The Madness Returns

Uploaded the first segment of Alice: Madness Returns last night. It had three copyright notifications attached to it simply by virtue of being an EA game. I just sighed and promptly ignored acknowledging any of them. I am not done recording the LP yet (mostly due to a severe lack of hard drive space as mentioned before), but I plan on finishing it completely by the end of the month. I'm using this LP to learn how to improve my video and audio quality. You should see the audio improve after the 5th (ish) segment as I balance it better, and the video around segment 11 as I realized I was an idiot and forgot to turn off resampling in Vegas.

In other news:
-The Overlord 2 LP is now completely uploaded and organized into a playlist if anyone is interested.
-I have the bones of my Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Review video laid out in Vegas. I just need filler video and better timing on some of the segments
-Recording more Penumbra today. No that project will never be finished. Hell, it may never be started. It is a lost cause. A false dream. Abandon all hope. Despair! Despair!
-The cheese in my mac and cheese has mutated and expanded, consuming the few noodles left in the cup. It might take over my desk within the hour
-I might have to murder my workplace's internet provider
-The death blizzard continues outside. I may need a legion armed with pick-axes and hair dryers to extract me from the building. That or jump off the roof into the massive drifts that are no doubt forming below me. I shall tunnel my way home
-My lunch hour is over, but I'm having a lot more fun being melodramatic

Twilight Days of my Hard Drive

So, here's the scoop. My hard drive is probably going to die in the near future. This is bad because a) it is my largest hard drive that I use to record all my raw files and b) because I have a lot of unproduced videos and projects stored on that drive. I have made archive copies of all the important old videos on my other drive for now, but I have an entire LP of Penumbra: Overture, the first 40 minutes of Penumbra: Black Plague, a ton of Neverwinter footage I never finished sifting through, two chapters of Half Life that are in the middle of being edited (and fixed as I had some problems with the recording) and all of the Amnesia: Machine for Pigs videos, which I am still using to produce a...special video. 

This means a couple of things. I no longer have the luxury of storing videos on this drive and working on them when I feel up to the task. These videos must be produced as soon as possible, so I cannot give them the attention they need. I was planning inserting text comments and jokes into Half Life and the Penumbra videos. This takes time as I have to watch the whole LP. I also need to resync some of the audio in Penumbra because apparently these videos want to make me miserable. I'm certain now that it's the lag in the games doing it, and since the voice audio and game are recorded in two separate places...this causes problems. Then on top of that, 25-45 minute videos take 2-3 hours to encode. I can only produce one video at a time unless I get creative (which will require the use of other hard drives anyway). 

What's worse is I no longer have a lot of storage space to work with. I currently cannot afford to buy myself new hard drives because I need the money I have for the holidays. I will have to wait until the new year. This drive is my 2TB. The others are all 600GB and lower. This is fine for some games, but the problem is my drives are full of OTHER footage. I am currently recording Overlord 2, which takes up a lot of space. An hour, thirty minutes takes 300GB of space. That's 3.3GB per minute. Yay Fraps. 

So, the point of this post, essentially, is to say that my video production schedule will slow significantly until I get this sorted out. The good news is, I still have Overlord 1 to upload, so you will continue to have a running LP. The bad news is, plans may change, footage may be lost and I cannot realistically start or continue a new LP without great difficulty. 

Last news is, regardless of whether or not the hard drive survives until the new year, I am working on some special projects for the holidays. I have a lot of...amusing unused footage lurking in the depths of my computer. Keep your eyes out in mid-December for new non-LP videos.

Also, it's not relevant, but, I have my drivers license now. It's kind of a big deal. Well...for me. Now I must attain a chariot worthy of my reign of terror on the road. I mean...that's a nice safe buggy to go on lovely Sunday afternoon drives around town. Yes...safe...

Some Extras

Here's a list of some of the references Shauna and I make in the Machine for Pigs videos so far. Just for fun. In no particular order.

Horror Workout
VINCENT PRICE
BYE
Electric Slide
Out of the blue and into the black
Gerbil (2:25 specifically)

I will add more as I edit the video. I will be uploading part 6 and hopefully 7 this evening.

