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It’s Been a Long Time

July 2, 2011

Since I posted anything on anywhere. With my work contract winding up it’s been difficult to think of gaming in any other way than just playing. I’m looking to change that in the near future and get back to posting more frequently, and also on backslashgaming.com.

In the meantime, here’s a quick run down of what’s been going on:

Borderlands Let’s Play. After one episode I’m going to be abandoning this particular debacle. Sulley is great in the comms and we tried to get Duck in with us last night, but the rubbish lobby system prevented us from being in the same game together. The game that Sulley and I were working on was then tainted by a moral dilemna (and I don’t care what the spell checker says that is the correct spelling of dilemna!). I’ll put a video up explaining all, but the issue meant that we couldn’t in good faith continue with our characters and neither of us wants to start again. We even tried to have another friend, Shiznit, host a game, but we couldn’t even see him in the lobby menus.

If you missed it, here’s episode 1 of the series [NSFW]:

Still been playing BFBC2, unlocked Magnum Ammo on the Xbox version and made a video about it which was accepted and posted to the Pixel Enemy Revive channel (thanks guys)

I’ve been following the same method for playing on the PC, but I don’t find it as enjoyable on PC. I’m getting old and lazy so prefer the controller to keyboard and mouse. I’ve not recorded any PC gameplay as even with a new graphics card, my computer still struggles a bit with it.

After recently being gifted Team Fortress 2 by the Awesome D, it’s now free to play. Typical. I returned the favour with Monday Night Combat which we have yet to play, and a game that I’ve only played for about thirty minutes. I mix up some TF2 gameplay with info on a MNC giveaway in this vid:

Another game that is now free to play is Arma 2. I downloaded it last night. Not had a chance to play it yet, but it looks pretty good. You can get it from here: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=14588

Oh, I’ve also been on YouTube for just over a year. Well just over a year uploading vids and the like. Here is my anniversary video:

When I started my channel I did not go in to it lightly. Having lurked for a number of years I was aware of the level of random hate and trolling that is an everyday occurrence on YouTube. I was lucky in a way that from the start I was part of the Battlefield community and gained support from a great bunch of subscribers and fellow uploaders. I was all too aware that just because you upload to YouTube, or play a certain game does not mean that everyone who does the same has to either like you, or support you. But then, that’s the same in everything you do in life. So I’ve always treated YouTube as something that I do to amuse me and those close to me. Subscriber count is just a number and ratings don’t matter.

Erm, that’s pretty much it for the now. I’ve probably missed out loads, so there may be some updates in the very soon.

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills
Find me on XBL – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

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I’m on the Don’t Revive Me Bro Podcast

May 16, 2011

Hosted by Chris Redd_Dragons and DCRU Colin, along with Paul BigMooney06 and BeBarnee

Here’s the link to the post on the dontrevivemebro.com site

We talk about Battlefield related stuff to the beat of Colin’s penis related swearing via Coyno77′s prompts in the live chat room.

That is all.

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills
Find me on XBL – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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Day 2 on the Xbox, K/D: 0.71

May 15, 2011

After taking part in the Don’t Revive Me Bro podcast with bigmooney and bebarnee last night I went on to Xbox in an attempt to level up some more in order to get the Magnum Ammo at level 15.

I joined #MongolianGnome’s party and we entered Harvest Day for some conquest. Before we started I asked John what level he was since that would skill match us against players of his level in the game – as a level 30-something I was expecting more of a challenge than when I enter the game alone to be joined by blueberries with a skill level of similarly intelligent molluscs.

As it happens we did have more of a challenge, especially when we spawned 100 tickets down with all flags already capped. We started 3 v 2 but then it became 3 v 5 when every person entering the game joined the other side. Although we made a valiant effort we couldn’t claw back the tickets and saw the long slow bleed as we ran from flag to flag to be confronted by the other players and one incredibly obnoxious teabagger.

Sure, I have a reputation for teabaggery, but I do not do it after every single kill, in fact I seldom do it to non-friends unless they’ve been particularly troublesome or annoying to begin with. This guy was something else.

The second round was different and we totally demolished the other team to point of them quitting when they were down to about 30 tickets. Typical! They can give it, but not take it.

