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Four hundred seventy sixth entry - Freud would have a field day
2011-07-29 21:26:10
Time - 7:45, Noise - nothing
@AimoAio
Well, that guy actually covered a lot of what I was going to say in my response to your question, but I'll answer that anyway and give a few pointers.
About the monsters... they look human for the most part. The game is steeped in symbolism, and so they all mean something to the story. They move along slowly, and they are very easy to kill, especially on the easier modes. Your initial default weapon is plenty good for the first half of the game, minus the "boss" battles.
For the scare factor... let me make this very clear: things will NOT jump out at you. EVER. That's not SH's style, so you won't really ever have to worry about it. The soundtrack that Akira Yamaoka crafted is fabulous at making you think that there are things lurking just around every corner, but the next item will cut through the smoke and mirrors.
The radio, which you pick up right at your first monster encounter, is wonderful. It emits static noise when a monster is nearby, and then it emits an additional whine if the monster has spotted you. The volume will increase if you raise your weapon, since you're being more "cautious." (Monsters can't hear the radio, by the way.) If you don't hear the radio, then there isn't anything there. There is one monster in the game that doesn't set off the radio until you set off its movements by proximity, but read on to see why this isn't an issue.
Even if a monster sees you and you have not seen it yet, things move so slowly that it likely won't be within a mile of you by the time you set eyes on it. If it does shamble on next to you, believe me, it will take a good minute or more of attacks on Beginner Mode for the thing to actually kill you. On that mode, you get more ammo and health drinks than you can shake a wooden plank at (inside joke, lulz), so you will never, ever have to worry about dying. In harder action modes, things do move faster and hit harder, but if you're just looking for the experience of the story, there's no difference in what mode you choose. Puzzle setting can also be adjusted to Easy, if you so desire.
Yes, there are lots of dark corridors and narrow spaces and at times you will be on the edge of your seat at the imagery. Mostly, it sounds to me like your fear is of the unknown. The solution? You know you're a tank on Beginner, so just stand around with enemies, check 'em out, let yourself get hit a few times. (James's reaction/recoil is kind of funny, actually.) That way, you won't be nervous about ramming into one in a murky hallway. If you go about it with a logical mind, a lot of the scare factor falls to the wayside - and it's worth it to enjoy the story.
Anyway, that's getting pretty long. I'm a shameless SH fangirl, so I could discuss that series for an eon if left to my own devices, but that's the gist of it. Again, I hope that clears it up some.
See you, folk(s).
- Jen -
Four hundred seventy fifth entry - did somebody mention games?
2011-07-28 17:03:51
Time - 3:48, Noise - 10 Years - "Beautiful"
@AimoAio
Devil May Cry can be difficult depending upon which game you play and which version of it you're using. If you're interested in the series, grab the Special Edition of DMC3, since it's both chronologically the first in the series AND it includes the original Japanese Easy Mode. The first port of the game bumped up every level of difficulty by one tier, which is why it seemed so hard to players.
Then, if you play that game, you'll have the battle mechanic under your belt and you can go to DMC1, which won't seem as difficult by then. (And on Easy it's really not.) Trust me, I'm a crazy avid DMC fan, and if you're going to get into the series, that's probably the best way to go about it. Like others said, skip the second game and go straight to the fourth after 3 and 1.
As for the Silent Hill series... well, that's my favorite series ever. That's why I didn't bother to give you a list of my suggestions, since so many of them are survival horror, and you said you weren't as keen on scary games. I will say that if you choose to play them, then you should pick up the second game. The games are basically unrelated, so don't feel bad playing them out of order.
I suggest the second game because it has the best story, and if anything is going to make you want to push through the scary stuff, it will be that. Also, the first and third game actually do have a connection, so you kind of have to play 1 before 3, which is unfortunate, because SH3 is my favorite game ever made and I would love to suggest it to you otherwise. If you are interested in SH2, make sure to grab the Greatest Hits version (PS2) for maximum content. I think it's called Restless Dreams on the Xbox, but don't quote me on it.
Anyway, like I said, my list would mostly be comprised of survival horror, so I'll refrain from giving one, but I will totally second Code's suggestion of Super Mario RPG. That game makes me happy inside. : D Emulate it if you must, but do play it. It can be a total cornball at times, but so much fun.
Hope that clears up conceptions on the games a little.
See you, folk(s).
