Well, that's episode 15 posted of my Orcs Must Die! play-through, and honestly that was a close shave. At this point I literally do not know what is being thrown at me and I'm trying really hard to complete each level the first time I try it. I can't even imagine what is coming up next. Missiles? Warlocks? Dentists? Christ, who knows. I don't think my nerves can take much more.
It was fine when I was doing the first 10 levels or so and I had some idea of what I was doing, even though I probably still made a shitton of mistakes and had a couple of close scrapes, but that's nothing compared to the sheer panic I am feeling now about recording episode 16. What if I don't even get a new trap? I'm comfortable with the old traps by now, but what if there's man-eating fish in the next level and no water traps? What the fuck am I supposed to do with fish!?
I don't want you guys to start panicking. That's the last thing I want. I shouldn't have even mentioned anything. But if I have one more sleepless night it'll be the end of me. Seriously I have about 3 stomach ulcers at this point, the stress is crippling me. Maybe if I do die in episode 16, I can blame it on my shot nerves. That's no excuse though, I'm meant to be a pro gamer. You don't realise how much of a jam I'm in here.
Stress aside, I think The Tower was my favourite map so far. I sort of stumbled upon the whole ice amulet/chain crossbow headshot combo and will definitely bear that one in mind for future ogre encounters. I loved being able to use that mounted crossbow as well, and the spiked logs were just awesome (when I managed to use one somewhat effectively). I actually did complete it on my first attempt, which was a relief because I was pressed for time while recording it in the first place. Posting a video every day is hard work I tell you (first world problems eat your heart out).
That's enough for now. I've got a really good game (in my opinion) lined up for an evening with Sips which I'll hopefully post tomorrow, along with the follow-up for Kerbal Space Program and the dreaded episode 16 of Orcs Must Die! before the weekend hopefully!
Insights and other random crap from Sips, the best guy.
Tuesday 10 January 2012
Monday 9 January 2012
League of Legends with Sips - Some Thoughts
We've so far made two League of Legends videos, me a Sjin. We've had a lot of fun doing them and as I've said before, we're big fans of the game. Recently I've struggled to find time to actually play with everything that's going on in my personal life, and Sjin has been trying out some of the new champions and trying to think of ideas to make the videos a bit more engaging and interesting.
One thing we noticed with our Viktor The Machine Herald overview was that a lot of you enjoyed the lore piece, something that's often overlooked in League of Legends. I always knew the lore existed, but it's not really compelling enough for me to bother reading it. With Viktor's lore, I got to put my own spin on it and quite enjoyed finding out more about him.
With that in mind, we're probably going to start doing some fun little lore spotlights, possibly with some gameplay thrown in. I know a lot of you are asking for "tons of gameplay". but at the moment it's not really possible and was never something we wanted to feature too heavily. Average games of League of Legends last at least 30 minutes or so, with some of the longer games stretching out to an hour. It's fun to play, but depending how the game goes not always fun to watch. Plus I suck major ass at it and can't imagine that anyone would want to see me playing it safe and not going on massive kill streaks like a true boss. With the lore spotlight, it gives me a chance to talk about the champion a bit more, talk about why he/she is in the League in the first place, and maybe showcase some of their unique attributes to tickle your fancy.
Another thing that people have been mentioning that we might take a look at is doing some fun tutorial videos.These would be for people who are new to the game or to the genre, as most people seem to think there's a steep learning curve involved. I wouldn't say that was the case so much for League of Legends, but I would definitely agree in the case of HoN and DOTA2 (at a push). The tutorial vids would just go over the basics of how to play together as a team, how not to feed the other team, and the importance of having general game awareness.
So that's what we've got planned for the League of Legends series. We're committed to making more videos, but also want to produce stuff that you all want to watch. As usual, I'm open to comments and suggestions, and this blog is a perfect way to gather all of that. I could never tweet or post something this lengthy on facebook for instance. So let me know what you think!
Here's a like to my League of Legends playlist if you haven't seen any of the vids yet.
