Volume posted:

Just wondering if you could do me a favor and post the link to the thread here when you make it cause I am totally looking forward to this and don't want to miss it.

Dragonatrix posted:

So, here's a situation that I'm sure will have come up before but I'm drawing a bit of a blank on.

I've just spent the past half hour or so trying to find a copy of a soundtrack that, to the best of my knowledge, was only released in Japan, had what I presume to be a very limited print and is now either borderline impossible to find a copy of... or the few I could find are going for around $70 a piece. And, through some absolute miracle, there's nothing related to it at all on Youtube either so I can't just link to that. Y'know, if that would even be allowed in the first place.

It seems to me that the best solution to this would be to just not even bother and leave out the music, but it has a certain charm that really helps sell the psuedo-film noir atmosphere really well too so I'd rather not do that unless absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, the option to spend $70+ is there but that's not really something I could justify spending exclusively for one LP.

Dragonatrix posted:

So, here's a situation that I'm sure will have come up before but I'm drawing a bit of a blank on.

I've just spent the past half hour or so trying to find a copy of a soundtrack that, to the best of my knowledge, was only released in Japan, had what I presume to be a very limited print and is now either borderline impossible to find a copy of... or the few I could find are going for around $70 a piece. And, through some absolute miracle, there's nothing related to it at all on Youtube either so I can't just link to that. Y'know, if that would even be allowed in the first place.

It seems to me that the best solution to this would be to just not even bother and leave out the music, but it has a certain charm that really helps sell the psuedo-film noir atmosphere really well too so I'd rather not do that unless absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, the option to spend $70+ is there but that's not really something I could justify spending exclusively for one LP.

ScurvyKip posted:

Xenosaga

Dragonatrix posted:

So, here's a situation that I'm sure will have come up before but I'm drawing a bit of a blank on.

I've just spent the past half hour or so trying to find a copy of a soundtrack that, to the best of my knowledge, was only released in Japan, had what I presume to be a very limited print and is now either borderline impossible to find a copy of... or the few I could find are going for around $70 a piece. And, through some absolute miracle, there's nothing related to it at all on Youtube either so I can't just link to that. Y'know, if that would even be allowed in the first place.

It seems to me that the best solution to this would be to just not even bother and leave out the music, but it has a certain charm that really helps sell the psuedo-film noir atmosphere really well too so I'd rather not do that unless absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, the option to spend $70+ is there but that's not really something I could justify spending exclusively for one LP.

slowbeef posted:

Is it possible to record your own tracks from the game itself?

saihate posted:

Is this the CD you're looking for? http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/2638006

ScurvyKip posted:

Dragonatrix posted:

That'd be easy to do, yeah. I considered it, but wasn't sure of whether or not it'd be okay to post the entire thing like that. If so, then it's definitely an alternative I'd be willing to do.

Fedule posted:

Alright, here is a revised edition of the first VLR update, with the audio tracks broken into smaller chunks so that sections that are predominantly Sigma-beeps are eliminated. I used the time between tracks to provide some voice actor notes (and will use it where commentary is called for later).

This is pretty much the last step before I launch the thread, so please let me know if it works better, especially if you were someone who didn't like the first version much.

(I also fixed the missing line and adjusted the Zero talking head to brighten it)

E: no one saw me paste in the wrong link and not notice.

EE: Tindeck appears to be having some problems right now so uh bear with me I guess

whitehelm posted:

Tindeck is now working.

Personally I'd rather have all the voiced lines included somehow but the preference between more voices and less beeping is going to vary from person to person so its up to you. The new version is closer to the ideal for me though, with the really long sections of beeping gone and the extra notes.

I think the VLR thread should wait to go up until a while after Dragonatrix posts the last update. Even though people in the thread seem impatient to discuss the Q&A ahead of time I'm sure there will be a few days of discussion about it after his actual post.

quote:

LATEST EPISODE
Mass Effect 1: Episode 01: Eden Prime - [YouTube] [Blip] - [Relevant Codex Entries]

The Franchise
Honestly you'd probably have to be living under a rock to not know about Mass Effect but I'll give you guys a quick rundown regardless. The series started back in late 2007 and has since spanned three games, four books, and nine comics with tons of DLC and action figures over the course of the last six years. Hell, they've even got their own Risk board game coming out later this year!

