Posts with tag the-achiever

If you remember the Achiever series by Origano, you may recall there was a suggestion that he might pick up the series again later. It looks pretty certain that he'll be releasing another installment, since he says he's most of the way done with the video. To help announce the upcoming continuation, Origano has put out a trailer for The Achiever 3.

You can't really tell much about the plot or dialogue from the trailer, which is a little disappointing since a lot of folks enjoyed the comedy from the first two videos. However, the graphics definitely look like they've gotten an upgrade. I'm eager to see what Origano's put together for his third installment.

---

We saw Origano's first machinima offering back in February, when he debuted with The Achiever - Rapid Defense. The video was interesting, but plagued with some soundtrack issues. However, it looks like he took that criticism to heart and is now back with the second installment, The Achiever - The Duelist.

The premise is the same. The main character (self-titled as Origano) is competing in a gameshow called the Achiever. This time, however, the Tauren protagonist has to win a duel. He starts out demanding equal opponents, and proceeds to have trouble with the arrangement. I don't want to give the story away, but it's a pretty nice progression of events. I think Origano is really showing promise with his story arrangements, though it could probably move at a little faster pace.

Origano's got some really good gags in here. The whole turtle lineup is pretty funny, and I love the shout out to those annoying toy trains. I think Origano's really starting to get his legs under him, and we should watch him closely to see how he grows as an artist.

Previously on Moviewatch ..

I wasn't originally going to cover The Achiever - Rapid Defense by Origano because it had a fundamental flaw. (I'll touch on that in a second.) However, the machinima kept coming up in the suggestion box and elsewhere, so I thought I would go ahead and put it out there for our readers to comment upon. This review will touch on the video's sound and video separately, for an obvious reason.

The movie is about a chap who enters a kind of reality-TV show. He competes for fabulous prizes by completing objectives. The thing is, though, I mostly gleaned that from the video's description and guessing from what happened in the video. The voice track was almost impossible for me to understand, even cranking the volume all the way up. I tried it on a couple different computers, and just had a hell of a time making anything out.

It's a shame, because the video looks pretty good. I like the framing and the basic premise of what I saw. But I did have to rely on what I saw. Grading the imagery alone, I'd give the machinima high marks. It's only when the audio is accounted for that I think the movie got derailed.

So, that being said, I hope Origano revisits with a cleaner voice track. The Achiever looks like it could be awesome, but we've got to be able to hear what people are saying.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ..