Soundtrack Thursday 18 RETRO

As I mentioned last week, I planned on having a retro games soundtrack Thursday. These are all nostalgic games I never got to play unless I went to a friend's house and convince them to play! Then we'd just make forts and crafts, and play elaborate outdoor games instead. We nearly killed us all in Kelowna when we dug a big hole in the backyard, found the gas line, and proceeded to continue digging around it. We got in trouble for that one naturally.

Three hours of Street Fighter - I'm not sure if I'll listen to all of this as I want to get to other tracks, but it's good background music for work.

Three hours later:

Okayyy Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is up next. One of my favourite all time games. Used to always ask my uncle if I could play this whenever I was at his house.

Okay last track before the internet dies again is Super Mario World. Another game I would always try to convince others to play with me at their house. I was always Luigi, but that's fine. Turns out he's the cool one.

So, Half Life 2 is completely uploaded now. The other Half Life games I have not LPed will be up...sometime...soon...ish.

Meanwhile, Dishonored will begin uploading on Saturday. I will be using the rest of May and beginning of June to get some other projects out of the way and FINALLY do something with the skiing and dodgeball video I've had sitting around for a year. Yes Mini, I am finally going to make the TfaT 2013 Top Ten video. This year I promise I will not take so long.

=)

A Good Place to Be

Where I have a ton of videos available to upload. There is one thing I need to be careful of though, and that is my bandwidth limit. I also don't want to flood people's feeds with videos, so I am trying to space uploads out every two-three days unless something like Outlast Whistleblower pops up (it was requested and I wanted to ensure it went up quickly like the last Outlast game). The LPs I post and the order in which I do it are based off of: requests, personal interest and viewer interest. I still have a small audience (which I actually prefer to be honest), so most of the choices I make in terms of what to record and post are based almost solely on my own interest. This is why Outlast Whistleblower and Half Life 2 have jumped to the top of the list.

So what about my other projects? In case you do not want to read all the details and want the bottom line...

Production order:
Half Life 2 (should be complete before May 15)
Outlast Whistleblower (uploaded and produced on-the-go)
Dishonored (is (mostly) recorded and ready to be posted. Should start showing up May 16/17)
Half Life Episode 1, Episode 2 (beginning - mid June)
Dark Souls - Early Summer

Dishonored is actually not fully recorded. That is...the DLC is not fully recorded. I am waiting until I have all of Half Life 2 posted (which should be VERY soon) and then I will begin the process of uploading that LP. I have a good 30+ segments, so this will give me loads of time to catch up on other projects, organize my drives and play some other games that I will not be recording (ie PS3/PS4 games). Because it's nice to just play a game sometimes and not worry about whether I'm running out of space or how loud I'm speaking in the dead of night. I have a small segment of Brigmore Witches left. I love this game, but other things came up and I ended up leaving that portion for later. I need to return to it quick though, because it's been a LONG time since I last touched it, and I don't want to risk having to relearn all the controls etc.

The Penumbra series really didn't interest me much. I enjoyed playing them enough at the time (though the third one was difficult to get through in terms of engagement) and we DID finish all three games (we would have quit if they were terrible...we have done that in the past *cough cough Haunted Memories*), but they were all just...meh. I was only really tense/scared at one point in Black Plague, and the rest of the gameplay couldn't seem to find a good balance between the elements. Basically it seemed that they were just throwing everything (puzzles, horror, mystery, storytelling etc.) at the wall to see what would stick. I think that's why Amnesia was so much more successful, because they figured out what worked from previous experience. Puzzles were downplayed, horror was accelerated and the environments were a hell of a lot more interesting (ie not just hallways upon hallways leading to hallways with an ice room and a lab thrown in). I like puzzle games, but you need variation or more atmosphere to get them to be engaging. When it's just boxes and jumping, it gets a little old fast. When there was variation, it was difficult to do what you wanted to with the interface provided. Anyhow, this is pretty much at the bottom of my list for getting out on YouTube, even though I have it fully recorded.

