[Modern Family] Ch: 29 [Wolverine Carries the Stream] (Patreon)

[May 1, 2009] [Jason's House] [Evening]

Jason looked at the game case next to his keyboard. In his past life, the game got pulled from online stores, and finding a physical disk was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. He even searched pirated sites, but sadly most of the links were expired, and the ones working had the download speed of a turtle. So, he never got to play it. But he has seen YT gameplay videos. So, he was really excited and was looking forward to playing it.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine had come out that very morning, and the movie was hitting theaters on the same day. It seemed like every gaming forum Jason visited that afternoon had Wolverine plastered all over the front page. Some folks were chatting about Hugh Jackman and the film, while others wondered if the game would be another forgettable movie tie-in. Plenty of people, too, were desperately trying to find actual gameplay footage before deciding to buy.

Jason had snagged the PC version right away.

What really piqued his interest, though, was what he couldn't find afterward. He'd scoured YouTube, Justin.tv, various gaming forums, and every streaming site he knew of from 2009, but he couldn't find a single person broadcasting the game live.

That brought a very familiar smile to his face. He knew that with the popularity of X-Men, if he streamed the game before anyone, he was gonna get many new members and probably the highest views so far.

So, after setting everything up, he started another stream session.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, today we're doing something special," Jason said after adjusting his microphone and checking both streaming dashboards. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine released today, the movie released today, and apparently I've somehow become one of the first idiots willing to test the PC version live."

The chat immediately started moving faster than his normal opening minutes.

Dex: LETS GOOOOOO

Fred8900: BRO I JUST SAW THE MOVIE

ILF: Wolverine game actually looks sick

R34P3R: claws + gore = quality entertainment

MXX21: first day stream lets goooo

NeoKnight92: just found this channel from youtube recommendations

GameOverDan: wait nobody else is streaming this yet??

Jason glanced toward the viewer counters and immediately noticed the difference.

YouTube already showed 124 viewers, while Justin.tv had climbed to 96 before he had even started playing. Those numbers were considerably higher than his usual opening audience, which meant the same-day movie release was already doing exactly what he'd hoped.

"Apparently Wolverine is carrying my career tonight," Jason said as the opening logos appeared. "So everybody please thank Hugh Jackman's abs for the free advertising." He opened the settings and put everything to the highest settings possible.

Fred8900: LMAOOOO

Dex: bro already started

NewGuyChris: subscribed

PixelQueen: movie was mid but game looks better

Jason launched the campaign and leaned closer with genuine interest when the opening jungle sequence appeared. Logan dropped into combat almost immediately, and for the first thirty seconds everything looked surprisingly good. The character model was detailed, the environment looked impressive for 2009, and the violent combat already felt considerably better than most licensed movie games.

Then Jason rotated the camera quickly.

Something felt wrong.

He moved again, watched the motion carefully, and checked his monitoring software before his eyebrows slowly rose.

Thirty frames per second.

"Wait a minute," Jason muttered as he rotated the camera several more times, confirming that the game wasn't going any higher. He looked at the performance monitor, then back at Wolverine, before finally turning toward the webcam with a completely unimpressed expression. "You have got to be kidding me. I bought the best PC with one of the strongest graphics cards available this year so Wolverine could move like he's fighting through invisible pudding."

The chat exploded almost immediately.

Dex: LMAO

ILF: 30 FPS??

R34P3R: cinematic experience bro

Fred8900: THE HUMAN EYE CAN ONLY SEE 30 FPS TRUST ME

NeoKnight92: high end pc btw

Jason shook his head and continued through the jungle. "Apparently my GTX 285 is here for emotional support because the game has already decided thirty frames are all humanity deserves."

The limitation annoyed him, though the combat itself quickly started making up for it. Wolverine moved aggressively between enemies, lunging across large distances and cutting through soldiers with the kind of violence Jason hadn't expected from a movie tie-in. It felt more satisfying to play than watching the gameplay videos. Damage appeared across Logan's body in real time, exposing muscle and bone before slowly regenerating as the healing factor kicked in.

Jason triggered one particularly brutal finisher and immediately watched the frame rate drop.

The game hitched hard when Logan tore through an enemy, then stuttered again as the damaged flesh textures changed during regeneration.

Jason stopped moving for a moment and stared at the screen. "Did my computer just have an asthma attack because Wolverine removed somebody's arm?"

Fred8900: YES

PixelQueen: THE GORE IS TOO POWERFUL

GameOverDan: every finisher drops frames on mine too

Dex: regeneration mechanic regenerating your fps afterward

Jason laughed as another group rushed at him. "Every time Wolverine heals, my computer has to give up some processing power. That’s how his healing works. He’s using my PC's resources."

Another finisher caused the same stutter, followed by a brief freeze as Logan's skin regenerated across his chest. Jason had already stopped being surprised by the pattern.

"One damaged texture, two damaged textures, three damaged textures, and there goes the frame rate again," he said while pushing into the next section. "Wolverine's healing factor works by stealing performance from whatever computer happens to be running him."

