Loading ...Thoughts on Spec Ops: The Line
I finished recording Spec Ops: The Line this evening, it’s a short game that’s a third-person cover-based shooter with the emphasis on it’s story. And that story revolves around war(crimes), which makes it interesting. It’s not a terrific game or anything, but I remember hearing quite some debate over it’s story when it came out. As such I wanted to play it at some point. And considering it’s a short game the cover-based shooting wouldn’t trouble me that much.
I have to say that the game turned out to be rather good on the shooting part, all the weapons felt good to use which kind of surprised me. Normally average games don’t have a good ‘feel’ to the action, but that definitely wasn’t a problem here. The gameplay itself was completely fine; standard chest-high-walls everywhere for cover and masses of enemies to shoot. Nothing fancy, but if the shooting feels good it’s not a big issue for me, though I’m not a fan of cover-based shooters as you may recall.
The story however was interesting in the way it focused on the horrors of war, and the mentality that goes along with it. They definitely intended to make you think about what you’re doing, if you should listen or not. On the other hand some moments (mainly the white phosphorous) felt entirely unnecessary and forced upon the player.
At such moments it felt really weird to not be able to say “no” to what the story was alluding you to do. But largely I would say the story was quite interesting and left you wondering what the fuck was going on, only made worse by the ending(s). And that’s not a bad thing; because I believe this game wants you to think about war and what is right and wrong, and everyone will have a different outcome on that subject.
Fez – what a lovely looking game
I very much want to play more of this! I can’t get off work fast enough today.
Got my recording boots on again
So after nearly a month (last recorded set was 9 feb!) I got my sorry ass to record another set. I recorded set 3 of Mark of the Ninja which I thoroughly enjoyed. It really is an excellent game that I missed playing. I have actually not been playing much of any game for the past month. I’ve played an hour of Ni No Kuni here and there and some random Tetris on PS3. That’s really all I’ve been playing for the past month, I’ve been rather busy with life. Something I’ve said ages ago about wanting to be more outgoing and social which seems to be happening slowly now.
In fact, a lot of my free time is spent either recovering from a busy day at work or spending time with friends in the weekend and exercising. This has been leaving me with little time for gaming, or maybe it is that I’ve been craving it less than I have before. I’m not exactly sure on that. It is a rather weird thought and seems totally incorrect, but it has snuck into the back of my mind.
I’ve been playing some NOX recently
I’ve found myself playing a lot of NOX over the past couple of days. It’s one of those games I played in my childhood that really stuck with me. I’m not a fan of hack’n'slash games, which NOX is similar too; but it’s easily different enough to grab my attention. For those not in the know about NOX, it’s a top-down RPG in which you play as 1 of 3 classes which have stories that are intertwined. You will get experience, buy skills, weapons, armor, level up and go through traps and dungeons. All the while feeling like an action game, and that’s where NOX shines. It’s an old game that still looks very good, it’s aged well apart from the obviously lower resolution now.
Nox starting Warrior
A good example of how much fun this game is is when I went to do a test recording, a normal test recording consists of maybe 5 to 10 minutes of running around and seeing if there’s any hiccups. With NOX I found myself playing for over an hour and suddenly realizing this as I was finishing some of the early chapters. I totally lost myself in the game and wanted to keep pushing on.
As far as the Let’s Play is concerned; I started recording the Conjurer (which is the mix character, unlike the straight-forward Warrior and spell-focused Wizard). I’ll probably finish recording the Conjurer soon, if I haven’t already by the time I post this. The question I currently have is if I shall go through the Warrior and/or the Wizard classes as well. I can think of some pro and cons of doing it and not doing it, but I’m favoring not recording more of it. Primarily because it leaves 2 campaigns of the game that are completely different for viewers to play through, which gives them more reason to buy the game which I’m hoping people will do because NOX is an amazing game I want people to play and enjoy.
What game to Let’s Play next?
It is time to pick up some new games to get started on. I already mentioned on twitter that I’m really considering doing Resonance, I’ve heard good things and it has a good pedigree. Due to this it then boils down to “What game will I pick to record next?”
This is always a hard question, many games take quite a while to get through and as such it’s kind of a big decision. There are also so many games that I’d like to play (and record) that it’s really hard to pick one. I previously mentioned NOX and Max Payne 2, which I definitely want to do still. Another oldie I’d really like to do is Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father. It’s a classic that has been recommended to me by several people over the years.
Another new game I’d be very interested in doing is Mark of the Ninja, so you can see me fail at being stealthy a bunch! What I’ve seen and heard of this game it’s awesome. Of the new titles I’d also like to play through is Tiny and Big – Grandpa’s Leftovers; it looks like an excellent game to mess around in, as that’s exactly what you have to do in that one.
