What better way to start a new blog than to immediately look backwards?! I've been wanting to write more recently and one of the things on my mind is my YouTube channel. Specifically, I've been thinking about the many many games I've played, some of the things that have worked well, other things that haven't, and generally where I wanna go moving forward.

So let's take a look back into the mists of time and see how far we've come on this journey. I think going forward I wanna start doing this each year. Also, I'm being a little loosey-goosey with what games go in which years. 2021 looks a little more stacked than it is, since there were a couple longer-running series that started there and went a couple months into 2022. But oh well. Broad sweeps, everyone, broad sweeps.

Year 1 - 2021

Games Covered

• Call of the Sea (2020)
• Rogue Galaxy (2005)
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
• The Witness (2016)
• Mass Effect 1 (2007)
• Visage (2020)
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II (2004)
• Amnesia Rebirth (2020)
• Mass Effect 2 (2010)

I started off my channel on Feb 14, 2021 and she certainly moved with a purpose. I could have sworn that I did like 2 or 3 series given how infrequent episodes were in the beginning. But looking back that's mostly just Call of the Sea and Rogue Galaxy. The edges...they were rough, though. I harbor no delusions that some of the first things were particularly great. I still recall when I first sat down to record my first video. I was incredibly nervous and sat for some time, finger hovering over the Start Recording button. It was something that I wanted to do, but even so, I've always been relatively insular. It was a big deal to me doing that first recording and uploading it for anyone in the world to see (a whole like 20 people!). But I can say with certainty that the whole venture has made me significantly better at public speaking.

I do have some fondness for the era but mostly just wish the audio was better. I've occasionally considered going back and remastering it, I had no idea what I was doing with the mixing. I do keep all my raw unedited footage. Never know when you might want to use it in some project later. I probably won't bother, though. It would mostly just suck up a ton of time and I don't think the result is anything a particularly large number of people are after. I do strongly feel that as I've gone on LPing, I've gotten better at it. There's gems here, but I'd be the first to say how rough they are. So put that on the "maybe someday if I'm really feelin' it" list.

Something else from this era I'd like to comment on. Rogue Galaxy and Mass Effect. The two series that have involved games I've already played. I think I've pretty well decided that I want to stay away from covering games I'm already familiar with going forward. I've seen plenty of Let's Plays where the person playing the game is already familiar with it. And they've done just fine. But I think it's something I struggle with. The commentary just isn't as funny or insightful. I wouldn't necessarily call it bad, just not up to par. The novelty of the new is such a crucible of humor for me. It puts me in a state of mind for joking, I think.

There's two series that I actually ended before making any episodes public, just because I had this clear feeling that something was off. And in both cases it was a game I had already played. The first was Okami, I started recording it early 2022 and the other being Dishonored, which I had started recording mid 2023. Dishonored I may still end up doing at some point, I've wanted to play the other games and would feel weird skipping to the second one. But such is life. There's always more games to play.

Another thing that I have to comment on would be the multiple people in KOTOR and Witness. A clear hallmark of the early days. I doubt it's something that'll come up particularly often in the future. A big intent of my channel is creating a work that is an representation of me. Nothing but love for my friends who took part in those series, but had the TAC youtube channel been around at the time, I probably would have put those episodes up there. I think it's healthy to have a clear separation between group work and my own. Not discounting ever doing more collabs, I have plans to do exactly that. Just something I've stayed away from since.

Year 2 - 2022

Games Covered

• Kentucky Route Zero (2020)
• Mass Effect 3 (2012)
• Alien Isolation (2014)
• Omen Exitio Plague (2018)
• Control (2019)
• Road 96 (2021)

Kentucky Route Zero is my white whale and I will die on that hill. Absolutely nobody watched that series and it is such a gem. I don't terribly mind, because the audio is still no good through much of this era. But it's still bit of a shame. I think about that game often to this day. It drips love and care and art goddammit.

I am really glad I started to branch out more in this era and played some indie games. I love indie and I've discovered some excellent games that I might not have had I stuck to the well-trodden path for my LP's. Road 96 and Omen Exitio being prime examples. I still occasionally find myself thinking about Road 96, it had some great art direction and music that planted itself firmly in my head. And Omen Exitio is apparently getting a sequel in the nearish future, so I'm excited to play that.

Overall, I think this year shows very clear growth on my part. I consider Alien: Isolation to be one of my first really notably good LP's. Due in no small part to how good that game was. But even so, I think if you took a random episode from this year and compared it to one of yesteryear, the difference is stark. And I'm happy about that. I have a desire for each series to be better than the last, so it feels good to be able to look back and see clear evidence of that.

Also, glad I finished Mass Effect. It was fun, but like I said, I think it's just better all around to do games I haven't already played. And that series was a huge one taking up my time. Even to this day, a not insignificant amount of the total videos I've recorded are Mass Effect.

I think Control was the only semi-disappointing game I played during this era. More than anything I just feel conflicted about it. I loved the atmosphere and the worldbuilding, but by the end of the game, the combat got really stale and it started being a slog to get through. What I should have done is just turn the difficulty way down and start blasting through it. Or I might have been happier had I either not done the DLC or perhaps left it for a bit and came back to it in the future. As it was, I think the game just went on a bit too long. I have generally stayed away from doing longer games, unless I'm certain I'm going to like it since Control. It's just how it goes, when you're recording perhaps an episode or two of a series in a week, you don't get through it very fast, so when a game's longer and being a slog, it really drags things down.

Year 3 - 2023

Games Covered

• Outer Wilds (2019)
• Call of Duty (2003)
• Disco Elysium (2019)
• Amnesia A Machine for Pigs (2013)
• Call of Duty 2 (2005)
• Amnesia The Bunker (2023)
• Call of Duty World at War (2008)
• Smile For Me (2019)
• Pentiment (2022)
• No one lives under the lighthouse (2020)
• The Final Station (2016)
• Call of Duty Black Ops (2010)

Y'all, when I tell you I have entered my Dangerous Woman era. This year was damn good and no one can tell me otherwise. Let's start with the obvious standouts. Outer Wilds and Disco Elysium shot to the top of my favorite games of all time list. So it was a lot of fun doing an LP of them. In both cases there was a day or two where I just recorded like 4 or more episodes in a row because of how good each game was.

And Call of Duty, that tempestuous mistress. That was quite the curveball given previous games I had played. But it was quite the success, those series typically getting higher than average views. And surprisingly fun, well outside of my typical wheelhouse. I think more than anything it revealed the strength of occasionally doing more action-y fast-paced games. I do wonder if perhaps I should explain what the impetus for that run of games was. It really is truly dumb and is not congruent with the amount of time I've actually put into them. Remind me to tell you about Muscles McMilitary sometime...

Onwards and Upwards

I like the diversity of games I've got on display. We do puzzles, we do horror, we do action, we do indie darling. This club has everything. Most definitely something I want to continue. I'm more than likely going to stay away from games I've already played. I think everyone, including myself, like watching someone experience something for the first time. I wanna get deeper into the actual video editing aspect of video creation. I really enjoyed the result of my Every Death idea for the Call of Duty series. Took so long to make, but fun satisfying result. I'll be on the lookout for more opportunities like that. I've had an idea for a similarly themed video for the Outer Wilds series. Haven't quite found the courage to start climbing that mountain, but I'm at least working may towards the slope so there's that.

Overall, I just wanted to say thank you if you're reading this and have taken a look at my channel. I've put a lot of work into it and I'm satisfied with what I'm getting out of it. Here's to another year! 🎉