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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

MOAR VIDEO

Yeah I messed up and didn't upload enough video to cover the week...so instead of two per day, you'll get one video some days. Meh, my uploads are usually super inconsistent anyways as I sometimes forget or am too tired to post them (also I hate doing the tags). Regardless, you should still get some video each day, just less than normal.

Also, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is now a completed LP. I recommend watching episodes 40-46 for maximum wtf factor. It is so random, rushed and horribly corny. I love it...mostly because even though the quality drops and there are sudden unexplained events, the game is still playable and entertaining. Three points of ughhhhh: Grima, Funny Looking Orc Dude and the stupid Nazgul in Osgiliath. That is all.

Coming up this week: Alien Isolation, Hunted, Dead Space 1

Coming up next week: Sanitarium.

Bioschlock 2 is next on the list after these. I will likely start posting it once Dead Space 1 is finished. Among the Sleep is next up after Alien Isolation in terms of LPs with Shauna (AtS is about 3 hours of gameplay so it should only be about 6 episodes at most). Then I will focus on getting all that Bioshock Infinite off my drives (which was also played with Shuana).

The next Gamecube game I will be posting is Lost Kingdoms. This will likely be followed by Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance on Hard difficulty (because Sacrosanct wants a piece of my suffering). I'd share the anguish of Fire Emblem: Awakening on Lunatic Classic mode, but you are likely only going to get a crummy video from my phone on that at most as it's on the 3DS and I can't emulate that at this time. Guys it's painful. I am currently stuck on CHAPTER 2 because SOMEONE couldn't remember their god damned axe. Yeah the issue is really the pointy stick dudes. Frederick survived the Hammer Man and now it's just the pointy stick dudes.

The next solo LP I will be doing will likely be finishing Half Life Episode 2. The end of February and March is CATCH UP TIME.

Finally expect some extremely silly video from Tera.

Change in Plans

I was supposed to upload more Alien Isolation...but I haven't edited to it yet. I'd say I didn't have time, but that's a lie. I mostly didn't want to edit it because the files I have to deal with now are a heaping mess because of the constant crashes we experienced. Instead I played Hunted, Left 4 Dead and...another game I really didn't expect to play today.

I will be uploading this LP in place of Alien. I believe I will be uploading the entire LP later today. It is not a long LP, and is the first episode of five episodes. I have not done an LP like this before. If it sucks, please tell me because I will likely do the other 4 episodes unless it really sucks. Or youtube removes it because of copyright bru-ha-ha or something similarly silly.

With that said. Sleep.

Too Sleepy for This

I ran out of Alien Isolation videos. I have about 5-6 videos worth of footage on my drives, but I haven't had time to go through and edit them. For the last couple weeks I've been like IT'S FIIIIINE, but then I looked and I'm like...well crap. I need to edit. So I will do that and hopefully have more up in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, enjoy the last of UT3, more of LOTR:TTA, and the beginning of Hunted. Also, if you haven't seen this, then you should go watch. I am quite happy with how this video turned out. It is acting as my year end recap video. I will be posting a preview of 2015 quite soon.

Also, I started my next LP that I put up a poll for. I will announce what the result was in the previously mentioned preview video.

End of the Year

Whelp, almost to the end of the year. I am unsure of how much recording I'll do this month, but I know for sure what I'll be releasing.

I am almost out of Skyrim videos. I have two more to post (some of my 60FPS tests) and that will be it for the year. You can expect more of those videos in the new year.

I have about seven more Unreal Tournament 3 videos, which I will probably post within the next week. Expect Hunted videos to begin next week (I estimate they will appear around December 15).

Alien Isolation will not be finished this year as we still have a lot to record. I will, however, continue to upload what I have. Shauna and I have been having trouble coordinating schedules due to work. I am excited for the episodes coming up. Some of my favourite parts so far have been in these next couple of episodes (including STAIRCASE MANOEUVRES and my solo adventure where I spend about 10 minutes freaking out alone).

And last but not least, I have Lord of the Rings the Third Age. These uploads will also run into the new year as I have about 45 of them...it was a long LP.

OH and I will have a special "year end" video that I am currently (kind of sort of) putting together. I'll be doing a little recap there and a preview of some of the LPs I'll be doing next year (or continuing in some cases).

New Hardware

So. A child peed on the floor at work today. That was fun.

