Prodeus: The Staff Pick Custom Map Bonanza! Part 2/2 (CC Commentary) @Naceo

Naceo The mappers, more experienced. The maps, more confident. The player hostility, through the frikin' roof. This is about to get fun.
Closed captioned commentary contributed for cool compadres.

Part 2 of an epic 2 parter. Catch the first one here: youtu.be/WehyigIctBc

All maps completed deathless on Ultra Hard
00:00 Archology by iori_dyson
0:11:51 Warzone by ScreamingSkull
0:20:31 Maximum Menace by Vladd
0:37:16 Anguish Protocol by Bunnymauler
0:56:38 Blood Feast by Prometheus_SD7
1:21:15 Old Outpost by ScreamingSkull
1:33:47 Firebase Kodai by Grays
1:48:03 Odium by alonelytaco
1:59:10 Retail Therapy by Paws
2:15:34 Cryogenics by Droitos420
2:22:29 Apostasy by Bunnymauler
2:42:45 Mayhem Mansion by Shotup
2:48:48 Satellite Facility by Godot2000
2:58:36 Xtal Site 02 by iori_dyson
3:11:43 The Slipgate Complation by PuLSaR
3:22:32 Berserker by Bunnymauler
3:37:44 Hanger V2 by iori_dyson
3:39:48 Staging Area by Prometheus_SD7
3:44:08 Slice and Crush by Thomacle
3:54:37 TEK DITCH by ShockaPopOne
4:15:58 Trial:PlasmaArc by Sean Gunnery
4:18:17 Acid Base by Droitos420
4:29:15 Clutch by Aircawn
4:44:28 Carnage is the Cure by Keipu7776
5:02:19 Thrall by Bunnymauler
5:28:09 The Journey by Djack
5:41:21 Bruteforce by PALPUS
5:57:24 The London Underground by FuntCase
6:08:39 End of the Line by iori_dyson
6:28:23 Hollywood! by DOOM-MARINE
6:35:51 Credits

updated 3 years ago

Prodeus: The Staff Pick Custom Map Bonanza! Part 2/2 (CC Commentary)

Naceo 2023-06-06 | The mappers, more experienced. The maps, more confident. The player hostility, through the frikin' roof. This is about to get fun.
Closed captioned commentary contributed for cool compadres.

Part 2 of an epic 2 parter. Catch the first one here: youtu.be/WehyigIctBc

All maps completed deathless on Ultra Hard
00:00 Archology by iori_dyson
0:11:51 Warzone by ScreamingSkull
0:20:31 Maximum Menace by Vladd
0:37:16 Anguish Protocol by Bunnymauler
0:56:38 Blood Feast by Prometheus_SD7
1:21:15 Old Outpost by ScreamingSkull
1:33:47 Firebase Kodai by Grays
1:48:03 Odium by alonelytaco
1:59:10 Retail Therapy by Paws
2:15:34 Cryogenics by Droitos420
2:22:29 Apostasy by Bunnymauler
2:42:45 Mayhem Mansion by Shotup
2:48:48 Satellite Facility by Godot2000
2:58:36 Xtal Site 02 by iori_dyson
3:11:43 The Slipgate Complation by PuLSaR
3:22:32 Berserker by Bunnymauler
3:37:44 Hanger V2 by iori_dyson
3:39:48 Staging Area by Prometheus_SD7
3:44:08 Slice and Crush by Thomacle
3:54:37 TEK DITCH by ShockaPopOne
4:15:58 Trial:PlasmaArc by Sean Gunnery
4:18:17 Acid Base by Droitos420
4:29:15 Clutch by Aircawn
4:44:28 Carnage is the Cure by Keipu7776
5:02:19 Thrall by Bunnymauler
5:28:09 The Journey by Djack
5:41:21 Bruteforce by PALPUS
5:57:24 The London Underground by FuntCase
6:08:39 End of the Line by iori_dyson
6:28:23 Hollywood! by DOOM-MARINE
6:35:51 Credits

System Shock Remake (2023): Press Button to Laser the Earth

Naceo 2023-05-31 | Some buttons you just gotta press...

Video patched to Version 2.0: Thoroughly embellished YouTube Closed Captions added.

Prodeus: The Staff Pick Custom Map Bonanza! Part 1/2 (CC Commentary)

Naceo 2023-05-06 | Extra commentary in the Closed Captions for cool and attractive people.
Part 2!: youtu.be/0U8APWgJoYQ
The thought process went like this: Wanna do a Prodeus playthough but the main campaign has already been beaten to heck and gone and documented.
But what about that other Marquee feature of the game, it's powerful map editor and built in workshop?
Cool, but there's like hundreds of maps. Where do I draw the line?
How about sticking with the maps marked with the Staff Pick seal of approval?
Neet'o! That's still over 50 maps and will take freaking weeks play, render, upload, and comment.
Quiet you! We're doing this!
Send help...

All maps completed deathless on Ultra Hard
Chapter List
00:00 Intro
0:00:41 Cold Storage by Dharma Creed
0:09:36 Doom (2016) Intro by Zexxy
0:13:07 Waste Processing by Remmirath
0:25:09 The Cursed Airship by Dandi8
0:38:56 Ancient Evil by Dandi8
0:50:42 Processing by Dhrama Creed
0:56:25 MC-Log Rolling by aircawn
0:58:46 Nuclear Plant (E1M2) by HarbingerDawn
1:04:01 The KLF by aircawn
1:12:24 The One Room Level by ENels242
1:17:27 MC - The True Addiction by Twizzy
1:26:52 Transit by Paws
1:36:26 Ethereal Shard 02 by Shadesmaster
1:45:22 Thermal by Nebiont
1:54:03 Neon Lockdown by Dandi8
2:07:08 Outer Base by furyweb
2:13:15 Truck Surfer Origins by Rob Salmon
2:18:33 Altitude by Paws
2:34:57 Cinis Ignei by TheSpoopiestBerry
3:04:42 Internal Disruption by Bunnymauler
3:19:42 HIVE by Lazlo
3:33:55 Extraction by Vladd
3:48:03 Mors Ultima Ratio StormCatcher.77
4:06:56 Chambers by furyweb
4:14:58 Earthworks by Aircawn
4:24:18 Vulcan Facility by PuLSaR

Overload Longplay - VR & HOTAS

Naceo 2023-03-29 | This here be Overload. Released on May 31, 2018 (holy toledos really?) by a bunch of refugees from Parallax and Volition. As such, what began life as a tunnel shooter for Descent's 20th anniversary evolved into a full-blown spiritual successor.