Get me on twitter - @Sips_
Get me on Facebook - Sips Yogscast
One thing we noticed with our Viktor The Machine Herald overview was that a lot of you enjoyed the lore piece, something that's often overlooked in League of Legends. I always knew the lore existed, but it's not really compelling enough for me to bother reading it. With Viktor's lore, I got to put my own spin on it and quite enjoyed finding out more about him.
With that in mind, we're probably going to start doing some fun little lore spotlights, possibly with some gameplay thrown in. I know a lot of you are asking for "tons of gameplay". but at the moment it's not really possible and was never something we wanted to feature too heavily. Average games of League of Legends last at least 30 minutes or so, with some of the longer games stretching out to an hour. It's fun to play, but depending how the game goes not always fun to watch. Plus I suck major ass at it and can't imagine that anyone would want to see me playing it safe and not going on massive kill streaks like a true boss. With the lore spotlight, it gives me a chance to talk about the champion a bit more, talk about why he/she is in the League in the first place, and maybe showcase some of their unique attributes to tickle your fancy.
Another thing that people have been mentioning that we might take a look at is doing some fun tutorial videos.These would be for people who are new to the game or to the genre, as most people seem to think there's a steep learning curve involved. I wouldn't say that was the case so much for League of Legends, but I would definitely agree in the case of HoN and DOTA2 (at a push). The tutorial vids would just go over the basics of how to play together as a team, how not to feed the other team, and the importance of having general game awareness.
So that's what we've got planned for the League of Legends series. We're committed to making more videos, but also want to produce stuff that you all want to watch. As usual, I'm open to comments and suggestions, and this blog is a perfect way to gather all of that. I could never tweet or post something this lengthy on facebook for instance. So let me know what you think!
Here's a like to my League of Legends playlist if you haven't seen any of the vids yet.
Get me on twitter - @Sips_
Get me on Facebook - Sips Yogscast
Saturday 7 January 2012
An Evening With Sips
I was thinking about my Evening With Sips series earlier today for a bunch of reasons, mainly that I'm trying to decide which game to do next. Having a jam-packed games list on Steam is something I never thought would be daunting, but somehow I have arrived at that situation and it's getting harder to choose which games to cover. I'm also finding it hard to get time to actually play some of the gifted titles I received over the holidays, talk about first world problems!
One thing that immediately sprung to mind when I started the series was that it could be a good proving ground for future Let's Play material. So far my Atom Zombie Smasher and LIMBO videos have been among my most popular (of the current 31 videos I have posted), and people are constantly asking me to do an Atom Zombie Smasher play-through. So you know what? I'm just going to do one. Screw it. I love that game, and I love having an excuse to play it as well.
I think that's a good idea. From now on, if An Evening With Sips video is really popular, I'll do a play-through. I need some way of showing people a gauge or something to see how close/far the game is to being made into a full play-through, I think that would be pretty neat. I don't want to run concurrent Let's Plays though, so it will have to be done once Orcs Must Die! is complete. That's another great game that I don't get sick of playing.
Anyways, that's enough rambling for now. I'm pretty pumped for Atom Zombie Smasher to be honest. I might even do a play-through with some of the wacky, game-changing options enabled. Who knows. Either way I'm hoping it'll be as fun to watch as it will be to play.
Here's a link to the "An Evening With Sips" playlist on my YouTube channel if any of you are unfamiliar. And as usual, hit me up on Twitter (@Sips_) or Facebook (Sips Yogscast) with any comments or to just double-check what type of milk I like best.
One thing that immediately sprung to mind when I started the series was that it could be a good proving ground for future Let's Play material. So far my Atom Zombie Smasher and LIMBO videos have been among my most popular (of the current 31 videos I have posted), and people are constantly asking me to do an Atom Zombie Smasher play-through. So you know what? I'm just going to do one. Screw it. I love that game, and I love having an excuse to play it as well.
I think that's a good idea. From now on, if An Evening With Sips video is really popular, I'll do a play-through. I need some way of showing people a gauge or something to see how close/far the game is to being made into a full play-through, I think that would be pretty neat. I don't want to run concurrent Let's Plays though, so it will have to be done once Orcs Must Die! is complete. That's another great game that I don't get sick of playing.
