legit match, standing on a fusion core, and have it be my first kill ever while playing the released Halo: Reach game, including multi-player and campaign.

To make it better, I’ll try to also have it be my first actual shot/shots fired in the release of the game; we’ll see how it goes.

Hopefully I won't blow my shot at this kind of stunt... I'll have to wait for the next Halo (or Marathon) game release for another try.

Exploding Elephant Core Kills

Naturally, many of you know this… some smart guy discovered that it makes a cool effect when you pack respawning explosives into an elephant (which is a huge military vehicle, not an actual elephant since that would seem questionable).

The effect is amazing and it has been described as a "Satanic Pinata".  The explosives are programmed to reset within the vehicle (which is indestructible) shortly after they blow up, and so it's an ongoing chain reaction once set off.  It’s not something one would normally expect to see at a military air show, at least not until safety regulations are relaxed a little.

I joined a game once where they battled (humans vs. high-speed zombies) on such a level and I tried to do some core kills.  It was a custom match, so I don’t call these legit stunt kills.  But they didn’t know me or my stunts, and they were definitely trying to kill me…

It was fun to do and watch.  Thanks to my nephew, Tyler, for inviting me to the match.

The real stunt man in the clip is AnGeLiNeItOr: the guy in red who actually rides in the elephant high in the air and whose corpse eventually falls out.   I imagine him to be a maintenance guy at the air show who snuck a ride in the elephant display, or -even better- who fell asleep on the job before the show.

In this post is the video of the Core Kills on an Exploding Elephant level.  I'm also hearing positive things about the negotiations to release disturbing footage recovered from within the elephant.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. 

N+ Don't Do Anything

About a year ago my mother stopped by and I asked her to play a video game level I'd made.  I put the controller in her hands and told her she would survive if she did nothing until I gave her exact instructions.

She was terrified the whole time, waiting for instructions that would never come.  In the end we all cheered and congratulated her for getting all the gold and surviving.  She was relieved and laughing and still nerved out; she had really taken success seriously!

I explained that this level (made for the recent remake of the classic game N+) was called a DDA level.  DDA stands for Don't Do Anything.  In a DDA level you don't move at all and your character flies around doing impressive things, pretty much.  They are sort of like Rube Goldberg set ups.

The level she passed faithfully is the first one in the video here.

As soon as technology permits, I plan to recreate these levels in reality so people can actually fly around on them.  I feel within 20 or 30 years these could be made to carry real people with a 93% to 98% survival rate if rigorously maintained.

In time we may see DDA amusement parks... but then, I guess a roller coaster already is a DDA device for humans.  Wow!  Imagine amusement parks in 100 years!  Maybe they'll be like what we see in this video.

Honoring a Fallen Banshee Pilot

I’ve had some negative reactions to the final stunt in last week’s video montage (Unusualer Stunts than Before), and I would like to apologize. 

A brave pilot indeed lost his life while I was setting up that stunt a few years back and, yes, I could have prevented his death. This sort of thing is bound to happen, but there is no justification for this and I won’t try to dodge responsibility.

I am contacting the pilot’s gamer-tag, fatc0bra, to formally apologize and invite them to say anything they need to in order to gain closure.  I am also contacting the enemy pilot who shot him down (the greatly feared Betty Skeddi) to let her know the incident is being brought to light and to ask her to join us in honoring fatc0bra.  I will put up any responses from them and welcome any posts they submit; they deserve to be heard.

Well known deadly pilot, Betty Skeddi:

I visited fatc0bra’s grave site and took some photos. I submit the image at the start of this post to commemorate this great pilot's efforts in the war, as well as his unknowing, involuntary contribution to stuntkills.com.

We salute you, fatc0bra. Many consider you one of the most spirited and ubiquitous pilots known to have braved the skies.

Below are some click-able images documenting fatc0bra's death as Betty Skeddi's plasma cannons from her Banshee carve his body right out of his aircraft (also a Banshee).  You can see me in the river setting up the fusion core for the stunt. 

After those, I have posted the original complaint from Jive Control that prompted this entire post.  While I find his comments on innocent animals and plants somewhat off topic, I can only admit his words about me are correct.   I offer my sincere apologies.

 

Complaint/comment from last week's post (Unusualer Stunts than Before): 

 

Jive said... 

 

"Mr. Groove Hunter, 

 

The final stunt in this video post just happens to photograph the death of a well loved and revered pilot, fatc0bra. He was shot down by the enemy pilot, Betty Skeddi. Many are glad you shot down this very feared enemy, but you could have killed her much sooner, rather than setting up your stupid stunt. 

 

You could have saved fatc0bra and his blood is on your hands. 

 

You had the anti-aircraft missile pod the whole time and Betty Skeddi was in range many times. You are as bad people who kill innocent animals and innocent plant life just to consume their flesh, when there are ALWAYS moral options available for sustenance.  

 

Out of respect for the family of fatc0bra, I demand you take down the video in this post."

 

 

You may visit Jive Control's site, "Moral Eating" at moraleating.com.  

 

But be warned... it's not for everyone.

Unusualer Stunts than Before

I'll usually feature just one or two stunts, but since I'm just now launching this web site,  I thought I'd put up another montage.  The last one dealt with straightforward fusion core kills.  They are cool but comparatively not that difficult.  This collection has some more of the trickier stunts... some of these took countless tries to get.  I'll discuss a few in the video:


Sky Surfing on a Magic Fusion Core...

The Magic Fusion Core I drop onto was an interesting discovery.  During a normal match I was pushing cores down from my small perch so others wouldn't shoot them... common to do.  I then thought, "did I just hear a total lack of explosion?".   So I looked down and saw it had landed without exploding- on the invisible floor used when making sky maps.  I just HAD to do a Core Kill on one like that!

It took forever.  I found about 1 in 20 cores will land unexploded from that height, and it's a difficult jump to land.  Once I did land one right,  I was so nervous I almost couldn't even aim for a kill.  I just focused best I could and waited for the opportunities.

Aircraft Kill on a Core in Water...

Many times I'll set a goal with new, complicating variables, (getting the core over water, over glass or a cliff edge etc...).  In the case of the aircraft shoot down stunt in this video,  it was very difficult to pull off.

The core usually explodes going down the base front so I had to roll it just right.  The flowing water here makes the core very hard to stop.  When the core is finally ready to jump on, it's hard to land it right (when you are carrying that anti aircraft gun, it is so big you can't really see if you are on fusion core... you just hope and find out later in playback).  Then there is all the live fire around you in set up and while you wait for the kill opportunity.

I just love how all the chunks of aircraft land in the water all around me when the Banshee goes down.

Here's the video of these and other higher difficulty stunts...