Monday, December 20, 2010

12/20/10 - One Break to Rule Them All!

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here, and welcome to another blog entry!

First off, big apologies for not being able to update last week, but I really needed that time to study for finals. And then I also missed my update yesterday just because I had some other things going on. However, I did find some time to update tonight, so I figured I would, even if it will probably end up being a small one.

So I am finally on my Winter Break, and my god am I thrilled to be. That last semester of mine seriously never wanted to end. But thankfully I can look past it now and try to regroup. As for my grades, I don't expect very much or really any high marks, but I have a pretty solid cumulative GPA right now, and if I just get my act together, the blunders I made this semester shouldn't impact it very much.

Also some recent things to note, I have officially ordered my new laptop and should be getting it sometime after Christmas. For the time being I can manage recording on my "stay-at-home" desktop, but soon I should be back in action in terms of where I was a month and a half ago. But anyway, I'm going to be getting an HP Core i7 (which was quite pricey...but I didn't have any major requests for Christmas, which kind of justifies it (plus this is something I actually need)), and I am very much looking forward to getting it. =D

Besides that though, I don't have too much to report. I've basically been trying to take it easy these last few days before things start getting crazy with the activity and family get-togethers. Christmas is that time of year after all! =P

Anyways, moving on to Youtube stuff.....hooray for being completely back in action! Not only did I resume progress in both Kirby's Dream Course and Mario Party 7, I also added a new project to my list, that game being New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a game that I have actually done an online project for, but just not on Youtube. It feels good to be back in the swing of things, but let's hope that the "3 PROJECTS" don't hold me down too much. =P

Ok, so first off, for the first time in a month and a half, I can talk about Mario Party! The board I did this weekend was Neon Heights, a board, as I mentioned, that is far from my favorite, just because of the luck-based nature. Yeah, it seems kind of contradictory to hate on a board for something like that because so much of the game is luck-based already, but the board mechanic just adds that much more to it. I mean, from the beginning of the playthrough, I think that was pretty evident by the fact that I had such a hard time getting a star at first despite having quite a bit of coins, and the computer players seemed to get to them no problem. This is especially made true by the fact that the star is technically only worth 10 coins, and even if you get the wrong chest, you still have a 1 in 2 chance of getting those coins back with an additional 10 on top of it, and if not, well, that bob-omb just ends up screwing things up too. =P But nonetheless, I stayed pretty much at the top in terms of coin count, and that ended up working quite well for me. And it also helped that I was a demon when it came to the mini-games. >=D And I know I made such a big deal out of it, but man, I was glad that the bonus stars couldn't decide the outcome, because it was kind of lame how the 3 bonus stars I would have won weren't even up as options and the fact that Daisy got the 3 that were offered. If I didn't have more coins than she, I would have been in trouble. =P But in the end, I got a rightfully deserved victory, and I guess that is all that matters. Oh and lol @ Magmagical Journey happening in the same turn right after one another.

As for Kirby's Dream Course, things are going ok I guess. At this point I have more than half of the project recorded and I should be done before break...or at least that is the hope. If not, I'll be finishing just as I return back to college. Despite some criticisms on the commentary (or rather the idea that people can't understand that my voice has a natural monotone to it that I can't control), I'd say the project is going along well.

And yesterday, or technically today because it was updated at midnight..... although yesterday might be more appropriate since this blog probably won't be read til after this coming midnight......bah, technicalities.....the point is, I started New Super Mario Bros. Wii in my last video! I will admit, at first I was kind of unsure about the game as I was filming the episodes, but after I got done and started putting them together.....I dunno, it started to grow on me a little bit, and this should be a pretty fun project. Although the one thing I will say...never announce in a Let's Play how familiar you are with a game...the commenters will go after you on every little thing. I think one of the things I said in the first video was, "I know this game decently well," (which I think is true), but everyone interpreted that as, "I KNOW EVERYTHINGZ, I R MASTER, GIVE ME MONEYZ!" and everytime I said the slightest thing wrong, or missed something, it's almost like I violated one of the 10 Commandments. I mean, the people that do that are stupid, so it shouldn't bother me, and don't get me wrong, the idiotic comments don't bother me at all....but I am seriously concerned with the intelligence of most Youtube users. I really hate saying that, but come on, is it really that hard to use your brain or common sense to such a small degree? Is it? I guess not.....

Anyways, that is what is new in Youtube for me, so I hope you guys enjoy all the projects I have for you throughout this Winter Break, and hopefully you guys will be able to see nothing but daily updates from me from now on! =)

Once again, while I have finished Donkey Kong Country Returns at this point, I still don't feel comfortable enough talking about it, so once again I am putting that review on hold. And because of that, I think that about does it for this entry! Thanks for joining me this week and I'll see you next week for more bloggish excitement....unless I decide not to update due to Christmas and my 22nd Birthday! =)

Later Folks!
-SlimKirby

Sunday, December 5, 2010

12/5/10 - A Decemberish Update Type of Entry

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here, and welcome to another weekly blog entry. The month of December has finally began and the first snows of the season have already been upon us, or at least for me anyways. Not only that, but at this point I only have about 10 days left here at my university for my fall semester, so I am really looking forward to being done with the freaking semester that has tried so hard to get the best of me. Oh well, it’s almost over now and I can seriously see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just have to get past this difficult week and then make it through a week of finals, and then I’m done. Anyways, let’s get to talks about stuffs.

