The Let's Play Sandcastle [Let's Play Discussion / Test Posts. Interest Check = Ban]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Let's Play Sandcastle [Let's Play Discussion / Test Posts. Interest Check = Ban]

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Instant Grat: Jul 31, 2009; Just add
NERD RAAAAAAGE

RoeCocoa posted:

The artifacts come and go, but the frame rate is noticeably choppy for almost the entire video. Have you checked the TSF for alternate recording methods and such?

I've fiddled with that as much as I think I reasonably could - if this is too choppy to be useable, then I think I'll just bow out of this particular project

# ? Jul 7, 2013 23:22

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 02:55

FrancisFarterburgr: Feb 16, 2008; "Godspeed you poor sons of bitches."

Ok, we're back for another try. After much technical trial and tribulation, due mostly to our inexperience, I think we've fixed all of the technical issues. We rerecorded, and came away with commentary that I think is less annoying and sloppy, and more focused. We're still learning how to talk around each other and not on top of one another, but I think we did better, and we'll improve as we go on.

We ended up not using autoducking, because I can't figure out how to make the effect not duck and unduck in the middle of someone's sentence. However, we did record commentary and game audio as separate tracks, and we fiddled with the amplification so that the game audio is lower, and the voices are more clear. Hopefully this fixes the issues that were brought up there, but let us know if it should be messed around with further. This time, we kept all of the raw footage and audio distinct, so if we need to mix things differently, we can do that without rerecording. Lesson learned!

Any feedback is appreciated, especially from those of you who watched our first test video. Thanks!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

:yoshi:

Let's Play Yoshi's Island with Double Date! :yoshi:

The Game

Yoshi's Island was released for the Super Nintendo in 1995. It's pretty rad! Technically, the full title of the game is Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Mechanically, the game plays very differently in comparison to the previous Mario games. It's still a solid platformer, but Yoshi has a unique moveset that includes eating enemies, turning them into eggs, and then throwing the eggs at enemies and environmental obstacles. Of course, you also have to mind baby Mario, who serves as a sort of life bar: get hit, and baby Mario flies off in a bubble. You have to catch him before the timer hits zero, or Kamek's henchmen snatch him away and you lose a life. Beyond the game mechanics, Yoshi's Island has a unique, painterly art style and a great soundtrack (minus the baby Mario cry...). All in all, it's a great game.

The Group

There are four of us that will play and commentate in this LP. I am Ryan, and I am joined by Traci, Cory, and Christine (SA accounts are forthcoming for everyone). We decided to give ourselves a group name, mostly because we thought it would be fun, and hopefully it makes it easier to refer to us as a group. That name is Double Date! In case it wasn't obvious (and because we forgot to mention it in the first video), we are two couples who like playing and watching games. Less obviously, Cory and I are cousins, and grew up playing Rogue in a basement. All four of us love LPs, and decided to give it a try together.

Why This Game?

We're all passionate about Mario games, but we haven't all played through this entry in the series. Christine played it a lot when she was a kid, and I played it some, but Cory and Traci have no experience with the game. We all want to learn more about the game, and take a look at it as adults, from a historical perspective. We also want to make stupid jokes about it.

The LP

This is not an informative or comprehensive LP. We will be lucky to 100% any levels really. We're going to try to establish a schedule of 3 updates per week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Most episodes should be around 20-25 minutes.

Table of Contents

Ep1: Burt's Depantsing

# ? Jul 8, 2013 01:15

Coolguye: Jul 6, 2011; Required by his programming!

Niggurath posted:

He's an unfunny 'bro' type of guy who posts attempts at viral videos ('See charlestrippy do the Harlem Shake, dawg!') and that's about it. I did a brief search for any Donkey Kong videos he might have done but I really didn't see any. In the end the youtube copyright bot is a weird and random beast; I remember Deadlight's intro got me a copyright ding due to some European review site had used it? And I've had it where the game company will hit maybe 2 out of 15 videos in an LP series that I've done. Why those two specifically? Who knows and it's not really a major concern (minus the fact that it will sometimes get my video blocked in Germany...only ever Germany). You can just dispute it, wait a month, and it'll probably be lifted; but don't try to find rhyme or reason behind it.

