I’ve been playing Minecraft off an on for a little while now. I say ‘playing’ but I’m not sure if that’s the correct description for the time sapping digital lego set with animals and lava that it is.
But anyway, love it or hate it, I’m hooked. And my most recent endeavour on Donncha’s server has been a massive pyramid. The top of it is at the highest buildable level. It’s really quite a large undertaking, and if I’d paid attention at school I’d be able to a) work out how many blocks it needs, and b) how long it would have taken to build.
It’s so big it’s the largest singly structure on the map so far:
Thankfully Nick and Duck gave me a hand last night after Donncha activated Creative Mode on the server – which basically means you have infinite blocks, take no damage and can fly around for easier building. As it was late and I’m minging with the cold right now I left before Nick and Duck. But they had my back. Ensuring that I wasn’t preyed upon in the night by binary vampires by entombing my spawn point. They’d also made impressive headway on the pyramid build, and left some amusing graffiti to boot:
I’m also doing a series on what I’ve built so far on Minecraft and will be doing a live comm/let’s play type thing of the single player. So if you’re interested in that, here’s the first two vids:
Since I posted anything on anywhere. With my work contract winding up it’s been difficult to think of gaming in any other way than just playing. I’m looking to change that in the near future and get back to posting more frequently, and also on backslashgaming.com.
In the meantime, here’s a quick run down of what’s been going on:
Borderlands Let’s Play. After one episode I’m going to be abandoning this particular debacle. Sulley is great in the comms and we tried to get Duck in with us last night, but the rubbish lobby system prevented us from being in the same game together. The game that Sulley and I were working on was then tainted by a moral dilemna (and I don’t care what the spell checker says that is the correct spelling of dilemna!). I’ll put a video up explaining all, but the issue meant that we couldn’t in good faith continue with our characters and neither of us wants to start again. We even tried to have another friend, Shiznit, host a game, but we couldn’t even see him in the lobby menus.
If you missed it, here’s episode 1 of the series [NSFW]:
Still been playing BFBC2, unlocked Magnum Ammo on the Xbox version and made a video about it which was accepted and posted to the Pixel Enemy Revive channel (thanks guys)
I’ve been following the same method for playing on the PC, but I don’t find it as enjoyable on PC. I’m getting old and lazy so prefer the controller to keyboard and mouse. I’ve not recorded any PC gameplay as even with a new graphics card, my computer still struggles a bit with it.
After recently being gifted Team Fortress 2 by the Awesome D, it’s now free to play. Typical. I returned the favour with Monday Night Combat which we have yet to play, and a game that I’ve only played for about thirty minutes. I mix up some TF2 gameplay with info on a MNC giveaway in this vid:
Another game that is now free to play is Arma 2. I downloaded it last night. Not had a chance to play it yet, but it looks pretty good. You can get it from here: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=14588
Oh, I’ve also been on YouTube for just over a year. Well just over a year uploading vids and the like. Here is my anniversary video:
When I started my channel I did not go in to it lightly. Having lurked for a number of years I was aware of the level of random hate and trolling that is an everyday occurrence on YouTube. I was lucky in a way that from the start I was part of the Battlefield community and gained support from a great bunch of subscribers and fellow uploaders. I was all too aware that just because you upload to YouTube, or play a certain game does not mean that everyone who does the same has to either like you, or support you. But then, that’s the same in everything you do in life. So I’ve always treated YouTube as something that I do to amuse me and those close to me. Subscriber count is just a number and ratings don’t matter.
Erm, that’s pretty much it for the now. I’ve probably missed out loads, so there may be some updates in the very soon.
Peas and loaves.
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Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills
Find me on XBL – MrCheapKills
Let me just say, first of all, that it’s like a breath of fresh air to write about something other and Playstation Bloody Network. I’ll be so glad when Sony sort that debacle out so that I can get on with other content over at \gaming.com!
On with the reason for the post. Donncha, TyeWebb, Shaz and me had some zombie blasting fun on L4D2 the other night. It was quite amusing, especially as Shaz has always played the game in such a way as to avoid the witches as much as possible. That’s not really possible when in game with me. In the non-virtual world I don’t press the red button to see what it does, and I don’t poke wasps nests with sticks. In game it’s the opposite. You need someone to headbutt a tank? Provide a juicy dither fish target while you get the objective? Slap the witch on the arse while saying “Hubba hubba!”? Then that’s me!