Bioshock Infinite is on hold, especially since Shauna's TV is still doing strange things. Outlast Whistleblower has taken priority over this, mainly because we've been looking forward to seeing what the DLC was all about. It is being recorded playing with a computer screen. We will likely return to Bioshock Infinite after this. This is why I have not been editing the last couple of segments from the game (though I REALLY need to get it off my drives like Penumbra).

Half Life Episode 1 is going to be posted after Dishonored. I already started to record it, and will likely finish recording and editing it so it is ready to be uploaded immediately after. My main goal is a more consistent uploading schedule. The game runs fine. It has the same problems as Half Life 2 in recording. Nothing really new there.

Still working on figuring out future collaborative LPs with Voyeur. I will update when we actually figure something out. I had the question of whether I would be "showing myself" and not just being a disembodied voice. I may be working on something like that with Voyeur. If that never comes about, I am not promising anything, but I MIGHT do a single-player LP of either F.E.A.R. or Amnesia: The Dark Descent (with the aims of playing alone on Hard and trying to get the "good" ending) with a reaction cam. Maybe. Possibly. I will decide.

Today Is Monday

The title states the obvious.

Expect to see the rest of Half Life 2 posted this week. I finished recording it yesterday (which includes some of the worst game freezing and desyncing I've encountered...especially since the boats level...freaking boats man) and will be editing it gradually throughout the week.

I will start uploading Dishonored early next week. It's nearly completely produced (haven't finished some of the Brigmore Witches yet), which is great because I can give you guys something to watch on my channel while I get other projects all finished.

Videos that may or may not have been mentioned in LPs recently. That or I just like them.

Wrecking Ball Metal Version - Because it is ten times better than the original song.

Half Life in 60 Seconds - This video is the reason why I scream Gordon Freeman's name every time I hear it in-game.

Half Life 1 in 20 mins and 41 Seconds - My jaw is still dropped a week after watching. I think my jaw may be broken. Perhaps I should look into that.

Not Once Has He Lost a Sword Fight - Not sure what I was expecting, but this surprised me. And made me giggle. I got strange looks from coworkers.

MY BRAND - I have special eyes.

Anyway...

OHI MARK.

End of the Con

So comic con is over. I managed to still get two Half Life 2 episodes out this weekend, which is two more than I thought I would produce. Horray for productivity.

My adventures from the con are (obviously) posted on this blog. I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would this year, but I figured there was enough photos of the amazing cosplay floating around this year that you'll be able to find a ton of them online.

Expect another chapter of HL2 out this week. I believe the next chapter will be out in four parts. The first two are produced and I have two I may go through this evening. Also expect the last of the Bioshock Infinite videos I have recorded (Shauna is getting her computer looked at this week) and the introduction of Penumbra Black Plague (if I am not lazy/busy).

Dishonored should begin showing up in mid-May. It'll give me time to finish up HL2 and Black Plague.

Geiz! Geiz! (also soundtrack Thursday 15)

Iz Comic Con. Oh Emm Gee.

Woke up and spun around singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." I'm sorry wallet. You will suffer this weekend.

Soundtrack Thursday is still a go. Seems like Thursdays are usually short days. I'll be leaving around 3 to go line up for my badge and wrist bands. I feel so official and that's really not the case. Oh man.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - I really need to watch all these again. I love these movies.

Shit. So I agreed to help my coworker grow her Chia Pet. I misread the instructions and used two tablespoons instead of two teaspoons of seeds. So now I have this scoop of unused seeds sitting on my desk. I need to find something random to Chia.

PS - The Spongebob Chia is a little terrifying.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - There is also a compilation of all the Harry Potter Soundtracks on YouTube. It is over 9 hours long. I don't think I can handle that much Harry Potter.

Supernatural - In playlist form as it does not seem to exist as a compilation (yet). I love this show.

