Xbox 360 Karaoke App by The Karaoke Channel: Impressions, Opinion

The Xbox Karaoke App by The Karaoke Channel was released in December of last year and somehow I totally missed it.

I didn't really become aware of the existence of the game until I saw some Raptr tweetage of "I'm playing Karaoke (360)" from one of my friends. I had to go googling around to find out what it was and talk to some of my other friends who play karaoke style games.

After learning what it was and working to get it downloaded on my xbox (which turned out to be a real pain of trying to find it first of all), I gave it a shot and decided instantly that I really wanted to be able to upload videos from the game. I also have been wanting to write about the game since having played it, but due to recent events (that I honestly am happy for, so I won't complain about it), I haven't really had the time to sit down and write a blog about games as I had/have other priorities.

Anyway, on to the game!

Skyrim: Tale of the Tongues Vocal Cover by Anex

After beating the main storyline in Skyrim (which I had put off for a REALLY long time intentionally), I found a new song available at the bards called "Tale of the Tongues". When I first heard it I was really moved, and fell in love with the song.

Days later it was still playing in my head and I was humming it and stopping by bards on purpose just to hear it. I decided I wanted to do a vocal cover.

Around this same time I had a friend who posted on facebook a cover of a girl singing this very same song. I said to myself "damn, it has been done, people will think I'm a copy cat".

When I looked at the video I was discouraged with the idea that I could make something people wouldn't make fun of. The video I saw was by Malukah which surely almost everyone knows by now.

She clearly has experience with recording/mixing/mastering all skills that I just don't have. Her track is semi-professional quality with many vocal layers and obviously took several takes to get something the quality she did. She also went "above and beyond" by adding backing vocals and other things. I felt pretty stupid to even bother. The more I thought about it though, the more I decided not to care. Good for her that she could do these things, I didn't want to make something like this.

I just wanted to sing the song simply as it was in the game. I just was annoyed at the idea of people coming across my video telling me "wow this is crap, you are not as good as Malukah" or something to that equivalent. But if there's one thing I have learned from 3 years of uploading videos of my singing youtube, it is that there are always people who will give you crap and there are always people who won't like your singing. So screw it. I do what I want.

So here it is, my vocal cover of Tale of the Tongues. My husband provided the guitar track so at least it wouldn't be so empty.

My point is not to impress you with my studio recording and mixing/mastering prowess (as I have none), nor to wow you with an elaborate cover, nor am I going to pretend I can speak the dragon tongue outside of Skyrim + kinect. I also don't claim to be an amazing singer.

If you're looking for something with more production, and a bit more fancy you can check out SabrinaValenzuela, Malukah, and many others on youtube (there's a ton!).

I'm just a girl who likes to sing and loves Skyrim. This is one of my favorite bard songs in the game and I wanted to keep it as close to the original as possible to maintain that simple, tavern bard feel.

Skyrim Video Capture Test: Recording NTSC with PAL Dazzle

I've been pretty busy the last month and it hasn't given me the option to update my blog as much as I like nor with the content that I actually HAVE to update it with.

Today I am bringing you two Skyrim related videos. One is a vocal cover by me of "Tale of the Tongues" and the other is just a Skyrim Video Capture recording test.

I really debated whether or not to make these 2 videos in a combined post, but as I feel I can say quite a bit about both, I decided to give them their own space. The first is the Video Capture Recording test.

Previously, I have been unable to bring videos or screen capture to my blog (outside of Rock Band) because I was unable to record any game that required PAL 60 in order to play. This is because I am the owner of a Dazzle DVC 100 series capture device.

Skyrim: All Achievements Progress

Given the release of Dragonborn DLC back in December and my progress, I felt it was time (once again) to clean up my progress post.

My current achievement standing is 71/75.
http://raptr.com/_Anex_/wall

By this point is is quite simply easier to list my missing achievements.

