Damien Valentine 00:44
Hello and welcome to another episode of a nap of something completely mischiema. I'm your host, Damian Valentine. I'm joined by Phil rice. And hello, um, Ricky is still at his horror convention. Um, I'm sure he's enjoying the terrifying things he's seeing. I'm kind of glad I'm not there. So this week, we're going to be discussing Phil's pick, and you've chosen something quite interesting, and I'm looking forward to talking about it. But why don't you get us started and tell us about it?

Phil Rice 01:19
Sure. So this is a film made in Blender. I actually was really excited. I picked this very much with Ricky in mind, because he's a huge admirer of the kind of world building that went on for half life, two in particular. So I'm sure when he gets a chance to see this, he'll he'll enjoy it very much. But it's made in blender. And it's, it's, I don't know, it kind of comes off like a, like a trailer. Hey, there. It's Phil. So I'm here editing this episode, listening to myself ramble on, and realized I'd never mentioned the name of the film or the filmmaker, because, you know, getting old. So the title of this film is half life over world, and the filmmakers name is unknown, Dino, continuation of the half life story, which has been a lot of valve, has given people a lot of time and room to speculate about that, because the mythical Half Life three has been talked about for well over a decade, and still has not, you know, made itself known. Now they've, they've done other releases in the half life world. Of course, there's half life Alex, which originally was released solely as a VR game, and very, very well received. I think since then, there's been a version put out where it can be played without the VR but, but that was more of that would fall more, I think, in like a prequel category, because it was actually filling in a gap in in the timeline that we already know about anyway. So this is an attempt to imagine some possibilities for where you know, where that story could be taken to its next level. I'm not going to retell the whole half life story here, or anything, because I think most, most listeners are probably at least a little bit aware of it. But yeah, it's, it's a, it's a exploration of that notion of the next chapter of that story. Visually, quite stunning. As you know when, when something's done well, in Blender, yeah, that's the result is, it's, it's quite amazing. I think one of the details that stood out to me most was there's some close ups that happen on one of the creatures, and the skin has a very wet appearance that's not easy to achieve in other other platforms. Blender is really good at that kind of stuff. And then some some interesting visual effects regarding a wormhole and kind of a fleet of ships. And there's a really interesting visual choice at near the end where there's an iconic character, Mr. Breen, I believe, is his name. Is that right brain to bring? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dr Breen, basically, he's the kind of collaborator in chief for these aliens that have taken over. And he's the human representative, if you if you watched Battlestar Galactica, he's the Gaius Baltar President right during the occupation. Well, at the end of this video, he has been assimilated into the. Or something related to the combine, very much. It reminded me a little bit of of of the Borg assimilations that were portrayed in some of the Star Trek movies. Very just as gruesome. He's half machine, half human, like it's just and yet recognizable enough to where you you know who it is. So, yeah, I was, I was very, very impressed for the visually thought it was, I don't know stuff like, this is when a world has been built out well. And this is true for, for Tolkien, you know, the Lord, the whole world around the hobbit in The Lord of the Rings, or the Star Wars universe, or even Star Trek to some degree. And here, with half life, when someone is is it invites us to build on that story or speculate about that story. And you know, one way of doing that would just be having conversations. I overhear my son having conversations like that about Elden ring and things like that all the time about what if they did this, or what if it went this way. It's just a really fun pastime related to video games. When you're not actually gaming, you can do that and this, this feels like that sort of exercise, but with the added benefit of of of you know, being able to visually present it. It's not perfect. I feel like that the as we've seen so many times over the years, with visually strong pieces, the music and sound aren't on the same level. Now I think the composition, the musical composition, like the actual music as written, is quite good. It's not simple. It's harmonically interesting and challenging. But there was the instrumentation used is very clearly an older generation of virtual orchestra, and it used to be that was top of the line, maybe back when half life was released, for example, you'd hear that and it'd be like, Wow, that's impressive, but it kind of stands out a little bit as being prior generation, and it takes some of the impact away, I think mainly because there was so much of an attempt to use brass, you know, trumpets, trombones, that type of thing. And, man, even in, even in the top of the line stuff nowadays, virtual brass is like the that's like the Holy Grail, it's, it's, it's really elusive to get that to sound well, and so on the older gen stuff, it really stands out as, okay, that's not real. That's not realistic sounding. So that's a little unfortunate. But you know, to some degree, when it's a, I assume, not for profit, machinima, like all of our stuff, you know, it's, it's, you work with what you got, you know, but it's one of those where there's clearly a good composer at work here who just doesn't, you know, doesn't yet have the, by the way, very, very, very expensive tools to have, you know, the latest and greatest on the virtual instrumentation. So that's, that's something that, to me as a as a composer, stood out a little bit that I noticed maybe most people wouldn't, and then sound wise, it just there was kind of a sound was a little bit anemic, like it didn't have gravitas, you know, like fullness, and the way that the vision, it didn't match the level of intensity of the visuals at times. So these big things moving across the screen and the sound is more on the thin side. So, you know, again, you work with what you got. Those are things that that kind of stood out to me, because those are areas that I maybe have a, you know, a little bit more skill in or that I at least prioritize. But there's no denying, visually, it's it's gorgeous and it's interesting. There's not really a too specific narrative. You get the impression that the aliens are coming in larger force and stepping it up a bit, which is an interesting thing, dramatically, but they don't pin it down too specifically. It's more of kind of painting ideas about what's what's going to happen. And I like that. I think that worked really well. So what did you guys think?

