Out with the Heat, In with the New Cool(ing fan)

Recently, Pugyuu's been experiencing some overheating problems when I play some games, like League of Legends, Minecraft, and other spec-heavy games I have on Steam. I had gotten a brand new laptop cooling fan for Pugyuu because of it, but the problem persisted, mostly because the air flow was still lacking from the air's out vent.

I had done my usual maintenance for Pugyuu, like cleaning the air vent, fan, and heat sink with canned air and the likes. Dust did not accumulate in the vent like the last time Pugyuu had an overheating problem when I was playing Left 4 Dead 2. Instead, the internal cooling fan was making a little more noise than it should, and showed signs of it wobbling slightly off its axis. It turns out that the fan has aged a bit too much from high usage and is worn to the point where it isn't blowing air out very efficiently. So a replacement had to be ordered online.

Extended Torture

So I said earlier that I was going to be playing some console games, finally, and how I was going to prioritize on finishing Star Ocean: The Last Hope International finally, after 3 and a half years from launch. Well, it turns out that my PS3-less torture continues since the PS3 Phat I have here decided to break as soon as I put a disc in. It won't read the disc I put in, and the console refuses to eject the disc as well. If not for downloaded games, the console is practically useless, whilst holding my UMVC3 disc hostage.

Not sure if I've told the story about this PS3 Phat, but... here's the short story. I randomly found this PS3 Phat in the garage. It turns out my Dad had made a trade with one of his customers which got him the PS3, but never really told us about it. In the end, the PS3 Slim was announced, along with a price drop, and now the PS3 Phat keeps having issues that requires constant repairs.

The moral of the story is, trades are risky... Also, if something's been sitting in the garage for a while, it probably belongs there.

I may just buy myself a new PS3...

Leaving the Heat Behind

I'm back home in NJ once again, for a much longer stay this time. There are many things things I missed about being in NJ, like the (slightly) cooler weather, my friends and family, but one thing to note for you guys is the much faster internet speed that's available here in comparison to the services in FL. That means I'll have more time to get things done, allowing me to do more posts, most likely. I've kept you guys waiting for a whole month, pretty much, so it's about time. 

On a semi-related note, during the move, I had to make the decision of getting a PlayStation Plus membership on my PS3 to transfer some save data, since Star Ocean: The Last Hope's saves were locked from being copied, supposedly to prevent people from abusing downloaded saves for easy achievements or something. Go figure. So I may be taking advantage of the service for the 3 months I have them for, so look forward to my experiences with that. 

Soon after, hopefully I'll have a review up for Star Ocean: The Last Hope. I've waiting long enough to finish the game, I should finish it while there's nothing keeping me from playing it. I DID also pre-order Project X Zone on the 3DS though, so a review for that may pop up soon too. 

Awesome Deals - Defense Grid: The Awakening for Free

I just got word that Defense Grid: The Awakening on Steam can be downloaded for free (legally) through an activation code you can get off of Facebook, by Logitech. I tried it out, and the activation code certainly did give me a copy of the game, so I'm sharing the info to you guys too. I'm not sure how long this deal will last though, so if you're interested in getting a $10 game for free, give it a shot. You just need to "Like" Logitech and Defense Grid. You can get to the Facebook page through the link on this page.

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/95948/logitech-defense-grid-the-awakening-pc-digital-download

Thanks, Logitech!

404 Error - Blog writer not found.

It really has been a while since I've been posting on my blog lately, partially due to how busy I have been with work, as well as struggling with finding a good time to sleep due to many factors that's been keeping me up. Unfortunately, this will continue for another month for many personal reasons, including a bed bug infestation (which was one of the factors keeping me up; should have discovered them sooner), moving houses twice (once back to my parents' house up north, and again to help them get into their new house), and setting up and preparing for future posts. 

Poll - POLL NOT FOUND

It's already May, so here's... wait... 

It turns out that the polls aren't working on the site for some reason, and I can't get it to show any of the votes. I'm not sure how to fix it, so... it looks like polls will be taken down until further notice from the developers. 

Setting up for a Let's Play

After looking into what is required to do a Let's Play, I went and checked out the free evaluation version of Fraps, downloaded Audacity, and tested both programs out. Fraps certainly works a LOT better than this other, commercial screen recording program I tried out for free. I think it was Screen Recorder Gold that I tried out, but I can't be 100% certain since I uninstalled it a long time ago. Audacity probably isn't a necessity, but I wanted to be able to edit my commentaries, and this program is great for doing just that. Otherwise, Fraps IS capable of recording both the game's audio as well as an external audio source like a microphone, but the audio will be compressed together, making editing not-so-easy to do.

After the recording phase, I intend on working with Windows Movie Maker first to see how much editing I can do with it. I kind of doubt that I would need high levels of editing for my videos, at least not yet, but seeing how I've heard good things about Sony Vegas Pro, that is something I will look into later on.

But one of the things that slipped my mind was the issue of Copyrights. Having had issues with copyrights before, I'd like to know where the fine line is when it comes to them so that I know not to cross what legal rights I'm allowed and not. So here are some webpages that I found were somewhat helpful in regards to copyrights.

http://socialtimes.com/fair-use-youtube_b61891

As well as the "Copyrights" link at the bottom of YouTube's page.

Searching "Copyright Laws regarding Let's Play videos" on Google provided quite a few discussions in forum threads regarding the matter, with most of them pointing out that while it's technically a legal gray area, it's unlikely that a game company will file a copyright infringement lawsuit on an individual for uploading a Let's Play video.

Sooo... in the end, I'm still a bit iffy about how much content I can put in my videos, like... whether if I could put music from other games in them, or whether if giving credits to all things included would be mandatory.

I'll try experimenting a bit with a few recordings and see how well they turn out. It's about time I get some more content on this blog anyway.