I now have better hardware for playing games, recording and editing. I am very excited about this. I tried a couple of encodes and I have discovered I can produce videos 5 times faster than I used to (on average). I tested some recordings at 60fps. Super smooth and the video looks pretty nice. Actually Skyrim (game I was testing) ran perfectly at highest graphics settings and recorded with no lag at 60fps. Was a good test to give me an idea of what the computer is capable of. I will be able to stream no problem now...IF I get decent internet. And I'm in Canada which means that's ungodly expensive for someone currently working part time (I have been informed by General Delta that it's much worse in South Africa so I shouldn't complain XD). Apparently there's built-in Twitch on these graphics cards as well which is worth looking into.

I know very few people watch the videos regularly (and even fewer read these updates), but I wanted to apologize for the Alien Isolation mix-up. I posted part 10 after part 11 and 12. Granted, we don't get very far in part 10, but still there will be a confusing jump in events. They are all posted properly and in the right order on the playlist now. More of those videos will be going up soon (Shauna should be happy cause that's when the really silly stuff happens).

Skyrim, Alien Isolation and Unreal Tournament 3 are the priority now...but I will post other amusing things as I go. Check out the public drive for other random footage that I won't be posting to YouTube (at least not any time soon).

November was supposed to be the month I crack down and finish up some writing, but looks like my laptop charger port is shot (I'm still hoping it just needs a new charger). So it's out of power and there's no way I can access the files on there unless I get power to it or remove the hard drive. So that's all on hold right now. I have a back up of the one file I really want which at least lets me work a little bit. Just need to set it up...

American Grocery Stores Are Magical Places

You have like...40 flavours of pop and 20 different kinds of oreos. Pumpkin spice oreos. That is a thing. Oh and those Cheez-It things. Thanks for getting me hooked on those Voyeur.

So I've been back for awhile now, but video work has been slow as I've had...well an interesting last couple of days. Had a bit of a medical scare and it skyrocketed my anxiety, which isn't good for productivity, at least in terms of personal projects. Also, my boss at work has a family emergency which means I'll be working full time for the next couple of weeks. I will be tired and video recording and production will slow down immensely.

That said, I have a super entertaining line-up for the rest of November and December. First off, the next Gamecube game I plan on uploading is Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. I finished this LP well over a month ago...maybe two, but it is full of silly from what I can remember. It is cheesy, buggy and all around a good time. Except for the Rohan area. That was stupid. Also how it ended was really just...wtf.

My other single player LPs will include more Skyrim and eventually Bioshock 2, Half Life Episode 2, and Brigmore Witches. I want to finish these before 2015 and get them off my plate. Bioshock 2 is going to take a lot of willpower to finish. It's not very good. I will continue my Skyrim adventures with the Dawnguard DLC.

As for co-op/tag team LPs, I think we'll FINALLY finish Resident Evil 5 within the week. Voyeur and I are very close to completing it, and then we will be moving on to another game. I'm not sure what yet. Perhaps the Magicka DLC. Mesk and I continue to record Hunted. I expect these videos to start going up shortly before December. Depends on what I have to upload at the time. His videos of Hunted should be much more chaotic than mine as my netcode causes strange things on his end.

I've stopped work on Bioshock Infinite, mostly because Alien Isolation has a lot less issues and has been exceptionally entertaining over the last few sessions. There are things that happen in that game that really...I can't describe. Shauna and I are about halfway done the game. It's taking a lot longer because we're playing on hard...and it really is difficult. I still think that the low number of save points is a stupid idea though. We have some LPs planned out for when we finish Alien. I wouldn't expect to see these until like...February of next year though, so I won't bother announcing them.

So rest of November looks like:
Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
Unreal Tournament 3
Skyrim
Alien Isolation

December will likely look like:
Hunted: Demon's Forge
Skyrim
Bioshock Infinite
And one of the following: Half Life Episode 2 or Brigmore Witches

Expect other random videos and clips. Keep an eye on my Public Google drive as well for access to unreleased video.

Tuesday Nights

I really need the sleep, but coffee has a way of making me not sleep. Ever. This is not the case with tea...or really any other form of caffinated drink. I don't count energy drinks because they are disgusting and make my heart feel like it's going to explode (seriously I tried half a can once and it made my heart VERY uncomfortable).

But it helped me bowl a 352 (5-pin) a couple weeks ago so I can't complain.

