What was that about toys and snowballs Johnson?

(5:30) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Easy. This shows how to set up for hearing Johnson's hidden all-clear speech with a handy pre-speech checkpoint for repeat listening. The speech was something I found in 2006 when getting seven extra Marines, and it featured as a bonus at the end of BCM8 (where Johnson was active, unlike here). In normal play you don't get it, because Johnson would've been removed by the game. I'm using Easy, because it's easiest and minimizes the chance of Johnson being killed by a Wraith blast. Incidentally, the movie also contains one of the sweetest friendly fire incidents ever; so that's another reason to watch!

Released March 24th 2016, gameplay recorded March 21st-22nd 2016.

00:02 I thought I'd start this movie off at the LZ rather than picking up the action at some later point, as it makes for a nice exciting opening and it doesn't take long to charge through. In the passage leading to the bridge, a checkpoint is triggered after my right turn, and I pause before the loading point to wait for it. I could've done a jump or two to make sure it got delayed until I was at the loading point, but it usually delays a few seconds anyway, and it doesn't matter if you get it earlier. I didn't want to fuss with talking about delaying when it's so unimportant.

00:38 I do a spot of slaying on the way to the bridge exit, taking care to retain full health for the descent. There's no need to kill everyone, but I'm going to do a Shade ride, so I don't want the initial four Grunts around. The fourth Grunt amusingly drops through a glass panel with a plasma grenade attached. The Elite is close below, but escapes death. Other covies I mostly just kill for fun. On Easy they're not much threat, though I do want to avoid getting caught by a plasma ball.

01:01 With the gold Elite out of the way, I start delaying the post-bridge checkpoint to use for descent attempts. After triggering covies in the second room, which is needed in order to be able to trigger the ground battle, I head back across the bridge. The Elite pops out to try and intercept me, but ends up regretting it. I was in quite a tagging mood on this play.

01:24 Using a grenade throw to allow preparation time, I get the checkpoint when ready to descend. I'm using my recently refined technique for a standard Shade ride - see BCM173 - except that actually I'm a bit further forward than I was supposed to be. It's not going to make much difference to where the grenade settles though; and happily I'm down first try.

01:56 After checking for Johnson, I grab the hog and head for the door to trigger the battle. I do it by backing over the threshold, so I can then get out into the battlefield quicker.

02:32 Switching to a Ghost, I whizz up past the ice patch, which is far enough to've crossed a trigger line which makes most covies come after me. There's also a checkpoint triggered, which I want to keep delayed. Mostly it gets delayed automatically by enemy threat, but a few times I use Ghost fire to make sure the delay continues.

02:52 The speediest covie to head my way is an Elite in a Ghost, and he gets royally creamed by a Wraith blast when he merrily cruises across its line of fire. Should've looked where he was going! That might very well be the best friendly fire incident I've ever seen. As soon as that happened I was thinking, I really hope the rest of this play goes ok, so I'll be able to have that incident in the movie! A few seconds later - at about 3:06 - there's a moment when I realize I'm a bit close to the Wraith and in danger of getting blasted, which could obviously ruin my play. So I forget the Wraith for a few seconds and speed clear, zapping an arriving Grunt instead. The Wraith gets toasted right afterwards.

03:13 More slaying to be done, including a lone Elite who stays back in the corner. After zapping a couple of late-coming Jackals and a Grunt, there are just the two Shade gunners left. I kill the high one and head for the Marines. I'm firing as I go, but actually most of that was probably superfluous because of the threat from the Shade. Better to be safe than sorry though.

03:55 After dismounting, I flip the Ghost with a grenade to prevent any Marine boarding it - which they'd otherwise quickly do, because of the Shade threat. I don't want that Grunt killed yet! After grabbing the launcher, I survey the situation and realize that the hog is kind of in the way, for what I've got planned. After a few moments I decide to risk rocketing it aside. Just as I'm about to fire, bushes block my sight - but I fire anyway. Evidently there was a Marine too close; didn't see him. But Johnson's fine, that's all I'm worried about really. It was slightly clumsy but I was conscious of time ticking by.

04:21 Ok, now to get the checkpoint. Having done a few trial runs, I was aware that I'd probably need to hide; so I go behind a big rock, and that soon does the trick. Good job that Grunt wasn't more trigger-happy though, else his fire could've kept the delay going for some time. Strategically it might've been better to leave the plateau gunner alive instead, but I wanted the door gunner because he's more of a presence, which I thought would add to the movie.

04:30 After sending a rocket towards the Shade, I focus on Johnson. Plasma fire causes his stance to alter a bit (so he ends up looking sideways), but he quickly recovers and gives his all-clear speech.

04:58 Another go? This time I get the Grunt with a frag, as a change from the rocket launcher. But after Johnson gets into his speech I have a bit of fun with a plasma grenade, which cuts him off near the end: "I wouldn't have given us a snowball's chance until you showed u… WAAAAHHH!". You're welcome sarge! Just call on me, any time.

Closing remarks This is the movie subject which got me into refining my Shade riding; see my closing remarks for BCM173. I did a sort of test run using a V-start Shade ride, and then got diverted into re-examining that descent method. Now that I've done the speech movie though, you'll notice that I didn't do a V-start ride after all. I opted for a standard ride instead, partly because it's quicker, taking me directly to the Marines.

Watching the movie, you probably assumed you were seeing a single play from the start. But actually, the opening clip and the third clip (in which I trigger covies beyond the bridge) were done separately later, to replace what I'd done in the original play. That was basically to get rid of a few undesirable aspects to do with showing (or not showing) checkpoint trigger lines in the passages. My redone segments make the tutorial better - and swifter too. I took some care to make the first segment match with what follows. In particular I needed to end up with a plasma pistol on 73% charge; so that took quite a few tries! When I was heading across the glass bridge I had 87% charge, so I bought it down to size with a plasma ball, and then got down to 73 with a few zaps on the final two Grunts. Worked out quite nicely.

I made quite a lot of attempts at getting Johnson launched high for comedy. The one shown here happened relatively early, and remained the best. In fact, it was very rare to get him going up almost vertically like that. I couldn't duplicate it.

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