Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Alien Isolation Complete

In case you missed the memo, I am finally done editing and uploading Alien Isolation. It's all there. All 49 parts. I am a little mad at myself for not making it 50 parts though...it would have been a nice number. Oh well...

I uploaded the first episode of Testament of Sherlock Holmes because Shauna was asking for it. It's really awful, but hilarious. All the cinematic transitions are really messed up. I took some candid shots and stuck them at the end. Maybe the titlecards of each episode will be some of these. I'll still probably post all of Among the Sleep as our next LP next as I don't have all the footage from the Sherlock game on hand (it's on Shauna's external). Besides, it's short, and I REALLY need a short project after the multi-month effort Alien Isolation turned out to be.

Other than catching up on all these backlogged projects, the things I am currently working on are Fire Emblem, the Sherlock game, Tera and Saints Row 3. I don't know what my plans beyond that are at the moment. I kind of just want to hibernate for a week.

Saw the doctor and I'm getting some tests done tomorrow morning because I haven't had time to go to the lab and it's closed by the time I'm done work. So really no news yet. I will return to my normal work hours next week. I think I will record/edit more stuff at that time. Maybe I'll write. Likely I'll just be completely unproductive and do some reading or binge watch some television shows.

Yeah, that sounds nice.

EDIT: You know what? I'm going to play some Skyrim next week. It's about time I picked that up again.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Long Week

Cue jokes surrounding the word "long."

My boss was away in Italy this week dealing with family business, so I have been working every day this week. It hasn't been too excruciating as it's been pretty quiet here aside from random groups of noisy children and legions of dudebros who leave the lingering scent of Axe. Regardless, I have not been home much this week. Any time I have been, I have either been busy (plans for D&D etc.) or too tired to do anything useful. On one hand, due to people's graphics cards being toasted (not that it's a good or anything cause...money) and me currently not having any running projects besides Fire Emblem (Life is Strange doesn't count because that was a 2 and a half hour one-shot) I haven't been behind on any recordings. I finished encoding Hunted, and I'm SO CLOSE with Tera and Alien Isolation. On the other hand...

I should have had a lot more productive week. I managed to get through work (one more shift tomorrow then I get to break on Sunday...perhaps literally XD). Problem is I literally have had no energy this week, and that's not because I've been busy. I am sick, again, but this time it's...really weird. I have extreme fatigue (I actually don't know how I made it through Wednesday), I've been waking up exhausted every day (yes I've been getting at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep every night...frankly I'm too tired to stay up later; I just pass out), I've been having trouble...concentrating (more than usual...yeah I know that's kinda hard to imagine), and the weirdest thing is I've been experiencing pain in my joints. Like...not just a couple of them. Every. Single. Joint. I have the usual lower back and knee pain that flares up at annoying times, but this is different. My hips, knees, elbows, shoulders, back, hands, wrists, ankles, all ache or have this burning sensation. My toes currently have a "hot" or burning sensation (I used to get this in university and I thought it was stress related). I can still type and use the mouse, but my fingers feel swollen and brittle (they are not swollen and are in fact, quite solid). It doesn't keep me up at night or anything, but I feel it immediately when I wake up in the morning. I thought this was a flu at first, because I get really achy when I get the flu, but I literally do not feel sick otherwise. I have no other flu symptoms and they started last Saturday evening. They have only marginally got better some days this week. Still eating normal amounts of food for me. Eating fairly healthy etc. Pain meds sort of help. Takes the edge off but it doesn't actually go away. I just don't understand what's happening.

Good news is I have an appointment to see a doctor on Monday morning. I am hoping I feel better by then and this just gets dismissed as a bad flu. I will be happy with that. That said, I almost wonder if there's something else wrong. I may be okay with that too because then I might actually know why I get sick so much. I don't WANT something to be wrong, but maybe I can finally take some steps to be healthier. And if we don't find anything, at least I'll know it's just me and I got to get my shit together for once.

Anyway, just typed that all out here because I'm actually kind of freaked out. Going to keep going on as normal as I can in the meantime (don't have time for this shit man!). I will keep you updated.

All five-ish of you.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Life is Strange Episode 2

Episode 2 is going up today. Marathoned the game again last night once I had access. It actually came at a really good time because I doubt I could have slept last night had I not taken the two and a half hours it took to play it. Went to sleep all right after that despite how...intense it got at the end.

So after having a little more of a taste of the game, what do I think? Well I'm interested enough to play and LP Episode 3. It didn't lose the momentum it had from the first game. The story is actually engaging. I want to keep playing and see what happens, and the story isn't afraid to delve into some dark stuff. The ending of this episode was proof of that (and I won't ruin it, but let's just say you can "fail" the climax of this little installment). The dialogue is....well strange. Heh. At some points, you seem to be having a real conversation with a real person...aaaand then you fall into cliches and lines that I don't believe any real person would say given the situation. In other words, sometimes the characters act like they would in real life, and then sometimes the characters act like ideas or stereotypes of people in real life. Like the only experience the writers had with teenagers is from bad high school dramas.