Tracy Harwood 09:40
Yeah, yeah. Do you want me to go Damian, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, I just on your music point. I thought I'd picked up that he'd used music slowed down and reversed from the game, the original game. So. So I don't think he composed anything. I just think he tweaked with what was already there. But maybe he'll come back to us and just sort of tell us a little bit more about that, because I think that's quite interesting, if that's what he did. Relates some of the comments that I've got on this as well, which, you know, let me, let me sort of start by saying basically the first thing that I really appreciated in this was that unknown dinos, the creator here, has given a lot of recognition to the subreddit community that he's part of for things like suggestions during the design process. So this, in effect, was a kind of a community, not not created, but community in devised project, I think, which is, which is a really interesting way to go about the creative process. I was really intrigued by comments, you know, comments on the stated inspiration for it being a half life two art book called Raising the Bar. I had a look at that book, and you can clearly see that some of the the designs and the and the way that they have been created in Blender are connected to the book, perhaps more than the game, which I think is quite an interesting strategy for it. So it's, it's kind of, perhaps a little bit like a graphic novel in the way that it's been presented. And then, of course, you can also see some kind of influences in the in the development this, films like Alien and Prometheus. But in some ways, I saw a little bit of war of the world in here as well. In the way definitely were moving a bit. I think there was a lot of craft in this. You know, the creator was, at point, a pain to sort of say that everything had been created and designed by hand, including the concepts, the models, the textures, the rigs, the animations, with the exception only of G Man and Dr Breen's face, those are The only things. He also stated that no generative AI assets had been used in the project, even for the concept stage. And then he said, if that even matters to anyone now, I can appreciate that somebody might want to say that in the current context of the various kickbacks that we're seeing from creators using generative AI tools. That you might want to sort of say something like that, but I think there's something else worth saying here in response to that, specifically in relation to machinima and the way machinima has evolved and developed over the years, which is that machinima was always about cultural appropriation, using the games as tools to tell new or different stories, some inspired by the game, some nothing to do with the original game. You know, it was, it was always about that idea of cultural appropriation. So even with recrafted assets, whether they're based on valves IP or not, you have to recognize that the same legal challenges to your endeavor will exist, whether you hand drew them, whether you reused assets from the game, or whether you have used AI, and if it's about Story and extending the narrative arc of the game, then you basically just do that the best way you can. You do not need to apologize for using game inspired tools, game assets and generative AI in the process. So I think I would definitely sort of stand by that as a as a comment, and I don't think you need to spend years doing this sort of thing. Think you just crack on and do it now, as I said a few minutes ago, this, for me, has all the esthetic of a of an animated graphic novel focused on this kind of world, rather than, as you said, Phil, rather than any kind of story arc, because I didn't really see a story arc in it at all. But it is actually more than a graphic novel. It's basically a deep homage to the creatures, the music and the characters in in the game, the creatures and their world are actually the most stunning, cinematic fly paths in this we don't really know what they're doing, but that ambiguity is clearly part of the extended arc, and it's a it's a real temptation to think about what it is they might be doing there. There are a kind of a couple of narrative interventions which are. To the plot, and actually, I think they're quite important in positioning the film beyond it being just another cinematic experience. But they're not the only thing that's kind of going on in it. I think it's actually beautifully edited together. The lighting and the esthetic is really quite stunning. And I'm impressed that the game has inspired such a dedicated attempt to extend the world and and it's created a new creature in it as well, which he which he also states in the in the description. And again, you can, you can see how he's come up with it using the art book idea. I'll put a link to the art book because it's, you know, you can see it online, you know, so, so, I guess, I guess, really, I don't, I don't, I don't suppose I have too much criticism, other than, other than, basically what I've just sort of been saying. I wonder if, perhaps so the the maybe the esthetic for the Combine might be too clean and colorful, I don't know. I always kind of expected this world to be post apocalyptic, sort of, you know, filled with dirty, smelly creatures, because with, you know, that's kind of how they come across. But they're not that in this, and not in any way that at all. So that, I think, is an intriguing thing that I hadn't anticipated. And also that's, there's kind of that golden hue over the whole thing, which almost puts a rose tintedness on it. So it kind of almost juxtaposes the horror of the of the nature of what you're looking at. And kind of paints it paints it being the optimum, optimum term, if you like, in a kind of an interesting light overall. I think it's, it's a really impressive piece of work, I think, well done to all of those that are involved in it. I was especially taken by one comment that I saw, which I mentioned. This was a your reference to Tolkien was, was also interesting in this context, this comments of seeing the Combine world being explored by fans, even conceptually, is something I've always wanted to see. I had a lot of thoughts on what it may look like myself, but this has to be the most accurate. And I thought that was a very interesting observation. And to your comment about Tolkien, I can remember when I went to saw see the first Tolkien film, The Hobbit, how closely Peter Jackson had got how I had imagined it would look. Now, if that's what this creator has been able to do say by invoking the the esthetic style in that art book, then I think they've done an excellent job with it. So very well done to all of them. Those are my comments on it.