For those of you not in tune with the original barf-bag simulator, Descent was a first-person vehicle shooter released in 1995 that featured full polygonal 3-D environments and enemies. Old hat now days but unless your rig ran on pure nitro, Decent could bring it to its knees. You could even up the resolution to 800x600 if you wanted to give your computer a Viking funeral.

Graphics aside, Descent's real claim to fame is the player's ability to pitch, yaw, roll, and strafe in all directions referred to as Six Degrees Of Freedom (6DOF) and the level design took advantage of this. Labyrinthian took on a whole new meaning when up, down, and upside-down became valid options. Your vehicle still had limits to its rotation speed and acceleration which was key in selling the feeling of piloting a gunship rather than just no-clip slewing through the environment.

Fast-forward to 2018. Overload releases and it's basically Descent. Fly through claustrophobic bases and scrap any robotic fool dumb enough to land in your crosshairs. Along the way, uncover the mystery of what the heck this whole operation is supposed to be while rescuing anybody fortunate enough to turn themselves into popsicles before the robot revolution got to 'em (There are two endings to this game depending on whether or not you save enough cryopods).

Just like it's inspiration, the level design does have an emphasis on finding secrets and hidden caches, making good use of the cloaking and invulnerability power-ups was damn near mandatory in Descent. Those things do make an appearance here, but the real help is the addition of the upgrade system where you can find points to spend on adding permanent upgrades to your ship and weapons. Given my history of FPS games and secrets, don't expect me to get all of them.

I'll be playing on the Ace difficulty because I don't truly hate myself yet. In addition, got the ol' VR bucket and Thrustmaster T.16000 setup. You wouldn't think it, but this isn't the worst when it comes to simulator sickness. Cockpit games always have a mostly stationery frame of reference so that helps a ton. It does help that you can look where you are going when strafing and tri-cording (combining all your movement vectors to achieve max speed). The bigger issue is that manipulating 6DOF on a HOTAS setup does get my hands pretty knackered after a couple of hours.

For controls Pitch, roll and yaw is on my main stick + twist. Foward/Back on the main throttle, strafe left/right on the throttle rocker and strafe up/down on the middle coolie-hat under my left thumb. Weapon selection is under the main stick Hat. Overload barrows a weapon wheel mechanic that when active slows time down which gives the player a free moment to select and gives the game a moment to show off its bazillion particle effects that makes the Unity engine cry in a corner.

Chapter list:

0:00 Intro/Mission 1 Briefing
4:32 Mission 1: Ymir Outpost
16:32 Mission 2: Briefing
20:11 Mission 2: Tarvos Outpost
28:35 Secret Level Alpha
30:36 Mission 2: Tarvos Outpost (Cont.)
37:27 Mission 3: Briefing
40:07 Mission 3: Skoll Outpost
59:04 Mission 4: Briefing
1:01:36 Mission 4: Phoebe Refinery
1:09:58 Secret Level Beta
1:12:32 Mission 4: Phoebe Refinery (Cont.)
1:25:02 Mission 5: Briefing
1:28:11 Mission 5: Phoebe Complex
1:49:51 Mission 6: Briefing
1:52:20 Mission 6: Titan Observatory
2:19:33 Mission 7: Briefing
2:22:30 Mission 7: Titan Workshop
2:54:36 Mission 8: Briefing
2:56:42 Mission 8: Titan Forge
3:24:21 Mission 9: Briefing
3:26:55 Mission 9: Titan Collider
4:00:40 Mission 10: Briefing
4:03:30 Mission 10: Titan Harbor
4:24:54 Mission 11: Briefing
4:28:46 Mission 11: Tethys Lab
5:04:10 Mission 12: Briefing
5:06:33 Mission 12: Enceladus Depot
5:37:43 Through the Portal
5:39:01 Mission 13: Cygnusoria
5:52:43 Pilot's Log - Kodachi Gunship
5:53:54 Mission 14: Lyranicus
6:15:31 A Tale of Three Queens
6:19:13 Mission 15: Vulpecular
6:36:48 Return to Yimr
6:37:34 Mission 16: Yimrus
6:42:55 Beale Ending
6:44:28 Credits

Project Wingman Longplay - VR & HOTAS

Naceo 2023-03-18 | Released on December 1st, 2020, Project Wingman is the love letter to the Ace Combat series from what is mostly a one-man effort from Abi "RB-D2" Rahmani. He may have had additional help from writer Matthew Nguyen as well as from composer Jose Pavli dropping the greatest soundtrack this side of the Holy Trinity.

If you need it spelled out for you, Project Wingman is an action flight combat game where you take control of a contemporary fighter jet armed with a near limitless supply of ordinance, are pointed toward a group of targets and told it to stick it to 'em sideways. Repeat until the world is saved/boned/whatever.

For the resources it had, Project Wingman gets just about as much right as it possibly could. The action is smooth and controls well. Heavy enough to sell the feeling of piloting an aircraft and so that small inputs are not a hassle while still being able to flip around at a reasonable pace. Hit detection is on the generous side which help keeps the gun a viable offensive option. A proper godsend since your missiles will tend to wiff on anything that is flying slightly perpendicular to you. Regardless, few things can match zipping around the battlespace at Mach stupid blasting the bajesus out of everything in a 40-mile radius.