Nine times out of ten the witch gets me, but I did actually kill her in one game a while back with the AK47, only the once though.
Donncha put up a quick blog post about the game and video I put up about the games here.
Output Tips
All PC games footage that I record is in 4:3 because that’s the monitor output that I have. A widescreen monitor is on my to do list, but it’s not a priority and PC gameplay is mainly aimed at the people I’m in game with. However a commenter on the video ZonalFear took the time to post some really good tips in the comments on the video on how to record in widescreen for YouTube outputs. Here’s what he said:
Is this on PC? If you use a program like xfire to record you can set the video options in L4D2 to 1280×720, then set the aspect ratio to 16:9. Make sure xfire is recording in full frame.
Once finished, exit game and you have a raw, widescreen 16:9 file that just needs your finishing touches in your favourite video editor and VOILA! Widescreen 720p HD video for your Youtube.
If this is 360, I just wasted a lot of time.:D
^^ This is the sort of thing that makes doing things on the intertubes worthwhile. You see so much shit and bitching being posted so it’s amazing when randomly someone posts something that’s really useful for no other reason than it may be of use to people. Ahhhh warm fuzzy feelings.
Peas and loaves.
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Episode 3 of The Gamer’s Craic, hosted by Donncha and I is now available.
Listen via the player or right click and download here to listen later.
Our guest this time is NGT director and Hupit bod Gary, AKA Hypermole and also mole237 on YouTube.
The main topics of the podcast are the C64 PC (?!), Homefront, Vanquish and Battlefield Play 4 Free.
On Donncha’s post regarding this episode he urges listeners NOT to listen past the end jingle……
Don’t forget that Don’t Revive Me Bro also have their podcast running, with the most recent featuring Daniel ‘Zh1nt0’ Matros, the community manager for BattleField games at DICE. You can find it all here
If 40 minutes of me, Donncha and Gary whittering away is enough for you then I also have a 20+ minute vid up. It’s a request effort, live commentary play by play of a game of Conquest on Panama Canal. There are some sweary bits, so NSFW.
And lastly, I recently put up a video entitled ‘Let’s Talk About: Copyright’. It’s the first time that I’ve shown my face on camera and so I’m a little talking head in the corner over some gameplay. The main theme of the video is why it’s not worth trying to get around the issue of copyright on YouTube, why it’s right for content creators to be protected by copyright and the usage of Creative Commons material as an alternative.
The next Let’s Talk will be on the subject of subscribers.
That’s all for now.
Peas and loaves.
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The Gamer’s Craic podcast from Donncha and I, featuring Mike (mj_whittle) was launched on Monday morning. I would have blogged about it earlier, but it seems that there’s not enough hours in the day at the moment. But anyhoo, the podcast. Mike was our guest for the first episode as it’s all started with the three of us really, first was this blog, then along came Donncha (on the Xbox), then Mike became a regular gaming buddy before Donncha saw the light and plugged his PS3 in 😉
It was a lot of fun recording and we talked about a lot of topics. Unfortunately I had to cut out a large chunk of the recording due to technical issues with the audio. But no matter, we live and learn for next time. The podcast itself is not on a schedule but we’re looking at doing it about once a fortnight. The main reason for not having a schedule for it is to prevent it from becoming a chore.
In other news I reached the 500 subscriber milestone…. again. It seems that I can forgo the usual Q&A type vid on this one since I’ve already done it on my old channel, although if I make it to 1000 subscribers I’ll be making the usual song and dance about it.
I’ve also been asking the community to get involved in my channel by providing voiceovers for the end of my videos:
I’ve had a good response with a number of excellent audio files from: thefingershurt (Dutch and French), theAlphaWolfy (English), InsaneAcorn (English), JayeKaiser (English), delpede (Danish), Redd_dragons (English), getcrackin’ (English), and iTimoleagueDuck went one further and made his own outro vid for me! So thanks everyone so far. I will be using every version I receive on rotation, and I have been promised more by some other people out there. I have their names written down somewhere….
As I say in the video, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a channel or upload, if you want to do it, then DO IT! I want you to, so come on! It’ll be cool. (I’d especially like an Italian, Spanish, and German version, and also a Japanese one, but in the style of a very pissed off Samurai).
