Closure and Tardyness

Alright, so I couldn't avoid spoilers after all.
I put up a video rather quickly regarding the ME3 Extended Cut thing. But I feel like I should try and explain myself a bit better. (for whoever gives a crap)

I'll be brief because I will be putting out a video after the end of my Mass Effect Trilogy playthrough explaining I find it so unacceptable. So I won't be going into a novel sized rant here.
The extended cut still sucks butt nuggets. It only made me even more pissed off, and on top of that I once again found the reaction more irritating than the ending itself. Almost everyone seems satisfied with this crap, the only reasoning I've been able to piece together is that they felt that they actually had emotional closure this time. Which some may remember, is why I made that quick edit about 5 months ago (jesus I can sure hold a grudge can't I?)
I can kind of understand this, but at the same time I feel that people have been hungry for emotional closure for so long, that any vague hint at it was guaranteed to garner this reaction. The scenes they added in to fill the Normandy leaving with squadmates plotholes were a good example of this. While I appreciate having a small moments like this. The circumstances are so idiotic it drowns out any happyness I feel. These new scenes actually add more questions on top of the questions they answer. Granted they are much less damning, but this was supposed to be an answer, to add more questions in that answer is inexcusable.
As for the dialogue they added, I don't like it. They add a lot of questions you can ask now, but most are things I already knew or didn't care about, and what is worse is that Reaper Boy's answers are even more retarded than they were originally. The idiot actually admits that he is the source of the god damn problem he is going on about. And yet we still can't point this out. Fucking awesome.
The rest of it feels like the writing team at Bioware are talking down to me. Pretending that I was confused and didn't hear it clearly the first time. But I did, I very clearly fucking did, and so did thousands of others. Destroy kills all synthetic life, Control has Shepard taking the place of Reaper Boy, and Synthesis homogenises the entire galaxy. I knew this the first time, and I knew it now, and yet I've been explained this again like I didn't have ears 5 months ago. Stop telling me things I already know. Besides, it doesn't change the fact that every ending hinges on the premise we're given by the Catalyst, a premise that fails and been shown to be wrong numerous times already. Which is even true for the Refuse ending, where Shepard talks about Freedom as if thats relevant to anything and the Catalyst and writers say "well fuck you then" and you lose. Its the best one we've got available to us because it refuses to play by their fucked rules. But at the same time fails to actually take advantage of itself. Brilliant.

Thats it for now, its better, but it moved from a 2.5 to a 3. Still not acceptable by their own standards.


As for FEAR, boy am I red. I've been meaning to get to it, honest, but by the time I was serious my shifts for my summer job changed to 12 hours at night. So the most I can do is try and plan out the next episodes at work, and then get just enough sleep to not die of exhaustion at home.
Hence the minimalist effort stuff I've made. Let's Play, Commentary junk, etc. If its any consolation I have a suprise that may or may not occur much earlier in the series than I originally thought. Should prove to be interesting, and hard to do, but mostly interesting.

6.2 and Blip

So If you didn't watch that update video I put on Youtube, I have a Blip account now. I'm using it mainly as a backup/home for the anime commentary stuff.
Anything I make will be up and if I can manage to get it on Youtube it'll be there as well.

This post is also a bit of a test for how well Blip works, so far pretty good. Though their uploading process leaves much to be desired.

Future anime crap

Its been brought to my attention that Funimation recently blocked Hour and a Half Later 1.4 for viewing in the United States. Being in Canada I had no idea or noticed a difference myself, so I appreciate the heads up.

This brings me to what I'm probably going to do from now on. I'll still have the episodes made with the cuts and everything for youtube consumption. But at the same time I will also have the MP3 file available for download off...I dunno. Megaupload maybe.
This way people can still get the full un-edited commentary a few people have asked for. While at the same time there will be a ready made backup, just in case this happens again.

