Saturday, September 28, 2013

Too Many Pigs

Shauna and I finished A Machine for Pigs today. We had mixed feelings of the game, but ultimately we enjoyed playing. It surprisingly didn't match up to Outlast in terms of overall horror, but, it did have one section that I was nearly paralyzed with fear, so I'll give it that. I think it might have been an early instance of a pig man being right behind me with no warning, but I was crippled for about 30-40 minutes playing where I became a shaking mess of garbled words. Stay tuned for part 7 (whenever I catch up in my encoding) to see me almost fall apart completely.

In other news, I am a mad genius without the genius in that I have concocted an new idea for a (hopefully) humourous compilation video. The idea came to me when I put the image of two incredibly creepy ghost children to the theme of Captain Planet. I'll let your imagination run wild for what the rest of the video will be like. I'm not sure of the timeline on that one as I want to get the full LP out first, which requires me to sync audio, make comments, clean up the video as best I can and encode another 4 (ish) hours of gameplay.

Half life has been paused for a moment to create more hard drive space and for when I have a good chunk of time to sit down and play. Expect this LP to be done mid-October. Also, Diablo 2 will be LPed. I have done some tests and the videos have been produced perfectly. The only issue that I may have is balancing audio. Regardless, I will be co-op LPing with two other people.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Desynced

I would have had Amnesia: Machine for Pigs footage up days ago, but I encountered an odd problem that I had with Outlast as well. The audio somehow becomes desynced slightly as the video progresses. It's not so bad, until events like a scream ends up in the wrong place or I encounter echoing dialogue. The audio at this point becomes extremely distracting, so I needed to manually resync the audio every 10-20 minutes. This task is almost done, and I have had the opportunity to comment on some of the events already, but I estimate that the first videos won't be uploaded until the middle of the week. Sorry!

As for other LPs, I have yet to finish Half Life, which is next on my list to complete. Meanwhile I have a ton of Age of Empires 3 games and some fun Left 4 Dead 2 mod videos that I debated uploading in the meantime. I also plan on starting my Diablo 2 LP, probably co-op as a few people have expressed an interest in playing the game with me. I will see how Fraps handles the game (last time I tried it 4 years ago it kept crashing the game), and how well the connection between players are as they will not be local.

All this is subject to change based on my work situation. I'll be applying for a few jobs that I am excited about, so hopefully that will turn out well. Cross your fingers for me.


Also, I would like to try Live Streaming video again for fun. I'm not sure what game, and I need to test some software, but if you have any suggestions of love streams you'd like to see, post them here or on my YouTube page. (So far I'm thinking the Morrowind full conversion mod for Oblivion or just straight up Skyrim).

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Lots to Upload

For once. I guess that's what happens when you only have a couple of shifts a week. The frequency of uploads may change when I get a full time job, but for now I just have to worry about flooding people's feeds.

Hit 200 subscribers yesterday, which is a pretty awesome feeling. I make and post videos as a hobby, but I put a lot of effort into it, and the fact that people are actually interested in watching, as small as it is, is a real honour and makes every minute spent playing, recording, editing, encoding and uploading worth it. I've never been interested in making money off of my channel or attracting a huge amount of subscribers, so having a small viewer group is all I could really ask for. As for joining groups or partnerships, I will only do so if it is a group of people I know, have worked with them in the past, and share a lot of the same interests. Anyhow, I want to thank everyone who watches my videos!

On that note, I should be done uploading Outlast by Monday or Tuesday depending on my connection. I have everything encoded and ready to upload, and I've had Billy Joel's "Piano Man" stuck in my head on loop for the last three days because of this LP, but it's done. I was much more freaked out during this game than I was playing Amnesia. As for A Machine for Pigs, I'm not sure what the plan is for that LP. Shauna and I looked at it the day it came out, and there's this strange blue filter on it that wasn't present on any of the trailers or gameplay previews. I wasn't too concerned about it, though I must admit it doesn't look that great. Regardless, I believe we plan on making an LP of that in the future.

Diablo 1 and Half Life 1 will continue to alternate in uploads until they are finished. I expect Diablo 1 to be fully uploaded by the end of next week (unless I take a day or two off to give my network a break) and Half Life 1 will be finished and completely uploaded probably the week after. I still haven't finished Half Life 1, but I will say that there are some incredibly silly moments ahead concerning some soldiers and the ninja assassin fellows.

As for future LPs, I have had requests to play through Diablo 2 and Black Mesa. I will probably leave Black Mesa to just before the New Year as I want a bit of a break after Half Life 1. I don't know how similar the two are, but it would be weird playing essentially the same game back to back. What would be interesting would be to compare the two. As for Diablo 2, I have my reservations about it. I may do this LP as with 1 to 2 other people who have expressed interest in playing. My first worry is that the game will not record well as I've had problems with that in the past. Fraps and the quality of my computer, however, have been improved in the last 5 years. My second issue is that I have had...bad experiences with the game in the past, partially of my doing and I am not eager to repeat that experience. My greatest fear is that there will be conflict of interest and the LP will fall apart, but these people seem like decent fellows, and I'm much more mature than I was 5 years ago.

I also plan on maybe LPing Overlord and Overlord 2, working my way down the list of my favourite games to play. Another few options would be games I have never played before: Miasmata, the Thief series, Bastion, Torchlight, Torchlight 2 and Deus Ex. If there are any other suggestions of games you would like to see me LP, leave a comment here or on my channel and I'll do my best to fulfill those requests. There are very few games I will refuse to record/LP.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Dungeon Siege 3 Complete

I have finished and uploaded all of the Dungeon Siege 3 LP. The playlist is complete if you are looking for a specific video or are interested in watching them in order. I'm planning on doing a review of the whole series, comparing 1 through 3 to each other in terms of graphics, style, music, playability and more. Not sure what format I will do this in. I'm still interested in reviewing and critiquing games. It's too bad there are many people out there more entertaining than myself!

I have finished the Diablo 1 LP, which will begin uploading in a few days time. I am currently working on my next LP, but am unsure of how long it will take to finish it, especially since I have terrible aim (there's a hint for you). I will continue to produce LPs because I am enjoying it and because I really need to keep myself busy while I find work. I will go insane otherwise.

Coming Up:

Diablo 1 LP - Uploading every 1 - 2 days (LP is just over 10 hours long meaning there will be around 20 parts, which means that the LP should be fully uploaded within a week and a half)

Current LP - In the recording stage. Waiting until Diablo 1 is rendered and encoded before editing begins.

Machine for Pigs with Shauna - Videos will be produced and edited the week of September 10

Outlast with Shauna - Tentative - Not sure if that will be an LP, but it will probably be recorded week of September 4 if that's the case

I also have more Left 4 Dead 2 videos, but people haven't seemed too interested in those. I will upload those when I run out of LP material in this case.

*In terms of Amnesia, I will probably be equally scared as the first. I really don't know much about the game though, so a lot of it should be a surprise. I just know that enemies are supposed to be...unpredictable.

**In terms of Outlast, it has the potential to scare me the most as its set in an insane asylum. Bad shit happened to people in those places. They are not good places. Too many movies and TV shows freaked me out. This will be either silly or terrifying.