posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 4:53 AM
by
Endie
Domino Toppling in Oblivion
Back when the Guinness Book of Records was sufficient in itself to power a half-hour of weekday-evening, post-school must-see kids' TV, my favourites were always mad, compulsive-obbsessive types who had set up hundreds of thousands of dominos, ready to topple. Apart from the vague hope that one of them would, like the colonel in Bridge Over the River Kwai and reluctant to see the destruction of months' of work, dive in front of his creation, weeping, and scream "no, I will not see it die!", I was impressed by the Mousetrap(TM)-type ingenuity of the creations, involving designs of flags and words, and occasionally incorporating non-domino elements to annoy the purists.
Anyway, to the awesomeness which is Oblivion, someone has added that finishing touch: virtual domino-toppling. See it at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyHiIeBsc9E
It has dominos, swords cutting ropes, crystal balls running down wooden tracks, and corpses all being used as part of the mechanic. At last: a useful (emergent) purpose for in-game physics engines. You certainly missed out on the cadavers when Norris McWhirter had a hand in things. Let alone the use of classic Nirvana songs (although, thankfully, not one of Nevermind's more overplayed ones) as soundtrack.
I suppose the big advantage of the virtual version is that, before trying it out, you can save the game. Then see it happen again and again. And not end up with a terrible, anti-climactic finale as featured in the Bravery's recent video "An Honest Mistake".