Here’s how the very first response went (from thefingershurt):
And lastly, you’ve probably all seen it as it’s gone a bit viral around the community. But if you haven’t then you have to watch DCRUColin’s rendition of ‘Africa’ by Toto:
Doodo do do do doodo baaaaaah!
Cowing lush.
Peas and loaves.
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Okay here’s the new stuff first. Dvotee (Paul) has added to his channel by moving in to the wonderful world of commentary and has become part of the exceptional BFBC2 community on YouTube, Twitter and here.
Here’s his vid:
Currently it seems that Paul is going through Beginner’s Doubt which is a stage that most commentators go through where they are unsure how they will be received by the viewers.
I’d like to assure Paul, and all other newcomers to commentating, that it is just a phase and will eventually turn in to IfYouDon’tLikeMyChannelYouCanStickItUpYourAss. Fact. On Twitter we were also talking about unlocking achievements on YouTube.
What? You don’t know about the achievements on YouTube? Donncha unlocked “Who’s an Ass now?” the other day on one of BlameTruth’s vids, but I’ve yet to unlock the ultimate accolade of “OMG u sound like a reetaaard”. That will be +50. (and I don’t want any of you lot thinking you’re helping by ‘boosting’ on my channel!)Sidenote: this whole “achievement unlocked” thing comes from Woodysgamertag so kudos to him for adding another layer of fun to the whole shebang.
And talking of the community. Redd_dragons has created a new Battlefield community here on the home of the best Battlefield bloggers – wordpress. Check out his blog at InBadCompany (that’s a brilliant name for a community site). Check it out! No.. not now, finish reading this first. There may also be a Battlefield Podcast in the offing from Redd_Dragons and friends (including the TeamDonkeyKong guys, Cards and the GLS and others).
Talking of podcasts (and tinfoil hats). Donncha and I will also be releasing a podcast based around general gaming and the community at large. So it’s a very exciting time for all of us.
And lastly – copyright paranoia. My new years resolution (the first I’ve made in about 35 years…) is to not get any copyright strikes. However, I’ve also been attempting to be as copyright compliant as possible by now creating my own music for my vids and not using any images without permission (which is why there are crayon – yes, real crayon drawings – on some of the recent posts). Technically, under fair use I can use images for the purposes of commentary, reporting and education, but I thought I’d go that little step further and ask permission from companies to be LIKE TOTALLY LEGIT.
However, after some recent comedy tweets using #copyright related tags someone called Copyright Guidelines started following me on Twitter. I’m not sure what side of the fence they keep their dogs on, so I’m playing it safe:
This a Squad Death Match that we played on Isla Inocentes before Christmas. The three of us were recording and have put that together in to one video showing each individual feed at the top and the main window displaying the current action.
In the game you’ll see Duck tearing the map up while Donncha and I paint the town a delightful shade of mediocre. My favourite part is Donncha’s out of bounds kill on Sniper Ridge – total dedication to the cause there.
Our commentary doesn’t actually talk about the gameplay as we decided that that is pretty self explanatory so instead we talk about game tactics and how the slayers get their kills. Yes, we have a Massacring Mallard in our midst.
Duck’s audio came out quite low in the final mix though so headphones are advised to fully hear the conversation.
Also check out Donncha and Duck’s channels on here:
I had the opportunity to get on not only in the week (working from my home city this week), but also in the early evening. So I jumped in and initially attempted to join Ark, but his game was full so I joined Cards’ game.
Vietnam is growing on me. Despite the stats being screwed up again (level 0 so no specs), and my soldier, and apparently Cards, having feet so huge and unwieldy that they can’t be lifted over the tiniest obstacles we had a good run. The squad that I was with was mostly me, Cards, BydoEmpire and Musselking. RedDragons was on initially but he disappeared – we even had a five man squad at one point.
Apparently Donncha was in some of the games as well, but I am bloody useless at noticing who’s on the team if they’re not in the same squad as I’m usually spending my time watching the killer cam.
I was mainly running the arsehole kit tonight (Dvotee will be pleased(!)) – the medic kit with flame thrower. Well, look at it this way, if I have no specs what else am I supposed to do? Use harsh words in the general direction of the enemy!?
