The 1UP Rejects + Me

Greetings, Earth Clan.

Nearly all of my energy has been going into getting the 1UP Rejects project off the ground. We've got a great group of folks contributing with written words, streams, a podcast, and some video work. It's actually coming together. It's still very early in the process, but it's actually clicking, and I'm in love with it. We're still figuring some things out. We're definitely still in a 'beta' state. Give it a look, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitch, follow us on Twitter, subscribe to us on YouTube, and just generally let us take over your life. Please.

Most of my contribution has been getting the systems up and running, and a little streaming and a little writing. And a lot of coordinating people. It's exhausting, and I'm looking forward to checking out mentally for a few hours tonight, but I love it.

I've always wanted a modern games media outlet that skewed toward us old timers. The people that came of age during the magazine era, into the early days of 1UP.com. I kept waiting for it to happen, and then, during these last few months, I realized I could just get off (or actually, on) my ass and make it happen, with a lot of help from fellow 1UP Rejects.

So, yeah, give it a look, understand it's still early, but enjoy the content, and let us know what else you want.

So, here's some of my streaming series I've got going. Dragon Age is every Tuesday on the 1UP Rejects Twitch channel, and Witcher is whenever I feel like it on my Twitch channel.




And that's it for now. This blog is my personal stuff, while the Rejects is my big project, hopefully for a long time.

Thanks for reading!

-Blaine

Some Updating

So, October, with the Puerto Rico fundraiser, wiped my ass out, but it was a great success.

I took most of November to rest, as I went from summer code crunch time to neck surgery to recovery to a month-long intense fundraiser, and I needed to breathe.

So, here's some random shit for you.

The 1UP Rejects
First, some of my fellow 1UP.com community alumni and I have got this thing going called The 1UP Rejects. It's a ... thing. Videos and writing and streaming and shit. Check it out. It's actually very, very early, and doesn't really launch until next year, but take a gander and feel free to go ahead and start enjoying it.

I'm streaming there every Tuesday evening, at 8PM central. Last night was the first stream from the new channel, and it was ... an adventure, but ended up being very successful.

So watch me there, and/or follow this playlist (warning: some NSFW mods in there):



We have a show we're doing every Thursday on the channel, too. 8PM central, also.

Really, there should be stuff going most evenings over there, with a great variety of streamers, and we're starting to get some lunch slots filled, too.

Check us out:
Blog
Twitch
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook

Moving on ...

2017 Games
I've played a few games this year, and the two that left the biggest impact were Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn. Each of them are easily my favorite games of the year. They are wildly different games, and fed different parts of my soul, but I loved them both. DOS2 tickled my intellect deeply and let me stop and think. HZD was a really cool world and equally cool story with very rewarding combat and exploration.

Go play them both.

Also, any 'best game of 2017' nominee list that doesn't include them both is wrong and should be ignored.

This year, I've also enjoyed Torment: Tides of Numenera, Elex, Mass Effect Andromeda, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, ESO: Morrowind, and Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire. Go play all of those, too. Especially Torment.

What did I miss? What are your favorites from this year? Have you played HZD and DOS2? What'd you think?

I'm still playing through Elex, and I'm really looking forward to Seven: The Days Long Gone, which releases Friday. It's coming from some ex-CDPR devs, and it's isometric stealth parkour steampunk awesomeness.



Shit looks dope.

Follow me on Twitter for more stuff, probably streaming and random thoughts and shit. See ya.

-Blaine

Torment is Torment

Torment: Tides of Numenera is a profound experience for me, and I wanna tell you why.

I'm going to, and it won't take long, but I wanna say something else first.

Not everyone needs to like the same things that you do, or that I do. In fact, that kind of diversity can make latent experiences seem fresh. I didn't come into cRPGs until waaaay late in the game, and now I love them, and I have a huge library from which to choose. Tastes also inform a lot about a person's perspective, which I find interesting, as well.

Also, beware something that only you love becoming popular. No, your original experience aren't at all tainted, but there's a framework in place that says if 'game x' or 'band x' or whatever becomes popular, then its next effort needs to try and appeal to an even bigger audience, and that's where it all falls apart. By trying to appeal to everyone, you end up being loved by no one. You might sell well, but there's not gonna be that person that really latches onto something you've put out there, really relates to it, and then carries it with them their whole life. Look at what EA has done to Dragon Age. DAO and DA2 were intimate experiences with personal stories and great pacing. DAI was ... not. Look at what happened to Star Trek. It went from a thoughtful, pondering franchise to a generic action movie trilogy. Yuck. There's no soul in any of it, and people figure that out after a while.