This is kinda late but doubling that you can get dinged for all sorts of dumb crap: Back when I was doing the Blood Bowl LP with Blackmage Yapo, I got dinged for, as nearly as I can tell, the crowd noise on Blood Bowl allegedly being owned by some random rear end in a top hat. Youtube put in some pretty big and obnoxious ads on my poo poo without me able to do anything about it, though fortunately I didn't get an actual copyright strike on the account. I eventually deleted the videos, partially due to this, partially due to the fact that those videos basically sucked hard and were not up to the quality standard I'd like to pretend I have.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 02:24

GeneralYeti: Jul 22, 2012; Look at this ~~smug~~ broken asshole.

Edit: just gonna take this down for now so I can redo the commentary.

GeneralYeti fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Jul 8, 2013

# ? Jul 8, 2013 02:25

Waffleman_: Jan 20, 2011; I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

I seriously don't think you need to explain Final Fantasy to the Let's Play subforum, but that's just me.

Edit: I was semi-joking at first, but thinking about it, it actually seems somewhat patronizing. It's like explaining who Mario is. We know.

Waffleman_ fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Jul 8, 2013

# ? Jul 8, 2013 04:44

frozentreasure: Nov 13, 2012; ~

And My Fax! posted:

Yoshi's Island

~~In future, could you actually say who's playing? It took me until about five minutes in when Christine was making reactionary noises to things happening that I realised who it was.~~ Okay, that's my fault; didn't hear her say she was playing at the start. Never mind.

Also that was still longer than you needed to spend on the title screen. We know you guys really like the music that plays after awhile; it's also boring to sit there, even while you're explaining the story. There was enough cutscene after it that you could have explained it there. Or during the first level, since it's not like you talked about the mechanics during that stage.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 05:11

Abitha Denton: Jan 10, 2012

Waffleman_ posted:

I seriously don't think you need to explain Final Fantasy to the Let's Play subforum, but that's just me.

Edit: I was semi-joking at first, but thinking about it, it actually seems somewhat patronizing. It's like explaining who Mario is. We know.

Seconding this. I recommend you explain something that isn't commonly understood, such as the number of other Chocobo games in the late 90s or the theory of evolution.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 05:35

GeneralYeti: Jul 22, 2012; Look at this ~~smug~~ broken asshole.

Waffleman_ posted:

I seriously don't think you need to explain Final Fantasy to the Let's Play subforum, but that's just me.

Edit: I was semi-joking at first, but thinking about it, it actually seems somewhat patronizing. It's like explaining who Mario is. We know.

Fixed. That look better now?

# ? Jul 8, 2013 13:12

Kadorhal: Jun 3, 2013; Look, just sign the stupid petition. I've got stuff to do.

I've got this thing for the bad games thread, but I figure since I've only been here a month I should make sure it's actually up to Something Awful standards (as opposed to just "free Let's Play Forum mainly occupied by Something Awful users" standards) before I actually put it there.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 18:34

kalonZombie: May 24, 2010; D&D 3.5 Book of Erotic Fantasy

I'm only about 5 or so minutes in, but a few things:

When you talk, your microphone occasionally gives a little pop. Try putting it further away from your face.
There's some background noise I can hear outside the cutscenes. Very faint, but I can hear it. You should put your commentary through some noise removal in Audacity.
Your commentary, up to the point I've watched, hasn't been very interesting. Maybe it gets better a bit more in, but there's a lot of dead air (some is good, too much is bad), and when you are talking, you're talking about what's going on the screen or entirely unrelated games. You might benefit a bit from a co-commentator, if you can find one. Scratch that, had I watched another 20 seconds I would have realized you're fine. It's just a slow start is all. That slow start could still benefit from a second person who has never seen the game before, though.

The video quality and such, however, looks fine to me, but I tend not to obsess over video quality too much.

kalonZombie fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jul 8, 2013

# ? Jul 8, 2013 19:13

Kadorhal: Jun 3, 2013; Look, just sign the stupid petition. I've got stuff to do.

kalonZombie posted:

There's some background noise I can hear outside the cutscenes. Very faint, but I can hear it. You should put your commentary through some noise removal in Audacity.

I've already done that, actually. Then again, I also increased the volume by a couple decibels, so maybe I'm accidentally cancelling it out? I'll see what else I can do about that and the popping.

kalonZombie posted:

It's just a slow start is all. That slow start could still benefit from a second person who has never seen the game before, though.

