Cilantro

So this website exists: http://ihatecilantro.com/haikus/

Can't say I hate cilantro enough to write a haiku about it, but I'm not a fan of it in general.

This is the last soundtrack Thursday for the next couple of weeks since I'll be out of the city. Trying to get some things done over the next couple of days. I'll try to have some videos uploaded for you to watch while I'm gone, but I can't guarantee how much/what I'll be posting. I have a secret pool of videos, but most of it is faffing around in Age of Empires and Left 4 Dead.

I'll need to post the rest of what I have for Dead Space 2 and try to come up with a plan for finishing that. I ranted about this in another blog post so I don't really feel the need to bring it up again. I currently have all files from Shauna on my hard drives, which means my back log of co-op LPs have extended to SOMA and that Sherlock game (in addition to Murdered: Soul Suspect, Bioshock Infinite and Evil Within with Shauna, and Gauntlet and SR4 with Mesk/HKS). Dead Space 2 and Fire Emblem are pretty much the only solo LPs I have going on right now and I'm looking to change that. Well...when I get back.

The top games I want to run solo right now are:
Shadow of Mordor
To the Moon
Pillars of Eternity
(the rest of) Planet Alcatraz
Myst 4 (done the first 3...just need to prep them for release)
(the rest of) Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Skyrim: Dawnguard DLC
Grim Fandango

Essentially more than what I've had time/space for recording. Showed Oliver my hard drive reaction and his first thought was to get more hard drives and not to clean up the ones I already have XD. I'll just get myself in a bigger mess if I get more I think. That said, three of the drives I own are getting up there in age. Next year my oldest external will turn 10, so I should probably prep for the worst.

Undertale: Kristy really wants me to play this game. I will...eventually.

To the Moon: Heard this one is pretty short, so the LP for it will likely not take me too much time.

I would like to take a moment to say: Tableau, WHY DO YOU HATE JAPAN? Also would it kill you not to stretch my annotation for Guam across the ENTIRE MAP?

Okay now why are Argentina, Kenya and Uzbekistan showing up for North Asia, but not Japan? Okay this is really making me mad. There are active members in Japan. Why is it being excluded? Steve is going to be so confused next month.

Oh that's just great. The image generated for this slide is hosed. Wonderful. Also there's some wonky things going on with the data.

Pro tip everyone: don't let your research and data analyst go on mat leave before explaining how everything works.

Cold without a Sweater

Since I'll be away as of tomorrow, I figured I'd write my weekly post here. I should have brought that blanket with me. I'm a giant wimp and I'm cold without a sweater.

So first off, I apologize for this year's lack of video. I have been extremely busy with some things going on in my life right now. Work, health and some big events are taking up most of my time and the majority of my gaming has been on consoles and the 3DS, which I normally don't record. I am hoping that by the end of April I'll have some time to sort out a few of my projects, which include LPs, writing, that RPG I'm attempting, helping Mesk with some of his work, and helping Delta out with the LAG website when I can.

Dead Space 2 is likely not going to be finished at this rate. I pretty much screwed myself over for the final boss and it's nearly impossible on Zealot difficulty with the resources I have. I can either sink time into it until I finish...which will likely be a significant amount of my time at this rate, lower the difficulty, or revert to a previous save and respec. That or quit, but I think I'd be mad at myself if I just gave up.

Shauna and I finished recording SOMA two nights ago. We have a surprisingly long review for it despite how dull we thought the game was. It had so much potential, but was executed so poorly. We talk about it for a good 40 minutes so I'll just leave the details to that. I expect this to get posted sometime after Murdered and Evil Within.

Current projects I'm ACTUALLY actively working (mostly editing not recording): Murdered Soul Suspect, Gauntlet (I found about 3 hours of footage I haven't edited yet), Saints Row 4, Dead Space 2 and Evil Within.

Temporarily shelved projects: Testament of Sherlock, F.E.A.R. 3, Guild Wars 1, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Planet Alcatraz

"Infinitely" shelved projects: Bioshock Infinite (it so broke yo)

On reserve: Myst, Riven, Myst 3, completed Saints Row 4 video

Writing: Amy got back to me with edits. It's not as bad as I thought it would be and she brings up a lot of good points. I told her to ignore most of the grammar stuff for now since it'll likely all change. Coupled with the bit of feedback Mesk gave me, I'll be able to change up some things.