As for the presentation, the plot and setting does the job well enough. The rando voice acting nails the omnipresent cheese-ridden overacting chatter vibe that dominates the Ace Combat series, silly reads and all. What really ties it all together is the pre-requsite banger of a soundtrack from Jose Pavli that gets a thumbs up from mission 1 and just keeps going from there. I say pre-requsite because show me a flight action game that doesn't have a good soundtrack and I'll show you a flight action game that sucks.

As advertised, this playthrough was done on with my trusty Thrustmaster T.16000m + Throttle and VR bucket (Oculus Rift S) strapped to my head. The game is ran through on hard because:
1: The Mercenary difficulty is locked out until you beat the game.
2: Mercenary with its target rich environment kind of mandates you use the high-end super prototypes which kind of flips the difficulty back to being too easy. Also, every mission becomes samey so a fresh Hard playthrough ends up being better for variety's sake.

At least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Chapter List
0:00 Intro
1:46 (Briefing) Mission 1: Black Flag
4:55 Mission 1: Black Flag
14:43 (Briefing) Mission 2: Frontiers
18:48 Mission 2: Frontiers
28:22 (Briefing) Mission 3: Homestead
32:20 Mission 3: Homestead
44:49 (Briefing) Mission 4: Uphill, Every Way
48:19 Mission 4: Uphill, Every Way
1:00:19 (Briefing) Mission 5: Sirens Of Defeat
1:03:06 Mission 5: Sirens Of Defeat
1:17:52 (Briefing) Mission 6: Machine Of The Mantle
1:21:05 Mission 6: Machine Of The Mantle
1:36:01 (Briefing) Mission 7: Eminent Domain
1:38:35 Mission 7: Eminent Domain
1:55:23 (Briefing) Mission 8: Clear Skies
1:58:02 Mission 8: Clear Skies
2:10:10 (Briefing) Mission 9: Stepping Stone
2:13:12 Mission 9: Stepping Stone
2:23:06 (Briefing) Mission 10: Pillars Of Communicatons
2:25:39 Mission 10: Pillars Of Communicatons
2:37:27 (Briefing) Mission 11: Cold War
2:40:06 Mission 11: Cold War
2:58:26 (Briefing) Mission 12: Midnight Light
3:00:42 Mission 12: Midnight Light
3:11:32 (Briefing) Mission 13: Valkyrie's Call
3:14:58 Mission 13: Valkyrie's Call
3:27:25 (Briefing) Mission 14: Open Season
3:30:04 Mission 14: Open Season
3:40:13 (Briefing) Mission 15: Consequence of Power
3:42:46 Mission 15: Consequence of Power
3:55:04 Mission 16: Wayback
4:01:33 The Deal
4:07:35 (Briefing) Mission 17: No Respite
4:10:33 Mission 17: No Respite
4:18:10 (Briefing) Mission 18: Return
4:21:30 Mission 18: Return
4:29:40 (Briefing) Mission 19: Red Sea
4:32:09 Mission 19: Red Sea
4:44:03 (Briefing) Mission 20: Presidia
4:47:41 Mission 20: Presidia
5:03:20 Mission 21: Kings

Amid Evil Longplay: Evil Difficulty - Warrior Mode & Auto Soul Mode (Closed Captioned Commentary)

Naceo 2023-03-04 | Note: Once again, you can turn on (or off) my commentary in the video's closed caption. What you do with it is up to you (Again I promise I will not think any less of you leave it off, but I will be sad).

Amid Evil released on Jun 20, 2019, caught the classic FPS revival wave of the late 2010s when multiple indie developers found that their projects where all completing roughly around the same time. The big three to come out the other end of this alive would be DUSK, Ion Fury, and this little number right here.

Classic Revivals (Or boomer shooters if you'd prefer) borrow their core loop from the FPS games of the 90s while modernizing the effort with tighter controls, fleshed out gunplay, and more modern level design. They tend to forgo things like map-wide key hunts and insta-smiting hit-scanners in the name of proper pacing and being a reasonable challenge.

Amid Evil itself takes it's beats from 1995's Hexen with its focus on magical weapons and enemies. Other than that, it uses a low pixel, low polygon aesthetic combined with modern effects provided by the Unreal Engine 4 to toss out an environment that gives the illusion of it being highly detailed. To the dev's credit, Amid Evil successfully pulls it off the vast majority of the time all while being able to run on a toaster.

Chapter List:
0:00 Introduction

Episode 1: Astral Equinox
1:55 E1M1: Selenic Stronghold
8:49 E1M2: Bastion of the Blue Moon
18:45 E1M3: Vaults of Midnight
28:24 E1M4: Lunar Sanctuary

Episode 2: Domain of the Sentinels
30:22 E2M1: Citadel of the Watchers
38:24 E2M2: Forgone Fortress
50:05 E2M3: Halls of Doom
58:42 E2M4: Sentinel's Sanctuary

Episode 3: The Sacred Path
1:02:32 E3M1: Journeyman's Way
1:14:17 E3M2: Apostle's Shrine
1:28:44 E3M3: Pilgrim's Temple
1:43:03 E3M4: Ancient Sanctuary

Episode 4: Solar Solstice
1:48:19 E4M1: The Bright Pass
1:58:57 E4M2: The Illumination Complex
2:13:07 E4M3: The Tower of Light
2:26:11 E4M4: Solar Sanctuary

Episode 5: The Forges
2:28:07 E5M1: Ruins of Rust
2:40:56 E5M2: Crucible of Pain
2:52:24 E5M3: Gauntlet of Torment
3:10:08 E5M4: Forsaken Sanctuary

Episode 6: Arcane Expanse
3:13:35 E6M1: Arcland Verge
3:27:03 E6M2: Hexed Passage
3:44:21 E6M3: The Circle
4:02:46 E6M4: Unholy Sanctuary

Episode 7: The Void
4:07:22 E7M1: Descent Into Darkness
4:18:23 E7M2: Hostile Paradox
4:27:27 E7M3: Enigma Gate
4:38:51 E7M4: Dark Heart

4:42:53 Finale + Credits

VTOL VR Multiplayer: Just Another Day (AKA: Conquering Islands For Fun and Profit!)

