Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel - yep, that's the title

Starting Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel, I thought I was in a video game inspired by Jem and the Holograms. Who wouldn't be excited about that?

However, Nitroplus Blasterz is a fighting game that has absolutely nothing to do with its musical opening credits. It was released in Japan last year and came to the US consoles only this month. I was hoping for some cool dubbing but unfortunately, it was not meant to be. The only thing you get are sparse subtitles that don't even cover the fighting banter. I suppose people who are used to playing Japanese games won't mind this, but as a pure close minded Westerner, it did place a barrier between me and the game.

Apart from that fact, I had a blast playing this title. The premise is very simple and the execution straight forward. You get to play either a story mode or individual matches. Either way, it is just basically fighting with no cut scenes, not much dialogue or any superfluous options you might find in a Mortal Kombat or Dead or Alive type game. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. What I loved about Dead or Alive and Mortal Kombat's story modes is that they had specific, beautiful cut scenes that helped the story along and gave fights meaning. However, do you really need meaning when playing a fighting game? Nitroplus Blasterz has the fighting without the fuss. This means that the game is easy to pick up to have some good old fun. And I did.

The gameplay is straight forward and even though some of the adversaries are challenging, you can quickly get better and perform really cool stylish attacks. The latter were very specific depending on your chosen character, which was neat. The characters' choice is varied but not overwhelming. You have to know that all the characters are female though, which obviously appealed to me! GIRL POWER! I only ever pick girls in fighting games so I was really happy with all the different choices I had here. I would easily play every single one of them. I am sure the characters will also appeal to boys, indeed, they are all very anime pretty! They will have great significance to fans of the genre since the girls are from various novels, manga and anime. I was happy to be able to choose between loads of different colors for my characters' costumes. This is a minor detail but I always felt frustrated when I had to win I don't know how many matches to be able to unlock Kasumi's new outfit. That's how shallow I AM!

This fighting game will very much appeal to people familiar with the genre but I wasn't and I still had a good time with it. It's easy to pick up, fast, pretty and entertaining, pretty much everything I want from a fighting title. Have you tried it? what did you think?

I give it a 4/5 cats (ignore the dude in the back)

Dragon Age Keep: "Print your Tapestry option" reaction

Was there something missing from my grown ass woman's house walls? You bet there was: a Dragon Age Tapestry!

Bioware just came out with this new #amazing feature for the Dragon Age Keep: printing your own tapestry. I realize, as I am typing this sentence, that it is not OK for a 28 year old to write this. It wouldn't make any sort of sense to any normal person out there. However, it does to us Bioware crazies and addicts and super fans.

I have already voiced my love for Dragon Age's distinct aesthetic and beautiful recognizable drawings and they have made these available in the past through their store. Today though, they make it possible for fans to print their very own story and very own art. I mean #mindblown.
To me, Bioware already signified  engagement, individual and personal stories and visceral attachment to my customized world, but today, they took it to the next level. Most people will not see the appeal or the significance I do in this small feature. But to me, this is Bioware staying Bioware, and it means a lot in the wake of Mass Effect Andromeda's release later this year. Dragon Age Inquisition has come and gone but they keep bringing these little tokens to us, immersing us consistently in the universe and bringing the universe into our real (sucky compared to DA) life. This is constant, sweet and welcomed fan servicing at its best. I could go on and on about this but all there is to say is thank you Bioware for being the most awesome game developer of our time and keep being you forever and ever.

Week of 2/22 YouTube Videos to Watch - Oscars, Presidential Race, UFC, Skiing.

There was a nice amount of strong content this week. I had a very hard time cutting it down! Fortunately for you, I am Editor extraordinaire and also a genius so I managed to do it. I went the seasonal route: Oscars, Presidential Race, UFC (there’s more than just the Oscars on this weekend), Skiing. Done. Hopefully you haven’t seen all of them yet!

Week of 2/22 DiFi Videos

ENTERTAINMENT: A small channel got a lot of attention this week as Huw Parkison released his video called “Winter is Trumping”. His timing was pretty spot on, with all the Game of Thrones tease and Trump’s wins, a lot of trades picked it up and this small little Australian channel reached more than 1M views for the very first time. Awwwwwwww.  

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SPORTS: Most of us might be passionate about movies and TV and video games but it doesn’t mean nothing else matters. There’s an important fight happening on Saturday in London and the UFC YouTube channel is gearing up for it. I love what they are doing with their original programming and this “UFC Fight Night Embedded: Vlog Series” is the perfect format for both fans and casual viewers:

SPORTS: Another seasonal sports’ video is taking over the Internet and you can thank Candide Thovex for that. If you do not know who he is, he’s one of the best freestyle skier in the world, sponsored by Quiksilver and he is, of course, French! He has released the previous episodes in 2014 and 2015, with the second episode gathering more than 18M views. This is awesome, exciting, fun YouTube content at its best.

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ENTERTAINMENT: Finally, the main event! The Oscars. There was no shortage of digital videos poking fun at the Oscars or simply talking about the award ceremony this week. I have picked the two that were the most popular, and in my opinion, the funniest. The first one is obviously from John Oliver and the second one from Screen Junkies!

