2 New Non-Regular Stream Segements and an event in the works!

So my stream right now mainly consists of speed runs and Final Fantasy so I thought I'd introduce two non-regular stream segments that I'll do whenever I'm not busy.

The first segment is called Friday Night Backlog Busting.  Basically, I'll be playing whatever my current games are live for you all to come and enjoy with me.   The idea behind this one being is that you can decide what my next game will be with a donation if you like or you can just leave it to me and let me smash my 500+ title long backlog.  Donations don't have to be for games I've never played before, if you just want to see something then donate for it, it's all good.

The second segment is called Speedrun Sunday and it's a day when I do assorted speed runs.  As it currently stands, I pick one speed game per week and play it every time I stream.  The Sunday Speed Run stream will just be me practicing/doing runs for whatever games I run.  I will allow people to donate to either choose the next run or they can donate slightly more to request a run that I will do on the spot.  This gives me a chance to practice all my runs and learn new ones so expect to see a lot of shitty times go down on the Sunday stream for a while.

Finally the next event is in the works which involves Rougelikes and Alcoholism so please look forward to that.  More details will be posted when things have been arranged.

Thanks for supporting the stream and I hope you all keep coming back to watch!

New Silent Hill Speed Run! SUB 60 HYPE!

So I have a new speed run up for Silent Hill Good+ on Normal!  Check it out!

As far as I know, this is world record for Good+ on normal.  The only faster runs than this I'm aware of are on Easy mode but if a faster normal time exists please let me know.

The audio for this video is also muted and there isn't much I can do about it.  Twitch has some kind of bollocks anti piracy shit where if they detect....something...the mute the audio.  Despite the video having only in-game audio, it got muted until about the 20 minute mark on Twitch but the YT upload is completely silent.

I'm appealing the mute and if it gets un muted then I'll re-upload.  Until then, enjoy the (probably) world record.

Regarding My Speedruns

So if you watch my stream you'll know that a lot of my time spent live on Twitch is with speed runs of various games. The game I've been focusing on the most is Silent Hill but I have other games that I run and other games that I want to start running.

So from this day forward, I will be picking a speed game for the week and streaming that whenever I'm live.  So this week I'm focusing on Silent Hill and next week I'll be focusing on something else for a while.  This is being done for 2 reasons.  The first being that there are lots of games that I want to try running and there are other games that I don't want to lose touch with.  The second is that I'm very worried about burning out on one particular game.  Just before AGDQ started, the idea of even looking at Silent Hill made me groan but after a 2 week break thanks to new year and the marathon I'm more than happy to invest myself in some runs.  I don't ever want to find myself in that position again so I'm going to change my speed game every week.

So, I'll announce the new speed game every Sunday evening (Japan time) on twitter so follow me there @Taurinensis if you want to know whats coming up for that week.  I'll probably rotate Silent Hill with something else for now since I want to work on improving my Good+ and setting a decent Bad+

Also I'm open to people suggesting games for me to run.  If you really want to see me try and run a particular title then make your suggestion with a charity donation and I'll probably start doing it.

Thanks to everyone supporting the stream and Identity Gaming!  Hopefully I'll see you in twitch chat soon!

Silent Hill

It's kind of criminal that I've not made this post sooner.  All the speed runs I do, all the time I've spent talking about the latest entries in the series and how shit they are.  Hell, I've even talked about the fucking PLAY NOVEL more than I have the actual game, so it's about time Silent Hill got some love.

I picked the PAL box art for the post picture because the American box art is shit.  Even the Japanese box art is better and that's just a tile wall with a little bit of blood on it.

Silent Hill is one of those games that basically everyone with even a passing interest in the medium of video games is aware of.  It's one of the big grand daddies of the horror genre and is famous for being WAY scarier than any of the other survival horror games.  Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark and all that stuff were kind of scary, but Silent Hill was the first instance I ever saw anyone put down a controller and be like "whoa man, this shit..."