Of course this also means that anyone relying on this will have to manually sync the commentary to the episodes I (and possibly others) watch. And like the series' name implies I usually watch 3 episodes at a time. There'll be some sort of timer, i'll figure something out when I get to it. As for the video of the episodes themselves? Hey, if a guy like me can find Anime this easily it should be a snap for you guys.

I'll post any download links on the blog here.

(I should mention that I did not save the raw audio files until now. The only thing I saved was the video which won't do you any good if it gets blocked again.)

10,000!?

This number might be a bit off what with youtube's view count being on the fritz this month. But my first episode has actually reached 10,000 views now. Amazing, though it has been a year so that probably has a lot to do with it, as always baby steps.

Still though thats a pretty awesome number to think about.

Episode 14 is still waiting on Robin to get well enough to do it. So you'll all have to be patient once again. Watching this anime stuff works well as filler, but like you guys I'd rather get back to the main attraction soon.

14 and Future Goodies

Yeah I've uploaded more of this anime stuff instead of episode 14. There's only one part of the process to complete now, the dialogue.

Couple things preventing me from doing that right this minute however. The first is that I'm building a BRAND NEW COMPUTER! Thats right, a brand new computer with much better graphical and processing power. Meaning that chapters from now on will be of much higher graphical quality. Editing time and power consumption should be drastically reduced from this as well. And best of all I can now play FEAR3 if I decide to continue on the monolith timeline. But this also means a have a bunch of computer parts and boxes where I would record dialogue normally.
Luckily though this will all be done this week so I can finally get to it.

The other thing from releasing however is Robin/Krimsin. He recently had the flu and is recovering from it now, and like my own run in with the flu it tore into his vocal chords. Won't be hearing from him for a bit and understandably so.

That is all right now, just remember that this anime thing is to fill time when I can't finish episodes. I'm not giving up on it.

Episode 14 and that Anime Thing

14 is near the half way point already. Got the script and most of the footage done. This one has 3 firefights in total so not a lot of downtime and getting a good fight scene can be pretty tough game play wise.
For any of you who've played FEAR before, the main thing the enemy AI does well is being unpredictable. Meaning that if you aren't paying attention and seriously outnumbered (which you always are) you'll have a grenade or shotgun up your ass. Something which has happened during recording I can assure you.

That might need one more round for me to make it fun to watch and of course believable. So sit tight.


The Hour and a Half Later thing is still going and I've got a bit of a surprise for the next series I watch. More of an experiment actually.
You'll see what I mean soon, suffice to say that if you read this I would appreciate feedback as much as possible once I release the first 2 episodes.

400 Already?

Damn guys, didn't expect that so quickly.

Didn't have anything planned to celebrate this time. I'll try to think of something I guess, but by then it probably wouldn't mean anything.

I guess I should thank Jared aka:Cool or CptCool2 on youtube. He favorited episode 13 and right after that I got like 10 subscribers while I was sleeping. Crazy stuff.

The Point Man's Mind and FEAR 3 (among other things)

So for those not aware already, FEAR 3 will be released this month. I haven't decided if I'll continue the series into that game, but I do know I'm going to try and make sure its a possibility at least.
For one the new game has actual cutscenes this time. Pointman may not have talked much so far but its still possible that he won't stay mute by the end of it. There's also of course that whole co-op aspect that might ruin any kind of monologue thinking going on.

It'll be a challenge either way, but I obviously won't know for sure until I play the game. Which I will.

On a more personal note I've got a bit of a turning point going on here. This summer I'm going to have to get a job of some sort. But after thats over I'm not sure if I'll be continuing college or not. I'm currently in the Information Technology program, and after all of that time. I'm not sure if I want to continue it.
Doing these videos is actually a lot more fun. The screen capture and the commentary and the editing. I'd really rather do these for a living. But of course reality gets in the way of things.
I only mention this because this may cause some more delays in updating. Not for episode 13 of the Pointman but anything else for the next few months.

