Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Game reviews / Final impressions

I've been thinking about game reviews a lot lately.  I like reading reviews of games to help me decide if I want to buy it or not.  Then I usually watch some YouTube videos of gameplay, but never the beginning of the game.  Sometimes what I read and what I see don't add up.  And it makes me wonder how much of the game the reviewer actually played. 

If a game takes about 60 hours to play did the reviewer actually play the whole game before they wrote their review?  Probably not.  They've got a lot of other things to do . . . and other games to play.  They probably played enough to get the gist of the game but that's not the whole picture.

But you can't always trust what you see on a YouTube video either as the whole picture.  Unless the player is commenting about everything they are experiencing (story, game mechanics, art design, impressions, etc.) they're not giving a whole picture either.  Yes, they might oh and ah at things, or yell and cuss at times, but there's more to that if you want to get the whole essence of a game.

Since I'm finishing a lot more games than before maybe I could write a review of the games that I've finished and you can compare the review I write with the gameplay videos I make.  These won't be professional level reviews, just my impressions on how things went.  I figure I could stick to some basic categories and talk about those things that may or may not influence you playing a game.

I'm thinking about the following categories:

story
characters
game mechanics
art design
overall impressions

What do you think about those categories?  Do you think there should be more things that I cover?  Less?  I haven't decided if I will give out a final score/rating for the games.  I don't know if it would be on a 5 or 10 point scale.  Or maybe 100.  Who knows.  Just throwing out ideas now.  Let me know what you think.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

7 Days to Die . . . and die . . . and die again

I finally played some 7 Days to Die the other night.  But only because Dead by Daylight wouldn't start a game.  I really need to get back in to playing more PC games.

I've watched a ton of videos in this game so I know pretty much what to expect.  But that all went out of the window as soon as I heard my first zombie.  That's fucking scary.  There's a sense of panic of 'where are they' and 'what the hell do I kill them with' and a whole lot of flight or fight endorphins.  Once you survive that first fight you feel like you can do anything . . . until night comes.

I was able to find a decent home to hide up in until daylight.  It wasn't great, but at least it was something.  Unfortunately after making everything I could until I ran out of resources I still had several hours until dawn to wait.  It was scary sitting there was nothing to do to take my mind off of the zombies that I could hear outside even through I wasn't sensed.

I most of gotten a little cocky because on day #2 I ventured out a little further away from the house . . . and got myself killed.  I was foolish and thought I could handle anything.  I was wrong. I was able to retrieve my backpack after I spawned so all was not lost.

The next day and night were all about gathering resources and working on building things or repairing the house I was in.  I thought things were going very well.  Right up until day #4.  Then I died again.  I had so many things on my 'to do' list that I completely forgot about checking my health and hydration.  I died from my own stupidity.

Obviously I don't think I would do well by myself in a zombie apocalypse.  I need someone else to divvy up the responsibility so I don't have to do everything.  Also, it would be great to have someone watch my back while I'm out and about collecting stuff.  A battle buddy would always be welcome.

I'm not giving up on the game, but I have a feeling that it will be slow going for me.  And with a lot of deaths.  And I mean A LOT.  But I'm not worried.  This game makes it fun to die.  And I feel like I always learn something when I come back to life.  I wonder how many deaths until I'm a genius.

Friday, December 2, 2016

December 2016 and beyond YouTube plans

I figured I should probably share my plans for the month here so you know what to expect on my YouTube channel.  Hopefully you're reading this and will go over there and check out some of my videos.

My plan for December is mostly finish up a couple of games I'm playing or at least get further along in them.  First up is Far Cry Classic.  I started that in November but got stuck part way through and was having a really hard time in the game.  I ended up playing Call of Duty Classic more so that game got finished but I'm still working on Far Cry Classic.  Since I've figured out the swapping guns issue and brightness (or lack thereof) issue I'm sure I can finish up the game this month.

I've also go some videos for dlc missions for Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  I've got those filmed already so I've just got to edit them and get them posted.  I'd also like to make more progress in Lego Harry Potter (yrs. 1-4) even thought I know I won't finish it this month.

I don't know if I can finish this game, but I'd like to get a few more videos from Halo: Combat Evolved up on my channel.  We'll have to see.  Maybe even some more Rayman Origins if I've feeling particular psychotic.

My plan is to finish or get more videos posted for as many Xbox (360 and One) as I can because I have a plan for 2017 which is just around the corner.  It will be here before you know it.  It doesn't help that I've been extremely sick the last couple of days and haven't had the chance to post anything.  I'm feeling better so maybe I can make up for lost time.

My plan for 2017 is to make it "The Year of the PlayStation".  Even though I will continue to play Xbox games, I think I want to focus on playing more PlayStation games.  They may be old.  They may be new.  They may be whatever.  I figure I have a PlayStation Plus or PlayStation Now membership (or whatever it's called) so I might as well use it.  I haven't logged in to my PlayStation account for months so this should be interesting.

