Lack of Updates, New YouTube Channel

Hey everyone. Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been going through a lot of rough patches lately, going as far as hindering my story, YouTube channel and this blog.


I may or may not get back to trying to continue Gaming and YouTuber Corner soon. It depends on how I feel. I'm trying really hard to not give up on writing Dynasty. Though I know few places where I can post the story and have people read it. Fictionpress seems to be a terrible site for that and asking for advice on Reddit just got my ass handed to me with people barely reading past the first paragraph. Maybe I'm in the wrong line of hobbies. I can't seem to, you know, do anything right.

Anyway... My new YouTube channel is now NeoTanner. Click here to go to it.

Happy Late New Year! (Blog Update - January 9th, 2014)

Hi guys! Crash Freak here! Happy belated New Year!


I know, I know. I'm late to the party. I'm always late. In everything! Anyway... Hope you guys are having a good year so far! Mine's been alright. :P

--- YouTube Related Updates ---

Anywho... As you may know, I've been much more active on my YouTube channel and I'll try to be active here on my blog as well. But the YouTube stuff has been a daily thing!

Official Channel Trailer V1.0 (January 2014)

I've also made a channel trailer (have annotations on please!), which is linked below!


New Channel Trailer: Click

The transition into a Let's Play channel has been a bit rough. I don't get many views. Roughly 15-20 per video I've uploaded so far, with a bare minimum of 10. Occasionally, there will be 30+ views. This, however, depends on the popularity of the game (such as Left 4 Dead 2, Minecraft, apparently Goof Troop, etc). Help me out by checking out the trailer above and maybe thinking of watching a few videos before you subscribe!

I'm on the Polaris forums and the Yogcast forums as well, trying to advertise the best way I know how without flooding Reddit.

---- Story Related Updates ---

Ah, yes, my story... Well, actually, as of now, there's TWO story projects going on! That's right, TWO!

Dynasty Series

The cover for the Dynasty Series Facebook

The first story project is still my Dynasty story series. Progress on Act 11.5 has been dreadfully slow and all December 2014 saw out of that was a revised Prologue (mostly due to Writer's Block for 11.5). This month, however, I aim to have 11.5 out at least. If all goes well with writing mojo MAYBE Act 12 will be released as well. I'm still debating on how many Acts the first arc has left, as the story's approaching Lane finding and fighting Bortelli as well as Vinchi.

AOIT: The Digital Crusade Reboot

The second story project, however, is completely different. It's actually a written reboot/reimagining of my comic AOIT: The Digital Crusade. The reason for this is that I wanted another project to work on and busy myself when not recording Let's Plays for my YouTube channel. The actual title will be reworked as the story's being altered enough to warrant it by bringing in a slew of new characters - majority of such being based on online friends of mine. There are a few WIP names such as just Digital Crusade, The Resistance, The Virtual and The Damned, and Digital.exe

--- Blog Related Updates ---

Alrighty. In relation to the blog, January should see at least one or two Gaming Corner updates along with maybe a third YouTuber Review. I have a few candidates in mine for it. Though I got to one YouTuber Review last month due to Christmas and stuff, so now should be a bit easier. I hope to have 1 of each or two Gaming Reviews out this month!

That's it for the update, so thanks for reading!

YouTuber Corner Review #2: Wowcrendor

It is time for YouTuber Corner Review #2! This time I look at the wonderful world that is wowcrendor! He is much lesser known than Markiplier, only having around 350K subscribers. That doesn't mean anything, however, as he is well known among his fans as the "King of High Quality Non-Content". He's also best friends with Jesse Cox (who ironically I learned about through wowcrendor). Ironic because Jesse is more well known and has a larger fan base. I'll be reviewing him in a later YouTuber Review segment.

Wowcrendor is a machinimator (aka Machinima Artist) mostly known for his World of Warcraft machinimas, hence the name wowcrendor (though since then, he's been referred to as just Crendor which also happens to be his WoW Priest's name). He, however, does play and sometimes creates machinimas for other games such as League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, and more through his "I Felt Like Playing" series. He is part of the Polaris media group, which also houses names like Markiplier, Dodger, Jesse Cox, and the Game Grumps. He doesn't have a primary game genre preference, though some will argue it's primarily online games or MMOs (mostly because he has played WoW the most out of the games he's shown on his channel).