By then, people were beginning to share the stream elsewhere.

YouTube climbed past 500 viewers while Justin.tv approached 300, and Jason only noticed the increase when the chat started moving fast enough that individual messages became difficult to follow.

"Okay, where the hell did all of you come from?" Jason asked as he quickly checked the counters.

MovieFan88: searched wolverine game and found you

LoganLives: somebody shared your stream link on a forum

AdamantiumGuy: FIRST LIVE GAMEPLAY I FOUND

XFan1990: just came back from the movie theater

Fred8900: WE'RE FAMOUS NOW BOYS

Jason laughed and shook his head. "Fred, you've been here since I had enough viewers to fit inside a mildly disappointing birthday party. You don't get to become Hollywood yet."

The next problem appeared during a fast combat sequence when Jason turned the camera sharply and a horizontal tear sliced across the image. Another followed almost immediately, then several more appeared whenever he rotated quickly.

Jason paused the game and opened the video settings.

He searched through the available options once, then checked again because he assumed he had missed something obvious. When he finally realized the setting simply wasn't there, he leaned back in disbelief.

"There's no V-Sync option," Jason said. "They actually released a PC game in 2009 without giving you an in-game V-Sync setting. Somewhere, somebody saw horizontal screen tearing and decided it counted as a Wolverine mutation."

R34P3R: SCREEN TEARING IS CANON NOW

MXX21: mutation unlocked

TechMage: force it through NVIDIA control panel

"Yeah, I can force it externally later," Jason replied while returning to the game. "For now, I'm keeping the authentic launch-day experience because apparently suffering builds character."

The audience continued growing while he played, and the same-day interest surrounding the movie kept driving new viewers toward the stream.

YouTube passed 892 viewers while Justin.tv climbed beyond 600.

A cutscene started shortly afterward, and Jason initially thought the game had finally decided to behave. Logan spoke to another character while the camera moved normally, but within several seconds the dialogue started drifting behind the animation.

The lips moved first.

The voice followed almost two seconds later.

Then another line played while the character's mouth continued moving, and the audio suddenly crackled into harsh digital static before cutting back to normal.

Jason slowly pulled one side of his headset away from his ear and stared at the screen. "What the hell was that?"

Fred8900: ROBOT WOLVERINE

Dex: AUDIO GOT THANOS SNAPPED

NeoKnight92: dialogue is running on internet explorer

Jason burst out laughing. "The man's healing factor is so advanced his voice regenerates three seconds after his mouth moves. This cutscene feels like somebody dubbed Wolverine through an international phone call."

By the time gameplay resumed, the combined audience had crossed two thousand viewers.

Jason glanced toward the dashboards and stopped talking for several seconds.

YouTube showed 1,287 viewers.

Justin.tv showed 814.

"Two thousand people?" Jason asked, sounding genuinely stunned. He looked between the two counters before turning toward the webcam with a growing smile. "Well, welcome to everybody who's new. I'm Jason, this is The Grid, and tonight we're apparently documenting a crime scene disguised as a PC port."

The chat loved that enough that several people immediately repeated it.

The controller situation appeared next.

Jason had deliberately started with keyboard and mouse because he wanted to give his viewers an authentic PC experience. Everything remained manageable until a quick-time event appeared and the game displayed a completely blank space where the keyboard prompt should've been.

Jason pressed the wrong key and watched Wolverine die.

The sequence restarted.

Another blank prompt appeared.

He tried E.

Wrong again.

Jason leaned toward the monitor. "Excuse me, game. Would you like to tell me what button you actually want, or are we communicating exclusively through disappointment?"

Fred8900: GUESSING GAME DLC

Dex: press THE BUTTON bro

R34P3R: skill issue

Jason immediately looked toward the webcam. "R34P3R, if you tell me skill issue while the game is literally withholding information, I'm banning your entire bloodline."

R34P3R: worth it

Jason laughed and tried another key, only to fail again. "This isn't a quick-time event anymore. This is a multiple-choice exam where the teacher removed the questions."

After several attempts, he finally guessed correctly and passed the sequence. The chat celebrated as though he'd defeated the boss, which only made Jason celebrate harder when he realized several hundred people had apparently become emotionally invested in watching him guess keyboard inputs.

The stream kept growing.

YouTube eventually passed 2,400 viewers while Justin.tv moved beyond 1,500, and the increasing traffic meant more people were discovering the bugs in real time alongside him.

During a short break, Jason decided to test whether forcing anti-aliasing through the NVIDIA control panel would improve the image. He returned to the game afterward, loaded his save, and immediately noticed something missing.

His health bar had vanished.

So had the combo display.

Several other interface elements had either disappeared completely or shifted beyond the visible part of the screen.

Jason stared at the monitor in silence while the chat began laughing before he even said anything.

Dex: HAHAHAHAHA

ILF: HUD LEFT THE GAME

TechMage: forcing AA breaks UI apparently

PixelQueen: hardcore mode unlocked

Jason slowly nodded as though everything suddenly made perfect sense. "Of course. Naturally. I asked the game to smooth some jagged edges, and it responded by deleting my health bar."