Then on to Panama Canal, which is personal favourite of mine, and again we had most of the flags for the majority of the time. I did numerous rambo revives which were very enjoyable and I even managed to kill some people too. My K/D (which I’m only mentioning for comparison between playing against more skilled players compared to the first couple of games) went down to 0.71 from 1.23 on the first night.

My main issue on the Xbox is the sticks do not have the same accuracy as the PS3 controller sticks and the fire button (Right Trigger) is currently awkward to use for pistols as you have to depress it all the way to fire unlike the straight microswitch on PS3. This means that I miss fire the pistol.

All in all the Xbox is fun but I need Donncha and DrunkinDunkin to get on at some point!

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills
Find me on XBL – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in General | Tagged , | 3 Comments »

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Back on XBoxLive..

May 14, 2011

Yes Donncha I did pay for XBL through gritted teeth. Paying for the privilege of allowing a device that I’ve fully paid for to utilise the online activities of a game that I’ve paid for, using an internet connection that I’ve already paid for. Gah!

The last time I played anything on XBL was probably CoD4 back in about 2007/8 before the machine got the RRoD and was duly sent off to Microsoft for repair. While it was away I purchased an PS3 (which was always my first choice, but Sony took soooo long to release it I opted for the Xbox) and never looked back. Paying for online gaming? Pfffft!

So PSN is up the tubes and my PC can’t handle BFBC2, what else am I supposed to do? It’s cheaper to get BFBC2 on Xbox and pay for Live than it would be to upgrade my machine to BFBC2 standards. There’s also two other factors in that I know a lot of people now who play Xbox, and my hands are no longer used to playing keyboard and mouse so it gets uncomfortable after about half an hour or so (when I used to be online PC gaming for hours…).

The PC works great for L4D2 and TF2 with TyeWebb, Donncha, DrunkinDunkin, Shaz and anyone else who cares to join. In fact Donncha and I went head to head last night on TF2 where he showed me what a no scope rocket aimbot is like (/wink).

But anyway, back to Xbox and BFBC2. I’ve been tweeting about going on Xbox mainly due to the length of time PSN has been down and last night I managed it. Although my PVR is not happy with the Xbox so I’ll need to play with some settings there.

Differences between Xbox and PS3? Not being able to throw a grenade when you spawn? Had trouble with that on Xbox but it’s not something that I ever noticed on the PS3 but had plenty of occasions last night where I needed to do it… and it wouldn’t, for a good 3-5 seconds after spawn.

Other than that, there’s the same level of non-objective playing point whoring, K/D obsessed, bush wookie jessies as there are on PS3 (and I imagine PC). In the two games I played of Conquest as a level 0 I came in the top three first game, and top the second for the simple reason that I was playing the objective.

So here’s the vid of the very first game, edited and sped up to prevent boredom. No commentary, just Team Medic Justice:

If you’re on Xbox then send me a FR: MrCheapKills

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills
Find me on XBL – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in General | Tagged , | 9 Comments »

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No YouTube, You Haven’t Found What I Like

May 11, 2011

I hate sales, I hate sales people. I hate being sold to. I hate being told what I should like and what I should think. I know what I like, I know what I want. If you haven’t got what I’m asking for then I’m not going to buy some other stuff because it’s in stock, and if I’m not buying other stuff off the shelf then it’s because I either don’t like it, or it doesn’t interest me in the first place.

Ooooh, bit of a rant there, but that’s how I feel about crap like this:

GTFO!

Every time I log in to YouTube I get this rubbish. “Hey why don’t you subscribe to Machinima, and Wingsofredemption and Woodysgamertag? We show you their channel link every day so why not just click subscribe and we’ll stop?” Maybe it’s because I don’t want to subscribe to those channels, I’ve been subscribed to those channels and unsubscribed for very good reasons (which regular and historic readers of this blog may or may not remember).

Fine, let’s go to my subscriptions list because that’s where the channels that I want to watch live…. oh wait, YouTube is trying to tell me something again:

“HEY! YOU SEEM TO HAVE MISSED IT ON THE FIRST PAGE…. WHY DON’T YOU SUBSCRIBE TO THESE GUYS? THEY’RE REALLY GOOD, HONEST!”

