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!

Double Fine December

So way back in September when I was filming my videos for October I planned on playing Stacking for the month of December.  You see, Costume Quest was made by Double Fine and Stacking is also a game made by Double Fine.  And there's an achievement in Costume Quest for finding a small nesting doll in a cave and a message pops up about Stacking.  In the Extras section of Stacking there's also reference to Costume Quest.  I knew these two games were done by the same developer, but I didn't know the other game I had planned for December was done by them as well.

I've wanted to go back and play Psychonauts and finish it for a long time.  Since my memory cards were stolen I would have to start over from scratch.  But that was okay because it had been a long time since I played that game. 

Unfortunately, I was playing scary or Halloween games for October (I thought Psychonauts would fit in well, but I didn't have the time for three games that month).  For November I had already planned on playing military themed games in honor of Veteran's Day.  So the earliest I could post videos of Psychonauts would be December.  It didn't really strike me as a "December/Christmas" type of game but I was going to do it anyway.

Unfortunately I got really sick at the end of November (still am) and my ability to shot videos ahead of schedule was pretty much squashed.  When December started I didn't have any videos recorded and I didn't have much of a voice to do so.  But the show must go on, right?

I filmed the  first episode of Stacking and moved on to Psychonauts.  I was filming that episode on Thursday which was the same night the Video Game Awards show was on TV.  While I was playing away apparently there was an announcement that Double Fine is going to crowd fund Psychonauts 2.  Yeah!  Of course I didn't find this out until the next night when I was trying to edit the video and check up on all the news I've missed that week (it's been very busy at work). 

Perfect timing right?  I didn't have this planned out other than to put up videos of Psychonauts in  December because that was the first available month to do so.  And it wasn't until I started filming that I noticed Psychonauts was also made by Double Fine.  So this month is more timely that I had planned and is a Double Fine month of videos for my Youtube channel.  I don't think I could have planned that out any better.

If you want to contribute to the making of Psychonauts 2 (and why wouldn't you) you can check out their fundraising here: Double Fine's Psychonauts 2 funding.  If you want to follow Double Fine on twitter they're at @DoubleFine.  Check them out.  And you can check out my Double Fine videos on my channel here: Pengwenn's Youtube channel