And don't get me wrong. I fucking hate 'indie fans.' The people that make it their goal in life to only listen to the bands you've never heard of, to swoon over yet another cheap-looking 2D platformer, or to only celebrate films with budgets less than the average income in small town Missouri. There are great big-budget mainstream experiences to be had, just as there are great low-budget experiences to be had.

Along those lines, I've really been enjoying Horizon Zero Dawn, still wish so much that it was on PC, but I adore it nonetheless, and I have many praises for it.

But, Torment ... goddam ... this thing reaches right into my soul and just masturbates it. It's a profound experience, and every time I wanted to try something I thought might break most games, or just wouldn't be an option, I could do here. I'm trying to talk around this, without giving away spoilers.

On a superficial level, it looks like Pillars of Eternity. It's the same engine, actually. This has a totally different color palette, plays very differently (Pillars is real-time, this is turn-based), and most of the mechanics are totally different. Perspective-wise, though, it's highly similar.

And it's really detail-oriented. This is not at all a game that caters to the ADD crowd (I have ADHD, by the way), which I appreciate. It challenges you to pay fucking attention, it has a ton of text, it has a lot of strategy, and it treats you like an adult. If you don't want to ever fight, you don't have to. If your skills are allocated properly, you can never fight. I've had a small amount of combat, by choice, but for the most part, I've been bullshitting my way out of conflicts. It's awesome.

The combat itself is great, but I'm trying to accomplish a specific goal in this playthrough, which I'll talk about in a separate post some other time.

The companions are rich, too. So are the conversations. The writing is great. Oh, and the lore. By the Maker, the lore is amazing, and sooo deep. I've been reading through the novellas, hitting the wiki, pulling out the map, and I still can't get enough. Also, if you're interested, it's based on the Numenera tabletop RPG.

So, seriously, check it out. Give it a shot. I've seen very little coverage on it relative to Horizon, which is absolutely deserving of adulation, but I really think people might enjoy Torment, if they try it. If you're not into cRPGs, it'll be an adjustment, but it'll be a worthwhile one.

Anyway, I'm gonna go play some more.

The Road to Andromeda
Starting tomorrow night, I'm finishing the fight, and starting the end of Mass Effect 3. Come hang out, shoot the breeze, and help me wrap this up. I'll be on Twitch at 2000central/2100eastern. The previous episodes are in a playlist here, and these will be added after.

So, any thoughts on Torment? Lemme know!

-Blaine

BioWare, I love thee, but we gotta talk

In my world, BioWare saved video games.

As I've talked about previously, the entire gaming thing was sagging for me badly in the early 2000s, as most Japanese developers were scurrying away from making games that were intellectual exercises, in favor of dumb, flashy, more action-oriented affairs (excepting the brilliant FFXII).

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic came to my rescue, and after I fell in love with that, I dove into their back catalog, and from there, discovered the cRPG genre.

BioWare was a breath of fresh air in the late 90s and early 2000s. They were bold in their approach, and brought a real sense of humanity to their games. By putting story and characters first, they made their games more engrossing than anyone else's, and really provided a visceral experience.

Choice. Story and choice. BioWare absolutely nailed this holy grail of gaming, and refined it more and more. From Baldur's Gate to KotOR, this concept came to shape the way that their games felt, and they developed a strong brand identity, at least among those that had discovered BioWare.

I think Baldur's Gate made a huge impact among the cRPG crowd, but KotOR on Xbox really brought BioWare to the masses. Jade Empire was also a really solid game (one that I would love to see sequelized), but Mass Effect is what, I think, made them a global brand.

Meanwhile, Dragon Age: Origins became my favorite game ever. I should write a post explaining my affection for this game, but it really is my favorite gaming franchise (despite having a lot of gripes about Inquisition).

Star Wars: The Old Republic is also a favorite of mine, but let's set that aside for a moment.

BioWare is now a part of EA, and has been for quite a while. I was concerned when EA bought them, but things to seemed to go pretty well at first.

As a side note, while I know it's been fashionable for a long time to call EA 'the evil empire,' and at times, they do things to actually earn that title, they got nothing on Activision. Seriously. Not even close.

