Greetings one and all!
Something that's been bugging me for ... at least the last 6 to 10 months is just how much of my stuff sucks.
It's nothing specific. It's just sometimes after recording I start editing it to be ready for going onto youtube and I just ... I'm not feeling it. It's not brilliant, it might have some funny moments but the thing as a whole just doesn't ... feel as good as it should?
I realise that trying to explain this with words is like trying to quantify love, or beauty. Though this is just like trying to pin down why a poem just doesn't quite work. You know that there's the potential there, but it's just not .....quite.....right.
I realise that the old adage that you are your own worst critic is completly right and that as the stuff I've recorded is still good stuff I should release it anyway. Hell I chuckle at some points on a video or two I've got waiting to be edited and uploaded.
I just haven't...because of this niggling feeling that it's not quite right.
I will get over this feeling and upload them before long, and if anyone has any idea as to how to tweak the ones that get uplaoded so they actually ARE hitting that....thing, please let me know.
But thi sis why I keep having pauses or breaks in uploading.
Another blog to go up tomorrow for those interested as I wanna give a shoutout to a friend whose started and totally deserves more likes/views/subscribers and the like because they're awesome.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Friday, 9 January 2015
Friday, 2 January 2015
On Piano's Decline
Greetings one and all!
I've noticed something in the last few days.
I seem to have stumbled over more than a couple of articles bemoaning the lack of piano playing kids in this modern age.
Now... when reading said articles I notice that most of that pointing finger of blame is pointed right at how overwhelmed with electronics the modern world is, and how no kids want to sit and play a real piano with it's variable noises depending on how hard the key is pressed.
Yet... there seems to be ONE key point all of these articles have avoided.
Piano's are loud.
I realise that this is surely obvious but whether you've got a Grand Piano or a standup. Piano's are loud instruments.
Far louder than a recorder, or a violin. Maybe not as loud as a set of drums mind you but loud nonetheless.
Now yes all of these articles state that kids are much more likely to play a musical electric keyboard rather than a piano and how it doesn't compare.
I'd agree, it DOESN'T compare.
But you know what an electric keyboard has that a real piano doesn't?
A headphone slot.
Which is far as I'm concerned is the REAL reason kid's aren't playing the piano anymore.
Well, that and price. A real piano is sodding expensive to buy in the first place, expensive to maintain and even more expensive to move. The kids whose parents aren't minted, or live in a property where the nieghbours can't hear a piano at all hours would be more likely to look towards an electric keyboard than a piano.
And as my parents and grandparents used to drum into me when *I* played instruments as a kid.
You've gotta practise. (which funnily enough means you have to have ACCESS to said instrument at all times of the week incase it's decided for you that now is practise time, or you're in the mood)
Sorry the ranting today, I just needed to get it off of my chest.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
(Oh for reference, through my school years I had lessons on: recorder, violin, clarinet. Never had piano but thought about it. My nan (currently in her 80's) STILL plays and has violin lessons as has my whole life)
I've noticed something in the last few days.
I seem to have stumbled over more than a couple of articles bemoaning the lack of piano playing kids in this modern age.
Now... when reading said articles I notice that most of that pointing finger of blame is pointed right at how overwhelmed with electronics the modern world is, and how no kids want to sit and play a real piano with it's variable noises depending on how hard the key is pressed.
Yet... there seems to be ONE key point all of these articles have avoided.
Piano's are loud.
I realise that this is surely obvious but whether you've got a Grand Piano or a standup. Piano's are loud instruments.
Far louder than a recorder, or a violin. Maybe not as loud as a set of drums mind you but loud nonetheless.
Now yes all of these articles state that kids are much more likely to play a musical electric keyboard rather than a piano and how it doesn't compare.
I'd agree, it DOESN'T compare.
But you know what an electric keyboard has that a real piano doesn't?
A headphone slot.
Which is far as I'm concerned is the REAL reason kid's aren't playing the piano anymore.
Well, that and price. A real piano is sodding expensive to buy in the first place, expensive to maintain and even more expensive to move. The kids whose parents aren't minted, or live in a property where the nieghbours can't hear a piano at all hours would be more likely to look towards an electric keyboard than a piano.
And as my parents and grandparents used to drum into me when *I* played instruments as a kid.
You've gotta practise. (which funnily enough means you have to have ACCESS to said instrument at all times of the week incase it's decided for you that now is practise time, or you're in the mood)
Sorry the ranting today, I just needed to get it off of my chest.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
(Oh for reference, through my school years I had lessons on: recorder, violin, clarinet. Never had piano but thought about it. My nan (currently in her 80's) STILL plays and has violin lessons as has my whole life)
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Something...odd
Greetings one and all!
I noticed something very odd today.
I seem to, so far, end up with consistantly more views of my blogs than my videos.
Now yes, I realise that part of the problem with my video's is that I don't really release many.
Yet... the blogs STILL get more views in comparison.
I'm probably not going to give up doing videos, despite it looking like I have at the moment, I just genuinely haven't felt the... something... that tells me inside that today is a day I'm going to make a good video.
I do have some planned. Like finishing Spyro 1 for example.
I also have an end of year video planned but that one's gonna take some making and it'll be interesting to see how that turns out... speaking of I might need to start working on that now actually.
Regardless.
I simply spotted that my view count for blogs is higher per blog than my videos.