Anyways, that's enough rambling for now. I'm pretty pumped for Atom Zombie Smasher to be honest. I might even do a play-through with some of the wacky, game-changing options enabled. Who knows. Either way I'm hoping it'll be as fun to watch as it will be to play.
Here's a link to the "An Evening With Sips" playlist on my YouTube channel if any of you are unfamiliar. And as usual, hit me up on Twitter (@Sips_) or Facebook (Sips Yogscast) with any comments or to just double-check what type of milk I like best.
Some Insights into my Orcs Must Die play-through - Part 13
Part 13 of my Orcs Must Die! play-through featured The Arena, a really close quarters map with two rifts and two doors. Having never attempted this level before, I went into it thinking there was no way I'd complete it in one go. What I've liked so far about my Orcs Must Die! play-through is that the levels have all been pretty straightforward, so recording each level hasn't been much of a problem.
I stumbled across the portal which leads to the upper bit by accident, thinking that maybe it was some way to get to each rift quicker. Placing a bunch of Steves up on that elevated middle bit turned out to be quite a good move, especially once they were upgraded with flaming arrows. Once I had a couple of spike traps and arrow walls down, that combination with the elevated Steves turned out to be quite deadly and eventually saw me win the map without any major issues (or leakage).
Recording this level was also pretty straightforward. My son was sleeping next to me quite soundly for most of it, however near the end he decided to wake up and instantly started crying, which obviously had to be edited out. This was the first time since I started posting videos where I re-recorded myself in bits and pieces where there was clearly a lot of unwanted background noise. I'd listen to what I was saying a couple of times to get the timing and the tone right, then record myself saying it in isolation so that I could lay the new recording into the rest of the track and remove the piece with the background noise. This worked out quite well in the end, but there were a few points where the tone wasn't *quite* right with what I was saying, not sure if anyone will pick up on that or not.
Following on from this episode and Enviro-Bear 2000 yesterday, I'm going to start using different software to record myself speaking. I think this will improve the overall quality of my recorded voice, as currently I seem to get quite a few complaints about needing to get a new mic. The weirdest thing is that on vent for most people I sound very clear, so there's just a lot of confusion surrounding what exactly is causing me to sound so muffled and "tinny" when I render my projects.
Anyways that's enough of that. Hope you enjoyed the episode and hopefully you're also enjoying these little insights into what goes into making these vids in the first place.
Here's a link to episode 13 of my Orcs Must Die! play-through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S4bP_e78A0
Don't forget to catch me on Twitter and Facebook if you're not already doing so:
Twitter - @Sips_
Facebook - Yogscast Sips
I stumbled across the portal which leads to the upper bit by accident, thinking that maybe it was some way to get to each rift quicker. Placing a bunch of Steves up on that elevated middle bit turned out to be quite a good move, especially once they were upgraded with flaming arrows. Once I had a couple of spike traps and arrow walls down, that combination with the elevated Steves turned out to be quite deadly and eventually saw me win the map without any major issues (or leakage).
Recording this level was also pretty straightforward. My son was sleeping next to me quite soundly for most of it, however near the end he decided to wake up and instantly started crying, which obviously had to be edited out. This was the first time since I started posting videos where I re-recorded myself in bits and pieces where there was clearly a lot of unwanted background noise. I'd listen to what I was saying a couple of times to get the timing and the tone right, then record myself saying it in isolation so that I could lay the new recording into the rest of the track and remove the piece with the background noise. This worked out quite well in the end, but there were a few points where the tone wasn't *quite* right with what I was saying, not sure if anyone will pick up on that or not.
Following on from this episode and Enviro-Bear 2000 yesterday, I'm going to start using different software to record myself speaking. I think this will improve the overall quality of my recorded voice, as currently I seem to get quite a few complaints about needing to get a new mic. The weirdest thing is that on vent for most people I sound very clear, so there's just a lot of confusion surrounding what exactly is causing me to sound so muffled and "tinny" when I render my projects.
