Filed under: Machinima

Sure, the Cataclysm trailer was cool and all, but did it seem like it was missing a little something? That little something may have been the Wowcrendor touch. Fortunately, Wowcrendor has remade the trailer in his own unique style (he says on the YouTube page that it's an early cut Blizzard eventually scrapped for obvious reasons), and you can watch the result above.

As with Wowcredor's other videos, the satire is piled on in heaps, from MS Paint-ed lava to a nice dig at rated battlegrounds, and a nice little coda about Barrens chat (given, that's a pretty big comedy target to hit, but Wowcrendor hits it anyway). Funny video, and proof that no matter how awesome Cataclysm sounds, odds are that we'll still be playing the same game with the same people.

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15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

The subject of this week's 15 Minutes of Fame has actually carved out many, many more than a mere 15 minutes on his own. Clint Hackleman is known to WoW fans as the force behind Myndflame, the team responsible for such wildly popular machinima as Illegal Danish: Super Snacks, Learn 2 Play and Epic Flight Form.

So who's a Myndflame fan? Blizzard, for starters. "How can something so familiar feel so foreign?" Blizzard asks rhetorically in a news update on its main site about the Illegal Danish III Prelude. "... If you're a World of Warcraft player who feels something is missing from the StarCraft universe, the creators of the Illegal Danish series have sensed your internal disturbance, bringing you a hilariously off-kilter redux of the StarCraft II cinematic trailer, now with 100% more Gnome action. It's about time!"

We thought it was about time, too, to go behind the scenes with Hackleman and get the story behind Myndflame's blazing success.

There have been some truly spectacular visual moments in Azeroth; scenes that make you gasp and glee. I'm thinking of occasions like the Scourge Invasion of Stormwind and Orgrimar or Kael'thas blowing up his room in Tempest Keep. Who can deny Wrathgate was incredible. However, there are also some awesome little animations that really add so much to the game. It's these little things that we can take for granted but sometimes jump out at us as something wonderful.

Even on a hard night of raid wiping in our guild, if someone chugs a stack of Pygmy Oil and /cower's it's bound to bring a laugh. Many a machinima has featured a /dance, from one race or many, with variously spectacular and humorous results.

Who's /flex is better, Draenei or Blood Elf? Have you ever left one of your characters alone for a while and then had their idle-animation surprise you? Are there any actions or animations you wish were in the game? What animations bring a smile to your face?

Yes, I went out and made a screenshot of a Worgen with two wolf-headed fist weapons. I did this via the latest iteration of WoW Model Viewer, freshly updated this Saturday, September 5th to work for patch 3.2. While it has a posted warning use it at your own risk which I thought I should mention, I should also mention I've been using it for the past half an hour with no harm and no foul. I've even been able to play with Trial of the Crusader loot. Go behind the jump to see a Worgen dual-wielding a Justicebringer and Reckoning. Not that I'm obsess with Titan's Grip Worgen or anything. Okay, so I totally am. At any rate, so far as I can tell, this version of the Model Viewer is stable and working with all current models.

This update by Chuanhsing even fixed the issue I was having where all my models came out textureless. I have no idea what it was happening in the first place, but I'm glad to see it gone.

Cranius has built one heck of a reputation as a World of Warcraft fan songwriter. His music and video credits include Big Blue Dress and the incredibly moving Darrowshire. This year, he (and machinimator partner Legs) achieved the first place prize at the BlizzCon 2009 machinima contest for their every-man video, Don't Make Me Get My Main.

All this background makes it awesome to point out that Cranius has released his music through Amazon, all collected on an album titled Big Blue Dress. The album is pretty cheap, coming in under $5.00. It includes downloads of Big Blue Dress, Darrowshire, and The Lament of Captain Placeholder, as well as his new pieces, Happy Place and Don't Make Me Get My Main. The only piece I felt was missing was Ulduar, but I can think of a few reasons it didn't appear.