Some of the current PlayStation games I'm already in the midst of will continue and hopefully finish sometime next year.  Those games are Psychonauts, Dark Cloud, and Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits.  I've already started recording a couple other PlayStation games and hopefully I'll be able to get those started and finished next year.  I don't want to tell you what those are as I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.

There are a couple of Xbox games that I will be playing as well next year.  I told you I wouldn't stop playing those games.  A friend of mine suggested 3 different games and I've committed to playing them all.  Those will come up periodically throughout the year so keep on eye on what they are.  I've already started playing one of them and I guess if you're nosey you could check my achievements.  Unfortunately I don't think I've picked up any achievements in that game yet.  Almost though.

If you know of any PlayStation games (I, II, or III) that you'd like me to play, let me know in the comments.  I'm open to suggestions and if I don't have the game I just might have to go out and do some bargain hunting for a copy.  I love shopping for video games.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Must play games for Playstation (original) (that I own)

I've been thinking a lot about a couple of things.  Namely time and the shear number of video games I own.  I would love to completely play them all but realistically it's not possible.  So how do I decide which ones to play all the way through and which ones I play whenever with no expectation of finishing them.

I've been looking through my list of games and based on the influence a game has had on the industry and my experiences with it I've come up with a list of games that I own that I feel are a "must play" game.  Meaning, this is a game that I want to tell everyone "I played that and finished it".  I'm going through this one system at a time so some lists will be shorter or longer than others depending on how many games I own for that system.  Maybe some day I'll make a list of must play games for games that I don't own (but will probably own them some day - I just can't stop buying them).  But right now this is based on games that I OWN.  Keep that in mind as you read this list.  I've made some comments on some of them just because I can.

Playstation (original)
Abe's Oddysee
The beginning of the Oddworld games and their wonder irreverent style of gameplay.  Farting and burping have never been as fun . . . or productive in video games.

Chrono Cross
Some people would say Chrono Trigger but I started playing this game first and I love the shear number of characters you can recruit and have in your party.  It adds some strategy to what seems like a typical RPG.  And the enemies can really mess with your strategy.

Crash Bandicoot
This mascot has been in quite a number of games.  It should be interesting to see the game that started it all.

Descent
A Doom clone but this time you're in a ship.  The game has true 6 axis movement which blew my mind when I played it for the first time.  I don't know why I struggle to play the original Doom games but don't really have any problems navigating this game.  It's the first game that made me think of games in a real three dimensional environment.

Final Fantasy Tactics
I have this game for my PSP and I actually like playing it more on that system than on the Playstation.  I'm not sure why.  But I first started playing it on this system and I love the amount of customization that you can do for your group as a whole and each individual character in your party.  This is a game that I love to sit and just do random battles and not advance the story because I love it so much.

Final Fantasy VII
Everyone says this is the best Final Fantasy game.  I disagree but you can read about that below.  It has had such an influence on gamers and is being remade so it's definitely one that every games should play.

Final Fantasy IX
This is my favorite Final Fantasy games.  Ever.  The only one that comes close is Final Fantasy X and that isn't close to over take IX.  I got so close to finishing this game before my stuff was robbed that I was heartbroken to have all that progress lost . . . until I realized that it meant I had to play it again and I was happy.  One of the few games I was willing to say that about.

Grandia
This is an epic RPG that showed Final Fantasy didn't have a corner on the market for RPG games.  And it spawned a couple of sequels in the franchise.

Legend of Dragoon
This is the first solo campaign that finished and got to the end credits.  It was simply beautiful.  And I cried.  And it deserves a sequel more so than any other game I can think of.  Somebody please make that happen.

Legend of Legaia
Discovering all the hidden special moves made this game really fun.  It's so satisfying to see that you unlocked something just by pushing random button combinations.  It helps give you a different take on combat too.

Metal Gear Solid
This is a game everyone should play.  You can't deny how much of an impact it has had on the industry.  But someone please explain to me the whole Metal Gear lore.  I'm lost and clueless about it.

Rayman
Another mascot that has spawned several games.  One of those games I'm playing and capturing now and it's killing me.  Literally.  Still fun.  Another one where it's nice to see where everything started.  And I remember when it came out and everyone was upset that he didn't have any legs or arms, but had hands and feet.  Weird.

Spyro the Dragon
Another franchise game.  Fun.  Simple.  I just wish the camera controls were better.

Threads of Fate
I think this is the first game that I played that switched between 2 main characters.  I found it innovated.  Probably wasn't the first game to do this, but it was the first for me that I remember.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
Not the first Tomb Raider game but it's the first one I played.  The controls have gotten much better since this one.  It was nice to have a female protagonist instead them always being the damsel in distress, even if her boobs are unrealistically too large (this was before the age that plastic surgery and boob enhancements went wild).  That girl must have so many back problems.

The only one on the list that I've actually finished is Legend of Dragoon.  The rest are on my wish list to capture and post to me YouTube channel . . . some day.  I might even replay Legend of Dragoon.  It's that good of a game even if it doesn't hold up graphically very well these days.

