Our mission in Raccoon City continues, as David and I continue to chronicle the tale of Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira. Last time, we managed to make it to the Kendo Gun Shop after besting the Nemesis in a rooftop confrontation. The proprietor gave us a key to the alley on the side of the store, which should hopefully get us back to the train station.
Hopefully, nothing bad happens and we escape unharmed. Then again, what could possibly go wrong.
(Credit to Sam Callahan for the thumbnail)
In hindsight, it was quite fortunately that my OBS crashed 3 times while recording this episode, because it finally gave me insight into something I’ve heard people mention a few times, but could never quite got a handle on myself.
As painful a confession as this is for me, I don’t give me content the post-production love that I honestly should, just because it’s really hard for me to set aside the required time. What I noticed is that, either through moving away from my mic while playing or my voice just naturally getting quieter, my audio is difficult to hear compared to when I test. With this in mind, I have some ideas for what I can do to solve this problem, and hopefully it’ll stop being an issue.
I’m fully aware that there’s more I could do to improve the quality of my content, and I’m hoping in time I can start building up to that. I’d like to separate my feeds, so that the game video and audio is separate from mine and my guests (so that editing and audio balancing is easier). I’m happy with my video quality from my capture card, but it’s clear my audio work leaves much to be desired. This may be a one-man production, but that’s no excuse to sit on my laurels.
As for the episode itself, it’s interesting to note how different Carlos’s segments feel compared to Jill’s. With Jill, she feels like someone who, despite having access to limited resources, is more than capable to using those resources to maximum effectiveness, handling herself better than could be reasonably expected. Meanwhile, Carlos gives off the impression of someone who is absolutely more well-equipped and organized.
So much of that comes down to the first impressions. The game opens with Jill frantically running away from the Nemesis, scrambling to have use the environment to keep her distance and land a few hits (or ram him with a car) where ever she can. Even her pistol is an object she finds rather than one she goes in with. When we finally take control of Carlos for the first time in the old police station from RE2, he literally starts out with a fully-loaded machine gun with 200 rounds of ammo to spare.
Now, it’s important to note than both of them are just as effective mechanically. While Carlos has a machine gun, it doesn’t do as much damage per hit as the pistol. And despite her initial loadout, Jill has access to a ton of ammo and weapons in the environment. The difference is purely one of aesthetic “feeling”, not of practical effectiveness. It shows how important that initial impression is, and how what happens in the story do have tangible impact on the emotional state of the player when engaging with the mechanics laid in front of them.
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