Not quite too sure why, and not sure if I'm even going to try and work that one out.
Just thought I'd share a little thing that popped into my head not 5 minutes ago.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
I noticed something very odd today.
I seem to, so far, end up with consistantly more views of my blogs than my videos.
Now yes, I realise that part of the problem with my video's is that I don't really release many.
Yet... the blogs STILL get more views in comparison.
I'm probably not going to give up doing videos, despite it looking like I have at the moment, I just genuinely haven't felt the... something... that tells me inside that today is a day I'm going to make a good video.
I do have some planned. Like finishing Spyro 1 for example.
I also have an end of year video planned but that one's gonna take some making and it'll be interesting to see how that turns out... speaking of I might need to start working on that now actually.
Regardless.
I simply spotted that my view count for blogs is higher per blog than my videos.
Not quite too sure why, and not sure if I'm even going to try and work that one out.
Just thought I'd share a little thing that popped into my head not 5 minutes ago.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Thursday, 30 October 2014
NaNoWriMo and me
Greetings one and all!
Today, I'm gonna write about my thoughts on NaNoWriMo and what it means to me.
First off, for those not in the know NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.
From my understanding it started years ago as a writing challenge to write a novel of 50,000 words in length by tackling it in dayly chunks of about 1,667 words from Nov 1 to Nov 30.
Obviously that's a lot.
Now, in the past I've said I'd give it a go and I think my record was about 3000 words over a couple of weeks. I've just not been able to settle down with an idea and roll with it for the whole month.
Am I going to try again this year?
Well, I think this year I'm going to just try and WRITE something every day. Regardless what it is, whether it's tied into something else, a random idea or a whole story based plot. Or even just a re-write of something I've written before.
Why?
To encourage myself to get BACK into writing. By writing something every day, regardless of length, it'll start to bring back a habbit I've sadly gotten out of and keep [i]saying[/i] I'll get back into but just seem not to actually do.
(That said at the time of writing this blog post, this is my 3rd in a row so something's obviously going right in my head!)
So yeah. Whilst there are people I know who are going to give it an honest go, I'm going to challenge myself to write SOMETHING every day of November. Whether that is in an online typed document or on a notepad that ends up tucked in a drawer somewhere.
I might even say how it goes, we'll see :)
Wish me luck!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Today, I'm gonna write about my thoughts on NaNoWriMo and what it means to me.
First off, for those not in the know NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.
From my understanding it started years ago as a writing challenge to write a novel of 50,000 words in length by tackling it in dayly chunks of about 1,667 words from Nov 1 to Nov 30.
Obviously that's a lot.
Now, in the past I've said I'd give it a go and I think my record was about 3000 words over a couple of weeks. I've just not been able to settle down with an idea and roll with it for the whole month.
Am I going to try again this year?
Well, I think this year I'm going to just try and WRITE something every day. Regardless what it is, whether it's tied into something else, a random idea or a whole story based plot. Or even just a re-write of something I've written before.
Why?
To encourage myself to get BACK into writing. By writing something every day, regardless of length, it'll start to bring back a habbit I've sadly gotten out of and keep [i]saying[/i] I'll get back into but just seem not to actually do.
(That said at the time of writing this blog post, this is my 3rd in a row so something's obviously going right in my head!)
So yeah. Whilst there are people I know who are going to give it an honest go, I'm going to challenge myself to write SOMETHING every day of November. Whether that is in an online typed document or on a notepad that ends up tucked in a drawer somewhere.
I might even say how it goes, we'll see :)
Wish me luck!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Harvest Moon
Greetings one and all!
Just a fore-note.
I started this blog post several months ago but never wrote anything beyond the opening and the closing which I'd just copied and pasted from the rest of my blogs.
Since then this topic has been milling around in my brain on and off and driving me nuts.
Why?
Because I overthought the issue.
I thought about how I wanted to write this blog, where to start, where to end. Which games from the Harvest Moon franchise to include, which games that I've played to mention. Any specific game mechanics or story points I wanted to go over.
Which just lead to more delays and more worrying over it all. So fresh off of writing my last blog post about my brain being weird on writing, I thought that it was about time I just got over myself and wrote this blog.
SO!
TLDR: I started it a while ago, never finished due to my brain being weird.
Harvest Moon.
For those not in the know this is a series that started off on the SNES back when that was a thing and is a farming simulator.
Anyone trying to bring the game Farming Simulator 20xx into this conversation will be slapped with a wet fish.
You boot up the game and from the cinematic you learn you are a young man sent away by his parents (mother is tearful) to run a farm. Through the help of the local townsfolk (2 screens away and one of them is very small) you learn how to turn the run down weed filled farm into a place your proud of!
You can grow crops! Raise animals! Even get married and have babies! Or not and woo all the girls into loving you and get an ending where they all chase you.
Yes. This game has an end, 2 and a half years after you start. (I'll admit I had to look this up as I'd forgotten how long and thought it was 3 years) Once that time is up your parents come back and the game is over, you get to enjoy some ending cutscenes depending on if you have achieved certain criteria in the game.
I'm not going into them, I was quite happy with the lot I could get when I played it.
So why do I ramble about this game?
I really enjoyed it.