LP UPDATE:
-Shauna still cannot figure out what is happening with her hdmi
-More Half Life 2 IS recorded. You can all make fun of me for my poor handling of the rocket launcher.
-Penumbra Black Plague is sitting peacefully on my hard drive
-More videos likely to be uploaded Monday. This weekend is a write-off

Frozen Inside

Inside my work that is. It might actually be warmer outside right now. There is no heat to counteract the air conditioning that I think is stuck on. I wouldn't have a problem with it, only I didn't dress warm enough for this today. Spring is finally here, which means misery for my sinuses. I don't even know what it is I'm allergic to. It's just spring. I am allergic to spring.

Anyway, I didn't make a post to complain about temperature and nasal congestion, though it certainly gave me the opportunity. I have been working away all weekend whenever I have time, and have completed a lot of Half Life 2 videos. I posted three videos over the weekend (one was supposed to be posted last night, but the video didn't publish for some reason and I JUST noticed) and I expect to post three parts of Ravenholm in the next couple days. The gaming laptop I am using to record it (quite literally the only machine that I can use that CAN record it due to lag) is breaking video in all sorts of interesting ways. So far, I have been able to handle it.

What to expect this week:
-HL2: Ravenholm chapter
-The beginning of Penumbra: Black Plague
-A couple Bioshock Infinite videos (the LP is on hold otherwise)
-Just Cause 2 Multiplayer videos (as requested by my brother)

IMPORTANT: We are currently not recording Bioshock Infinite as Shauna has encountered a problem with her HDMI cable connecting her laptop to the TV. While we could play this on her laptop screen, it is a lot more difficult for two people to see and comment on it. In case someone out there can help us (or more specifically her as it is her machine), this is what's going on:
-HDMI previously connected to the television fine
-When it is connected now, the TV will not recognize the laptop, or the laptop's screen will flash on and off
-The laptop will connect on start-up (ie the Windows start-up logo and screen) but fails to work when it reaches the desktop
-She has not installed any new software aside from games (particularly Deus Ex)
-We have tested the resolution and that is not the issue
-I am unsure of whether she has tested the refresh rate
-The cable is not faulty as we tested this with other devices
-The TV is not faulty for the same reason

If anyone has a solution or has encountered this and fixed it, please leave a comment on this blog, or message me on YouTube/Google+. She would really like some answers.

Penumbra Overture

Is finally completely uploaded. I explain this in the description and in the video, but there is a significantly large portion of the video near the end that was corrupted and unusable. Therefore, all I had to work with was the mic audio. I cut out about 5-7 minutes of this audio, only putting in bits I thought were important to note...or particularly silly. At any rate, I apologize for this once more, but there is little I can do to fix it. I could have re-recorded it, but it would have been a bit botched anyway, and I do not have easy access to the save files as it was played on Shauna's computer and not my own. Anyway, the most important piece of the video are still there, so hopefully it doesn't bother you much.

More Half Life 2 and Bioshock Infinite queued up for this week. That is if I can force myself to focus on it and not play inFamous Second Son or Dishonored the whole time. I am a little bit addicted...and may only have received four hours of sleep last night because of it...

The new inFamous is actually pretty fantastic. I like the new character...even if he's a little ridiculous sometimes. All the time. Every time.

Soundtrack Thursday 13

Another soundtrack Thursday. It's been another tough week, though for different reasons. Regardless, I'm still sick and I have no energy so I'm going to let you guess what today's theme is rather than explain it.

Bioshock 1 - I actually thoroughly enjoyed this soundtrack. I liked it better than the Bioshock Infinite one. I've decided I need to LP this sooner than later.

Must resist the urge to listen to...Dishonored...tracks...

dot dot dot

Chocolate peanut butter eggs have been delivered to me via shady staircase hand-off. I may yet survive this day.

Dead Space 1 - Another game I really need to LP in the near future. I never actually finished it. Also...wtf when did I purchase Dead Space 2?

Motivation to stay functional...dropping. Must, get, coffee.