EVIL in the DARK Beware

The TERROR will consume us all. And other cliche phrases and words.

Diablo 2 Act 1 is completed. For the most part, I'd say the LP is going well so far. I think we'll try and slow down play a bit to be thorough and explore all the areas available (we aren't particularly interested in rushing). Nintendog/Sacrosanct and GameVoyeur are playing with me, the former through text and the latter being the second voice you will hear. I expect the first few of these videos to be uploaded before the weekend.

Amnesia footage is slowly, but surely being edited. It's not an overly large game, but as I have mentioned, it has required more of my attention. I am extremely excited about the special project I have going that I will post after the LP is complete. I have a good chunk of it done already and will be consulting Shauna about any other content she'd like to add. I am having a ton of fun producing it though. I get to try out some more video editing techniques as well. EVIL genius mode engaged. We'll see how effective that ends up being.

Also, I rewatched the hour or so that I played of the sewer section and the big scare I got. Let's just say that I find my own terror quite hilarious. Unfortunately if others find it hilarious as well, I may be...convinced to play more horror video games.

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.

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.

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.

Drifting

All my marks are in from school, so now all I need to do is put on a silly robe, pick up a couple of pieces of paper and wait around for three hours while I wait for other people with silly robes to pick up their slips of paper. In the meantime, I will continue making LPs and other videos for YouTube.

I will be gone for a month and a half this summer, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to start new LPs after I complete Dungeon Siege 3. I am estimating that I'm a little over half done DS3, but it's been a long time since I was last at the part I'm thinking of AND I never actually finished the game last time. I got very mad about this one battle, which I am sure will make me very mad again. I have a ton of ideas for new LPs however.

1) Single Player LPs:

I am thinking of LPs I can do on my own time in the next while. I may return to the Dungeon Siege series to complete additional quests or do a showcase of pets and recipes, but ultimately I want to move on to new games.

My top options for LPs at the moment are: Half Life 1 (the original, not the overhaul it got last year), Diablo 1 (of which I have only completed once), Baldur's Gate (of which I already have three videos) and Overlord 1 (of which I started a text LP and then promptly gave up on it).

2) Multiplayer LPs:

I have a lot more Left 4 Dead 2 videos I can post, which people seem less interested in watching. My brother and I play most of them, but I have some friends join us in other campaigns, including another LPer, IskatuMesk, which I unfortunately didn't get the entire recording of the campaign for. Shauna and I are still debating whether we will do an Amnesia: Machine for Pigs LP, but you can guarantee that we will be doing more LPs, probably horror survival related, in the future. We are also contemplating joining up with another friend of hers to do a Neverwinter LP, but we haven't got the details of that one worked out yet. I also have multiplayer videos of Dungeon Siege 1, but I'm not sure what videos of that one are going to be produced.

3) Reviews, Compilation videos and Music:

I currently have a review of Amnesia: The Dark Descent done by Shauna and myself encoding on my computer. I plan to upload it tonight (if it cooperates. It is an hour and 7 minutes long, and would probably only target a few people, but I feel we give an in-depth analysis of the game. It's the first time I've done a video review and I may move on to do reviews of the Dungeon Siege series and perhaps some Fire Emblem games. I am not sure how these reviews will work yet, or even if it's worth doing. I'll have to see if people are interested in seeing them. As for compilation videos, I have another Left 3 Dead 2 one planned that I need to review a lot of video for. I currently don't have enough footage for another "Five Years of Flails" type video yet, so that will be a long time coming. As for music, I plan on making some more continuous tracks for video games, but I am not sure which ones yet. Probably Dungeon Siege 2 or and extended version of the Dungeon Siege 1 version.


Overall, I have a lot to work on. I will be asking any viewers interested what they'd like to see as an LP. If no one really cares, I'll do whatever the hell I want and hope for the best.

Revised Video Schedule

Because I realized that I'd be flooding people's inboxes with videos they are probably not as interested in. Left 4 Dead Campaigns are going to essentially be filler as they take a long time to upload (especially when my computer decides to restart in the middle of the night). Expect Amnesia and Dungeon Siege 3 videos on the dates in between.

