Clan=Pro Since when!?

As most of you that follow me on the YouTubs know, I'm a big fan of the game SMITE. I don't particularly enjoy MOBAs in general, but SMITE has enough that's different about it, that I can still enjoy it. I mean, it certainly helps that I've got a bunch of friends that enjoy it too, but that's a whole different can of worms.
One of the things I've been running into, pretty much since the game released (besides the intermittent lag bombs, where entire teams suddenly start teleporting around... What's that about Hi-Rez? That didn't happen before launch...) is that people in-game assume that because I am in a clan, that means I am a professional, that everyone else in my clan is also professional, and that when together, we are some unbeatable, tokusatsu-like force. What the hell is that? 
While I will say that Brokidd, Kitherun, Phokidd and their group is really good at what they do, none of us are 'professional.' Pretty much every game that you play says "Do you play with friends often? Why not make a clan!" Nowhere in there does it say "If you intend to devote your life and every waking moment to never making a mistake in this particular game and forgetting to have fun, only caring about winning, then you should make a clan!" What happened to the gaming community with that one? Do they really think that winning is more important than having fun? Even when we're losing, we're still all having fun yelling at each other over on RaidCall. 
We asked someone in-game last night why they thought because we were a clan that we were professional, and they replied that it's not that we're professional, it's that we know each other. I mean, you should probably know everyone in your clan, especially if you're friends, but that doesn't mean I know exactly how they play. I have played with Kitherun and Phokidd a grand total of twice before, and all I know about them is that they are better than me. 
Another thing that confuses me about online play nowadays, since I've been playing a lot of SMITE and Titanfall lately, is the fact that it seems like there aren't very many developers, or even other gamers that believe that there is a 'new' stage to playing a particular game. In Titanfall for example, there is absolutely no matchmaking for any mode at this point in time, not even in Campaign. Your very first level in campaign, you could be level 1 against a Generation 9 or 10 at level 45 (That player is actually level 450-500). God forbid you're on that team then, because those players will berate you for being bad, even though you LITERALLY JUST BOOTED UP THE GAME. In SMITE, I've had people in Assault, where everyone has random gods, insult the crap out of people who have never played the god they got before to the point that they want to leave the game. You were new once too, you douchebag. 
Unfortunately, it seems like the mentality is that people who have experience were never new, that they were just born at some high level, knowing exactly what to do. What happened to humility? Is that a relic of a bygone age? I understand the 'big penis game' that most boys play (For those of you ladies out there, guys always compare themselves to others, but for the most part, only when they know they are better, and the laymen's term for that is the big penis game), but... I don't think it's right to play the big penis game with someone who basically hasn't even hit puberty right.  
Can anybody explain to me when exactly becoming part of a clan meant that you were a professional? That you cared more about winning than actually playing the game? 

Saints Row the Third

Well, let's take a look at my first "complete" walkthrough, and what I learned about YouTube and Let's Plays (LPs) in the process!

Saints Row the Third

Status: Complete-- For now.

There's a pretty common thing on YouTube for gamers to do, and that's to play through a whole game. It's come to be known in common internet jargon as a Let's Play, since the audience is somewhat involved. Also, if you seem open about it, as in, inclusive, that makes it easier for other people to involve themselves, but, going deeper into that kind of topic is something for its own post, so I won't bore you with details there!

Something I have talked a lot about when it comes to Let's Plays here on my blog is something that I discovered while attempting to complete this game. I chose it based solely on the fact that I knew that I was going to love absolutely every second of the game as I played through it. While this should be something that helps you decide what you want to LP, I think that more importantly you should be looking at the length of the game, especially if you're new to YouTube and LP's in general. Without a cemented audience, it's easy to lose people. It's also easy to become sick of something the longer it goes on. 

Another factor that led to this LP becoming somewhat of a problem for me was that I basically ran through the game in almost exclusively co-op. That meant that not only did I have to have the time to play it, but I had to make sure that my partner also had the time to play it. The more people you have working on something consistently, the more difficult it will become to actually get things done. It's kind of like a group project in school, you just know that at least one person in your group isn't willing to put in the commitment and effort that the rest of the group will undoubtedly put into it. I suppose it also doesn't help that both GrimJak and I are procrastinators. 

We started the series on YouTube, but I actually finished it on Twitch, since I didn't really see a reason to extend it past 60 parts, and I had virtually lost my entire audience by then anyway. Another problem I had, that I actually run into quite a bit when I'm working on gaming stuff for an audience is the uniformity of it all. More often than not, I spend my time trying new things and messing around with settings, so the quality of both the visuals and the audio is often all over the place. It's hard to inspire confidence in your audience when your quality undergoes such drastic changes. I've been spending a lot of time on my channel lately just trying to make everything seem uniform, as I think that this will greatly help me in the long run. You want to make sure that others know you for you. Your content has to be consistent if you hope to have a large following, or, even, any following at all. 