It was short enough to keep you running around trying to get everything done in the time you had, for that money doesn't grow on trees and if you want to be able to extend your house you need the money! Want that money? Gotta grow those crops or raise those animals or both! Want that wife? Well you better make sure to give her lots of gifts and do NOT make a mess of her specific festival related activity, oh and don't dance with the wrong girl... that just makes a whole mess of things.
So yeah, sort, fun, to the point and well polished.
I've played several Harvest Moon games since then, and I've never enjoyed them anywhere NEAR as much as this first one.
I think the first problem is that they seem FAR too long and laborious, the towns you interact with are so much bigger and feel much more restrictive in what you can do, and the wilderness areas are so very big that you have to unlock certain areas by getting so far with your farm.
Now... I remember in the first Harvest Moon that there was a cave you couldn't get to until the first winter, and another area you couldn't access until you got the upgraded axe because there was a tree stump in your way.
Well. That seems so much nicer than say blocking off whole features of the game (mining) until you've upgraded the whole TOWN so many times AND by a certain point. Oh and it would help if your animals won certain competitions but we won't tell you the best way to do this despite us insisting we have a fantastic in game help feature (Seriously, this thing doesn't tell you WHAT you feed the chickens and you have to actually go to the next day before the game goes 'oh you need to feed them, here it's this, and yes they missed a days feed because we weren't gonna tell you.)
I ramble.
Again.
Because of the want to play a Harvest Moon game I nipped into town and grabbed a 2nd hand copy of Harvest Moon 3D A New Beginning. And though I've been trying to slog through it, I've basically put the game down and probably won't be picking it up again soon. The mention above regarding help function which is pretty much useless? That's from this game. I'm in autumn in that game and getting fed up with the animal festivals because I'm not winning them despite doing everything I believe I can to get the animals 'love' for me as high as possible. Also the same with the crop festivals. I mean how much sodding fertilizer do you have to pour on this stuff (100g a bag btw!) before I win a damn festival. That stuff isn't cheap!
Also the only way to open the new areas is to have a new person move into town, meaning you have to build them a home, and then you have to play hunt the song sheet. Then hit tree stumps in colour coded note relation to the song and THEN you get a brief cut scene showing something blowing up and OMG new area...
Yeah no... this isn't what I wanted from a Harvest Moon game.
I think I'm just gonna give up on the modern ones and just replay the SNES one as that seems to keep it to the point, and although smaller, I find it works.
That said.
Whilst thinking about Harvest Moon I did a couple of searches on the net for PC Harvest Moon-esque games and came across this following upcoming game:
http://stardewvalley.net/
I'm following that and fully intend to look into it when it's released.
Why?
Because I think it's gonna get that right blend between Harvest Moon, and the current love for games like Terraria. Hopefully without going over the top.
Because you know what? Some games are BETTER for being shorter.
Well, that's my ramble over with, thank you if you've managed to stick with me all the way through to the bottom.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Just a fore-note.
I started this blog post several months ago but never wrote anything beyond the opening and the closing which I'd just copied and pasted from the rest of my blogs.
Since then this topic has been milling around in my brain on and off and driving me nuts.
Why?
Because I overthought the issue.
I thought about how I wanted to write this blog, where to start, where to end. Which games from the Harvest Moon franchise to include, which games that I've played to mention. Any specific game mechanics or story points I wanted to go over.
Which just lead to more delays and more worrying over it all. So fresh off of writing my last blog post about my brain being weird on writing, I thought that it was about time I just got over myself and wrote this blog.
SO!
TLDR: I started it a while ago, never finished due to my brain being weird.
Harvest Moon.
For those not in the know this is a series that started off on the SNES back when that was a thing and is a farming simulator.
Anyone trying to bring the game Farming Simulator 20xx into this conversation will be slapped with a wet fish.
You boot up the game and from the cinematic you learn you are a young man sent away by his parents (mother is tearful) to run a farm. Through the help of the local townsfolk (2 screens away and one of them is very small) you learn how to turn the run down weed filled farm into a place your proud of!
You can grow crops! Raise animals! Even get married and have babies! Or not and woo all the girls into loving you and get an ending where they all chase you.
Yes. This game has an end, 2 and a half years after you start. (I'll admit I had to look this up as I'd forgotten how long and thought it was 3 years) Once that time is up your parents come back and the game is over, you get to enjoy some ending cutscenes depending on if you have achieved certain criteria in the game.
I'm not going into them, I was quite happy with the lot I could get when I played it.
So why do I ramble about this game?
I really enjoyed it.
It was short enough to keep you running around trying to get everything done in the time you had, for that money doesn't grow on trees and if you want to be able to extend your house you need the money! Want that money? Gotta grow those crops or raise those animals or both! Want that wife? Well you better make sure to give her lots of gifts and do NOT make a mess of her specific festival related activity, oh and don't dance with the wrong girl... that just makes a whole mess of things.
So yeah, sort, fun, to the point and well polished.
I've played several Harvest Moon games since then, and I've never enjoyed them anywhere NEAR as much as this first one.
I think the first problem is that they seem FAR too long and laborious, the towns you interact with are so much bigger and feel much more restrictive in what you can do, and the wilderness areas are so very big that you have to unlock certain areas by getting so far with your farm.
Now... I remember in the first Harvest Moon that there was a cave you couldn't get to until the first winter, and another area you couldn't access until you got the upgraded axe because there was a tree stump in your way.