The plot involves Harry Mason on his quest through Silent Hill to rescue his daughter.  Not too long after the game starts you get caught up in all sorts of shit involving demons, shifts into a nightmare and a satanic cult.  I'm not going to go into any length about the story because there are people who have dedicated significant amount of time picking apart this games wonderful plot and if I did it in this post it would be way WAYYYYY too fucking long.

The game uses the old tank control scheme that games like Resident Evil used, except it was a little more developed.  For example, readying your weapon didn't lock you to the floor and you were free to maneuver with your gun drawn or big fuck off pipe ready to swing.  This made melee combat an actual option whereas other games in the genre, locking yourself in place to slice at something was guaranteed death for the player.

The game also had a ton of replay value since there was a few secret weapons to unlock and an extra ending to be acquired upon fulfilling certain conditions in a New Game +.  The game also had 4 normal endings so that's at least 5 playthroughs where you will end up with something different after the final boss has been toppled. 

I mean, I could talk about this game for fucking hours, it's just that good.  If I tried to go through every single goddamn thing that I enjoyed about Silent Hill then this post would be really goddamn long and I don't think anyone wants to read thousands of words of gush.   So instead, just go and play the fucking thing.  Dig it out of a closet, borrow it off a friend, buy it off PSN, I don't care how you play it just fucking play it.  The new Silent Hill games are all shit so if you've never experienced it before and you want to see just how strong a start this series had, get on it ASAP.

Silent Hill's 1,2 and 3 are THE BEST horror games to date, bar none, fight me.

Just in case, if you're interested in seeing my current fastest speed run (39:39 IGT) then the video is below.

Regarding The Euro Truck Marathon, Other Incentives and December

For a while there's been 3 donation incentives that were met and I have not yet fulfilled.  I've making this post to let you all know that I've not forgotten and things are in the pipeline.

First the met incentives.  I was hoping to do the Euro Truck Marathon last month but I was starting at a new job JUST as that incentive got met.  My plan was to do the marathon during my training in Tokyo but because of my shitty hotel Internet I wasn't able to pull it off.  The other two incentives were to eat something stupidly spicy while streaming and to tell an embarrassing yet apparently hilarious story about my exchange year.  My original plan was to do the other two incentives as part of the marathon but people have been waiting for so long I'm going to speed things along.

The embarrassing story, I'm hoping, will be recorded this Sunday and uploaded on the Monday.  I have some buddies coming over for drinks, one of whom was with me on my exchange year, so we're going to jump on the mic and get that tale told.  If we're too drunk I'll record it solo and hopefully get it uploaded sometime in the coming week.

For the spice incentive I need to buy the stuff for me to eat on stream and the unfortunate thing about starting a new job is that I have to spend some time being extremely poor.  That said payday is rather soon so once my money drops I'll head down to the store, buy the stuff and consume it on the following stream.  I'll be announcing it when I go live so you're going to have to keep an eye on the social media stuff to find out when it's happening.

The Euro Truck marathon will be held some time at the end of December.  I'll put a more concrete date up on Twitter and Facebook tomorrow once I confirm my New Year break with my work.

Finally, in December I'm hoping that maybe people will get into the Christmas spirit of giving and donate something to the charity.  To try and push you guys along I'll be producing a new play through for YouTube as well as doing another little mini speed run marathon on stream.  I'll play 5 games back to back, without stopping and hopefully be able to finish in less than 6 or 7 hours.  Also, I'll be adding some prize raffles for Xmas so if you want a chance to win some festive prizes get donating.

Don't forget about all the other stuff on the side bar and I'll try and add some more too!  Thanks for the continued support! read more

Coming Home! Update Time!

On Saturday I'm finally coming home from Tokyo!!!!! I'm so happy to be getting out of this flaming shit heap.  It's been kind of hard to keep up with content creation when I'm being shunted around various hotels from week to week but now that I'm coming home hopefully I'll be able to go hard and get shit done.

So the first big thing is the Euro Truck 24 Hour Marathon that got donated for.  I was planning to do it during my second week in Tokyo but due to shitty hotel internet it never got done.  One of the first things I plan to do when I get back is set a date for the marathon so keep an eye on the Facebook page or my twitter to find out when that's going to go down.