What are the original Playstation games that you would say are "must play"?  Maybe our lists have a couple duplicates.  Tell me in the comments and why I should play them.  Maybe if you're convincing enough I might go out and try to find a copy and play it.  Influence me.  I dare you.

Must play games for Playstation (original) (that I own)

I've been thinking a lot about a couple of things.  Namely time and the shear number of video games I own.  I would love to completely play them all but realistically it's not possible.  So how do I decide which ones to play all the way through and which ones I play whenever with no expectation of finishing them.

I've been looking through my list of games and based on the influence a game has had on the industry and my experiences with it I've come up with a list of games that I own that I feel are a "must play" game.  Meaning, this is a game that I want to tell everyone "I played that and finished it".  I'm going through this one system at a time so some lists will be shorter or longer than others depending on how many games I own for that system.  Maybe some day I'll make a list of must play games for games that I don't own (but will probably own them some day - I can't stop buying).  But right now this this is based on games that I OWN.  Keep that in mind as you read this list.  I've made some comments on some of them just because I can.

Playstation (original)
Abe's Oddysee
The beginning of the Oddworld games and their wonder irreverent style of gameplay.  Farting and burping have never been as fun . . . or productive in video games.

Chrono Cross
Some people would say Chrono Trigger but I started playing this game first and I love the shear number of characters you can recruit and have in your party.  It adds some strategy to what seems like a typical RPG.  And the enemies can really mess with your strategy.

Crash Bandicoot
This mascot has been in quite a number of games.  It should be interesting to see the game that started it all.

Descent
A Doom clone but this time you're in a ship.  The game has true 6 axis movement which blew my mind when I played it for the first time.  I don't know why I struggle to play the original Doom games but don't really have any problems navigating this game.  It's the first game that made me think of games in a real three dimensional environment.

Final Fantasy Tactics
I have this game for my PSP and I actually like playing it more on that system than on the Playstation.  I'm not sure why.  But I first started playing it on this system and I love the amount of customization that you can do for your group as a whole and each individual character in your party.  This is a game that I love to sit and just do random battles and not advance the story because I love it so much.

Final Fantasy VII
Everyone says this is the best Final Fantasy game.  I disagree but you can read about that below.  It has had such an influence on gamers and is being remade so it's definitely one that every games should play.

Final Fantasy IX
This is my favorite Final Fantasy games.  Ever.  The only one that comes close is Final Fantasy X and that isn't close to over take IX.  I got so close to finishing this game before my stuff was robbed that I was heartbroken to have all that progress lost . . . until I realized that it meant I had to play it again and I was happy.  One of the few games I was willing to say that about.

Grandia
This is an epic RPG that showed Final Fantasy didn't have a corner on the market for RPG games.  And it spawned a couple of sequels in the franchise.

Legend of Dragoon
This is the first solo campaign that finished and got to the end credits.  It was simply beautiful.  And I cried.  And it deserves a sequel more so than any other game I can think of.  Somebody please make that happen.

Legend of Legaia
Discovering all the hidden special moves made this game really fun.  It's so satisfying to see that you unlocked something just by pushing random button combinations.  It helps give you a different take on combat too.

Metal Gear Solid
This is a game everyone should play.  You can't deny how much of an impact it has had on the industry.  But someone please explain to me the whole Metal Gear lore.  I'm lost and clueless about it.

Rayman
Another mascot that has spawned several games.  One of those games I'm playing and capturing now and it's killing me.  Literally.  Still fun.  Another one where it's nice to see where everything started.  And I remember when it came out and everyone was upset that he didn't have any legs or arms, but had hands and feet.  Weird.

Spyro the Dragon
Another franchise game.  Fun.  Simple.  I just wish the camera controls were better.

Threads of Fate
I think this is the first game that I played that switched between 2 main characters.  I found it innovated.  Probably wasn't the first game to do this, but it was the first for me that I remember.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
Not the first Tomb Raider game but it's the first one I played.  The controls have gotten much better since this one.  It was nice to have a female protagonist instead them always being the damsel in distress, even if her boobs are unrealistically too large (this was before the age that plastic surgery and boob enhancements went wild).  That girl must have so many back problems.

The only one on the list that I've actually finished is Legend of Dragoon.  The rest are on my wish list to capture and post to me YouTube channel . . . some day.  I might even replay Legend of Dragoon.  It's that good of a game even if it doesn't hold up graphically very well these days.

What are the original Playstation games that you would say are "must play"?  Maybe our lists have a couple duplicates.  Tell me in the comments and why I should play them.  Maybe if you're convincing enough I might go out and try to find a copy and play it.  Influence me.  I dare you.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Goal setting . . . and achieving

I like setting goals or challenges for myself.  It gives me something to work for.  It seems I'm objective driven in my life.  I don't always meet those goals or succeed at those challenges but it's something to try for.