Well. That seems so much nicer than say blocking off whole features of the game (mining) until you've upgraded the whole TOWN so many times AND by a certain point. Oh and it would help if your animals won certain competitions but we won't tell you the best way to do this despite us insisting we have a fantastic in game help feature (Seriously, this thing doesn't tell you WHAT you feed the chickens and you have to actually go to the next day before the game goes 'oh you need to feed them, here it's this, and yes they missed a days feed because we weren't gonna tell you.)
I ramble.
Again.
Because of the want to play a Harvest Moon game I nipped into town and grabbed a 2nd hand copy of Harvest Moon 3D A New Beginning. And though I've been trying to slog through it, I've basically put the game down and probably won't be picking it up again soon. The mention above regarding help function which is pretty much useless? That's from this game. I'm in autumn in that game and getting fed up with the animal festivals because I'm not winning them despite doing everything I believe I can to get the animals 'love' for me as high as possible. Also the same with the crop festivals. I mean how much sodding fertilizer do you have to pour on this stuff (100g a bag btw!) before I win a damn festival. That stuff isn't cheap!
Also the only way to open the new areas is to have a new person move into town, meaning you have to build them a home, and then you have to play hunt the song sheet. Then hit tree stumps in colour coded note relation to the song and THEN you get a brief cut scene showing something blowing up and OMG new area...
Yeah no... this isn't what I wanted from a Harvest Moon game.
I think I'm just gonna give up on the modern ones and just replay the SNES one as that seems to keep it to the point, and although smaller, I find it works.
That said.
Whilst thinking about Harvest Moon I did a couple of searches on the net for PC Harvest Moon-esque games and came across this following upcoming game:
http://stardewvalley.net/
I'm following that and fully intend to look into it when it's released.
Why?
Because I think it's gonna get that right blend between Harvest Moon, and the current love for games like Terraria. Hopefully without going over the top.
Because you know what? Some games are BETTER for being shorter.
Well, that's my ramble over with, thank you if you've managed to stick with me all the way through to the bottom.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Sunday, 26 October 2014
Creatively Stumped
Greetings one and all!
Something a little different today.
Go back 10+ years and I used to daily write creatively. No hassle, just words flowing from finger to paper/screen. Now... that's gone way downhill and now I'm lucky to write a page a month. I find I just can not settle on something to write about and my brain always tells me that I must have SOME fixed idea of what I'm writing about. I can't be allowed to just write whatever comes to mind, it HAS to have a purpose, a character, a story or just a REASON.
Now, coming from this I've been doing a lot of thinking as to WHY I have developed this issue and while I think I'm nowhere close to answering that issue. I have had a thought on something else.
In my head, characters don't have hair colour/eye colour, height, weight, facial structure.
Now... that sounds odd. However that drew me to a deeper realisation about myself.
You see. In real life, I can have trouble defining a person by their physical features. It matters when I first take a look at someone but really, what matters to me is how they speak, how they act, their demeanour, their personality and their tone. All of that lot tells me FAR more about the person than the colour of their skin, their eye colour, their hair colour or all of the rest. Yeah I take note on if they are my height, taller or HOLY HECK YOU ARE A GIANT COMPARED TO ME. But this I think then feeds back into my writing.
Because when I think back over projects I wrote 10+ years ago, whether full stories or just little things I blurted out... I rarely go into things like height and weight, sometimes into the hair and eye colour but usually only to say something about social status (as with the hair) or the look IN someones eyes more so than the colour.
I'm not entirely too sure what to take from this, as it only came to me clearly today, but it's a thought. An interesting one. A telling one.
Hmm... This didn't end quite where I wanted it too...
Ah well,
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Something a little different today.
Go back 10+ years and I used to daily write creatively. No hassle, just words flowing from finger to paper/screen. Now... that's gone way downhill and now I'm lucky to write a page a month. I find I just can not settle on something to write about and my brain always tells me that I must have SOME fixed idea of what I'm writing about. I can't be allowed to just write whatever comes to mind, it HAS to have a purpose, a character, a story or just a REASON.
Now, coming from this I've been doing a lot of thinking as to WHY I have developed this issue and while I think I'm nowhere close to answering that issue. I have had a thought on something else.
In my head, characters don't have hair colour/eye colour, height, weight, facial structure.
Now... that sounds odd. However that drew me to a deeper realisation about myself.
You see. In real life, I can have trouble defining a person by their physical features. It matters when I first take a look at someone but really, what matters to me is how they speak, how they act, their demeanour, their personality and their tone. All of that lot tells me FAR more about the person than the colour of their skin, their eye colour, their hair colour or all of the rest. Yeah I take note on if they are my height, taller or HOLY HECK YOU ARE A GIANT COMPARED TO ME. But this I think then feeds back into my writing.
Because when I think back over projects I wrote 10+ years ago, whether full stories or just little things I blurted out... I rarely go into things like height and weight, sometimes into the hair and eye colour but usually only to say something about social status (as with the hair) or the look IN someones eyes more so than the colour.
I'm not entirely too sure what to take from this, as it only came to me clearly today, but it's a thought. An interesting one. A telling one.
Hmm... This didn't end quite where I wanted it too...
Ah well,
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
New 'N Tasty
Greetings one and all!