I might have something this month though, still working the kinks out for that.

Don't Trust Robots. Just FYI

So I got Portal 2, and it didn't work for the last two days. But its patched now!

Haven't beaten it yet, I'm in the midst of moving back home from school. In fact I'll probably be on the road by the time anyone reads this or already there.
So I guess if you are reading this, I'M BACK HOME!

I've gotten to the second last bit of High School of the Dead for anyone looking forward to that. I'll be starting up that teacher thing soon after it is uploaded. Still waiting on Krimsin's last bit before I can release 13. He's a bit busy with...things. So I don't want to see anyone bugging him about this. Maybe bug him about doing his own episode faster but no more than the usual amount of bugging!

Nothing more interesting than that right now.

No More!

No more of that stupid crappy vampire thing or posts about school.

Last of the 1.0 series will go up shortly and you guys won't have to get confused by those blogs about my textbook chapters anymore. Its over.

This leaves the last bit of High School of the Dead, followed by the 3.0 series for some show called Onegai Teacher. Sounds like a comedy or some kinda porno for those with teacher fetishes. I don't, so I'm not sure what I'm going to think of it.
Someone also mentioned I should watch that Evangelion thing too. I am aware of that show but never watched it personally. I'm pretty sure the guy who suggested it wanted me to watch it because it is good. I'll be honest right now, and I know I'm pre-judging things, I probably won't like it.
It seems like the kind of moronic "I have a thesaurus and use the words 'self' and 'truth' a lot" bullshit I found in the Matrix sequels. I could be wrong granted, but I'm not getting that impression.
I'll still watch it but don't expect me to love it.

The point man's mind still has that last bit to add in before I can release it. So this anime stuff will have to tide you over until then. Again, sorry.

I am Surprised, This is my Surprised Face 0_0

So I guess subscribers already know this. But yesterday I tried watching some anime called Hellsing for the first time. I heard mixed opinions so I felt that if it sucked I could at least get some minor laughs from it by recording my reactions.
So I did, and bam! One hour and a half later I have a video on youtube mainly for my own reasons. And not even 20 minutes after I find out that people actually liked it. Well...great...I guess.
So because I'm really bad at dealing with peer pressure I now have to continue this on the side. Really, did not expect that one. If I can manage to make funny comments I guess I'll do a new episode for whatever people want me to watch. It should be something that can actually be made fun of though.


(Also, the 1.1 thing means the next will be 1.2 since the series isn't over yet. Just in case anyone was wondering about that)

Oh Yeah...

So quite a bit has happened since I last updated here.

I'm completely over my fever, completely fine now. The antibiotics worked for my sinus and chest infection but I also developed an ear infection which didn't go away after I ran out of drugs. Sleep took care of that luckily.

I got back into developing that little 2D thing I mentioned before. Its coming along pretty well but there are a few obstacles in the way. This is still ages away however, probably half way through the game which is waaay further than I am right now. Which means I still have plenty of time to perfect this.
This project I'm talking about is one of these 1/2 episode things. I'm thinking something along the lines of leaving the question of it being canon up to the viewer. Whether or not anyone feels like asking that question after seeing it is a whole nother thing all together.

As for the real show.
Episode 13 is almost done. I've got the footage and the audio and most of the editing done, just waiting on Krimsin's dialogue. This episode marks the beginning of A. Shephard being a recurring character outside of the game's forced radio chatter. I'm hoping to get a sort of discussion going to work out what he and the point man will talk about and what the relationship will be later in the game. Until then however 13 will have to wait a bit longer.
13 seems to be unlucky after all. Sorry about that.

Some other random things going on.

I got Minecraft.
I know I know, jumping on the bandwagon and all that. Only $20 bucks or so though, figured why the hell not. I'm more interested in building with other people though, the game seems to be much more fun that way. Obviously the multiplayer is very limiting right now. So singleplayer is where I'll have to stay.

