So I have been playing ... (57). Even more Nox

As part of wrapping up my countryside-adventure, because autumn, I recorded another session of Nox on laptop. Didn't quite reach the endgame proper, but I did end up in the outskirts of finale areas. Here are the  first and second session summaries; here's the whole playlist.; and here are a few episodes from the latest session.

So I have been playing... (54). More Nox, more nostalgia.

This here is the second batch of episodes from my nostalgic Nox playthrough (this post describes how and why I started the playthrough). Getting the audio levels right is still a bit of a balancing act between "was there narration? Really?" and "aaaahhhh, stop that buzz!". Other than that it's a sheer delight how smoothly the game runs on this laptop.

So, here's the session's beginning:

So I have been playing... (50). From Nox, with nostalgia.

I had been hatching the idea to record some good old Nox for quite a while. The urge grew even stronger once I'd determined it runs really well on my "orbital" laptop. Receiving a gamer-tag challenge from Matthegeek was the final straw and the perfect excuse I had been looking for.

This is my entry to the gamer-tag process (you pick a game from your gamer-salad-days that was either a favourite, a formative experience, or otherwise important; choose a spot or a sequence or a level; record your bit, and "tag" a next person to repeat the process with their chosen game).


Here is the playlist with the consecutive "tag!" entries so far.

But doing just one episode was not enough for me. I wanted to capture my journey up until the tag-episode, and keep going after.

So I have been playing... (44). Growing fond of the old-school Wasteland.

Getting a whiff of Wasteland Two motivated me to make a better acquaintance with the original as well. My initial brief encounter had been a bit lukewarm. The discovery that OBS was doing an okay job of capturing it all (i.e. savouring those precious early noob moments) gave this endeavour a second wind. At first I intended to merely spend time in the game and enjoy the soundtrack... then I accidentally picked up the keyboard controls and everything just fell into place.

Here is the "proper" first episode.

So I have been playing... (42). Shadowrun Returns - debugging mode.

This sequence here features a buttload of that-which-does-not-work-against-the-BigBad-does-indeed-kill-us. In the course of it I've picked up *some* bits of intel that help me adjust the strategies, and progress an inch or two. Yet, the true "Eureka!" moment remains elusive  - so far. [Edit: Spoilers - the "yay, this shit actually works!" milestone is reached during next session.]

Once again, posting all the related episodes in a row; the rest of the playlist is over here.

So I have been playing... (41). Shadowrun... you guessed it - returns.

Here are all the episodes of my fourth Shadowrun session, sorted and sequenced. (The whole playlist is over here.) This is the point where the fruits of pre-recording marathon run out; any new episodes from this point of will be fresh off the encoder.

So I have been playing... (40). Yet more Shadowrun returns.

Here are all the episodes of my third Shadowrun session, lined up for convenience. (The whole playlist is over here.)

So I have been playing... (38). Shadowrun returns some more.

Here are all the episodes of my second Shadowrun session, all in a row. (The whole playlist is over here.) I noticed that in the session's final episode, the commentary audio is rather quiet (don't know if the mic was drooping, or just my voice getting sleepy) - sorry about that.

So I have been playing... (37). Shadowrun Returns.

After reaching one long-plotted goal in my everything-but-the-main-misson S.T.A.L.K.E.R run, I wished to take a brief break from the Zone. Not full-on hiatus, just a breather to realign sights and clear the palate and whatnot. Circumstances just so happened to align in such a way that I had a fresh copy of Shadowrun Returns sitting around in anticipation, and a freshly sparked interest for the title.
So I went for it, deciding to capture the innocent clueless noob moments almost immediately.

A few decent-length playsessions later I found myself preparing for what I'm guessing is one campaign's endgame, and sitting aotp a buttload of footage which I'm releasing in moderation.


Here's the whole upcoming playlist. And here's the very first episode.

In fact, here are the episodes from the first playsession - all of them, because why not. 

So I have been playing... (35). DeusEx continues.

A little while ago I advanced further in my DeusEx play. (Starting off the parts of the game I have never encountered before, so from this point on the playthrough is completely blind.) Then forgot to post an update about it - until now.

When preparing the new video harvest for sharing, I unexpectedly ran into a no-longer-uploads-allowed situation. No idea what triggered it - just a week prior I had been uploading 20+ minute Machinarium footage with no issues; I also checked my account's status, and even though the over-zealous new content ID thingie had produced a bunch of copyright notices (some of them from known copyright trolls, once already disputed and removed, I might add), the account's reportedly in good standing.