I mentioned just a bit ago that I finished my playthrough on Twitch, and if you want to continue the action, you can view the final parts of my playthrough of the story on my Twitch channel or click here, then here, and finally here. Now, I finished the story of Saints Row the Third, but I didn't actually finish all the DLC, and that is why my status for this series is 'for now.' The problem with me choosing an open-world game like this to do a LP of is that there's a lot of the time where I'm just wandering around doing the dumbest of things, and that makes the game even longer than it should be, which is already pretty long. 

According to the YouTube playlist, there's 13 hours of footage, plus the ~12 or so that's on Twitch. I chose to do this as an actual LP, meaning that I was going to film whatever I did in the game, which actually led to quite a few problems, with me having to set up whenever I was going to play and my indefatigable laziness. When I wanted to play or when GrimJak wanted to play, I had to set up my recording equipment, and sometimes I was unable to do so, or I was just far too lazy to do so, and that really made filming and playing quite a drag. There's also the fact that Grim's mission in virtual life is to be a bullet/grenade/magic sponge for whatever I am trying to do, so that I can hit nothing. FUNNY EXCERPT, ACTUALLY, we started to play Titanfall on PC recently, and not only does he block my shots with his body when I'm just running around as a pilot, but when he leaves his Titan and sets it on AI, the DAMN THING WALKS IN FRONT OF MY BULLETS JUST LIKE HE WOULD. Also, he is not allowed to wield fire anything in games because he will only set every other teammate of his ablaze. Furthermore, I am the most stubborn of gamers, but I love a challenge. I will sit in the same battle the same way at least 400x if I know that there's a chance I will win, that my strategy is sound. Usually though, my strategy is to win in the most ridiculous of ways. Grim, on the other hand, is not like that at all. He's quite the pragmatist, actually.

I have taken all of this as a lesson though, and I hope all of you out there will too. In my opinion, when determining what to go for during a LP, especially when you're starting out, there's got to be things you consider first:

• Will I enjoy seeing this game through to its end?
• Is everyone that's working on it willing to do the same?
• Can I keep a quality standard throughout the process?
• How long will it take me to finish the game? (Especially if you're new to LPs & YouTube) 

