"How do you record your Let's Play's" is another question I get asked a lot. So here is what I use on a daily bases to record my content:

 

♥ Microphone  - Blue Snowball (Not Ice) + Pop Filter
♥ Screen Capture - DXtory 

 

Below are some of the programs I use to edit my video's, make thumbnails, banners, icons, Outro/Intro's:

♥ Photoshop CS6 (64bit)
♥ Sony Vegas Pro 11

♥ Paint.net

♥ PicMonkey 

 

For anyone thinking about making let's plays, bare in mind that you do not NEED the most fancy screen capture or picture/video editing software. When I started out all I had was Windows Movie Maker (which is free) and Fraps which costed me a hefty £25!! I was completely unaware that there were free screen captures out there like OBS for example, which proved to be MUCH better than Fraps. As for thumbnails i simply used Picmonkey &  Paint.net as they were both free! :)

 

To get started just find a good quality audio recording device (nobody likes bad quality audio) and everything else you will need you can find FREE!