At the cheap price, it's nice to be able to throw a little support at an artist who's brought so much music to the community. He's not been alone in this, of course, as both Oxhorn and Myndflame have released their music in one form or another. I think it's a wonderful opportunity, and something I support wholeheartedly. I obviously have purchased it, and am playing it on my computer even now.

Here in the United States, today is a beloved national holiday called Labor Day. While I could get into the specific history of the holiday, I'll simply summary by saying the holiday basically amounts to "a day off work for the people who work really hard." Oxhorn has released a special Labor Day video with that subject in mind, called Work Work, Zug Zug, Dabu.

The video is short, sweet, and fun-sized. This is one of the things I often love most about Oxhorn's short videos. He has a basic, great idea, and then crafts a video specifically towards that idea alone. His content is tailored and fitted to the short length, which means even the most casual audience gets a very high return on their investment.

The song is the centerpiece of this video, of course, and it's as much fun as any other Oxhorn music. The honest goblin singing his way to mercantile expression is wonderfully done. As usual, my hat's off to Oxhorn. The round robin medley between the three orcs (who I have to think are named "Work Work," "Zug Zug," and "Dabu" for obvious reasons) is brilliantly executed.

If you like this video, you should definitely take the time to cruise Oxhorn's website, and check out his other work.

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Today's WoW Moviewatch is just a brief trailer. But it's a trailer than I know many, many people are going to be pretty excited about. Ian Beckman is returning to the beloved Azeroth Super Villains. In fact, this is the trailer for Azeroth Super Villains 7.

In the trailer, Ian's chilling out at home and eating some chips. That's when he notices an odd, blonde figure running up to him from the distance. Within moments, it turns out the blonde figure is Kael'Thas, who's here to remind Ian the same things many fans have been saying: it's time for another episode!

The new episode is due out in November. (Ian had originally been thinking December, but Kael'Thas warned him that he shouldn't wait that long.) This teaser is pretty early in that regard, but I thnk the brief appearance of Kael'Thas lets us know that Ian hasn't lost "his touch" at the series.

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I'm hijacking Moviewatch today, so that I can spotlight one of my all time favorite machinimas: Codemonkey. Jonathon Coulton's song, the fact that he released it under the Creative Commons license and Spiffworld's movie-making skills combine to make this a fun video to watch.

Sure, Codemonkey is 3 years old or so, but it's fun to look back on the good stuff, right? And it's nice looking at a Booty Bay without all those wannabe pirates picking on the guards.

If you were to take over Moviewatch to play your favorite machinima, what would you choose?

We covered the In Memory: Retribution final trailer back in May. At the time, we were impressed by the hints we could see in the trailer about the epic content of the final movie. But, as with many trailers, we were unconvinced that the final product would ever materialize. Thus, I'm incredibly happy to feature the final movie today. Click here to check out In Memory: Retribution by Necka.

This movie is huge. It's probably one of the longest and most thorough machinima presentations I can remember seeing. The camera work and voice acting are all perfectly suited to the story, and the sweeping narrative is thorough and world-changing. The story is based on the fall of Illidan, and I feel like the action really gets started when a troll sorrowfully admits his own part in the fate of the Betrayer.

This movie is definitely worth watching. Like I said, however, it's pretty long -- be sure to leave yourself an hour or so to watch it all. There are a few places you may need to back up, if your stream gets interrupted.

Click here to see it for yourself. This link provides an option to stream or download the video.

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We've featured X-Cross more than once on Moviewatch, and he's often proven to be a fan favorite. With that in mind, we offer him our most heartfelt congratulations on winning the BlizzCon 2009 machinima contest. His entry is titled A Day in the Life.

The movie was inspired by this comic by Keydar. Basically, a kobold goes through his daily routine. He wakes up, gets ready for work, and kisses the wife goodbye. He goes into the Elwynn Forest, and with a primal yawp, delcares that "You no take candle!" I won't spoil what happens from there. I found the scene of the kobold lighting the candle on his head adorable.