Naceo 2023-01-31 | An epic and thrilling adventure told in 5 acts! Ok, we all set up for disappointment? Good, Roll it!

How the heck does this performance of Claude Debussy's Clair De Lune not get youtube flagged, I have no idea. I don't know who performed the piece, but I like this slower variation of it. Picked it from Burnout's Paradise's soundtrack as me and Criterion games tend to be in sync when it comes to classical music and juxtapositional irony.

Chapter List:
0:00 Sortie 1: Clearing the Not-So-Friendly Skies
8:21 Interlude: Of SAMs and Spazroids
9:57 Sortie 2: "Performance" Issues
16:16 Sortie 3: Conquering Heroes
24:25 Sortie 4: All Hail the Cheating AI
32:52 Setting Up For One More Ride
35:02 Super Special Awesome* Cleanup Montage

Battlefield 2042: Racking up Them Frags (AKA: A Point and Click Adventure)

Naceo 2023-01-21 | Can we have the "assist counts as kill" mechanic back please? Asking for a friend here.

*Video may come up soul crushingly short of inferred 100 Eliminations due to but not limited to:
Overzealous Hind pilots
Potato gunnery
Suspect decision making (With 272 hours recorded in this game, I suppose this is a given)
Random acts of DICE

Offer not valid in EU or SEA regions.

Music:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 (Vienna Mozart Ensemble)
Kevin Riepl - Unreal Tournament 2004: Glacier

Chapter List:
0:00 The Big Friendly Whirlybird
5:38 The Little SVK That Could

Star Wars: Dark Forces - The Force Engine Longplay (Closed Captioned Commentary)

Naceo 2023-01-14 | Note: You can turn on (or off) my notes in the video's closed caption. Give it a look-see because it literally took all me all week (Or not, I promise I will not think any less of you). Also, the MIDI music is going to sound a bit different. It's being run through VirtualMIDISynth using the "Timbres of Heaven V4.0" Soundfont (a personal favorite of mine for all my MIDI needs).

This playthrough of Dark Forces was done with The Force Engine. A reversed-engineered engine rebuild designed to play Dark Forces, and in the future, Outlaws. You can read the feature highlights as well as download the latest version of the engine here: theforceengine.github.io

Star Wars: Dark Forces was released in 1995 by Lucas Arts. A 3D First Person Shooter with 2D sprites for its character models and weapons. At the time, the technical definition would be "Doom Clone" as the term FPS had yet to fall into general use.
The game is well regarded and remembered for three main reasons:
#1 Being Star Warsy as all get out.
#2 Being decidedly not crap.
#3 Kyle-Flippin-Katarn!

Well, that should do for the primer. Enjoy (Now in glorious 4K resolution)!

Chapter List:
0:00 Intro
2:05 Mission 1 - Operation Skyhook: Phase 2
7:32 Cutscene 1
11:55 Mission 2 - Talay: Tak Base
19:12 Mission 3 - Anoat City
27:35 Mission 4 - The Planet Fest
40:23 Mission 5 - Gromas Mines
47:41 Cutscene 2
48:38 Mission 6 - Imperial Detention Center, Orinackra
1:04:50 Mission 7 - Ramsees Hed Docking Port
1:16:17 Mission 8 - Robotics Construction Facility, Anteevy
1:24:52 Mission 9 - Nar Shaddaa, The Vertical City
1:33:20 Cutscene 3
1:34:37 Mission 10 - Jabba the Hutt's Ship
1:49:21 Mission 11 - Imperial City, Coruscant
2:05:14 Mission 12 - Imperial Fuel Station, Ergo
2:15:46 Mission 13 - The Executor
2:23:39 Mission 14 - The Arc Hammer
2:41:04 Ending + Credits

IL-2 Sturmovik: Bodenplatte Ironman Campaign Ep.6 - Screaming Turtles

Naceo 2022-10-28 | The 486th Glue Sniffers have their work cut out for them today. Another bomber escort and Jerry is on the front lawn.

0:00 Intro
3:25 Takeoff
5:25 The Scenic Route
9:20 Incoming!
13:00 Womp Womp
17:50 The Egress of Shame
27:00 Landing

IL-2 Sturmovik: Bodenplatte Ironman Campaign Ep.5 - Long Story Short

Naceo 2022-10-24 | Short one today for reasons... If messing up the recording wasn't bad enough, COVID also picked this month to have it's way with me so that kept me sidelined for a bit.

I should probably set more things to the Secret Weapons Over Normandy soundtrack. Michael Giacchino's work is just awesome.

Music: Secret Weapons Over Normandy - Copenhagen

IL-2 Sturmovik: Bodenplatte Ironman Campaign Ep.4 - Crate Envy

Naceo 2022-09-30 | Where we get a glimpse of a squadron that doesn't spend its free time huffing the engine exhaust of their aircraft.

Rules:
1: Ironman is on (no restarting missions)
2: All assists off except for technobabble
3: Campaign Difficulty set to Hard

0:00 Setup
3:20 Take off
6:40 Ducks in a row
15:10 Bad Company (And I can't deny)
26:19 Landing
28:17 Results

IL-2 Sturmovik: Bodenplatte Ironman Campaign Ep.3 - Flirting with Disaster

Naceo 2022-09-28 | So... the free hunts are going to be "those" missions, eh? I suppose I'm not doing myself any favors. Haven't seen questionable decision making like this since Jimmy G.