I’d also like to give Jagged Alliance 2 another shot; but don’t feel confident in my ability in that one. Besides I’d want to play it with the 1.13 mod which makes a lot of changes. Along the same line I still want to play Baldur’s Gate 1+2 at some point, but those games are quite intimidating as I remember getting my ass handed to me randomly when I tried to play it before. But I still feel like I should play through those games at some point.
Are there any games you’d like to see me record soon? Now’s the time to mention them!
Scheduled videos in playlists
A question that keeps popping up over the last couple of weeks is: “Why are the videos private? 
“
“The reason for them being marked private is twofold. I’ve already uploaded them and scheduled them to release according to my schedule that you can see on the top-right of the site. If I didn’t add them to the playlist; you wouldn’t know they existed until they popped up.
The reason I add them to the playlist is also twofold: You can see I’ve recorded further than what you’re watching and the other reason is…. that I’m forgetful and busy. I’ve had situations where I’ve forgotten to add them to a playlist for some weeks and… people didn’t like that. At least this way they already are playlisted when they go live.
Since either way people seem unhappy; I’m letting you guys vote on what I’m going to do in the future. The poll will stay up until November 1st, giving everyone ample time to vote.
I’ve gotten back into let’s playing now after moving
So since I’ve moved to my own place I was too busy with all kinds of things to record much of anything. Before that I was on my holiday to the US and Canada and in-between those events I was struggling to get my mortgage sorted, which I did manage at the last moment as you may know.
But as of this week I’ve settled down enough to get back to recording, since then I’ve recorded 4 sets this week and if I can keep this up I might get back to 2 sets per week again. It feels really good to be able to sit down, relax and record me some video games. It’s been a lot of fun and you can definitely look forward to some The Walking Dead in the coming weeks as well as some Black Mesa which I record earlier today. I’ve been really enjoying both and I hope you guys will enjoy them too.
So I noticed I have a real problem
That problem being that I don’t know what to do in my free time. No I’m not going to be bored, at all. Instead I have too many things I want to do and way too little time to do them in. Of course there’s non-fun stuff such as cleaning, laundy and stuff like that but I’m not counting that as that’s normal. So the things I want to do tonight:
- Exercise – Gosh, it’s been a while since I’ve exercised with me moving and the holiday I had just before that. I want to get back into it as it’s really calming to me to exhaust my body physically after my job. However I already do cycle ~15-20km per day just to and from work. That’s already an hour per day on bike.
- Read my new books – I was buying some groceries during my break at work and then noticed a book-sale and ended up buying 2 books, they were dutch, which kinda put me off, but they seemed interesting and they were very reasonably priced.
- Read some books I’ve had for a while – Now as you may know I literally have a pile of books that I still have to read, ranging from all kinds of subjects, which I kind of like. But I’m currently reading 1 psychology- , 1 mythology- and 1 history book. And I want to really read them and the others.
- Finish re-watching LOTR – I started re-watching my LOTR blu-rays as I was ill before and have yet to watch the conclusion of it, which I love. I especially want to see Eowynn again during the battle for Minas Tirith. Eowynn is awesome, despite not coming close to the character she is in the books, but that is a story for another post.
- Game – Rift Online - I’ve been playing Rift Online for a good while again and it’s a game I just love, partly for Trion’s Management. The first expansion is coming soon’ish and I have yet to level my new character up to the maximum level, which I want to do at the very least.
- Game – GuildWars2 – Honestly I’ve not put a lot of time into this game yet and people keep telling me to do so, I have enjoyed my time with it initially. But it’s not really grabbed me yet. But I do want to explore more of it.
- Record Let’s Plays - Before I started moving I recorded a set of a new LP – The Walking Dead. I enjoyed it a lot and it was surprisingly good and I really want to get going on that again as I’ve not played it in ~2-3weeks. I also have a bunch of other things I want to do as well, such as a coop of Torchlight 2. That one should hopefully be recorded this coming weekend, if my plans allow me/us. Then there is also some PlanetSide2 that I might record, that game really surprised me on how much fun it is!
Upcoming Month
As you may know already, the upcoming period is rather interesting for me. I’m currently dealing with a mortgage I’m trying to get for an apartment (in the center of my town) I’ve signed a buying contract for. I have 2 talks with 2 different banks tomorrow and in between those I still have work. Then on friday I have a Children of Bodom & Die Apokalyptischen Reiter concert which I’m driving to straight from work. Then I might drop by a friend for some drinks/fun, gotta get a haircut and shave off this beard I’ve been growing for a little while on saturday and probably deal with some more mortgage stuff by then.