Seriously YouTube: FOAD

I’m fairly confident that they are not the only three gaming channels on YouTube…. or are they paying for the privilege of polluting my screen? Either way, YouTube needs to sort this rubbish out. If they’ve shown me the same channels more than three times and I still haven’t clicked on there then chances are I’m not going to.

It would be much better for me, and YouTube uploaders in general if they rotated these “featured” bods like in the good/bad old days. Which reminds me of a video that Chris (redd_dragons) tweeted a while back where AndrewBravener talked about how YouTube no longer helps out the smaller channels to get noticed while the bigger channels just keep getting bigger.

I suppose there are parallels to real life and capitalism there which are quite apt as YouTube is a business and as we all know businesses nowadays are only interested in turning a profit by whatever means (and who cares about the little guy right?).

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills
Find me on XBL – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in youtube | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

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PS3: I Love You, but…

May 8, 2011

I love the PS3. It’s wonderful. The original fat one with the piano black finish, the new slim one with the…. quieter stuff. Brilliant bit of hardware, Bluray player, online gaming for free (unlike the bloody Xbox360), but since PSN has been down for almost three weeks which has included not only the most Bank Holidays all at one time this country has ever seen but also a four day weekend thanks to some holiday booking at work.

Sony’s timing with the PS3 has never been good. They took so long to release it that I originally bought an Xbox360. That was 2006. It wasn’t until 2008 that I got the PS3. By that time I’d gotten really annoyed with the nature of XBL. Why? Oh I’ll tell you why:

1 – Arseholes. My console online gaming experiences were not pleasant (I was originally a PC gamer back in the day). Not that anything was done to me, but having to listen to the abuse people were giving one another…. not my cup of tea. I played some CoD4 and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter before deciding that online wasn’t really for me.

2 – Paying to play games online. When you pay for XBL what exactly are you getting? The ability to tell your Xbox that you want to play online. All the dashboard and party thingies and chat doodas are ancillary. It’s ridiculous. I paid for the console, I bought the game, I pay my internet service provider, but if I want to use them all together I have to pay Microsoft for the honour of playing on a system that they have failed to keep secure?! The Xbox360 is hacked, cracked and exploited and Microsoft cannot or will not do anything to prevent it from happening. Bag of shite.

3 – I wasn’t really playing all that much and didn’t want to play online with a bunch of arseholes (see 1.).

Things have changed (not in terms of my opinion of paying for XBL – that is still a huge con no matter how you dress it up), I now have a number of friends online who are also XBL players, some exclusively which means that I’ve got people to join up with on games that I enjoy playing. And that’s the main thing.

Having decent people to be in game with totally changed the online experience for me. Donncha was actually the first person on console that I actually spoke to properly, and up until that point I had a really dim view of the online gaming scene.

Anyhoo, here’s the thing. If I pay for XBL live then I’m not sure how much I’m actually going to use the PS3. We already know that developers seem to put more effort in to coding for the Xbox and then do a shitty port to PS3 in the hope that no one notices. I’m more likely to buy a game on the platform that I’m paying to use as well which could mean that the PS3 is left to legacy titles and PS3 exclusives.

We’ll see how it goes. Should be on Xbox by next weekend. Add MrCheapKills for teabagging events and general shenanigans.

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills
Find me on XBL – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in Gaming Opinion | Tagged | 7 Comments »

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L4D2 and Output Tips

May 4, 2011

Let me just say, first of all, that it’s like a breath of fresh air to write about something other and Playstation Bloody Network. I’ll be so glad when Sony sort that debacle out so that I can get on with other content over at \gaming.com!

On with the reason for the post. Donncha, TyeWebb, Shaz and me had some zombie blasting fun on L4D2 the other night. It was quite amusing, especially as Shaz has always played the game in such a way as to avoid the witches as much as possible. That’s not really possible when in game with me. In the non-virtual world I don’t press the red button to see what it does, and I don’t poke wasps nests with sticks. In game it’s the opposite. You need someone to headbutt a tank? Provide a juicy dither fish target while you get the objective? Slap the witch on the arse while saying “Hubba hubba!”? Then that’s me!