Rules:
1: Ironman is on (no restarting missions)
2: All assists off except for technobabble
3: Campaign Difficulty set to Hard

0:00 Setup
4:52 Take Off
13:45 Just admit it you doofus, you're lost!
18:40 I'm sure these Germans will help with directions
23:30 Bad to worse...
25:54 Hitting the "Nope" button
28:00 I didn't hear no bell!
29:09 Take off Round 2
35:00 The Flying Circus
47:40 Incoming!
58:00 Exfil
1:03:25 Saving friendlies for fun and profit.
1:10:40 Put one in the win column
1:13:40 "Landing"
1:15:00 Results

IL-2 Sturmovik: Bodenplatte Ironman Campaign Ep.2 - Looking for Trouble

Naceo 2022-09-25 | Spoiler Alert: Found it.
Now I totally wouldn't get shawacked in the second video, right? That would be reeeallllyyy lame.

Rules:
1: Ironman is on (no restarting missions)
2: All assists off except for technobabble
3: Campaign Difficulty set to Hard

0:00 Mission Setup
4:00 Take Off
15:55 Fighting Time!
23:30 Oopsie doodles!
30:30 Landing when my plane is owie...
32:25 Results

Prodeus Launch Stream Thingamajig

Naceo 2022-09-24 | It's launch day for Prodeus for those of you who have their ears toward the classic FPS sub-genre. So, grab your boomstick and prepare to give all sorts of nasties an impromptu rhinoplasty.

Prodeus is available on Steam, GOG, Xbox Gamepass + Gamepass for PC, and PlayStation 4+5.

0:00 Start
1:15 Intro
3:24 Sacrum
11:43 Research
18:14 Youtube Idiocy
26:24 Genesis Part 2
34:45 Shredder Trial
38:07 Excavation
47:12 Memoriam
51:17 Chaos Generator
1:00:04 Marksman
1:12:27 Custom Map - Retail Therapy

Prodeus Launch Stream Thingamajig

Naceo 2022-09-23 | It's launch day for Prodeus for those of you who have their ears toward the classic FPS sub-genre. So, grab your boomstick and prepare to give all sorts of nasties an impromptu rhinoplasty.

Prodeus is available on Steam, GOG, Xbox Gamepass + Gamepass for PC, and PlayStation 4+5.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Bodenplatte Ironman Campaign Ep.1 - The Cursed Pilot

Naceo 2022-09-23 | Not that this is meant to be easy but flying a fighter in the middle of a grand last-ditch aerial offensive is rather low on the list of fun and healthy activities. This should be interesting...

Rules:
1: Ironman is on (no restarting missions)
2: All assists off except for technobabble
3: Campaign Difficulty set to Hard

0:00 Pilot Creaton/Setup
11:00 Mission setup/Take-off
13:07 Ingress
18:41 Contact!
36:30 Exfil
51:15 Landing
53:20 Results

VTOL VR FA-26 Multiplayer | Carrier Ops (AKA: How to take over an island in 15 easy steps)

Naceo 2022-09-19 | Ohh boy. Might have been done faster if the mission maker didn't mandate that you raze every single acre of this rock. Kitchen sink mission design at its finest.

Note to self: Try not to let missions drag for so long. Running out of Strike Commander music to pull from.

0:00 Take off
4:00 Tank Jettison AKA: It's about to go down
8:25 Running Time!
12:30 Carrier Landing Horror Show
13:18 Fast Foward 1: Obsessing Over Loadout
14:18 Takeoff Round 2
15:45 Fast Foward 2: En 'route to combat zone
16:32 Moving Mud
29:09 Fast Foward 3: RTB 2
30:01 Carrier Landing Horror Show 2: Electric Boogaloo
31:04 Fast Foward 4: Re-arm, Re-Deploy
32:18 Cleanup Detail
39:15 Fast Foward 4: RTB Victory Lap
40:19 Carrier Landing 3
41:07 JUST RE-ARM AND RESPAWN YOU DERP!

VTOL VR F/A-26 Air-to-Air Quickie: When the AI has absolutely no chill

Naceo 2022-09-15 | Looks like trouble started from the word "go" here. Few things in gaming match the pucker factor of a half-dozen missiles coming at you at Mach Jesus with the express purpose of sending you to him. Having a good TWR (Thrust to Weight Ratio) is a life saver here.

Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance VR (Proving Grounds)

Naceo 2022-09-14 | It's X-Wing Alliance modded to oblivion with the 2020 Mega Patch and Version 5.5 add on. This adds a bunch of stuff that the game engine was never designed to handle. Higher quality models, wide screen resolutions, additional effects, Diegetic cockpits, multi-peripheral support, improved GPU utilization, implementation of track IR and Steam VR, all held together with what I can only assume to be black magic.

Using this to test a capture method for an idea I'm mulling over. Keep in mind that because this engine is being pushed to its absolute limit and then some, the framerate when a lot of assets are in play tends to suffer. The recent updates to the DDraw hook from user "JeremyaFR" and implemented by "BlueMax" have improved things significantly but we are still asking a lot of an engine that mainly runs on a single CPU thread.

Anywho, if you have XWA from either Steam or GOG or still have the CD's laying around, check out the XWA Upgrade site: xwaupgrade.com/index.php

0:00 X-Wing Run
4:44 A-Wing Run

VTOL VR AH-94 Multiplayer: Whirlybird Through the Dunes

Naceo 2022-09-08 | VTOL VR is about as special as it is awesome. It's blend of simplicity and complexity kind of fills that void left behind by games like A-10 Attack or any of the Novalogic games (EG: F-22 Lighting 3). Well worth the price of admission. Doubly so with the addition of multiplayer and steam workshop support about 9 months back.

What's also worth the price of admission is the AH-94 DLC which gives you a fully featured attack helo ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶a̶b̶s̶o̶l̶u̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶m̶u̶l̶l̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶S̶A̶M̶ ̶s̶i̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ to toy around with. What's even more awesome is the multiplayer support for mulitcrew allowing you to take a gunner along for the ride. Even a quarter-way decent gunner makes life a lot easier as trying to go offensive while dancing AA is easier said than done.

Sorry about the mouse cursor. Kinda hard to see what's being recorded with a box strapped over your head.