Homefront was released.
Its exactly what I expected. White hats vs Black hats mentality. Typical NRA political bullshit, only thing that makes it worse is how bland the gameplay looks. I did not expect that part.

I got a really weird and girly JRPG!
I might make a video about my reactions to it one day soon. Beleive me, its weird...and girly....girly weird...and its from Japan soo....its really weird by North American standards.

Thats all for right now. I'll post the video once its finished off and I'll update you guys later.

Getting Down with the Sickness

So yeah, my little cold turned into a big sinus infection which turned into a lung infection with all the mucus draining from my nose down my throat.
Needless to say, it was gross. Ended up face down retching into a toilet bowl more often than I would have liked. Spent the rest of the time blowing my nose dry and drinking water, which I then threw up. It wasn't fun, felt like I puked out my lungs a couple times. The blizzard that just flew by didn't help my body either.

Saw the doctor this week, got some antibiotics, should be fully up and running in a week from today. My voice is back mostly though, so I might be able to get the dialogue junk done before then. There are still a couple more things to work out but it looks optimistic.

I don't know how I got this damn thing, but I seem to have it on the ropes now. Only a matter of time.

Some 'splaining

Alright alright, I know I haven't updated and explained my absence in a while. Sorry guys.

You might be happy to know that I've gotten 2/3 of episode 13 done and all that is left is the VO junk. Which leads me into my problem, I got sick.

I don't think its the flu or anything serious, but I haven't taken my flu shot this season. And I'm living in a building where a lot of people don't understand what basic sanitation is. (IE: washing your hands after you shit). So I'm a little concerned but not badly.
The gist of it is that my throat is shot. It hurts to swallow anything including water and I can't even cough without it stinging like hell. I've got some medicine that seems to be making it more bearable but I'm not over this thing yet.

So unfortunately that means no episode 13 until I get better. I have taken this extra time to move a little ahead with further episodes to make up for it, but keep in mind I also have school sick or not. Probably not this month, sorry.

New Year, New Subscribers

I'm always amazed by this, 300? Wow.

I considered doing the sparta remix thing cuz you know, Spartans...300. lulz? But thats a little played out. So I did something that was fun to make and still kinda entertaining to watch.



I mentioned this in the description bar but the song was made by these guys http://theamazingbrando.com/fr_duaneandbrando
Check them out if you get the chance.

So YouTube is Being Weird

I have no idea why this appeared all of the sudden but I'm a little weirded out by it.

So its saying I can upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes now. Thats nice and all and apparently its being applied only to certain users who've complied with YouTube guidelines.

I'm assuming that they generally mean with "complying with guidelines" they're actually talking about copyright infringement. I'm not sure if they're actually looking at who they're applying this to, but I know I'm not following copyright laws 100% here.

I'm basically using a copyrighted video game to amplify my own work, if I was under legal investigation I would be a prosecutor's wet dream right now. And I'm not the only one either.

Legality aside. Does this mean I'll be making videos longer than 15 minutes now?

No....well sorta.

For the Point Man's Mind, no there won't be videos that exceed 15 minutes unless things call for it. Internet videos tend to only work in short bursts like that and I generally feel like my writing abilities work in that same fashion.

Maybe if there isn't an appropriate cut off point for few more minutes of gameplay. Maybe then, but I wouldn't expect it.

The times where it probably will are going to be for Let's Plays. I haven't continued one of those in a bit but not having to look at the clock will make things easier. And with this new found time on my hands I might be able to bring one out soon.

So I figured I'd bring this to everyone's attention. I still find it weird and a little confusing that they're figuring me for a copyright abiding citizen, but whatever.

12 Is Done!....Sorta Kinda

Alright, I got almost everything done now. The main footage is in now, the script is done and I went through the dialogue recording not too long ago. "Then why don't we have episode 12 yet?" you ask.