Half Life 2 - Fitting as I am LPing it.

Yep. The bottom of my coffee was where all the sugar escaped to.

F.E.A.R. 

Holy crap I nearly had a heart attack when I thought my coworker was a giant, elongated cat head walking towards me out of the corner of my eye. This is not a good sign people. Now I know what terrifies me. Aside from spiders and demented Muppets popping out of closets and demonic omnipotent death hares and giant bat people. This is just a whole bucket of NOPE.

Actually I'd love to see concept art of the last three...as long as they stay out of my dreams.

This blog post appears to be an exercise in growing madness. I better conclude it before it gets worse. I added a list of all video LPs that you can see if you scroll down to the bottom of the blog. Also, I have fulfilled most of my promise for this week's videos. I only have to finish Penumbra Overture now.
Crap.

...

link

shh....

Derp

As I mentioned a few times last week, I didn't get much video produced as I had lost a lot of sleep, and really wasn't up to spending the time and energy producing the high-maintenance LPs...which incidentally is all three of the ones I'm currently releasing. I am currently encoding the last segment of Dishonored, so that LP will be fully prepared for release after I get the other three in order. I seem to have prioritized these poorly. I am going to redouble my efforts this week.

Penumbra Overture will be finished by the middle of the week (though I don't know what to do about the corrupt portion near the end...I'm tempted to re-record it myself, but we'll see). I'm actually quite pissed at how corrupt and desynced this LP turned out. It may be tainting my overall opinion of Penumbra, and that's really not the game's fault. That said, I may have a few words about the games themselves once this is all over.

Two new episodes of Bioshock Infinite have been uploaded. Expect 2 - 3 more by the end of the week. Also another pain in the ass to produce because of the echo.

Half Life 2 is fairly easy to edit and produce, but I got halfway through editing the next segment before I felt like smashing my face into the keyboard (not related to the game, I just stopped functioning at that point). I will be recording more this week, hopefully finishing the game completely. Expect at least 2 more episodes of that this week.

So in summary, you should expect a minimum of 6 videos, and a maximum of *shrug*

Point is, I'm still here, and I thank those who are waiting for specific videos for their patience. Meanwhile, I took a few hours to make a VERY SERIOUS VIDEO, because I really needed a little silliness this week.

Pop Music

It's amazing how many shitty mainstream pop songs make me physically ill now. I hear them and something inside me twists and I feel like projectile vomit is the only answer. Thankfully I've trained myself to mock the songs incessantly so a bucket or a washroom has not been needed to this day.

Also, I should point out that chrome doesn't think washroom is a word. But aside from "toilet," "washroom" makes way more sense in public. Because if you say you have to go to the "bathroom," there is rarely any baths in public places like restaurants or parks, and a "restroom" really makes no sense because I can't think of any way a public washroom is restful. At least if you say "washroom," a person is more likely to wash their hands or something in there unless you are camping and the portable toilet has no sink, but in that case there is normally hand sanitizer. But are you really "washing" if you use hand sanitizer? It's more like killing germs and spreading dirt around as it absorbs. So really, we need to come up with a better way of saying "I need to go to the room where you poop."

What was the point of this post again?

Oh yeah. I'm going to release the first two parts of Half Life 2 this evening.

Stock Photos

For the past couple months I have been looking at the same type of stock photos for this one project I'm working on at...well work, and there are some really great caption opportunities. Stock photos have to be some of the most hilarious photos out there, but then you get creepy doctors with vials staring into webcams, or a group of business people that obviously get paid to do nothing all day as they sit around a table building towers out of solo cups. My favourite series of the day was this group of people all in suits in an empty concrete room sitting in a circle. It's like an AA meeting...only the pictures progress into two guys wrestling, and then having a pillow fight, and then one of the guys strangling the pillow, and then a woman with a red foam bat standing over an unconscious man...and I'm not exactly sure what's going on. I have to admit my favourite photo of the day is this. I can only assume this woman snapped from the pressures of the business world and decided to follow her dreams of world domination, taking this poor old man hostage. Just the sheer horror on the old man's face and the delight on the woman's face is just pure gold. (seriously, take a look at the tags and everything and tell me if you'd expect that based off what you see...I love how "communication" is one of them).  