RPG: I have a lot of the areas and ideal battle system planned. I have compiled a lot of potential music to use as well.

In my searches (and since I won't be around for a soundtrack Thursday), please enjoy some of the material I've been obsessively listening to:

Comprachicos
The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place
Hold Your Colour
Spanish Sahara
Django Unchained
A Thousand Faces
Watercolour
End of An Empire
I Will Follow You into the Dark
Alright Still
Transistor
Metallica

ded

Since it's coming up fast, I figured I would announce that I will be MIA quite a bit over the next month (ish).

Now until March 17 - Very patchy video posting. Essentially I'll throw something up whenever I've had time to make it.

March 17-21 - Very limited contact. Will not be posting any video content.

March 27-April 11 - Will be out of the city. Very limited contact. Will be available by hangouts or email only. Will not be posting any video content (unless I managed to queue/schedule a lot of stuff, but don't expect anything).

Soundtrack Thursday will feature Fire Emblem soundtracks this week because I have a problem.

Fire Emblem Fates - Some of these tracks...all I'm imagining is the busywork between levels. Running around talking to everyone...people getting upset when I give them the wrong accessory (so I just keep passing around the same old dirty bath towel to see who reacts to it positively...I think Sakura cried), spending some REALLY awkward time in your private quarters (I think I found out where the petting part was removed...THEY STARE INTO YOUR SOUL) and trying to stockpile resources for unnecessary crafting. I think if Mesk plays any Fire Emblem games he should actually play this one...not because it's the best, but because it's the weirdest I've played so far. Anyhow, music is great for the most part...love the integration of the theme in some of the tracks.

Fire Emblem Awakening - Some of my favourite Fire Emblem tracks ever are in this game. I think out of the Fire Emblems released in the past 10 years, this is my favourite. Path of Radiance and the original Fire Emblem for Gameboy Advance I think are my two favourites though. I have a draft with my initial thoughts on Awakening lying around here somewhere that I never actually posted. Should see if I can find it...

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn - Out of all the Fire Emblem games (aside from Fates as I'm currently playing it), it's the only one I haven't finished. I got mad at the end because I accidentally enchanted some of the wrong weapons and I couldn't go back. I'll be returning to this game soon, hopefully to LP it once I'm done Path of Radiance.

The Ongoing Mac Struggle

Delta and friends almost have their LAG site up and running. I'll post the link when it's ready. I still need to do a video for Shauna, Nick and Delta that I promised. I just need to set something up for that. That or do one of my 2 min walking videos on my phone and get strange looks from people. Or get hit by a train while I'm not looking.

OH GOOD, my blog actually auto-saved properly. The next chapter in the mac saga: Chrome freezes completely, I click once and get a black screen for about five seconds and suddenly I'm back at the login screen. I login and all my programs and documents had closed. Not like I was in the middle of anything. Not at all. So I restart just in case and it takes about 5 minutes. No idea what any of that was about. Sigh...whatever.

Soundtrack Thursday:

As requested by Shauna: Fallout 4 radio music with DJ Travis. Who wants to take bets on how fast YouTube censors the crap out of this?

Mad Max Fury Road - Saw Junkie XL did a lot of their music (they do a lot of movie music) so I gave this soundtrack a shot. Really enjoyed this movie. Impressive effects and visuals.

LP Update:
-Dead Space 2 ALMOST done. I have had no motivation to attempt that final boss again.
-Fire Emblem Fates has been taking up all the time I should be spending on Fire Emblem Path of Radiance.
-Working on Murdered, Evil Within, Saints Row 4 and Gauntlet when I have spare time.
-No Mesk, Bioshock Infinite is not done.

I really want to start on Shadow of Mordor, To the Moon, Skyrim Dawnguard DLC and Pillars of Eternity. I won't have time or space for any of this until mid-April and that makes me a little sad.

RPG Update:
-More mapping done
-More planning done
-Battle system planning started

Next up will be finishing the Office NPCs, trying to configure the battle system and some rigorous TESTING.

Writing Update:
-Received some feedback. So far nothing crazy.
-About to start chapt. 2 rewrite and I finished some incomplete elements of v. 2.5