How bad is it?

[Starstream 182]

I've recently started to pick up making commentated playthroughs again, but there is one thing that has been bothering me. It's not exactly hard to tell that I have an accent, and I was wondering just how detrimental it is to my videos.

 

Other than that, how good/bad is my actual commentary? I'm looking to improve, so critique on that would be appreciated.

 

 

[Azura 1,107]

Nice accent you got there Zhinzo. Just keep it up and you'll do just fine.

 

Sorry but I don't have any advice after watching your video, though having an intro and an outro will make your videos just a little bit more epic.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

I like it. I find your commentary to be just fine, don't worry about it. And, also, I have liked the videos and subscribed to your channel.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Starstream 182]

Sorry but I don't have any advice after watching your video, though having an intro and an outro will make your videos just a little bit more epic.

 Thank you, and I'll definitely keep that in mind. I'd just need an idea for one first.

 

And, also, I have liked the videos and subscribed to your channel.

 

Oh... uhm... Great... hehe... no pressure... 

(Seriously though, thank you, and your gesture is much appreciated.)

Edited February 28, 2013 by Zhinzo

[Swick (ded) 436]

Nice videos so far! I have one comment, though: you need to be more enthusiastic, or your audience will get bored. Make them laugh, keep their attention. That's how you get subscribers. Not that I'm an expert or anything. Also, I could made the intro and outro Cloud Chaser mentioned earlier, if you'd like.

[GrooveBroove 680]

I think you have a pretty good voice for this man.

If anything just stray off a bit from saying "uh",but then again when you aren't working off a script and such I can understand how hard that can be.

[Starstream 182]

Nice videos so far! I have one comment, though: you need to be more enthusiastic, or your audience will get bored. Make them laugh, keep their attention. That's how you get subscribers. Not that I'm an expert or anything. Also, I could made the intro and outro Cloud Chaser mentioned earlier, if you'd like.

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that I sound pretty darn dull, I'll try to work on my energy a bit.

 

As for your offer, I'd gladly accept it, buuuut... I can be pretty nitpicky and I wouldn't want to put you through the hell that is satisfying my requests.

 

 

 

I think you have a pretty good voice for this man.

If anything just stray off a bit from saying "uh",but then again when you aren't working off a script and such I can understand how hard that can be.

Yeah, when I went through the footage I noticed that too. Funny story, I actually actively tried to avoid it, but I guess it slipped through more than I first noticed.

[Swick (ded) 436]

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that I sound pretty darn dull, I'll try to work on my energy a bit.

 

As for your offer, I'd gladly accept it, buuuut... I can be pretty nitpicky and I wouldn't want to put you through the hell that is satisfying my requests.

What kind of ideas do you have? I mean,I'm not the best at animating, but I'm not too bad, either. If you give me an idea, I'll tell you if I can do it.

[Fhaolan 4,468]

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that I sound pretty darn dull, I'll try to work on my energy a bit.

 

It's one of the reasons why a lot of reviewers go the 'angry' route. It's easier to maintain comical rage for the duration of a review, especially if they gear what they review towards stuff that will generate said rage.

[Starstream 182]

It's one of the reasons why a lot of reviewers go the 'angry' route. It's easier to maintain comical rage for the duration of a review, especially if they gear what they review towards stuff that will generate said rage.

This is just my opinion, but "rage does not a review make!" It's okay to hate a game, but there is such a thing as too much. For me it becomes very stilted, very quickly when someone is screaming the same three points over and over when talking about how bad something about a game is.

 

Even the bad things about a game can be told in a reasonable way, and just because a game is universally hated is not an excuse to start a hate rant on it. Even the Angry video game nerd, who is possibly the biggest name in that genre of reviewing, tries to sound like a reasonable person in his reviews. (Whether or not he is successful at this is open for interpretation.)

 

Trying to pull this subject back to me for a moment, (because I'm an egotist and I love talking about myself,) I have no intention of making an angry review or playthrough because... well... that would be lying. I'm not an angry person and I don't get angry from playing games. At most I'd get bored or annoyed, and that (for me) is no reason to rage. I play the games/series I love, and if I can manage to convince at least one person to try a game out, or look at it in a more positive way I consider that a success. That having been said... I still need some (read: "a lot") of practice.

[Flying Space Badger 84]

As a fellow youtuber, I can honestly say I do like your voice quality. The main thing to remember is do not, under any circumstances, do LPs of games you really don't enjoy. Nothing turns a viewer off faster than some one that is not having fun!