The second thing is a little mini speed run marathon since I've not been able to stream anything at all and I fear that I may have gone a little rusty.  I'll be doing my first one-man speed-a-thon where I speed run 5 games (Silent Hill, Hotline Miami, Ys, Megaman X and They Bleed Pixels) back to back.  Don't expect any records to get broken but I'm hoping I'll be able to get back into the swing of things for when I start my nightly streams up again.

Depressingly I haven't done a play through for YouTube since Outlast which was a long long time ago, so when I get back I'll be thinking up something to do for the channel.  I'm willing to listen to suggestions but please remember that your suggestion may be considered more closely if there's a charity donation with it.

So that's all for now, keep up the support and keep up the donations!

Regarding the Stream and OBON!

I've been very silly

In my last post I made a big rant about how twitch had fucked up with their latest changes to VODs and recorded audio.  I'm not going back on that, what they have done is complete bullshit and it fucks a lot of people over, including me.

Now I made a big song and dance about moving over to Hitbox.tv and after experimenting a bit with Hitbox I can say that it's actually a pretty good service.  The best part about Hitbox is that I can remove the delay from my stream so I can chat with my viewers in real time, which is nice.

However, let's face it, as of right now Twitch is still the best streaming service and considering I'm doing this stream for charity I want to reach as many people as I can because the more people who enjoy my stuff means more potential donations to the Alzheimer's Society.  So I won't be completely moving over to Hitbox, but I do intend to use it from time to time.  Think of it as as a backup stream for when Twitch is down or dropping frames or something.  Imagine Twitch as a Channel 1 and Hitbox as a Channel 2.

So with that in mind, go and give me a follow on Hitbox (www.hitbox.tv/taurinensis) and maybe you'll catch me or maybe even one of my buddies streaming under the Identity Gaming flag.

Also, next week in Japan it's Obon!

Just to fill you all in, Obon is a time in Japan where people remember their dead relatives.  What this really translates to is everyone going back to their home towns, hanging out with their living family and visiting the graves of their dead ones.

It also means I have a week off work.

This is the first genuine bit of downtime I've had in a long, LONG time so my goal for the week is to get as many of the met donation incentives done as I can.  It also means that I'm going to have plenty of time to stream so hopefully we can finally finish Final Fantasy 5 and move on to the really good ones.  You'll also probably see a new speed run of Ys coming out soon once I stop being shit at it and manage to get past the first few bosses.

So keep an eye out next week and get those donations ready!

Silent Hill Good+ in 1:06:45!

New Silent Hill Speed Run PB! Good+ in 1:06:45

There were a number of mistakes in this run that lost me quite a bit of time such as forgetting the blood bag in the hospital and running into a wall for a few seconds because I got an itchy neck.

Also I lost a lot of time on the way to the light house because a bird clocked my face like 3 times and I lost a total of 12 seconds to being pounced on by monkey dudes.

My navigation of the levels needs to be A LOT tighter in the future

Enjoy the video!

Why I love Speed Running

Very recently I've been speed running Silent Hill, or at least learning how to but if you watch the stream at all you already know this.  One thing I find when I talk about speed running to a few of my friends is that sometimes they say that they don't get it.  "Why would you want to beat a game as fast as you can? why not just enjoy it?" is the most common thing I hear from various people so now I just want to take a moment and explain why I love doing it so much even though I'm terrible.

Reason #1: Game Longevity

With some games people may complain that replayability is an issue.  They beat the game once and then have absolutely no desire to go back and attempt to beat it again because it's just not as fun as second time round.  What speed running does, for me at least, is makes games that have that issue a lot more fun to play over and over again.  For example, Hotline Miami is the kind of game that originally I had no interest in playing through more than once.  I'm not the kind of person who is interested in high scores or anything like that outside of the shmup genre so after I beat it once I didn't have much desire to go back and play.  But since discovering speed running I've played the shit out of Hotline Miami, just because the idea of beating my own time to the end of that game is really fun to me.