Anyway, fast forward to now. The Mass Effect trilogy became more and more an action series. The first game was pretty clunky, the second game was waaay too streamlined, and the third game hit the sweet spot. ME3 is one of the most mechanically sound games I've ever played.

Dragon Age, meanwhile, has had a bumpier ride. As I said, the first game is one of my all-time favorites. The second game ... had some very real issues, but also suffered from the fact that most so-called 'gamers' are lemmings and love to hate-gangbang anything that appears weakened. Dragon Age II reused the same environment over and over, in a bold attempt to tell a smaller and more intimate story, which I really appreciated, but I also got a little tired of Kirkwall. I understood the complaints from the lemmings, but the means by which they expressed these complains was unhelpful, hurtful, and I think it honestly affected the Dragon Age team in a way that actually diminished their ability to make good decisions about the series going forward.

The BioWare community was a great one, for a long time, but became among the worst I've ever seen somewhere around the ME2/DAII era. These people made personal attacks based on outlandish conspiracy theories, and the forums became a circlejerk of the worst fanboys one can imagine.

The interviews leading up to the release of Dragon Age II troubled me. I kept hearing things like 'when you press a button, something awesome happens.' The demos were all using a controller. The menus were console-centric and thus diminished in ease of use.

Ultimately, the PC version of the game was fine. Yeah, like I said, the constant reusage of assets and environments got a bit tiresome, but I liked the game, and not nearly as much as I did DAO.

The interviews leading up to the release of Dragon Age Inquisition were even more troubling. It was the first time that I heard BioWare talk about trying to do things that other studios were doing, namely Bethesda.

I like Bethesda, and I think that their use of open worlds is great, and I think that the types of games that they make suit an open world very well.

BioWare, on the other hand, doesn't really do that. They tell more linear stories with choice-driven sections and interchangeable parts that can be played in any order. And I love it.

DAI, ultimately, had some great aspects, but I think it may be the worst game BioWare has ever made.

My first time through, it was cool. I loved the reactivity of the save import, the various environments were really neat-looking, and I thought the overall structure was cool. And the story was awesome.

I did, however, feel that the story lost a LOT of steam with the endless slog through the big environments.

Honestly, nearly everything I love about Dragon Age was diminished in Inquisition.
 - the story was great, but lost a sense of urgency and I'd even forget major plot details because it was so long between major plot points.
 - the world felt less alive; this is hard to quantify, but I rarely got the sense of really being in a place with living people
 - combat was awful; yeah, the pause and play was still there, but it felt button-mashy and boring; I loved the combat in the first game so much; in DAI, even the dragon fights got dull; what I really want is the KotOR battle system, where you could queue up actions and make awesome shit happen; I also want the AI programming from DAO and DA2 back
 - it just didn't feel like Dragon Age; I understand the value in being inspired by another artist, but dawg, don't lose yourself in the process; I come back to BioWare over and over, and will continue to do so for at least a few more games, because of what BioWare brings to a game.

I love BioWare so much, and have had so many good memories with them, but I'm worried.

Today, there was a piece in PCGamer in which they acknowledged an issue with the side quests in DAI, which I think was a good thing to say, and then they pointed out that the side quests in MEA are going to be more The Witcher 3, and I kinda threw my hands up again.

I love The Witcher 3. It's one of my all-time favorites. But I worry when I see things like this, because I didn't used to see things like it, which is BioWare pointing at other studios for inspiration, instead of looking within.

Yeah, I'm probably overreacting. I'm sure they cribbed ideas from other studios back in the glory days, but it seemed like they also played it less safe. They were more OK experimenting in their releases. Yeah, being a big earner for EA probably restricts their ability to gamble a lot more, since they're putting more dollars into their games now than ever.

And I get that, with FOUR teams going now (Edmonton x 2, Montreal, Austin), they're potentially flooding the market with 'BioWare games,' and are worried about diluting their brand.

It would be very refreshing to see them take a step back, though, and make a cheaper and more risky game.

Maybe that's what the new IP is? I don't know. I keep hearing that it's not an RPG, and is instead an action game. That disappoints me, but I still have faith in BioWare to surprise me, and in a good way.

What say you? What do you think? Have you been down this road with a studio before? What's your opinion of the direction BioWare has gone?

Also, I'll be streaming tonight at 2000 central, and will continue my Road to Andromeda series!