The YouTuber Ranking System

Presentation - As I've said before in the Markiplier review, presentation is everything. Wowcrendor's presentation isn't the most professional, especially his self-appointed title which is "The King of High Quality Non-Content". He is primarily co-oping with his friend, Jesse Cox, so the Non-Content aspect is perhaps referring to the fact his upload schedule isn't as persistent as a channel like Jesse's or Markiplier's is. His schedule ranges from 1-2 days between videos to as far as a week. This I find is a bit of a downside to him and most people, if they are used to people like the YouTubers mentioned who upload daily, might avoid subbing to him.

YouTuber Score: 7 out of 10

Content - Good content is still a subjective matter. Since I'm being critical right now, the following wording is based on my personal opinion. I still implore you to check out Crendor's channel despite anything I say.

Moving on.... Well, let's see... He is most notable for his Machimina work. I find majority of them to be funny and well done, even if the subject matter for certain ones is very simple (such as making fun of the fact Garrisons are added to WoW in Warlods of Draenor). Outside of Machinima content, his playthroughs of certain games can be appealing. His Leveling in WoW playthrough (which right now has 50 episodes) is a nice series to listen to, but I personally dislike the times he ends up playing one-off games in "I Felt Like Playing". That series is generally boring, tedious to watch because of the length and with mentioning the length, sometimes a single video can reach over 40 minutes long. He would have been better off splitting it into 2-3 parts at least. Lastily, his latest "special" with a friend (which was a Thanksgiving special) lasted much too long. He split it up into 8 parts, which seems a bit excessive especially since each part was minimum 20 minutes. As I said, I view Crendor as more of a Machinimator and not a Let's Player (which he seems to be adapting into when not making a Machinima, which is fine, go for it, Crendawg!).

YouTuber Score: 7 out of 10

Interaction - Interaction doesn't seem to happen as much as I've seen other YouTubers interact with their fan base with Wowcrendor. I know he does still talk to and interact with fans via his Twitter, but only 50K out of his 370K fans follow him there.  His answers are usually short and there's not really much added other than him giving slighty longer sarcastic responses.

YouTuber Score: 7 out of 10

Overall Score: 7 out of 10


The overall score is a 7 out of 10 because I don't necessarily agree with how he runs his channel (and thus runs a CrendorIRL channel, which effectively runs into maintaining his main channel). He's still fun to watch and entertaining 85% of the time. I've expressed my gripes already, so I will not repeat myself.

You can check out Wowcrendor's channel here!

You can watch two example videos of his content below!

Example Videos

Blog Update December 02, 2013

Hi everyone! I'm Crash Freak. You may or may not know me from YouTube. If you don't , here's a link to go check my channel out (or you could, you know, click the link in the navigation bar).


Anyhow... This is a blog updaaaaaaaate!


1) YouTuber and Gaming Corner

If any come out this month (which I'm debating), it'll most likely be one of each. Though that's not saying there "won't" be more than one. With Christmas coming up along with a long time friend visiting, I may not be doing much here or on my channel when it is close to said Christmas.  That being said, the reveal of the next 5 games of Gaming Corner is here!

Block 2 of Gaming Corner Review List

1) Psychonauts (TBD)
2) Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (TBD)
3) Blades of Time (TBD)
4) Borderlands (TBD)
5) Grand Theft Auto V (TBD)


2) YouTube Channel Update: Content Change

If you've seen my earlier videos, you'd know my content was never very consistent. For the most part, it was indeed about video games (though 90% Crash Bandicoot related). Then when I started college, it became a little bit more open such as some video editing classes and the like. Now, I've decided to give in and make it mostly a Let's Play channel. Though the content isn't strictly Let's Play. There will be occasionally more review-type videos like I did with Ruff Trigger in the future as well, but mostly the "usual" content will be Let's Plays. Click below to watch a few like Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, Prop Hunt and LoL Highlights.

YouTuber Corner Review #1: Introducing Markiplier!

Welcome to a new segment of my blog called YouTuber Corner! In this segment, I will be reviewing some popular YouTubers. The first on my list for reviews is the one, the only Markiplier!

Image is from the Markiplier deviantART Group. Specifically, it's made by Fezent! Click here to visit their dA!