Oh yeah LP stuff. So Bioshock 2 is making me quite upset about...everything. As I say in the videos, it's like someone's bad Bioshock 1 fanfic. It has some interesting and fun aspects to it but...well...you'll see when I play what my gripes are. I do play it on hard, which doesn't help the situation.

Co-op LP work continues with Mesk (Hunted), Voyeur (Resident Evil 5) and Shauna (Alien: Isolation). I am intending to do some recordings with General Delta and another person soon, but I don't know when.

I have some Half Life 2 Episode 2 sitting on my hard drive waiting to be edited and encoded (but it's not finished) and some Guild Wars 2 (that I need to edit up and post). OH and I keep forgetting to finish editing the Extra Life 2014 recap video. It's done I just need to do a last pass and edit a little bit. There will be a long version and a short version. Short version is 9mins and ready to be posted. Long version is like...an hour and not quite ready yet.

But, my priorities right now are not in the realm of LPing. I have two tasks I must complete before the year is over. 1) Complete my writing project (this is not an option I have decided) and 2) get a full-time job (it is long past due and I will really need the money soon).

I feel like I'm forgetting something.

I'm still so awake and it's 4am. Remind me (people in different time zones and Mesk) that LPing Tuesday nights/early morning Wednesday would be a good idea.

A Bug Hunt

I am super impressed with how well my title fits this time.

FIRST - Alien Isolation continues. We are not done recording...I assume we are around the halfway mark, especially with the sudden difficulty spike. My thoughts so far? Not a bad game. It has...issues though. I don't particularly find the game scary. Now, listening to the videos, you will be inclined to debate this based on our reactions. But it's not scary like Outlast or Amnesia. It is tense. I am way more tense playing this game, and I was way more frightened playing the other games. Half of that tension just comes from whether the bloody Alien will show up and kill us before we can save and we have to do the same shit over and over again. Part of that tension just comes from the unpredictability. Also the game crashes. A lot. I don't even think I'm going to edit the crashes out to be honest. It's just business as usual between them because it's so common. So far in 8 hours of gameplay I believe we had 8 crashes. One crash per hour. gg. Also, the game is a little buggy. It uses Havok, so the physics objects are already hilarious, but the Alien itself is just...so broken. You should see a short clip on YouTube that I posted (two days ago?) that sums this whole experience up in about 45 seconds.

SECOND - Started Hunted: Demon's Forge with Mesk. We marathoned about...5 hours of it before we both got too tired to continue. So we are near the end of the second chapter and have already broken the game in new and exciting ways. We also recreated many of the old bugs he encountered with HKS back when he ran through it then. This will be...a different LP experience. I would recommend this one if you like seeing a lot of silly things (and don't mind that we take the time to see if we can push things to their limits). The game is actually decent though despite its major issues. It's super buggy, but gameplay is fun and interesting, there are tons of areas to explore, and the story itself isn't boring. I have been looking forward to this one. I've never played it before, but it is far from a blind LP as I've watched Mesk and HKS' videos (which can be found here). This LP should start going up on YouTube early November after Bioshock is complete.

THIRD - Extra Life reminder this Saturday. Kathleen reached her goal, but she's trying to stay in first for the Alberta Children's Hospital as she will have the chance to earn extra money for them (30k I think). So feel free to check out our streams on Twitch. I will post the links again on the date. I will be joining in the evening, so Kathleen will have a head start, so make sure to tune in to her stream while I'm off getting my fingers broken and my face crushed by large rubber balls. I'm uh...playing in a dodgeball tournament until about 4/5pm. I believe Shauna, General Delta, Mesk and Oliver may also join in.

Casting Lull

More like casting lol

I haven't been making any new videos for the past while aside for some Resident Evil 5 recordings and Alien: Isolation. I'm not too concerned as I have a ton of material to post that's in queue, but I will need to finish up Half Life 2 Episode 2 and Dishonored at some point. I won't be able to do more recording for a few days as I'm still sick and the condition of my throat will not allow me to speak for prolonged periods of time. I also have some voice work to do for a friend that I am very much behind in.

For the next couple weeks you will see more Bioshock, the first episodes of Alien: Isolation, UT3 and my first few episodes of the Gamecube games I played. I will continue to take suggestions for Extra Life, which is just under 2 weeks away.