Prepare to get a little dizzy - and not just because we're up so high!

(6:55) Level 10 ('The Maw') on Easy. After snatching the Maw Banshee, you can potentially enjoy a lot of fun with the enemy Banshee because it exhibits classic 'mad Banshee' behaviour over the ship's roof and out beyond the sides. This movie concentrates on the roof. I got my Banshee with a tag-snatch and then checkpointed, as demoed in BCM163. The game isn't overloaded - which is good because I want to be able to throw grenades and so on.

Released February 20th 2016, gameplay recorded February 18th-19th 2016.

00:02 (Drawing him up) Having checkpointed quite deep into the ship, I head back out. By hovering up near the roof's edge to make an appealing target, it's easy to draw the other Banshee up, where it then gets into 'mad Banshee' behaviour. In this opening clip lasting over 3 minutes, I do my best to string together various activities. I thought it was going to take quite a few plays to get a nice sequence, but actually this was only my second try and I liked it, so that's all I did.

00:30 (Low circling) It's very easy to initiate this circling and to keep it going. I've got one leg in contact with the ground, which helps stabilize things. After a while I switch directions, and the enemy follows obligingly.

01:03 (Figure of eight) Before getting to some aerial circling, here's some figure of eight flying, just in case you were getting dizzy. Again very easy.

01:17 (Aerial circling) Circling off the ground is bit harder than the ground-skimming variety, but not much - or not when you've had a bit of practice anyway. At first you might struggle to maintain your height though.

01:50 (Getting pushed) Here I relinquish the controls and just let the enemy push my Banshee around. Except, when I've had enough of getting pushed one way, I do a quick bit of flying to arrange for myself to get pushed another way.

02:18 (Getting orbited) It doesn't take much effort to get this orbiting dynamic going. Once the pilot's orbiting, he'll happily just keep on! After a while I start turning, getting in sync for fun. And then I turn the other way. Counter-sync, I guess you could call it.

02:44 (Orbited on foot) Dismounting at a suitable time, the enemy just keeps right on orbiting, and I'm safe just standing still. This situation could also have easily been initiated even if he hadn't already been orbiting my Banshee (e.g. see the plasma snuffing clip later). Again, I turn to get in sync, getting a good view of the sparking Banshee leg. Eventually I bring things to a close with a plasma grenade.

03:19 (Circling fuel rod kill) We're briefly back to circling again, because I wanted to show something you might like to try. If you briefly do an extra-sharp bit of turning, you can potentially get the enemy with a fuel rod shot. Not easy though!

03:41 (Rockets and blood spatter) You can have fun with rockets too of course, as a method of finishing off your foe. I came prepared with a full launcher as you can see. This particular rocket strike is unusual. Looks like the rocket squeezes through and hits at the back - on a tail fin I think. The Banshee gets shunted forwards and hits the invisible wall. Subsequent rocket and grenade blasts cause blood spatter, making the invisible wall show up. Nice!

04:25 (Plasma snuffing) Remarkably, and comically, if you tag the Banshee in the nose area, the pilot tries to snuff it out! Plasma snuffing isn't a new discovery though; it's been seen before, including in my movie series (see the second clip in BCM164). In my first clip I pull off a suitable tag while being orbited. The targeting is hard though, and I fail with my second throw. For easier targeting, it seems better to get a bit of distance so the Banshee is coming at you to some extent - as seen in my second clip where I get three snuffs in a row.

05:30 (Grenade chasing) Here are four clips showing the enemy chasing grenades (though his interest is always fleeting). In the first clip I happened to tag my Banshee, which caused the enemy to barge it. That was fun so I tried the same thing later too, as shown in the second clip. With my second throw of that clip, I get a scare when the Banshee arcs overhead. Almost took my head off! In the third clip I just drop a plasma where I stand, and in the final clip I use a frag for variety.

06:35 (Ending) Had to think of something to end the movie nicely. In this clip (deliberately done when the music was about to hit a climax then settle), I get around in front of the enemy for a fuel rod shot - which actually takes a bit of effort because he really likes sticking to your tail.

Closing remarks Mad Banshees were something I originally encountered in level 2. Despite it being a topic affording excellent fun, I still hadn't got around to covering it in my movie series, so I guess this is where the coverage starts, even if it's for a different situation which I never even knew about at the time. It may be quite some while before I get around to covering it in level 2.

As for this level though, I'm working on another two movies already, involving yet more fun with this other Banshee, so stay tuned. And if you're feeling enthusiastic, gimme some reaction on YouTube or something. Things are awfully quiet lately, comment wise, which is… dull.

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