Vampire Mastered- Acquire 11 Vampire Perks: Currently in progress on Malyce (my secondary character). I think I have 3-4 more perks to get. It's actually pretty tricky when your follower KSes you and since this character is rather weak, I need a follower :/

Legend- Defeat a Legendary Dragon: Legendary Dragons are confirmed at level 78. I am currently level 60 on Raewyn, my primary character. I have been working up other skills to level up and have currently switched from light armor and 1 handers to 2 handed weapons and heavy armor. This will be the achievement that takes the longest to acquire due simply to grinding boredom (I have completed Dragonborn along with all the side quests)

Stalhrim Crafter- Craft an item out of Stalhrim: I have a lot of Stalhrim, sadly one of the required NPCs of the village died during the quest to cleanse the stone. It was "funny" because I remember seeing him dead and saying "I hope he wasn't important" as I walked away. Turns out he was, but I didn't find that out until 30+ hours later and defeating Miraak. I wasn't going to go back. It will be up to Malyce to complete this one.

Dragonrider- Tame and ride 5 dragons: Pretty simple, just gotta find dragons. I think I need like 2 more.

The Elder Scrolls Online Beta: Sign Ups Open!

Chances are if you're interested in The Elder Scrolls Online, you have already heard about it and if not, you're freaking out, opening another window and looking for it right now. Needless to say I dropped everything I was doing and went right away to work on signing up as soon as I saw it pop up in my facebook news feed and then watched the cinematic trailer that was released with the announcement after.

The beta sign up page is pretty straight forward and had the nice touch of offering a "current closed beta selection chance rating" meter that increased depending on the amount and information you gave.

Dragonborn & Microsoft's Hate for Expats

Today is the release of Skyrim's DLC Dragonborn on xbox 360! I'm so excited, it is like an early birthday present! (My birthday is Saturday, which will be 1 year since I got Skyrim).

What I'm looking forward to the most about Dragonborn (other than it makes the game I really love last longer), is that I will have something to do besides radiant quests with Raewynn (my lvl 58 primary character). As you know by now, I have been working on getting her to level 78 to work towards all achievements earned for Skyrim. However, the road has been long and grueling and very very boring.

The only way I have figured to help me level up is to level up all my skills.. since I played as a dual wield melee character I started going back and working with some magical skills or even 2 handed skill. But it is hard to level those skills when you have nothing to kill except whatever quests you get in a radiant line and it gets boring REALLY fast. It is true I still have not completed the main storyline quest though. My reason for that was to make me not give up so quickly on trying to level. Generally when I player has already done the main thing, they stop playing and I'm not above that.

#1 Reason Why...

Here we go...! I saw this floating around on twitter yesterday but didn't want to touch the topic, but after an article over on CNN (and the irritating comments left) I feel compelled to say something about it.

First of all, here is the article: 'Lady game creators' meet up on Twitter'. The article talks about the issue in the detached tone, blanket generalization that most big media articles on gaming (and even worse, women in gaming) tend to take. Never touching on the REAL issue or really understanding what is going on.

CNN asks for those involved in the topic to share and so I threw my two-cents in answering this call: "Are you a female interested in the video game industry, or do you know someone who is?"

Now, I may not be involved directly in the development side of things, I don't have the education level developing requires, but I do have a passion for video games. I also gave up on being more professionally involved in other ways some time ago (for multiple reasons which I will not get into here); but that doesn't mean I don't have an inkling of a clue of what I'm talking about either. More so than the random CNN correspondent that knows nothing of video games or women in gaming anyway (no offense to CNN, and not including some of their gaming journalists).

What irritated me the most with this article wasn't really the article itself which offers no real opinion or substance simply because they don't have the knowledge or background to do so anyway, but the comments. Scroll through them and you will find the cliché stereotypical things you always hear about women and video games. From your trolling "get back to the kitchen" to the, "women just want attention" comments.

Malyce: My Second Skyrim Character

As you may (or may not) remember, I have been slowly working on completing all the achievements for Skyrim on xbox 360. To make keeping track of that a bit easier through my blog, I have especially created a tab that directs to my Skyrim: All Achievements post which is updated as needed.

Because I destroyed the Dark Brotherhood on my first/primary character long before I even thought I might care about the achievements (which require you to follow through the entire DB chain) and because I had cured myself of Lycanthropy and didn't want to reinfect myself AND because I also denied becoming a vampire lord and completed the chain from the Dawnguard side, I needed to create a secondary character in order to get those achievements.