Nine times out of ten the witch gets me, but I did actually kill her in one game a while back with the AK47, only the once though.

Donncha put up a quick blog post about the game and video I put up about the games here.

Output Tips

All PC games footage that I record is in 4:3 because that’s the monitor output that I have. A widescreen monitor is on my to do list, but it’s not a priority and PC gameplay is mainly aimed at the people I’m in game with. However a commenter on the video ZonalFear took the time to post some really good tips in the comments on the video on how to record in widescreen for YouTube outputs. Here’s what he said:

Is this on PC? If you use a program like xfire to record you can set the video options in L4D2 to 1280×720, then set the aspect ratio to 16:9. Make sure xfire is recording in full frame.

Once finished, exit game and you have a raw, widescreen 16:9 file that just needs your finishing touches in your favourite video editor and VOILA! Widescreen 720p HD video for your Youtube.

If this is 360, I just wasted a lot of time.:D

^^ This is the sort of thing that makes doing things on the intertubes worthwhile. You see so much shit and bitching being posted so it’s amazing when randomly someone posts something that’s really useful for no other reason than it may be of use to people. Ahhhh warm fuzzy feelings.

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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Taking Names and Blocking IPs

May 4, 2011

On YouTube you know you’ve made it when you get your first thumb down for no apparent reason. For websites, you know you’re doing something right when the spam monsters descend upon thee with great comments and dodgy URLs.

Spam Monster

Spam and spam bots have moved on over the past couple of years and have adapted to take on the majority of anti-spam measures (although Akismet has to be THE BEST anti-spam thingymajig out there at the moment). However, as a semi-commercial endeavour I don’t have Akismet running on backslashgaming.com which means that all comments have to be moderated manually.

Initially it wasn’t that big a deal and some of the comments were mildly amusing with their generic praise for “the topic” and gems like this:

I can’t know how anyone can read this and not think “genius alert”. Great article. I’ll keep coming back to see even more.

But there are other comments that are essentially a pain in the ass, stuff like:

When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks!

and

I’m experiencing situation with ur rss . Don’t know why Struggling to subscribe to it. Is there anyone getting similar rss problem? Anybody who is conscious of kindly respond. Thnkx

On the surface they could be genuine concerns. Until you look at the names/URLs that they use. Mr AirConditionerSales should not post from four different email addresses if he doesn’t want the same email four times… or even better, he shouldn’t post a lie to begin with since he’s not even signed up for emails.

And P90x aka ShoesOnline would have been having trouble with RSS as RSS wasn’t enabled at the time his spam bot was trawling my site.

So I’m now doing three strikes and your out on the site. If the same IP is used for spam three times it’ll be blocked. It’s not something that I wanted to do as its possible that the IPs could be spoofed which would mean potentially blocking genuine visitors. But I’m guessing that many of these comments are not from spoofed IPs but are from ‘click farms’ where people are paid to put links on the internet.

I’d like to be able to bill the cretins for the time it takes me to do all this – then I’d be able to afford Akismet (maybe in a couple of months…)

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in General | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

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YouTube’s Content Matching

May 1, 2011

To save me time, this is pretty much how YouTube’s content matching works:

Spot the difference representation of YouTube's Content Matching Service

There are 8 differences....

YouTube compares existing content on the database against a reference copy from the copyright holder.

So here’s what happens. A copyright holder, or their representative, provides YouTube with a copy of their material. YouTube crunches it using a super secret technique that allows it to be cross checked against existing content on the database and any new material being uploaded.

The content is given a digital fingerprint which provides a number of pieces of data that can be searched against in a similar fashion to forensic fingerprinting. Anyone who’s watched CSI will have seen them search the fingerprint databases for a ‘match’.

Essentially when searching content the YouTube algorithm is not going to be set to only find 100% matches since usage of some materials may be small in the overall content of a video. This can create false positives (although rare) where legitimate content gets flagged for potential copyright infringement.