Anyways that's enough of that. Hope you enjoyed the episode and hopefully you're also enjoying these little insights into what goes into making these vids in the first place.
Here's a link to episode 13 of my Orcs Must Die! play-through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S4bP_e78A0
Don't forget to catch me on Twitter and Facebook if you're not already doing so:
Twitter - @Sips_
Facebook - Yogscast Sips
Friday 6 January 2012
The First Blog From The Best Guy
Hi everybody, welcome to my first blog! I've set this up so that I can regularly post some insights and ramblings behind the videos that I post on YouTube. Hopefully you'll find that interesting in some way. Probably not as interesting as Ghostface "Cocaine Biceps" Killah's blog, but hopefully interesting enough to add something extra to the videos (if you liked them in the first place).
Anyways, let's take a look at Enviro-Bear 2000. I had to record this about 4 different times, no lie. I sat down thinking that it would only take me one try, but the first take I recorded was just horrible. I hadn't played in a while and couldn't grip the wheel or gear shift properly, as it's kinda awkward to begin with. At points I was spending like a solid minute pleading with my mouse (vocally) to help me to just grip the fucking gearshift. My son also decided that he was hungry and started crying, so that would have taken me hours to edit out and adjust the audio.
The second attempt was slightly better, but I died on the first level because I couldn't find a cave to hibernate in. If you haven't played Enviro-Bear 2000 or rage quit before seeing how you actually get Game Over, basically your car starts to slowly fill up with massive snowballs until you can't do anything and you just die there, alone in your car. Your car that you drove.... as a bear.
Third attempt was a bit better, but Enviro-Bear 2000 as you know is just crazy, and for some reason there were just too many badgers that attempt. I mean basically there was a badger in my car almost full-time every level it seemed, and despite my best efforts I could not throw him out of the car. Any time I tried to explain anything or talk about anything I'd just have to cut short and scream in anger at the badger. He'd pop in from off the screen at really inconvenient moments as well which often wrecked anything I was trying to say.
Finally, attempt 4 was recorded from start to finish and some random background noises from my house were edited out. I was pretty happy with the result however for some reason after editing and rendering the video the audio seemed completely out of balance, something I hadn't noticed when I double-checked the video before posting it to YouTube.
So there you go, some really insightful shit into how I made a crappy video about Enviro-Bear 2000! I'll probably write some more of these if there's enough interest in them so let me know.
Anyways, let's take a look at Enviro-Bear 2000. I had to record this about 4 different times, no lie. I sat down thinking that it would only take me one try, but the first take I recorded was just horrible. I hadn't played in a while and couldn't grip the wheel or gear shift properly, as it's kinda awkward to begin with. At points I was spending like a solid minute pleading with my mouse (vocally) to help me to just grip the fucking gearshift. My son also decided that he was hungry and started crying, so that would have taken me hours to edit out and adjust the audio.
The second attempt was slightly better, but I died on the first level because I couldn't find a cave to hibernate in. If you haven't played Enviro-Bear 2000 or rage quit before seeing how you actually get Game Over, basically your car starts to slowly fill up with massive snowballs until you can't do anything and you just die there, alone in your car. Your car that you drove.... as a bear.
Third attempt was a bit better, but Enviro-Bear 2000 as you know is just crazy, and for some reason there were just too many badgers that attempt. I mean basically there was a badger in my car almost full-time every level it seemed, and despite my best efforts I could not throw him out of the car. Any time I tried to explain anything or talk about anything I'd just have to cut short and scream in anger at the badger. He'd pop in from off the screen at really inconvenient moments as well which often wrecked anything I was trying to say.
Finally, attempt 4 was recorded from start to finish and some random background noises from my house were edited out. I was pretty happy with the result however for some reason after editing and rendering the video the audio seemed completely out of balance, something I hadn't noticed when I double-checked the video before posting it to YouTube.
So there you go, some really insightful shit into how I made a crappy video about Enviro-Bear 2000! I'll probably write some more of these if there's enough interest in them so let me know.
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