I plaey gud!

Very sorry for the lack of updates or new videos. How’s everyone doing?

Back in April I came down with an upper respiratory infection. Happens from time to time, usually in January, and usually just coughing and congestion, but this time it was pretty bad. I could barely get out of bed for the better part of week. The next two weeks were pretty much recovery and getting rid of the persistent coughing.

Which of course lead to lost momentum for recording, streaming, and the like. I kept intending to get something going in May but it never panned out, and the middle of June was carved out with a vacation, then followed two weeks later with a nearly 2 month long trip to Texas. Where I am now.

It’s freaking HOT! I don’t know how I was able to deal with this for over 30 years…

While I’m here, I don’t think I’ll be able to do any recording or streaming, still. But I will be back in September and I WILL be getting back to some streaming and recording. And if I can manage to get something going while in Texas (my laptop should be able to handle it, in theory…) I’ll be sure to let you all know.

So… with formalities and apologies out of the way, what’s been going on with me? Knowing I wouldn’t be back to recording for at least another month back in early May, I decided the best course of action was going to be finishing The Witcher on my own. I did not record this because I figured it would simply be faster to power through it and get started on The Witcher 2, since The Witcher 3 was right around the corner. I would highly recommend if you’re interested in seeing the rest of The Witcher story, to head over and watch Gopher’s series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-DftNAlzoYNWYfKofD0FHpYk my episode 35 is roughly where Gopher’s episode 37 is, though there are definitely some differences and it wouldn’t hurt picking up at his 35 as well. Or start from the beginning, it’s pretty great and Gopher is always entertaining.

Gopher’s series really illustrates how much longer it would have taken me to actually finish The Witcher while recording. I had started my playthrough a little over a month earlier than Gopher, yet by the time I managed to get to episode 35, he was already in the last few episodes of his playthrough, with almost twice as many episodes. The benefits of being able to play video games for a living, eh? It’s also got me pretty sure I won’t be doing a series for Witcher 2 or Witcher 3, at least not a blind playthrough. If I’m going to do a playthrough of a game that takes that many hours, I need to at least know what I’m doing so I don’t just stumble around for episodes on end, getting next to nothing actually done. For instance my upcoming Skyrim playthrough may eventually end up being a hundred or more episodes, but I know enough about the game to know where I’m going, what I need to be doing, etc, so they’ll all be “productive” if that can be applied to playing video games. So absolutely I will play Witcher 2 and 3 on my own, then maybe come back to them next year to do a Let’s Play, maybe even finish off The Witcher Let’s Play by loading up the save from the last episode to get things kicked off.

Skyrim you say? Yes. I know it’s been done to death on YouTube but I’m doing this because I want to, not because I’m chasing some elusive cash cow. I play what I want, when I want :) Besides, it’s a character I’ve had knocking around in my head for a while now and I’ve been itching to play. The real delay has been in testing, and waiting for all the various mods to get updates so I can have the latest and greatest, and more testing still. I don’t know that I’ll be starting it in September, depends on a few mod updates, but if not I do have another series I’ve been planning on doing for some time that I can slot in there until the mods pan out for Skyrim.

Several, actually. More details on them in due time, though.

I also want to get some multiplayer/co-op games going. If I am able to get anything recorded/streaming before I head back home in September, it will be multi/co-op. Maybe some Minecraft, maybe some Elder Scrolls Online, maybe some Borderlands 2, maybe some Saints Row 4. Broforce would be fantastic. We’ll see how it goes.

Beyond that, I’ve got my Steam Controller pre-ordered (yeah, yeah… I don’t usually pre-order anything, but since I’ve been using and very pleased with the prototype for the last year and a half, I had no hesitation pre-ordering) and I plan to do several demo videos playing various games/genres, non-Steam games and emulators as well, to show off how good the thing actually is. I need to figure out a way to mount my webcam so I can point it at the controller in an inset window. It could quite possibly be my preferred way to play most everything from now on. I love my keyboard and mouse, but this thing definitely gives them a run for their money.

I also received my Kickstarter backer code for The Flame in The Flood and I plan to stream that as soon as I’m back, if I don’t manage to sooner. I also picked up Oddworld: New ‘n Tasty over at GOG.com. Loved the original and I think that’ll make a good stream series… and maybe I should actually finish LIMBO at some point. Yikes! Just now realizing I haven’t played it since, what, last August? And of course the game that got it all started for me, Portal 2, has a new mod I’ve been itching to play for the last year or so since I first heard about it. Portal Stories: Mel. Looks pretty great and I can’t wait to dive in. My original stream of Portal 2, unfortunately, got lost before I realized Twitch doesn’t hold on to broadcasts indefinitely. I’m going to do it again, and Portal, with the Steam Controller.

Fun fact: Portal was the first game I started playing on my Steam Machine prototype to test out the Steam Controller prototype. There’s one chamber in Portal, test chamber 15, where you have to re-portal in mid-air and slingshot through a barrier... I actually managed to get past it in fewer re-tries than I’ve even been able to with keyboard and mouse. That’s when I was certain the Steam Controller was going to be something special. Followed Portal up with Half-Life 2 and Metro: Last Light and was quite pleased there as well.

Alright, well this has gone on long enough. Just wanted to let you all know I’m still alive (...I see what I did there!) and I haven’t given up on this and I’ll be back soon with a renewed vigor. Assuming this damn heat doesn’t sap it out of me first o.O