Video – Tom Francis Regrets This Already

Playing Assassin’s Creed 4: You Can’t Sword Fire, Man

Pentadact — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 23:20:58 +0000

I’m thinking about posting these Let’s Play style videos as shorter, individual highlights rather than recording every moment and putting it all up in long sequential chunks. Well, shorter than 50 minutes. That felt like overkill, and it also meant I felt weirdly guilty if I wanted to do something that’s boring to watch.

Assassin’s Creed 4 Parts 1-5: Boarding School

Pentadact — Sat, 02 Nov 2013 19:05:46 +0000

Part 1 is a bit quiet, but the rest should be fine – click the listy icon in the top left to see all episodes. Subscribe on YouTube or follow me on Twitter if you want to know when the next one goes up.

Exploring Eldritch, Parts 1 & 2

Pentadact — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 18:49:56 +0000

I’m playing Eldritch, a first-person horror/shooter/Roguelike with randomly generated levels and Lovecraft monsters.

The game completely changes after book 1 (above). I thought it was some kind of lite action game, then suddenly the enemies get so much harder that it’s more like a stealth horror game (below).

Failing Fast In GTA V, Parts 1-10

Pentadact — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 16:43:23 +0000

About me: I am a bad driver, I don’t know any modern colloquialisms, and I just want everyone to be nice. In this video series, I attempt to play Grand Theft Auto V: Angry Jerks Steal Cars And Money And Yell At Each Other. It goes wrong in what might be record time.

We’re up to Part 10 now, click the listy button in the top left to skip to an episode.

Spelunky Strategy Guide: Finding And Defeating Anubis

Pentadact — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 14:07:25 +0000

Tom And Nika Vs The Necromancers Of Monaco, Parts 1-5

Pentadact — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 22:04:39 +0000

I’ve been playing Monaco co-op with Nika, and we’re YouTubing the whole fiasco. We’re up to Part 5 now, click the listy button in the top left to skip to an episode.

I struggled to get into Monaco when it first came out: I found it visually confusing, and most of the classes seemed bad. But over the course of these videos it starts to really click, and at its best it’s a hilarious, calamitous caper.

Games I Plan To Make #1: The Randomised Strategy Game

Pentadact — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:05:10 +0000

Hey Tom, why are you always cooking noisily when you make videos? Because I am finishing my videogame, so vidbloggiovlogging kinda has to cram into any downtime I get. Hope the noise isn’t too annoying.

Gunpoint Video Blog: Story Vs Games

Pentadact — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:21:55 +0000

I talk a bit about games vs stories: how they end up ruining each other, and how I’ve tried to avoid that in Gunpoint.

I mention the gender of the main villain in Gunpoint in this, but it won’t tell you much.

Gunpoint Dev Log: From A Broken Mess To A Working Game

Pentadact — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:13:21 +0000

A quick update on how Gunpoint’s going.

I AM SO SORRY I LEFT AUTOFOCUS ON! I will remember to disable it next time. My camera is great at everything except detecting how far away an almost stationary human in the center of the frame is.

Arguing On The Internet

Pentadact — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:17:38 +0000

I don’t argue on the internet anymore, but I have some ideas on how to do it without defeating yourself and also human decency.

Update: This post now has a sort of sequel, suggesting ways to contribute to an argument without being an asshole.

Why Are Stealth Games Cool?

Pentadact — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:44:42 +0000

While poaching some eggs, I tried to explain what’s particularly cool about stealth games.

This was for an intro video to the Global Stealth Jam, an event organised by the Sneaky Bastards last weekend, a blog entirely about stealth games. The full thing features lots of cool people, like Nels Ormensch, Andy Schatz, Harvey Smith and Patrick Redding (who looks like he could be in Ocean’s 11).

E3’s Violence Overload, Versus Gaming’s Usual Violence Overload

Pentadact — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:04:15 +0000

While frying a piece of fish, I wondered why the violence shown at the main conferences at E3 got to me, despite the fact that I play violent games all the time.

Correction! I am mistaken about the context for the Last of Us killing: there are fungus-controlled dudes in it, but the people you’re killing in that scene are just assholes.

The fish was good. Spring onion, chilli and soy. 7/10.

Listening To Your Sound Effects For Gunpoint

Pentadact — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:09:37 +0000

I asked if people wanted to make the sound effect for when you switch into Crosslink mode in Gunpoint, the view from which you can rewire how everything works. People did! Thanks, those people! I’ve made a video of me listening to some of your sounds, and reacting with a mixture of delight, horror and confusion.

Sorry that this isn’t all of them, by a long shot – they came in faster than I could keep up with, and I had to trim this video to stop it getting ridiculously long. If I end up using any of the ones that aren’t shown in this video, I’ll put them up here too.