Dota 2 Random Matches

Recently the format of Dota 2 streams has changed. I am now doing random heroes.

This is giving me a bit more knowledge about the heroes and what to expect when playing with them or against them, and that is being very productive.

The games are a bit harder and maybe less interesting, although this is helpful and i my goal as usual is to share every step i do, as so i will keep this format for the time being at least until being able to go to random matches.

What do you guys think about this format?

Destiny - First Impressions

So, today i finally got my hands on Destiny!

Good game so far, i feel it very responsive and the fights are very rewarding. I have some reserves when it comes to repetition, although the zones are different and different enemies, i believe it will become very repetitive. But that is possible to fight with some different mechanics and i am hoping they will come later on.

I also disliked the time i spend on loading screens. IT IS A LOT! Until you get out from the ship after selecting the mission, it can be tiring... But i can accept it.

The best part for me is the story and how it is told. All that narration in a deep calm and soothing voice is VERY nice!

Regarding the session it went sooooo bad. For the first time i had some people coming to the streaming but leaving almost immediately because the stream wouldn't load. It was recording on the Twitch side, but no image. I only got a stable video around 11pm CET and by then not many people were getting in the stream.

I don't know why did this happen but i never had this issue before, has my connection is very good. I had quality issues, but not stability issues. I'm just hoping now that it gets better and back to normal!

And you? What are your first impressions about Destiny?

UFC Career is Done

I've ended the UFC career.

I won't start another one as Destiny is starting and then comes FIFA, so i won't take my time in UFC career mode. I will still play UFC but only rivalries...

Don't get me wrong, i had lots of fun playing it, but really fighting games are not my strongest point and that takes away my motivation a bit.

Sadly the career didn't ended as we wanted, as we lost the last fight and that gave the belt away, but on the overall it was a productive career! :)

Thanks to all that made me company on this career mode and i hope you keep around for other content!

Streaming Schedule Changes

After the last night stream i decided to make some changes.

Although i had lots of fun playing UFC Rivalries, i was all the time talking on party and the sound does not go through, and besides that the stream quality on UFC is just TERRIBLE i cannot stream in HD or else the quality goes down.

One could say it is my connection, but i have 80Mb download and 12Mb upload, so i guess that is not the issue... And i have no problems with any other games.

As that, UFC is going down. I lost my patience there. I will start streaming Sims 4 regularly on Mondays, Destiny on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays will be mixed between Dota 2 and Destiny.

The rest of the days i have no time defined or schedule, but will try to make it at least one more day a week.

You can check the schedule here on the blog and on my twitch page.

Back To Action

I'm back from vacations!

Last night I've played a bit of Dota 2. WHAT AN HORRIBLE IDEA!
It went really wrong. I made so many bad choices of items, so many bad engagements, so many times away from the team fights...

In addition to all of these, the team didn't played well also, in all the games. It was really bad but i hope to get back on track pretty soon.

Keeping this kind of record is pretty awful!

Barclays Premier League Deadline Transfer Round-up

The transfer window is now done and what a way to end it!!!

Falcao for Man Utd and Welbeck for Arsenal may well be the 2 best news for both teams.

Arsenal was in deep need of a good striker and i believe Welbeck will fill that role. He is not outstanding but does the job.

Man Utd is a whole different story. I believe they needed to strengthen the center of they defense more than anything, and they got Blind that is better than nothing. I would have preferred to see a world class center back there but... The Falcao signing is not the position they needed but brings a more "World Class" level to the team. He can be a changing factor for Man Utd.

About Man City and Chelsea, no big changes on the last day but a good transfer window from my point of view, mainly for Chelsea who in my opinion may well be the biggest title challenger of the league.

Liverpool fans. Sorry, but i believe this was a bad transfer window for your side. The signings don't cover the departures and the team lacks world class experience. Let's see if they can surprise me and make a good campaign. I like the young players they have and would like to see them perform...

What are your thoughts?

Twitch Acquired by Amazon

I believe that i am not the only one that is surprised by this turnaround.

