Since we seem to have a lot of Matrix fans here (:)), I'm gonna ask you guys to help me out by pointing it out to me when you see me cribbing ideas from the Wachowski brothers, as it became a habit after five years of working in their world. Not that it's a habit I want to break, mind you--their work is some of the most visually inspiring stuff out there, and as a designer you'd be nuts not to take inspiration from it--but I do want to know *when* I'm doing it in A*, at least, so that it isn't totally unconscious.

For instance, there are two I'm aware of in the past last week alone, from the news / Episode 4 work-in-progress thread. This



is totally the Kid plunging off his school's rooftop in Kid's Story from The Animatrix, and this one



is undeniably Neo zooming through the dark city streets to catch Trinity as she's falling from a building while being shot by an Agent in Reloaded.

These weren't apparent to me when I sketched them up for the episode in storyboard form, but they jump right out at me in the final art. So, thank you for the continued inspiration, Wachowskis, and viewers, don't be shy about pointing any other Matrixisms out to me so that I can be more aware of what I'm doing!

Well, you shouldn't feel guilty or anything but I'm almost positive that the matrixisms were performed somewhere else before too. You weren't concious of the relation so I'd say its just you using badassery that somebody may have used before, but making it your own badassery. Yes sir.

I'll start looking for them anyways, just so I can call you out.

Not a Matrixism, but...




Splinter Selenis!

Hm, maybe I should give her three eyes!

That would satisfy my Mar's alien withdrawl, at least.

Wait what? :o

In one of my rant videos, Mar went off on a tangent about being depressed by the lack of aliens on A*. A three eyed human would be close enough for him.

Ohh. Hey, what's that third eye on Splinter Cell goggles for, anyway?

I don't recall if they ever gave an explanation ingame... I've only played Chaos Theory and both versions of Double Agent to completion. However, the goggles are capable of: night vision, thermal vision, some sort of "detect electricicty" mode, accessing a computer remotely (bypassing the monitor, interface, etc), and viewing the camera feeds from "sticky cams" placed by Sam. I think I read that Tom Clancy thought the goggles themselves were unrealistic / implausible, but allowed them to be used for gameplay reasons.

Bottom one looked a whole lot like a hovercraft in motion to me.