-Blaine

YouTube and Me

I've been pondering the next 'move' for my YouTube Gaming Channel after my fairly successful DXHR run.

The marathon part was a bit much, but it was actually pretty fun to have folks come and hang out for a while and talk Deus Ex.



The long-form continuous playthrough, though, has actually gained some traction, which surprised me. I can understand why it would be interesting to watch, theoretically, but I can't fathom someone actually setting aside the required 30 hours to do so. But, some folks are. Cool!

I like doing it, and I seem to slowly be finding a niche audience. Where do I go from here?

Well, I've been thinking about that, and here's kinda where I am:

01. In thinking about what I want to see more of on YouTube, I want to see:
   a. someone that doesn't scream in falsetto (or at all, really)
   b. someone that's committed to the roleplay of the character in-game, but not to their audience
   c. in terms of a long 'canon' playthrough of a game, mods that enhance the original vision of the game
   d. someone knowledgeable about the game's lore
   e. someone knowledgeable about the game's development
   f. someone that has well-founded opinions on the game, and that can communicate them in an intelligent, non-hyperbolic fashion
   g. someone that's cool and funny
02. I enjoy sharing some of my gaming with the world; for example, I'm enjoying playing DXMD for the first time by myself, and wouldn't enjoy sharing that with YouTube; conversely, my new 'MMO & Chill' streams are there for hanging out and socializing; what I did with DXHR was my second playthrough after five years, and that really enhanced the experience; it was technically my first playthrough of the Director's Cut; streaming subsequent runs of games that I know and love is fun, especially when I can balance, commentary, comedy, and knowledge
03. I think my channel, for me to stick with it, needs to have more than one 'product;' that's where the 'MMO & Chill' thing came from; I don't want to just be that guy that makes 15-20 streams for one game, and it's this really long, involved, intense thing
04. I think I might get away from, altogether, playing brand new games on the channel; there's a ton of people already doing that, and that's really not the way I enjoy discovering games
05. I think I'd really enjoy devoting my channel to not-new games; not really 'retro' games, though some of those might come up; I'm not one of those dickheads that believes that everything good stopped being made after year X. I love all kinds of games from all kinds of years, and fully believe that every year, the best games ever made are being made

So, with that in mind, I think this where we're going from here.

01. I'm going to have an ongoing series in which I'm playing through a game (or series), at least an hour a week. Probably more. I may even have two in parallel. It'll usually be pointed at an upcoming release, but not always. The series that are will be titled 'The Road to [insert upcoming game].' They'll always be subtitled 'Blaine vs [insert title of game or series that's being played].'
   a. in support of this, I will have done a lot of research on both the in-game lore, as well as the behind-the-scenes so that I can drop interesting knowledge bombs while playing.
   b. I'll install mods to crank up the visuals to their max prettiest. I may install mods that bring cut content back. I won't install the 'Skyrim Needed Thomas the Tank Engine' mods, unless that somehow suits the theme I'm going for.
   c. These will almost always be on a weekend night. I'm going to look into expanding my streaming schedule, but for now, this is what you get.
02. My other stream series will be Sunday mornings, and that will be my 'MMO & Chill' series. I'll rotate the following MMOs: Elder Scrolls Online (which was featured this morning), SWTOR, Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV, Star Trek Online, Guild Wars 1, and Neverwinter. I'll also try out others if enough people request them. The objective of this stream will be to just chill and do whatever in-game.
03. I don't have any other series planned yet.

I'm also part of a larger network of streamers called The 1UP Rejects, and we're slowly building a pretty decent catalog, with something for anyone. Give it a look. In particular, the Single-Player Multiplay is pretty cool. It's my buddy Marc and me each playing through DXHR, but totally differently. I dig the shit outta that.

So, here's what's coming next (for my channel):

Rest of 2016 + early 2017: The Road to Mass Effect Andromeda: Blaine vs the Mass Effect Trilogy
Later 2016: Blaine vs the KotORs
2017-2018: The Road to Dragon Age 4: Blaine vs the Dragon Age Trilogy
2017: add another weekly show (lemme know what you want)
2018: add another weekly show

The plan isn't super-aggressive, and that's intentional. I'm a husband, father, developer, writer, and too many other things right now to just set everything aside and do this, though I really enjoy this. The plan is to build up a bigger support structure for this over time, and we'll just see where it goes.