Like me i believe many of you though that Twitch would be bought by Google and integrate in an almost perfect way with YouTube. That may have brought some issues with copyrights and stuff like that, but for us streamers and youtubers it would be very interesting.

Now, what does this acquisition will bring as new to Twitch?

On my humble opinion and looking to the Twitch CEO letter, it wont bring much. It is more a capital investment than an acquisition. They say Twitch will be the same but implementing what they already had in perspective.

From my side a better editing tool may be useful, or not... Depends on the tool...

I am looking very curiously at this and hope that it is like Twitch CEO says and they keep their independence. Twitch was mainly built by streamers and they are the core of the brand. Keep them happy and Twitch can only grow.

As a final note, good luck for Twitch and may they keep growing and allow us to grow with them.

What is your opinion regarding this acquisition?

Vacations Update 2

Hey everyone.

Vacations just started, but we went to a great spot here in Portugal. The "Badoca Park". It is like a small safari where we can see lots of species common in Africa and all free here in the middle of Portugal.

Great place to visit if you get to come to Portugal.

I hope you like just these sample photos.

To see more go to http://www.badoca.com/

Cya all later!

Vacations Update 1

I really hope everyone is enjoying the YouTube videos I've been posting, but right now i am going to the pool.

It is time for vacations and they are only starting. Although I've just started my YouTube and Twitch channels, that is just an hobby, at least for now. I have my day job and that has been one hell of a year.

As it is i believe these are very deserved vacations and i hope everyone accepts that! :)

I'll keep posting updates!

Earth Spirit Final Thoughts

Just finished making my 7 games with Earth Spirit with a positive balance.

Liked him a lot, but needs a good support along him to be productive and also needs to get lots of kills. By no sort a pushing hero.

He is very useful on the early game and mid game as he can get some easy kills with his ulti.

If well used can finish a game very fast, but the whole team needs to be on that same goal. Had some games where neither did i or team pushed and pressed early and that costed us the game, as Earth Spirit is almost useless on late game.

Very fun but hard hero to play. I strongly suggest to play him along side with a Shadow Shaman or a Witch Doctor.

Dota 2 Series Format

The games are getting too long for proper visualization on YouTube.

As it is i decided to change stuff a bit and starting the Game 5 of Shadow Demon, every episode will be a compilation of the best moments of each games instead of the full game.

Hope everyone likes this changes!

BPL Transfers

Ok. We have 2 major rumors going on.

If both go through i believe that the BPL will be so much stronger. I am of course speaking of Balotelli and Di Maria.

Both players can be SO freaking important for Liverpool and Man Utd respectively. Both these teams still have many weak points and these players will pretty much cover them.

Only down side i see is on Man Utd side. Still one CB and or RB short!

Dota 2 - Earth Spirit - First Thoughts

Started to play with Earth Spirit yesterday and had a pretty rough start.

A bad game with an hard loss, but bounced back REALLY well. After the first one i manage to kick in and got 2 great games.

The 4th of the night not so good. I did pretty badly again and committed suicide a few times. Too eager to kill and got killed in the process. Bad thinking.

Really itching for some more games with Earth Spirit. Very fun to play.

Dota 2 Shadow Demon Review

So... After my 7 games with Shadow Demon i have to say that i liked the hero, although the results where not as good as i was expecting after the first 3 games.

It seems to be a hard hero to pair and there is a real need to pair him well to be successful. Maybe due to ignorance that was never the case and so the performances where pretty poor.

Every disabling attack he has and the help he can give the team to get kills need to be very well coordinated and again maybe due to ignorance that almost never happened and i was more a liability than an asset playing it.

Time to switch heroes. The next one will be Earth Spirit.

Moving Again

Last night was one of the most successful ones regarding viewers and i think i got a bit overboard with excitement as my neighbors complained about the noise... :/

And i have to give them reason. I was a bit excited and may have talked a bit loud, so i will change my streaming zone. I was on one of our bedrooms/office that is closer to a wall to the other apartment. But we 3 rooms and the middle one is empty, so i will change to there and just hope that would be enough to cancel the noise that goes to the neighbors.

