Thursday, March 23, 2017

March 21-22 2017 Uploads

GuuzakaTube                                                                        Wednesday, March 22, 2017

March 21-22 2017 Uploads

Wow, wow, wow, WOW! Do you know how many videos I've recorded for this week's batch? 10. That's right. 10! That's a new record from the last time I've uploaded so many videos! When was that? Remember the entry for the 2016 Boxing Day Uploads? Yeah, that was 9 videos and now here I have 10. So if it wasn't obvious enough from the gaming commentaries I made on the videos, the reason behind this massive upload is the fact that 8 out of 10 of these videos are gaming videos. Yep, I've been saying for several entries now, that gaming videos aren't priorities for me. Why? Because I wanted to focus more on the outdoor videos and commentaries. But then suddenly, last Sunday, I've decided to play and record at least one segment of the most space-consuming games on my phone to make space for the BlackBerry 10.3.3.1463 update, before I delete them. For that reason, it probably would've been more accurate to title this entry The Great Sunday Gaming Marathon rather than the current “March 21-22 2017 Uploads”. Well, I would've done just that if it weren't for the two outdoors videos that I filmed earlier. Speaking of those, I'm satisfied and glad I was able to film those locations, so let's dive in now and discuss this lengthy list of everything uploaded between the dates stated in the title!

Ah, Sinclair! Why hast thou been so problematic to film?! 1St time, endless reboots. 2Nd time, too awkward due to the excessive crowds and outings. 3Rd time, well, there were some outings, but I didn't let that stop me because I was tired of coming up to this place and having something “stop me” from filming. Well, truth be told, nobody acted up or anything, but as explained on camera, discretion is a very important thing to exercise while filming areas with lots of people, especially when you consider that this area was a disctrict board, high school and daycare facility in one. Kind of crazy when you think about that, but that's what also made it such an interesting, satisfying place to film. “GuuzakaTube, you sound so queer about this” some of you might say, “People make videos in even busier environments than what you've been in, and they nor they people around them don't really care as long as you use common sense” True. Can't argue with that fact. Whatever. Now that all this awkward talk is out of the way, let's actually discuss this building itself. Now as you can imagine, with it housing three institutions under one roof, it must be stupidly huge right? Well, it's big alright, but not mighty huge. It was snowing that day, which contributed to the natural cinematic effect you see in the video. Whether you consider that a plus or not, I personally found it a little annoying, but was just glad that it wasn't wet snow. Unsatisfying Sinclair Video. Ha! Now I finally have a normal, proper video of this school. You want to know what else is close to this area that I've originally wanted to film on the day I first attempted to film this school? Hebron Christian Reformed Church. That's right. I kept quiet about the exact name of this place, but no longer! Read below if you're interested in hearing what I have to say about it, or you can skip to one of the games that interest you the most, if you could care less about Hebron.



Did that title make you LOL? I'm sure it did! So as I mentioned above, the same day I first attempted to get Sinclair, was also supposed to be the same day where I was going to film Hebron next, but because the church was open, with people coming in and out and what not, it would have been way too creepy and awkward to go around filming and photographing the building at that time. If you don't know me by now, I prefer to film buildings while the coast is clear, or at least mostly clear of people to avoid misunderstandings. I know, I know. As mentioned above, most people don't care if you're filming casually, but when it comes to scenarios or places like this, it would come off as seriously creepy to film while the place is open, so I'd rather not do that – Anyways! That's enough with the awkward, repetitive ramblings about this, and I shall not mention any more of it for the duration of this write up! This place is located northeast of the Sinclair area, in a lot of its own off Anderson Street, unlike Sinclair which is more correctly located off Taunton between Garden and Anderson. Even though it was cold and snowy, Hebron church was a wonderful place to wander around, film and photograph. And so were the fields! Even better, geese were there to provide even more entertainment! So you're likely wandering why I decided to do an extra segment where I explore the fields and bother some geese, right? Well, the answer was mentioned in the video: I did not quite feel like putting down the camera after filming and photographing the church, so I decided to wander into the nearby fields and mess around there. Turned out to be more fun than I thought, though probably boring to some people, so I decided to be a nice guy and separate the segments through the use of visual slides for those that would only be interested in seeing one part or the other. I encourage you to watch both of course! Now about that question: what do the geese eat when it's so cold outside, and why did they return from their Mexican vacation at the wrong time? LOL! Kind of makes me wonder if they were confused about the stubbornly cold weather or if they even left at all!