Sounds like a good idea, I'll see if I can get anyone to come along for it.

kalonZombie posted:

The video quality and such, however, looks fine to me, but I tend not to obsess over video quality too much.

That's good to hear.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 19:26

tiistai: Nov 1, 2012; Solo Melodica

Pop filters are simple to make. Pantyhose, a suitable frame and something to keep it steady, voila. The sound quality for the mic track sounded kind of awful though, like a low-bitrate mp3 or something. Is it a terrible mic or did you do something weird to the recording?

e: Oh right, 360p. Might be just Youtube.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 20:02

Lazyfire: Feb 4, 2006; God saves. Satan Invests

And My Fax! posted:

Let's Play Yoshi's Island with Double Date!

Others will need to chime in on this one because sometimes I have trouble with certain voice ranges sometimes, but several of the group were maybe a bit too quiet or were going real low energy on the delivery and I had trouble making out everything said during the video. That also may be a result of how you are recording your audio and how far from the mic everyone is.

Overall I thought the commentary I could hear was a bit better, and the gameplay was way better. I'm glad you took the advice and re-did this. It can be annoying to have to replay and re-record game/commentary tracks, but it generally makes things better like it did here.

# ? Jul 8, 2013 20:27

FrancisFarterburgr: Feb 16, 2008; "Godspeed you poor sons of bitches."

frozentreasure posted:

~~In future, could you actually say who's playing? It took me until about five minutes in when Christine was making reactionary noises to things happening that I realised who it was.~~ Okay, that's my fault; didn't hear her say she was playing at the start. Never mind.

Also that was still longer than you needed to spend on the title screen. We know you guys really like the music that plays after awhile; it's also boring to sit there, even while you're explaining the story. There was enough cutscene after it that you could have explained it there. Or during the first level, since it's not like you talked about the mechanics during that stage.

We'll be sure to mention who's playing each episode to make it clear, since we might switch around. And yeah, I was feeling the drag there a little bit at the beginning. We spent about a minute on the splash screen, but you're right in that it was a little too long.

Lazyfire posted:

Others will need to chime in on this one because sometimes I have trouble with certain voice ranges sometimes, but several of the group were maybe a bit too quiet or were going real low energy on the delivery and I had trouble making out everything said during the video. That also may be a result of how you are recording your audio and how far from the mic everyone is.

Overall I thought the commentary I could hear was a bit better, and the gameplay was way better. I'm glad you took the advice and re-did this. It can be annoying to have to replay and re-record game/commentary tracks, but it generally makes things better like it did here.

Yeah I think we might have been a little lower energy this time around, we'll be sure to get a little more hyped for the next episode. The fact that it will all be new content to us will help. However, if you can identify who it was that sounded too quiet, we might be able to reconfigure where people are sitting to make sure the mic picks them up better. Christine and I are farthest from the mic. I think I come through pretty loud (I'm just kind of a loud person), but Christine might need to move closer.

Yes, Christine is definitely good at the game, and she was careful to play at a good pace. I think the worst thing about the rerecording wasn't rerecording, but figuring out the new technical steps we added to our workflow, since none of us have a lot of recording experience. We should have it down a little better now though. And I'm glad you think it improved!

Thanks both of you for the feedback!

# ? Jul 8, 2013 23:16

Mystic Mongol: Jan 5, 2007; Your life's been thrown in disarray already--I wouldn't want you to feel pressured.; College Slice

So, I'm gonna do an LP of a card game, and to format the information about the stuff in play I did this.

I'm concerned about non-standard displays, because I'm using sequences of images. Does this look terrible on weird OSes like tablets and the like, or am I good to go? Could I use the [pre][/pre] tags to stop inconsistant line breaks? The lines cap out at 800 pixels wide.

# ? Jul 9, 2013 02:01

CuddleCryptid: Jan 11, 2013; Things could be going better

It works fine on my mobile and tablet, although I am using Awful Betamax which is good for formatting. Though the site itself is horrible in mobile browsers anyways, so I assume everyone does.

# ? Jul 9, 2013 02:35

Aerdan: Apr 14, 2012; Not Dennis NEDry

Mystic Mongol posted:

So, I'm gonna do an LP of a card game, and to format the information about the stuff in play I did this.

