G'day, posse, hope you're all doing fantastic.
Off the top, to my American friends among you, the election raging and it's inescapable on social media. Whatever happens, stay safe over there. It sounds like a highly charged event and not in a good way. No preach from me, just hope that you're all safe and well.
The Dragon Age: Veilguard drama is in full swing as I write this. I'm so tired, and I don't even have a horse in this race. If you play it, tell me what you think. I never had an interest in it and the discourse has quickly become a dumpster fire on 'both sides'.
Moving on to greener pastures, I'm almost finished the Blood West video, there's only a few minutes of video left to edit. I lost a chunk of time this month which meant I couldn't quite squeak it over the line before November, but we're almost there.
The next indie preview will be on Monomyth. I've had my eye on this for a while, and it's shaping up to be something special. A little Arx Fatalis, a little Legends of Grimrock; I can't wait to get stuck into this one. I was originally going to preview Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, but apparently it can take 20-25hrs to get through what it currently has to offer, and I don't want to spend that long on an indie preview.
Stalker 2 releases this month, and I have already planned for release day by taking the week off. I'll be recording a longplay for the Blondefire channel and will probably play it offline simultaneously. I may also take a hiatus to finish it seeing as I don't get excited for many new releases these days, but I'm not 100% on that yet. Either way, I may also record footage and take notes for a Stalker 2 analysis video. Don't expect that project to release until sometime early next year though.
What is Blondie playing
This is a new section which I'm playing around with. If you hate it, let me know. I just started playing Pacific Drive. Survival, looting, crafting; yeah, it's my bag. I've only explored the first location but I'm already enjoying the direction this is heading. That old jalopy will be upgraded in no time.
I also started playing Witchfire earlier in the month which is a lot of fun, though I hear that there isn't a huge amount of content for it yet. Amazing polish and fluid gunplay, it feels really to dash around and shoot bad guys.
What are you playing? Got any recommendations that I should put on my radar? Drop a comment and let me know.
Until next month (amidst the Christmas mayhem), pardners.
Compared to the rollercoaster of last month, September was productive and far more chill. I went on a holiday and damn did I need it. I didn't realise how far down the hole I was until being away from home forced me to step back, slow down, and relax. I still did some research and writing for the next video, but when I got home I decided that - while the topic was good - I wasn't feeling it right now. I shelved that project and started a new one.
This next video - unlike previous videos - zooms out for an industry-level look. The target: AAA games, and how the AAA moniker means something different to me now. Unlike other videos which body-slam AAA using player data and sales as weapons, this video will be a personal review of what AAA means to ME. It's a deliberately deeper look into my mindset when I consider AAA games, development studios, and publishers, through the lens of a gamer and paying customer who has become disillusioned with the AAA industry and who explains, in detail, why.
The script for this ...
Hey Folks, the video is finally done. Apologies for the late release, a few things came up near the end of the month which delayed release. I hope you enjoy it!
G'day, chaps and chapettes. July down, progress made.
The Doom/Quake horror video is now at 1hr 36mins. I had hoped to be closer to the 2hr mark by now but stumbled across more supporting material, and viewing/cutting it has taken longer than expected. I'm also making an effort to use footage which supports talking points, and because the script is loaded with talking points (and because the Doom 3 playthrough spans 18 long video files), finding footage to support even a single paragraph of the script has sometimes taken 30mins or longer. There was also another body of work I needed to complete for the Blondefire channel which was delayed by last month's IRL work, so July was very much a catch-up month all around.
The good news is that July was free of IRL distractions so I've made big progress on the video. I normally add the backing track after the footage and voice over is laid, but this time I've added it as I go. This means that the next (and final) pass only requires QA checks and audio ...
