Archive for November 2016

Explore Phillip’s Collection of FPS Games – Part 2

Here is the second video in my series of FPS games exploration.

It was recorded during my recent 12-Hour Autumn Playathon.

The format is more or less the same as the first, but this time I tried to include a view of my screen, so viewers can see some details of the games I research.

If you haven’t seen the first part, I recommend you watch that too.

I hope you enjoy it and also hope it will encourage you to explore your collection.

I will add a list of games covered very soon.

27th November 2016 4 Comments

Week 47

Well, I’ve been promising this stream for some time, and here it finally is! Squeaking in on the last weekend of the month is Sweet Half-Life for Classic of the Month. I’ll be streaming Saturday starting at 10am Eastern US Time (3pm GMT, 4pm Central European Time).

Phillip may also stream something this weekend, keep an eye on his twitter and the RTSL YouTube Channel for the info.

Sorry, Dan is in the middle of moving across the country and settling in at his new place, so there’s no Source of Fame stream this month.

26th November 2016 4 Comments

Poll Question 362 – Would you prefer achievements to be hidden until after the first playthrough of a game?

Having just purchased The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, I looked at the Steam page and found there were 14 hidden achievements. Initially, that seemed really unfair. How was I supposed to reach an achievement if I didn’t know what it was? That’s like playing darts with the lights off and not knowing where the dartboard is.

But then I looked at the Bioshock 2 page and found all the achievements listed and that seemed almost as bad. if I am just going to play a game to reach the achievements, won’t that take away some of the spontaneity of the experience?

So what is the middle ground? I don’t know, but perhaps it is that the achievements are hidden until after the first playthrough. Any achievements gained on the first playthrough are “Gold” or something, although people will just look for them online simply to get the gold star I suppose.

In fact, maybe make it so that it is impossible to get ANY achievements on the first playthrough!

Maybe there could be hints with the second and subsequent playthroughs to help you find the ones you missed.

How do you feel about the display or not of achievements?

21st November 2016 24 Comments

Week 46

Happy Birthday, HL! Half-Life was released a mere 18 years ago, on November 19, 1998. And we’re celebrating with a special stream weekend!

First, Phillip’s massive Autumn 12-hour Playathon is tomorrow! He’ll be streaming starting at 12pm Central European Time (11am GMT, 6am Eastern US) and running to midnight his time, 11pm GMT and 6pm Eastern US. Phillip hasn’t shared exactly what he’ll be streaming, but there might be some surprises in there!

Immediately following Phillip’s Playathon, I will be playing the original Half-Life. So I expect this stream to start at 12 midnight Central European Time, 11pm GMT, 6pm Eastern US – give or take. It won’t be a speedrun, nor will I be especially taking my time. Come watch!

All streams will be on the RTSL YouTube Channel.

18th November 2016 11 Comments

Hard!Ville Mapping Challenge

Even though I am not a very good player, I love challenging but doable sections in mods. I don’t mind replaying sections again and again if I know I can do it. It might not be pretty or fun to watch if I am livestreaming, but I sure as heck enjoy it.

16th November 2016 54 Comments

Explore Phillip’s Collection of FPS Games – Part 1

I’m a collector of FPS games. Well, I was until about 5 years ago and then I stopped. When I moved to Spain from London about 15 years ago, I packed all my collection into boxes and put them into the basement meaning to get them out and display them. Alas, that never happened.

For the last few years I have been meaning to explore the boxes and see what I have and FINALLY I did it yesterday!

Below is the video of the livestream “event” and I certainly enjoyed it, as did the people on the stream.

People often expect me to be an expert of all these old games, but the reality is I haven’t even played 95% of them. In fact, from the list below I have only played 2!

The video last an hour and consists of me taking a game out of the box and briefly talking about it and checking the net for more information.

I’ll do one of these every week or so until I have gone through all my collection. Soon I will have the chat text as part of the video so that should make more sense when I respond to a point raised in the livestream chat.

I hope you enjoy it and also hope it will encourage you to explore your collection.

13th November 2016 12 Comments

Week 45

Last month I broke from the usual and streamed a HalloweenVille Double Feature for The Ville Retrospective. This month we’re back to going down the list.

Next up I’ll be streaming DefendVille for The Ville Retrospective. The stream will start at 10am EST on Saturday, which is 3pm GMT and 4pm CET time.

Hope to see you there! I’ll have a copy of the superb Subnautica to give away too.

11th November 2016 4 Comments

Autumn 2016 12-Hour Playathon Stream

Back in May, I did a 12-Hour Plaython, where I stream for 12 hours non-stop.

Well, you guessed it, I’m going to do it again!

Starting at 12pm Central European Time on Saturday 19th November 2016, I will be streaming for 12 hours straight – besides the occasional toilet break of course.

Last time, I just played HL games and mods but this time I think I will broaden my horizons!

I am open to any suggestions you have but I can’t guarantee I will play everything suggested, not least because I probably won’t own the game.

This coming weekend, I will be streaming a special “Box opening” event, where I open one of my basement boxes full of games and perhaps we can choose some of those.

I will still play mods if that’s what viewers want.

Last year, I streamed on my Twitch channel but this year it will be on the RTSL YouTube channel, so make sure you have booked marked that page.

Obviously, I’ll be posting on Twitter nearer the time and during the event.

I was lucky enough to be able to give 12 games away last year but I don’t know if I will be able to do it this year. If you have a game you would like to donate, please contact me.

Finally, if you have never watched a stream before and think it sounds stupid to watch another person play a game, please keep an open mind. The chat during the stream is almost as much fun as watching me make an idiot of myself and we generally have a lot of fun.

If you have any questions, please ask.

I hope to see you there.

11th November 2016 6 Comments

Poll question 361 – Would you pay for early access to Xen?

Unless you have been living under a rock, and that’s not a bad thing in today’s world, you would have seen the recent announcement by the Crowbar Collective that work on Xen is progressing well.

They have released a couple of plan screenshots for you to get excited about.

As soon as they did that, I started to wonder how many people would pay for early access, so that’s what this poll question about.

Players who have the mod version will not be getting the new levels, so if you haven’t bought the game yet, I highly recommend it. In addition, it allows you to play all of the maps released, whereas the mod version doesn’t.

8th November 2016 16 Comments