0:00 Set up/Takeoff
3:24 Fast Foward - Music: Dune (1992) Ornithopter/Warsong
4:20 Mistakes were made
5:40 Fast Foward 2 - Music: Dune (1992) Opening/Wormintr
7:00 Navigational issues
10:00 The actual mission

Wing Commander: Secret Ops Longplay

Naceo 2022-05-19 | Wing Commander: Secret Ops playthrough, completed on Nightmare difficulty.

Wing Commander: Secret Ops was released as a free downloadable stand-alone expansion to Wing Commander: Prophecy. The game is split into 7 episodes of 4-8 missions each (usually 6). Each episode was released weekly from August 27th to October 8th, 1998, on the secret ops website alongside story materials accessible with a password given at the end of the previous episode. The password and accessible story bits would change based on if you completed the episode on the winning or losing branch.

At the end of the release run, Secret Ops was re-packaged and released with Wing Commander: Prophecy Gold but the story materials were left on the website. The old website has long since been discontinued but the story materials have been archived and are available here: wcnews.com/articles/sofiction.shtml

This is played using the Good Old Games release of Wing Commander: Prophecy Gold. The GOG release of Prophecy is packaged with the NGlide 3Dfx Glide Wrapper, translating the Glide API into DirectX or Vulkan and allowing the game to render in widescreen resolutions, albeit with some buggery with the 2d HUD elements.

Chapter List:
0:00 Intro

1:54 Episode 1: Courage - Deep Black
3:16 Courage 1: The Capricious Carrier
7:47 Courage 2: Scramble / Ambush
12:34 Courage 3a: Straight On Out
20:02 Courage 4: Visit to Aunt Ella

24:22 Episode 2: Ella - Thickening
25:04 Ella 1: Fresh Start
35:23 Ella 2: Unfriendly Terms
43:00 Ella 3: Deep Strike One
50:36 Ella 4: Phase Focus
58:18 Ella 5: Back Yard Sweep
1:05:20 Ella 6: Path to Cygnus

1:10:19 Episode 3: Talos - Hide And Seek
1:11:07 Talos 1: Friends In Need
1:16:11 Talos 2a: Circumvention
1:26:46 Talos 3: Hidden Foes
1:37:04 Talos 4a: The Great Forbidden
1:43:22 Talos 5a: Deep Strike Two

1:50:15 Episode 4: Cygnus - Cygnus Triangle
1:51:07 Cygnus 1: Evaluation
1:57:04 Cygnus 2: Salvation
2:04:23 Cygnus 3: The Twilight Purchase
2:12:26 Cygnus 4a : Building Blocks
2:18:03 Cygnus 5: Rising Blocks

2:23:58 Episode 5: Luyten - Viral Legacy
2:25:01 Luyten 1: Welcoming Party
2:30:16 Luyten 2: Defensive Tactics
2:37:08 Luyten 3: Luyten Station Support
2:44:55 Luyten 4: Banded Enigma
2:54:47 Luyten 5a: Luyten Strike
3:02:50 Luyten 6a: Long Range Strike

3:15:59 Episode 6: Krieger - Duel
3:17:11 Krieger 1: Krieger Starbase
3:23:41 Krieger 2: Tactical Reposition
3:35:00 Krieger 3: Carrier Assault One
3:49:22 Krieger 4: Carrier Erasure
4:03:16 Krieger 5: Reposition Battery
4:18:26 Krieger 6: Turrets Swipe
4:24:52 Krieger 7: Final Blows
4:28:48 Krieger 8: Path To Proxima

4:39:45 Episode 7: Proxima - Finishing Stroke
4:40:39 Proxima 1a: Evasive Recon Patrol
4:46:43 Proxima 2a: Midpoint Assault
4:53:46 Proxima 3: Alien Science Crew
5:09:30 Proxima 4: Star Smasher
5:14:00 Finale/Credits

Lawbreakers Gameplay - AKA Boot to the Head: The Game

Naceo 2017-07-03 | There are a few things in gaming that gives me a unreasonable amount of joy regardless of the actual quality of the game such as the shotgun in warface, the SpinFusior in Tribes Ascend, or the 37/45mm cannons in WarThunder. Jackhammering someone against the wall with the boot in this game is certainly ranking up there though it don't nearly happens as often as I like...

Simple stuff here. Just some gameplay first with the Enforcer (as you can see, my playtime is pretty lopsided in this regard) and with the FOTM wraith. Of course I gravitated to the Enforcer as I like being able to move and having the answer to everything.

All and all, Lawbreakers is pretty damn solid though I could do with an increase in the base movement speed. Ah well, I'll take actually getting frags with the guns any day of the week.

Overload Demo - VR Gameplay

Naceo 2017-03-14 | Don't mind these guys. Just the former devs from Parallax picking up where they left off. As such, this game is looking to please any fan of the big D and they are doing a pretty respectable job of it so far.

I did have to compromise the graphics to keep a high framerate cause fricken Unity Engine + Occlus Rift = F*** YO FRAMES! = obnoxious screen tearing. Still looking good though (and I'd probably give my left nut to play Descent in VR). I do a run through of my options so you can see what I'm rolling with (My ever so trusty HOTAS X + T.16000M combo).

Positional sound in this game is also on point especially in VR. Nothing beats hearing a high squeal and looking at is source just to be rewarded with a face-full of that twin-buzzsaw bastard. That will wake ya up.

Jeez, remember when game demos where a thing? These guys sure do! Check it out: http://store.steampowered.com/app/450220

Just don't blame me when your hands turn into spaghetti.

An Inconsistently Updated: Dirt Rally VR Playthrough #2

Naceo 2017-01-15 | Turns out making your car tail happy and racing on snow is a really bad idea. Who knew.

Sweden
Stage 1: 2:10
Stage 2: 7:24
Stage 3: 11:28
Stage 4: 15:48

An Inconsistently Updated: Dirt Rally VR Playthrough #1

Naceo 2017-01-13 | Pretty much what it says on the tin. Though I like the fact that there is a unified display for video recording, what is shown isn't quite representative of my full FOV with the box strapped to my eyeballs (or I need to start playing with a permanent Kubrick stare).