- Jen -
Four hundred seventy fourth entry - Twin Remake Deities
2011-07-01 13:40:04
Time - 12:02, Noise - Adam Lambert - "Aftermath"
@SpatulaCastle
Hey, we can be Fatal Frame remake buddies! I'm just finishing up processing footage to remake The Chosen Two. : D
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Although, to redact an ill-placed section break, I suppose I'm still going to talk about said remake. I was happy that the processing of the in-game footage was so quick, even though there are a lot of scenes (thirty-something, and that's just the in-game scenes; the pre-rendered stuff I ripped). Most of them are really short. Now I just need to go back and scan my playthrough with Costume D equipped. I was thinking that maybe I could use some of that creatively.
I have always wanted to remake The Chosen Two, because it has forever irked me that I didn't have in-game scenes available to me at that time (no DVD Recorder). It's a slow hobby. I only bother processing when I'm bored or off doing something else. The editing will take even longer for me to get around to doing.
The truth is that I don't actually enjoy editing that much, but I like having a finished product in front of me. I make a better viewer than an editor, but if I don't do my videos, then nobody else will, especially for the less popular games that I enjoy. It's not a matter of lack of videos. Between here and YouTube, there are plenty of videos for... well, let's use Fatal Frame as our example here. Finding good videos for that series is another story. Again, it's not necessarily a lack of talent with editors. It's more a lack of know-how on getting the footage. You repeatedly see preview and demo reel types of footage repeating endlessly from video to video. Even if it's well-edited, a lack of variety makes me dislike them after a time.
That's one facet of why I take the time to figure out how to get footage and process it properly. It's nice to have an editor message you with, "Hey, I saw your video, and I was wondering how you managed to get those scenes," and be able to say, "Well, this is how I did it, and if you get This, This, and This, you can easily do it too." Making one more informed editor is creating another possibility for a great video to be produced. I may not be very smart with most technical aspects of editing, but that's something I can do.
Anyway, Ulty's tummy is grumbling to be fed, so I'm-a go and do that now.
See you, folks.
- Jen -
Four hundred seventy third entry - break out the helium balloons
2011-05-26 01:13:16
Time - 12:04, Noise - generic pop
Happy birthday to Ulty.
Surprise, no new video release this time. I seem to have an affinity for releasing things on or around my birthday, but after the massive external hard drive crash in December, it sort of threw me off schedule.
If it's any consolation (or perhaps a good forewarning, as the case may be), I am currently processing footage for a video. One of four videos that I have in mind, actually - not all of the same source. I just have four ideas floating around. It'll be a while before I get the other footage together, since I have to capture all of it. I think I mentioned in the last entry just how long that plus all of the processing takes, and that's on a short game. One of these ideas is for an RPG, so... yeah. It'll be a while on that one.
Anyway, no more for tonight. My best friend promised me sushi tomorrow (today?), and you have NO IDEA how much I am looking forward to that. :D
See you, folks.
- Jen -
Four hundred seventy second entry - I could get used to this
2011-05-17 04:15:30
Time - 2:55, Noise - Bond - "Allegretto"
Rendering some game footage...
Took ten-ish minutes to rip the DVD for a little over and hour's worth of footage (captured the game on the highest quality, so I only get about 1.25 hours at the most).
Took 1.5 hours to render the initial ten-minute clip from the .vob. This was with a de-interlacer and a number of clean-up and cropping filters from Avisynth, so I totally expected that. Actually figuring out the best de-interlacer/filters took me a few hours, because I have never really played with in-game footage before. The AMV guides helped some, so did SDA, and then I crosschecked the rest with Google. (Trying to convince myself to stop being paranoid aggressive about the tiny bit of occasional rainbowing in the gameplay.) Rendered seven ten-minute segments (well, the last one was the runt, so it was shorter).
Took five to ten minutes to crop down unwanted footage in Magix and link together new segments, this time broken into more logical lengths according to the gameplay. Still had seven segments, though.
Took another fifteen minutes to render each set (Lagarith lossless) in Magix. Program crashed multiple times because I think one of my segments rendered wrong in VirtualDubMod.
Made the script for ZarxGUI, popped it in, and let it cook on default settings. (And when referring to my overheating whore of a laptop, "cook" might be an appropriate word.)
Took over two hours to render the first clip, but considering it was nearly a ten-minute clip of VG footage and it came out to 55 MB with no noticeable quality loss, I have to say that I'm impressed.
The whole process is quite the investment in time (I still have two more .vobs to contend with), but it's giving me practice in processing in-game footage, which will come in handy when I record my speedrun, other gameplay, or if I finally decide to whip out an AMV with it (one of these days). The result is quite pleasing.
I do wish that I had started in on this some weeks ago when I still had classes. It would have been much more convenient to be able to just set this stuff off, go to class, and come back to it finished, instead of sitting around bored out of my mind and trying to pass the time while I wait on it.
Oh, games. I toil over you because I love you so.
See you, folks.
- Jen
JOURNAL: dj_ultima_the_great (Jen )
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