My only comment is that if you're going to do black text, please don't bother using a transparent background unless you're going to ensure the text is visible regardless of background colour.

# ? Jul 9, 2013 03:34

djw175: Apr 23, 2012; by zen death robot

I just checked it with chrome on my iphone and it looks fine.

# ? Jul 9, 2013 03:54

Mystic Mongol: Jan 5, 2007; Your life's been thrown in disarray already--I wouldn't want you to feel pressured.; College Slice

Aerdan posted:

My only comment is that if you're going to do black text, please don't bother using a transparent background unless you're going to ensure the text is visible regardless of background colour.

Why would you do that to yourself.

Better?

# ? Jul 9, 2013 04:28

unpronounceable: Apr 4, 2010; You mean we still have another game to go through?!; Fallen Rib

Mega Man, please excuse my German. Let's play Rosenkreuzstilette

Alternate title: Plagarism or homage? You decide. Let's play Rosenkreuzstilette

What is this?
Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~, hereafter RKS, is an old school platformer created by Japanese developer [erka:es]. Released at the end of 2007, this game takes inspiration from many games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, most notably Mega Man. Last year, they released a sequel Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel.

So, it's a Mega Man clone?
To call RKS a clone would be an understatement. It directly follows the Mega Man formula, and even takes enemies and level designs almost directly from the games.

In spite of this, it does not feel like an imitation at all. The controls are perfect, the levels are a blast to play through, and I enjoy playing it more than any game in the classic Mega Man series. They even made a story that's more than "Dr. Wily made some bad robots. Kill them, then get him."

This game looks awesome, where can I get it?
You can buy a digital copy from DLSite here, and the translation patch can be downloaded here. The sequel is also available on DLSite, although there isn't a translation patch out yet.

So, how is this LP going to work?
Even though they added a story, the main focus of this LP is the gameplay. As such, I will be playing in arcade mode, where it automatically skips all the story text. Each level will have its own video, and at the end I'll point out any references I catch. Accompanying the video, I will post the dialogue I skipped along with sparse commentary, and music links.

Hey, you missed when they referenced X
There are a ton of references, so it's very possible that I'll miss some. If you notice one I miss, post in the thread, and I'll mention it in a bonus video after the LP.

Are you going to show off RKS ~Grollschwert~?
I definitely plan on showing, but as of yet, I have not beaten it, so don't expect a full playthrough.

How often do you plan on updating?
As short as these videos may be, they take me an embarrassing amount of time to put together. I'm going to realistically aim for one every other week, but no promises.

Updates:
Update 2: Rapunzel's Anguish

------------------------------------

A couple of notes. This is supposed to be the second update, as there is an intro stage. Actually, I haven't completely planned my boss route, so that might change, but I thought this would be a better average update to critique.

Some things I know I need to improve. After doing my commentary, I noticed I was going through the level too fast and didn't give myself enough time to talk. This is my first real attempt at doing commentary, so I don't quite have a feel for how long I need to talk about the game. _{_{Sometimes I don't figure out what I want to say until after recording, but never you mind}}

I would like some feedback specifically on how I handled the references. Did you like seeing the part in RKS as a refresher before showing the MM footage or would you like it better if I left them out? I left out the boss fight because I figured that would be more memorable than some of the level elements, and wouldn't need a refresher.

Thanks in advance!

unpronounceable fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Jul 11, 2013

# ? Jul 11, 2013 03:17

Bobbin Threadbare: Jan 2, 2009; I'm looking for a flock of urbanmechs.

unpronounceable posted:

Mega Man, please excuse my German. Let's play Rosenkreuztilette

Alternate title: Plagarism or homage? You decide. Let's play Rosenkreuztilette

Just a quick tip, but you might want to remember the extra "s" in the game's title for the thread's title.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 03:34

fool of sound: Oct 10, 2012

Let�s explore the depths of space in Smugglers V - Secession!

I'd really appreciate any feedback on style or format. I'm a little concerned about text legibility; it seems a bit blurry, even though I'm not scaling the screenshots and am using fairly high quality settings.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 04:01

Bellmaker: Oct 18, 2008; Chapter DOOF

unpronounceable posted:

Mega Man, please excuse my German. Let's play Rosenkreuzstilette

Alternate title: Plagarism or homage? You decide. Let's play Rosenkreuzstilette

I liked this, and what you did with the references. I can definitely see where the plagiarism claims come from, that's just plain copy-paste lazy level design!