Greece -
Stage 1: 6:14
Stage 2: 10:40
Stage 3: 16:27
Stage 4: 21:19

Germany -
Stage 1: 28:44
Stage 2: 33:17
Stage 3: 38:43
Stage 4: 43:50

War Thunder: Chronicles of a Oculus Rift Player (Bias of the Russian Variety)

Naceo 2016-12-13 | For some dumb reason the replay didn't save. So i guess I'll have to split the difference for now (BA DUM TISH!). As a bonus, Closed Captions are active for this video.

War Thunder: Chronicles of a Oculus Rift Player (Double Vision)

Naceo 2016-10-08 | In case the double vision and hot mic of me chatting away with my brother didn't give it away, this is more of a test of raw footage. I'll probably resort to the war thunder replay system in the future. I actually intended to go into an AB battle but I done goofed. Good thing I had the sexy OP-ness that is the P-36G on the bubble.

Anyway, I got an Oculus Rift and playing War Thunder with it is cool as all hell. Gonna have to see if I can do some tweaking on the HUD elements though.

PCSX2 - Ace Combat Zero Test (Hardware mipmapping FTW!)

Naceo 2016-09-27 | If you don't know this about me by now... I love me some Ace Combat. It's hands down my favorite series on the PS2. So I was pretty happy to find out some guy recently hacked in hardware mipmapping into the PCSX2 emulator.

What's the big deal? Well, thanks to the weird way Project Aces (as well as a few other companies) handled their textures in order to squeeze every last ounce of power out of that black box, there needs to be a mipmapping solution or it's graphical corruption ahoy! The old workaround was to just use the software renderer but as you can imagine emulation isn't cheap on the CPU, even more so when you ace out the video card. Nothing less than a government issued super computer would do.

Bottom line is, the project aces games now work pretty damn respectably on the giant hack that is the PCSX2 project... and playing with my HOTAS setup is hella frickin awesome (though I still have my Playstation 2 kicking around here).

Anywho, the process for this is to grab the latest dev build of PCSX2. Add the line "UserHacks_mipmap=1" into the GSdx.ini file. Turn on HW hacks in the the video plugin options and volia! Spend the next two hours of your life getting the damn thing to look nice cause as I said, PS2 emulation is just one giant hack.

Redout: HOTAS Gameplay

Naceo 2016-09-04 | Racing games and hovercrafts with boosters attached to them. Scientists have known years that this makes any game better. Kinda like FPS and jet-packs. Anywho, Redout is a game where you careen down a track at recklessly fast speeds and pretend like you have a say in the matter of face-planting into a wall.

As a self imposed challenge, I took off my powerups for this one (and forgone upgrades as I literally just found out about them as I was recording this video). Otherwise I'd crush the AI and this video wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

Rule of cool applies solidly here. Thus said the 360 controller emulation is surprisingly functional. I do kinda wish developers (Indie and otherwise) hadn't forgotten about Direct Input and control customization. Sure it's ancient as hell but it still works.

Goldeneye Source 5.0 - Gameplay (When Source was king)

Naceo 2016-08-13 | In case you live under a rock: Goldeneye Source is a mod project that attempts to blend the multiplayer mechanics of the N64 game with the Source engine. A simple arena shooter at it's core but one that proves that a shotgun or rocket launcher to the face never goes out of style.

Check it out here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/goldeneye-source (Yeah, no steam install and runs from an outside executable. This is old school man!). As a bonus you only need the freely available Source SDK 2007 to play.

Remember the heyday of mods (which I tend to put starting with Battlefield 1942 rolling all the way up to the first few years of half-life 2). After Desert Combat for 1942, it was like all bets were off. You could leverage an existing engine to create whatever you damn well please.

The source engine was the final hurrah of this era after which these wackos with wayyy too much time on their hands made the jump to full fledged indie development but damn was it good. Dystopia, Empires, Eternal Slience (Video is still on my channel *nudge* *nudge*), Source Forts, responsible for many many hours lost. All kinda went bye bye when steam became a full retail platform.

Kinda makes Goldeneye Source a swansong of a bygone age. Crapton of carefully constructed assets held together by the familiar movement and gun-play of the source engine. Oh and the soundtrack remixes and original music kicks ass too.

War Thunder: Chronicles of a Joystick Player (Aww... He thinks hes OP)

Naceo 2016-08-08 | News flash! The KI-100 kinda is for it's rank but nuts to that. I've got something even more broken. I also added subtitles to this one as well so hit the dern button.

War Thunder: Chronicles of a Joystick Player (The art of RB)

Naceo 2016-06-04 | If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles... Unless your enemy is a KI-43 II. Then you are proper F-ed.

War Thunder: Arcade Cockpit Challenge Redux

Naceo 2016-01-05 | Closed Captions... You know that little button next to the video settings. Press that.

Kinda like the first War Thunder gameplay video I did but without the music cause I didn't think that far ahead when I hit the shadowplay button. Feel free to supply your own but be sure to turn on "Red Naval Port" from 19XX on the 3rd match so that joke I've been planning for almost 2 years can come into fruition.

0:00 Match 1 (F6F Hellcat) - AKA: The Revenge of the HellKitty (I'm so happy this crate is not sucking anymore in AB).
10:11 Match 2 (P-36 Hawk G) - AKA: The A6M Wannabe (Though too be fair the Hawk G can kick all kinds of ass).
18:00 Match 3 (P-38 Lightning) - AKA: About Fricking Time! You lot may be tired of my old standbys so here is something new.

Tribes Ascend: Still a Thing (AKA: You remember how to Blue-Plate?)

Naceo 2015-12-14 | Put my personality in the subtitles again so turn em on if you like semi-coherent rambling (honestly it's the one bit of effort I put into these things).

Fresh off the 1.1 update, of course I'd be giving this another go.