Demo Review: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Hi all! I'm trying to go back to things I've done before, along with finishing off requests, and otherwise giving the people what they want, so I figured I'd get back on track with demo reviews! The first one I'll be taking a look at on the blog is the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 demo. I previously took a look at Fuel Overdose and Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013 and then added in some information over on the old Okamigakure forums. From now on I'll be using the blog here for similar posts!
This entry should appear to coincide with the release of my video, so you should be able to get from one to the other without a hitch. Unfortunately, this particular video will mark the release of my first video where my EasyCap has begun its own descent into madness... The audio is messed up on it, it takes about 6 minutes to stabilize, rather than cut in and out and then after an hour or so it has another 6 minute period of destabilization. I believe my course of action will be to get a replacement, and then I will begin moving up until I snag a useful HD capture device. Ahhh... The future. 
In any case, back on topic! I didn't actually play any of the first Lords of Shadow game, but I did take a gander at the demo for the second game (Mirror of Fate) in this particular series of Castlevania games. I know that Patrick Stewart voiced a major character in the first game, and while that does make me want to look into it, at least for the cutscenes, hah, this demo of the second game has sort of turned me off to the series as a whole. 
Castlevania has always been one of those series that I've wanted to get into, but playing this has taught me that I should go with the main series.
Supposedly the Lords of Shadow games are a reboot to the series, and I don't know whether or not I like that. Hideo Kojima (of MGS fame) helped work on the series when it first began and due to his influence, I'm sure you'll realize it's got a lot of cinematic qualities to it. Unfortunately, a lot of the time cinematic qualities don't translate very well into good game design, and this particular game is no exception. Don't get me wrong, it's very pretty and the voice acting is pretty decent, but in my humble opinion, graphics should be far less important than gameplay. This game probably did not take that into account. There's only one part of the demo that has odd graphics, and that's the FMV at the end, wherein who I believe to be Alucard and his blade get exceptionally pixelated and glitchy looking. Other than that, the game maintains the same level of quality in the looks department.
The soundtrack is also somewhat gothic-inspired, which I am glad for. It's what you would expect from a game in the Castlevania mythos. There are far too many games nowadays that employ electronic or, far more likely, dubstep, simply because that is what is en vogue, even if it doesn't suit the source material AT ALL. I apologize that the sound quality from the capture is a little weird, especially for the beginning. 
The game however, is more about the combat than anything else, so why don't we take a look at that. Since it's a Castlevania game, you naturally use a whip (SPOILERS : Your character was once Gabriel Belmont, the first of the line, but now is Dracula). Since you are Dracula here, you obviously can't use Vampire-Killer, as... well, you're a vampire, so instead you sort of... form a whip out of blood. From what I've seen of the previous games, the combos are exactly the same as using a whip were previously. You also are given two other combat items, and you can switch between the three on the fly in combat, for a sort of DmC-type feel. You've got the Void Sword, which steals health from enemies, and the Chaos Claws, which allow you to FALCON PUNCH, I mean... break enemies' guards. You can also dodge and block. 
Blocking on time with an enemy's attack (read: parrying), is essential to combat, and thus one of the biggest flaws in the game. Remember how I said that cinematic qualities don't necessarily translate into a good game? In the case of parrying, which is essential to combat, there is a slow-mo couple of seconds at impact, and a large, flashy, spark-spraying splash each and every time it occurs, which is admittedly VERY OFTEN. It's not so much the slow motion, which removes you from the moment that's bothersome, it's actually the shower of sparks. You can literally see nothing around you every time you parry, which makes the game very difficult. It's very difficult to die since you can use the void sword and also suck the blood out of your enemies, but the way the camera is positioned, so that it only cares about you and not your enemies, makes the shower of sparks INCREDIBLY problematic.
Enemies for the most part do not care whether or not you are hitting them, they do not go into stun states about 90% of the time you are wailing on them unless you have parried them already. If they are preparing an unblockable strike you can launch them though. Not only does parrying get in the way of viewing the action, but more often than not, the attacks that you can do by holding either the horizontal or vertical attack buttons (Think Soul Calibur) also make it relatively impossible to see. Being flashy does not necessarily make a good game, and I wish more developers would realize this.
The game makes use of quick time events (QTEs) basically any time it can, often with no real reason at all. Every time you beat an enemy to near-death and try to suck their blood, you have to do a QTE, which honestly makes no sense at all. On top of that, to finish a QTE, you can hit just about any button on the controller, and the animation for them, which consists of two circles merging, basically takes up the entire screen, so there is little to no skill involved at all. Both things involving QTEs I saw no reason for at all in the demo. When you suck an enemy's blood, none of the other enemies bother you, so it's not like you need to worry about that. The other time was hanging off the automaton's arm. I suppose in this case they were going for a Shadow of the Colossus situation, but the fact that the QTE occurs after the impact, when you are literally just hanging there doing nothing and nothing is trying to dislodge you makes very little logical sense to me. 
In combat, enemies can use unblockable attacks, which you must get away from. What angered me about this is that not only do all of the regular enemies' unblockable attacks have their own animations, but the developers also found it necessary to draw gigantic circles on the weapons of the enemies so that you know when they're going to attack. I feel that that is also unnecessary, since you can clearly tell when an enemy is about to launch an unblockable. The devs seem to be trying to offer you WAY MORE HELP THAN IS NEEDED. 
Not only do they give you more help than necessary when in combat, there's also way too many hints during traversal segments. After the initial one, anything you can climb on is a radioactive looking glowing nipple. ON TOP OF THAT, there's constantly a prompt for the "Show path" button, which then places a glowing circle on top of each radioactive nipple. Then, ON TOP OF THAT, as if it were necessary, if there's somewhere you need to go that doesn't have a nipple, a cloud of bats will fly around it. That's too many things to show players what they should be doing. 
There's also a long section where you traverse the automaton while the angel-looking fellow shoots at you. You need to use his arrows to break bolts on the armor of the giant automaton, and the game will NEVER stop telling you what to do. The thing that absolutely infuriates me about this particular section is that it shows you before you get there during a scripted event what you need to do, by essentially doing it for you, but then the camera zooms in after to each of the exact same pieces, like you couldn't figure it out. After you break them, it zooms into WHERE YOU BROKE THEM. YES, I FUCKING KNOW, I JUST DID THAT. It then does that EXACT SAME THING each time one of these events occur, as if you were mentally deficient and couldn't figure out what to do, even though you just did it thirty seconds ago.
There's also sections where you need to rip something off the automaton, and while it glows radioactive yellow, words that take up something like 20% of the available screen space show you, with a diagram of the proper button no less, that you NEED TO RIP IT OFF. YES, I GOT THAT.
I have never played a game where it seemed like the developers were moreso than holding my hand, telling me straight to my face that I was a fucking moron, and they were gonna help me through this trying time. I was looking forward to trying out Lords of Shadow, but I have been so very sufficiently turned off by this demo, that I will probably never partake in the actual game. I hate when people say games have gotten harder over the years, when the opposite is clearly true. If you think games are getting harder, then the team behind LoS2 are the developers for you! 

Couples' Versus

Okay, this is absolutely the last one... I SWEAR. I am totally out of options, after all.  

