My Latest YouTube Video

It has been a little over 2 years since I have started publishing YouTube videos in earnest. During that time I have learned a lot. Sometimes you post a video that you think will be popular only to get a handful of views. Then you publish something and it surprises you with the number of people watching it. I suppose after a bit of experience you can guess at what people want to view and may even be right.

I just published my latest YouTube video and I knew it would be popular, which is why I made it. My most popular video is of the Top 5 Steepest Ski Areas in North America. I actually threw in a ski area that deserved to be on the list but one that I expected to remove when I skied someplace with steeper terrain. Unfortunately I didn't find such a place until this year. I quickly put together a new video and published it on Tuesday. Since then I have watched the video's popularity grow and am pleased with the response. I hope that the new content receives as many views as the original which has been played over 100,000 times.

Now the real question is how to drive more traffic to my channel without constantly putting out new versions of the same video? I can go back through and look at my short films in order of popularity and work on a revision of the second most popular one, which is something I am doing. Ideally I need to come up with new content that is equally as compelling to watch as my most popular video. That is tough to do. If it was easy, we would have a lot more original content out of Hollywood and not nearly as many sequels. Fortunately I have found that controversial topics generate a lot more views than safe ones. Let's see if I can come up with such a topic.

A Quick Review of Ubisoft's Steep Video Game

A few days ago I found myself with some spare time at home alone and so I loaded up Ubisoft's Steep video game on my PS4. I started playing it and wanted to provide a quick review before moving on to my next winter break game. I don't want to keep playing the game right now because it is something that will appeal to me more in the summer when I can't ski and need a good snow escape.

The game does a good job simulating snow. It is one of the best I have seen. The Frozen Wilds DLC from Horizon Zero Dawn looks very similar and this is because of the graphics processing power of the latest generation consoles. Otherwise it plays very similarly to any of the other skiing and snowboarding games that have been around for a decade. You have a number of challenges where you try to beat times or get scored for tricks. My first challenge was to beat a specific tine down a course. I also had to fly through a wing-suit course in another one. Something new that I did was to follow another skier and try to stay behind her as she went off cliffs and through trees. I enjoyed it a lot.

Steep is a great video game for anyone. You don't have to worry about violence or nudity. It has an ESRB rating of T for Teen because of language but I have yet to come across any. I am a fan of Ubisoft games and play a lot of them. This is definitely one I will keep playing. I will just wait until the summer months before finishing it. You can find the game for around $25 if you look for a deal and it is worth that price.

Christmas Break Video Game List

This afternoon I am taking a small break from working at home to watch my son play Horizon Zero Dawn with the downloadable content (DLC) The Frozen Wilds. It has me thinking about the games I want to play over the break. I made sure to pick up a number of games from the office before leaving and I will see how many I can get through during my time off. I will probably save the Horizon games until I head back to California as it looks like a good game to play during my evenings on the boat. Here is my list for the break:

Star Wars Battlefront II - I watched my son start out this game a few days ago and it looks very interesting. I must confess that I am a huge Star Wars fan and we will see if it lives up to my expectations.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - I am a huge fan of the Uncharted series and have played all of the other games. I have high expectations for this game and think I can get this completed before the break is over.

Steep - I have wanted to play this game for a long time and finally picked up a copy. Of course I will also be skiing Snowbird and Alta so we will see how much time I want to swap from real skiing to do virtual skiing.

I have a bunch of other games in my library but I think this is a good start for my break. We'll see how many I get played.

Christmas List 2016: Video Games I Want to Play

Every year I try to put together a Christmas list for that technically minded person in your family based upon what I want. Sometimes I have listed feel-good gifts but most of the time I list video games and other items that I would like to receive. Today I am going to restrict it to just video games. I must confess that I already own a bunch of these games and so this list is what I would like to play during the Holiday break when I am not skiing. Some of these are old games while others have just come out. That should give you a healthy mix of economical gifts as well as more expensive ones. Here is the list, in alphabetical order:

Battlefield 1: I really enjoyed playing Battlefield 3. I tried Battlefield 4 but lost interest after about an hour. I understand that EA figured out they need compelling story lines so that Battlefield 1 is much more engaging. I already have my copy of this game and look forward to finding some time to play it.

God of War 3: I have finished playing both 1 and 2 on the PlayStation 3 so now I want to play the remastered version of 3 on the PlayStation 4. I had hoped to start this evening but am getting really tired after waking up at 4:15 this morning to catch my flight to California and may begin tomorrow. Naturally I have a copy of this game already and have had it for quite some time.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: The Tomb Raider reboot is one of my favorite video games. It is along the same lines as the Uncharted series with a female protagonist instead of a male one. Those of you with XBox One consoles have been able to play this game for the past year, while those of us that favor the PlayStation 4 console have had to wait. The exclusivity is now over so I am looking forward to picking this game up and continuing the adventure.

Steep: I am a huge fan of skiing and so I look forward to any well-done skiing or snowboarding video game. When the oppressive heat of summer kicks in, I head to my cool basement and pretend it is winter again. That will probably be the case with this Ubisoft title as I don't own it yet. However I have it on my Christmas list in the hopes that someone who loves me will get me a copy.

Uncharted 3 & 4: I love the Uncharted games and have finished both 1 and 2. Now that I have more time, I will try to finish 3 and 4. It may take me some time as I don't have huge amounts of time to play video games. I already have my copies of each game.

The Walking Dead Season 3: I just saw that this will be released shortly. I played the first and second seasons and am eagerly anticipating the next one. I have yet to purchase the game but will look for it as soon as I complete one or two other games on my list.

Yes I work for a video game company but I have tried to include a number of titles from other game publishers. I have also listed those games that have risen to the top of my want-to-play list. As I browsed through the catalog of video games I own and those available for video game consoles, I came across a number of games that sounded interesting but I didn't want my list to be too long. I want it to be honest. Now we will see how many of these I actually play this Christmas season.