After Extra Life

All right I'm going to do a quick recap of the weekend here. I'm currently uploading the Twitch streams from the weekend. I might do a highlight reel from the games I played, but I will also be uploading the full streams...if it actually works. I don't think YouTube is happy with the length of some of these, even though I've seen 10 hour videos on YouTube. It just processes endlessly until it fails. I just spilt up one of the videos to see if that helps but...well we'll see. The Sonic one is live if you're interested in seeing me unintentionally kill Sonic in a lot of interesting ways.

I had to work on Saturday in the morning and afternoon, so Kathleen and her friend started off the day playing some Fallout 4. If you're interested in seeing any of her gameplay, you should be able to find the video for at least a couple days here: http://www.twitch.tv/missswat/profile

Anyway, I joined Kathleen after work, covered in sparkles and bits of that fake evergreen tree stuff because I was putting up Christmas decorations. Kathleen and I played some games from about 7:30pm-2am and then both uh...promptly passed out. Kathleen at least had an excuse as she was feeling pretty sick that day. Kudos to her for toughing it out so long. I just passed out because I have no willpower. If you watch to the end of the Incredibles stream, you'll see me falling asleep at the end. I actually lose consciousness for a couple seconds at the time, resulting in me taking unneeded damage/dying. 

I tried streaming Transistor, but the computer I brought to Kathleen's didn't do so well in terms of Streaming and running games at the same time. So I gave up on that after about 30 mins of trying and switched to Gamecube games, which turned out a lot better as the Gamecube could run them while the computer streamed. Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers was the first game I played. It was...hilarious. I loved playing that game for awhile when the movies first came out. I don't remember their faces being so terrifying when converted to...whatever the hell I was looking at. Gimli in particular was...well you'll see. I switched to an Incredibles game after because I got mad. I managed to finish that entire game in about 3 hours. It was also quite hilarious. I plan to play this game co-op with Michael someday as for some reason, we've played it multiple times through together. Probably do to a lack of good owned co-op games. 

I fell asleep after that and woke up at 7am. I played Sonic Mega Collection for a couple hours and then packed up. I had somewhere to be in the morning, so I left Kathleen's and headed out to that. Almost didn't go anywhere as my car wouldn't turn over initially. I hadn't left lights on or anything, so that was exceptionally concerning. I took a look at the battery and saw a boat-load of corrosion on the battery so I cleaned it off the best I could and the engine turned over when I tried again. I'm likely going to have to get that looked at before weather gets super cold. Anyhow, when I got home after, I streamed Transistor on a better computer to make up for the streaming failures of the previous night. I keep forgetting how much I enjoy playing Transistor. I managed to break the AI a little though in one of the bonus levels. 

Kathleen played a lot of Fallout 4 and dabbled a bit in Final Fantasy 7 (one of her go-to games). I'll have to ask her if she played a lot of other stuff. I think she had something else running on her tablet at one point, but you should hear her ranting about FF7 characters in the background of my videos. 

Overall she raised just under $500 this year. Not as much as previous years, but I'd like to congratulate her on pulling together that much on such short notice. Next year we're planning to advertise sooner, but every little bit counts, so thanks to everyone who donated!

In other news, I started playing some Myst 3 after getting it to work on the old laptop still running windows 7. Windows 8 baffles the 3rd and 4th instalment and the common factor appears to be anything running below directx 10, which both games do. I may continue to play/stream Transistor...because now I really want to play it.

Also decided that I want my December solo LP to be Shadow of Mordor. Because Lord of the Rings. This is providing I can finish Dead Space 2 before then...and have enough hard drive space to work with. So...I have work to do.

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.

Triple O

"Out of Office" for the next week. I will be travelling to Murica to partake of the many flavoured Oreos and Cherry Cola. I will return next weekend. I will have internet access for the entire week, but there shall be no recording (which is not necessarily a bad thing as I am low on hard drive space for the 1000th time due to Tera recordings) and I will either be bringing a hard drive with me, or pre-uploading my videos for the week. So there should be no interruptions in video releases unless I forget to make them public.

At least one of you will be pleased to learn that I am almost done editing Alien Isolation. It has been difficult finding a good chunk of time to do this as I have work, people I have promised to game with, other chores and appointments. Also turns out I need this "sleep" thing I keep hearing about. I thought I could just not sleep, but I tend to pass out periodically and it's really annoying. Sometimes when I'm playing a game. Yes, I recently had two microsleeps while recording Neverwinter with GeneralDelta. Oops.