I'd definitely go with a Mega Man reference in the title to give your viewers a clue what they're in for, just because that name is something else.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 04:10

Covski: Jun 24, 2007; Bringing the forums together with the greatest thread!

fool_of_sound posted:

Let�s explore the depths of space in Smugglers V - Secession!

I'd really appreciate any feedback on style or format. I'm a little concerned about text legibility; it seems a bit blurry, even though I'm not scaling the screenshots and am using fairly high quality settings.

Funny how I've never heard about this series before - it sounds pretty cool!

However, you'll probably want to show off more of the actual gameplay to get any real practical advice from the sandcastle, for example what a typical gameplay update would and how the audience participation is going to work. The OP itself looks good enough to me though!

# ? Jul 11, 2013 14:55

Dithiannim: Nov 8, 2012

unpronounceable posted:

Mega Man, please excuse my German. Let's play Rosenkreuzstilette

Alternate title: Plagarism or homage? You decide. Let's play Rosenkreuzstilette

Maybe this would be more suited for the Mario, Sonic, and Megaman fangame thread?

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3558453

Just my thoughts since it's basically a Megaman clone. I actually played a bit of it, and I'm not sure if it deserves it's own thread.

Dithiannim fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Jul 11, 2013

# ? Jul 11, 2013 14:58

ReturnOfFable: Oct 9, 2012; No tears, only dreams.

Dithiannim posted:

Maybe this would be more suited for the Mario, Sonic, and Megaman fangame thread?

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3558453

Just my thoughts since it's basically a Megaman clone. I actually played a bit of it, and I'm not sure if it deserves it's own thread.

I disagree. The game is long enough that it warrants its own thread and it's not a fangame, it's just heavily inspired by Megaman.

Personally, I'm curious about the game's story so if your not going to play on the story mode, I would advise mentioning it in the OP. The references at the end of the video are fine and were handled well.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 15:24

Coolguye: Jul 6, 2011; Required by his programming!

Dithiannim posted:

Maybe this would be more suited for the Mario, Sonic, and Megaman fangame thread?

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3558453

Just my thoughts since it's basically a Megaman clone. I actually played a bit of it, and I'm not sure if it deserves it's own thread.

If we can get individual threads out of the dozens of Touhou fangames out there, a lot of which are direct rip-offs of other styles of games, I don't see why another anime style can't get its own. I'd say go for it, myself.

fool_of_sound posted:

I'd really appreciate any feedback on style or format. I'm a little concerned about text legibility; it seems a bit blurry, even though I'm not scaling the screenshots and am using fairly high quality settings.

Wow, this looks mega cool. I don't have any problems with the screenshots myself, either on my computer monitor at 1080p or on my tablet, so I'd say you're probably good to go.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 15:25

Brainamp: Sep 4, 2011; More Zen than Zenyatta

fool_of_sound posted:

I'd really appreciate any feedback on style or format. I'm a little concerned about text legibility; it seems a bit blurry, even though I'm not scaling the screenshots and am using fairly high quality settings.

There's a few artifacts that I can see, but nothing abhorrent. I'd say that it's good to go.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 15:39

Cheez: Apr 29, 2013; Someone doesn't like a shitty gimmick I like?

TIME FOR ME TO WHINE ABOUT IT!

Reposting because poo poo's old and I have a video to go with it. I waited and waited, and I even tried going solo, with and without a script, but it wasn't working. I opted to try a subtitle for the first video to see how that goes. There seems to be an issue with the video but that's some kind of weird youtube processing that's causing it, since the original video is fine.

Don't Blink! Let's be a Hero in Rockman 4 Minus Infinity

What is Rockman 4 Minus Infinity?
R4MI is an extremely extensive ROM hack of Megaman 4 (Rockman 4) that was "completed" sometime last year by a group of people headed by the talented hacker Puresabe. Along with a reasonable hike in difficulty, Many aspects of the original game were changed to a degree that renders them virtually unrecognizable to the original.

Although the game keeps its basic formula, there is almost nothing that hasn't been changed by the R4MI team, aside from the original graphics. Enemies and their AI have been added from many other games in the series, including Game Boy titles, and many new and unique enemies have been added too. The original bosses have all-new patterns and a few bosses have even been outright replaced. It is quite possibly one of the best designed romhacks out there given its still incomplete state, if not the best.