On that note, I could really use your help. Check out my channel. Watch my videos. Subscribe. Like. Donate. Comment. Share the videos. Please. And give feedback. Seriously. If it's constructive and/or praising, I really need both.

Here's a look at my first 'MMO & Chill' stream:

It wasn't as chill as I would've liked, but it still ended up being pretty fun.

I'm going to try and get started with my 'Road to Mass Effect' series today, but it may not happen. We'll see. I have a lot of modding to do with it first, and some of these mods are nearly the size of the base game install.

Anyway, give my stuff a look, lemme know what you think, and hit me with any requests.

Thanks!

-Blaine

my dirty secret

I take a lot of shit for gaming primarily on PC. Yeah, I'll tease some of my friends about gaming primarily on a console, but I usually reserve it for when they complain about something silly.

Occasionally, though, they get really pissed. No matter how much I reinforce that my preferences are not condemnations, friends (and not friends) will still perceive my stances as a slight. If I say, 'my kids liked the WiiU,' I'm not saying you are a child if you like it. I don't really enjoy anything on the console (aside from Mario Maker, which I'd fucking love to see on PC), but that doesn't mean other people don't. It's all good, man.

And genres. Holy shit. I love RPGs. I don't have a huge amount of gaming time, so I like to settle into a main RPG and a handful of MMOs, and just kinda ride that for weeks or months. I find value in occasionally deviating out of my comfort zone, but again, it seems to bug people, or they take it personally that my tastes skew toward deep roleplaying games.

Frankly, I find great value in diversity. I think having multiple genres is a great thing, because gaming shouldn't be all one way. The best thing about it is that it can be anything to anyone. Whether you wanna flick your finger across your phone for some period of time, or hone your reflexes in a super-deep fighting game, or live out your sports dream in a sports game, or bury yourself in story and math in an RPG, it's all there. AND the best is when genres colllide, and new ideas are born.

Honestly, it's started to get so bad that I've been pulling back from the gaming world in general. Years ago, I started to disassociate myself with the term 'gamer,' because a) I didn't like what the community was becoming (or maybe I was growing out of it), and b) I don't like belonging to things anyway. I don't like labeling myself at all, because I feel like it constrains identity and ideas.

I like what I like. I've been playing RPGs since the day Final Fantasy first came out on the NES, and I've been at it since. I outgrew most of the other genres. I'm glad you like 2D platformers and FIFA and the latest PSN sale and Mario and Rocket League and on and on. For real, follow your bliss, but try and let me do the same. A world full of happier people is a good thing. We all face enough trials without tearing each other down over something as silly as gaming genres and plastic fucking boxes.

Moving on ...

I actually didn't come here to whine about people being mean to me. I actually came because I have a problem that's been brewing for years.

Back in the 90s, and early 2000s, I was poor. I was working shit jobs, and then finally went to college, but didn't start really earning until the last five years or so, at which point, I did the natural thing, and started migrating to PC.

Before that, though, I was purely a console gamer. I missed out on all the amazing cRPGs of the era, and in fact, didn't get really converted until Dragon Age: Origins. That was my first balls-out PC RPG, and yeah, I know it was multi-plat. I'd played KotOR and Jade Empire on Xbox prior to that, so I wasn't a total BioWare noob, but I never played Baldur's Gate, or any of the Black Isle games, or any of the Piranha Bytes games, or any of the Troika games, and on and on. I've occasionally gone back and played footsie with one of them, but I always abandon them to play the new shiny.

Or in the case of Icewind Dale, it's just too fucking hard. Or I don't understand what I'm doing.

To that end, though, I've been toying with the idea of slashing this year's purchase list, and starting to play through the following:

Divine Divinity
Fallout
Gothic
Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale or Neverwinter Nights

Of course, I'm now focusing on Wasteland 2 and replaying DXHR. We'll see what happens. I've got Final Fantasy XV in the next couple months, DXMD next month, and Dishonored 2 in November. I'm guessing Deus Ex and Dishonored will both be pretty short, so maybe this fall and winter, I can finally rip through the classics.

And, naturally, I've loaded them with mods to modernize their look and feel.

Where do you think I should start? Any favorites, or other recommendations?

Alright, back to work. Thanks for reading.

Oh, and I'm going to append this post with some of my latest streaming fun.

-Blaine

Yeah, it's like that, but whatever

I'm a bad bloggist today. I'm almost in awe of how busy I've been lately.