I really like Skyrim, so I wasn't bothered by the fact that I needed to create another character. In fact, I had intended to do so eventually on my own anyway to see some quests from another side, especially from Dawnguard. I had only previously hesitated creating a second because I was unsure how to keep track of my saves and not lose my primary, but once I discovered I could save another character on another media device (memory card in my case, yes I had one..) without hassle or fear of mixing them up, I dove right in.

A Necessary Facelift

Unecessary Blogage got a necessary facelift today! Hopefully you like it as much as I do compared to the old look.

Updating my blog is really something I have been meaning to do for a long time now but never got around to.  I'm not so great with graphics, nor with HTML etc, so I kept trying to take the lazy way out and download templates. Everything I looked through though was either really ugly, really specific (specific video games etc), or just plain full of advertisement for the site I was looking at. So then I thought to just transfer everything over to WordPress as there were far more customization options, but while blog titles transferred the content of the blogs didn't. -_-  Then there was the problem of youtube videos not displaying properly without addons (I forgot about this when I used to admin a WP site before) and everything costing money to do anything. Eventually I just abandoned that idea (for now anyway).

After much frustration with downloadable templates I just decided to try Blogger's new customization tools and make a holder until I could work on something. But as I started working, I started seeing that I could do most of what I wanted to do anyway and just did it. I always wanted to make a real header for my blog but never got around to it either and today I just sat there and did it. Again, I'm not great with graphics and manipulation or anything, but I'm satisfied with the result and happy to find a new use for my Rock Band 2 avatar of myself (too bad Rock Band 3 doesn't give the hair style I need to pull it off again & there is no photomaker tool anymore).

I've also added Disqus comments! Yay! I'm hoping this will encourage more blog comments since Blogger's system is really primitive. We will see.

Anyway, I'm happy to have something a bit more to my style and a bit more original than the old template I had before.. everyone and their dog had that same look. I hope Unnecessary Blogage will be clear and easy to read while also being a little more pleasing on the eye. :)

Return of the Vocal Videos

Things have been busy for me lately. Aside my continuation in Skyrim (level 56 almost 57) for All Achievements, I also recently picked up Rocksmith last week since the game was FINALLY released in Europe. Now not only am I trying to level up in Skyrim for that damned Legendary dragon, but I am also trying to make sure I play Rocksmith consistently to maintain whatever callouses I may be gaining.  That is not including the fact that Rock Band still releases new DLC and I want to record vocal videos (especially of Amberian Dawn songs). So many things I want to do and so little time... first world problems, ya know?

So today I shook off some of the lazy and hauled my desktop to my living room to get some recordings done. I actually managed to get 2 videos recorded, Cold Kiss and Passing Bells; both by Amberian Dawn.

Skyrim: Hearthfire- My Experiences

(aka Learn From My Mistakes)

If you're looking for a review of Skyrim: Hearthfire you can check my post:
Skyrim: Hearthfire- My Thoughts.

This post is a bit more personal and will describe my playtime with it thus far and more in-depth opinions regarding my game play. Things I learned (tips) are bolded/italicized.

Skyrim: Hearthfire - My Thoughts

Skryim's latest add-on.

Unless you've been living under a rock, chances are you have heard of Skyrim's latest DLC add-on: Hearthfire released September 4, 2012. Hearthfire goes for 400 MS points and gives you the ability to buy land, build a house and adopt children.

Some people have compared it to The Sims. Since I don't play The Sims (nor do I care for it), I'm not going to compare it to that game. For me, Hearthfire is the final piece that makes Skyrim almost the new Fable, and I loved me some Fable.

In my opinion, Hearthfire is something that probably should have been included with the game from the get-go. I'm not saying it is so important that there was a great lack in the game without it, but it is one of those things that would have been so much more useful and enjoyed during the course of game play and leveling up than crudely tacked on 10 months later when the majority of people have already finished the main quest and stopped playing.

Skyrim: All Achievements Porgress as of 12/4/12

This is an excerpt of a previous post, the full post is here: Skyrim, Skyrim and more Skyrim. Updated: Dec. 4, 2012

So without intending to I kind of started a goal to gain every achievement in the game so that should surely keep me busy until The Elder Scrolls Online is released (well, maybe not THAT long, but for a while). I just started noticing that I was getting the majority of achievements anyway, so I figured why not?