If i had the money i would do it with noise canceling panels, but for now that is not an option!

The Silent Hills Playable Teaser

I've played it yesterday and i can say it is frightening as hell.

I've managed to beat it, but not without help, that was very welcome as i didn't had the time to waste wandering around like crazy. I had help from 2 viewers, "Gladh91" and "the_blacked_ips" that gave me tips for the middle puzzles.

I also had help locating the 2 missing parts of the picture i was missing.

On the final puzzle, i had no concrete help, but also i took around 1.5h to get to the final puzzle and another 1.5h to beat it. That damn thing is hard to beat. I got some tips, but truth be told they didn't work. I ended making it work by pure chance!

I'll upload it to Youtube as a full video later today, but with my wandering cut out to make it shorter.

Nebeason The Man

Just writing this to thank Nebeason and underline how much his comments and suggestions help me.

This person who i don't know personally, who i know just online for about 2 weeks TOPS and don't even know the real name, is the first person to "give" me some of his time, and watch some of my videos to give me suggestions.

I can't say how important that is. I am a shy guy that is trying to enter the Youtube/Twitch scene, and i have lots of difficulties to get a conversation going and to maybe keep people engaged on my videos, although i am a fast learner and very dedicated to what i do, and (always but) mostly now IT IS CRUCIAL this feedback and help from outside.

I can see some of my shortcomings, but it is impossible to see them all, as i am biased. I've been evolving and i believe my videos are getting better and better, but still have a LONG way to go until they get an acceptable quality. At least for me.

Help Needed For Image Branding

So, i still need to optimize the image all around, Youtube, Twitch and even the blog and twitter.

To do that i need a logo, thumbnails, intro for the Youtube, end screen, etc. and i know nothing about these stuff.

I am trying to contact some people that might do this for free, but is not easy to find them.

As it, if you are proficient in these stuff, i request your assistance to get a good image going on all the environments and to give you a better imaging to enjoy.

Optimizing Youtube

I've been trying to optimize the videos on Youtube.

Just added annotations on all the videos that might be useful for watching. On the UFC videos, i still need to place annotations to jump straight into the fights and skip the training part if you wish.

Hope you enjoy these additions.

Starting Streaming Dificulties

I've decided to make this experiment and i am taking it very seriously, but sometimes i have to vent out.

It is very hard to be streaming constantly, getting the videos up on Youtube, work that all and get almost no viewers or no feedback. I knew it would be like this, but it is still hard.

Don't get me wrong, I have a blast playing and enjoy it a lot, but the lack of "love" is though.

I am hoping that when i start the FIFA series i can attract more viewers to help me grow and get better at this.

For now i have some huge thanks to deliver to Sulfuxuz, Gladh91, PyroPunk and Havoc. Thank you guys for supporting me and for playing with me, making it even more fun to produce all this content!

If you got this far, thanks for letting me vent out! :)

RIP Robin Williams

Just had to leave my respect here and remember this:

And leave here my last "O'Captain! My Captain!"

Guardians of The Galaxy

Went to see the Guardians of The Galaxy yesterday.

Just one way to describe it: AWESOME!!!
It is a brilliant piece of art that has comedy, action and a Rocket Raccoon! The plot is not surprising, but it is very satisfying.

Without spoilers, i can just say: go see it. It is one of the most rewarding movies I've seen in a while.

Bad Quality

The next 3/4 youtube videos of UFC will have bad quality. I don't really know how, but sometimes the streaming that comes from the PS4 is not as good as i would like.

Sorry about this. I'm uploading them anyhow so you guys don't miss fights, although there will be 2 fights missing, because at some point i was streaming a black screen. Once again, i have no idea why... :(

Once again i will have to make the Elgato my Christmas present or else i will keep getting this issues...

Dota 2 as Chaos Knight

This was the week of Chaos Knight on Dota 2.

