I don’t really play Halo. I mean, I have played Halo. We have the Halo 3 commemorative Xbox 360. So you could say that I enjoy Halo. But I don’t actively play Halo. I am not what you would call a “Halo person.”
But a friend – a member of my current D&D group – started passing around Fails of the Weak to us one day, and… I got pretty hooked. The premise here, for the Halo-uninitiated, is that the comedy team at Rooster Teeth, of Red Vs. Blue fame, solicits clips from multiplayer Reach matches, and culls through them looking for the funniest. Generally, they feature the weirdest, dumbest deaths, overlaid with play-by-play commentary. Occasionally, for variety, these are spiked with a clip of some crazy and impressive victory.
The clips are easy enough to understand even if you don’t play many shooters, and really highlight the inherent chaos of any typical Halo match. They also show off just how robust in-game recordings of matches can be. Sometimes it takes a lot of forensics work to figure out exactly why someone died. Zoom… enhance!
For example, my initiation to the series was this clip, where (near the end around 3:50), a player is assassinated, for no reason, by the skybox:
Halo: a game of skill.
I’m mentioning this now because I was surprised to learn that, tomorrow, Fails of the Weak will be airing its 100th episode. That’s… a lot of fail! (Or, well, failure. I am not, personally, a lolcat. I just indulge in funny videos on the intertubes.)
This is obviously something millions of people already know about, but, if this wasn’t on your radar before, it can be surprisingly funny stuff. It’s like all the fun surprises of a Halo match, without the hassle of X-Box Live!
(Of course, as a City of Heroes vet, I’d still have to say that this is my favorite Rooster Teeth video, and it could stand a million more views. Shift…. +Awesome.)
Email the author of this post at aj@tap-repeatedly.com.
As not at all a veteran of City of Heroes, I’ve always been quite fond of the Captain Dynamic videos.
I doubt anyone in the Tap readership will be terribly surprised if game replays continue to become bigger deals. I, personally, have found myself enjoying Company of Heroes match replays at GameReplays.org, partially because that’s a piece of outstanding RTS design, and partially because it’s just kinda fun to watch.
My favorite part about Captain Dynamic (which I MUST MENTION but just couldn’t in good faith continue to derail my original point about) is how correctly it predicted how players would interact with the Architect system, in a way that even the game devs didn’t seem to see coming.
I enjoy the heck out of a good game replay, though. There’s not always time to play a game through, but a good “Let’s Play” can sometimes be even better. I almost want to do a whole article on the best LPs I’ve watched.
I’ll admit I’m more into good bloopers or competitive matches between skilled players than the Let’s Play stuff – I find it a little hard to remain engaged in, for instance, watching someone else play a single player game for any period. (The exception is generally for shorter reviews, especially if they are of old, obscure, or absurd titles.)
I wish there were some good outlet that rated the various Let’s Plays and told me which were worth my time. Some are great, some… not so much. It all comes down to the narrator.
This reel is hilarious. I must watch more. AJ has given me a new way to avoid work! Gold star!