Left 4 Dead 2 - The Parish - Normal - March 21-22 

Amnesia Part 6 - ? - March 23

Left 4 Dead 2 - Clip Show 2 - March 24 (out of all the videos I've made, this is one of my favourites) 

Left 4 Dead 2 - No Mercy - Normal - March 27
Left 4 Dead 2 - Crash Course - Normal - March 30

First segments of Dungeon Siege 3 - March 31

Something completely different? - April 1

Left 4 Dead 2 - Death Toll - Normal - April 3
Left 4 Dead 2 - Dead Air - Normal - April 6
Left 4 Dead 2 - Blood Harvest - Normal - April 10

Left 4 Dead 2 - Clip Show 3 (not yet produced) - My plan is to work on this and have it  completed after my presentation and paper is complete. Tentative date: April 13

Left 4 Dead 2 - Cold Stream - Normal - April 17

Left 4 Dead 2 - Dead Centre - Advanced (with MaxGrief) - April 20
Left 4 Dead 2 - Hard Rain - Advanced - April 24
Left 4 Dead 2 - Cold Stream - Advanced - April 27
Left 4 Dead 2 - Crash Course - Advanced - May 1
Left 4 Dead 2 - Dead Air - Advanced - May 4
Left 4 Dead 2 - Blood Harvest - Partial Campaign Advanced (with Malkor/Iskatumesk) - May 8
Left 4 Dead 2 - The Passing - May 11
Left 4 Dead 2 - The Sacrifice - May 15

OHI MARCH

It's going to chew me up and spit me out.

I have a plan for March (wow when does that happen) to put out as many videos as I can that have been clogging up my drives for the past 6 months (and up to 3 or 4 years in some cases). This is my attempt to free up space and get as much semi-entertaining stuff out there as I can. I figure the more videos I can work on, the better my editing skills will get. So here is the line up for the next month (ish).

Left 4 Dead 2 - Dead Centre - Normal - March 5
Left 4 Dead 2 - Dark Carnival - Normal - March 7
Left 4 Dead 2 - Swamp Fever - Normal - March 7 (I'm gone for the weekend so I'll post two videos Thursday)
Left 4 Dead 2 - Hard Rain - Normal - March 11
Left 4 Dead 2 - The Parish - Normal - March 14 (One day later as I want to ensure I have a solid, quick connection as I have a paper due March 14 and I know I will need to use the internet.)

Left 4 Dead 2 - Clip Show 2 - March 16

Begin the Recording and Production of Dungeon Siege 3 (depends on Hard Drive Space and my exhaustion level after a really busy week)

Left 4 Dead 2 - No Mercy - Normal - March 18
Left 4 Dead 2 - Crash Course - Normal - March 20
Left 4 Dead 2 - Death Toll - Normal - March 22
Left 4 Dead 2 - Dead Air - Normal - March 24
Left 4 Dead 2 - Blood Harvest - Normal - March 26

Left 4 Dead 2 - Clip Show 3 (not yet produced) - My plan is to work on this and have it  completed after my presentation and paper is complete. Tentative date: March 28

Left 4 Dead 2 - Cold Stream - Normal - March 30

Something completely different? - April 1

Left 4 Dead 2 - Dead Centre - Advanced (with MaxGrief) - April 3
Left 4 Dead 2 - Hard Rain - Advanced - April 5
Left 4 Dead 2 - Cold Stream - Advanced - April 7
Left 4 Dead 2 - Crash Course - Advanced - April 9
Left 4 Dead 2 - Dead Air - Advanced - April 11
Left 4 Dead 2 - Blood Harvest - Partial Campaign Advanced (with Malkor/Iskatumesk) - April 13
Left 4 Dead 2 - The Passing - April 15
Left 4 Dead 2 - The Sacrifice - April 17

Hopefully, but April 20, I will have my larger video game blooper reel completed from the last 4-5 years of gameplay. Expect random Age of Empires 3 matches, Amnesia updates and any bits of Dungeon Siege 3 that I can get done on the days in between. This is a rough schedule subject to change, but there's lots coming up so stay tuned!

Also, I may do something special for Comic Con in Calgary on April 26-28 and I may try my hand at some reviews.