This summer I secretly set a goal for myself.  I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want the pressure of trying to meet it while everyone was watching.  I had about 37,000 in gamer score (can't remember the exact number I had at the time).  I wanted to break the 40,000 mark before the end of the year.  That meant I had to get almost 3,000 in achievements to do so (I think it might have been around 2,700 or so).  That's like finishing/perfecting 2 full games and then some.  Since I don't have all the time in the world to play games (I wish I did) I wasn't sure how long it would take me.  My goal was to do it before BM Vagabond cross the 100,000 threshold for gamer score . . . or by the end of the year in a worse case scenario.

I think I made this official the day Lego Star Wars came out.  I figured that was an easy 1,000 points to get.  I just needed to find another 1,700 or so to meet my goal.  I didn't know what games I would play to help me with that but I knew I would like to see my gamer score going up more regularly than in fits and spurts.

I also knew that I didn't stand a chance of getting my gamer score above 40,000 before BM Vagabond got his above 100,000.  After all, he plays video games for a living.  But I was hoping that he would spend a lot of time playing games he already had the achievements in so he's score wouldn't go up.  I also made sure to watch his twitch channel to keep an eye on his gamer score (sortamaliciousgaming).  Then the fateful night came.  He was going to stream and try to hit the 100,000 mark dead on . . . and before I hit my goal of 40,000.

Vaga was about the same distance away from his goal as I was from mine.  I checked weekly and we kept flip flopping each other as to who was getting closer.  On the night that he met his goal I had been almost 100 pts ahead of him and within 70 or so points of meeting my goal.  Unfortunately I have a full time job that doesn't allow me to play video games all day long.  There was no way I was going to be able to come home from work and get those 70 or so points in the hour that I had before his stream started.  So I didn't even try and just watched him try and play to get that score exactly.  It was fun.

I think I met my goal 2 or 3 nights later.  It wasn't anti-climatic for me because I was so excited to be out of the 30,000 and to finally see a different number in the front of my gamer score.  I think this happened about late August or early September.  That means I picked up almost 3,000 points in about 3 months.  Not bad. 

As of right this minute my gamer score is 41,027.  You can see I've picked up a few more points since then.  It's nice to see it moving upwards after it seemed like it was stagnate for so long.  It's still only 8% of the total gamer score I COULD have if I perfected all of the games I own.  If you don't believe me check this out from my log sheet:




I still have a long way to go, but I'm enjoying the ride and playing a lot more games that I have in the past.  I wonder where my gamer score will be at the end of the year.  45,000?  50,000?  Stay tuned and find out.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

I did the math

I did the math and it's not looking good.

I keep a very detailed list of all the video games I own.  Title, genre, whether or not I finished, Metacritic score, Time to Beat, release date, Developer and whether or not I have the season pass.  It's all in an Excel file with a single tab for each system I own, including handhelds.  I also keep track of gamer score earned vs. total and what percentage that is for my Xbox 360, Xbox Arcade and Xbox One.  Haven't figured out the best way to keep track of Playstation trophies.

I use Excel every day at work and I know how to do some formulas, but I finally figured out how to do some formulas that I was struggling with for awhile (I'm trying to avoid Pivot tables).  Now I know exactly how long it would take to finish all my games based on the completionist times on www.howlongtobeat.com.

If I did nothing else and played video games for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week it would take me 926.2 days to complete them all.  In other words, two and a half years.  And that's not counting any games that don't have times for from www.howlongtobeat.com.  Or course, I have already finished some of them but I think those make up for the ones I don't have times for. 

That's a lot of time.  And a lot of games.  1,016 to be exact.  And that's not counting my PC games.  I have a lot of those but they are all CD based and my laptop doesn't have a CD drive so I'm not sure how to play those now.

I've already got some plans in place for my YouTube channel through the end of the year (mostly) so for next year it might be me just playing those really old games that I think every hard core gaming fan should have played.  Unfortunately new games keep coming out that I want to own and play.  I have a feeling this is all a losing battle but I'm going to give it my best.

What older games do you think every gaming fan should have played?  Leave a comment and let me know.  If I've got them I'll try to make an effort to play them and let you know what I think.

Monday, August 8, 2016

1,000 Gamer score challenge completed

I did it!

I took a week off from work and went on vacation July 24th through the 31st and all I did (pretty much) was sit in the hotel room and play video games.  It was great.  I got 3 weeks worth of videos recorded in that week and I made my goal of 1,000 gamer score.

I'm not exactly sure which day I got the achievement that pushed me over the edge.  It was either Wednesday the 27th or Thursday the 28th.  Either way that is a month to get 1,000 gamer score.  If I hadn't have gone on vacation I probably wouldn't have done as well as I did.  I picked up 570 points just in that week alone.  I only needed 140 before I left and I got it.

During that time I played some games just for fun in addition to the ones I've been playing for my YouTube channel.  Below is a list of the games that I played while going for that goal and a list of games that I played while on vacation.

I would love to do that again.  Get away from the house that needs cleaning, the dog that needs to be taken care of and a roommate that is annoying and just play video games.  I've got another week vacation in September but I'm not planning on going anywhere so I'll just have to play games at home.