Anyway, I'll take up the hobby of mocking stock photos another day. Penumbra and Bioshock Infinite are coming along slowly. Almost done Penumbra Overture...I have up to part 6 uploaded. Part 6 has some really good bits in it, especially since we didn't expect a few of the events. Bioshock Infinite is fairly good, though I've been fixing some problems with an echo picked up by the mic. I'm going to try and finish uploading Penumbra Overture by the weekend, and then I will (hopefully) bring you Half Life 2. 

Quick Update

Item 1: I've decided to alternate posting Penumbra and Bioshock Infinite, mostly because that is taking up the majority of the space on my drives, and they are cooperative projects with Shauna, meaning I want to get them posted quicker.

Item 2: I have not moved Half Life 2 footage off the computer I recorded it on yet. I am not done recording, but I think I will finish recording the entire LP before I post it, giving me time to upload the other content. This actually ties in with...

Item 3: I have a new hard drive. I caved yesterday at the store and purchased a 3tb hard drive, which should finally resolve my space issues. Though...I said that when I purchased the 2tb...

Item 4: I am terrible at Dishonored, but I am loving it. This will be the last LP posted out of the 4, and it is completely blind. I'll let that sink in. Yes...it is MESSY.

Spring Schedule

All right, so I had a busy weekend. I got a lot of recording and video editing done, which surprised me. I'm not sure what my time is going to be like this week, but I'll have a lot to post to tide you over until my next recording session. I have completed and processed LP footage from:

Bioshock Infinite (an adventure in floating things and creepy religious overtones played with Shauna)
Penumbra Overture (an adventure in puppies and tunnels played with Shauna)
Left 4 Dead 2 (campaigns and mods played with various people)

I have recorded, but unprocessed footage from:
Half Life 2 (which may require a little bit of extra editing as the combination of Fraps and my computer results in catastrophic results...Fraps is a little unstable with HL2 for some reason)
Dishonored (which is a Blind playthrough. I am loving it, but am outrageously terrible at being sneaky)

I am debating whether to just stagger footage (ie alternate posting the videos from different games) or fully posting an LP before I start to post another. The advantage to the former is that I focus more on one game at a time. The advantage to the latter is you won't have to wait long for videos from a particular game you want to see. There hasn't been too much interest in the Left 4 Dead 2 material, so I'll probably hold that in reserve and focus on Bioshock Infinite and Half Life 2. That is my plan, if you have any comments or requests on posting, let me know.

With this in mind, you should start seeing new videos by tomorrow or Wednesday.

Dark Souls will probably be a summer LP at this rate.

ALSO: after like...3 months, Magicka has I think two chapters left. This is mostly my fault for the delay...heh.

Busy Busy Busy

Half Life 1 LP is almost complete (finally). I have very little left to record, just need some time to sit down and be patient with the final chapters. There will probably be rage. I'm not the greatest at FPS. My aim is terrible and these levels get incredibly confusing, so I hope you enjoy my agony.

I have a lot of options for LPs after this, but frankly, I think I'm going to buy some time with some other random videos as I have really been focusing on my writing the past few days, plus I have work and other activities keeping me busy. The main reasons for wanting a little time off is to a) Play games I don't have to worry about LPing, and b) So I can allocate some real time to writing. The one LP I'll probably dabble into at least a little bit in this time will be Half Life 2.

In the near future I still want to do:
Dark Souls
Dishonored
F.E.A.R.
A bunch of other stuff that I referenced in other posts and am too lazy to go and find mainly because I need to go edit a document that I'm putting off because I'm tired.

Co-op:
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
Unreal Tournament 3

Magicka is close to being finished.