Then what is this LP?
R4MI features a scoring system that grades you on your performance. As of the current version, the maximum score you can earn is 96, so this will be the goal. The biggest obstacle standing in my way is a 100 minute timer, which will deduct 4 points from my score if I miss it. This is the ultimate obstacle to overcome... Especially since I also plan to show off unimportant side areas and not (completely) embarrass major bosses!

If fortune favors me, you'll probably be seeing some guest commentary from some lucky(?) goons who will probably see me blaze through a stage in 5 minutes while I obnoxiously talk over them. If not, I'll probably just have to subtitle them because I can't talk to myself and the goonfriend who gave me the inspiration and motivation to spend ten bucks to create an LP in the first place is always busy. Good ideas go bad so quickly... :sigh:

Be sure to also check out the other R4MI LP in the Hard Games thread, it's pretty great!

Audience participation!
Make me suffer! Give me some side challenges to mix in with the main LP, and I'll do them! Within reason. Don't say things like "Play through the entire game with just the wire" or "Use the balloon to kill Bright Man" because I'll probably just ignore you instead. Although I'd probably still use the balloon to kill Bright Man. I'm not going to call a limit on the number of challenges but try to use good judgement when giving me a condition to fulfill. Lastly, keep in mind I'm not going to incorporate any of those challenges into the hero run, so don't get your hopes up. Feel free to just ask for videos of things I just plain didn't do, too.

Videos

Below or in another post would probably be info on weapons, items, bosses, that have appeared in the LP thus far.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 16:49

Psion: Dec 13, 2002; eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS

fool_of_sound posted:

I'd really appreciate any feedback on style or format. I'm a little concerned about text legibility; it seems a bit blurry, even though I'm not scaling the screenshots and am using fairly high quality settings.

For screenshots that are almost all text - like the faction select screen - you may want to consider seeing what PNG filesize will be compared to JPEG for those description/mostly text images, just to see what you'll get. If you're really concerned about readability on really text-heavy screenshots, you can always switch formats on a case-by-case basis.

I know you already started the thread, and I think the JPEGs are fine as-is, so it's not a huge deal. I'll just go read it then :v:

Psion fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Jul 11, 2013

# ? Jul 11, 2013 16:52

Aerdan: Apr 14, 2012; Not Dennis NEDry

Mystic Mongol posted:

Why would you do that to yourself.

Due to visual impairment I'd prefer to not disclose here, dark text on light backgrounds has a tendency to cause eyestrain for lengths over about 5-10 minutes, and makes migraines worse (when I have them).

Mystic Mongol posted:

Better?

A fair bit better, yes; a stronger glow would be even better, but this works.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 19:32

Kadorhal: Jun 3, 2013; Look, just sign the stupid petition. I've got stuff to do.

Messed around with Audacity a bit to see if I can get audio sounding any better for Apocalypse Weekend. Did I succeed?

# ? Jul 11, 2013 19:49

Gharbad the Weak: Feb 23, 2008; This too good for you.

This is the test post for my OP of Dragon Age 2. I'm planning on doing my first two updates in the sandcastle, just because there's a bit of a tonal shift between the first and the second update (those of you who've played DA2 probably know what I'm talking about.) So it's still a ways away before I'mma actually get the thread going, so hopefully the wrinkles can be ironed out before this becomes official. Thanks for helping me out~

- - - - -

Thread Title: Dragon Age 2: A Disappointment
Thread Tag: Politics
- - - - -

Dragon Age 2 is not a great game.
But it�s not a bad game.
It�s just a disappointing game.

Dragon Age 2 is the sequel to the dark-and-gritty RPG, Dragon Age: Origins. In DA:O, you played a Grey Warden, a member of an organization hell-bent on fighting the Blight, a time when Darkspawn, ghastly evil cursed creatures, would flood from the underground to maim and kill all who happened to build a settlement anywhere ever.

Origins had tremendous backstory: The war with the Orlesians, the brutal stewardship by the Templars over the prone-to-possession Mages, the plights of the downtrodden Elves and the political backstabbing of the Dwarves. The name Origins came from the beginning of the game, where you chose the background of your Grey Warden: An Elvish Mage who discovers a blood mage among the ranks, a displaced human noble, a Dwarven Lowborn, scraping by. This origin would thread through the story, influencing events well past their beginnings. From humble origin, this man or woman would change history as the Grey Warden united races and armies to fight the blight and, in the end, defeat it.