Even though I played a lot of games (or at least played them for a lot of hours) it really got me excited to play more.  And do other things I love to do.  Like read.  It's been a struggle sometimes to find time to read and I haven't been that in to the books that I was reading.  I don't know if it's a combination of the books I've read lately or this new energy to spend time doing the things I love (the bathroom can wait another day before I clean it right?) but I love reading again.  I've recently read The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan and The Scorch Trails by James Dashner.  I'm alternating back and forth between those two series (currently reading The Novice) and once I"m done I think I'll read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and start that series.  Now I've just got to find the time to do everything.

Games played to meet goal:
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Xbox One)
Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox One)
Peggle 2 (Xbox One)
Plants vs. Zombies (Xbox One)
Rayman Legend (Xbox One)
Ancients of Ooga (Xbox Arcade)
Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Xbox One)
Gems of War (Xbox One)
Assault Heroes (Xbox Arcade)
Costume Quest 2 (Xbox Arcade)

Additional Games Played While on Vacation:
Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360)
Rayman Origins (Xbox 360)


I played Assault Heroes because I was in the mood to play a racing game as I was searching through my games and stumbled upon that one.  I know it's not a racing game, but it is a driving game and it would do (I was too lazy to look through the rest of my games and they are alphabetically).  I was very surprised to get an achievement in that game.

Gems of War is my new Jewel Quest or Puzzle Quest addiction.  They're just games that I play and chill out to.  They don't stress me out and it's easy to get in a match or two before doing other things.  I was playing it on vacation while I was waiting for videos to process and render.  It fit the time perfectly.

I play Rayman Legend when I want to remember how fun playing Rayman Origins used to be.  I haven't been having a lot of fun in that game for awhile.  I'll still make videos in it and finish it, but I can only play a level or two before I start to get really frustrated and want to chuck my controller through the TV.

Ancients of Ooga is a game that I had the trail version for a long time before I bought the full game.  I had tried playing it several times but just wasn't getting what I was suppose to do.  I still liked the game even if I found it frustrating.  I started playing it again for this challenge and for some reason things just clicked this time.  I figured things out and I was able to get through a bunch of level . . . and then I got stuck so I moved on to something else.

I keep trying to play Plants vs Zombies with friends but it never seems to work out.  They're getting offline just when I get online.  I usually end up just messing around in the Backyard stuff before moving on to something else.  I would really like to play some PvZ games with my friends.

Now that I'm pretty far ahead with my videos I have some time to really sink my teeth in to a meaty game.  I think I'm going to play Red Dead Redemption.  I've debated about if I will film the play through or not and I still haven't decided.  If I do it will be very light on the commentary because I just want to play the game and enjoy it.

Have you played any of those games?  How long would it take you to get 1,000 in gamer score?  It took me a month.  I think that's pretty good.  If I do the same time of thing for trophies on my Playstation 3 what do you think my goal should be?  Let me know in the comments.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

1,000 Gamerscore update

I started this challenge on 6/28 and it's now almost a month later, so how am I doing?  Good so far.  I've earned 860 points since then in 9 different games.  Some old.  Some new.  That means I only have 140 points left to get to finish the challenge.  I'm hoping I can get them before I leave on vacation but I'm not sure.  Some of the achievements were a surprise to get.  Some I planned and worked for.  I'll post a list of all the game I got achievements in when I finally hit my goal.  It's been fun so far.  Maybe when I'm done with this challenge I'll start a challenge to get X number of trophies on my PS3.  We'll see.  Do you have any suggestions?  Let me know.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

1,000 gamer score challenge

So I was watching Brownman's stream the other day with him streaming for 24 hours trying to get 20,000 gamer score in that time frame (spoiler: he got it with hours to spare) and I thought "could I do that?".  Short answer: NO.  Long answer: No way in hell.  But it got me thinking.

Could I set myself a goal to get a set amount of gamer score in a set amount of time?  If so, what amount and how long to get it?  Would it be possible?  What would be a stretch but also doable for me knowing that I have a full time job and other responsibilities that might interfere with my plans?  So I thought of a slightly modified plan. 

What if I just tried to see how long it would take me to earn 1,000 gamer score?  Could I do it in a week?  Probably not.  A month?  Maybe.  How long would it take me?  Maybe if I knew that, I could devise a better, more specific challenge next time.

So starting today (because Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakes just came out) I'm going to see how long it takes me to earn 1,000 gamer score on Xbox Live.  I'm sure it will be a mix of Xbox 360 and Xbox One games.  Starting with Lego Star Wars.  Currently my gamer score is 34,517 as of this exact moment.  So that means I would need to get to 35,517 to finish this goal.

I know I can get a big chunk of that from Lego Star Wars: TFA but I'm sure I'll play other games.  Some new; some old.  How long do you think it will take me to get 1,000 gamer score.  Is there any games you'd like to see me play?  Ones I've started that maybe I need to finish?  Ones that I haven't started yet?  Let me know.  Maybe we can place bets.  What do you think my over/under would be?  Maybe you'd like to join me.  How long will it take for you to get 1,000 gamer score?  Let me know all of these things in the comments.