Simply put, didn't liked it! He seems to be a good pusher, not that good as a team fighter. I figured that as long as my team can hold a full team push from the other faction, Chaos Knight can push 2 towers in 2 minutes.

He is not necessarily very item dependent (it also depends the role you want to take) and that works great with a ranged carry on the same lane, and at level 7 is very easy to find a solo kill. The goal is to keep that killing action going, although it is a very Ulti dependent hero when it comes to kills.

It can be very useful in a coordinated team, but i play usually random and alone and every time we got our asses handed to us in a silver plate. I played a few games with guys i coordinate and know on the game and those were a bit more even.

I'll upload the 4 games i highlight from this experience. On the other ones there where lots of disconnects or simply away players on either side that decided the game.

Hope you like it.

Big Bang = Big Money

According to IGN the main stars of The Big Bang Theory just landed a $90M deal EACH for the next 3 years.

This means (according to the same source) that "Penny", "Sheldon" and "Leonard" will get $1M for each episode they get for the next 3 years.

If we think about it, it may not be that absurd with the success the series have got and the revenue it generates, but this wont stop it to be a heck lots of money!!!

What do you think? Is it deserved/worth it?

Crazy Schedule

I'm not a professional streamer/youtuber, not by the slightest.

This is just my hobby and as that, i have a job during the day. My schedule is just crazy at the moment. I'm streaming about 2/3 hours every week day (i skip most of Fridays), and that gets a bit chaotic, but i will endure it, because i am also having fun! :)

I hope this is as fun to me as it is for you to watch. At least that is my goal and that is also the reason i try to keep getting better and better on every stream i do.

Started Dota 2

So, after a hard start i finally made it and was able to record and stream Dota 2. I will make it a series where i will noob the hell out of Dota.

Yeah I'm pretty bad at it and i know it. I just want to have some fun, play with other people and learn how to play it a little better. So every piece of advice is welcome.

I will also try to play a random different hero every week. I will choose it against bots, do 1 or 2 games against bots just to know how it works and then stream "real" games.

Hope you enjoy it!

I Need a Webcam

Ok... So i need a webcam...

While preparing to stream Dota 2 (on the pc) I was trying my webcams with OBS and all looks like shit!!!

The cams i have are from the stone age, so i will need to stream Dota 2 just with the game and sound. To everyone that watches it, SORRY!!!

I will try to invest on it when possible. It is not that expensive, so i will try to do it.

Why do i have a camera when i stream PS4? Because it is the playstation camera... So even when i get an Elgato, i will need to get a good webcam to make it worthwhile...

New Setup

Finally made it out of the living room. 

On the past Monday, got an Ethernet cable directly from the rooter to my office and so i was able to get all my streaming stuff there.

This all must also help with the quality, since now we are wired and not streaming throw wifi... Lets see how it goes from here.

Much more comfortable and more control of the environment. Now i just need to get a capture device card! :)

Video Issues

I am having lots of issues with the conversion of the files.

I want to keep doing the way i do, but as i don't have a capture device, i need to stream directly to Twitch and then download it, that gives me headaches!!!

The files come in flv format, i need to convert them and that gets us audio sync issues, quality drops, and so on...

The most stupid part is that the flv file is great! Just when the conversion takes place, it goes all crazy. Tried lots of free conversion software without much luck... I'll keep on trying until it is possible to get an Elgato...

Any suggestions out there?

Let's Suck @ Dota 2?!?

Currently i have 2 games that are possible to end, as i always stream first and the post to youtube, and want to stream every week day, i will run out of games pretty fast, so, I'm thinking to start Dota 2 when I'm too forward on those games or when they end.

I suck at Dota 2. I played like 3 or 4 games, so it would be a crappy and steep learning curve that would be on my game play, but as i said before, the goal is to have fun!!!

I hope there are people out there that enjoy seeing someone struggle but have fun with it at the same time!
Also, i want to rely on some help from viewers, so i can get at least decent playing at it. :)

Starting up With EA Sports UFC

So, just started with a new game that i will keep in pair with Strider and that is EA Sports UFC.

