That tree in my vehicle is definitely cramping my style.

(5:55) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. When recording for the final battle slot of the previous movie, an odd thing happened. Intrigued, I soon got into some investigative gameplay, seeing if I could repeat it, and this is my account.

Released September 28th 2024, gameplay recorded September 23rd-24th 2024.

00:02 (How it happened) The second clip in this 2-clip opener shows the odd happening from September 23rd. Having seen some covies near a tree I went to splatter them, and got a Grunt just as he was lobbing a plasma grenade. But I also found myself with a tree sticking up out of the hog, holding it back! I briefly got out for a look, and the hog came free as I did. But before I could reboard, prompted by the sound of an incoming Wraith shot, the hog was blasted and I got splattered.

The first clip isn't the true original footage by the way. It's a later recreation of the sort of thing I would've been doing (sniping stuff, notably the Ghost pilot), and it's there to better set the scene. Unfortunately I hadn't retained all the original footage. At the time, I only saved the key footage reflected in clip 2. It was only when I started putting together a movie that I felt the need for more of an intro.

00:45 (Trying to repeat it) About 40 minutes later, curiosity had got the better of me and I started trying to repeat what had happened. Here you see three tries, the last of which features the hog passing through the tree, something which turned out to be not uncommon. The clips are in chronological order here and indeed throughout the movie, aside from the opener. Note: in ny tries I wasn't triggering the battle (hence Stacker soon falls inactive, as do the other Pelican Marines).

01:06 (First success) After a few minutes I got this first success. The hog seemed pretty well anchored (to the degree that I tested it), but then I decided to try some grenading, and in due course it came free.

02:41 (Again, but reversed free) Just a couple of tries later I got this second example, but the hog eventually came free after reversing in a certain way.

03:16 (Trying the right) After that, I started trying to succeed with an impact on the right side of the hog. You see two tries here, the second being another case of pass-through.

03:28 (First success) It was several minutes before I finally got this success (it had felt harder than doing it with the left). But as you see, the hog quickly came free sideways when I engaged reverse gear.

03:45 (Again, but meleed free) A few minutes later I got this example, but the hog sprang free with merely a whack on the side which the tree was closest to.

04:05 (Last one, and something new) Another success came shortly after (hog easily reversed free), then things got hard again and it was another fifteen minutes before I got this final success. Things were holding well, and I've cut about 30 seconds of stress-testing as it's similar to what you've already seen. Then I found myself able to execute some anchored rotation in reverse gear, which was something new (4:20). Also managed to get the camera focused closely on Stacker for a while. When I tried to get anchored rotation in forward gear though, it didn't last long and the hog broke free.

04:52 (Live-fire try for fun) Having started my investigation around 9:20 pm and gone on until around ten, I started rapidly building up a movie from the footage. It was getting near midnight when I returned to the Xbox to try for a success under fire. I thought a clip of that might provide an amusing end to the movie, depending on quite what happened. I had some successes in the ensuing fifteen minutes or so, then got this example, in which I managed a tricky tag on a Ghost pilot, resulting in a spectacular launch. Didn't think I could do any better than that, and I was tired anyway, so that was that. I had my clip for the movie's end.

Closing remarks To be clear, what you saw here was just my early exploration of the phenomenon. That was enough to make for what I hope was an engaging movie (I was certainly pleased with it), but in due course I expect to check into things more fully, including checking out other trees and in other levels too. So don't be surprised to see another movie on this stuff later on, plus an article.

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