Grukk.comAugust is almost over. Starting with beating Paper Mario: The Origami King and ending with beating Darksider: Warmastered Edition. Between those games I beat Alwa’s Awakening and Untitled Goose Game aswell as getting platinum in Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night.
Right now I have no idea what to play next.
My adventure that started last weekend, has come to a close. After almost 40 hours I completed most things in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. All optional bosses and all achievements, which includes collecting all items and recipes. The only thing I skipped was mastering all techniques.
This was my twelfth beaten game this year. So far, probably the game I have played this year that I have enjoyed the most.
For the next game, I picked up Darksiders Warmastered Edition for the PS4 on sale. It’s a game on my backlog since I also have it on Steam. I played a couple of hours many years ago but haven’t touched it since. I have always had the intention to finish it so now I have the chance.
Playing the intro, it’s very apparent that it’s an older game. It’s from a time when I didn’t play many single player games, so it’s going to be fun to explore the game.
As the title says, I want to record more gameplay and upload to Youtube. The focus would be high quality with no commentary.
I have no intentions of making “content”, I just want to use my equipment for something a bit creative. Both modern and retro. Mainly retro, since I think that’s an area where high quality console capture is needed.
This is because I’m kind of sick of seeing big YouTubers using World of Longplay footage which is played on emulator.
To make this reality I would need to setup a capture setup and get a lot of storage. in addition, since our computer died, a new computer would also be helpful. That sounds like a lot of money…
A project like this would probably help me getting to finishing my rack which has been in the works for many many years.
This picture was taken three years ago and I still haven’t finished the rack.
It’s always difficult to know what to play. I have a few games I want to play further on, but it’s difficult to know if you are in the right mood for the game.
Star Wars: The Fallen Order is the first game on the list. Second, there is Ghost of Tsushima, but it’s a tricky one. I’m planning to play Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla on release, so I don’t want to play Tsushima too close to it since the gameplay is probably very similar.
I looking forward to the PS5. It’s not the console itself, but in combination with getting a new TV this fall, I’m gonna explore HDR and high resolution gaming. Which is something I’m really looking forward to. I like new tech!
Since I loved the original Spider-Man for the PS4, therefore Spider-Man: Mike Morales is one of my most anticipated games right now. Gonna be fun to play more as Miles.
Not to mention Horizon: Forbidden West, the sequel to my favorite PS4 game. The PS5 is gonna be stacked with really hyped up games.
I have both Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria that I haven’t played yet. I tried Zestiria, but I was pretty bored when playing it so I doubt I’ll pick it up again. I’ve heard that Berseria is the better of the two. I’m not really in a JRPG kind of mood right now though.
I haven’t really felt like playing games lately. Before I always had a couple of games ready to play when I was ready for the next one. Nowadays I’m struggling to find a game that really hooks me.
I have to be really stubborn to keep playing, as was the case with Alwa’s Awakening. A game I enjoyed the beginning and end of, but I hated the ending story-wise.
Enter Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. A game which I had anticipated long before it was released since I love Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow.
I bought it on Saturday morning and the first session ended around midnight the same da, which just smaller breaks for food. The longest gaming session since February last year when I beat The Last Guardian in one sitting, approximately 14-15 hours.
Right after starting playing I was hooked. The feel is just right for a Igavania. The graphics isn’t amazing but I think it’s secondary to gameplay which is exactly right.
The next day I started the day by playing Bloodstained and didn’t end before 8 hours had passed. The game had me hooked for sure. It was almost scary.
I have some more stuff to do in the game (on final boss otherwise) . Unfortunately I feel a bit burned out at the moment due to the long sessions prior. I am excited to soon be finishing this great game.
UPDATE: After some tinkering due to the card not getting detected the day after, our computer died probably due to a short circuit or something. The computer is dead.
A couple of years ago I bought two of a capture card called Datapath E1s. The E1s is considered one of the better capture cards for retro games since it’s possible to optimise a lot to get a really good capture.
I mostly bought them because they supports the 5x mode on the OSSC (Open Source Scan Converter), an “upscaler” I use to play retro games on digital displays.
I bought the capture cards from a seller on Ebay. The cards had a PCI-e bracket that didn’t fit my normal PC since they had been used in an professional environment. I needed a normal PCI-e for the cards to be able to use them.
I knew there were people who had 3D-printed replacement brackets. But I didn’t know anyone with a 3D printer so I didn’t know what to do. I bought some random brackets off of ebay for cheap to see if they would work. They did not. The DVI port wasn’t correctly aligned so the card didn’t fit into the PCI-e slot.
Now, a couple of years later I contacted a finnish speedrunner who I knew had printed PCI-e brackets for Datapath cards used at FinnRuns. So I asked if he could print a few for me, which he agreed to do. Just a few days ago they showed up, and they work flawlessly, definitely worth the cost.
I got three brackets and are right now using one of the two cards I own. I am now able to capture crisp retro game footage! I just need to get a compact portable setup since I can’t have consoles and cable up permanently, the space does not allow for it.
This is how the footage looks. I think it looks great as long as you don’t inspect it too closely. Good enough for me. It’ll also be a lot easier for me to both play and capture if the OSSC is before the signal splitting in the chain. So this is very good news for me.
Grukk.com