Lord of the Rings: Third Age will be finished this week. I have 4 more episodes. May also add custom title cards as GeneralDelta was so kind to make them for me. Dead Space will continue as well. I REALLY need to finish recording it soon or I will completely forget how to play, and it's not a good time to forget about it. I've just been putting it off due to space constrictions and because I've been a little stressed out (and it is kind of a stressful game).

Meanwhile I've been streaming a bit as it does not require any hard drive space from me. I may be streaming some Left 4 Dead 2 with Shauna and Nick tonight. I'll see if they're up for a stream or not. Usually it's only one or two people watching anyway. http://www.twitch.tv/drschwa


SEE Y'ALL IN A WEEK.

I Forgot a Title

I just realized I had an opportunity to do a soundtrack Thursday today...and totally didn't think of it. Oh well. Here, have a Life is Strange Episode 1 Soundtrack. It is very mellow.

Yeah so about Life is Strange. I think I will be LPing the rest of the episodes when they come out. This will be a slow LP as the next episode will be released in March. I've had enough positive feedback to continue however. It's interesting how many mixed reviews I have received about it. Seems as though the general consensus is: love the main character, like the character development, dislike the cliched (and unrealistic dialogue) and there was nothing that was really HATED. My opinion?

Character development: good
Voice acting: Some good, some awful
Dialogue and Writing: Some good, some awful, some unrealistic
Interactions between characters: Mostly believable if not a little cliche, but some motivations and actions really confused me. I couldn't understand the reasoning behind Max not contacting her best friend for five years for instance...
Setting: A little bland, but the characters are the focus
Style: Meh. Don't love, don't hate. I like the little details. I like the small funny bits. Some of the models and art looked...weird to me, but other parts were quite beautiful. I loved Chloe's design. Max has this perpetual look of exhaustion about her, which is fine because she's a stressed out student.
Mechanics: Kind of hilarious at times, especially when I couldn't get the football part right and the girl kept getting smoked in the head. Again, a little cliche with the time control.
Music and sound: Suits the game. I enjoyed the soundtrack. Hopefully that won't result in copyright issues on YouTube.
Additional notes: All the boys in the game all seem either creepy, scary or high. The exception is the teacher (who is like built up to be the best human being ever in Max's eyes) and the principal who just wants money. Also I think I have an irrational hatred of Brooke. She was kind of an asshole. I expected so much more from you Brooke.

I am interested in continuing this myself. I want to know what the consequences of my actions will be, and how much it changes the story (I plan to play through again without recording and try different options).

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age will be finished by the weekend. Sanitarium should start next week. I plan on finishing the recording of Dead Space this weekend. Mesk and I will finish Hunted shortly. Shauna and I will continue Murdered: Soul Suspect (of which I actually think we're almost done). And Alien Isolation continues to clog up my drives as I slowly sift through the CONFIRMED 34 crashes that we experienced during the series.

Well Then

I have a sore throat and I have no idea what it means. I JUST got over a 24 hour flu like less than a week ago, and before that I had a head cold that my whole household got. I don't want to be sick any more. The ones effecting my throat are the worst too cause I can't do any voice recordings (or I can't do them for long).

I have been super lazy with my preview video. It's half done. It's currently sitting in the template I'm using for Left 4 Dead videos. I don't know why they are there.

I am almost done an LP that I can't announce yet because...VIDEO. I need to make another couple edits (somehow) on another LP that will be announce. Bioschock 2 is currently gathering dust in my hard drive, but it's ready to go. And I also started a new Gamecube LP (which might have been what destroyed my throat completely yesterday).

So a lot of vagueness. I promise lots of video soon. Lots of new stuff. Meanwhile, I'm not even half done uploading LOTR: TTA yet. I'll let you take that in. Hunted will continue. I shouldn't run out of those videos before we start recording yet.

Also I may or may not be playing Neverwinter again...heh.


EDIT: Dunno I did...but I somehow managed to corrupt the file I was working out of. So now I need to start again. From scratch. Perhaps I was working with too much on there...