Markiplier is known as a Let's Player on the website YouTube. Very recently, he has achieved more than 1 million subscribers on YouTube overall. It was a rather quick climb as well, as the channel was founded back in 2012 - perhaps literally a year ago from the time of this article. Climbing to the top like that in such a short time is pretty unusual but good! His primary "shtick" is Let's Playing horror games such as Slenderman: The Arrival, Outlast and more recently Ib, in the RPG Maker Horror genre. He does, however, play other genre types from time to time such as simulation with Kerbal Space Program and RPGs like Skyrim.

The YouTuber Ranking System

Presentation - Presentation is important with a YouTube channel and Markiplier shows that he tries to keep goofiness and professionalism hand in hand. He crafts his individual thumbnails for both an eye-catching method and a humorous insight from his own mind, such as Inwards with creating the thumbnail of him falling repeatedly through portals. The channel is also well-organized into various Let's Play series lists and a One Off list, which is an episode of a game he either beats in one episode or he chooses not to continue after one episode (such as No Time to Explain).

YouTuber Score: 9 out of 10

Content - Typically, good content is a subjective thing. You could upload content daily and no one would like it or you could upload as little as once a month and people flock to it like flies. Markiplier is the rare instance that he uploads on a daily basis and manages to be fresh and entertaining still. Being entertaining is one of the most important parts about being a YouTuber or a Let's Player in general. I personally believe his drive to upload a video on a daily basis is what caused his channel to flourish so fast. The content is also high in quality, another factor

YouTuber Score: 9 out of 10

Interaction - Interaction with others such as the channel's fanbase is rather important. Markiplier does occasionally livestream to directly interact with fans (these are the rare days where he does not upload a video to his YouTube channel). He has also attended several conventions like PAX Prime and interacted with them, along with accepting game requests via Facebook (though he seems to usually deny requests during livestreams). 

YouTuber Score: 9 out of 10

Overall Score: 9 out of 10

The overall score is not a perfect 10/10 because no one is really perfect. His upload schedule is not completely consistent. The only consistent thing about it is "uploading everyday". The amount varies from 2 to 3 videos in a day. A couple of times the 2-3 videos may be short or not even game related (such as his vlogs or the 30 second spot reveal for his Channel Trailer). That's all well and good, but it's a reason the score isn't 10/10.  It's really the only gripe.

If you're not subbed to him, then watch the videos below and then click here to visit his channel and subscribe!

Example Videos

If my review isn't enough to persuade you to watch and subscribe to his channel, then check out the beginning of some of my favorite Let's Plays from him!

The Stanley Parable Part 1

Ib Part 1

Gaming Corner: Ratchet and Clank - Full Frontal Assault Review

Time for another Gaming Corner, everyone! This time I'm tackling the Ratchet and Clank game, Full Frontal Assault, for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita!

First Impression: First impressions are something that is drastically important in any media, I've noticed. This is another time where my first impression was covered by the fanboyism that had come out of its shell when this title was first announced. I am a huge fun of Ratchet and Clank and would defend the series from being called a StarFox "rip off" for sure, but that doesn't mean I cannot agree on there being... a fluke or two in the series.

Gameplay: The gameplay within R&C:FFA (I will call it FFA from now on) is significantly different from its predecessors. This is actually a successor to Ratchet and Clank's All 4 One online multiplayer game. That fits the description nicely for this game, though FFA has a single player mode too. Anyway... The primary mechanics of the game have turned into a Tower Defense-like one. You always start each level, or map, with no weapons and have to go locate them from conveniently placed weapon pods throughout the map. They allow you to take one weapon per pod, with a choice of three weapons per each pod. Why Ratchet just doesn't have a weapon in the first place (especially considering he's had a blaster in every other game by default) is a bit baffling to me. Regardless, the objective in the game is to regain control around 6 planets, which serve as levels. The free roaming space travelling from A Crack in Time is now gone and we are back to the "Using a Menu to Go to Planets" feature again. You can play as Ratchet, Clank or Quark and use them to defend your base from waves of enemies while pressing forward once enemy waves are down and try to regain control of the planet through its Interplanetary Defense System. Progressively, the levels lengthen and get more challenging, before finally having us revisit one planet to fight the final boss, which happens to be a grown up version of the Quark fan from Ratchet and Clank 2. The gameplay on the Vita is largely the same as the PS3. Touch screen interaction was added, but I never used it because the normal buttons served the same purpose.

