Production Journal #1
Added 2022-09-01 17:15:51 +0000 UTCDecided i'd start documenting what i'm working on as i'm going (regardless of whatever project) because it helps me organize my thoughts and I can hear what you all think as I go.
What i'm Working On
Right now I have four major videos i'm working on bit by bit depending on what I feel like doing as well as several currently shelved videos that I may or may not get back to (yes, Spritz, one of them is the Fallout Equestria video lmao). The active videos are a video about life is strange, a video about Fallout: DUST, a video about Wasteland 3 and a massive video as mentioned comparing New California and The Frontier.
Right now i'm full steam ahead on both the Life is Strange video and the DUST review. I always like to work on one fallout video and one non-fallout video at the same time because while I really want to expand into more and more non-fallout stuff, those videos aren't currently too popular and it always feels kinda disheartening to put out something nobody really watches and then have to start again from square one.
Life is Strange
My focus on the Life is Strange video is to highlight how by all standard analytical metrics the game is bad and cringe, and then to explain why and how it is that I still like it a lot. It'll be a weirder one for me, the script is written a little more frantically and with more jokes than usual and I intend to film it at least half in live action. If the video falls through it falls through, but I have a lot to say and I think it'll be at worst an interesting experiment trying to evolve my older live action philosophy-minded videos in the way I think i've been doing with my standard review formula.
DUST
I'm spending most of my free time playing DUST, because i'm finding it way more fun and engaging than I had assumed it would be. It's tense and stressful and atmospheric in a way I haven't really felt while playing games since my introduction to Darkwood or Pathologic 2. I feel like i'm going to have a lot to say about it because it does a lot of fascinating things that no other mods for New Vegas really do. Excited to work more on this one.
The Other Videos
So far my work on the Wasteland 3 and New Cali/Frontier videos are more proofs of concept than anything else. I know roughly what I want my overarching point to be for both of these videos and I know what I want them to look, sound, and feel like. I don't expect either of them to see the light of day until November at the earliest though. So far just passively adding to them when something crosses my mind in between work on the other two.
What i'm up to outside of Youtube
It's September! Which means school is back! Next Tuesday I start my third year into my degree. Otherwise we're mostly the same. Excited though. Can't wait to work on videos instead of taking notes again. A cherished experience.
Questions for you
Have you played DUST? What did you think? Is there anything particularly in that mod you think I should talk about? What about Life is Strange? Thoughts?
Comments
Neighhh (Horse speech for hype!) Haven't played Life is Strange or Wasteland, but I might try to just so I can better engage with the videos before they come out! I enjoy Dust quite a bit. It's difficult, unbalanced, and beyond bug filled. I grew up with Vegas mods though, I have an infinite patience for this stuff. Dust gives me similar vibes to Dark Souls (specifically DS3) where you're exploring an already dead world, it's up to you to piece together the story of what happened and you've already missed the major events. The only goal now is to simply get out and hope for something better. I remember naugrim talking about wanting the atmosphere of Fallout 3 in Vegas, and I think they succeeded in recreating the atmosphere of Fallout 3 in a way that doesn't stain the series like Fo3. Fallout 3 was a hopeless, dark, and bleak world with an honestly insulting view on humanity being innately disposed for violence and selfishness. This doesn't fit proper Fallout at all, proper Fallout shows the dark of it's world while maintaining a constant hope that humanity will improve itself and the world will become brighter. Dust however is not proper Fallout, Dust's setting is a look into if every bad ending happened in Vegas, it's a clever way of getting the post apocalypse survival setting Fallout 3 yearned for without intruding on proper Fallout. I think Dust gets too much shit for being unbalanced and buggy, it's a good mod with a very unique way to engage with Fallout you'll never see anywhere else.
Spritz!
2022-09-04 02:11:57 +0000 UTCI've played DUST and found it really compelling, albeit only as a gimmick. I remember having to track down a bunch of untracked lore notes to get context for everything that happened, and I liked the scarcity and fucked up NPCs. It's also a very lonely experience, enhanced by the hostile wilderness and horrific, droning music. What I didn't like was all the tunnelers, and the general bugginess. As with a lot of mods like this (such as Whispering Chills, a modpack for FO4), the beginning stages where you have to scramble for every resource and make every shot count are the best parts, and I quickly became bored after surmounting the resource bottleneck. Looking forward to your thoughts. :)
Ryan Lazarus
2022-09-02 01:06:57 +0000 UTC
