More explosive fun, this time focusing on my favourite new discovery: tag launching!

(5:03) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. This shows various tag launches of pre-frozen Elite fireworks. A tag launch is when you arrange for one or more plasma grenades to explode on launch, which makes for a satisfying effect. I use a luxurious save featuring 12 full needlers (having done some early collection in a base save), and 16 dropped plasma grenades arranged into a nice pile.

Released December 7th 2010, gameplay recorded November 27th-28th 2010.

00:02 To start the show, here's a tag launch comprising 2 plasmas then 61 needles. This blue fella sure gives off a lot of blood when I needle him. Gonna have to hose down my armour after this! At the end of the needling I take a quick look behind him, just to check for signs of any stray needles, which conveniently leave black marks on ice or snow. You'll see me do that with other launches too. For only 2 plasmas he goes pretty high, but the 6 needle bangs add to the lift of course.

00:38 Same recipe but this time it's a double launch and the Elites do a nice crossover. You might notice that each of the third needle explosions comes out silent. That always seemed to happen when I tried this launch; there's evidently some issue with the game's handling there. Also, despite my having done the same thing to each Elite, you'll notice some asymmetry in the sounds after those third needle explosions. Again, I put this down to the quirks of the game.

00:48 You can add rockets for direction and/or extra boost, and here's an example starting with the same situation as just before. Each Elite gets a couple of rockets, and for variety I board the Banshee and fly up to a bit of ledge where you can cross the release line and thus cause a launch (see Launching from a ledge). Nice view huh?

01:43 Ok, now we add more plasmas. This time I'm using 4 plasmas and 59 needles, and he goes quite a bit higher than with only 2 plasmas as you'd expect. See those clouds of blood flying off him too! You get 6 needles bangs as before.

02:21 As before, I follow with a double launch - mainly for spectacle. The Elites sail up unusually close together and one bounces off the cliff. Two of the needle bangs have an unusual sound. When I watch the end of this clip, it always seems like those Elites are waving at me. Aw, that's nice eh?

02:35 Back to a single launch now. Same ingredients as before, but used differently. First I apply 2 plasmas on the feet, then 20 needles, then 2 plasmas on the chest, then 39 needles. The second two plasmas explode correspondingly later and you end up with a 2-stage boost. It wasn't important that I put the second pair of grenades on the chest, but the Elite is going to be in his usual face-down attitude by the time those go off, so I think explosions on the chest will give more upwards boost than ones on the feet.

03:09 Ok, now a 3-stage boost using 6 plasmas. Yes, more plasmas again - you may be noticing a trend. This time I'm giving the red a turn. Wouldn't want him feel left out. I apply 2 plasmas on the feet, 20 needles, 2 plasmas on the knees (thought I'd add a bit of variety), 20 needles, 2 plasmas on the chest (actually it's more like the midriff), then 17 needles - which is just enough to take the first grenade to the brink of exploding. He sails up with a good deal of noise and ends up hovering nicely in my sniper sight, so I take the opportunity for a bit of target practice, scoring three hits. Each hit is accompanied by a thin spurt of blood, though they may be hard for you to see, depending on the movie quality.

03:54 Finally we step things up to 8 plasmas and 55 needles, and here's where I get to show off my collection of 16 plasmas. I stick four of the plasmas around the back of his feet, but that's just for variety really. You'll notice the fizzing sound getting a bit muted on grenade 7, and cutting out almost completely with grenade 8, though it patchily returns later. That's normal; apparently the game has trouble handling this much. As usual I apply just enough needles to take the first grenade to the brink of exploding. On launch there's a nice big plasma plume formed by the 8 plasmas going off in rapid succession. The Elite goes way up high, and he is not happy about it. I take a few pot-shots at him but he's so high up that I can't even tell if I hit. Felt good though! Just at the end of this clip, he's starting to briefly disappear into the cliff as he sinks back down. Elites can clip quite deeply into cliffs and other surfaces as they fly around.

04:48 This is what I call going out with a bang. Or to be more exact, two bangs, making one very big one. Same recipe as before, but a double launch. Nice plasma plumes huh? The Elites head their own separate ways and I let them disappear into little dots. Actually I think the blue (who shot off to the left) ends up on the second ledge.

Closing remarks These were only a few examples, but hopefully enough to show you that tag launching is quite a blast (ho ho). I wanted to show more, including more timing effects, but that'll have to wait for possibly later movies. I definitely have more firework movies in mind. Just to mention one other thing, none of these examples included extra needling prior to the first grenade, but that was mainly to keep things simple and keep the movie length down. In practice I often do some initial needling so the pink bangs continue longer.

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