Graphics: Graphically on PS3, this game looks a bit less polished than the other Ratchet and Clank games. Not entirely sure with All 4 One, but I didn't like Ratchet's styling change in this game. On the Vita, the graphics are noticeably downgraded to that of a PlayStation Portable (thus PS2-like in comparison) quality that made me question the point of the port. The Vita is able to still maintain the beauty of games (look at Borderlands 2 Vita) but this game... no, it was a complete downgrade in textures, lighting and so forth.

Story:  This time in the Ratchet and Clank universe, we meet our heroes on Quark's spaceship. Quark lost the re-election for a 2nd term as Galactic President and now tries to find some crime to fight. Ratchet also notes that it's been surprisingly quiet and he is getting bored as well. As if he was heard, an alert goes off with a masked man threatening Quark and invading various nearby planets to take over their defense systems. Ratchet and Quark both agree that they have to stop this man, obviously thankful for someone rising up to do evil. Then after you save about two planets, the man reveals himself to be an adult that would be remembered as the Quark fanboy in Ratchet and Clank 2 (who gave you a bolt radius enhancer) and is named Zurgo. Crushed by how Quark betrayed his fans and become a laughing stock and dubbed "not a real hero", he vows revenge by taking over defense grids and framing Quark to cause a great disaster by hijacking the Weather Grid. Our heroes manage to track down and defeat Zurgo and while he's being carried to the ship, Quark stumbles and accidentally throws him off of a bridge.

--- Rating System ---

Gameplay: 2/5 - The gameplay tries to bring back or keep the "Run and Gun" feel of the single player story driven games of the series. Though the added Tower Defense element is very lackluster and feels a bit out of place in the universe. Yes, level designs had been restricted before due to being a linear platformer/shooter style game, but I feel like Insomniac was creating an entirely different game and at the last minute decided to slap on the Ratchet and Clank brand to test it out. Again, touch screen support was added for the Vita version but it was never used by me, so a pointless addition. The Vita version would get a 1/5 if I did a seperate score. The game has siginificant frame rate issues on my Vita at least (and I looked around, more people were reporting this). It didn't make the game unplayable, but it was vastly unenjoyable. I found myself completing most of the game on my PS3 and then transferring that file to the Vita to pretty much screw around.

Graphics: 3/5 - If we're talking PS3, the graphics are moderately okay for this title. They don't look as crisp and beautiful as A Crack in Time's did to me (and perhaps that's because A Crack in Time is my favorite PS3 game of the series). The designs were perhaps taken from All 4 One and not the Future trilogy, so the odd design (to me) for Ratchet might be for that very reason. If we're talking the Vita, however, hell no. These graphics were butchered to the point of why they didn't even opt for a PSP port along with a Vita port - as apparently PSP game support only stopped very recently - is beyond me. Hell, the Vita version could be considered as a cross platform title among Sony titles. With how it looked and acted, the PSP and PS2 could have probably run this version. It's similar to the problems with PS3 to PSP ports. It cannot be done with just a few people. And if you have a horrible result, don't publish the port. Just scrap it.

Story: 2/5 - The story is almost... very predictable and very disappointing considering the universe Ratchet and Clank take place in still has so many questions to be answered. However, someone at Insomniac thought it'd be a good thing to create a Tower Defense game and then slapped Ratchet and Clank onto it for possibly a bigger budget and I feel like the story was the very, very last thing on their minds when they finished the levels. Compared to the original PS2 trilogy and the PS3 trilogy, this story is utter crap. I would have been fine waiting for a game like Enter the Nexus to continue the Future trilogy, not a sequel to All 4 One (which has also been known as a bad Ratchet and Clank game).

Overall:  2/5 - Well, this is my lowest rating to date. For the PS3 version, yes, sadly. This is accurate for my opinion. I was excited at first at the announcement of a new Ratchet and Clank game, but disappointed when I found out it was labeled as Tower Defense. Despite that, I still bought it as I was a fan of the series and hoped Insomniac would surprise me. In the end, it did not. To make matters worse, it made me think of how little Insomniac might feel about their beloved series and if they decided to make it into a cash cow or not (which I certainly hoped not). The Vita version was an indicator of this, as they had assigned a small unknown development team comprised of only 3 team members that were ex-Insomniac members. THREE. ONLY THREE FOR INSOMNIAC'S MOST SUCCESSFUL FRANCHISE! When I noted that in the credits, I grew a bit more lax about my opinion on the game as a whole but that doesn't mean I won't tell people to not buy that version alone.