First off, I will say that I do have my laptop back now. Unfortunately, the changes made to it to get it to work got rid of any ability or capability for the machine to record anything, so I can no longer make videos at this time. However, this does not mean I’m necessarily “out of commission” until I get a new one. I still have videos ready for this coming week and then unfortunately I will have to take another small break (for just a week) when I won’t have any videos at all, but after that week I should have the capability to record again before I actually get my new laptop. I’ll basically be recording in the same fashion that I recorded my first Kirby’s Dream Course videos, but this time I’ll actually have a TV screen to look at while I’m playing and not just the stupid Windows Movie Maker window, which I refuse to use to play Mario Party 7 and my next playthrough.

Speaking of Youtube stuff…..HOORAY FOR UPDATES THIS WEEK! I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but it actually felt good to make updates again. Of course they weren’t daily updates or anything like that, but still, it felt like that small part of my life that vanished for a few weeks had finally returned to me. I only hope the return was enough of an impact for the viewing public, which from the reception, I’d say it was at least good enough.

So let’s get started talking about Kirby’s Dream Course. This was a game that I really wanted to do for awhile, and for the longest time I was juggling my thoughts together about whether or not I wanted to do this game or either Super Bomberman 3 or The Adventures of Lolo 3. Of the three games, I knew this game was going to be the biggest challenge because Super Bomberman 3 is actually pretty damn easy, and Lolo 3, despite how challenging the series actually is, I think for a Let’s Play it actually is a pretty sensible choice and a game that’s relatively easy to handle. All you need to do is just record yourself playing through, cut out footage if you really need to, and WHAM, you have yourself a video. Kirby’s Dream Course, while really anti-climatic for a casual Let’s Play, if you want to do an all-gold medal playthrough like I am doing, you’re going to be in for quite a storm if you aren’t an expert player. I am of course not an expert player, but I think I’m good enough to at least handle the expert-leveled challenge that the game offers. I knew from the beginning that I would 1) have to play the courses multiple times, 2) make plenty of footage cuts until I got everything right, and 3) practice and do my research on game mechanics to get the best performance possible. Since I am not working with an emulator on this Let’s Play, save states were out of the question and I’d have to get the gold medals based on personal skill alone. I actually almost considered making the move to an emulator during the final weeks leading up to this Let’s Play, but then my computer went “kah-put” (or however you spell that) and forced me to use my Virtual Console copy instead. In the end though, I don’t think game was a bad choice, I just knew that I was going to be in for a lot.

The first recordings of this game were actually pretty “interesting,” and I’m not sure if I mean in a good way or a bad way. I wouldn’t say they were “catastrophic,” necessarily, but they were pretty far from easy-going…that’s for sure. The first recording, I really didn’t mind how that turned out just because it was the first video, and no first video is truly that perfect. I just figured I would cover the basics, do what I could to get a good score, and if I didn’t succeed, I could easily just try again and knock it out of the park, which is pretty much how that worked. The 2nd video/course was a little more strenuous, just because of that stupid recording glitch which caused me to redo that entire course. The 3rd was ok, but I had to replay that so many times due to small, stupid mistakes that I really shouldn’t have made. The following 3 videos, which I also recorded at around the same time, and which will also be released on my channel this coming week, were pretty much the same story. I got them done, but they could have been smoother for me. I’m really hoping the recording set-up that I’ll be using when I return home will be so much more beneficial for me, because it seems like my timing is just a bit off when I was playing the game for my finished videos. Oh well, I guess it’s just something we will have to wait and see what happens. For now though, I hope you guys enjoy.

As for Mario Party 7, I feel so bad that I haven’t been able to update this project, just because the first half of the Party Mode playthrough went pretty well for me. I did have that stupid loss at Pyramid Park, but even that went well considering. It really sucks that I had to put this on such a long hiatus, especially since at this point I actually would have been finished with Party Mode by now. Looks like the extra videos and even Party Mode itself will be going on til the first weeks of 2011.

As I briefly mentioned earlier in the blog, I actually had another playthrough planned for the month of December. However, due to how cruel nature can be to a Kirby with sunglasses, that project is also going to be significantly delayed quite a bit. At this point I was honestly hoping to have started the project as I finished Mario Party 7 and as I was closing out Dream Course, but now it looks I’ll be smack dab in the middle of both at this project’s beginning. It really, really does suck, I will admit, but that’s the price you pay when you go about 3 weeks of no updating, 2 weeks of light updating, and then another week of no activity. Again, just for emphasis, it sucks, but you really can’t control these things. In a perfect world, my Computer Tech people would be geniuses that could fix any problem simply by touching the screen, instead of taking it apart and having it at the mercy of their cold-hearted souls. In the end though, I still plan to release this project, whatever it is, around the week of Christmas, so I hope you guys enjoy it when that time comes (and yes, once again, keeping the project in the dark. ;)).

I could talk about a few other things, like CSS or the Kirby’s Stream Land stream I talked about during my 20,000 Subscriber special, but honestly, these are things that I just can’t address at this time because there is honestly just too much going on and the future is just uncertain. I’ll try to keep you guys updated as much as possible.

Also, this is going to be a short entry just because I’m really, really, really busy at this time. Plus I haven’t exactly made any progress on Donkey Kong Country Returns so I’m not ready to talk more about that yet. So without further adieu, I’m going to close the blog entry up here and talk to you guys next week! See you then!

Later folks!
-SlimKirby