Yesterday I found out something exciting.
The Abe's Oddysee remake known as New 'N Tasty was due out today in the EU on PS(take your pick) systems.
This brought me a whole level of nostalgic joy. This was a game I played some as a kid after it came out, and I pretty much did OK at best at it. It's also the kinda game which whilst playing as a fully fledged job weilding adult. I truly SUCK at. I don't know why, but for some reason any skill I had with this game went down the shitter as I got older.
Anyway. I'm excited for it.
WHY?
Because it looks like the kinda remake that is good. That they've taken the thought of re-doing their game so very seriously.
Have I played it at time or writing this?
No
What about seeing it?
Well, I'm watching that next-door-neighbour I grew up with playing it as I write.
Am I still excited?
Yes.
Damn it's pretty
Damn it's still got that 'oh shit' feeling when something goes horribly wrong.
Damn it's still got the charm.
THE FARTS NOW COME IN MULTIPLE SOUNDS!
Yeah. I'm excited and will at some point grab the game. Because this is how a remake should be done. With love, care and tenderness for the original.
Oh
AND A NEW NAME!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Yesterday I found out something exciting.
The Abe's Oddysee remake known as New 'N Tasty was due out today in the EU on PS(take your pick) systems.
This brought me a whole level of nostalgic joy. This was a game I played some as a kid after it came out, and I pretty much did OK at best at it. It's also the kinda game which whilst playing as a fully fledged job weilding adult. I truly SUCK at. I don't know why, but for some reason any skill I had with this game went down the shitter as I got older.
Anyway. I'm excited for it.
WHY?
Because it looks like the kinda remake that is good. That they've taken the thought of re-doing their game so very seriously.
Have I played it at time or writing this?
No
What about seeing it?
Well, I'm watching that next-door-neighbour I grew up with playing it as I write.
Am I still excited?
Yes.
Damn it's pretty
Damn it's still got that 'oh shit' feeling when something goes horribly wrong.
Damn it's still got the charm.
THE FARTS NOW COME IN MULTIPLE SOUNDS!
Yeah. I'm excited and will at some point grab the game. Because this is how a remake should be done. With love, care and tenderness for the original.
Oh
AND A NEW NAME!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Monday, 7 July 2014
A vexing evening
Greetings one and all!
Today's is a little ramble on the stupidity of gaming I came into last night.
Beginning: Yesterday evening I fancied playing some modded Minecraft.
After looking over some of the packs avaliable from the Tekkit and FeedTheBeast launchers I chose one that sounded like some fun.
Agrarian Skies - Hardcore Quest. It sounded like it'd be interesting and fun to have a little faff about in.
So I download the pack, load it up, create a world
And instantly die
...
The world hadn't loaded underneath me, so I die again and die once more and am told I've run out of lives and the world is now deleting myself because I suck.
Okay, not what I was expecting, so I create a new world expecting the first time it to be a hiccup.
It was not. There was no world loading.
Re-reading the modpack blurb it does mention you CAN download maps for the modpack.
So I go and download the only one avaliable and find that this is what I was SUPPOSED to be doing. It doesn't automatically generate a world despite what Minecraft tells you.
So, I sit through the intro, it's interesting. I get started slowly on following the quests to acheiving the quests and unlocking more items so I can expand the world beyond the small platform that I've been given.
I die to starvation twice and thankfully gain an extra life and am finally getting on a little roll with things.
I then click on a button in a book to finish a quest and receive my items. I gain an extra life. I 'consume' the extra life
Die
World deleted.
That shat on my evening there and then.
So I decide to play something ELSE and leave modded minecraft behind.
I chose Assassins Creed 3.
A game I bought when it came out, played for a while then put down and have barely touched since then. I picked up AC4 in the Steam sale for a reasonable price however I won't actually install and PLAY it until I've finished AC3. You know. Story.
First off, it doesn't load up. I'm still not too sure why but I ended up restarting my computer because the damn thing was insisting it was loading or already running, and yet nothing loaded.
Sigh
Once reboot is complete I open the game, and it wants to patch. FINE! Patch done, Uplay now wants me to play Far Cry 3 (Another game I'm gently plodding my way through) and I have to poke it with my mouse some to get it to agree that alright I can play AC3 BUT ONLY as long as I go through a screen which tells me I'm essentially reinstalling it.
Uh...hu
Whatever. I get in.
I run around for about 10 mins, get to the next mission. Finish off a couple of story missions and then I hit one where I have to ride on horseback and stop some messengers with an optional mission of not touching the floor.
Alright, I have a bow that should be fine.
Can I work out how in all of the hell to USE the bow on horseback?
No..... I don't even know if it's doable, but it should be right?
So I jump down, kill the first messenger and oh... it's timed... Alright, not a problem, it's labled an OPTIONAL mission to kill the messengers before the time runs out.
It wasn't optional, that was APPARENTLY the main mission
Which I find out as I'm desperatly trying to charge uphill in the rain and dark on the back of a horse whose ass is taking up 1/4 of the screen who keeps jumping over stuff that isn't there, refuses to go FAST and generally is a pain. Of course it doesn't help that I can't see the damn path I'm trying to following to CHASE these stupid messengers.
Oh and then the combat when I screwed up trying to GET at the messengers.