Graphics and gameplay is on par with episode 1. I forgot how one of the game mechanics worked, and I mention it, but I never actually had to use it. Music was lovely and mellow and sets the tone nicely. The game is paced well (an issue I see with a lot of games...and movies, is just poor freaking pacing). There are actually few games I would say are paced perfectly, but this is one of them. Even one of my favourite games, Transistor, had a few pacing issues. There's enough balance between actions and dialogue to allow for character development to happen.

My favourite part, although completely expected, is the attempts at making all characters sympathetic (but not necessarily likable). Even some of the nastiest characters at the school seem to have reasons for being the way they are and doing what they do. Doesn't make them good people, but you at least get everyone's backstory and understand where they're coming from...even if you really don't give a shit and would love to see them burn anyway. Also really interesting to see some actual research going into victim response and recovery implemented in the game, especially when I've been doing a lot of research in the area and training myself.

At any rate, I still recommend playing it, or even watching it (should find someone more interesting than me though).

That janitor though. Creepy as hell, but I can't help but think he's the only one who actually knows wtf is going on in the town...in terms of mystical bru-ha-hah anyway.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

I Think My Laptop Might Be on Fire

Not sure if it's actually my laptop, but I smell a burny electronic smell. Laptop is a bit warm but I still hear the fan working. The day it stops making clicking noises is the day it'll probably die permanently. No more free fixes for me. That ship has sailed. It'll probably be the day I actually finish my writing. I will be sure to back up the work EXTENSIVELY before that.

I'm in the latter half of all LPs I'm uploading at the moment. Hunted, Sanitarium, Dead Space 1 and Alien Isolation should all FINALLY be done early April.

Next up: Bioshlock 2, Lost Kingdoms (Gamecube), Among the Sleep (tag-team w/ Shauna)

What I'm working on: Saints Row 3 videos for LAG (with GeneralDelta), Tera (with Mesk and hks), Alien Isolation (soooo close), Hunted (have a few of Mesk's clips to add), Bioshock Infinite (I'm going to try and finish this so I can finally get rid of it)

What I'm recording: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

What I'm thinking of recording: Dead Space 2, Skyrim Dawnguard DLC, Grim Fandango

What I'm actually doing instead of all this: watching cartoons and writing...and working...


Sarahhhhhh. Why did you convince me to play HabitRPG? I died. I have no sword. I have to attack with my face now. Hmmm...might actually do more damage...

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Gone Dark

Hey everyone. Sorry I went dark for a couple days there. I had a project I needed to finish...and if I wasn't working, I was writing this thing. Yep, three days later and a lot of lost sleep, I'm in recovery mode. The good news is, I am done and a major item is checked off my to do list. Bad news is I've neglected uploads. I am currently remedying that.

Sanitarium and Hunted videos should be published tonight. Turns out I had one other Alien video I forgot I edited, so that will go out tomorrow along with another episode I'm going to edit right now. I am really exhausted though, so I'm going to do additional catch-up tomorrow.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Spaaaaaaaaaaaace

Dead Space 1 LP is fully recorded now. I am currently encoding chapter 11 as I type. I will be deciding what my next solo LP will be over the next couple of days here. I WILL be doing Dead Space 2 at some point (maybe even next). I enjoyed the original enough to continue the series. I have heard Dead Space 2 is a fairly decent game, so I probably won't experience another Bioschlock moment. Hopefully.

I also finished recording Hunted with Mesk. I need to edit some of the footage, but I will be encoding and posting that shortly as well. We will be doing more Tera videos once hks gets a new video card, but until then I will be working on other things.

I tried F.E.A.R. with Shauna yesterday. She was not interested in the game and got bored quickly. If I LP this, it will be on my own, but this likely will not be the next LP. I'm going to try to get Evil Within working on the old gaming laptop I was given to see if it will run smoother. Sure it could give me a bsod at any second but it's worth trying. I have a lot of our LP stuff to go through. Alien Isolation, then Among the Sleep (cause it's short), Bioshock Infinite (because it's been over a year), Murdered: Soul Suspect and then whatever we decide to continue with at the moment. We're playing a really awful Sherlock Holmes game right now. It's been fun to riff on.

Games I will likely solo LP next are one of the following:
Dead Space 2
Grim Fandango
Contrast
Half Life Episode 2

I would have put the Monkey Island series on there, but I can't find 1, need to purchase 2 and 3 is in CD form and I cannot get it to work. I'll have to wait on that one. I'm not going to play the new one.