Let's Play | Dragon's Dogma

Awards

PS3 - RPG, 1280x720, 30FPS

Seg 1 encoded at 2015-07-04 15:29:23

An LP intended to spearhead production out of extremely difficult and stressful real life circumstances. Lower key and less analytic than my typical casts as a result. This game is reasonably lengthy with a fair amount of repeat fights and wandering, as well as inventory management. This is not Dark Arisen, therefore there is no hard difficulty available at all. If I ever am able to acquire Dark Arisen I would run a separate Hard Difficulty run. This seems unlikely unless HKS lends me his version.
Two challenges awaited me in this LP. First was the fan rumble akin to the earlier casts like God of War. Since I don't have two separate audio device streams to work with, I had to devise a non-destructive means of eliminating as much rumble as possible. I was exceptionally successful in this. In an ideal world Fraps would be managed by someone who was actually interested in updating their program with standard features once every 10 years, but here we are. The second difficulty was the game's FXAA and dark colors causing difficulties for the encode to produce satisfactory results. Ultimately, I settled on a higher quality setting than I traditionally use, but it's not quite where I would have liked it to be. In an ideal world Nvidia wouldn't exist at all, but here we are.

Segment 1

Download - 1.8Gb

3:36:8 hours, x264/AAC

Initial encode test @ 28 CRF with moderate ME. The quality is not so amazing. Features some audio testing and rambling.

Segment 2

Download - 3.0Gb

3:37:19 hours, x264/AAC

Secondary encode test with 25 CRF and exhaustive ME. Superior quality, but not as efficient file size.

Segment 3

Download - 1.6Gb

2:53:17 hours, x264/AAC

Tertiary encode test with 26.5 and exhaustive ME. Satisfactory middle ground. Used for rest of the game.

Segment 4

Download - 1.7Gb

2:47:41 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 5

Download - 2.0Gb

2:48:39 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 6

Download - 2.4Gb

3:52:48 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 7

Download - 2.3Gb

3:17:0 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 8

Download - 2.1Gb

3:27:40 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 9

Download - 1.6Gb

2:48:32 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 10

Download - 2.2Gb

2:55:0 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 11

Download - 2.1Gb

2:55:16 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 12

Download - 2.2Gb

3:11:19 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 13

Download - 2.3Gb

3:21:22 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 14

Download - 2.3Gb

3:27:4 hours, x264/AAC

Segment 15

Download - 3.0Gb

4:26:34 hours, x264/AAC

Review

Download - 51Mb MP3

I briefly recalled the horrible random scaling in Skyrim resulting in me getting 1shot by fireball at points, but this hardly helps the game's image.

ddda

PC - RPG, 1920x1200, 30FPS

Seg 1 encoded at 2016-01-17 12:45:32

This run is treated as a supplement to the existing run. It was originally intended to be rather short, but due to circumstances that become evident during the run, both the run itself and the production of it extended far longer than first projected. I gratuitously skip dialogue and content in this presentation that was covered in the first video series, while aggressively timelapsing or cutting non-vital areas. Nonetheless, it may be watched independently of that run if you are not interested in the story. I do not skip content that was missed in the first run, such as some dialogue, new fights, side quests, etc. I also heavily edit out grinding or running around that I felt didn't add anything compared to the old run (though I keep enough to maintain analogous pace). As the run progresses the cutting becomes more aggressive to remove grinding/farming overhead.
This run was my first major testbed for potential 60fps HD recordings. The test was a failure. My hardware cannot handle it. Initial 60fps videos were downsampled to 30fps for the final encodes, which may result in odd microstutters as they were not a consistent 60fps when recorded.
This run was used an experimental platform for new audio compressor settings in segments 13 and later. The difference will not be enormous, but the audio should sound a bit more clear. Portions of segment 16 use the new microphone in an experimental setup and the volume is a bit low. I more heavily modified the audio than usual to help compensate. (The waveform looks weird between the two mics, too!)
These videos were encoded with fairly high settings compared to standard encodes, so they are larger as a result.
This run, unlike the first, is run on Dark Arisen's hard difficulty. This difficulty greatly increases damage you take in addition to increasing stamina costs. It also increases experience and gold drops. I walked into this run with some research behind me fully intending to powergame drops and make the most out of my time with it. Only amazing things can come as a result from a Canadian trying to do anything competently.
I conducted research on potentially utilizing ENB or other shader injectors for this run. However, those injectors almost all universally made the game look worse at the time, doing nothing but increasing DOF and adding sharpening filters (yes, THOSE sharpening filters). Somehow people consider shader injectors "modding". This is the day and age we live in. As a result I steered clear of these injectors.
Any sharp static heard throughout the game are from a new bug Capcom introduced in the PC version. Despite patches claiming to be "fixing" the issue it remained widespread and actually got worse over time. And, yes, the dialogue is that quiet for everyone.