I swear AC3 has the LEAST fun combat in ALL of the AC games I've played. (That would be 1,2,Both of Ezio's spin offs and 3) It just feels like no one TRIED to remember that PC gamers play this shit with it's ambiguous button selections and stupid ass menu system so when you DO wanna look up the controls it's an arse to get too.
Anyway, after several tries I manage that.
Next mission is take out native fighters without killing them.
Fine, I sneak up behind them. Take them down. One objects and as I press the buttons to RUN AWAY my character keeps trying to dart in and gets stabbed...... repeatedly.
W....T....F
This mission also takes a couple of tries.
I then have a NAVAL battle (I hate the naval battles) and somehow wrangle myself through the sodding things.
Only for the game to freeze mid-cut scene after a big fight.
You know what?
I was done.
So VERY done right there and then with buginess.
The amount of glitching that was going on whilst I was playing AC3 was pissing me off so much I was yelling at my computer. I even just stood and took a stabbing at one point because I felt my character DESERVED it.
Oh, yeah, that also doesn't take into account the bit I did where back in the real world Desmond just walks into Abstergo and is at one point chasing some nut case around an area... who I lost when some guard shot me off the beams and I spent 10 MINUTES running around the room trying to find the fucker so I could basically kill him. But couldn't FIND him because he was running away from me across 3 different levels. It was pure sodding luck I spotted him when I did and could dispatch him. Only for the cutscene to then jump beyond the other side of the room to Desmond darting into a lift, of which they were all closed so dunno how you wrangled that you fucker.
That was my gaming experiance yesterday that caused me to get more than a little pissed off.
Games shouldn't piss you off in that way.
I've said before I enjoy challenging games.
That means games that are well designed and yes they might be about jumping puzzles that are pixel perfect.
But at least they weren't so glitchy that you couldn't complete a mission BECAUSE the glitches and the game and level design made it stupidly difficult to complete it.
A jumping puzzle on a 2D platform, I acknowledge, is hugely different to modding a game as complex as Minecraft, or an action/adventure game with so many mechanics they're coming out of the wazoo like AC3.
But still.
Is there any chance you could maybe test your games a little more publishers?
Oh, and whilst your at it.
FIX YOUR SODDING PLATFORM UBISOFT. IF I OPEN MY .exe SHORTCUT FOR AC3. THEN I WANT TO PLAY AC3, NOT FAR CRY 3. I KNOW THEY SHARE A 3 BUT REALLY?!
*cough*
Anyway.
After a decent morning at work and an afternoon/evening spent mostly reading a brand new fiction book, I'm feeling a lot better.
I hope no one else runs into the kind of mental state I fell into last night.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Today's is a little ramble on the stupidity of gaming I came into last night.
Beginning: Yesterday evening I fancied playing some modded Minecraft.
After looking over some of the packs avaliable from the Tekkit and FeedTheBeast launchers I chose one that sounded like some fun.
Agrarian Skies - Hardcore Quest. It sounded like it'd be interesting and fun to have a little faff about in.
So I download the pack, load it up, create a world
And instantly die
...
The world hadn't loaded underneath me, so I die again and die once more and am told I've run out of lives and the world is now deleting myself because I suck.
Okay, not what I was expecting, so I create a new world expecting the first time it to be a hiccup.
It was not. There was no world loading.
Re-reading the modpack blurb it does mention you CAN download maps for the modpack.
So I go and download the only one avaliable and find that this is what I was SUPPOSED to be doing. It doesn't automatically generate a world despite what Minecraft tells you.
So, I sit through the intro, it's interesting. I get started slowly on following the quests to acheiving the quests and unlocking more items so I can expand the world beyond the small platform that I've been given.
I die to starvation twice and thankfully gain an extra life and am finally getting on a little roll with things.
I then click on a button in a book to finish a quest and receive my items. I gain an extra life. I 'consume' the extra life
Die
World deleted.
That shat on my evening there and then.
So I decide to play something ELSE and leave modded minecraft behind.
I chose Assassins Creed 3.
A game I bought when it came out, played for a while then put down and have barely touched since then. I picked up AC4 in the Steam sale for a reasonable price however I won't actually install and PLAY it until I've finished AC3. You know. Story.
First off, it doesn't load up. I'm still not too sure why but I ended up restarting my computer because the damn thing was insisting it was loading or already running, and yet nothing loaded.
Sigh
Once reboot is complete I open the game, and it wants to patch. FINE! Patch done, Uplay now wants me to play Far Cry 3 (Another game I'm gently plodding my way through) and I have to poke it with my mouse some to get it to agree that alright I can play AC3 BUT ONLY as long as I go through a screen which tells me I'm essentially reinstalling it.
Uh...hu
Whatever. I get in.
I run around for about 10 mins, get to the next mission. Finish off a couple of story missions and then I hit one where I have to ride on horseback and stop some messengers with an optional mission of not touching the floor.
Alright, I have a bow that should be fine.
Can I work out how in all of the hell to USE the bow on horseback?
No..... I don't even know if it's doable, but it should be right?
So I jump down, kill the first messenger and oh... it's timed... Alright, not a problem, it's labled an OPTIONAL mission to kill the messengers before the time runs out.