Reason #2: Knowledge of the title

I think that one misconception that people have about speed running is that it's JUST "getting to the end as fast as you can", but really it's a little more than that.  Let's say I go and pop in Metal Gear Solid 3 right now, I've played that game A LOT but there's no way I could do an effective speed run.  That's because the knowledge required to simply beat a game and the knowledge required to speed run it are 2 entirely different things.  Usually speed running will require quite intimate knowledge of the title and not just the route through each stage.  You have to know basically every little thing there is to know about not only the game itself, but all the technical things surrounding that game such as how many frames of animation something might take or how the hit boxes function.  It's something that I find fascinating to "study" and kind of goes hand in hand with the whole game longevity thing that I mentioned before

Reason #3: The community

It's weird, I've entered quite a few gaming communities over my many years and I'm sorry to say that the vast majority of them are filled with complete twats.  This isn't true for 100% of them though, and the speed running community are one of those few groups that aren't heavy on the twats.  One thing that people worry about when they are new to speed running is that "oh I'm bad, it would be embarrassing to even try when there are already so many good players".  But this is a load of crap because generally speaking people who speed run stuff are really nice.  I'm terrible at Megaman X but when I've done races on Speed Runs Live for it, people don't come into my chat to mock me, they come to give me advice and help me to improve my times and that level of friendliness is hard to find when it comes to strangers on the internet.

So, that's the big 3 reasons why I love speed running so much.  I know most people reading this probably don't care about why I love speed running so much, but it was something I thought I'd share so that maybe I could inspire a few others to take it up.

Why PAX's "Roll for Diversity" is a load of shit

Now hold on there for a second, don't crucify me just yet, this isn't the kind of rant that you think it's going to be.

So a couple of days ago I was made aware of this "Roll for Diversity Hub and Lounge" at PAX.  The idea behind this thing is that members of various communities will be able to go to this booth and make people aware of various issues in the game industry and stuff like that.  Developers can go down to this thing and talk with these people, listen to their concerns and all that kind of good stuff, it sounds great right?  Well sure, it sounds great on the surface, but just hold the phone a second.

The idea for this PAX booth was I'm sure, created with all best intentions in mind but really it's a load of shit, just think about it for a second.  Women, members of the LGBT community, people of colour and all the other groups that were put on that list, they weren't banned from PAX before and I'm sure no one said anything when they inevitably showed up at PAX, right?  Well now they've been cordoned off into a little corner of the convention and are probably going to end up mostly ignored, not because people don't like them, but because people who attend PAX want to hear about VIDEO GAMES! not social issues.

There is no need for this booth to exist in this form.  If these people have problems, then the developers do panels and stuff, it can be brought up there, among everyone else and not segregated to it's own trivial little corner of the convention.  But that's the big problem with it really, it's trivialising the whole thing.

I can't be bothered to go find the video, but there is a clip of Morgan Freeman talking about Black History Month.  He says in this video, that he doesn't want a Black History Month, because he doesn't want his history to be boiled down to one month of the year, and it's essentially the same thing here.  These groups have been reduced to a single booth at PAX just so that they (they being PAX by the way) can seem more progressive, and it's a bit sickening in a way.

You want to hear about a REAL progressive and friendly community of people?  The speed running community, that's who!  With my experience dealing with speed runs and speed running, they don't give a flying fuck if you're a man or woman, black or white, gay or straight, able bodied or not or whatever, if you just enjoy playing games really fuckin' fast, then you are MORE than welcome to join the community and they'll help you in whatever endeavour you take on.

THAT is how you deal with this issue, you be inclusive not by waving around a booth sign going "LOOK AT HOW PROGRESSIVE WE ARE" but by just being that way in the first place.  The issues that do exist within the industry DO need to be talked about but almost 100% of people doing it right now are doing it wrong.   Sexy women in games aren't oppressing you and a lack of gay characters aren't going to ruin your life, they don't matter.  What you want to be talking about is equality in the work place, availability of education to different groups of people, that kind of thing.

That's why people get upset when things like Dragons Crown come up, because those issues don't fucking matter.  Let us enjoy the Amazon's huge ass, go and fight a battle that ACTUALLY matters and will actually better the industry in some way.