Then on Monday I have to get up early and drive for 1.5 hours to my school where I’m starting a new study to have a meeting about me potentially skipping certain courses due to certificates or working experience. I also have another concert: De Heideroosjes & The Offspring, for which I’m getting picked up straight after work. Should prove to be an interesting day to say the least and definitely a long one. There’s also some stuff that will likely happen that day which I’m curious about but shall not get into now as it may be preemptive and knowing my luck probably won’t go well (with such a description you can probably guess the theme 
).
After that I basically have 2 more days to deal with the mortgage and possibly the portfolio I’ll have to make for my school. That is because on that thursday I’ll be heading over to Belgium for Graspop 2012. That should be a mindblowingly good time as the first 2 days of the show I’ll basically be running from stage to stage to see all the bands I really want to see, having no time for drinks or food really. Then that’ll be tons of fun obviously and then the drinking afterwards will obviously be a good time, curious to see how little sleep I’ll get this time. 
Then after that festival I’ll be recovering at home for a couple of days and then I’ll be flying to New York where I’ll be touristy and then I’ll travel up north to the Boston area to see a friend and stay there for 4th of July for instance. So then I’ll be seeing more things around that area and then eventually I’ll move to Niagara Falls where I’ll cross the border to Canada. There I’ll then quickly pass through Toronto and move my way up to Algonquin Park where I’ve booked a cabin at a big lake which should be absolutely amazing to relax and enjoy nature.
After Algonquin I’ll be moving over to another friend where I’ll hang around for a little bit and from there I’ll be going to the airport and then I’ll fly back. Then I’ll have roughly a day to de-jetlag myself and then I’ll have a regular workweek.. except on the friday I then have another festival in Germany with a friend: Devilside Festival.
Summary
So in summary; I’ll be away from home and therefore my PC from 21st of june until the 14th of july. So that means I won’t be able to record or upload videos. I have tried to have a good enough of a backlog to keep videos going up during this time; but I don’t have enough to cover the entire period and I’m not sure if I can find the time to record more before I leave. So if I can’t do that; Sorry guys, I tried.
Games I’m considering let’s playing to replace NWN2 now that it’s done
So I finished recording Neverwinter Nights 2 yesterday, which was very enjoyable. This then leaves me with the option of LP’ing another game and there are actually a bunch of them that I want to do. In fact, a several of them I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Here are some of the games I’ve been thinking of doing:
Little Big Adventure 1 + 2
LBA being the first game I uploaded footage for, ever, and me still loving the memories of those games, I really want to go through them. I own them on GOG but am still having issues processing the footage. I can record the video/audio just fine, along with my own commentary, however when I want to edit them together is where I still struggle. It seems that none of my editing software can handle the ZMBV codec that dosbox uses. The codec works fine to display the video, but I need to merge and edit the files.
Maybe I should give the windows ports another go, I see they’ve updated them a couple of times since I last tried them.
Little Big Adventure
Jagged Alliance 2
Much like LBA, this was the second game I ever recorded and uploaded with the intention of finishing it, since I never had before. In the end, I managed to fail in that purpose. But I still want to finish it and see that game through, it’s simply too good and forms a stain on my gaming “career” even outside of not having finished recording it. I did a test recording and all is well with that, should I choose it. I would be playing it with the 1.13 mod which adds/improves/changes a lot of things.
I’m hardly an expert, but everyone says that if you’re going to play JA2.. it’s got to be with that mod and from what I’ve seen; that seems accurate.
Jagged Alliance 2
NOX
Yes, I do want to play some “new” games too. NOX was again one of those games that I never completed as a kid, I remember getting decently far into it but getting horribly stuck somewhere. It’s a game that I really enjoyed at the time and even when playing it a little before I got it again on GOG, it was enjoyable. I normally don’t care about hack’n'slashers, but NOX is special somehow. With it’s charm and unique way of handling field of view, it feels very different from other games to me.
Nox
Max Payne
Not sure if you can call the Max Payne games classics, but from what I’ve seen the third game looks to be quite interesting and pretty good. As such I want to play through the original 2 again as they were great games. I would merely be let’s playing them instead of playing them “solo”. This would mean basically 3 games though, but probably spread out with a little time in between them.
Max Payne
Gemini Rue
An oldschool-styled adventure game made by a small developer? The first ~20 minutes or so that I’ve seen from it really impressed me and made me want to play through it. I don’t really know much else about it other than it getting good reviews and I really want to play it.
Gemini Rue
So tell me guys, anything you really want to see me do? Now’d be the time to let me know!