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Here’s a little extra video only relevant to us animal lovers. The others, I am not sure what’s bloody wrong with you you heartless shits…

NEWS: Quasi The Hunchback Hound has become a social media sensation over the past few weeks and it was only a matter of time before his cute little head popped up on YouTube.

Planning a wedding - Cats or Video Games?

My boyfriend of 7 years asked me to marry him last October and I was the happiest person on earth. I was so excited to finally get to plan my very own perfect day. Over the 7 years  I have been with him, I have collected multiple idea boards and inspirations. And even though I knew I didn't want anything too cheesy and over the top, I knew I had to add personality to this special event.

The only two things my fiance and I share are our love for cats and video games. However, adding a touch of either these themes in a wedding can very quickly turn into a HUGE disaster. I first had to choose between the two and even though video games consume my soul and have such an important place in my life, I cannot deny my visceral and physical attachment to my cats. First of all, they're living beings. I appreciate the fact that Iron Bull and Shepard are basically part of me but I would throw away my console and all my games forever in a heartbeat if it meant having one minute with my cats. So the latter was chosen as the thread for our big day. 

The theme is obviously not "cats". That would frankly be a little sad. The theme is basically country Americana: there's a lot of burlap and lace, mason jars, galvanized buckets, chalkboard, pies, grilled cheese sandwiches, all that stuff. However, little things were personalized to accommodate our passion for our furry babies. First, the ring pillows. We have custom made pillows with the drawing of our cats' faces on them. They're huge, they're definitely NOT ring pillows. But who cares. There so personal and funny. This is one item you can really go crazy on because it can really be anything. When the video game theme was still a possibility, I was looking at a controller pillow, that would have been cool too. 

Another small item that doesn't look corny if you make it your own is the cake topper. You can do whatever you want with that. I saw an awesome topper that had two little people playing on a console, that was super cute. I went for wooden cats! There are four of them, two big and two small ones. They basically represent my fiance and I as well as our two kitties. This is perfect. Guest books are also another item couples can have fun with. It can and should be anything that you will keep in your home forever. We chose a cat shaped chalkboard. This is great because we'll be able to display it in our house and actually look at it for a long time. You can really get any shape you want so it's easy to match it to any theme or personal passion. The last item we used cats for are our favors. It was really really hard to find a cat themed favor. This would have been much easier to go with video games on this one! I ended up finding a small cat soap that is perfect. It also has an apple pie scent, which makes it the ideal gift for our wedding.  

I wanted to share this with you because I love wedding planning but it sometimes gets very overwhelming and it makes me feel better to talk about it to someone other than my fiance. There's only so much wedding planning a man can handle!  

Week of 2/15 YouTube Videos to Watch

Hey guys,

This week, the Internet was ruled by Valentine's Day and Grammy feuds. Thankfully, only one of my videos feature the holiday and only one features an award show (this time the Oscars). Hope you have some time to watch these beauties!

Week of 2/15 Videos to Watch

COMEDY:  CollegeHumor, no need to introduced those cheeky monkeys, published a new video calling out people who say they care about food waste (aka Angelinos). 

CollegeHumor also produced a video for the Code/Media conference. It is both awesome and extremely relevant

GAMING: A small online video game went viral this week, even my co-workers played it. But most importantly PewDiePie rode the wave and did a video about it.

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COMEDY: Unclaimed Youtube royality, Nigahiga, created a sweet Valentine’s day video about romantic gifts. In my opinion, these ideas can be used year around for birthdays and Christmas so it is still relevant a week after the holiday!

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GAMING: Part of Collective Digital Studio, AndrewMFilms is an awesome channel for fans of both gaming and cool, quality videos. You might not know who the characters from Portal and Half Life are but you can still enjoy the film’s quality. If you like this video, browse their channel and don’t miss Fallout vs Skyrim or Mario vs Minecraft (45M views). AndewMFilms videos are often featured on Digital Spy and every single gaming site ever. Since everybody is now looking at the gamers as a desirable audience (see Hulu original, CW eSports etc.), you should pay attention J

LEGO Marvel Avengers - Building Bridges

Because this is what you do in LEGO Marvel Avengers, you build bridges. The first missions I played were basically one Avenger after the other having to build a bloody bridge for the other, more useless Avenger to use. I am going to read a very deep message of world peace and the meaning of cooperation and teamwork into these repetitive and painful missions.

Well, I suppose I did at least get to know what each of the characters could do and which one I needed to use for certain tasks. I did find this slightly unbelievable however, since everybody knows Iron Man can basically do EVERYTHING. I do not know why he would need the Hulk to bust a electric panel. This little LEGO trick to make you use all characters aside, I loved being able to play with all the Avengers and use their different attacks and skills. I believe my favorite special skill was Cap's ability to put out fires like a boss. This distracted me from every other quest and I just put out fires one after the other. 'Twas magical. If you are a fan of the franchise, this will truly be a treat - not the fires, the characters' specificity. You need to have loved Age of Ultron though, otherwise you will be doomed to relive every single scene of that movie again. Another trick LEGO reused from previous installment was the remix of original movies' voices to create the game's VOs. I didn't remember that they used the same artifice in the Lord of the Rings version but apparently they have been doing it for years. It was pretty neat anyway to hear the Avengers' real voices. However, I was able to recognize the scenes these sound bites were taken from, which made it slightly weird.