Here's my profile on Raptr (I can't think of an easier way to link achievements):
http://raptr.com/_Anex_/about

I'm sitting at 63/75 achievements (there were some achievements that came with the Dawngaurd DLC , Hearthfire add-on and Dragonborn DLC). Rather than link all the ones I have it is just easier to list the ones I DON'T have.

Skyrim, Skyrim and more Skyrim

My character in Skyrim; Raewyn

(updated 9/17/12, see achievements section)

I know my blog seems to mostly be about Rock band, but I DO play other games too.

Last year on my birthday I received Skyrim for my birthday (December 8). I was semi-interested in the game, but didn't know much about it. I knew it was similar to Oblivion (I now know it is part of the same universe) which I HAD wanted to buy but couldn't play because my TV was WAAAAAY too small to deal with the interface (I used to play on a postage stamp, as evidenced in some of my rock band vids from 2 years ago).

I poked around the video game stores in November when Skyrim was released, but everything I found said "Version Francaise Integral" which usually means that the entire game has been translated into French along with character voices without any way to change the language. As a native English speaker living in France, this is a pain for me. Not to mention that games/movies/tv shows dubbed in French usually have TERRIBLE voice acting and translations (the majority of the Frenchies I have spoken with agree). So I put off the game. However my husband and a friend of ours schemed in my back to order the game from an English speaking country for my birthday. So needless to say when I saw my birthday present had the shape of a game or movie I opened it cautiously and then shrieked.

Rock Band Vid: Lithium & XLR -> USB Mic Buzz

I finally got around to recording a video! Yay!

I have been sick forever (going on over a month now) with bronchitis. I still haven't got rid of it, but I have decided I need to just learn to work around it because I am tired of waiting to recover. I think I will have to talk to my doctor about chronic bronchitis next time I see her, we will see what happens.

So this week is Lithium by Evanescence. As much as I'm not crazy about the band (or I guess I should say Amy Lee, since she started over) anymore (nor the direction), there was a time I did like the band (first 2 albums). It was also previous to discovering harder music and European metal which includes symphonic metal bands with classically trained female singers... so I have kind of "grown out of" Evanescence. However, this was a song I used to quite like and it is fun to sing.

In Major Need of an Update xD

It's been FOREVER since I have updated here. To be honest I really was planning a major overhaul and working on moving things over to http://unnecessaryblogage.wordpress.com/ but I was kept busy.

I had my first show with Ethropia, we were working on recording a demo.. it was crazy stuff. Now that Ethropia is on break for about a year, I have time again. I have really been wanting to write blogs regarding my Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 routine I started in February, and post more videos.

I did upload a few more videos to youtube

RB Vid: Field of Serpents & New Mic!

It's been a while since I have posted an Amberian Dawn video. As you may recall, I have complained a lot about having issues with recording videos in Rock Band from this artist. Any time I try to sing lyrically my notes are so high and loud that there is a horrible crackle and popping sound on the notes. So I started singing soft, flat and without much effort which resulted in videos I was unhappy with.

Recently I had to purchase a new microphone for use in my band (I bought a Shure SM58 A Beta). It seemed to work wonders in practice (the mic we had wasn't working very well for me), and I started to wonder if it might be useable in Rock Band.

RB3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- Californication (+ other stuff)

Here is one of the 4 videos I recorded of the Red Hot Chili Peppers DLC that was released a few weeks ago. I haven't had much time lately, and I'm quite busy with other things, but thought I would release one from my stock.

Rock Band 3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- By The Way

The second of 4 Red Hot Chili Pepper's DLC videos I recorded. Honestly this one has a chorus that is fun to sing but the verses are "WTF? XD"

It was hard to try to sing it "seriously" too. Anyway this one should be worth some LOLs. You get to hear me semi-rapping and singing nonsense.

Rock Band 3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- Otherside

Here's the first of 4 upcoming Red Hot Chili Pepper's DLC videos I recorded and my favorite from the pack.

This song is also the first and only song I've ever sang in a Karaoke bar O_o so it brings back interesting memories.

Also, I've received a lot (well for me) of nice feedback about this video. The like/view ratio is much higher than usually and the comments are nice. Also had a couple of people tweet the link. I had no idea people missed my videos or even cared about them.

Thanks! ♥