Three years on, I've finally checked out another bridge descent method from Sligfantry; and it's pretty good!

(6:04) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. At the end of 2012 Sligfantry showed a new bridge descent method involving a ledge bounce and double-cushioned landing, which I quickly covered in BCM61. Then a few months later he came up with this new version - which seems much easier! The movie also covers another method using the same run-off point. Both methods are detailed in my bridge descent guide (see here and here), and are suitable for PAL Xbox only I think.

Released March 9th 2016, gameplay recorded February 27th - March 7th 2016.

00:02 (Sligfantry's old method) I figured I'd give this movie a bit of a storyline, so to begin with here's a reminder of what Sligfantry's old method involves (the plateau base rock method as I call it). In this example I'm doing it fast of course, without the aid of a run-off checkpoint; and I'm tagging the Grunt on the head, in the name of entertainment.

00:19 I get an unusually soft landing and quickly throw a plasma at the diving Banshee. It passes through the nose and tags the pilot (reminiscent of my Maw tag-snatch business) - as indicated by the sudden swirling. If you're observant you may've noticed an anomalous small dark spot in the air behind the Banshee, just after the swirling starts. I'm assuming that's some sort of trace left behind by the plasma grenade. I got the same thing with another pilot tag when making attempts at this fast descent. I might add, there were also times when the grenade went through the Banshee's nose and either missed the pilot or went straight through him too, because it came out the other side. Unfair!

00:40 (Getting a handy checkpoint) Naturally I want to get a handy delayed checkpoint at the run-off point. In this example of setting that up, a number of amusing things happened, and I thought I'd show the whole thing rather than abbreviating it.

00:50 One thing is, I shoot the glass out from under a running Grunt, and smack him when he falls through. Then right after that I catch sight of the Banshee blasting the Pelican. A rare sight for me, because I'm normally busy shooting covies of course.

01:40 After triggering the bridge checkpoint, I take a swipe at the remaining Jackal but his roll takes him clear. Lucky fellow! I don't bother to dawdle.

02:02 Just before I'm about to run off the bridge, a Grunt with a needler takes me by surprise and I pause to kill him. On the spur of the moment I pick up his grenade and use it as my final delaying grenade before getting into position. My timing was rather tight there and the checkpoint ends up coming a few seconds earlier than I would've liked, but my position is ok.

02:26 (Successes and failures) Surprise surprise, I actually get down on my first try! I show more successes after that, giving some basic instruction along the way. The full details are in my descent guide so I won't say much here. However, I'll mention that in the first three successes shown here, I wasn't bothering to do a crouch at the rock, because it hadn't seemed to help in Sligfantry's old method. But when I tested this rock, crouching more than doubled my success rate! So after that, I always crouched.

03:32 (The five rocks) I had a sequence like this in BCM61 (at 2:45) to show the five possible rocks you can get, but wanted to show them in this movie too as the randomization is quite a key point, and doesn't take long to cover anyway. To make things a bit different I invited Stacker along to guest-star. The rocks are shown in a different order this time, starting with the one I've been using, which may well be the best. Notice how the second rock is a squashed version of the first; and likewise the fourth is a squashed version of the third.

One other difference is that I've muted the sound from the individual clips and overlaid continuous sound from the same location, so there are no sound discontinuities from clip to clip; a slight improvement over last time. I've also made sure Stacker's swaying rhythm is fairly well maintained throughout, and likewise the animation cycle of my hand. Took quite a bit of fiddling around with clip selection to get both of those animation cycles looking smooth, but I wanted a nice slick result.

03:47 (Too far right at the ledge) These two clips illustrate what typically happens if you hit the ledge too far right. Immediate death, or falling short. So you have to be careful with your aim!

04:04 (Yet another method) Flashback! One time earlier when I had a different rock, I hit the ledge too far right taking no damage, but managed to survive by hitting the plateau base and doing a crouch to soften the impact. Later experimentation showed me that there was a viable method there, as shown in the subsequent two clips where I'm trying to do it on purpose, with my new set-up. I call it the second plateau base method. Reaching the target area is hard though; using the rock is easier.

04:38 (Lower deck run-off) Later still, I gave things a try from the lower bridge deck and eventually managed it; but only once. Thought I'd throw in that clip for fun. Incidentally, I also tried going for a double-cushioned landing at the rock, but couldn't quite make it.

04:53 (Rock method fast) At the start of the movie I showed the old rock method done fast, so now it's time to do likewise for the new, to end on a bit of fun. It turned out to be very hard though, because of the Banshee. Seems like you can't afford to take more than one small hit, or you won't survive the ledge bounce. So that means reaching the run-off spot fast and departing with haste before you get showered with plasma. I made loads of attempts, starting from a checkpoint just prior to the loading point in the passage. But I'm making life even more difficult for myself by trying to stylishly grenade the Grunt as I go off the bridge backwards. Actually I was trying to tag him, but missed (which is annoying, because I was managing the tag more often than not). Once I'm on the V and heading down to the run-off point, I about-face on the move to try and save a fraction of a second. When I get down to the newly created rock, it coincidentally turns out to be the same one I got in my earlier set-up.

05:16 After reaching the snow, I'm down to only one health bar and the Banshee has followed me down like it always does. Luckily it doesn't finish me off, and once it veers off I have the upper hand. My first plasma throw is too late, but with the second I throw ahead, and the Banshee obligingly flies into it. A pleasing tag.

05:33 Naturally I go and greet the Marines. Stacker shows up in the Pelican, and for fun I take a ride. Don't worry guys, I'm coming back! Just need a cup of tea first.

Closing remarks Wow, I can't believe how long it's taken me to get around to trying that second rock method. Three years! If I'd known it was going to be so much easier than Sligfantry's earlier one, maybe I would've covered it sooner. I'm still not done with bridge descent movies yet though. Definitely at least one more coming, as I'm still playing catch-up with Sligfantry!

The flashback clip for my fluked survival was from February 27th, not long after I'd started trying out the rock method. All other footage is from March 3rd-7th.

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