In any case, while I sort this out - without actually flaunting my phone number around, which all service providers now seem so keen to obtain -, I'm working around the situation simply by doing my uploads in 15-minute segments. (I did try to keep the episodes themselves shorter but that didn't work so well.)

So, speaking of new DeusEx session, here are all the parts of first episode.

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (V)

[copy-paste intro]
It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to let go some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2. 

The whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once, so I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead. This was Part Four.


Now, shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

So I have been playing... (34). More Machinarium

After sorting out the mystery of missing savegames (big thanks to GOG community helpline, and Amanita's savegame depository), I got back on track with the recordings and carried on til the endgame.

Here's the first episode in the new session.

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (IV)

[copy-paste intro]
It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to let go some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2. 

The whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once, so I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead. This was Part Three.


Now, shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

So I have been playing... (33). Machinarium

Right after completing my recent Fallout playthrough, there was a great wave of let's-play momentum left over; basically my brain stated "must, need to begin a new game right damn now!" I rummaged through my game libraries in search for something completely different in tone and theme; after a few false starts I settled on Machinarium.

Not exactly the world's number one puzzle fan (indirect Czech Connection bonus!) I decided to treat the gameplay as a possible not-in-my-element-and-learning-from-it experience. Once in there, though, my first reaction was sheer delight over how they handle the instructional aspects. I found communicating the objectives, as well as giving feedback for (wrong) actions so elegant and well-targeted that I allowed myself a little professional squee. Also, most "puzzles" turned out to be of the variety I'm okay with - the "find a way to solve this situation" kind, rather than "put the correct elements into the correct configuration in correct sequence for the correctness' sake" kind. (That said, the "kind I'm okay with" will never-ever-fucking-ever extend to slider puzzles. Slider puzzle is the mind killer. Slider puzzle is the little death. When I'm faced with slider puzzle, my instincts tell me to immediately quit the game and never return.) Funny thing is, the occasional player reviews I read, expressed quite the opposite sentiment: where my overall impression went along the lines of "ooh, solving these situations really makes sense in-world, so much unlike typical puzzles," several other players kept saying how the "puzzles were illogical." Maybe it's just the difference in "puzzle-solving" and "problem-solving" thinking modes; or perhaps I've yet to reach those parts in the game.

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (III)

[copy-paste intro]
It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to let go some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2. 

The whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once, so I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead. This was Part Two.


Now, shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (II)

[copy-paste intro]
It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to let go some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2. 

The whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once, so I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead. This was Part One.


Now, shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

So I have been playing... (32). Fallout wraps up.

After my usual long pauses between playsessions, not to mention the ingame detour, my Fallout playthrough has come to completion. 

Here's the first episode of the final session.

The whole playlist is over here.
And here's the very final episode, just for the good measure.

How I learned to disregard the canon and enjoy the game; Neverwinter edition (I)

Special thanks to R-6 for being along for the ride via screenshots, 
hearing out my lamentations on the way, and inadvertently 
inspiring this write-up. 

It is no secret that I am not that into Dungeons and Dragons. So much so, that I considered it quite an achievement when I was able to ignore some of my biases and thoroughly enjoy a game set in  D&D-verse. (Watching some webseries that feature paper-and-pen-folk in action has also somewhat softened my cold, joyless heart. Notable culprits include "Tales from The Table" and "Dorkness Rising".) And now, Neverwinter Nights 2.

Shall we?

(Clicking the images should display them in full glory.)

Oh, and the whole load of playthrough notes turned out too voluminous to wrestle all at once. I'm dividing it into a series of shorter posts instead.  So, uh... shall we?

So I have been playing... (31). Even more Fallout.

After a longer-than-planned gap in recording anything (blame flu!), here's the next batch of Wasteland-roaming. I will probably reach the endgame during the next playsession; as for now, we're finally beating around the final area. (Commentary revolves around crew survival, poking at the odds, and copious amounts of reloading.)

Here's the current session's first episode:

And the rest of the playlist is over here. 

So I have been playing ... (30). Some more Fallout.

The good old wasteland adventures continue. (Just the Wasteland in Fallout for now; at some point I do intend to tackle the old-school Wasteland game as well.)

First two episodes of the recent session:

The rest of the playlist is over here.