Set in 2183, the story focuses on player character Commander Shepard as he/she romps around the sprawling universe, saving countless people among countless species from a destructive synthetic menace that threatens to wipe the glactic slate clean. Along the way you'll be forced to make huge choices that shape the story to the decisions you make.

The games are vast and I intend to play all three. That's how they're meant to be played, after all.


The Choices
Mass Effect is known as a game all about choices, even so much as boiling down to somewhat insignificant things like your Shepard's background and how your Shepard reacts to someone telling them to have a good day. As far as BIG choices are concerned (e.g.: do we commit genocide, which one of these two people do we attempt to save, who do we romance, etc.), I WILL be putting it to a thread vote. I'd like to shape at least the big aspects of the universe around the thread's choices.

However, when it comes to SMALL choices like our Shepard's general demeanor, I will NOT be putting it to a vote. Mass Effect as a franchise is huge and I cannot be stopping every step of the way to ask what you guys would like to do-- I have to take liberties. Also I really don't like being pigeon-holed into one morality. I will not be playing strictly Paragon and I will not be playing strictly Renegade. I'm generally a pretty nice guy but if someone I thought was cool decided to slap me across the face I'm not going to turn the other cheek. As such I will be picking dialogue that I feel fits the situation best. I may not be accurate 100% of the time-- sometimes that renegade option comes across a little more dickish than I expected it to! But I hope enough people would appreciate the fact that I'm not choosing dialogue strictly based on us putting it to a vote and deciding that our Shepard would be more pissed off in the morning without a nice cup of joe but becomes more tolerable as the day goes on.

There is also many sidequests I will not be doing. Most of them are pretty boring fetchquests and I wouldn't ask you to watch them. Only some of them even really pay off in the sequels and even then it's often just an e-mail from that character thanking you. I have, however, taken a close look at what sidequests actually carry over in the sequels and any of them that I find either interesting or essential I will make sure get shown off.

The Dialogue
There's a lot of dialogue in Mass Effect. Most conversations have a little "Investigate" menu where you can ask people about subjects you don't quite understand, but we really don't have time for all that! I've taken the liberty of planning out each update. Beforehand I go around and talk to everyone I know I'll be talking to that episode and check out each of their Investigate options to see which ones seem important or not. As a result, there's a lot of fluff dialogue you don't have to worry about me sitting around listening to. Shepard, after all, is no fish out of water-- they were probably taught a lot about the history of the galaxy in school! Shepard most likely isn't going to be asking about who the Protheans are, but you might be. Which brings me to...

The Codex
Mass Effect is a big game with a lot of backstory. People may often refer to things you don't know the history of, or maybe you'd just like to know more about how everyone's gun has infinite ammo. In game there is a journal called the Codex. There's a lot of entries in this and I really don't have time to bring it up every time something interesting comes up so I'm going to take the opportunity to post supplementary codex entries in the thread alongside each update for anything I find to be interesting to the episode at hand.

Now in game, a good amount of the Codex also has audio entries to go alongside the text, read to you by the wonderful voice of Neil Ross. However, even more entries are not read out loud for you. For the sake of:
1) consistency
2) narcissism
3) I don't really have a quick/reliable way of getting the audio of him out of the game
...I'm going to go ahead and record my own audio entries for all the Codex entries I post alongside the updates-- even the ones that don't normally have audio. They'll all be optional of course; there will just be links to Tindeck by each entry you can click on if you'd like to listen along.


The DLC
Currently I have no plans on playing any of the ME1 DLC. For the other games I am so far undecided. There's a lot of DLC in ME2 I really like so I definitely want to show it off but I have none of it for the PC so we'll see about it when we get there.