Damien Valentine 17:55
Well for me, I watched it, and of course, especially stunning, which is pretty obvious when you watch it. And I was intrigued by the, you know, the creature that Breen had become. The thing it got to me is, towards the end of it, it cuts to what looks like the game. So you got the interface pops up, and you got this first person perspective. And that made me think so it's not just continuing after where episode two leaves off, but it's kind of a way to prod valve and say, Look, this could be half life three. And so it kind of gave me a new way to look at it. And I started thinking, actually, if they did make half life three, it's going to have to look like this. Because obviously Half Life two is not a new game, and it still holds up nicely, but it can't compete with more modern graphics engines, which is that's not a bad thing. It's just the nature of how video games evolve over time. So it's kind of like prodding valve make this because we want it to look like this. And it kind of gives that impression of the bit you see before the interface comes up is the introduction, and then it cuts to the game, and then from here, the game would carry on and tell whatever story would be. I and I think, you know, fans of hard five games have been waiting a very long time to see what's going to happen next, and it's good that Valve do let fans explore that potential. And this is obviously this fan's idea what he thinks the direction should be. I did feel like the visuals did capture the tone of the half life universe quite nicely. Very recognizable, but newer, because obviously graphics have evolved. It sound as I just said. I. Um, so, yeah, it's kind of a taste of what a potential for Half Life three is. Now I'm not going to speculate on when or if half life three is going to happen, because we'd be here all night. And bigger Half Life fans have that conversation all the time. I would imagine, um, but, yeah, this is definitely a good way to explore the potential there. I hope valve do look at it, and maybe I'll think, oh, maybe we should do something. But I don't know what the rumors are. I don't really follow because, you know, half valve do seem to have this that they don't seem to be able to count to three, because everything because everything, all of their series, stop at two. So you imagine there won't be a steam deck three either. There'll be a steam deck too, but there won't be a third one, because that's just valve. But, you know, I hope this does give them some inspiration. But, yeah, there's the film itself. It's really must be done. There's so much detail in in the visuals. And, you know, it's so easy just to put a few recognizable things and then, and then just leave the rest. But there's just so much background detail as well that you pause it and you can see interesting things to look at. It must have taken a huge amount of work. I think that's part of the why the that comment about this was not used generative AI was not used for this because he wanted people to know that he had put that time in. It wasn't that trying to apologize, you know, for AI is just saying, this is something I actually did, and he wanted people to know that he had done it, partly to show off his skill set, which is considerable when you examine this video closely. So I you know, you put that much work into I don't blame you. To blame him for wanting people to you know, and realize that you know, he spent a long time on this, and it shows so, yeah, I was very impressed by this, and I don't really know else I can say about it. I feel like maybe I should watch it a couple of other times, because I think I always like detail in films, but the right amount you could, you could put so much detail into a single frame that you're just completely overwhelmed by what you're seeing. You don't get a chance to absorb what's important or not, because it's just so much everywhere. But this gets it right. It makes the world behind interesting, but it's not so much that you don't know what to look at. And you know, this is this? Yeah, very inspirational.