Couples' VERSUS

Status: Incubating

This will be the series where we really get our blood flowing, as we FIGHT TO THE DEATH, TOOTH AND NAIL, AGAINST OUR ADVERSARIES-- That's a little much. No, that won't really be what's going on. Couples' Versus will be a series where me and Liz go head-to-head against another couple! We get to have fun smash talking someone else for a change, and then gloat in victory side by side! I say that like it's an absolute guarantee that we'll win, but... That's probably not going to happen, haha. 

The plan for this is for me and Liz to go head-to-head against another couple, probably starting off in video games, but maybe other kinds of games too! Though, I'm rather certain if we play drinking games though, I'll be carrying her. Literally. In any case, I'd love to breathe some new life into my channel, especially when I can invite others to join in on the fun too! 

Any couples out there wanna issue us a challenge!? We'll gladly take you on (maybe)! I suspect this will probably be the last series that actually starts up, since I've got to goad my friends into joining us. Though, what I just typed would actually be really great, if other couples challenged us to things! I have a few ideas for that already... LET THE GATHERING OF YOUTUBE COUPLES COMMENCE!    

Seriously though, I think a really great way to change things up on your channel, and appeal to a much broader audience is to collaborate with like-minded individuals. I know for a fact that my channel just wouldn't be the same if I didn't share my friends with the rest of the world. It's been great to invite people into my home that are physically incapable of being here, and I hope that that never stops! I mean... unless I'm naked or something, then SHOO! 

Couple's Competition

Ooooh, more series coming to you guys in the future?! YEP! MOOOOOAAAAARRRR. 

Couple's Competition

Status: Incubating

Seems like I'm making quite a push to include Liz in my channel, huh? WELL, SHE'S A BIG PART OF MY LIFE, OKAY!? No, but seriously, the sort of shenanigans we get into in video games are too great not to share with the world. While Couples' Co-Op focuses on us working together, this series will be the opposite. ME AGAINST HER. MAN AGAINST WOMAN. GAMER AGAINST NONGAMERGIRL23. Yep. I went there. Used one of her screennames. IT'S BEEN BROUGHT.

Er, went off on less of a tangent than i usually do, but still a tangent there. In any case, this series probably won't be out for a while, but I swear that I will eventually get her to work up the courage to challenge me to something! I think she thinks, that for some reason, I'm just better than her at video games, and I dunno why. There are plenty of games she is just better than me at. We'll probably be taking up games for this series that have a sort of cutesy, but also competitive vibe. Yes, this definitely includes alla dem weird Japanese minigame compilations that we have both come to know and love over the years. 

She's only played video games for like a year, so it's really the weird Japanese minigame compilations that I know and love but... minor technicality. 

The first game I have in mind for this is definitely Carnival Island, because it's adorable, and the minigames use the PlayStation dildos-- I mean Move controllers. Watching someone wave a glowing, color changing bauble around is enough reason to watch anything by itself, right? So, the fact that the two of us are going to be trying to figure out what the hell we're doing on a timer will make it even better! I suspect this will also test our relationship, especially once the smack talking begins!  

Couples' Co-Op

It's been kind of a while since I wrote my last entry, but believe me, I haven't forgotten about the blog! So let's get to it!

Couples' Co-Op
Status: Ongoing-- needs editing and upload, but the foundation has been laid!

So, as you might have guessed, this is a duo project! Aaaaand, as you may have guessed, this series is gonna mostly be about me and Liz playing games together. There's a lot I have to teach her about video games, since she's basically just a baby when it comes to them, but there's also a lot I have to learn-- we have to learn about each other, as people too! Naturally, I feel like a great way to learn how someone thinks is to try to cooperate with them in a... low-impact environment? Hah, what gamer thinks they're in a low-impact environment. Pfffffttt...

But yeah! This will be a whole new series where me and Liz play games together. I actually already at this point in time have the first portion of the footage for the first game already, I just need to edit it! We're going to start with Ibb & Obb, and then we'll be moving on to Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. If you're interested, we actually did some test runs via the demos for these two games on my Twitch channel already. We're still going to do some Skylanders stuff here and there because we both love it, but at this point, we're gonna try our hand at making it through Ibb & Obb and Brothers first! I think we're well on our way through Ibb & Obb though, and it has been awesome!
I have some plans beyond these two Let's Plays though, don't get me wrong! I'm hoping at some point to include some more couples in on the action! I'm looking to grab Tethrinblaze and his fiancee and my buddy Taka, with whom I did the Mojibakeru videos, and his girlfriend into the action as well. I'm planning on at some point getting a four player round of Pokemon Rumble on the Wii going. I think that'd be absolutely great! 

You may think it's silly to try and be closer to someone while you learn about them by playing video games, but let me tell you, it really does work. Video games have certainly helped me make and become better friends with plenty of people over the years, even if most of the people I play with think my choices in general are somewhat... Less than stellar.