So capture cards happen to be so very expensive, and defiently out of my price range at the moment. Can I capture (verifiable) footage using a camera recording my monitor? Ive heard its game dependant, so i wanted to check before I do any runs! Also, if the answer to the previous question was yes, does this require sound if this is the case its no problem, but there would be a lottt of background audio from not using a capture card

Yeah, as long as we can see what's going on clearly then you should be fine.

I'd say to keep the sound on- it could help with any video-audio cues when it comes to timing. Won't be a dealbreaker about the sound, but that's just my two cents.