This movie was absolutely amazing. X-Cross brought the visual to life in a beautiful, compelling way. The voice acting was perfect. I truly believe this movie will stand the test of time, and will be something new WoW players will be laughing at years from now. Congratulations, X-Cross!

You can see more of X-Cross movies on Moviewatch by clicking here.

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Moviewatch has featured Cruel, Cruel Moon by Spiff previously, but we're covering the machinima contest winners from BlizzCon 2009 this week. So, it's with pleasure that I present this video for a second time. The movie was especially pertinent to this year's BlizzCon, since that's when playable Worgen were announced as part of the Cataclysm expansion.

The original song was actually by Paul & Storm, a pair of comedy musicians that many of the WoW crowd probably already know. In summary, the song and video is about a chap who loves a woman. But that woman has a furry side. When the cruel full moon presents itself each evening, the protagonist must fear for his very life. (Or face the idea of having to shoot down his beloved with a shotgun blast of silver.)

The video is a lot of fun. There's even a small part of me that wonders at the roleplay possibilities for Worgen inherent in this kind of story. Okay, I mostly found the video pretty funny.

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The Props team at BlizzCon showed a video on what they do, and also displayed a lot of the characterization and mood setting of the new Goblin and Worgen starting areas. The Lost Isles for the Goblins are just beautiful and quirky and funny, abounding in tropical drinks, a breakfast machine, and a "rocket-catapult-turtle-powered-machine" (and did they actually build a railroad out of bamboo?), although I have to say that the Dickensian/Victorian feel of Gilneas is just...words fail me. It's lovely. This is perhaps the loveliest, most haunting, spooky and creepy zone Blizzard's ever done, and...it's going to be an almighty lagfest when Cataclysm hits. Oh well. Truthfully, I had no idea just how much of what we think of as the "landscape" is in fact the Props team at work.

As an FYI for readers who have observed this on previous video, yes, there are gold-sellers' ads popping up on Viddler, and no, we're not happy about it, and we certainly didn't put them there.

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BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!

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This video, which comes straight from this afternoon's BlizzCon Art Panel, shows off some of the environments Blizzard has put together for the Worgen, the brand new playable Alliance race. I love the look -- it's almost like Forsaken architecture, but before things went bad (or maybe with a hidden edge rather than a rotted look). We're not quite sure yet what these areas will be called -- most of it looks like what they're calling Gilneas City in the playable demos here on the floor.

But you'll probably agree that it does look excellent. We'll have another video coming up from the Art Panel soon, looking at the Goblins and what they've got sitting around their starting zones.

The Cataclysm cinematic, as first shown this afternoon at the BlizzCon 2009 opening ceremonies, is pretty darn epic (as all of Blizz's cinematics have been, really). If you haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet, fear not - there are options. You can watch it embedded above in this post, or you can head on over to Blizzard's official site and watch it streaming or download a high-quality version.

And you definitely should watch it if you haven't yet. There's a ton of good information right here on WoW.com, but a video is worth quite a lot of words. There's even a gnome in this one! (A priest, near the end.) Not to mention goblins, which I hear are the new gnomes. I am incredibly excited.

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BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!

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A lot of people were wondering if there was going to be an official Blizzard trailer for World of Warcraft's Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade, and lo' and behold, there is! Just not out in its usual promptness.

The trailer itself is made up of mostly in-game footage of the various events in the new dungeon, the Argent Tournament. We see some boss fights in the coliseum raid, a few overviews of the tournament grounds, etc... The new Battleground, the Isle of Conquest, is also featured in the trailer, and there are some good shots of PvP going on there.

There isn't really any lore or story to it - other than that the Argent Tournament is preparing us for Icecrown Citadel. Nothing we don't already know. You can get a cool desktop background though.

You can watch the trailer above on YouTube or head over to the Blizzard site and download it in super high def.

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WoW's Patch 3.2 ushers in the Crusaders' Coliseum, the Isle of Conquest, flying mounts at 60, and much more. WoW.com has all the patch information your Worgen obsessed mind can handle in WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2!