EDIT EDIT: I FOUND A BACKUP COPY. BRILLIANCE =D

TRIPLE EDIT: It's my one external hard drive that's causing it. I think it's malfunctioning because I had it plugged into a multi-USB port and it made the other devices attached to it malfunction as well. So I gave it its own port. Now it randomly malfunctions on its own. disconnects, reconnects, and by the time that's done, Vegas has become upset. and if I try to interact with the program at all (even just to close it), it gives my computer a kick in the nads and I get a BSOD. My work-around when this happens is to kill the process. I'm going to get my files off there and do some tests. The only problem is I need to encode things first because I have no hard drive space (which is why I'm using that drive). I need to slow down on the recordings for awhile to get through all the content. Top priority to rescue off that drive is the Alien Isolation material. That cannot be replaced. Not easily anyway.

Have a Christmas

Oh whatever else you celebrate. Or if you celebrate nothing then Have a Thursday.

I suddenly realized why scheduling content at my job was so messed up this week. Things are usually posted on Thursdays. Well then.

I'm not going to be uploading anything today, but I should have a preview video done sometime before the new year. Meanwhile enjoy a jittering santa. LOTR:TTA will resume Boxing Day...er Dec 26 and I will post a few more Hunted videos. Alien will resume in the new year because I'm still out of encoded video. I may also have some Left 4 Dead 2 videos for you. We'll see.

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).

Questions

Little girl comes up to the counter during a party and asks "are we allowed to hurt people down here?" I was really tempted to say "nothing is true; everything is permitted," just to see how she interpreted it. That said, I'm not ready to lose my job. 

Sometimes I wish, little girl. Sometimes I wish...

Meanwhile my coworker is trying to recover the leagues from a busted hard drive. He just screamed YES, I'M CREATING LOGIC, with no context and continued working.

Started the release of Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, yesterday. It is a long LP, so expect it to run into the new year. I also expect every single video to be flagged for minor copyright as it uses music from Lord of the Rings (duh). There's really nothing I can do about that though. Almost done with Unreal Tournament, and then I will start uploading Hunted. What we have done of Alien is almost fully edited and will continue to be posted throughout the month.

I have a couple of Skyrim videos left from the Dragonborn batch. I will be doing a few transition episodes before I start the Dawnguard DLC. I expect those to be posted in Jaunary however.

Oh yeah, I also have an entire Bioshock 2 LP. Cause...um...it's...

Yeah, actually I'm not sure why I subjected myself to that..

UPDATE: My coworker has started mumbling profanities. I'm pretty sure logic is no longer being created.

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.

Ahead of the Game

Also behind at the same time. I have a ton of video ready to release, and have recorded a lot of other stuff I've been meaning to go through. I finished UT3 last night, but unfortunately the game crashed on the last mission, and Mesk and HKS beat the level on that try before I could reconnect. Mesk will be giving me video footage to complete it. Over the last two days I have started Bioshock Burial at Sea with Shauna, continued Resident Evil 5 with GameVoyeur and started HL2Ep2 as well as Bioshock. Also thinking of future projects with Mesk and HKS, which will likely include Neverwinter Nights, Guild Wars 1 and Hunted: The Demon's Forge.

A list of prepared video:
-Unreal Tournament 3 (almost have the entire LP encoded and ready)
-Schwa Can't MMO content including: Guild Wars 2, Archeage, Neverwinter
-Skyrim (another three episodes)
-Haunted Mansion - Gamecube
-Lord of the Rings, The Third Age - Gamecube

A list of recorded video that has not been processed (and are mostly incomplete):
-Half Life 2 Episode 2
-Bioshock
-Bioshock Infinite
-Bioshock Burial at Sea Episode 1
-Dishonored, Brigmore Witches

I may pre-release some of these. You can find them on my Google Drive. I have made a public folder.

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

Soundtrack Thursday 12

It's been a rough week. Busy at work, a lot going on, a couple of tough conversations and an extreme lack of sleep has left me pretty spent for a Thursday. So I'm sitting, kind of spaced out at my desk, wishing I was at home spaced out playing Dishonored because I'm almost done the game, and thinking about how I said goodbye to my coworker at the second level, forgetting that he worked on the third level with me. Awkward.

I have tea. I have chocolate chip banana muffins. I have 7.5 hours left to get through. Let's do this.

I'm going to pick soundtracks from some of my favourite movies.

 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - I want to do another LOTR movie marathon, extended versions. But now I feel like I should include The Hobbit movies...I don't think I have enough time in a day/enough energy to get me through it all. I've now done 2 and a half 3 movie marathons. The one marathon is only a half because we fast forwarded through some of the slower parts. Though if you count the ski weekend where people turned it into a drinking game and we watched one movie a night...that's still not a marathon.