Yeah, quite a strange title, isn't it? Well, this is the 1st game I recorded for the Great Sunday Marathon. It is about Mr.Khan, a Pakistani trying to run to Islamabad to accomplish his vision, goals, plans and what not, but the only thing stopping him are the so-called evil containers and trucks. You must help him to dodge them or fire rockets at them. Yeah, make of that as you will, but if you ask me, that does sound questionable. Now despite the game being called container run, I decided to demo level 2 so I could unlock level three, but considering that I was going to delete the game soon anyway and didn't even end up playing level 3, it would have made a lot more sense to demonstrate level 1. That way, you'd be able to see the namesake containers the game is named after. Another thing: make sure you have around 120-150MB of space on your smartphone and a reasonable strong or efficient operating system, or the 3D graphics and frame rates will take a toll on your smartphone. Oh, and the battery life! Watch your battery while you play this energy-guzzling game! It's fairly fun and all, but do be mindful of these things. And finally, I cannot conclude this entry without mentioning the music! I like it! It's so funky and cool! 73% out of 100%.


This game is about as interesting as watching your cat sleep. Ok, ok! So maybe this game is a little better than that, but unfortunately, all you do is catch cats. The heavier your load gets, the slower you move. That right there is the problem: the girl, Unitychan, becomes way too damn slow after the load accumulates to the point that it feels like you're moving slower than a snail. What would make this game more interesting? More space, different cats worth various amounts of points, and levels with different backgrounds maybe. Well, truth be told, I don't usually play games like this, so this game is obviously not targeted to people like me, but it was on my phone, happened to take up a lot of space, so I wanted to record at least one segment before clearing it. So what do I like about this game? The clean, bright graphics, and though cats aren't my favourite animals, I do like them quite a bit, hence why I'd even bother with this game in the 1st place. 40% out of 100%.


I know, I know. Yet another “girly” game. But you know what? It was very interesting, save for my absentminded foolishness that took place in level 2! Gosh that was embarrassing! It was so bad, that I had to put an advisory in the beginning telling people to just skip that part, and spare themselves the misery and time loss. Now I know what you're thinking, “Why couldn't you just edit that out? You took the time to make other edits, so why not just clip that out?” Because I didn't feel like it. There, I said it. Not a good answer, but it's the real answer for that question. This game has very smooth, beautiful graphics and gameplay. Loved that! Unfortunately, it did happen to be my first time playing a slingshot game on a smartphone, so I wasn't too familiar with how to work it, but did figure it out after many facepalms worthy moments. To be honest, it's my first time actually playing a Rovio game to begin with, so that may lead to you wander why I chose this one as my first Angry Birds game instead of the namesake title? The answer: I don't know. Actually wait, I think I do. When I was searching for Angry Birds titles, I wanted to try something other than the namesake title of the series. This one ended up being my first, because I guess I've never heard of Stella at the time, so I must have been like “Huh, this is interesting. Let's see what this angry bird is about” so then I downloaded it. It sat on my phone for a long time. Possibly a year or two, before I decided to give it a go before deleting it along with some of my other heavy games recorded during the Great Sunday Gaming Marathon. I like this game a lot, but found it tough at first. 75% out of 100%.


Remember “Temple Run - Slipping like a total klutz!”? Yeah, not so much this time! I mean, I do slip sometimes, but nowhere near as much as I did the first time! I've improved and even made new high scores as proof of my achievements! If you haven't watched the video yet, then you will see that this is true. So this video makes it my 2nd gameplay video of this game, and also the final. Don't be sad! I might try Temple Run 2 in the future, so that should be a little more positive for those that care. As explained in my entry from long ago, this game is one of most popular endless runners in existence, though I'm not sure which is more popular: Temple Run or Subway Surfers? I'm under the impression that Subway Surfers might be the more popular of the two, though I could be dead wrong. 77% out of 100%.


