Winner
Best Unlockable Achievement of 2013
2013: In Memoriam
Ryan Thomas Davis
(June 4, 1979 - July 3, 2013)
Kitty Ratliff
(XXXX - December 17, 2013)
Xbox One Acquired: Setting it up for the very first time (Day One Edition)
In my kitchen. Again.
Exactly one week had passed since the launch of the PlayStation 4, and once again I was at my local UPS Customer Center to pick up my Xbox One, a trick I had learned on reddit that would net me the console several hours earlier than if I waited for delivery to my home. I had just dropped off Kitty and White Fluffy Kitty at the vet for boarding, as my brother and I were leaving the next day to visit my mom in Kansas for her birthday and Thanksgiving, returning on November 30th. Eight years ago to the day - November 22nd, 2005 - I was picking up my Xbox 360 from GameStop on my way to Indiana to visit with family and wouldn't get the chance to properly play the console until I got back home and hooked it up to my very first HDTV. Perhaps the next time Microsoft releases a console I'll actually be home to play it!
I did manage to capture myself messing around with the user interface a bit before having to get ready for our flight, along with strapping a GoPro to my forehead beforehand as I drove to UPS and unboxed the console. I wanted to release this on the 22nd but didn't have enough time before leaving for Kansas, though I had managed to livestream my first Xbox Fitness workout. I had ten people watching me exercise. Weird!
Now we're back and I finally play some games!
Here's the video I made, along with relevant timestamps:
2:22 - Unboxing the Xbox One
12:37 - Turning it on for the first time
14:00 - Initial setup
24:18 - After the update
24:38 - Kinect setup
28:45 - Setup Complete. Intro video.
30:00 - Home screen
30:30 - "Let us show you around". Xbox One tour.
33:11 - Speech Tutorial
42:19 - Friends
43:07 - Gamerpics
44:37 - Posing for Gamerpic with Avatar
45:58 - Friends continued
47:22 - Jeff Gerstmann's "KI Dance" Game Clip
49:03 - Achievements
53:20 - Brad Shoemaker's "Ryse: Son of Rome" Game Clip
56:28 - Internet Explorer
58:10 - Watching a YouTube video via Internet Explorer
1:01:24 - Totally topical Charlie Sheen jokes by the Xbox One tutorial narrator. Who thought that was a good idea?
1:07:21 - Privacy settings
1:08:16 - Settings
1:16:20 - Customizing Avatar
1:21:00 - "Xbox, Bing Killer Instinct"
1:23:15 - "Xbox, Use a Code" - Scanning Day One Achievement
1:24:06 - Xbox Music
1:28:09 - Xbox Movies & TV
1:29:22 - My appearance as a strip club patron in the We're the Millers trailer
1:32:27 - My games & apps
1:33:27 - Apps
1:36:30 - "Xbox, Snap"
1:39:12 - Twitch
1:40:55 - Trying to Snap Netflix while watching Twitch
1:41:44 - Netflix
1:43:45 - Xbox Fitness
1:49:25 - Snapping Twitch while using Xbox Fitness
1:51:48 - Hulu Plus
Happy December
Here's a snowcat my mom made when she was 13 years old. My brother and I returned yesterday from visiting her in Kansas for her 57th birthday and Thanksgiving. I purchased an Epson Perfection V600 Color Scanner and had it delivered to her house so it would be there when we arrived on November 23rd, for the purpose of scanning old photos. I scanned 144 while I was there, mostly focusing on game-related ones for my "Games I've Beaten" series. I plan to digitize all of our family photos eventually.
In Kansas Until November 30th
My brother and I flew to Kansas yesterday to visit my mom for her birthday/Thanksgiving and I won't be making any substantial updates until December 1st. I will still be playing video games, however, as on the 22nd I had my Wii U shipped to her house so we could all play this:
Thanks, Hastings! (I'll buy it when I'm back home sometime.)
Last December we all played through New Super Mario Bros. U. Sounds like a good tradition to me!