He entered combat anyway and managed to survive for almost a minute before taking far more damage than expected.

"I don't need health information because Wolverine doesn't care about health," Jason said confidently, only to nearly die seconds later. "Okay, correction. Wolverine might not care, but Jason definitely cares."

He disabled the forced anti-aliasing and restarted the game, which restored the interface and allowed him to continue without blindly guessing how close he was to death.

Hours passed while Jason pushed through mission after mission. The launch-day bugs never stopped, though they gradually became part of the entertainment rather than an annoyance. Whenever regeneration caused frame drops, Jason announced that Wolverine was stealing processor power. Whenever the image tore badly during camera movement, he declared that Logan had activated "horizontal vision." Whenever a blank quick-time prompt appeared, the entire chat started guessing keys together.

Fred8900: E

Dex: SPACE

ILF: F

PixelQueen: ALT F4

Jason caught the final suggestion and immediately laughed. "Nice try, PixelQueen. We're finishing this game even if the PC port is a buggy mess."

By the time Jason entered the final stretch, his voice had grown slightly rough from hours of constant commentary, though his energy remained surprisingly high. What mattered even more was the audience count sitting beside the stream.

YouTube had reached 3,184 viewers.

Justin.tv showed 2,067.

Combined, 5,251 people were watching at the peak.

Jason stared at the numbers for several seconds before returning his attention to the game because he still couldn't fully process them. His previous livestream record suddenly looked tiny compared to what was happening tonight.

'Holy shit! I'm gonna get popular. It'd be great if I can sign up for the exclusive YT monetization,' He thought.

The final battles pushed the game hard enough to bring back nearly every problem he'd encountered earlier. Frame drops appeared during finishers, screen tearing returned during rapid camera movement, and the texture streaming occasionally stuttered as Logan's body regenerated. By that point, Jason had stopped getting frustrated because every new technical failure simply gave him something else to joke about.

When the final sequence ended and the credits finally began rolling, Jason leaned back in his chair and released a long breath.

"Alright, we actually finished it," he said while rubbing his face. "And somehow I survived several hours of a PC port actively trying to fight back."

The chat immediately filled with congratulations.

Dex: LEGENDARY STREAM

Fred8900: WE SURVIVED THE PORT

PixelQueen: BEST STREAM YET

R34P3R: PC VERSION FINAL BOSS WAS THE PC VERSION

NeoKnight92: subscribed

MovieFan88: came for wolverine stayed for commentary

TechMage: somebody clip the invisible HUD part

Jason read through the messages and leaned closer to the microphone. "Okay, final verdict. The game itself is fun. The combat feels good, Wolverine actually feels violent, regeneration looks awesome when it isn't trying to murder the frame rate, and there was a lot here I genuinely enjoyed."

He lifted one finger before continuing.

"The PC launch version, however, needs therapy. We've got the thirty FPS lock, screen tearing, broken anti-aliasing support, disappearing HUD elements, audio desync, random static, controller problems, blank keyboard prompts, and enough stuttering during finishers to make every execution feel like my computer is reconsidering its life choices."

Fred8900: 10/10 PORT

Dex: GOTY

Jason shook his head with a grin. "Would I recommend the game? Yeah, especially if you like Wolverine. Would I recommend buying this PC version today, on launch day, in its current condition? Absolutely not unless you enjoy troubleshooting as a secondary combat mechanic."

The chat exploded again.

Jason looked toward the viewer count one final time, and the smile on his face slowly changed as the reality of the night settled in.

More than five thousand people had watched at the peak.

His first launch-day stream had become his first genuinely viral livestream.

Hundreds of new subscribers had arrived during a single night, and thousands of people who had searched for Wolverine had stumbled across The Grid and stayed because they enjoyed watching him.

"Seriously, though, thanks to everybody who showed up tonight," Jason said, his tone becoming more genuine. "Old viewers, new viewers, movie fans, Wolverine fans, people who clicked because somebody dumped my link onto a forum, all of you made this easily the biggest stream I've ever had."

Fred8900: WE WERE HERE BEFORE 100

Dex: OG GANG

ILF: GRID TAKING OVER

PixelQueen: see you next stream

Jason smiled as he read through the messages. "The Grid's just getting started. Oh, by the way, I'm gonna upload a comparison video for this game tomorrow. It'll give the console players a rough idea of what they are getting into. And I'll post a few quick fixes for the PC version, which will make your life a bit easier if you're on PC. So, keep an eye out."

He ended the broadcast several minutes later, and the sudden silence inside the room felt strange after hours of constant gameplay, commentary, alerts, and rapidly moving chat.

Jason remained seated for a while, staring at the final statistics on his dashboard. His eyes eventually shifted toward the Wolverine case sitting beside the keyboard, and a quiet laugh escaped him as he leaned back.

"Five thousand viewers because I bought the broken version on launch day," Jason murmured with a satisfied smile. "Yeah, that was definitely worth it."