But this is not the story of Dragon Age 2.

You play Hawke during his rise to power, after he lost nearly everything to the Blight as darkspawn sack his hometown. Unlike Origin, his past is set, and as a quirk of storytelling, his future has come to pass: Hawke will become the Champion of Kirkwell. The meat of the story is what happens between those times.

Please refrain from posting spoilers, even in spoiler tags. This is an RPG, and the story is everything. Feel free to talk about mechanics, but keep plot discussion to what we�ve reached in the LP, and speculation from people who have not played the game.

Dragon Age 2 has its flaws. It�s usually obvious what they were trying to do, and sometimes they just come up short. We�ll explore more than intention, and ask: What went wrong with Dragon Age 2?

Contents:
Chapter 1: A Teller of Tales
Chapter 2: In Medias Res

(Thanks to PanzerSkank for letting me use her hosting)

Gharbad the Weak fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jul 12, 2013

# ? Jul 11, 2013 22:21

Brainamp: Sep 4, 2011; More Zen than Zenyatta

I'd say make the main op image a bit less enormous and also actually give us the links. :v:

# ? Jul 11, 2013 22:24

Psion: Dec 13, 2002; eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS

I'd say remove that line "It's not a bad game" because lying that early in an LP is poor form :v:

also yes, Brainamp's post is correct. So far I'm judging your first post images, which uh ... are images.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 22:29

unpronounceable: Apr 4, 2010; You mean we still have another game to go through?!; Fallen Rib

Thanks for the responses.

Bellmaker posted:

I'd definitely go with a Mega Man reference in the title to give your viewers a clue what they're in for, just because that name is something else.

I'm planning on using my bolded title. The other one would just sit at the top of the OP.

Dithiannim posted:

Maybe this would be more suited for the Mario, Sonic, and Megaman fangame thread?

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3558453

Just my thoughts since it's basically a Megaman clone. I actually played a bit of it, and I'm not sure if it deserves it's own thread.

I hadn't seen the thread before, but I don't think my LP would fit in there. Just from reading the OP, it looks like that's meant to be a collection of funny LPs, whereas mine isn't going to be.

ReturnOfFable posted:

Personally, I'm curious about the game's story so if your not going to play on the story mode, I would advise mentioning it in the OP. The references at the end of the video are fine and were handled well.

I mentioned in the OP that I will be posting the transcribed dialogue that I skip with some sparse commentary, so I've already got that covered.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 23:03

Gharbad the Weak: Feb 23, 2008; This too good for you.

Brainamp posted:

I'd say make the main op image a bit less enormous and also actually give us the links.

Well, I'm working on the first update right now. The second post is going to be a bit more like how the rest of the LP is, but I figured I may as well test post the first post.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 23:15

discworld is all I read: Apr 7, 2009; DAIJOUBU!! ... Daijoubu ?? ?

Gharbad the Weak posted:

Well, I'm working on the first update right now. The second post is going to be a bit more like how the rest of the LP is, but I figured I may as well test post the first post.

Usually an OP isn't really considered a first post and it's hard to say whether that will be indicative of your actual LP content. Also you could probably be fine using Lpix for your hosting, but that's more or less just a free option that most people use (though it really depends on whether you're going with a pure screenshot LP, a hybrid, or what...which your post doesn't tell us about).

# ? Jul 11, 2013 23:21

Gharbad the Weak: Feb 23, 2008; This too good for you.

http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=14314

This is the first update. In it, you're fed a tremendous amount of horseshit, so the tone is different from the rest of the game. But it's a decent place to show off the size of screenshots and such.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 23:35

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# ? Jun 7, 2024 02:55

theshim: May 1, 2012; You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

Gharbad the Weak posted:

http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=14314

This is the first update. In it, you're fed a tremendous amount of horseshit, so the tone is different from the rest of the game. But it's a decent place to show off the size of screenshots and such.

You missed the FRAPS framerate mark in a couple of them.

# ? Jul 11, 2013 23:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Let's Play Sandcastle [Let's Play Discussion / Test Posts. Interest Check = Ban]

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