Regarding mechanics and gameplay, I did love the change in pace when flying Avengers took center stage. There was a sweet Iron Man sequence where I had to fly around shooting baddies and it was a lot of fun. The latter is sort of what I am expecting from a LEGO game. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed because somehow, the fun was limited and I always had to go through some annoying puzzles to get to the next fun bit. They were very unintuitive even for the serious gamer. Fighting my way through enemies and destroying everything as the Hulk was just freaking amazing. There is no denying that. However, having to find what I am supposed to do for 30 minutes and where to go and which character to use was just painful. I felt like I was in a Tomb Raider game without sexy Lara or a cool story. I do not want to invest time and/or brain power in a LEGO game, I just want it to be pure entertainment (unless it has some amazing original story and character development, somehow). I am not going to see a Marvel movie for a complicated plot I have to decipher. No. I am going to see a Marvel movie to be entertained. I am sure this game fares well with kids who have time to spare for puzzles but I personally will only find a puzzle worth my while if it is pushing the story forward or if I get a badass loot out of it. You get neither here. I am also very picky with my stories and I feel like rehashing something and using the same plot and visual is just plain lazy now. It's an easy cash grab for sure but the admiration I had for the business acumen is dwindling. Also, they just pop these out every 6 months, I am not sure how many LEGO games people are going to be able to keep on their shelves at this point. Apparently people were excited for LEGO Avengers since Superheroes was good but I feel like this one doesn't live up to the hype.

Have you guys ever played a LEGO game? Do you or kids like them? Did you like this Avengers version? Let me know!

I give the LEGO Marvel Avengers a 2/5 cats. (I am aware this is DC. Try and find two cats in a Marvel costume in the same picture, it's tricky AF)

Street Fighter V - No no no. Nope. No.

I love fighting games. I cannot count how many hours I spent on Dead or Alive when I was 12. I loved the crotch to throat grab and the stairs kicks (made up names by me), those were the good days. I more recently had a blast with MKX, even though everybody kept killing me. I still came 3rd at my company's tournament but I have played online, I am not delusional. However, MKX totally got me back in that "fighting game" mindset that I sort of lost along the way and I was excited to see Street Fighter V at E3 last year. I got to play the Beta about 6 months ago too and based on that, I am never buying this game. I have to say, I don't think I have ever played a Street Fighter game, apart from maybe once at an Arcade when I was 9 and was bored of hitting the walls playing the racing games. Either car or bike, I am shit at both. I am, by no means, a fighting game connoisseur but I have played my fair share and I have strong opinions so I am going to say what I need about Street Fighter. No matter if they introduced new mechanics, they are still freaking useless. I cannot play this game for the life of me and even though they apparently wanted to make it easier to pick up for casual gamers, I am not sure they achieved it. At least, even if you were a complete novice at MKX, you could throw things like kicks and simple punches. Yeah, I tried that, didn't work so well in Street Fighter. The dude did NOTHING. Granted, I played the Beta, so perhaps I shouldn't even be writing this but when I saw that the game was out on Gamefly, I wanted to rant about it. And this is my blog, so I do what I want!

Also, what kind of graphics are those. Again, nostalgia, staying true to the franchise, blablabla. Sure. However, I feel like fighting games that look like cartoons have no appeal whatsoever. It's fair to say that realism is not all that matters to create a good fighting experience, otherwise I would be playing WWE every single day, but I like my badass fighters to be believable people. I would have been totally fine with the design if the mechanics and fluidity of the game were good. But they're not. It's ugly and clunky and slow and non fun. Apparently, the core of the game is not very exciting either and is mainly geared towards knowledgeable Street Fighter players who want to compete. Well, if they keep the franchise this way, it might die with those old Street Fighter players from 1987. How old are they now anyway?
Suffice it to say that I am not buying this game, I hate it, and as a lover of fighting games, I will go back to playing MKX tonight. I am not giving it cats because I don't really deserve to rate it as I have not played it but I had to rant. Have any of you already played the final version of the game? Is it less slow as fuck?

The Walking Dead mid season return - Did it win me back?

The Walking Dead lost me about 2 years ago. I still watched it because it is my sworn duty but I have to admit I fast-forwarded through most of the last few seasons. Why? Because I thought it was boring and had a case of the "Game of Thrones" disease. What is the Game of Thrones disease you ask? It is an ailment that plagues shows that should and could be extraordinary, but instead, are crowd pleasers without focus. Perhaps I am narrow minded, and if this blog ever proved anything, it's that I surely am, but I do not appreciate shows that follow a myriad of characters in twenty different locations. In my opinion, good shows have a character core and a home. That's it. I feel like The Walking Dead has been losing its focus in the past years and that's why I was fast-forwarding through the many side plot arcs. In the end, whole episodes totally seemed beside the point to me. My fault. I made a point of keeping away from the fast forward button for this mid season return. I lied, I fast forwarded the credits.