First of all, I SUCK AT IT. I've always been bad at fighting games and i believe that game play videos can be fun even if you are not good at that game. The important is to be fun.

So far, for the first try, i liked it a lot. Have been defeated consecutively, but enjoyed it and i am hoping other people will enjoy it too. :)

As all my game plays, please give suggestions, what you like, what you don't like, what should i do, what i shouldn't do. I'm here also to learn!

Give it a try.

Games that turn into movies

On the last Strider streaming session I've hosted, I rambled a bit about the games that turn into movies, from the top of my head i just recall the final fantasy one which i found to be just horrendous.

Now it seems we are getting an Uncharted and a Warcraft movie. Ok, the Uncharted one i can accept, since the series has some of the best game stories I've ever seen and i can be a little optimistic about it, but the Warcraft movie?!?!!?

The comics are fun to read, but really no content there. The lore of Warcraft is outstanding, but what kind of movie can they come up with? A party that goes on some quests and get to an instance? Will they try to tell the tale of the Arthas Menethil and how he became the Lich King?

I really don't know what will they do and how will that connect with the audience, but I am anxious to watch it.

Strider Session

Yesterday I had another stream session. I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable around it, I can talk more easily, talk more clearly and I believe my dictation is starting to loose the dust it had around it.

Sadly I'm still feeling a bit lonely, some people watching and asking questions or just rambling about stuff would help to keep some kind of subject going, this way i believe i focus too much on the gaming observation. It is not necessarily bad, but i believe it would be more diversified if i could ramble a bit more about other stuff.

Since I am also focusing the stream to make minimal cuts and drop it on Youtube, i also started to time the length until a pause of gaming and on that point do an episode closing and opening that will help me just to cut it there and drop on Youtube.

Regarding the game i am now really enjoying it. I managed to get around most of the control issues and that is very satisfactory. I believe NOW the game play is about 30ish% with a full 3h of playtime, so still a lot of episodes to get in.

Today I'll start with UFC, so expect some stuff new on Twitch and Youtube.

Youtube Strider Part 3

Guardians of the Galaxy IGN Review

I'm itching to watch this movie and the IGN review just turned even more my hype around it. They give it a huge rating and place the bar very high.

I'll give my opinion when i get to see it, but for now here is the IGN review:

Streaming Setup

The first difficulty I'm getting is related to my streaming environment. I don't intend to invest like crazy because i don't have that kind of financial availability, so I'm streaming and recording in my living room and at night, because i have my job to attend to during the day! :)

Looking back at my first stream it seems that the camera angle is wrong, i believe i will try to put it upper and more to the side, but also the light is funny. I don't know if i should had light from the front or from the back... Leave suggestions! :)

Other issue is the sound. I'm using the default microphone and that is not very good to the sound quality. I'll keep trying to place it on different places and try to get better sound, although i believe the main problem there is the fact that I'm shy and need to project my voice better.

I'll try to make amends. If you have suggestions, please leave them in the comments so i can try to comply! :)

Starting Up With Strider

I've always wanted to stream game play. Not to get fans or money (although that would be nice), just for fun.

Finally I've taken courage and started it. As the hardware is limited I'm just streaming on Twitch and enjoyed the first go. Of course i have lots of limitations regarding the speech, lightning, and so on, but the goal is to have fun.

I'll also be uploading all the streams in blocks of around 30 minutes to youtube to allow an easier access to previous stream, and also that is the point where i may get most of the viewers.

Regarding the games, I'll be doing mostly FIFA, but only when FIFA 15 comes out, although i will want to keep some let's play videos up at the same time.

As for now I've started with Strider which I'm finding very entertaining, as it is very fast paced and frantic. It has some short comings as the double jump is an unlockable that comes around 32% of the game and the controls are not exactly super responsive.

The bosses and levels are quite challenging so far and leave space to some creativity how to solve the levels.

I'll be back with some more ideas about the game later. :)