Regardless, I wanted to share my enthusiasm for the upcoming Star Wars Celebration, and in particular, its live stream.

SWC starts tomorrow, and they'll be streaming from London live. The SWC stream last year was TREMENDOUS. In particular, the Force Awakens panel, and the on-stage stuff with Mark Hamill, and especially Carrie Fisher were fantastic. This year's looks just as awesome. Check it out.

Otherwise, I'm just hoping to catch my breath. Fuck being busy. I hate being busy. I don't mind moving fast, but I'm a very deliberate person, and I badly need to just chill.

I'm much looking forward to kicking back with some Star Wars interviews, trailers, and more all weekend. While I play some games. Maybe some Shadowrun Dragonfall? More Blood and Wine? My second Dragon Age Inquisition playthrough? Hmm. I still haven't played the latest Knights of the Fallen Empire chapter.

And, I wanna stream some of my own stuff. Anything you wanna see me play?

Alright, back to work. What do you got going on this weekend?

-Blaine

Aaand we're back!

I got back last night from my weekend in exile. Good times were had.

They live in northern Illinois, about 90 miles outta Chicago. Close enough that driving into Chicago for a day isn't too bad, but far enough out that everything smiles like pig farm everywhere.

I got lucky with the in-laws I got. I don't have the horror stories that a lotta people have. That being said, while I like them just fine, I'm not one for rural living, or the lack of creature comforts. I've spent every moment of my adult life living in either the city or the suburbs, so the rural thing is, even after fifteen years of visiting them, still a drag.

Regardless ...

... we drove up Friday, got to eat dinner at my favorite restaurant, The Corner Grill, I got to meet my (hopefully) future brother-in-law, who's cool as shit, and then I wound down the evening with some Witcher 3: Blood and Wine.

Oh, and the my in-laws don't have AC or clean water (well water is not clean, sorry), but they do have broadband + wifi now, which was a HUGE game-changer. I also grabbed some brief time with Chrono Trigger on iOS, because I forgot my fucking Vita.

Saturday was party time. We went and saw some friends and their new baby, and then my in-laws hosted a big-ass blowout. My oldest son drove my youngest son around on a tractor, which was hilarious. Lotsa people smoked in front of me, and I didn't smoke, which was cool. I wound down that evening with a new character in Dragon Age Inquisition. A female Qunari rogue that grew up in Thedas, and resents the other species because of it. The imported saves feature strongly anti-Mage choices. Should be interesting.

Sunday, we drove into Chicago and saw The Book of Mormon, which was AMAZING. Go see it. Now. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Also, it helps that my family was among the founders of the Church of LDS, but my faction split off about the middle of last century. Grandpa fell in love with a Catholic girl. A man's gotta do what he's gotta do to win the woman, ya know?

Anyway, the musical is fantastic. Everything about it. The performances, the music, the humor, the social commentary, the choreography, and on and on. SO GOOD.

And then dinner at D'Agostino's, one of my favorites from when I did my undergrad in Chicago. We met up with some old friends, and good times were had by all.

I love visiting Chicago. I cannot say enough about how incredible my undergrad years were there, living downtown, meeting my wife, partying my ass off, using public transit, getting into the local scene, and ... it was a remarkable time in my life. I'm also glad I left when I did. I'm from St. Louis, and it was time to come home and start a family.

But, I really need to spend like a week in Chicago some time. It would be cool to head over to the Columbia campus while school is actually in session, soak some of that in, check out some of my old haunts. I'd have no intent of reliving the past, but I always find it fascinating to see the ravages of time in person.

And Chicago is just a fun place to visit. I'd never live there again, as it wore on me after a while. It's an incredibly negative town with an almost oppressive atmosphere, and Cubs fans are bandwagon-jumping jackasses, even if their team is the beloved darling of ESPN and Fox Sports.

And, for a dumpy little league park, Wrigley is a fun place to hang out and see how the Cubs are going to complete fuck it up yet again.

And then, yesterday, we came back. And today I had a REALLY intense day at work. And now I'm writing at you. And now I'm ready to sneak in a little gaming.

Remind me, I wanna talk about alternate playthroughs of BioWare games some time this week. Word.

*HUGGLES!*

-Blaine

I Love Torment (but it's not what you think, sicko)

I tend to stay away from backer betas.