I think I made a point several posts ago that kids were the worst in apocalyptic situations and I think writers and directors alike love to taunt us with this. They find a sort of vicious pleasure in torturing us with stupid bloody kids all the time. They even ended a mid season finale with a kid being a mother fucking dumbass. That's how much they love it. This episode was basically an ode to the stupidness of children. Is it me or are kids the worst thing in this show? It's not just Sam and his moron brother, it's also Enid and Carl (back in the day). They're all such a liability, they always need a pep talk or they need to be protected or they become psychopaths. I guess this is super accurate to what teenagers and kids are in real life but I have to believe that in this screwed up world, there is at least one badass kid out there who can cope with this shit. A kid who said, fuck being a moody bastard, I am stepping up, taking karate lessons and I am going to survive this shit. I can't wait to meet this kid! When you see Rick and the group with the most children, you know. You know it is just a disaster waiting to happen. And it is! Sam, the most annoying kid on the planet is remembering what Carole said to him when she was trying to scare him. Of course. I am wondering at this point if it wouldn't be smarter to knock these kids out and carry them like little piggies. Sam clearly argued that he could keep going but of course he couldn't, he's a pussy. Talking about kids, when the priest puts Judith under his tarp, the most random thought crossed my mind - can you imagine having to do this with a cat or kitten under your poncho? This would be a nightmare, much like doing this with a baby. I would be dead in the apocalypse, dead trying to save all the animals and miserably failing.

So what happened with the adults in this episode? Well, they showed they rock! This episode was adults vs kids and we all know who won. They started this episode with Daryl kicking ass right left and center. There was so much tension and there were so many twists in the first scene, it was very well done. In that very short amount of time I was frustrated, amused, excited, scared and shocked. That was a great opening scene. I also very much enjoyed that bit of spirituality talk in the church where Glenn says "they're still here, because you're still here". I feel like apart from Daryl, Glenn is the character that grew the most in this show. At least in the right direction. He's such an awesome role model, I love him. I really hope he'll stick around for a little longer otherwise I will be super upset. Just like I was during that "Sam screws up - 10th Edition" scene. To me it's like watching a sports game and seeing my team lose. I just can't take it. It makes me so angry. That's why I have made the conscious decision of never being a fan of any team again. I guess that's why I have given up on The Walking Dead too. It's just too frustrating and I hate when things go sideways for characters that I like. I am a coward.

I loved that scene for so many other reasons too though. It was somewhat funny, if you have no empathy for kids whatsoever, like me. I also loved how it was very quick and surgical and you have to watch these people who are still standing and shocked and freaked out remain stoic and understanding that in this world, you cannot show emotion anymore. Survival depends on it and this scene is a great concrete representation of what this means. The pacing was great in this episode, obviously it is a mid season premiere so there's a lot of things going on and no time to slow down. However, something happened towards the end of this episode that made me go "YES! This is what I have been waiting for!". Everybody knows I am a fan of superhero movies, of people kicking ass and being powerful. I feel like The Walking Dead has been lacking this for a very long time. The group we are following are just letting the world happen to them and they're not really taking charge. In this episode, they did, in a massive and very uplifting way. Obviously, they were led there by badass motherfucking Rick. This is what I need from The Walking Dead, more badassery. More uplifting, powerful moments. "No one gets to clock out today". Hell yeah!

This is 4/5 cats because kids ruin everything.

Deadpool - The hype has been delivering lately

I haven't been disappointed in a movie I have dragged my ass to theaters for in a long time! The hype behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a lot bigger than it was for Deadpool, but still, you had expectations. They built the movie up so much with their incredible marketing and the plethora of short, very funny, clips they released. I knew I was in for a treat: Ryan Reynolds, superhero action, over the top, quirky comedy. This is everything I love.

However, after the first 5 minutes, I got slightly anxious as I couldn't quite adapt to the rhythm of the comedy and the flow of dialogue vs action. This is a very original, quirky movie and to be thrown in it was a little overwhelming for me at first. Thankfully, I got the hang of it after the first action sequence and I was hooked. There are many things that are just beautifully done in this film. The first is simply the writing. As they announced in the credits, the writers are the fucking superheroes of this movie. And that is very true. The dialogues were written to make you laugh, shock you, push boundaries and break codes of cinema. However, the performance by Ryan Reynolds was beyond brilliant too. He spends most of the movie behind a mask and manages to transmit emotions better than 80% of dramatic actors out there. The best thing about his performance was that those emotions were raw and truthful. He reacted just like any normal person would with very simple and primal expressions. I loved that about Deadpool. The random appearance and mention of Hugh Jackman/Wolverine was a treat. So was the reference to the studio not being able to afford more X-men.