The Spoilers
None. Not even tagged. This is a journey through time where the story is shaped to your decisions. I don't want to hear people saying "Oh just go ahead and do this because this will be the result in the second game and you get this stuff." That's not how people make decisions during their first playthrough! If I put something to a thread vote I want to you come to a decision based off the facts we currently know. We don't know if this little kid is going to grow up to be space Hitler so I don't want you to condemn him to death if all we know is that he needs our help, capisce?


The Format
This LP will be in video format with episodes usually being roughly an hour long. Quite lengthy I know, but the Mass Effect games are big, cinematic experiences with lots of dialogue. Like I mentioned before there's a lot of dialogue of sidequests I will be skipping over but even then an hour episode seems like it will be the average unless I really blitz through the gunplay segments. Because a lot of work goes into these updates can take a while but I will try my best to get out a new episode every week. Now without further ado...


The Episodes
Mass Effect 1: Episode 01: Eden Prime - [YouTube] [Blip] - [Relevant Codex Entries]

Kaubocks posted:

Oh boy here we go. Don't have a working title for this yet. Just making sure I've got enough info/video looks good/commentary isn't banal. I've only got YouTube links for now but I'll also upload it on Blip if everything here is in order.

ScurvyKip posted:

Sylphid posted:

Looks pretty good to me. I'd love to see you do all three games. The only suggestion I'd make is you might want to consider uploading cutscenes without commentary like what Chip does in case anyone watching wants clean cutscenes. Not necessary but might be worth the trouble in the long run.

Zutaten posted:

Looks good to me. I'll be watching for the thread. Here's hoping you can finish what I didn't, haha.

Spiffo posted:

I don't have time to watch the video, but a criticism of your OP:

Kaubocks posted:

While I agree the OP can definitely use a rewrite I'm not entirely sure I agree that the LP would suffer due to things not being done. I still plan to do all of the story and I plan to talk to all of the crew between missions and whatnot. Pretty much all I plan on not doing is discussing lore fluff with NPCs and doing any sidequests that really don't accomplish anything other than more credits in your pocket. I still plan on doing, say, the Conrad Verner sidequest and everything involving Cerberus. There's just a moderate amount of sidequests that are really just fetchquests.

ScurvyKip posted:

Thanks, I'll get working on the alternate version tonight and upload to an alternate host. Thread should be up by the end of the week if things go smoothly.

quote:

It's hip! It's new! It's fresh! It's Mega Man X7!


Mega Man X7? What's that?
A terrible platformer with a mixture of 2D and 3D gameplay. No, seriously. X7 was the first PS2 Mega Man X game, and it was a doozy. The level designs are terrible, the controls feel like they've never been playtested, the boss weapons are generally useless, and the voice acting... well. The less said about the voice acting the better. Even worse, they brought back the Reploid rescue system from X5-6, where you need to find and touch Reploids scattered throughout the stages, before they get killed.

Of course, the worst crime was that you don't get to play as X.

Wait, what?
Okay, to be accurate, you don't get to play as X right away. You have to rescue a certain number of Reploids first, or beat all the main bosses. Instead, you'll be playing as Zero and Axl. Axl is a new character added into the series, presumably to try and attract new fans. Of course, instead of really trying to shake things up with his gameplay, he's essentially a weaker version of X. In many ways, Axl seems like a fanfiction character shoved into the game.

So why are you playing it?
Because I own the game and I hate myself. And also, there are some decisions made that could've actually been good. If done properly, this game could've been pretty amazing. Instead, it was essentially : The Game. Joined with me on this journey of self-hatred will be Lizard Wizard and Goodusernamehere.

Intro Stage

Prythian posted:

Okay, trying again, with the interlacing/cropping fixed on my video.


Again, looking for feedback on the commentary.

Zackcat posted:

There is some minor fumbling over each other, but that is usually remedied with time as you all do more. Other then that the (commentary) is fine.

So I assume this isn't your final quality for the video?

Prythian posted:

The quality on this particular video is accurate to what's coming out of my capture card. I'm not sure there's a way for me to improve it. X7 is not a pretty game.

Zackcat posted:

hmm maybe you can ask for some tech advice. This is a PS2 game right?