So to sum up the whole thing; Fuck you PAX, your booth is garbage

More Xbox One Disappointment

Remember a while back I said next gen didn't work properly and it was a big disappointment?  Well yeah, time for more of that!

Although this time it's not really about things that work, we're going to be talking DRM again.  So today I came across an article (which I will link at the bottom) which describes an occurrence that happened during a Killer Instinct tournament.  Basically, during the matches, the Xbox One check in DRM kicked in and just ended the match then and there to make sure that they owned the game that they were playing.  It didn't warn anyone that this was going to take place, it just booted them right out of the game with no regard for what they were doing.

I thought that Microsoft had done away with the check in DRM thing, but it turns out I was wrong.  The way I now understand it is, if you have a disc and it is inserted into the Xbox, then this doesn't happen.  However if you are playing a game that does not have a disc (So anything off the marketplace then), then the Xbox will just boot you out of the game so you can do the little check-in procedure.

If you go click the link at the bottom of this thing and check out the YouTube video in the article, it LOOKS like they were between matches or something, I'm not sure I've not played the new KI, so it looks more inconvenient than anything else, but this might seriously have an impact on Killer Instinct making an appearance at something like EVO, because I'm sure both tournament organisers and players won't be happy if the Xbox decides that it wants to do it's little DRM check during a battle.  I'm sure someone would be pissed if they were winning a match that's stopped due to DRM, then they lose their mojo and get trounced in the re-match; that shit ain't fair.

But even if your not into fighting games or the competitive gaming scene, it's STILL a problem.  Imagine if a little way down the line something like an RPG comes out on the marketplace.  Imagine if this RPG doesn't have checkpoints or something bullshit like that, it just has good old fashioned save spots.  Then imagine if you're doing a dungeon, a long dungeon, maybe the final one, you're near the end and you're having a hard time making it through but just before you can go fight the final boss BAM! DRM check kicks in an you lose all that progress for fucking nothing.  I wouldn't be too happy about that if it was me.

This is even going to have an impact on people who enjoy speed running because during a good run you don't want to have all that effort killed because of something you can't control.  If there are multi platform digital distribution games that look good for a speed runner, they will more than likely go buy it on a system that doesn't threaten to kick you out if you don't confirm you own it every 24 hours or whatever it is.

So yeah, more next generation disappointment.  Microsoft need to sort their shit out, I thought this DRM check in stuff was done with, but now it's here just ruining fighting game tournaments and being a bit of a bastard.

Here's the link to the original article I heard this on.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Xbox-One-24-Hour-Check-DRM-Returns-During-Killer-Instinct-Tournament-61114.html

I'm not dead! Just a bit sick! Silent Bomber 14 and other updates

If you're wondering why there hasn't been any content for the past few days, it's because it was my birthday....and then I got a bit sick.  But I've recovered now so I'm back in the driving seat and ready to chat shit about video games once again.

First things first, let me provide you with new video content to enjoy!

Then I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the charity! 

At the time of writing this post there is £956 sitting in the tracker, we're only a little tiny bit away from making the £1000 goal.  Once my Christmas holiday kicks in at the end of the week, I'll see if I can do anything about getting a few more incentives up to maybe get the goal met before the end of the new year, so keep an eye out on that side bar.

Then the stream.  On Monday the 23rd there will be the Tomba marathon, so hopefully we can get some donations during that.  Also starting from tomorrow I'll be starting my new Speed Run project of Ys for the PC, so if you enjoy those games that'll be worth watching.  Starting with casual runs as I have no idea about a decent route for a speed run just yet, but all in good time.

As far as YouTube is concerned, the Silent Bomber play through will be finishing soon and I'm hoping to record some new ones really soon.  Also I have an idea for a show on coin-op gaming in the works but the people I plan to record it with are currently busy doing Christmas stuff, so that might not get done till mid January at the earliest.

Finally it's business as usual for the blog, just me writing about crap and getting angry at stupid bullshit every so often.

So yeah, now that I'm a year older and not sick anymore, we can return to a decent flow of content again!  Thank's for your patience.

Personal Best Double Bill

My speed running skills have been getting better and better over the last few days!