Phil Rice 22:41
Yeah. The AI disclaimer thing is, it is interesting, because there is a variety of reasons why one might do that, like you've both pointed out to in so many scenarios. It feels to me, sometimes not necessarily here, but sometimes just feels like that. It's, it's the digital creators, equivalent to pronouns in your email signature. You know what I'm saying, where it really is. Just, this is what we do now. This is, this is the stance that I want to make sure people know where I am on this issue, and so I just do it, you know. And so is the, is it that? Is it as simple as that, or is it, you know? Is it? Is it like, you know, what? What use the the view you had on Dami was interesting because it reminds me of, okay, so, early 90s, uh, this was when the really, the rise of industrial and electronic music was really, really on the rise. You know, bands like Nine Inch Nails, and then members, a couple members of Nine Inch Nails formed a band called filter, Richard, something or other. And basically, right around that same time is when tool released their first album, which has no electronics on it whatsoever. It's all the band. They've always been that way. And they made a point on the undertow album to have a disclaimer in the liner notes saying no electronic instruments were used on this record of any kind. Everything you hear very similar vibe to the way that you interpreted his AI mention on here. And then a year later, filter released an album which is all electronic, except for maybe the guitars and vocals. And they had a thing on there saying, we use, we used electronic instruments. They're, they're, they're a vital, you know, they're a valid, they're a valid way of making music, and we're not ashamed of it. And like, that was a thing back then, right, with music, but it really is the same. Um, yeah, same spectrum just now applied to the way a art, AI art is being as as the community is wrestling with. How do we how do we contend with this thing? Because, like when tool put that on their album, they knew electronic music wasn't going anywhere. It's here to stay, but, and yet, they really felt it important to make a stance. So was that them puffing themselves up and saying, Hey, we played all of this with our hands. So, you know, or, or was it some, some other reason to have the stance? And, yeah, the same questions arise here. So yeah, that that's all very interesting. The as far as the evolution of, you know, projecting where half life's narrative is going to go, which I think the art book this is inspired on, and this film, uh, explore an avenue there. And then you're right, Damien at the end, when they put it in the first person view, you actually see your hands. And then the HUD comes up and yeah, it's this sense of, okay, we've shown you this place now, and now, imagine yourself there. So is this just doom? Here's why I say that, or Starship Troopers. For a simpler examiner, it starts off at doom. The narrative in Doom, in a nutshell, a portal is opened on one of the on Mars or on one of the moons of Mars, right? Yeah. And so your first thing is confronting what happens when this portal opens Half Life one, Doom two, he goes home to Earth, and everything is taken over by these demonic entities. Yeah, Half Life two. And then at the end of doom two, and then subsequent Doom games, there's a lot of emphasis on then you go to hell itself, to the source to fight him at home. That's the plot of Starship Troopers. They came and got us, and now we're going after them. It's the plot in Battle Star Galactica at some point where, at some point we can't keep being on the defense here. We got to go after them. It's the plot of half life, you know. Or could be, if it goes this way that now we're this is their home. This is the Combine home world. It's the first time it's ever been seen. It's never been seen in the games. We've seen other planets, but that was that slave race, right? The slave race civilians that they'd also subjected to their rule. So, yeah, is this just that? It's okay. The logical next step for this narrative is they invaded through a portal. We contended with that, then they took over the planet, and we've contended to some degree with that, but now we need to go to where they came from to finally put them to a stop. It's kind of a classic, for lack of a better word, trope. Yeah, I was going to say cliche, but trope is better to you know, if you want to put a stop in this, you gotta stop it, you know. You gotta fix the leak where it happened, you know. So, yeah, that's it. Is the next logical step. You know, you half life three can't just be Oh, now Earth is even worse. That's boring. Yeah, you know, they've, they've done the earth is ravaged by it. This is the next logical place to go. So, you know, pretty, pretty insightful on their part, I think. And I wouldn't surprise me at all if half life three ever does materialize, if it isn't something where Gordon is, you know, you know Star Hopping. You know to go take them on, where they go through the portal, the other way to get them. So, yeah, yeah, all interesting stuff. So thanks for your comments, guys. I appreciate it. And Ricky get with me privately when you when you see this, I'd love to hear what you think of this as well, because he's he and I have had countless conversations over the years about the the world building a half life two. I think he'll, I think he'll really enjoy this.