When you saw those application permissions pop up upon opening the game, that was a sure sign that I haven't even loaded the game before. Nope, not even to check it's animation boot or anything! That's how fresh this experience was. Unfortunately, as you'll know from watching the video, my largely failed screen recordings sabotaged the recording experience, which was very frustrating. I mean, I got to enjoy the game and all, but many moments were lost thanks to the screen recorder's spiteful moments during my time with this game. A similar issue occurred with Three Jumps, but I'll discuss that when its time comes. Recording business aside, how did I find this game? Quite alright, but I have to be frank: it feels like a lesser version of Asphalt 8, and the word “Asphalt” in the title makes it obvious that it was inspired from it. That's not to say it's a bad game by any means, but if you're spoiled from Asphalt 8's bells, whistles, graphics and sheer amount of cars, then you may not like this one very much. Actually, you still might like it if you enjoy racing games, and want to try something similar, but different enough to let you know that it's not a blatant knockoff. There's lots to see, do and discover in this title, but the lost recording segments just had to ruin the mood. Still, this game remains pretty darn good sooooooo ------ 79% out of 100%.


For real though: how could I suck so badly when the difficulty was supposed to be normal?! Do you have any idea how bad that is?! Goodness! This Funkoi game is really hard! Oh, speaking of that, I believe this is my 3rd Funkoi title I've recorded on the channel. I've done two gameplay videos of Tunnel X and one of Kiwi Wonder. Speaking of Kiwi Wonder, I should do another episode with it at some point in the future, now that I have a better microphone. That way we can enjoy its beautiful soundtrack to the fullest! Anyway, Alpha Zero. This game is a shooting, outer space game. Sounds a little cliché, eh? Well, yeah. You're in outer space and you must stop an evil group of spaceships and go on various missions. Yep, cliché indeed, but it's still a well designed game. It's just too bad I couldn't stand a chance against the Varcons, even on the easiest setting. I couldn't even get the 0% on the progression bar to move during the 18 minute session. “Damn, son! You gotta try harder next time!” Is probably what most people would say, and yeah, they're right. Oh well. Was gonna say better luck next time, except that y'all should know by now what's going to happen to all (except EVAC) of the games that I played during this Great Sunday Gaming Marathon. 73% out of 100%.


Yes, three frustrating attempts = around 20 minutes of wasted time! So in other words, I had to spend around 35 minutes to get this game recorded right! Probably should have just restarted my phone sooner to get it working. Shouldn't have to do that in the first place, but if it means better screen recording performance, then it would have been worth it. Anyways! So as the name suggests, Three Jumps is a platform game with black figures that can only make three consecutive jumps before you're out of jumps. Don't run or jump into anything that isn't “safe”. So jump and collect coins that can be used to unlock more characters, and avoid hazards. That's it. No levels or anything deep, advanced or complicated. It's pretty straightforward and functions as a simple time killer it seems. Kind of wish it had QWERTY support, but oh well. 68% out of 100%



Man oh man, this game was good! Really good! Smooth gameplay, wonderful graphics, arcade, retro, thoughtfully designed – Ah! It was just awesome! Since the game is about a pink cube that must grab all the coloured dots and escape without being caught, I'm wondering if “EVAC” is short for “Evacuate”? Who knows. All I know is that I had a lot of fun with this colourful game, hence why the video is nearly 30 minutes long. Now mind you, because there are some serious cheapskates out there, this game does cost you $1.99 in the BlackBerry App World. Trust me: it's worth the money. If you like ad-free, quality games, then it comes with a price. Developers do deserve some pay for their hard work, and if you don't want a “Freemium” or ad-supported game, then you must be willing to cough up a tiny price. Now what's interesting is that it looks like it's “FREE” on Google Play, but according to those that played it, you have to pay after you reach a certain level. Ha, interesting. Some people also say that it's similar to Pac-Man, and yes, I agree. It has a similar feel to it, since you do go around a maze collecting things, but with more flexibility. Another thing to note is that this game happens to have QWERTY/Physical Keyboard support, which is great news for those of you with a BlackBerry Q5, Q10, Classic, Porsche 9,883 or Passport. That on-screen controller was a tedious pain to use on my BlackBerry Q10, so I was so happy to quickly discover that I didn't have to use it. Yes! Hexage, you've made a stellar game! 91% out of 100%.