Monday, June 27, 2016

The Cone of Shame has been removed

The Cone of Shame (aka: The Weapons of Mass Destruction) has finally been removed.  June 22nd was the official date and Zoe couldn't be more happy.  Actually she's not the only one who's happy.

It was hard to watch for six and a half weeks as my normally wild and crazy dog walked around my house barely lifting her head and sleeping all the time.  She's not doped up anymore (her last meds were last night) and hasn't had to have any sedatives for a week so her 100mph personality was just starting to come back.  Now that the cone's off she's really starting to act and feel like her old self.

It took her 4 days before she realized she could drink out of the toilet again.  Why do dogs do that?  It took 6 days before she realized she could bend over and drink the pool water.  Hasn't tried to get in yet but I'm sure she will soon.

The one thing she still does now that she did when she had the cone on is stay within 10 feet of me at all times.  Before she loved to lay on her chair at the front window and watch all the exciting stuff that happened in the front of the house (and bark at anything that moved) while I sat in my office and worked.  Now she might go out to the front room to look out the window briefly, but she'll be back at my side within a couple of minutes.  I was hoping she'd get back some of her independence, but maybe that will come later.  It's very hard to remember to watch my feet as I get up from my chair because Zoe might be right under them.

And food hasn't changed without the cone on.  She's so use to getting snacks every 8 hours that she expects them now.  If I try to eat anything she thinks she should get a piece too.  She had gotten really good at being patient and waiting still and quiet (with just the tip of her tail wagging) while I ate.  If she was good enough I'd give her a piece at the end.  Now, everything I eat seems to be everything I should be giving her.  And she's been coming over to me around the times I would normally give her the meds.  She knew.  I'm going to have to break her of that habit.

She's still not allowed to get her tail wet so a good scrubbing bath will have to wait until this weekend.  She doesn't like baths, so this will be very interesting.  She's overdue for one.  Was due for one when this stuff all happened, but we couldn't give her one.

Now that I know she's out of the woods (and leaving her tail alone now that the cone's off) and I'm starting to see her personality come back, I'm starting to feel better about all of this.  I still miss her tail and how she used it to signal how happy she was feeling.  I guess I'll get over that.  It will take me a lot longer to heal about that than I'm sure what she went through. 

I think I might have some energy now to start filming move videos for my YouTube channel.  Unfortunately I sound like a bullfrog because I'm sick.  If it's not one thing, it's another.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Zoe update

Perhaps yesterday's post was a bit premature.

Yesterday Zoe didn't have a good day at all.  I could tell she was uncomfortable and hurting.  I had to give her a sedative twice to help her relax and get comfortable.  To be honest, I wasn't comfortable either.  It's definitely summer here now and temperatures were over 110 degrees.  But I haven't had half my tail chopped off.

Last night I did notice that she had started to bleed through her bandage.  It was good that she still had her bandage on, but not good that she was bleeding.  I had to take her in the vet this morning and the news was even worse than that.

The tip of her short tail has gotten infected because she won't leave it alone and keeps chewing at it no matter how many times I scold her or swat her butt.  Now the tissue is starting to die.  She's going to have to go back on Monday for another surgery to remove even more of her tail.  Hopefully it will be so short now she won't be able to get to it to chew on it.

Until then they changed her meds and how often she takes them.  Since they make her very sleepy and she's taking them more often she's basically going to be sleeping from now until Monday morning.  And that's the way they want her.  They figure if she's sleeping, she's not chewing on her tail.  Unfortunately she's an older dog (about 10 years old) and losses control of her bowls when she's heavily sedated.  I'm going to have a fun weekend ahead of me.

I know that the sedation is necessary  to help her heal, but I feel like a real jerk giving it to her.  But I can't be mad at her.  What happened was a complete accident and one of her own doing.  Even the chewing of the tail doesn't make me mad because that is what anyone would do if something irritated them and they wanted to scratch it.  Even losing control of her bowls and pooping in the house I can't get mad at.  That's what happens to the best of us if we were sedated so much and couldn't control or do things. 

There's no one to get mad at and I really want to get mad at someone and vent my frustrations.  Usually when I feel this way, I like to play games like Gears of War or Call of Duty.  Blowing people's brains out is very therapeutic.  Unfortunately, I'm so emotional exhausted by this whole thing (going on 4 weeks now) that I don't have the mental energy to do anything except veg out and start at the wall.  Hey, that's what my dog does too.  Except she's on drugs and I'm just exhausted.  Oh well.

If you see me online and I seem kind of out of it, now you know why.  Please go easy on me.  Maybe let me win a few more games that I normally would.  Or better yet, let me blow your brains out.  It's okay, you'll respawn.


Friday, June 3, 2016

The May Day of all months

May was a particularly hard month for me this year.  I worked from home a lot, which would normally be a welcome treat, but I did it so much I started to feel stir crazy in my own home.  But that's not the really bad thing.

I took my dog Zoe to my parents house for Mother's day.  I brought her in to the house and then put her in the backyard while I went back to my car to get my Mother's Day present for my mom.  When I was coming back in to the house I heard a loud crash and a dog yelp.  Now, my parents have a dog named Coco but every parent knows the sounds their own child makes and I knew that sound came from Zoe.