PlayStation 4 Acquired: Setting it up for the very first time
I picked up my PlayStation 4 from the closest UPS Customer Center (about a 40-minute drive) right before 9 AM hit on November 15th, 2013. Thanks to an informative post on reddit, I didn't have to wait until 4 or 5 PM like I usually have to do with UPS packages.
My local UPS Customer Center.
Making sure my PlayStation 4 shipped OK before leaving the parking lot.
On my way back home I stopped off at Walmart to pick up Killzone: Shadow Fall, but, along with a few other games and the console itself, they were completely sold out. Luckily there's a GameStop right by it, so I managed to get the game there.
In my kitchen.
I strapped a GoPro to my head and unboxed the console and accessories, transitioning into a direct capture (in beautiful 1080p) of the PlayStation 4 user interface as I set up and personalized my console. The only parts I cut are where you can see me inputting my passwords. Other than that, the intention of the video is show what the experience is like for a person first turning on their PlayStation 4. The load times have improved since recording.
Jump to the 11:37 mark to go straight to the direct capture of the UI.
27:10 - Settings
33:55 - Trophies
37:28 - Friends
39:22 - PlayStation Store
50:03 - Library
50:29 - Live from PlayStation (viewing livestreams). I am very impressed with how well they pulled this off.
1:01:00 - Putting in the Killzone: Shadow Fall disc.
Killzone: Shadow Fall (PS4) - Chapter 8 Scripting Bug
Earlier tonight I encountered a scripting bug on Chapter 8 of Killzone: Shadow Fall that prevented me from progressing through the story. I believe it was due to the timing of my incapacitation which caused it. I show what happened, and then what is supposed to happen.
One Direction: Stick-On Nails
I saw these at Walmart on March 15th, 2013, my brother's 30th birthday. I considered buying a set for him.
I just hope these guys are taking advantage of all the hot sliz they have thrown their way. Imagine if you saw a girl wearing stick-on nails that had your face on them?
In like Flynn, baby. In like Flynn.
Oculus Rift: Museum of the Microstar
Watch me get sick as I cover the Oculus Rift version of Museum of the Microstar, a narrative-driven experience made by RUST.
Went to my First Thrift Store Today
As an adult, anyway. No, this trip was not influenced by Macklemore. I think.
I do a lot of background acting in North Carolina (you can see me in We're the Millers, Revolution, Under the Dome, etc.), and, as a background actor, you're often expected to bring your own wardrobe. The more options you have, the better. You generally can't have anything too bright or with logos/images, and, in my case, that greatly limits what I can bring. I often have to take my brother's clothes, so I've been slowly building up a new wardrobe for myself, primarily for background work, but also because I've been wanting to change up my style anyway.
Sorry, Giant Bomb Emporium, but your shirts are too flashy.
I read a post on Facebook about one background actor who makes a trip to a thrift store every week or so, limiting themselves to spending $1. That sounded like a great way to quickly build up my new clothing collection, so, for the first time, I dropped by my local shop that I've passed numerous times over the past couple of years. I donated four pairs of pants my brother gave me as the logos were too big for me to wear on set and then went to the back to browse. I came away with two pairs of pants for $1 and a like-new garment bag (along with the two hangers and U.S. Army garrison cap inside) for $3, making for $4 total. Not bad! I've been badly needing a proper garment bag as my clothes would often wrinkle on the two to three-hour drives I often have to take to set, and carrying them around was always a hassle. I suspect I got a better deal because of the pants I donated as she originally wasn't going to charge me for the clothing. I didn't feel right about that and told her to charge me what she thought was fair.
The store also had a PlayStation and PlayStation 2 I briefly considered picking up, but they didn't have any cables or controllers. There were also some older games, like SSX Tricky for the Xbox. As I drove away, I fantasized about what it would have been like to find a fully working Dreamcast and a copy of Shenmue. I wouldn't be writing this right now, that's for sure!
Now that I have my garrison cap, it's time to hit up the Casual Encounters section of Craigslist and pick up women looking for military guys. I should probably shave first, right?
My default Casual Encounters face. Works every time.