Of course, all of these make for a super fun, extremely hilarious and exciting ride, but would have I enjoyed it as much should the movie had no substance? Perhaps it didn't have any. I mean, the premise was pretty basic and the story was quite cliche. However, two things, no three things 'saved' the narrative core of Deadpool. 1. the movie was not stretched out to be 3 hours long. It was the right amount of time to tell this story. 2. the flashbacks and original timeline made the story more interesting and complex. 3. the characters were all very interesting and fleshed out. I even cared whether the cab driver got the girl or not. In the end, it didn't really matter whether the story was complex or deep enough. We all paid to see a superhero movie and it might make it worse to try and convey a message with that sort of genre. Everything about Deadpool was beautifully violent and gory, hilarious and completely inappropriate, intimate and in your face. Please, do not take your kids to see this. Not because it's over the top violent or sexual, but because you will spend the whole movie trying to explain to them what "it's the only thing pulling out tonight" means. I had the best time watching this film and I actually was wrong about the message. There's a deep message in Deadpool: don't leave your trash in the theater, it's a dick move. Also I didn't know unicorns were a thing, I am buying one tomorrow.
This is totally a 5/5 cats!

Week of 2/8 Youtube Videos to Watch

Hey guys,

So most of the viral and digital videos this week were Super Bowl commercials. URGH. I had to dig deep to find you these nuggets of gold. You’re welcome.

Week of 2/8 DiFi Videos to Watch

ENTERTAINMENT: Trying to put their React World debacle behind them, the Fine Bros (Fullscreen) released a new episode of Kids React. They have a sub category of react videos that are for toys only and this one is about Furbies!

This is why I love animals and hate kids (apart from the little girl in the green shirt below, she’s going to rule the world someday, she kind of looks like me from far away so she’s fine)

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ENTERTAINMENT: As you all know, Youtube has launched an SVOD service back in October and released the first batch of original programming this week (among them is Scare PewDiePie: not good, believe you me). This is a clip for their original feature film (by Rooster Teeth - Fullscreen) called Lazer Team. Interestingly, the comments, likes/dislikes and view count have been disabled on every Youtube Red promotional videos. This was a very good idea.

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NEWS/EDUCATION: Premium Publishers and News sites are doing extremely well on Youtube these days. This week, VOX had a very popular and relevant video out on the platform about the NFL Yellow Line. Perfect timing and great reception for their most viewed video since November.

ENTERTAINMENT: Screen Junkies (Defy Media) are obviously famous for their Honest Trailers series but there are many other great videos produced by their team that are less mainstream, or shall I say nerdier. Here is one for whoever is going to see Deadpool this weekend and wants to know a little more about this (awesome) character. I am going to the movies this weekend. I am dressing up as Deadpoolette, it’s an actual thing.

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TRAVEL: The French Embassy would have scolded me should have I not shared this with you. This is an episode of Laughs in Translation, a travel show hosted by comedian Brooks Wheelan on the Above Average channel (Premium Publisher). The latter has a lot of views but not many subscribers even though the production quality is a lot higher than many of its competitors.

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GAMING NEWS: You guys need to watch Mortal Kombat X: Machinima’s Chasing the Cup on the CW Seed. This is such a great example of what TV and MCNs can accomplish together. It also shows that gaming and eSports are becoming a lot more mainstream and people are interested in the community a lot more. There are clips available on the CW Seed and extra content on each competitor. I am rooting for BioHazard, he’s cute and sensitive, but he plays Ferra Tor so that shows a grittier and manly personality. Who will be your favorite?

Scare PewDiePie - Are people going to pay for this?

Have you watched the new PewDiePie show? It's on Youtube Red, as I am sure you are aware, and unless you have already subscribed to the service because you either are a super fan of one of the creators or a weirdo, then you might have just seen the free episode Level 7. What did you think of it?

Basically, the show is all about putting Pewds in "scary" situations and record him. That's about it. I would have totally been down for that! I love Pewds reactions to ANYTHING so I would have watched that for sure. However, as I started watching, two things appeared very clear to me:
1. Pewds was super out of his element and kind of awkward.
2. The show was really cheesy and non organic.

In Level 7, PewDiePie has to walk through a mental hospital floor. That seems to be a pretty great start. Again, what I found interesting is Pewds personality didn't shine as much as in his own Youtube videos. He was sort of reserved and weird, I wanted to give him a big hug. Then, a doctor appeared and you figure out that Pewds is not the only person featured in this show and most importantly, the show is scripted and Pewds doesn't seem to work well with that. I understand that this is mirroring a video game level so some sort of interaction with other characters does make sense and is necessary. I think the issue I had with it is just the way Pewds interacted with that world. I am so used to seeing him at ease and just doing his thing that it was sort of cringe worthy to see him so out of his element which awkwardly put him between a spontaneous situation and a scripted experience. I wouldn't pay just to see this show, I would much rather watch his current free videos on Youtube. What did you guys think? Did you think it was a great show? Did you see anything worth paying for on Youtube Red? Do you think that PewDiePie could have done a better job at this without a crew and writers and money?
Because Pewds will always be a cutie, I give his new show a 3 out of 5 cats! Love you Pewds. Hugs/Bro Fist!

Fallout 4 - How easy is it to create a sexy character?

How many times can I say the word "prominent" in a video? Well you can find out by watching my "how to make a sexy Fallout 4 character" video, it should be a drinking game.

I just wanted to take some time to talk about the now old Fallout 4 character creator. The latter exercise in imagination and wishful thinking is one of my favorite part of any RPG and I always find myself spending hours and hours creating and re creating my characters. Granted, most of us do, but this is how Dragon Age: Origins hooked me back into the world of gaming so it has a very special place in my heart.