Apparently she was running across their new tile floors and tried to change direction and slipped and crashed into a very heavy, very solid oak wood dinning room chair.  The chair come down on her tail and hurt her.  Except we didn't know that right away.  When I got in to see her, she didn't seem in pain or hurting.  She was running around the house wagging her tail like nothing happened.  That was until my mom came out of her bedroom and wanted to know if anyone was bleeding.

We course said no . . . but the blood splatters all over the walls told a different story.

I took Zoe outside and hosed her off as best I could because I could see a lot of blood on both her hips.  Once the water ran clear I checked her out and she seemed to be fine.  I left her outside and went back in to help clean up the mess.  There was blood everywhere.  She got blood through 2 hallways and 3 rooms.  Every time she wagged her tail it splashed across whatever surface was near by.  And not just at tail height.  There was blood splatter about shoulder height to humans.

It took about a hour of four people cleaning up the mess.  Then we sat down and had our Mother's Day dinner.  We decided that I should probably take Zoe to a vet to be checked out because that was a lot of blood, even though she didn't appear to be hurt. 

We let her back in and immediately she got blood on things again.  Outside she went.  She was once again covered in blood but we couldn't quite tell where it was coming from.  Her tail, obviously, but she had a lot of blood all over the rest of her.

After a crazy time trying to find an emergency vet open at 6pm on a Sunday night I finally get Zoe in to see someone.  The only place she got hurt was her tail but she had multiple lacerations on her tail.  They wrapped it up, pumped her full of pain medicine and antibiotics and outfitted her with a not so stylish Cone of Shame.  She was loopy and not happy about any of it.

After 4 vet visits over the next 8 days it was finally decided that we wouldn't be able to save her tail and that part of it would have to be amputated.  :(

One of the things I love the most about Zoe is that her tail is always wagging and you always know how happy she is by how fast she's wagging it.  Also, when I'm eating dinner and she knows not to jump up on me or get in my face she will sit very still except for the tip of her tail which twitches back and forth like it's saying "I can't hold all of my energy in so I'm going to let it out just through the tip of my tail".  Now that's gone.

She had surgery on the 18th and lost just more than half her tail.  She was feeling better but now she's pretending that the cone on her head doesn't exist and barrels in to everything like she doesn't care.  It's really annoying.  But I'm not going to complain because she's alive and feeling much better.  It could have been so much worse.

And it's kind of been worse.  Ever since the surgery she keeps ripping off the bandage that they've put on the nub of her tail.  She's not suppose to get to it with the cone on her head but she's figured out a way to use her knee to bend the cone a certain way so that she can just get to the tip of her tail.  She's ripped out 1 stitch and partially ripped out another one.  This has only resulted in more vet visits and vet telling me she's not healing up like she should because she keeps chewing on her tail. 

Because of this, they increased her nerve blocking pain meds which make her very sleepy.  They also gave me a sedative to give her if she starts going after her tail.  Basically I need to keep her in a semi-sedated state until our next appointment on June 7th.  It's been 4 days now and she's been sleeping almost the entire time.  When she is up and awake she walks around like a drunken sailor who would never pass a DUI checkpoint or an old woman who's joints are too sore to bend.  If you try to pet her you'll likely collapse her legs and make her fall down.  She's that out of it.  She's also taken to just stopping and staring blankly at whatever is in front of her.  Could be a wall.  Could be nothing.

As for me . . . well, I've been a nervous wreck ever since it happened.  I've been worried sick about her and it's been very hard for me to play video games or edit the videos I've already recorded because of how bad I feel.  On top of that, now I feel extra guilty because I have to keep her drugged up.  I feel like such a bad mommy. 

I haven't posted as many videos in May as I would have liked.  I actually had to resort to posting videos in a new game (Lego Harry Potter) because those were the easier videos to edit that I had already filmed.  I wasn't actually going to start that series until I finished Psychonauts.  Forget about trying to playing Psychonauts.  That game is really frustrating for me right now and I just don't have the energy to try, fail, die and try again.  Over and over again.  It takes a lot out of you and I don't have that much in the tank right now.

I am starting to find some mental energy to get back in to gaming.  I tired just playing things for fun.  It seems to have worked.  Overwatch helped with that.  We've still got a lot of healing left to do.  Hopefully everything will go well at our next vet appointment.  I can't wait for Zoe to get her cone off.  She's turned it in to a Weapon of Mass Destruction against me and my house.  I've changed my vacation plans in the middle of June because of her.  Whenever I think about how much of a hassle this has all been, I remind myself that things could have been much worse.  Let's hope that eventually things will get better.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Completing games makes me Happy!

One of my goals with my YouTube channel was that I wanted to complete more games that I actually was.  Which wasn't a huge goal that was unobtainable since I wasn't completing any games at all.  If I could just complete one game I would have met this goal.  Fortunately for me I haven't completed just one game.  I've completed 6 games . . . so far.

