Jun 4

I am a big machinima fan. I’ve always enjoyed seeing the movies that people can make out of game engines. Of course, I’ve always been particularly fond of WoW machinima. There are many great artists and series out there. Oxhorn is one. Another is Illegal Danish. But one machinima has struck me in a way I cannot describe in any other way than Epic.

Tales of the Past “started out as a guild promotion movie for [the] guild Eden Aurorae.” It didn’t take long for the movie to become popular, and the author decided to continue the storyline. The story comes in four parts:

1. Eden Aurorae Guild Movie (prequel)
2. Tales of the Past I
3. Tales of the Past II
4. Tales of the Past III

The third movie is where it’s at–I strongly urge you to read on, or at least go watch the series yourself, but be warned the prequel and first move are a bit underwhelming. Follow me after the break for details.

As I said, the prequel and the first movie are very good, but a bit underwhelming when compared with other machinima out there. There are no voice overs, only subtitles. The story line is still good. Part two introduces voice acting, which is excellent, especially when compared to the voice acting in some of the other WoW machinima out there. The story continues and sets up very strongly at the end for the last movie. All the characters are well thought out, and the camera work is decent and gets better with each additional part.

The final movie… the final move is something else altogether. Weighing in at a whopping 2.4 gigabytes, at a length of almost an hour and half long, this machinima is by far the best one I’ve ever seen. Period. The story is epic. The voice acting is superb. The graphics are very, very well done, the battle scenes are phenominal. The music (I can’t tell if it’s original in the third movie, it’s not in the others) is excellent. The visual effects they’ve used to spice up the WoW-engine-driven graphics are spectacular. I literally cannot put into words how impressed I am with this movie.

Again, the movie is almost an hour and a half long. That’s a feature length motion picture! And, to be honest, it was good enough that I’d say I wouldn’t have minded paying ten bucks to go see it in the theater. Really, it’s that good. It will make you laugh. If you’re emotional, it will probably make you cry. It seriously, literally gave me goosebumps in parts! Go download them now!

Related posts:

1. The Craft of War: BLIND
2. Machinima Feature: Wrought by Legs, Cranius, and Peratus
3. Blizzcon 2009: Day 0
4. Loremaster of Northrend
5. WotLK Beta: Wrath Gate and the Quality of Quests