Warface: Shotgun Space Program

Naceo 2015-10-26 | Say what you will about warface, the shotguns feel flippin amazaballs. Admittedly, the game is a hell of a lot better than it was a year ago.

Sublevel Zero: Full Run

Naceo 2015-10-15 | I never intended to get as far as I did in this run. Then something magical happened...

I cheesed the balls off this game.

War Thunder: Chronicles of a Joystick Player (The Riceball Defense)

Naceo 2015-09-10 | Now that the Ki-43s stock plane syndrome is over and done with, how does it fight when running on all cylinders? The answer will not surprise you one bit.

Oh and I have my best AB game I ever had in War Thunder. Did I forget to mention that?

War Thunder: Chronicles of a Joystick Player (KI bye)

Naceo 2015-09-09 | Video with the live gameplay: youtu.be/i1ycw70uvLE

like most Japanese aircraft, the KI-43 III is one of those aircraft that suffers from stock plane syndrome pretty hard Sometimes though, it doesn't really matter.

Planetside 2: Yet Another Sunderer Farm

Naceo 2015-09-08 | (Battle-Bus + stalled amp station attack) X x2 XP weekend = ...

Here at the New Conglomerate Cert Farming Industries, we farm the whole cert. That is 100% more cert per cert.

War Thunder: Chronicles of a Joystick Player (R-Boom!)

Naceo 2015-08-19 | Most of these guys knew better than to challenge the 37MM head-on. Therefore whatever kills I got I had to work for.

Another annoying thing about this map is that the water always makes the bitrate go through the roof and youtube hates that. Sorry about the video quality

War Thunder: Chronicles of A Joystick Player (GGGAAAMMMEEE!!!)

Naceo 2015-08-11 | I didn't quite get completely Gaijin'd , but they took a very good shot at it.

Warframe: T3 Solo survival - No abilities (Invsa-wha?)

Naceo 2015-08-11 | The fact of the matter is, any fool can run a perma-invis loki build and go as far as their guns will take them (same goes for spamming warframe powers in general as most players couldn't shoot their way out of a wet paper bag but I digress). You're practically invulnerable and no one wants to see an oblivious AI that can't defend itself. Now the new movement system in update 17 can achieve around the same effect by bolting around like a madman and it's much more entertaining to watch no?

So the mechanic here is that while you are bouncing off the walls, floors, ceilings and what have you, your enemies that are shooting at you will have a large debuff in their ability to send a projectile in the right direction. This leaves you free to glide up to them and perform a little ballistic surgery with little fear of being insta-smited (if you can keep the stunt flow going that is). In any case, it greatly expands both your defensive and offensive options.

War Thunder: Chronicles of A Joystick Player (P-36 - Reinvented)

Naceo 2015-08-04 | Fair warning, I'm pretty silent for most of this one as these matches where played while I was in TeamSpeak and didn't expect em to go anywhere. Anywho, Gaijin updated the FM for the P-36 so I'm taking it out for a spin. For those of you playing the home game, at 9:43 I start shooting at a Ju 88. Try to guess how much RP I earn off hits before he goes down.

So about the aircraft itself, the FM updates greatly improves the roll rate of the P-36 making it easier to keep your guns on target. This is good because the mixed .303 and .50 cal armament can take a age and a half to down some aircraft. Downside is that all these guns weigh the craft down a bit. It's not overloaded but it certainly isn't going anywhere in a hurry.

War Thunder: Chronicles of A Joystick Player (A6M Double Feature!)

Naceo 2015-08-02 | Second match is at 9:35. Picking the later A6M is an exercise in frustration especially if you are unfortunate enough to get a ground strike match. Everybody can outrun you without a second thought.

War Thunder: Chronicles of A Joystick Player (Really Dude?)

Naceo 2015-07-27 | Think I might be on a bit of a power trip after this one.

No I don't really know how I was able to get away with this one. Ignoring the flying buzz-saw must of been the game plan.

War Thunder: Chronicles of A Joystick Player (Clubapalooza)

Naceo 2015-07-22 | Well, the 250 kill event pretty much sealed what I was going to be doing last weekend. Here is a sample of what transpired.

Daytona USA Arcade: All Tracks - Hardest Difficutly

Naceo 2015-07-18 | Welp, I think I got a handle on this. Someone point me to the nearest Dave and Busters... or that arcade in Pelham New Hampshire. As if I haven't thrown enough tokens at this thing in my lifetime and yet more shall be thrown.

This video was done using the model 2 emulator which is pretty damn good all things considered though there is a setting for the authentic texture pop in which I have omitted. The only thing I truly miss from the cabinet is the force feedback wheel which does makes things a hell of a lot easier.

Yes I know my times are not optimal. Just my racing line is planned out to win the game with the lowest possibly of error especially on the expert track. Well, that and the AI keeps getting in the way. However, the advanced track ended up being a master class on "How many times I can balls up and still win the race".

War Thunder: Enduring the Confrontation (Simulator)

Naceo 2015-07-17 | This one is from the third iteration of the "Enduring Confrontation" test. AKA: An excuse to dick around in SB and not give a care. Exactly what War Thunder SB needs in my opinion. In any case, this is just a single run with the F4F-3 wildcat so expect a lot of down time while I figure out where I want to be.

For the impatient among you, the action parts are at 5:22 and 8:00 (which goes on for quite a while).

Race Driver GRID OST: Gridlock (Racing Version)

Naceo 2015-07-15 | Never has racing the family car been this exciting...

So for those of you outta the loop, Racing music in GRID only plays if:

1. Final race before possibly getting a new license.
2. Going one on one vs Ravenwest.

Racing music in GRID tends to be highly dynamic with variations of instruments being added or removed for:

1. Leading the race (subtle techno layer)
2. Crashing or otherwise standing still (Removes the other instruments leaving only the bass line.)
3. Final Lap (super epic instrumentation added.)

And the game will continually screw with the volume depending on how far into the race you are in.