Content that is matched to the content match database on YouTube will either automatically have the artist name and a link to buy the track included in the description area:

How Content Matched content looks on YouTube

Some artists/copyright holders understand the power of free advertising (like Lady Gaga above) and so they allow their work to be flagged in the manner above. Others will instruct YouTube to automatically disallow their content from being reproduced – this will result in either the video having its audio stripped (in the case of an audio match) or the video being removed immediately and a Copyright strike made against the uploaders channel. A copyright strike can only be removed if it was implemented in error, that is, only in cases where an uploader has permission to use the content, or is the copyright holder.

So what about non-matched content, cover versions and live versions? Good news and bad news. You’ll be able to use those without any trouble…… until the copyright holder gives YouTube copies of those recordings to content match against.

All this relates to both video and audio content too. The fact is, YouTube is owned by Google. Google are very good at doing search related things. They’re also a business. Copyright infringement is bad for business so they’re not going to be interested in fighting your corner with regard to copyright issues.

If you’re a YouTube Partner, and you upload an infringing video, it’ll be set to private and you get a nice message telling you to sort your shit out. Everyone else gets the video removed and a copyright strike until such time as you can provide proof that you have permission to use the content.

My advice to anyone out there is to avoid using other peoples material altogether. Sure, there are a million songs that are begging to be used. And any forward thinking artist would love to have their material reach a wider audience, unfortunately business comes first, which means the copyright hammer hangs over everyone who uses other people’s material, no matter how apt or well intentioned.

(yes, there are exceptions and allowances within copyright law….. YouTube is not interested in those. If you want to argue points of law then you’ll have to set up your own ISP and host those vids yourself thanks to the DMCA and EUCD)

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in youtube | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

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While PSN has been down

April 27, 2011

In case you haven’t noticed PSN has been down for a couple of days. I’ve been documenting the rumour mill surrounding the whys and wherefores over at backslashgaming.com, but we’ll come back to that in a minute.

In that time I, and every other PSN user (about 70 million of us apparently, which is more than the entire population of the UK) have been cut off from the life blood of gaming. The world is at an end and the sun never shines any longer. Well, that’s how some people have been viewing the situation.

I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed II instead. I hadn’t actually intended on playing it as much as I have but I found that none of my save points were on my PS3. I don’t know whether it’s down to not being able to connect to PSN or because I’m using a new PS3 (although I could have sworn that the machine I’m on now was the one I used when playing the game before….).

But anyhoo, it’s been good fun as I forgot how involving and frustrating the early levels were. Involving because having read The Prince I could see where the plot was going, although honestly, you don’t have to be a master tactician to have worked out what was going to happen. Actually, a mediocre level of intelligence would probably have seen you through. And the frustration came from not being able to run in order to get through the Aspergo levels quicker, or being able to skip cut scenes, or being able to kick Shaun Hastings (played by Danny Wallace) in the groin.

Having oodles of hours already invested in the game (and the original before it) I found the ‘tutorial’ levels that make up the beginning to be quite enjoyable to play again. I just can’t wait to get back on a horse and start running fools over again. Driveby with a warhorse? Achievement Unlocked!

I may record some gameplay of it since I’m pretty much back to the start, but right now I’ve got quite a lurgical sore throat, so no commentaries from me for the time being.

While PSN has been down and I’ve had time to start on my way to looking at gaining some revenue from my online activities as I previously mused about in another post. After getting some excellent advice from both drunkindunkin and donncha I’ve launched BackslashGaming.com:

Basically it’s a more serious version of this blog. I’m going to continue blogging here about my personal gaming exploits, videos I put on YouTube and stuff relating to The Gamer’s Craic podcast. BackslashGaming is going to be more concerned with what’s happening in the gaming world. This means that currently most of the posts on there are related to the current PSN outage and the shitstorm that’s following it.

There are adverts on there which I hope are not too intrusive (staying away from popups, popunders and related doucheworthy tactics as they offend me). So if you enjoy my writing then have a look.

Lastly…. does anyone know why my post about FPSRussia getting his channel back would be getting so many hits at the moment? I’ve googled FPSRussia and this blog is not on the first page so I can only assume that it’s been linked from somewhere else.

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – MrCheapKills

David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Why not check out my new gaming site: backslashgaming.com

Posted in General | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

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