--- Where to Buy ---

You can by FFA on the PlayStation Network store or at your nearest GameStop. I DO NOT recommend buying the PS Vita version by itself. The PS3 version is cross-buy and you get the Vita version for free, but now I can see why it was free. It's a terrible port. And I reiterate, IT WAS ONLY MADE BY 3 PEOPLE!!

--- Screenshots ---

Here's some screenshots! These screens are from the PS3 version of the game.

Gaming Corner: Batman Arkham City Review

It's time for another GAMING CORNER review, everyone! *cheer, applause*

First Impression: My first impression with the game was a resounding "meh" mostly because at the time when this game was very new, I wasn't that big of a Batman fan. I assumed it would be like most superhero games, catering too much to try and be different and reinvent some ideals of the said hero. Superman 64, anyone? Anyway... Boy, I was wrong. My first impression was keeping me from this game for about 2 years before I finally bought the GOTY Edition.

Gameplay: The gameplay in this game is fantastic. It has some ups and downs, such as occasionally having an issue with targeting. There is heavy emphasis on melee combat and stealth takedowns. There is no way to gain an advantage by just shooting your way through the levels. There's also realism as it only takes a few shots from an enemy's handgun to kill you, even with a 50% damage reduction upgrade. Sometimes the game is unnecessarily difficult, as such with specific enemies that if you take them out, they'd have a heart monitor on and a villain would notice easily. A few times this was a problem toward the end of the game, giving almost no way of taking someone out without alerting other henchmen.

Graphics: Graphically, this game looked stunning. It captures the essence of Batman at its finest. The visuals are crisp and clear as well as the designs for Batman, Catwoman and so forth. The environment for Arkham City is also quite detailed, as it tries to capture a dysfunctional and destructive city variation of the Arkham Asylum.

Story:  The story is one of the strongest points of the game. Bruce Wayne (ie Batman) is taken into custody and thrown into Arkham City, a ruse Dr. Strange created in order to eliminate the criminals, which he considers Batman "not better than the rest of them". There are various subplots within the city that connect to Batman trying to find Dr. Strange and stop his overall plan. One of the majorly influenced ones is that the Joker is dying from a toxin left in his body from the previous game (Arkham Asylum). He then tricks and poisons Batman with the same toxin to force him to find the antidote. The plot also revolves areound Catwoman meeting and greeting Batman along with at one point saving him from certain death. Though Batman tricks Ra's al Ghul into letting him through the Trial of the Demon. When decieved, Ra's tries to defeat Batman, only to be outwitted and Batman takes a sample of his blood. Using this, he creates an antidote with Dr. Freeze (after a boss fight ensues), then finds his way up to the top tower with Dr. Strange. It is then revealed that he was working with Ra's and Ra's kills him. Before Strange dies though, he issues a self-destruct mechanism and both Batman and Ra's jump out, with Batman surviving and Ra's being impaled onto a pole. The game then ends after the Joker makes Batman go into a movie theatre and reveals Clayface has been playing his perfect imposter. A gunpoint, Joker tries to force Batman to hand over the toxin and then causes an accident, causing Batman to drop the antidote before he could give it to him. Despite trying to desperately lick up the antidote, the Joker dies and Batman even told him that it was his own fault as he would have given him the antidote despite knowing he'll harm more people.

--- Rating System ---

Gameplay: 4/5 - The gameplay is quite good in this title, bar the few hiccups here and there with targetting and the easily alertable enemy AI.

Graphics: 4/5 - The graphics are quite impressive for my liking. The visuals are stunning and they capture the atmosphere of a chaotic Arkham City perfectly. It was clearly an important aspect of development since Arkham City was an entirely new place (with Gotham in the background!)

Story: 4/5 - The storytelling in the game was high quality and easy to follow. There were even side quests that revealed interesting backstories from villains that were (apparently) from the previous game, such as The Riddler and a man who kept calling from a phone. There's even a DLC regarding Harley Quinn taking over for The Joker that takes place about a month after the events of Arkham City, too. I haven't played much of it, but it was pretty good.

Overall:  4/5 - Overall, I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone that enjoys Batman or superheroes in general. Though the GOTY Edition is out, so make sure to buy that!

--- Where to Buy ---

Batman: Arkham City can be purchased on Steam or through the PSN/XBL and GameStop stores!

--- Screenshots ---

Here's some screenshots!