It wasn't optional, that was APPARENTLY the main mission
Which I find out as I'm desperatly trying to charge uphill in the rain and dark on the back of a horse whose ass is taking up 1/4 of the screen who keeps jumping over stuff that isn't there, refuses to go FAST and generally is a pain. Of course it doesn't help that I can't see the damn path I'm trying to following to CHASE these stupid messengers.
Oh and then the combat when I screwed up trying to GET at the messengers.
I swear AC3 has the LEAST fun combat in ALL of the AC games I've played. (That would be 1,2,Both of Ezio's spin offs and 3) It just feels like no one TRIED to remember that PC gamers play this shit with it's ambiguous button selections and stupid ass menu system so when you DO wanna look up the controls it's an arse to get too.
Anyway, after several tries I manage that.
Next mission is take out native fighters without killing them.
Fine, I sneak up behind them. Take them down. One objects and as I press the buttons to RUN AWAY my character keeps trying to dart in and gets stabbed...... repeatedly.
W....T....F
This mission also takes a couple of tries.
I then have a NAVAL battle (I hate the naval battles) and somehow wrangle myself through the sodding things.
Only for the game to freeze mid-cut scene after a big fight.
You know what?
I was done.
So VERY done right there and then with buginess.
The amount of glitching that was going on whilst I was playing AC3 was pissing me off so much I was yelling at my computer. I even just stood and took a stabbing at one point because I felt my character DESERVED it.
Oh, yeah, that also doesn't take into account the bit I did where back in the real world Desmond just walks into Abstergo and is at one point chasing some nut case around an area... who I lost when some guard shot me off the beams and I spent 10 MINUTES running around the room trying to find the fucker so I could basically kill him. But couldn't FIND him because he was running away from me across 3 different levels. It was pure sodding luck I spotted him when I did and could dispatch him. Only for the cutscene to then jump beyond the other side of the room to Desmond darting into a lift, of which they were all closed so dunno how you wrangled that you fucker.
That was my gaming experiance yesterday that caused me to get more than a little pissed off.
Games shouldn't piss you off in that way.
I've said before I enjoy challenging games.
That means games that are well designed and yes they might be about jumping puzzles that are pixel perfect.
But at least they weren't so glitchy that you couldn't complete a mission BECAUSE the glitches and the game and level design made it stupidly difficult to complete it.
A jumping puzzle on a 2D platform, I acknowledge, is hugely different to modding a game as complex as Minecraft, or an action/adventure game with so many mechanics they're coming out of the wazoo like AC3.
But still.
Is there any chance you could maybe test your games a little more publishers?
Oh, and whilst your at it.
FIX YOUR SODDING PLATFORM UBISOFT. IF I OPEN MY .exe SHORTCUT FOR AC3. THEN I WANT TO PLAY AC3, NOT FAR CRY 3. I KNOW THEY SHARE A 3 BUT REALLY?!
*cough*
Anyway.
After a decent morning at work and an afternoon/evening spent mostly reading a brand new fiction book, I'm feeling a lot better.
I hope no one else runs into the kind of mental state I fell into last night.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Future thoughts on my channel
Greetings one and all!
Today I wanted to go into some of the titles that I've had kicking around my head for making videos for my youtube channel.
As anyone whose seen some of my videos might be able to tell, at this point I'm still trying to settle in and find my [i]thing[/i], my style or just how I'm gonna DO this.
You can also tell that I've yet to finish a proper series. I'm honest about this, no point in hiding it, the videos are there as evidence.
Nevertheless.
I have plans, I have thoughts and I have ideas.
In that realm of ideas, I present a few gaming titles which I plan to do at some point.
- Spyro the Dragon 1, 2, 3.
- Tombi 2 (MAY touch the 1st one, need to decide what to do about the music because oh my it's... an exercise in retaining your sanity)
- The Lion King (Sega Megadrive 2 version. When I'm ready to do this I WILL be practising that damn move I mentioned before that I got stuck on)
- Aladdin (PC version!)
- Bioshock 1 (Anyone who knows me well re games will probably have to pick their jaw off the floor on this one. I don't blame you, I'm still considering the state of my sanity since I made the choice to do this one and actually bought the game too. This one may well be a little further down the road when I've worked out my [i]thing[/i] so I can bring something other than half blind terror to the game. Oh, and this would be semi-blind as I've never actually PLAYED the game before)
There's probably more but those are all I can think of off the top of my head right now.
So yeah, that's what my channel has to look forward to ontop of things I need to arrange such as:
- My Minecraft Realm. Coming as soon as I can finally make an edit of some footage I have that I'm happy with.
- Multiplayer. I WILL have more multiplayer on my channel, I just need to sit down and arrange details with others.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Today I wanted to go into some of the titles that I've had kicking around my head for making videos for my youtube channel.
As anyone whose seen some of my videos might be able to tell, at this point I'm still trying to settle in and find my [i]thing[/i], my style or just how I'm gonna DO this.
You can also tell that I've yet to finish a proper series. I'm honest about this, no point in hiding it, the videos are there as evidence.
Nevertheless.
I have plans, I have thoughts and I have ideas.
In that realm of ideas, I present a few gaming titles which I plan to do at some point.
- Spyro the Dragon 1, 2, 3.
- Tombi 2 (MAY touch the 1st one, need to decide what to do about the music because oh my it's... an exercise in retaining your sanity)
- The Lion King (Sega Megadrive 2 version. When I'm ready to do this I WILL be practising that damn move I mentioned before that I got stuck on)
- Aladdin (PC version!)