Yesterday I streamed some speed runs of Hotline Miami live and ended up getting a new personal best time and then this morning I streamed some They Bleed Pixels and got a new personal best time in that as well! 

So right now, I'm sharing the runs with you for your viewing pleasure.  They don't come anywhere near any records but I'm quite proud of them, so even if you only watch a few minutes of it I'll be happy

Glitches and Cheating: A Short Speed Run Rant

Never would I have thought in my life that idiots on the internet would get to me as much as they have with this one, here we go!

Speed Running is a thing I have enjoyed watching for a pretty long time, but only very recently have I got into trying to do them myself.  If you look a few posts down from this one you'll be able to see the first full run I've put on They Bleed Pixels.

Anyway, no matter if you're into speed running or not, as long as you're into games like Half Life and stuff, chances are you have seen the insane runs from a group of people going under the banner of Sourceruns on YouTube.  Their Half Life 2 and Portal speed runs are insanely good and between them they have managed to produce some really good times.

Now if you hop on YouTube and watch these runs, you may noticed that they are glitched to shit.  Lot's of accelerated jumping round levels, going out of bounds and all sorts of funky stuff that allows them to beat the game as fast as they do, but this is where the problem lies. 

It's not just these Half Life runs, it's basically ever speed run that involves glitches ever but there is always some moron in a comments section complaining about how "the run isn't legit! they used so many glitches!  They are just cheating!"  This is complete horseshit and I'm going to explain to you people why.

First of all, what's the point of a Speed Run?  Well it's to get to the end of the game as fast as you possibly can without cheating or modifying the game in any way.  This has of course evolved over time so generally speaking, what's known as "any%" runs will be extremely glitched out in a lot of cases while "100%" may not be as glitchy, or glitches will be used to make certain goals faster rather than skipping huge chunks of the game.  This is not the same as cheating, such as using codes or other tools like game shark to give yourself an advantage in order to beat the game.

A good example of this difference really, is with Sonic speed runs.  If you've ever watched a Sonic run you'll see the runner zipping his way through the walls of the levels to reach the end of the stage as fast as possible.  This is NOT the same as using a level select code or level skip code or a no clip in a game genie password or some shit because you still have to actually PLAY the level.  There is a degree of skill required to shove yourself inside a wall at just the right pixel and at just the right speed in order to make the zip happen, and the only thing making is happen is you and the controller.  THAT'S the difference between cheating and glitching.

So bottom line really is if you're going to pass judgements on people's Speed Runs, clue yourself in on how fucking Speed Running works before you start slamming the keyboard with your stupid hands.  A lot of work goes into these runs and its infuriating to see people dismiss them for such a stupid fucking reason.  If you don't like Speed Running, then fine, but don't shit on other people just because people are enjoying games in a way that you couldn't even begin to understand.

Goddamnit

I streamed a Speed Run! and filmed it!

Well I just finished streaming a run of They Bleed Pixels.  I managed to do the whole game in 43 minutes 21 seconds.  Doesn't quite match my personal best time but I'm glad to finally have a speed run up on YouTube. 

You can view it here

Enjoy!

Speed Running: The Greatest and Most Depressing Hobby

Right, I'm quite busy today so instead of talking about a specific title or ranting on industry bullshit I'm going to say something quick about my new love with speed running.

Recently I've been trying to get into this whole thing and the game I chose to break myself in was They Bleed Pixels on Steam, if you have been watching the play through you've probably heard me mention it a few times.

The thing is though, Speed Running is both a greatly satisfying and greatly depressing little past time and I'll explain why.  What's great about getting into speed running is that you get a lot of replayability out of your game.  Ironically, do to the game really fast you have to play it over and over for hours and hours so you can get quite a lot of length out of quite a short game if you start trying to speed run it.  Also the feeling of setting a new personal best time is amazing, when you come to the end of a run and you see that you were faster than you were a few days ago, it's a great feeling.