I do like Bethesda's ability at making a great character creation tool and we've seen them do it time and time again with Elder Scrolls so it is no surprise the Fallout 4 version is as good. In my video I mention that I really liked the recent Final Fantasy XIV one and I stand by this. I thought it was one of the greatest. I suppose that the fact that FF XIV aesthetic is much more rooted in fantasy and anime makes for a more entertaining experience. It gives you so much more freedom and options with your character that it's pretty difficult to beat. I was able to choose some awesome outfits, ears, tales, races and I could go on for a long time. Even though Elder Scrolls had different races to choose from, the realism was still too important to really let your imagination loose. But this is the type of game we are dealing with here: realistic representation of a fantasy world, so your character needs to be somewhat relatable.

I will compare Fallout 4 character creator with DAI's. Even though, as an overall game I much prefer DAI, the character creator was fairly lacking. You didn't have much option when it came to hair, unless you wanted to choose between 3mm or 5mm on your head. The different features were also limited to a few choices and unless you went with the Elf, you couldn't really add much to a human's face. I understand the constraint of realism and I am aware that there are lady gamers out there that want for their female hero to be as realistic as possible but I am not in that camp. For sure. I know people who want their female warrior to exclusively have short hair because that would be the practical choice in that situation. They also do not want their warrior or soldier to use skimpy outfits and show some skin because, should you be in the situation of fighting off a horde of Reapers or creepy monsters of the Wasteland, you certainly would cover yourself with as much armor as possible. Well, I say fuck feminism and equality. I want my characters to be both bad ass AND fashionable! Nothing made me happier than seeing Shepard fight her way through the Citadel defenses in her little black dress (Citadel DLC). I want super long hair that get tangled in branches while fighting dragons and skirts that don't stop bullets.

I have to say that Fallout 4 gave me some of the tools to make that happen but still, no hair below the shoulders my dear friends!! I still tried to make a sexy Fallout 4 hero and I think I succeeded, because who said that short hair wasn't super attractive? What do you think of my character? Have you managed to make a sexier, better female in Fallout 4? What's your favorite character creator? 

I give Fallout 4 three cats out of 5 for their tool...

Youtube Videos to watch - Week of 2/1

I am late, as usual, at posting this but I will not be for the next ones and that's a promise!!
Here is something I have wanted to do for a while and that's compile some of the best Youtube original creations that come out every week so you don't have to skim through all your subs and all the trending videos out there. You're welcome!

Week of 2/1 Videos to Watch

EDUCATION: Educational videos are limited to a few popular channels on Youtube but last week, one of the smaller ones was in the spotlight for one of its video. The channel, Kurzgesagt, part of Endemol, is publishing about 3 videos a month only but with a very specific aesthetic and style which drew almost 2M views in 3 days. This is little video about stars is sure to make you either very depressed or slightly depressed. 3/5 cats!

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ENTERTAINMENT: ScottDW (Fullscreen) is again one of those creators that take its time to publish high quality content (original music, 4K resolution, original choreography etc.). He just released a Super Bowl themed video with a chicken wings song that will blow your mind. (SYTYCD fans, Cyrus is a regular in his videos) 3/5 cats.

Staying in the Football theme, Maker’s Bad Lip Reading channel released a new Bad Lip Reading of the NFL. Again, they don’t publish content often, but when they do, it’s always a hit with 6M views in only 2 days. I personally liked the first one a lot better, because of the Orange Peanut, of course! 2/5 cats.

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ENTERTAINMENT: Youtube Red is on the attack! PewDiePie (Maker Studios) just released the trailer for his new original series that will only be available through the Youtube Red subscription service. I will be watching! Anything PewDiePie does. I didn't mean to, it just happened, he grabbed me and never let go!!! 4/5 cats.

SPORTS: The UFC official Youtube channel has uploaded the 2^nd episode of their new Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight series. The travel/combat sport series is a Youtube exclusive and the 30 minutes episodes are scheduled to release on a monthly basis. The series is bound to be the channel’s most popular programming with Episode 1 almost reaching 1M views and episode 2 trending on the Youtube homepage. 2/5 cats.

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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: The Fine Bros (Fullscreen) released a video earlier last week about React World, an initiative they have been working on and were proud to announce. They basically wanted to trademark the REACT format of their videos and license it around the world. Suffice it to say, people were NOT happy. It got so much backlash from Youtube stars (response videos etc.) and subscribers alike that they lost more than 600k subscribers - to date. It keeps on going down. They released a video to try and respond to some of the criticism but it didn’t appease anybody. 2 days later, they just completely shut down their React World project and removed all related videos. Don’t screw with the Internet. The latter already gave this initiative 0/5 cats.

SXSW Gaming Awards - Vote and vote well

I am all about gaming awards. For some reason I get really excited by them and really frustrated when my favorites do not win. Last year, DAI pretty much won everything and I was really happy with that, in my opinion, they deserved it. 2015 was a much more diluted year for gaming in terms of quality and style that it's a lot trickier to find a clear champion.