Again, I wasn’t recording, which was a shame as I could probably have made BigMooney’s top five plays when I flamethrowered a helicopter TO DEATH! I bet they weren’t expecting that. The enemy tried to make a sneaky land on top of Bravo on one of the maps, but unfortunately for them I was already on my way there, so I got a vehicle destruction and a double kill.
To me the flamethrower is akin to smoke on the original BFBC2, except you actually get points for using it! I used it to cover the arm in some earlier games, and also defending MComs in later games. Yes, it’s an obnoxious weapon, but it’s fairly limited against a good mid to long range player, or a close range player come to think of it. I think it’s more psychological than actually effective. Once people stop being scared of the idiots who are using it (me) then it will be less effective.
I definitely enjoyed tonights games more than last nights, although I would like to play all the maps at some point as tonight it rotated between only two of them. Oh well, something to look forward to I suppose….
(Also, just noticed that EA/DICE have released a more extensive “fankit” resource on their site: http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/en-gb/downloads (note: there’s quite a stern copyright thingy on the download, so until I am granted permission I’ll be using my crayons – see Best Squad pin at top of post)).
Oh, and just to show me up as the embarrassing noob that I am, MILEYCYRUSTHEVIRUS upped this video:
Obvious 360 no-scope aimbot noob-tube wallhacker if ever I saw one….
Peas and loaves.
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Since I’ve been playing BFBC2 I’ve picked up a number of pins and accomplishments. Some were through pure luck, others through supreme gaming prowess dogged persistence and planning. When I got the bronze weapons star I’d sort of given up on achievement hunting as it had been a long and painful process. Using some really stinking weapons in order to get 25 kills with each was a frustrating thing for me to do.
Recently I’d decided that I really wanted to get the ‘Wheels of Hazard’ pin. You get this by completing three road kills in any one match. Sounds simple, except that road kills are quite a random affair with lag and rubbish hit detection. It is especially frustrating when an enemy passes right through your vehicle without a scratch – oh sure, you’ve got hit them with the wheels but lets be realistic here: people don’t pass through vehicles, they bounce off, under or over them – sometimes body parts fall off too. Worse still is the invulnerability that holding an RPG gives a player (but not the driver of the vehicle).
So I put a call out to the community for help in getting road kills (featured in the last blog post):
I received many pieces of good advice. Mostly, use a jeep or a tank. And so last night, on Rush, Harvest Day with Donncha, Nick and I think Sulley or maybe BydoEmpire at that time, I got the three road kills using the CAV jeep thing.
Prior to that I also finally got the Naval Warfare pin by using Mike’s tactic of sniping from a jetski on Isla Inocentes. There were some very angry engineers on that level I can tell you. We lost in the end as the defense was just too strong – and for some reason, despite it telling me that I’ve been doing rubbish in game, it’s been matching me up against level 50s!? I armed Alpha a couple of times, but to no avail.
So my next mission is to get the ‘Mission Accomplished’ pin which involves getting an M60 kill, an RPG-7 kill and a knife kill in one round. Should be fairly straight forward, although it does mean that I’ll have to run the M60…..
Oh, and I got some gold dog tags last night too – whoopee!
Peas and loaves.
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When I were a kid, and all this were fields, after a long day working down t’ pit shovelling coal twenty six hours a day for thruppence and clip round the ear I’d take time out to read Amstrad Action magazine. This would be odd if I was a Spectrum, Commodore 64, or even an Amiga owner… but no, I was an Arnold Fiend. Bought for me for Christmas from Debenhams.
I was expecting the monochrome (green screen) version, but Santa was extra nice that year and the colour version was stuffed down the chimney instead. We had a gas fire too, so it was an extra achievement getting it through the flue in one piece.
Amstrad Action opened up a plethora of information for me. Before the internet you had get information on games tips, strategies and cheats (oh, come on – the games back then were designed with impossibility in mind!) from only a couple of sources – the publisher, magazines, or word of mouth. Unfortunately for me I was the only Amstrad owner in my school (I was special like that…. no, I was special, not the school) so word of mouth didn’t really work out when everyone else was on Spectrums. Although, due to lazy programming I got to experience games as if they were on the Spectrum as most developers just ported from that format to the others (so nothing’s really changed twenty five years later).
evaDlivE Blog 
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