If I back a game, it's because it's filling a need that I don't see being filled by publishers, or it's a need that I want filled without publisher intervention. I don't want it to have mass appeal. I want it to be very specific in its audience.

Pillars of Eternity is a fantastic example of this. It was the game that first got me excited about the possibilities of Kickstarter, and it absolutely fulfilled its promise, and then some. It's one of the best games I've ever played. It was part of this magical time in which Dragon Age: Inquisition, Pillars, and then Witcher 3 all released in short succession, and I got to play my two favorite series, and a new favorite in the middle, all one after another.

Anyway, I'm really getting off-topic. Sorry, but it was a very magical time.

So, yeah, I backed the hell out of Pillars, and kept adding to my 'backing,' so that I'd get more and more stuff. Including the beta.

What's funny, though, is that I did play a little of the beta, but I put it down rather quickly. I didn't want it spoiled. I wanted my entry into that world to be one that was new, and fresh, and utterly magical.

And it worked out. I held off on playing much of the beta, which was a vertical slice that was early in the game, but not at the beginning. It filled in some lore, but then, like I said, I backed off pretty quickly, and saved myself for release night. When I got the game, it was magical, and many months later, we were both left panting.

And, then along came Torment: Tides of Numenera.

I fucked up. I played a bit of the first beta release, but did the same thing I did with Pillars. I got a bit of lore, and then set it down.

Well, they updated it. A lot. I got kinda curious last night, and ... I made a mistake. I fell in love. This game is utterly incredible. I need to stop. The beta is so good, and so complete, and beautiful, and exactly the kind of game I so badly need ... but the finished product is in 2017. If I keep going, it's only going to hurt both of us. We have to stop. It's what's best for both of us.

But, I played more today. And it was so good. I'm worried. I'm worried that I can't stop.

That's it. I'm exhausted. I'm going to get in bed, and ... read one of the novellas that's part of the mega-backer package that I put down for. I need more Numenera.

-Blaine

Me the Modder

So, anyone that knows me pretty well knows that way into the mod scene for PC games. I love to download and install them, as well as do some minor tweaking on my own. I love everything about mods. From visual enhancements to bug fixes to restoring cut content to new quests and areas that extend the life of the game. I love it all.

Something that's been in my brain for years now is that I should be one of the people that makes these mods, specifically, the mods that tell new stories. I'm a published author, and I'm a developer (C#), so I've got some of the basic skills. I've made a few false starts in learning various toolsets, but I'm at a point now where I really wanna start to get serious about it.

I've been looking at a few different toolsets, and I think what I'm going to do is learn the basics of a few, and then pick one, and focus solely on learning it inside and out, while I slowly build out my mod.

At the moment, I'm considering:
 - Creation Kit (Fallout 4)
 - Divinity Engine
 - Dragon Age Toolset
 - NWN Toolset 
 - Ark Dev Kit

I think, for my first time out, I'm looking to build a fairly linear story that'll last the player several hours and feature some combat, some dialogue, and at least one branching decision. Eventually, I have a few larger stories in mind that I want to tell, including a full-blown Fallout campaign.

The new Creation Kit just kinda jumped out at me, since a) I love the game, and b) based on the prolific nature of mods for Bethesda games, the Creation Kit must be at least somewhat easy to work with.

The Divinity Engine is attractive since a) I love that game, too, b) I love the way it looks, and c) the 3/4 view might be really fun for combat, and d) turn-based battles tend to be my favorite.

NWN and Dragon Age ... there's a very mature, albeit somewhat dead community there. And I'm a BioWare fanboy at heart. It really sucks that they stopped being supportive of mod scenes. Also, the Dragon Age toolset is the one with which I'm the most familiar. And I've heard the NWN toolset is super-easy.

The Ark Dev Kit is the Unreal Engine editor, and if you've not seen UE4 and Blueprints and whatnot, holy shit, it is awesome to work with. I just bought Ark, don't know a lot about it, but I'm getting on a private server with some friends soon, so we'll see what's what.

I'll be starting with either the Creation Kit or the Divinity Engine first. We'll see.

Anyone that has experience with any of these that wants to share some feedback, I'd love to see some comments or DMs from you.

I also wanna get back to streaming a bit more again on my YouTube channel. Maybe Tuesday and Thursday nights, starting next week? I dunno. Tonight, I wanna get my game dev stuff up and running and start playing around.

