WoWS & MST3K

My reference to "Nikki" in the narration is to the administrative assistant at work whose husband is also a friend of mine and another rabid MST3K fanboy. MST3K, for the uninitiated, is/was/and is again Mystery Science Theater 3000, a great Saturday morning television show of the late 1980's and 90's. A recent KickStarter campaign has brought more MST3K episodes, new episodes, back on Netflix. What you're watching here is a World of Warships (WoWS) mate of mine, "theLaaLaa", live streaming his gameplay on Twitch today, and doing so uniquely in that his webcam is showing archived episodes of MST3K instead of him. It's lazy and free Sunday entertainment that I enjoy because it's simply Brilliant!

Enjoy!

World of Warships - Halloween 2016 Replays

Despite a few computer connection issues I finally got some Halloween World of Warships gameplay recorded tonight using a couple of work-arounds. You'll get to see the spooky world Wargaming created for us and the amazing detail they poured into the special event ships we had to sail. Almost all gaming companies go all out for Halloween and players look forward to the surprises in their favorite titles, and this one was no exception, although I found it quite frustrating and difficult at times. Eventually I figured out that it was much like the April Fools Day "Jacuzzi" event in that it was great opportunity to harvest materials that can be put to good use in the game later... in this case, ship camouflage.

Sit back and relax. This is a longer video than normal but you get to see each of the ships in the series in port and in action. Enjoy!

World of Warships - Halloween 2016

Twice a year - first during the week of April Fools Day and again during the Halloween week - Wargaming and many other gaming companies pull out all of the stops and treat their players with special events. We look forward to them like a 6-yr old looks forward to Christmas morning. If you look back thru the archives here or search for WoWS postings you'll see what happened in the Jacuzzi this past April. Well, Halloween 2016 is right around the corner and Wargaming's teaser for this year's World of Warships event just dropped and it's looking nothing short of AMAZING! In my estimation 80% of the allure of games like these nowadays are the visuals anyway, so...

Buckle up, swabbies! Strap on those life jackets! Grab a life saver ring! And you might want to swallow a bottle of Dramamine too. This is about to get epic!!! We'll be sure to post plenty of spooktacular battle action in the days ahead. Stay tuned. :)

Orlan Division

Something a little different: a Tier I cruiser. Or is that crusher? Watch and see.

Enjoy!

Sampson on the Loose!

This battle just has to be shared and re-shared. Sadly however it isn't one of mine. Jammin411 does a great job of narration, and his excitement throughout is justified many times over. It's easily one of the best World of Warships battles I've ever seen regardless of tier. The fact that it was fought in a tier II Sampson makes things even more amazing.

Enjoy!!!

Clemson Screening

The YouTube notes for this video describe today's replay as being as much about a battle as it is my freshman Adobe Premier Pro video editing "skills". I'm finally dipping a toe into the game of real video editing and as such am still at the low end of the learning curve. There isn't anything special here, I'm just getting a taste of the basics and moving away from the live commentary idea. Over time I hope to refine the editing workflow, set a template, and improve my narration (too much dead air at times... I'm a quiet sort anyway), and create more standardize content. For now however sit back and enjoy a little carnage on the salty waters surrounding the Solomon Islands as delivered by Capt bubby_koa's USN Clemson tier IV destroyer.

Capt Bad Advice

Sigh... too true... too often.

Shipshape

Captain Bad Advice checks out his Das Boot boat.

Enjoy!

The Bottlesheep

The Pokeboat, Bathyscape, and Das Boot to follow... stay tuned.

Clemson Encounter

Notser, who is an outstanding (!) WoWS player and posts daily high quality Warships content, shared a similar Clemson replay the other day. (See: "Clemson by Reikoku" on his page) What struck me was that the base experience (XP) achieved in that match and mine were just about the same... in the mid-1600's range. So I did well enough in my battle to be comparable to something worthy of a Notser replay sans four (4) kills of course. But it's a team game, right?... not entirely individual glory. :p I've learned a lot by watching Notser's videos... not that everything he says always sticks or sinks in right away, unfortunately. Sometimes you've gotta throw a lot of mud at a wall like me to get any to stick. Eventually even I need a shower, so he's doing good.

The replay above is in my current collection, but it felt good enough to post here separately. The commentary gets sparse part way in... that's how you can tell I'm thinking. At some point I might be able to verbalize what I'm thinking and analyzing in those moments, but for now I can't afford to split the core processing time. :)

Enjoy!

Game of Chicken (Juicy Bit)

For the curious... we lost this battle. And somehow (I think the CV stole it from me) I didn't get credit for a kill or a medal. But if you're going to go down... and in this scenario you pretty much know you will... you might as well take somebody with you and grab the style points. :)

Enjoy!

Something Completely New

Yes, it's true. I've started creating and posting my own World of Warships replay content. So far unfortunately I seem to be swallowing a fair bit of saltwater. But that will change. Or not. We shall sea. (see what I did there? :)

The videos in the playlist will continue to grow over time, and I might even expand to other categories. For now if you click the small icon next to the numbers at top left a dialog will open showing the entire set of videos available at the time of your visit. From there you can select what you'd like to watch. The most current upload will be shown here as #1 on the list. Production quality will probably be all over the map for a while as I sort out settings here and there, but things should settle down eventually.

Enjoy!

It Ain't Over Til it's Over

Jammin411 has been kind enough to post another of my replays, this time I take out my Tier IV Phoenix on the Solomon Islands map. The score flips back and forth between teams and comes down to a tight 2 vs 2 to end the fight. Enjoy!

One Tight Squeeze Isn't Enough

Jammin411 was kind enough to feature and commentate on one of my World of Warships gameplay uploads today! So I'll share it here with all of you. Unfortunately, by design, the replays for WoW still cut off abruptly at the end, and so does his narration. But the full game is shown just short of the results. I'll post those here separately because I took screenshots.

Enjoy!!! (I did! :) Thanks again, Justin!!!

WoWS

I came to this party quite late... only starting in Nov'15 just before the Thanksgiving holiday. But it's unlike anything else I've ever tried. Completely immersive, unbelievably realistic, and as addicting as chocolate. It can be frustrating however as you make a LOT of stupid mistakes in the beginning and see a lot of good iron slip beneath the waves on its way to the bottom of the ocean. Still, for those who hang in there, are willing to study a bit, learn from mistakes, and have nerves of steel (because WoW *will* elevate your heart rate at times!), this is one fantastic pastime. And the best part: It's completely free to play if you chose to go that route!

WoW: World of Warships. Simply amazing. Have a look, Captain, if you dare!

Cmdr bubby_koa ... Currently sailing mostly American, IJN, and German cruisers Tiers III-VI.

How to Play Chess... Properly

How to play chess... just watch a video and learn. What could be easier?