- Bioshock 1 (Anyone who knows me well re games will probably have to pick their jaw off the floor on this one. I don't blame you, I'm still considering the state of my sanity since I made the choice to do this one and actually bought the game too. This one may well be a little further down the road when I've worked out my [i]thing[/i] so I can bring something other than half blind terror to the game. Oh, and this would be semi-blind as I've never actually PLAYED the game before)
There's probably more but those are all I can think of off the top of my head right now.
So yeah, that's what my channel has to look forward to ontop of things I need to arrange such as:
- My Minecraft Realm. Coming as soon as I can finally make an edit of some footage I have that I'm happy with.
- Multiplayer. I WILL have more multiplayer on my channel, I just need to sit down and arrange details with others.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Monday, 23 June 2014
Starting with the past. Part 5
Greetings one and all!
I wasn't sure what to write about today. So many games that they all started to blur a little, however, as I was randomly browsing the internet I stumbled over an article of REALLY bad games that the writer believed should never had been written.
On that note I'm writing about a game that is NOT on that list (but is related to one that IS)
Toejam and Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron.
Sega Megadrive 2 (Are we noticing a trend here yet?)
I'll quickly mention that I never played the first game. This game came with my 2nd hand sega megadrive 2 along with a few other titles. I did know someone who was in my class in year 4 who HAD the first game, but could never get them to agree on a time I could borrow it and then the year ended and we went to different middle schools (I was schooled in a 3 tier system. R-4, 5-8, 9-11/13. That's school years, not age years)
So this game.
Fun
Silly
Bonkers
And yet, there's an extra depth to it I've come to REALLY appreciate in the last few years.
It. Is. BRIGHT.
Seriously.
I loaded this game up (via the steam copy I happily own) and my eyeballs nearly disowned me on the spot with how many bright and almost neon colours were assulting my eyes. It's beautiful to look at, silly to play and a lot of fun.
Sure there's some frustration, but that was kind of the THING at the time, and I can appreciate it.
It held your hands a touch at the start, gave tips along the way and let you get on with it. Heck it even takes the mick out of you at times by hiding rubbish in items where your searching for food (health) or special jars or points or something. Meaning if your not paying close attention to what your doing BAM! A tyre to the head, or a rubbish bin accross the bonce.
There's also the collecting items element, which if I remember rightly was REALLY difficult, even more so in a time before the internet and there sure as FIG NUT weren't any walk throughs in the local shops! Oh good LORD no we were not living in an area important enough to have a walkthrough or help guide we could buy. Even in a shop that sells games. No no no.
I don't think we ever got everything. I remember us getting MOST of the items, because they were hard to find, but yeah. A really really good game that's more than a little bonkers.
In terms of what I mentioned before about a game that was on a list of games that should never be made?
TJ+E3... For the xbox.
I never played it. I remember being REALLY excited when I heard it was an actual thing.... then I saw the box art and back cover and just gave up ALL hope.
Because turning two groovy aliens into 'hip hop' or 'rap' characters.... *shudder*
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
I wasn't sure what to write about today. So many games that they all started to blur a little, however, as I was randomly browsing the internet I stumbled over an article of REALLY bad games that the writer believed should never had been written.
On that note I'm writing about a game that is NOT on that list (but is related to one that IS)
Toejam and Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron.
Sega Megadrive 2 (Are we noticing a trend here yet?)
I'll quickly mention that I never played the first game. This game came with my 2nd hand sega megadrive 2 along with a few other titles. I did know someone who was in my class in year 4 who HAD the first game, but could never get them to agree on a time I could borrow it and then the year ended and we went to different middle schools (I was schooled in a 3 tier system. R-4, 5-8, 9-11/13. That's school years, not age years)
So this game.
Fun
Silly
Bonkers
And yet, there's an extra depth to it I've come to REALLY appreciate in the last few years.
It. Is. BRIGHT.
Seriously.
I loaded this game up (via the steam copy I happily own) and my eyeballs nearly disowned me on the spot with how many bright and almost neon colours were assulting my eyes. It's beautiful to look at, silly to play and a lot of fun.
Sure there's some frustration, but that was kind of the THING at the time, and I can appreciate it.
It held your hands a touch at the start, gave tips along the way and let you get on with it. Heck it even takes the mick out of you at times by hiding rubbish in items where your searching for food (health) or special jars or points or something. Meaning if your not paying close attention to what your doing BAM! A tyre to the head, or a rubbish bin accross the bonce.
There's also the collecting items element, which if I remember rightly was REALLY difficult, even more so in a time before the internet and there sure as FIG NUT weren't any walk throughs in the local shops! Oh good LORD no we were not living in an area important enough to have a walkthrough or help guide we could buy. Even in a shop that sells games. No no no.
I don't think we ever got everything. I remember us getting MOST of the items, because they were hard to find, but yeah. A really really good game that's more than a little bonkers.
In terms of what I mentioned before about a game that was on a list of games that should never be made?
TJ+E3... For the xbox.
I never played it. I remember being REALLY excited when I heard it was an actual thing.... then I saw the box art and back cover and just gave up ALL hope.
Because turning two groovy aliens into 'hip hop' or 'rap' characters.... *shudder*
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
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