I loved that the categories started with the Excellence in Art because I had a clear and easy winner in mind. Who would give this to anything other than Bloodborne? Even though I kept dying like a loser and got frustrated, as I usually do, the art and design were absolutely beautiful and most of all, striking. Just Cause 3 was only nominated for Technical Achievement award but I couldn't give it to them because Fallout 4, Metal Gear and Until Dawn were in the same category. The only award I would give Just Cause 3 is the "Physics Don't Matter" Achievement. Visual Achievement was also an easy pick for me because Battlefront totally slayed the visuals. The fact that the locations and the visuals used were all well-known  and close to everybody's heart made the feat harder in my opinion. Funnily enough, with all the shit that I gave Life is Strange, it was nominated a fair bit for the SXSW Gaming Awards. I really played this wrong, I apologize!!! Anyway, I would be a hypocrite if I chose this game for the narrative award so I went with The Witcher because it was a pretty damn good storyline and the dialogue didn't include sexting (I am not letting this go). Sound Effects went to Battlefront for me, again, because of the familiarity and their ability to stay true to their source.

I suppose the most debated one will be the gameplay award but to me Metal Gear Sold V had to take this. There was no other game this year that made complex mechanics feel fun and exciting. When I saw the Online Personality award, I was just looking for PewDiePie because, who else! Luckily, he was nominated and I chose him without even looking at the other people. For some odd reason, I love his personality and he makes me laugh every single time, so it goes to him! He totally needs it too. Then came the Game of The Year award with four very strong games in the running: Fallout 4, MGSV, The Witcher III and Bloodborne. I have to take Bloodborne out just because its universe was too niche and its gameplay far from accessible. My heart will always favor RPGs, that's just a fact. However, this year, I felt like one game did everything right, and it was Metal Gear Solid V. In short, it gave me character development, awesome customization, a puppy, complex missions, fultoning and many other quirks that made this game replayable, challenging and entertaining. I missed the soul of MGSV in Fallout 4 (mostly because I cannot click with Bethesda's style of storytelling, it's very dry to me) and I missed the quirkiness of MGSV in the excellent Witcher.

Who are you going to give your vote to?

Jessica Jones Season 1 - Anything to say?

I waited a while to watch Jessica Jones but I decided to start about 3 weeks ago with a pace of about 1 episode a day (with a break in the middle as I was moving houses).
I did watch Daredevil and didn't like it at all so I was fairly reluctant to watch this new Marvel/Netflix collaboration. Again, old age, prejudices, habits, all that. It thought it was going to be Daredevil with a girl.

However, we had to find something to watch during dinner as we finished the 6 seasons of Lost and none of the current shows were back on TV yet. Don't go thinking that we don't have anything to say to each other and that's the reason why we watch TV during dinner, it's just that we both love TV Shows but also want to keep the rest of the night to play video games. We talk about our day while it is happening through gmail so we pretty much have said everything we needed comes dinner! No judging!!

Anywho. We decided to give Jessica Jones a go. If that failed, we would have settled on rewatching X-Files from the beginning. Well, it turns out that this new Marvel "superhero" is pretty damn cool. The first episode totally hooked me. I find it to be extremely rare nowadays to find a TV show that has the ability to grab my attention and interest from its first episode. I feel like I have to watch at least 3 episodes to be really committed. With Jessica Jones, I wanted to watch the second episode right away and only had positive things to say about its pilot. And that is a feat in itself.
A colleague of mine said that he watched the whole season and hated it. First, why would you watch 13 episodes of something if you have a shit time with it? His argument was that the story was far fetched and unfocused. He also argued that the main character, Jessica Jones, wasn't a hero at all and that she wasn't the type of character he wanted to follow for a season. I have a problem with everything he said!

First, I found the story and plot arc to be perfectly steady and exponential throughout the season. Even though the core of the season's plot is not introduced right away, there's enough meat to the story and the characters to set up an interesting premise. Throughout the season, the main plot is always part of the episode in some way and there's no "baddie of the week", which I loved. Everything is tied together very neatly and if you actually look back at the first few episodes, random plot points or dialogue actually make a lot of sense and tie in with the overall season arc. The side plots were also thrilling. I never once minded knowing more about supporting characters. It is fairly tricky to make side plots work. There's always some that you will just not care about. That didn't happen for me in Jessica Jones. Also, every story that you thought was a side note actually links back to the main plot and the main villain. By the way, the latter was absolutely amazing.

As a European who live 5 years in England, David Tennant will always be Dr Who, no matter what he does. However, he was a very believable and appealing villain. He made this psychotic murderous mind controller compelling and likable. Of course, he is a crazy killer and he's totally evil, but he has a way about him that makes you love him and empathize whenever he's sad or angry. To me, that is the mark of a complex and worthwhile villain. This is the type of villain that makes you reconsider your allegiance to the "hero". It's all the more true when the hero is very flawed and the lines blur between good and evil. I am going to end on the hero, Jessica Jones. She's the hero because she's obviously the title character and she is the focus of the story. However, just like my colleague mentioned, she's not your typical heroin. She drinks all the time, she's very selfish and narrow minded and she is emotionally wounded and weak. However, I don't think this makes her less of a hero. To me, she's more of a hero because of these traits. She's on a journey and she is trying. The latter is what makes a hero. Also, she's totally badass and overcomes her fears and reminds me of Buffy so I love her! Period.