Damien Valentine 29:09
So I got a question for you now, Phil, after Doom comparison, yeah, this summer they announced, I think it's called Doom dark ages or something. It's sort of set in the medieval times. So does that mean at some point in the future, there's gonna be a half life game set in the medieval time period?

Phil Rice 29:28
I keep expecting doc to show up in the DeLorean Oh no, no. It's a weird it's a weird move. It looks like a neat esthetic. But I think, okay, so we can say a lot of things about id Software. They've engine wise, graphics wise, optimization wise, optimizing network packets so that live. You know, gameplay when they what they did with quake two. Changed the world of games. Narrative isn't their big thing. Never has been characterization the Doom guy. I mean, that's not their strength, right? Even. What was the other one? They did rust, which is kind of like a Mad Max type setting of post apocalypse and whatever. But you know, there's no characterization going on. There's no like, as you know, Fallout four Bethesda games as a comparison, in Fallout in Starfield, games like Mass Effect and BioWare and stuff that there's, there's characters, there's, there's people that you relate to, and stuff that's never been where it is strong never so to me, it feels like the medieval jump is just, you know, what would look cool? That's how that meeting started and ended. As you know, it'd be cool. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's attempt to an attempt to be fresh, but they haven't really story didn't lead that conversation, that's for sure. So

Damien Valentine 31:03
definitely not, no, yeah, sure. Be a lot of fun to play. I

Phil Rice 31:06
think, I think, I think the next one will be, you know, Doom. Guy goes back and there's dinosaurs and demons. In fact, that's subtitle. I'm gonna go get that domain name that's really dinosaurs and demons.

Tracy Harwood 31:20
Yeah. Guy's name is unknown Dino.

Phil Rice 31:24
Yes, I didn't mention that when I introduced the film. I'm sorry, unknown Dino, but Well, of course, we'll have a link in an embed of the of the film. So

Tracy Harwood 31:33
Well, there you go. We've given you the next set of plots for your next interpretations of four, five and six. This

Phil Rice 31:40
thing has a million views. By the way. I know it's amazing, and it was released two months ago. Yeah, wow. A million views. Well, that

Tracy Harwood 31:48
just shows you how impressive it is, but also how popular Half Life is as well. Still.

Damien Valentine 31:55
Yeah, well, it's an excellent choice. Phil, we will see you all enjoyed it and enjoyed discussing it. Ricky, I hope you enjoy it too when you watch it, and I hope you're having a great time at the horror convention. So we will see you all next week. Yeah, next week. Do you want any feedback? If you want to talk about this film, or half life or Doom, if you want to share your thoughts on the Doom Dark Ages, or where the Doom could go in the future, or where half I can go in the future, please email us at talk at completely mission road com, and we will see you again soon. Take care and bye. Bye.