 

But yeah, as others have said, the Uhm's and Uh's are a thing to watch. Heck, I have issues with them when I have no real idea what I am doing in a game. Anyway, keep up the effort and make sure you are having fun! To help with sounding more energetic, try forcing your opening to be a bit faster paced, and attempt to maintain that pace for the duration.

 

Also, is it possible for you to record at a higher resolution? Rule of thumb is generally no less than 720p.

[Zygen 6,065]

Well I did some youtube videos a while back, and after watching a bit of your videos you seem to be doing pretty good(Your accent is pretty cool ) and your doing good overall, I guess maybe just try your very best to avoid using Um, uh or anything like that, its really hard but it makes things flow much better, takes a HECK of alot of practice for most people though.

 

Also maybe try to exaggerate your energy, even if your not quite as excited about something you want to exaggerate to some degree, your entertaining afterall so you kinda have to have more energy then you'd think. Try not to overdo it, or to underdo it, with some practice you can normally find the middle road.

 

You look off to a great start so far! I wish you the best of luck!

Edited March 5, 2013 by Zygen

[Starstream 182]

 

Also, is it possible for you to record at a higher resolution? Rule of thumb is generally no less than 720p.

 

The games in question are PSP and GBA games. The native resolution that the PSP outputs is 480x272p, and the native resolution that the GBA outputs is 240x160p. There is nothing I can do to change that. I can stretch the windows to 720p, but that's not magically going to make it HD, the games and the hardware simply aren't designed for that.

 

That having been said, for the GBA I am using an emulator, and that emulator has an option to slightly sharpen the upscaled resolution of a stretched window, but that option also really brings out the pixelation of the small, GBA built games, and the animation tends to act a bit weird when I use it. I haven't been able to find an interlaced scanning option to negate that, so I tend to avoid using the sharpen filter.

 

For the PSP however I'm running the games straight from my console. I'm not using an emulator, so I can't use any tricks with that. 480p is the maximum output resolution and I have no way of changing that.

 

The final thing I want to say is that the RAW footage I have on my hard drive looks a lot more crisp than what you're seeing on youtube. I'm not quite sure what causes the videos to be so muddy when uploaded but I suspect that it has something to do with the way youtube compresses video to their streaming format to reduce file size.

[Flying Space Badger 84]

Ah, yeah. I did not take into account that those were games designed for hand helds, even though it was clearly shown in the video. Mechanical reasons are reason enough to be sure!

[Starstream 182]

What kind of ideas do you have? I mean,I'm not the best at animating, but I'm not too bad, either. If you give me an idea, I'll tell you if I can do it.

I have to think about that for a while. Thanks for the offer. I'll have to work out the specifics of what I want and then I'll PM you later, once I'm done with that.

[Display Name 448]

Honestly, i didn't watch the video. My internet is being a fart right now.

 

But i'v tried doing commentaries before, but just ended up deleting the video before i started editing it. Either my voice sounds weird, or the game-play is just upright boring. That's why i'v just been making Left 4 Dead 2 mods and uploading those to YouTube instead of making Lets Play's. Trust me, Lets Play's are a pain in the butt to make. Either the editing, or the replay value of the video. But i do wish you luck on future Lets Play videos! Brohoof bro! /)

 

I just did this video tonight, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k8PPmzotbU and it is terrible. :/

Edited March 5, 2013 by KToadstool

[PoniesPlease 365]

Holy Moley! I loved Monster Hunter! I cannot, for the life of me, beat that one giant crab that attacks the fort though. 

 

Ah well, your commentary is understandable, and that should be enough for a commentary, no?

[Starstream 182]

Either my voice sounds weird, or the game-play is just upright boring.

 

Here are some things that impact how you hear yourself and why it almost always sounds bad (until you get used to the sound of your own voice).

 

 

"When you talk a lot of the sound travels through the bone and flesh of your head to directly vibrate your inner ear. This gives it a different sound than if you just heard it through the air like when other people speak, or when you hear your voice through a recording."

"There's probably a psychological element as well, where while you are speaking you are also thinking about what you are saying and this factor might influence how you hear yourself. But when you hear a recording of your voice you are hearing it out of mental context and in its pure form like everyone else."

 

Anywho, I'm sure you sound better than you give yourself credit for, it's just that you are used to hearing yourself differently.

 

Brohoof acknowledged! /)*(\

 

 

Holy Moley! I loved Monster Hunter! I cannot, for the life of me, beat that one giant crab that attacks the fort though. 

 

Not sure if you still play, but if you do:

 

Preparations:

- Get a quake resistant armor set and upgrade the defense. (The Blangonga armor should do just fine.)