On the flip side though, for They Bleed Pixels at least, most runs can end up dead before you even hit the halfway point in the game.  A small mistake can cost you a lot of time and if you're losing lots of time then you may as well just start over.  What's even worse is if you get quite far and you're having a good time then suddenly you screw up and all your effort goes right down the drain.  It's one of those things that just makes you want punch a hole through your computer monitor and rip your controller in half.

Luckily there have been no hardware casualties yet during my efforts but I'm going to assume as I take up a couple more games, something will get broken at some point whether through constant use or extreme frustration.  Still, if you find that the games you're dropping your hard earned cash on are a bit on the short side and leaving you disappointed, take up speed running, it's a great way to extend the life of a title and you may even make a few friends with the friendly communities that are out there.

Once I finish the playthrough I'll upload a They Bleed Pixels speed run attempt of my own, so keep an eye out.

Summer Games Done Quick starts TODAY!

If you've been keeping up with the stream then you may have heard me say that I'm not going to be doing anything for the next few days and that's because of another marathon that starts tonight done by a group that could raise far more money than I ever could.

Speed Demos Archive is doing their yearly summer marathon called Summer Games Done Quick, where they plan to play through about 75 games over the course of 5 days in the hopes of  raising a large amount of money for the Doctors Without Borders charity.

You can watch the stream here

http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/

and I think that you should go watch these guys even if you've never watched Speed Running before.  After all, it was the success of Awesome Games Done Quick that inspired me to start my own charity gaming effort and they put on way more displays of skill than I do so fire it up and show some love.  If it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't be doing this right now so it's time to show some appreciation

I'm Going to Italy!

Right! For reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with video games, on Saturday I shall be leaving my home in Sweden to go and spend a few days in Italy.  The only reason I thought I'd make this post is so that people don't FREAK OUT if I can't get the time or connecting to update the blog with while I'm there.

So tomorrow I'll be uploading another episode of They Bleed Pixels and we are still on for our 24 hour stream of Final Fantasy games on the 20th, so get your donation wallets ready and prepare for that one.

Also my speed run times are getting smaller by the day, so once I start getting times under an hour, I'll start streaming that too.

If we're lucky the Steam Sale might have started by the time I get back....

An article on Speed Running....On another website!

Today I'm posting an article I wrote about my experiences getting into the world of Speed Running with They Bleed Pixels but this time I'm not posting it on the blog, I'm posting it on a website called Kinda Awesome.

While not primarily a gaming site, there is a lot of gaming stuff on there but their writers cover all sorts of topics.  Recently they have very kindly invited me to do some guest writing for me, so this little article on Speed Running is my first post for them.

I don't want anyone to worry that I'm giving up on Identity Gaming because they have very kindly said that they have no problem with me doing my own thing and writing for them on the side.  So once you've read my article, go and have a click around their site, they are cool people who write some good stuff so give it a look.

So here begins a hopefully long and healthy partnership with the guys at Kinda Awesome! Here are the links to their site and my article

THE SITE!
http://kindawesome.com/

MY ARTICLE!
http://kindawesome.com/?p=1524

Speed Running

With the end of the great Speed Demos Archive charity marathon, I thought I'd take a brief moment to talk about Speed Running.

Even though this sort of thing seems like basic knowledge to me, I know a staggering amount of people who don't really know what speed running is all about.  Speed Running, as you can probably tell from the name, is the art of beating a game as quickly as possible.  Some people have asked me "how can it possibly be fun to play a game like that?" Well, it's not exactly the kind of thing you can do the first time round, so you still get to experience the game as is on your first go.  The fun comes from trying to figure out tricks to shave that time down.  It might be something as simple as finding the most efficient way to move the character, or something really awesome like going out of the game boundaries.

The most awesome thing I saw on the stream was a guy who beat Ocarina of Time in 22 minutes by fooling the game into placing him in the final encounter after the first dungeon.  It required an immense amount of technical knowledge and it was super impressive to see pulled off right before my eyes.

My Speed Running experience however, is rather limited.  I tried to put one together for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, but gave up due to my move to Japan.  That said, I've been thinking about putting a run together on Biohazard with a friend just for the funsies, so maybe one day you'll get to see how that turns out.

In short, speed running is awesome, look up some videos!