Hey everyone! I'm still alive, I've just been a bit on the busy side. Anyways, here's a new video blog for you. I talk about NES, Metal Gear, my trip to Virginia, and some future plans. Enjoy.

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I finally finished my weapon commentary. It took a lot of work and a ton of editing, but I'm pleased with the results. The commentary isn't my best work, but it gets the job done. I hope you enjoy it and keep your eyes open for an equipment commentary in the coming days.

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I finally started working on my Weapons Commentary, but I'm not going to be able to finish it for quite some time. It's taking a lot longer than expected to get all of the clips from my saved matches and I'm going to D.C. for 5 days with my girlfriend to visit her family. I'll update during the trip or soon after, but the video probably won't be up until next weekend.

See you online.

I never quite gave the blog post any proper setup. This is my first video blog so with it comes all of the fun and problems of starting something new. I had to wear my microphone and capture from my digital camera's LCD screen to get the video. I didn't want to have to go to the trouble of attempting to sync up audio and video, plus this let me compress the video on the fly. It actually ended up having very good video quality, but I dropped a lot of frames, especially when the camera moved. I don't think I can do anything about it for the time being as my 5 year old computer is feeling the pain. I'll have a new laptop soon and I'll format this computer and try to get it going strong enough to record at 2.1mbps in 640x480, but no promises. Otherwise I'm gonna need an external capture card for my laptop, which I don't want to pay for. Anyways, back to ebaying.

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So after much hardship, I finally uploaded my commentary for team slayer on Valhalla. I can only hope it's as well received as the first one was, but I think it is objectively better. I spliced different clips from two different matches together. This allowed me to give commentary on what it's like to start in each of the available bases on the level. Make sure you guys and girls let me know what you think. I love all constructive criticism.

Next up, I may do a video covering all of the new weapons (at least those featured in the beta) and talk about how they work so anyone who is interested in just the weapons can get right to the meat. Enjoy.

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So my goal of 1pm will not be met. I was well on pace to have it done and the video was about 80% done encoding when we had a lightning storm and lost power... So I am now starting the encode over and hopefully the video will be up by 6pm.

UPDATE (11:26 EST, 6/27/07):

You can't fight God. Power outage during my second attempt at encoding when it was at approximately 65% complete. The power has been out for the last 10 hours or so. My new timeline? It"ll be up when it's up.

I might have a new commentary up by the end of tomorrow if all goes well. I am being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army tomorrow morning and I have to go to work after that, but hopefully I will be free for a bit in the evening. Thanks for all of the comments and support on my last video everyone.

UPDATE: My new goal is tomorrow at 1pm.

So I finally finished that commentary I've been talking about for so long. I think it turned out rather well and I was able to improvise my way through it. It is a slayer match on the map High Ground. I apologize for the video quality, but I still have a lot to learn about video capture. I'm going to work on another commentary for a team slayer match on the map Valhalla so keep your eyes open for that.

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P.S. I'm still up in arms about Manhunt 2 being banned.

Stick to your guns Take Two. Release the game as you intended it and take the AO. If the game is great (as an early NGamer review suggests with a score of 92%), then people will buy it and the mainstream will have to acknowledge that an AO game can be a success.

UPDATE: So apparently Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft don't allow AO games on their consoles under any circumstance. So an AO rating actually bans content in a country that's supposed to have free speech. The companies have their own rights, and this decision falls within those rights. However, it's always disappointing as a consumer to have fewer options.

So my first GS video was quite a success. It's had over 600 views in a little under a week and is recommended by 8 out of 12 users. It was definitely the highest quality video I took from the beta, so I'm struggling a little with the quality of my future videos. But that's how you learn to be resourceful. I've got a few things in mind, so stay tuned for them. Here's a short list:

1. Video of a slayer match from the Halo 3 Beta with running commentary. I plan on talking about the new weapons, ways people play the game, how the new maps are set up, and many other things.

2. I can finally start getting some game footage from other games and maybe make a few videos for boss and level strategies.

3. A long ways off... Maybe get started on a video review or two.

4. I'd like to start a video blog, but I still don't have a webcam, so that will have to wait.

That's all for now.

See you online.