- A fire elemental weapon helps wonders.

- Stack up on every possible type of health restoring potion, a farcaster, and supplies to make another 2 to 3 farcasters.

- Optionally you can take armorskin and demondrug potions with you to temporarily increase attack and defence.

 

The battle:

- Run up to where Gaoren (the crab) appears and drink one of both armorskin and demondrug potions.

- Start hitting a leg until it fully turns red. (there are two stages of "redness" you should be able to tell if you see it.)

- While hitting look out for his walking animation, if he hits you it can really hurt. he takes a step with each leg in turn, and he does so in a set order, so it shouldn't be too hard to avoid if you know what you're looking out for.

- When you're done with one leg move on to the next one and repeat until all of them are fully red.

- When they are fully red Gaoren's body should fall to the ground. If you get hit by this it damages you, so when this happens you'd best roll away.

- His head is his weak spot and he receives a lot more damage through it than on any other place on this body, so start hitting him there while you can.

- Once he starts walking again you should go back to taking down his legs.

- If he ever bends over to grab the fortress you should use a farcaster and run to activate "The dragonator". (The switch that activates the massive spike cannon atop the fortress.)

- Don't worry too much about him not dying, your mission is merely to stop him from attacking the fortress. If the time for the mission runs out and you've done enough damage (I believe 70% of his health) Gaoren retreats and it counts as a successful mission so long as the fortress is still standing.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Zhinzo

[PoniesPlease 365]

Here are some things that impact how you hear yourself and why it almost always sounds bad (until you get used to the sound of your own voice).

 

 

 

Anywho, I'm sure you sound better than you give yourself credit for, it's just that you are used to hearing yourself differently.

 

Brohoof acknowledged! /)*(\

 

 

Not sure if you still play, but if you do:

 

Preparations:

- Get a quake resistant armor set and upgrade the defense. (The Blangonga armor should do just fine.)

- A fire elemental weapon helps wonders.

- Stack up on every possible type of health restoring potion, a farcaster, and supplies to make another 2 to 3 farcasters.

- Optionally you can take armorskin and demondrug potions with you to temporarily increase attack and defence.

 

The battle:

- Run up to where Gaoren (the crab) appears and drink one of both armorskin and demondrug potions.

- Start hitting a leg until it fully turns red. (there are two stages of "redness" you should be able to tell if you see it.)

- While hitting look out for his walking animation, if he hits you it can really hurt. he takes a step with each leg in turn, and he does so in a set order, so it shouldn't be too hard to avoid if you know what you're looking out for.

- When you're done with one leg move on to the next one and repeat until all of them are fully red.

- When they are fully red Gaoren's body should fall to the ground. If you get hit by this it damages you, so when this happens you'd best roll away.

- His head is his weak spot and he receives a lot more damage through it than on any other place on this body, so start hitting him there while you can.

- Once he starts walking again you should go back to taking down his legs.

- If he ever bends over to grab the fortress you should use a farcaster and run to activate "The dragonator". (The switch that activates the massive spike cannon atop the fortress.)

- Don't worry too much about him not dying, your mission is merely to stop him from attacking the fortress. If the time for the mission runs out and you've done enough damage (I believe 70% of his health) Gaoren retreats and it counts as a successful mission so long as the fortress is still standing.

Aha! I'd been trying the Bowgun method, but I've always sucked with them. Is there a way to tell how much health he is on? And how important is "The Dragonator"?

[Starstream 182]

Aha! I'd been trying the Bowgun method, but I've always sucked with them. Is there a way to tell how much health he is on? And how important is "The Dragonator"?

Bowguns, while great support weapons, tend to take a bit longer in dealing damage than close range weapons. While I don't think there is a way to tell how much health Gaoren is at, a rule of thumb is: "if the fortress' health is still high then you're dealing enough damage".

 

The dragonator is an awesome aid for any fight. I forget the exact values, but I believe The dragonator does multiple hits of 255 damage for a maximum of 1020 damage if all hits connect properly. (High rank) Weapons I believe deal roughly 15 to 40 elementless damage and 4 to 10 elemental damage depending on the weapon, attack, and what part of the body you hit. It also always causes the hit monster to flinch out of any attack animation and it resets their attack pattern, so it's a good idea to counter them when they plan to attack the fortress you're protecting with a well timed Dragonator hit to save a lot of time and effort.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Zhinzo

[Starstream 182]

@@PoniesPlease,

I apologise deeply. In my haste to give you advice I gave you some incorrect information. I made a little something to ammend for my previous mistake, I hope it'll be helpful.