Anyway, I need to get creative again. I love telling stories, and while it would be cool to work in prose again, this looks like a great new way for me to reach people.

Any thoughts from any current modders are appreciated, especially those that do it while working full-time, and being a spouse, and a parent.

I plan to keep posting in here to talk about my progress.

-Blaine

currently digging: the new RHCP record, the new Garbage record, Witcher 3: Blood & Wine, Dishonored, Game of Thrones

Video Games and Streaming Stuff and Stuff

So, I've not posted in a bit. Yeah, I hate seeing these 'dude, I'm sorry I haven't posted but my double-wide burned down and I lost my job, and my dog left me' and all the country song bullshit kinda posts, so I'm not making one. I just haven't really felt like posting anything, and I promised myself I wasn't gonna pressure myself to do recreational things I didn't feel like doing. Now I feel like it again.

I will say that I worked a pretty hectic schedule over the summer, and also took some time to think through a few things. Nothing crazy or worth sharing.

What have I been up to?

Let's see.

 - upgraded all my development and gaming stuff to Windows 10. That's pretty neat. Everything went smoothly. No hiccups or incidents.
 - the Cardinals, predictably, have been doing very well despite the entire goddam outfield getting hurt.
 - I don't remember if I talked about it on here or not, but I finished my epic Dragon Age: Inquisition - Pillars of Eternity - Witcher 3 playthrough that I started in November of last year. I actually shuffled Pillars to the end of that, since I kinda wanted to slow-jam that one.
 - I also played through the final Dragon Age Inquisition DLC, 'The Descent,' which was pretty fantastic.
 - lotsa reading, not as much writing as I'd like; but that's about to change

The big thing, though, is that I'm finally dipping my toe into the streaming world. I'd thought about it for a bit, and after taking some really good pain meds for my back, I decided to really go for it.. I've made some alterations to my setup, I still have some things to work out, but we're kicking off the streaming schedule starting tomorrow @ 1600 central time.

So, on August 21st, 2015, @ 1600 central US time, you can check me out at my Twitch.TV channel and see some live Shadowrun: Hong Kong, see some gaming news for the week, and chat with me about this week's discussion topic.

The intent is to also start posting here more regularly. Sometimes, it'll be quick, funny micro-posts, and other times, it'll be like a feature magazine article. Just whatever I feel like.

Hugs.

-Blaine

RPGoodness

Something I've been mulling over lately is a recent streak, dating back to November of last year, in which my 'core franchises' have each delivered a new entry in the series. Dragon Age Inquisition, Pillars of Eternity, and Witcher 3 all released in a quick, six-month succession, and it's been kinda crazy.

Yeah, Pillars is a new franchise, but it also hearkens back to a different time, when the term 'cRPG' was still a thing, and imagination still colored in a lot of the experience.

In any case, it's been this really weird time in which I've gone from mega-huge game to mega-huge game, when I usually have some down time between monster releases. Given that I almost exclusively play RPGs, and big damn ones at that, I tend to have several months at a time in which I'm spending most of my gaming hours in the backlog, or in an MMO or two.

Instead, I played through Dragon Age (November) up to about the time Pillars hit (March), jumped right into that, then put down Pillars for a bit to play through Witcher 3 (May), which I finished over last weekend, and then I jumped back into Pillars, which it turns out, I'm almost done with anyway.

Of note, I grew up with most RPGs being in the 40-60 hour range, but each of those has been around 100 hours. Granted, I'm much more a completionist now than I was when I was younger, but still ... that's a lotta bang for my buck. And, shit, I was a day-one backer for Pillars, so that was about $20 for me (though I sunk in more later for some more goodies.)

And I expect to finish Pillars this week(end). After that, it'll be the first time since before Thanksgiving 2014 that I'm not committed to a new game. After that, the next new one will be Sword Coast Legends, from the great Dan Tudge, he of Dragon Age: Origins fame.

Oh, and The White March is hitting ... soon? And Witcher is getting a couple expansions, too. And DAI is supposed to get one more real DLC. It would be kinda neat if they all landed in a row.

Anywho, that's all for now. That's been rattling around in my brain for a bit, and I now wonder how long until something like this happens again? Mass Effect Andromeda is next year. Torment will come out some day. And I still have Divinity: Original Sin and Wasteland 2 unfinished ... and New Vegas. And shit, Fallout 4 this winter. OK. ENOUGH. I really do gotta go. I'll holler later tonight.