The Avengers - How have I never posted this for soundtrack Thursday yet? I love the Avengers. Best midnight showing I've ever gone to, mostly because of the collective geekiness of the entire audience. Someone one lone gentleman managed to quiet the entire theatre for the shawarma scene...for about 1.5 seconds. I'm also pretty sure that half the people in the theatre freaked out at the credit preview despite not knowing who the hell that guy was. I can only describe it as a collective "OHHHHHHH, OH SHIT" and then frantic whispers of "wait, so who was that?"

4 Hours left if I skip lunch break and just eat while I work. There is a piece of dried mango stuck between my teeth. I can't get it out. Seriously, people over-complicate torture. All you need is constantly administered minor irritants that cannot be stopped. Popcorn stuck in teeth, Katy Perry pop songs on loop, finger nails on chalkboard, finger nails on denim, being gagged and forced to listen to lectures from Creationists, Clockwork Orange style screenings of Michael Bay movies...

Captain America - Because I'm on that track now after the Avengers and I want to listen to that super catchy song. I should look up a survey on everyone's favourite Avenger from the movies. I think Captain America would probably be in the lower numbers. No love for good old Cap =(

Also, I saw the Need for Speed movie last night and I am unsure of whether it was delightfully awful, or brain damaging. It was basically a 2 hour and 10 minute commercial for Ford full of plot points that went absolutely no where, unrealistic interpretations of time, a ton of stressful reckless driving, 20+ casualties for the sake of two grudge matches (one to prove that he was innocent of one casualty while they ignored the countless others), tired tropes, hilariously awkward moments, poorly delivered lines, a woman who couldn't decide on an accent (though I think that was a joke?) and a good ten seconds worth of Rami Malek's ass. Aside from the speaking parts and the unnecessary ass shots, it stayed true to the video game. Cars, fast driving, casualties and interesting courses.

Oh crap I'm getting sucked into a critique. I honestly could spend pages picking apart this movie and nothing would be accomplished. Okay in short: movie exceeded expectations, but that says something when expectations of the movie was "wow, this will be shit"

Also...why do you keep selling out to terrible movies Linkin Park? Granted the song used here (and I'm enough of a geek to have recognized the tune from the first couple of notes...) actually WORKED (cough cough Iridescent), but seriously, can't you guys can't sell out to a good movie once in awhile?

PS - No videos have been been uploaded in the past few days because my motivation to make them has been at an all time low. I will remedy this on the weekend.

Lord of the Rings Concert

Turned into a Fellowship of the Ring movie screening with live music. Full orchestra plus about a 100 person choir, singing and playing on cue to the movie. It was spectacular. I never saw the Fellowship of the Ring in theatres (I was 11 at the time and I would be in Jr. High right before the release if The Two Towers before I learned of it) so this was really quite special for me. I love movies, and I love going to watch them in theatres with the perfect audience. These people were the perfect audience, laughing, gasping or being sad all at the right times. Also, about half the audience understood or knew of the many memes now associated with the movie, so I was quite entertained when half the audience started snickering at those points.

I was actually reminded of a drinking game my friends played on one of our ski trips watching the trilogy over three nights. I thought I'd share it here for those interested in such activities.

1. Drink whenever you see the ring.
2. Drink whenever Pippin screws up.
3. Drink whenever there's an "Oh-face."
4. Drink whenever one of the characters sheds a stoic man-tear/
5. If you hate your liver, drink whenever there's a "moment" between two characters (common one Sam/Frodo or Legolas/Aragron) - can be adjusted to be between only a few characters if you're worried about alcohol poisoning.

Special/additional rules:
-Drink once for every man-tear you or your friends shed for Boromir at the end of FoTR
-Drink once for every over-the-top trick Legolas performs
-Drink once for every character that arrives in Frodo's bedroom in RoTK at the end of the movie

If you play this game all the way to the end, especially in FoTR and RoTK, I can't guarantee you'll be alive at the end of the screening.


Meanwhile in video upload land. I need to record more Dungeon Siege 3 and get that posted. I think we're done with Amnesia-type videos for now. I still have a large amount of Left 4 Dead 2 videos to post as well as some new videos of the newer MMO, Neverwinter that I'm playing with my friends Shauna and Nick. I'll try to keep you all updated.