Congratulations if you've made it this far and actually read all of the entries! Kudos to you! Claim your prize, the iPhone 7 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition with 256GB by saying “finished!” out loud. Kidding. You didn't actually fall for that, did you? My oh my! You desperate loser! Alright, enough false promising and time to get on with the point. You're probably quite anxious about what I'm about to come clean about, right? Well, worry not. It's nothing big or scary. It's just the real reason why I truly haven't bothered to make much gaming videos lately: it's because I wasn't sure whether I could monetize them or not. There, I said it. I've finally come ultra clean, open and honest about it. You see, back in 2016 I wasn't a YouTube partner. That year, I was more focused on building up the channel's content and perfecting my art, which still is faaaaaaarrrrrrrrr from perfect, but way better than back then! There were many videos done just for fun, without caring about whether I'd monetize them or not, hence why some even have copyrighted music on them. Of course, there were also many that were intended to monetized as well: the outdoor videos and commentaries! Shortly after 2017 started, I decided to become a YouTube partner so I could get a little money off of this YouTube side job. Success! The application went well and it didn't take long to get my account approved and linked, since it was in excellent standing. But then, I realized that I had to start focusing more so on “safe” videos, that I know for 100% certainty won't be an issue to monetize. By that I mean no legal issues, copyright, etc., you get the idea. Gaming videos became rare until up to this point, where I decided that I would do a “Great Marathon” one day where I'd clear the most spacious games on my phone. The Sunday that fell on March 19, happened to be a great day, so I got it done then. While it was very fun to spend that weekend day playing so many games, I thought “Gee, this is going to be a ton of work when editing, uploading and writing about it. I'd really like to get something more out of this” So what happened next? What did I do? You can probably already guess, but when the videos were finished uploading I finally decided to take another look at what the stance is on monetizing mobile games for smartphones. Other games from companies like Nintendo, Microsoft and what not, are crystal clear on their policies, but when I attempted to research mobile gaming in the past, I never found a clear direct answer. Yesterday, I took another look at it and here's what I have summarize: Your best bet is to always check the game developer's website if you're uncertain. Most mobile game developers, don't actually seem to mind people monetizing their gameplays. However, you must not claim the game as yours, don’t sell or license the content you create to third parties, do not copy or take any assets from their content and distribute them separately (like characters, voices, music, images), do not include obscene, offensive, racist, defamatory, pornographic, homophobic and hateful material in your video, and you must respect the privacy of others. So! Sounds kind of like common sense, but not everyone would necessarily know some of this or be aware of certain things. That said, you still have to be careful because some games like say Asphalt 8 for instance, may have copyrighted music in it. Be VERY careful about things like that, because it can sometimes be easy to forget things like this and then BOOM! A strike! Be weary of copyrighted material that could be present in games you're interested in putting YouTube ads on. Music can easily be muted if that's present. Again, if you're not sure, check the game developers website. That is the safest way to determine what you should do, if you're in doubt. Now with all this said, I have went ahead and monetized those games above. So far, so good. I'll keep an eye out for them and see how it ultimately goes. Now I don't mean to sound as though I only do YouTube strictly for money, but you know what? I am a YouTube partner and it can be rather time consuming sometimes, so for that reason, it's important to get a profit out of my labour, even if it's small. It just makes it more worth a while to make videos when you get some money off of them. So for what's next, I'll likely have an outdoors video for next week, like usual. I was going to do a commentary pertaining to automotive, but all the editing and typing I had to this week prohibited it. As for gaming, more videos may come in the future if it plays out well. I'm quite positive that it will. It would be nice to keep my niche of outdoor things, commentaries and games, because after all, I am GuuzakaTube, and even while my videos were branded under ATA1201058, it was something I used to do, and would like to continue to do for the foreseeable future. 

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