Youtube link

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

Freeman’s Mind continues in another backtracking-tastic episode! Between the previous episode and the earlier ones a while back that involved turning the power on, this is one of the most backtrack-heavy parts of the game. Unfortunately this means a lot of empty hallway wandering, so this episode isn’t the most exciting, though I think the bottom portion is good. There was a bit of a delay on this episode for many reasons not related to FM, but I’m through most of it now and will be working on the next episode soon. I plan to have 1-2 FM episodes after this, then take a break to have a small Game Dungeon spree. After that, I guess the world ends, not sure.

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I’ve been pretty busy lately and I’m working to have a new video out as soon as I can, but in the meantime, there’s a new discussion I was invited to for the podcast “The Mute Button” however they may be changing their name soon as they’re not the only podcast with that name.

LINK

The podcast mostly focused on machinima and movies based on videogames. I maybe should have said more than I did, but I said most of things I wanted to and shamelessly plugged Gorilla Gong more than a bit.

Anyway, I hope to have the next FM episode out in a few days, with a bunch more videos coming after that.

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Here’s some news on what’s going on this month:

APRIL FOOL’S DAY

I seem to have disappointed more people than usual this year, and I admit, this might be the meanest AF joke I’ve done. Sorry about that, my intent wasn’t to make people feel bad, this was just the only idea I was able to come up with in time. I had some other ideas, but they were more elaborate and I didn’t think I’d be able to do them this year. I literally thought I wasn’t going to have anything this year, which would have been a first. The fundraiser was a huge morale boost however, and after I finished the last FM episode, I had the Freeman Across The Universe idea and decided I had enough time to go through with it. To be clear, I’m not planning on making Freeman Across The Universe. It’s not that I want to disappoint people, it’s that I REALLY want to make the machinima movie idea I have. I have confidence the movie will be the best video I’ve ever made and top Freeman’s Mind AND Civil Protection. It’s still going to take a long time however, and it’s just not feasible if I’m busy expanding FM to other games as well. Also I wasn’t lying when I said I forgot what game that screenshot is from. I think it’s from a zombie survival mod for Unreal Tournament 2003 or 2004, but I COULD NOT find it again, I tried. Whatever mod it was, it came out no later than September 2004 if anyone wants to try and find it.

 
DOTA 2 VOICE PACK

A few people have asked me what the status on this is. The answer is sadness and frustration. As stated before, Valve sent me an email months ago saying “the developers of “Dota 2” had to flag it as “incompatible”, so it cannot be used within “Dota 2”, yet the entry on the Steam Workshop is still pending. This is frustrating me to no end, because I can not get an answer WHY it is incompatible. They may be rejecting it based on the name, which is an easy fix, but it could be other mystery reasons also. I tried to follow the guidelines to the letter. The fact that they can’t give me a REASON as to what’s wrong with it I think is very unprofessional. Since then I have tried emailing [email protected] twice, [email protected] once, and made two separate posts in different DOTA 2 dev forums with NO REPLY. I honestly don’t know what to do next. The only thought that comes to mind next is to resubmit the pack as the “Ross Scott Voice Pack” instead of the “Freeman’s Mind” one (the pack doesn’t contain overt Half-Life references). My guess is if I do that, I’ll get another rejection notice, months from now, with NO REASON given again either. Frankly, I think this is bullshit. I spent months working on this, if someone actually did look this over, they could at least pick from some pre-selected reasons as to WHY it’s not compatible (improper database format, audio quality, etc.). If Valve doesn’t want my voice pack, I can live with that. But not even giving me a REASON so I know how to FIX it feels very dysfunctional and passive-aggressive from my perspective considering how much time and work I put into it. I feel like if they can’t even give an honest reply why they reject a pack with thousands of votes, maybe they’re not really ready to be operating the steam workshop for voice packs, or else they’re understaffed. Since I’ve tried doing this cordially with no results, I’m thinking my next step is to gradually get more obnoxious about it. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions how to contact SOMEONE at Valve about this, please let me know, or feel free to make noise about this to get their attention on my behalf.

 
GORILLA GONG

We have a BIG redesign coming to Gorilla Gong soon, it’s going to add a bunch of new features, have a better layout, I’m really looking forward to it. I should have another post on that in a few days.

 
MORE VIDEOS

I plan to keep moving forward with more videos, but it may get held up a little bit as I have to do my taxes for two different countries, and the person who was going to send me the 500GB SSD says it broke in transit from Fed Ex, so I may end up having to get one myself afterall. Regardless, my plan is to get to a certain point in the game for Freeman’s Mind (I think it’s 2-3 episodes away), then do a small Game Dungeon spree afterwards, so I’ll be alternating between those two series for the near future. I have some other things planned, but those are less definite at this time.

 
REPLYING TO PEOPLE

I am still WAY behind on replies, but I do still intend to reply to all emails. I kind of put that on hold so I could make the last Freeman’s Mind episode and April Fool’s Trailer. If I haven’t replied to you yet, it’s not me intentionally ignoring you.

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ADHD version: Ross isn’t making Freeman Across The Universe, he wants to make a badass movie instead, sorry. Valve isn’t replying to Ross about the DOTA pack and it’s kind of pissing him off. More videos coming!

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Good news! The fundraiser ended up being so wildly successful, that I’ve decided to expand Freeman’s Mind to EVERY first-person game made! Check out the trailer below for a small taste of what’s in store:

This is of course a large undertaking, so I’ve decided to cancel the full-length machinima movie I was working on so I have enough time to cover every first-person game made. Now I admit of being a little deceptive in this trailer in that it’s at 1080p. As a result, a few shots have some framerate drop, but it’s nothing too crazy. Freeman’s Mind will still be at 720p for now as there’s a BIG difference between capturing a 1080p clip at 180fps for 10 seconds v. 10 minutes. A difference of 60.

BONUS!

I did not cover all the games I wanted to in this trailer! One game was so obscure even I forgot the name of it! I have kept proof of its existence below:

If you know what game this is, let me know in the comments!

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Youtube link

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

Here’s the latest episode of Freeman’s Mind, now in HD! This episode is about average, it has a lot of the hallway wandering Half-Life is known for, but is broken up with the action. I didn’t remember which way to go when I played this again, and could have easily broken about 2-3 episode into 5-6 pointless ones if I recorded this the first time through. I would argue the game even steers you towards the wrong objective way too early, leaving you lost. While old school FPSs can have a lot going for them, I’ve never been a fan of maze-like level design that tries to trap you. Also for the time being, I’m discontinuing releasing new videos on blip.tv, but will continue to leave the old ones up there. The reason being is ever since Maker Studios bought them out (shortly after my joining blip), the performance of the site has kind of gone downhill for me, so for now, future episodes will just be coming out on Youtube.

Thanks again to everyone who donated, you’re the direct reason this episode is in HD right now. I actually didn’t wait until any of the parts to arrive since I wanted to get it out ASAP and it absolutely was every bit of a pain in the ass to process as I anticipated on my system. The next episodes won’t be released until I get the computer parts, but I can keep working on them in low definition and swap it out later. I’m still afraid to go to 1080, though I’m looking into possible options for that in the future.

Also, as of the time of this posting, I THINK I have responded to everyone who has donated money, which has come to roughly ~850 people since the fundraiser started. I still have yet to respond to most other normal emails, but I’ll get to them as soon as I can.

More videos coming! In HD!

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