Well finals mainly. I've got 3 projects to finish off, one of which I haven't even started yet. That's where my time has been going lately. But I on top of that I need to correct a couple things.
There's a bit of recording I did that I'm not satisfied with yet, my crappy "acting" aside, comes down to timing this time. The other thing is a bit simpler, I need to re-record some footage.
Like I mentioned last post, A.Shephard will be coming back in this episode. However like last time I need to make sure I have the game sound going in the background and selectively delete the original voice. What this means is that I need to go through the same sequence of events once with no SFX and music and a second time with only voice turned on. This is what I did last time.

As a bit of behind the scenes of that episode however, I screwed up a bit. The actual video footage I used was the footage I used with no SFX on. And i used the audio of the no voice footage, interchanged between the two. If you listen carefully (and I tried to hide this a little) you may notice that the footsteps don't completely line up with the video.
Don't ask me why I kept going on when there was an obviously easier way. I don't know myself.

Lastly I'm still waiting on Krimsin's dialogue. Though he's a busy guy and with the holidays coming up I don't expect it right away. That's almost a given though.

So that's why you're not getting Episode 12 right yet. Excuses excuses I know, but hopefully some behind the scenes stuff like this will satisfy. Its actually a little fun telling you guys.
If anyone wants to know how other things were done in the series, just let me know.

Cheers.

Ep 12 Progress

Since you guys have been so diligently waiting, I figured I should let you know how far along things have gotten.

The script's rough draft before I record the game footage is done now, the final draft will be tweaked and finalized when I start dialogue. So I'm 1/3 of the way through right now. Things should calm down after this Wednesday in terms of work so that should make things easier.
I also managed to squeeze in the Shephard character's little banter with the NPCs in the script, only just long enough for it. I'm hoping to get everything I need done before I start bugging Krimsin though. Getting all of that out of the way first should free up my time for other things.


Also if nobody noticed yet I'm doing a team Let's Play of Contra and Super C with forum members on www.spoonyexperiment.com and they've already gotten to part 5. I opened that series of videos with level 1and will do another video with level 4 in Super C. I already have a playlist up for those videos so check 'em out if you get the chance.

Halloween is Coming up.

And I completely forgot about it.

Sorry guys, If you were looking forward to a Halloween themed special episode I kinda dropped the ball on this one. I actually haven't payed attention to Halloween in 5 years so I guess it was a force of habit.

On the bright side, I'm hoping to get episode 11 out by the end of the month just in time for the holiday. And this is one of the creepiest/scariest parts of the game too! So that kinda works out.

I still feel bad for letting anyone down though. So I've already begun work on a special episode that's a few more months down the road. Hopefully that makes up for this.

I'm Getting Close + Other Stuff

I managed to get a lot of recording done this weekend and even yesterday while nobody was around to be bothered by it. There's a bit more I have to tweak and record again, but this weekend coming up I'm hoping to finish and upload episode 10.

That's as far as video progress is going so far. But I also need to address something I've seen a few comments about. Me and the rest of the Mind Series (the most popular ones anyway).
There's been a fair number of people who have been bugging me to start bugging Krimsin or MightyPirate or even Corky about paying attention to my series.

To this I say, no, N O no.

Would I like the surge in popularity and subscriber increase? Sure! But that's not how to go about it. Those guys got their popularity on their own merits (everyone searching for Half-Life based mind series probably helped too) and that's how it should be. Exposure is something you earn, not force.

Granted, I was the one who contacted Krimisin for Episode 7. But I had a reason to do so and if I have to contact anyone else from that group I'll need another good reason.
It's not hard to email or PM them don't get me wrong, they seem pretty open about that. But you don't email or call somebody for the sake doing so. That's just stupid, especially if you do it over and over again.

Bottom line, I'm not going to do it because it's rude. If I get noticed at all by anyone else I'd prefer they find me themselves or have a friend tell them. Word of mouth is the least obnoxious form of marketing, and the last thing I need is to be an asshole to people I admire.