Prythian posted:

Okay, trying again, with the interlacing/cropping fixed on my video.


Again, looking for feedback on the commentary.

Niggurath posted:

Yeah, it definitely seems like your video quality took a step back (though the interlacing is indeed gone). I do want to say though that you do have frame blending going on and that it seems like you're capturing off a SD capture card or something.

Prythian posted:

Well, uh, I actually am. The people who gave me a capture card went for a Dazzle because it was cheaper, and I don't have money to buy an HD capture device right now. That being said, do I really need an HD device for an old PS2 game?

Also, I'm not sure how to fix frame blending. I'm pretty much completely new to this.

Niggurath posted:

If you're capturing directly off the system, there really isn't much you can do. How are you encoding your end product? In Vegas or Premiere, or maybe avisynth/Megui? Really the only reason I bring up the quality is because it seemed worse than the first video you posted.

Prythian posted:

Well, uh, I actually am. The people who gave me a capture card went for a Dazzle because it was cheaper, and I don't have money to buy an HD capture device right now. That being said, do I really need an HD device for an old PS2 game?

Also, I'm not sure how to fix frame blending. I'm pretty much completely new to this.

Bobbin Threadbare posted:

I can't speak about the blending, but I can point out that the PS2 native resolution is 640x480, which is decidedly not HD. However, something I do to get a better video quality is to double the video's size to 1280x960 (Lanczos filter if you have the option). Not only does this end up scaling better, but it gets Youtube to use its newer, better pipeline so that it looks better even set on 480p.

Kaubocks posted:

Oh boy here we go. Don't have a working title for this yet. Just making sure I've got enough info/video looks good/commentary isn't banal. I've only got YouTube links for now but I'll also upload it on Blip if everything here is in order.

Kaubocks posted:

I'm trying to make sure that everything happens on screen is enjoyable. It just happens that a lot of the sidequests in Mass Effect I don't find that interesting. They all generally take you to copy and paste planets and bunkers to fetch and item and in return you get some money. I can absolutely completely cut back on how much I'm saying I'm not going to do so it doesn't feel like I'm just going around going "Yeah I'm not doing that or that or that," but I think after one episode of sidequests people would have had their fill.

Kaubocks posted:

I'm racking my brain and searching online the best I can but really the only think I can remember/find that being neutral screws you on in ME2 is trying to resolve the arguments between Miranda/Jack and Tali/Legion. Am I wrong in thinking those were the only things? I could have sworn that's all there was being wishy-washy would lock you out of and even then I'm 90% sure everyone can survive the suicide mission even with a handful of unloyal members.

Kaubocks posted:

In reply to people saying that a Mass Effect trilogy LP would be a lot of work, don't think I don't understand that. I'm just currently unemployed with a lot of free time and love for the series. I'm not trying to cut out a ton of stuff in an attempt to blitz through the franchise-- it's really quite the opposite. Anything I'm trying to cut out is an attempt to not show off things that are too boring in order to hold interest. I'm trying to make sure that everything happens on screen is enjoyable. It just happens that a lot of the sidequests in Mass Effect I don't find that interesting. They all generally take you to copy and paste planets and bunkers to fetch and item and in return you get some money. I can absolutely completely cut back on how much I'm saying I'm not going to do so it doesn't feel like I'm just going around going "Yeah I'm not doing that or that or that," but I think after one episode of sidequests people would have had their fill.

Kaubocks posted:

I'm racking my brain and searching online the best I can but really the only think I can remember/find that being neutral screws you on in ME2 is trying to resolve the arguments between Miranda/Jack and Tali/Legion. Am I wrong in thinking those were the only things? I could have sworn that's all there was being wishy-washy would lock you out of and even then I'm 90% sure everyone can survive the suicide mission even with a handful of unloyal members.

Emery posted:

Without a near full paragon or fairly decent renegade, it gets to be almost impossible to get Morinth on a first playthrough. That's the big one I was thinking of. The arguments can also mess with things, but I believe if you talk to the person you didn't side with you can make an excuse on a lower morality requirement to keep both parties loyal.