Terraria

So recently I have been sinking a ton and a half of time into Terraria.
For those of you unenlightened about this game I'll explain.

Terraria is a little indie game by Re-Logic. People call it a Minecraft clone but it really isn't, this a little beast all in itself.

You play the game in a 2D side scrolling fashion, you can mine almost all the blocks you see and pick them up as an item and the place them back into the world. In this way you can fashion castles, houses and villages if you wish it. You can mine deep into the earth and uncover minerals and metals that will allow you to craft better weapons and armor. At night the world is invaded with zombies and flying eyeballs.

The graphics are deliberately retro but the aesthetics of the game are immensely pleasing, with diverse biodomes and more then a hand full of different enemies and npc's.

But that's probably where the similarities with Minecraft end. Terraria is a true RPG, the entire point of the game is to develop your own character. You can build all you want but that's not what the game truly revolves around.

Terraria has a early game, a mid game and an end game. During early game you are just trying to get by, build a house, get some potions and get a sword. Slowly you start expanding, making more houses and attracting NPC vendors to your little village or castle. Then as you expand more you can start to see the late game coming closer and closer.

During mid game you upgrade your gear further and further, you get better weapons and if your the adventurous type you can probably find a few hearts and stars to permanently upgrade your health and mana.

But as with all RPG's, end game is where it is at. Once you got yourself kitted out there are a couple of options, you can go down below the earth, farther then you should and you'll land yourself in a hellish underworld filled with demons and rare epic items. If you'd rather stay above ground you can go to the very edge of the world and find a dungeon with bosses and more loot.

Unlike Minecraft, Terraria has a clear ending the player can see, you know that once you've finished looting the dungeon and exploring the under world you're more or less done. It gives one a goal to work to, sure you can stay after you did all those things and create a bigger city, but that's in the same way you can continue playing Oblivion after you finished the main questline, there is little challenge in the whole endeavor.

Where Minecraft has no clear plot beyond mid game, Terraria has a more purposeful drive to it, a more action adventure then simple crafting, and that has made it all the more addicting to me.

Dead Space 2 Let's Play Status Update.

So I've been hard at work on my Let's Play of Dead Space 2 which you can still find over here.

I'm not going to post each set because that would get spammy. Especially since I'm not a youtube partner and I record 40-45 minute sessions every time.

But I do want to spew a bit, rant a little, get some bile out of the system.

Since it's my first let's play, I learn allot while doing them, and I feel the need to share. Whether you would like to read about it or not, is not one of my concerns.

First of all. Talking while playing, is hard. I'm a man, I can barely chew and walk at the same time, and now I'm trying to talk while playing, in a different language then my own no less.

Also, finding people is hard. I know it's my first Let's Play, and I'm not doing it for subscribers or money or all that nonsense but just because I like making them, but seeing 0 views for the first day and a half is slightly depressing, I'm perfectly cool with it mind, not like I need an audience, but still, I'd like it if people found some entertainment in them.

Isaac Clarke, 50% engineer, 25% psychotic, 25% mental patient, 100% a total boss.

Thirdly, I've played Dead Space 2 a few times and I always liked playing through the game, however. I am starting to see the cracks, I'm slowly falling out of love with the game as I play through it, this final time.

I'm also finding it absurdly easy to contradict myself. Dead Space 2 is not a scary game, but at the same time it puts me on edge. But it's not the kind of scary that you take to bed at night. The moment the game is off, the fear is off. Unlike say Silent Hill, which haunted me even after the Playstation was off, in fact sometimes I can still hear the other world sound ringing distantly in my ears. Meanwhile I've gone on record saying it's not scary, and still get scared by the game, to a certain degree. In my video's I call it irked. It's more irritated yet simultaneously tensed by the situation and the prospect of the upcoming inevitable jump-scare.

And finally, I've been watching Let's Players for a while. Guys, heroes in my opinion like Deatheven13, Helloween4545, ScottishDuck17 and last but in no means least AgentJR who kindled my love for Let's Plays and I found a new level of respect for these guys.

Let's Playing has 1 thing in coming with writing at least; to edit yourself is to crush yourself. If you look back at your own creation you will always nitpick because you see what could have been, not what has become, and those two rarely line up. To publish a piece of writing (genuine writing, not this blabbering) takes a bit of courage, and so does publishing a Let's Play, to a lesser degree. Secondly, before I first recorded the first set, I spent literally hours fussing over which game to play and doing test drives.

I think I might have more recording that's botched on my hard drive then on my channel to be honest. Sound to silent, sound to high, can't hear voice, voice overpowers everything, mic scratches, desyncs, screen tearing, odd resolutions (1920x1078??) making editing impossible.

Then there's the starting capital involved, legally you need FRAPS and at least some form of video editing, now iMovie might work, but my Mac doesn't like Dead Space 2 so I opted for Pinnacle. Those two alone would have set me back 140 ish euro, if I didn't work in retail.

Then there's the raw time involved into recording and knitting all the pieces fraps poops out together. As a side note; 45 minutes is close to 90 GB in hard drive space.

The above mentioned Let's Players have literally hours upon hours of videocontent on their Youtube accounts. And granted most of it isn't in HD, but all of it has had considerable amount of time required, not only to record but to polish and edit afterwards. And they do this all free of charge, for the enjoyment of others. And make no mistake, what I put out is garbage compared to them, who put out genuinely entertaining content.