The first game to complete was also a special one because not only was it a "complete to end credits" completion, but also a "earn all achievements" completion.  It was Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.  (How fitting that is has "complete" in the game title.)  Now, I've played (and completed) that game on Playstation 2 many years ago but I wanted the achievements and the gamer score.  Unfortunately getting robbed put me back to the beginning and I lost all of my progress.  But I did it.  There were levels and tasks that I thought I would never get done right (damn you Blue Barrels on that last mission) but I stuck with it and I'm proud of myself for not giving up.

I've also been able to start AND complete the following games since I started posting videos:

Dead Space
Costume Quest (including DLC)
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Medal of Honor
Stacking (including DLC)

That's a total of 6 games that I've started AND completed which is about 6 more than I've done in any other year (for the most part).  At least that part of my YouTube channel has been successful.  And to top it off a couple of those games also had DLC that I completed.  They are also smaller games to begin with but it's still a completion to me.  I've got 2 full size "retail" games in there too.

I'm also getting close (I think) to completing  Psychonauts.  I'm not sure how long the game is but based on my psychic level (about 47) I figure I'm about half way through the game.  Unfortunately sickness and allergies have slowed down the time for recording new episodes.  It's kind of hard to play a video game and talk when you're having trouble breathing or you're sniffling all the time because of allergies.  It sucks.

I think if I started filming the 4 games that I'm suppose to complete based on the post that got this blog started, I would get them done this year.  Unfortunately, I've already started those games and they wouldn't be a full play through.  I think some of them would be okay, but I don't think that would be good for Final Fantasy VII.  Everybody loves that game and who would want to watch a partial play through only?  Not me.  But I don't want to start it all over again just to record footage.  I might, but I'm not there yet.

I wish I had more time to play and edit videos.  I think I'd finish more games if I did.  This day job is really getting in the way.  Oh well.  I just have to do the best I can with what I've got.  Which is only a couple of hours each night during the week.  And if I'm editing, I'm not playing.  And if I'm not playing, I'm not finishing games.  It's such a vicious cycle.  I'll take what I can get now and right now I've finished 6 games that I probably wouldn't have done so without keeping a schedule and posting videos on YouTube.  That makes me happy!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

I really fucked things up!

I don't know how I did it, but I really fucked things up in my last recording in Psychonauts.  I've been trying to fix it for the last couple of days and it's just not gonna happen.  I was able to figure out a "work around" to the problem, but then I was fucking that up as well.  I think that's all straightened out now so hopefully I'll be able to get a video posted in the next day or so.

The first fuck up: audio

I don't know how I did it but I recorded the audio for one session in Psychonauts over the top of the previous session I had recorded.  It didn't replace the audio for that session but just added the additional dialogue to the existing track.  I didn't catch that my system did this when I synced because I never talked at the same time on both of these tracks.  I didn't realized my error until I went to edit the file and got about 17 minutes in when I noticed that I was double talking.  It took me a while to figure out what was happening, but when I did I didn't panic.  I thought I'll just go back to the original audio and resync with the game play.  That's when I realized that the original audio was fucked up because the raw footage was saved together.  I didn't have separate recordings for both videos.

I spent a bunch of time trying to find a way to split the tracks so I could delete one and keep the other.  Couldn't figure out how to do that.  I figured out how to separate from stereo to mono, but that didn't help me.  After messing with the file for 3 days I finally gave up and decided I would post the game play video without my lovely commentary.  I'm sure no one would mind.

The second fuck up: video

I remember when I was playing I accidentally triggered a cut scene before I was ready to record.  I hurriedly pressed the record button on the game play and just never activated the audio recording (which is probably why it took so long for my audio tracks to overlap).  When the cut scene was done I stopped the recording and took the time to get things set up properly before recording.  I figured when I edited the video I would just add this cut scene to the beginning of my recording and everything would be okay.

When I gave up on the audio I started working on putting the original game play clips together to make one cohesive video.  Except whenever I added the game play clip to the cut scene clip the game play clip would error out and become unwatchable.  WTF?  I tried cut scene + clip #1 = unviewable error after processing.  I tried cut scene + clip #2 = unviewable error after processing.  I even tried clip #1 + clip #2 = unviewable error.  So I gave up and close down my editing program.

Except I hate giving up.

I came back to it a little while later (I will not have a program defeat me!!!!).  I put clip #1 and clip #2 together and after they were done processing they were viewable.  Hallelujah!!!  I quickly saved that configuration and called it a night.  Now I've got to see if I can get the cut scene attached to the game play clips and still have everything viewable. 

The cut scene is kind of important so I can't leave it out.  If things don't work I guess I could post just the cut scene as one video and then the game play as another.  Seems like a lot of work for such a stupid problem.  I really fucked things up, but I'm not sure how.

I wish I was better at this editing thing.  I wish I had more time to work and figure things out than just a couple of hours after work each night.  I thought I was getting better, but then something like this happens and I'm reminded of how much I don't know how to do.  I am trying though . . . and hopefully learning too.  I guess we'll have to see how everything turns out in the end.