I can't wait for a second season and I hope they'll make many more after that. Have you guys made it past the first episodes? What did you think of the season? Let me know! I personally give it 5/5 cats.

Life is Strange - 1 hour of Social Life Management, that's strange!

I am just going to start by saying that clearly, I wasn't the audience for this game. Or I clearly missed something.
I had to stop after one hour of gameplay because I just couldn't keep going. This came as a real surprise to me because I am a sucker for female heroes and story driven games so I really thought I would enjoy this new little adventure. I also had heard pretty good reviews and people seemed to like it. I guess I am just too set in my ways and only a very specific type of games is acceptable for me now? It's called old age I believe...
Let's start with the positive. I thought the premise was really cool, we've seen the time rewinding power before but it was a very new and current setting which made it feel a lot more original and fresh. I also liked the main character. Even though some of her voice acting wasn't the best I have seen in a video game, it wasn't the worst either and to be fair, the writing wasn't good enough for her to do much about it. What truly was brilliant was the music. It really complemented the atmosphere of the game and was a great companion to the story throughout. I don't think I enjoyed music that much in a video game since Mass Effect, and it was a very different type of music. For people who like to explore every nook and cranny, this game is a sure win. Everywhere you look, there is something to interact with and learn from. I think that was really neat.

Now, the reason why I couldn't go past the one hour mark was because, in my opinion, this game, its pace and its narrative are extremely boring. I see a fairly limited appeal in finding out whether a character's boyfriend has been sexting my friend or not. I feel like this story had the potential to turn into something more interesting, and I am sure it does after a while, but the mundane and childish first "missions" and story arcs were laughable. Sure, if you are a teenage girl, this will totally rock. In a big way! However, when I play a video game, I tend to not want to go back to high school and relive my bullying years and solve other people's stupid problems. I love some realism, of course. I enjoyed games like Heavy Rain and I love simulation like The Sims, but Life is Strange kept you, with such a tight grip, in this petty 21st century white sorority girls world that I just didn't want to spend any more time than needed with these characters.

What did you guys think of it? Did you have the patience to stick with it and you were rewarded with a more complex and adult storyline? Did I miss the point completely? Should I have kept going?
If you haven't played it, here are the best parts of my 1 hour playthrough so you can make an opinion of your own.

This has to be a 2/5 cats unfortunately.

The Witch - Salem's prequel

Good witch stories are hard to come by, as we saw with the Magicians! I quite liked the TV Show SALEM so this movie was right up my alley. I had heard quite a bit about The Witch before watching it. It was praised at several film festivals for a while now and I am glad I got to see it.

The first half of this movie, while being very creepy and dark focused mostly on this family who got banished from their New England village. You could believe that the time period chosen is cliche for a movie dealing with magic but I will always love seeing a historical background to a more supernatural premise. I feel like it anchors it in reality and makes it very believable. Having a huge passion for history and supernatural, this movie really pulled the right strings for me. It did help that the production design and costumes were absolutely stunning, I enjoyed the fact that they spent some time reflecting on the wilderness that America was when settlers from England arrived. You really understand the struggle and the anguish people must have felt when moving to this new and untamed part of the world. This is one of the reason, apart from religious fanaticism, that made people turn against each other. In any case, the viewer is graced with beautiful landscapes and scenery, really planting the decor for this story.

The characters in the Witch totally drew me in from the get go. Everybody's performance was outstanding, especially the children's. I found myself hating some characters within minutes and rooting for others in the same amount of time. I really cared about everybody's fate, whether I wanted them to die in agony or prevail. The fact that most of this movie is about a family's dynamic in this harsh environment is very interesting and makes the whole story so much more enticing. The casting was so good that the characters totally worked on every level. Catherine, the mom, was so creepy it was really easy to hate her. The dad was just cutting wood all the time, Once he looked like a half naked Jesus cutting wood. I felt like it was the way to relieve stress back in the day. There was no gym so I guess cutting wood was the next best thing! The twins were also the most annoying characters I have seen. I just wanted them to get slaughtered quickly. In this stressful, tensed and quiet environment, they were only a source of disturbance and cacophony. They also scarred and tortured that poor little goat and I hated that. Urgh those kids. Speaking of animals, there is a sweet little dog living with this crazy family and I tried to find whether the dog dies online and couldn't find any information. So I had to keep watching. Well, the dog dies, and I wish I'd known because I would have stopped watching. I fast forwarded through it though. I hate movies where animals are killed or in pain or anything similar to that. If you are like me, just don't watch The Witch. Thankfully, the body count was pretty high on the human side too so I was happy with the balance.

The music and sounds in this film are what really stood out for me. A good "horror" movie always needs to play with sound and silence smartly. I felt like they totally achieved that beautifully. There's not a lot of dialogue in the first part of the film and often there is no noise at all, which makes for a very eerie and uncomfortable atmosphere. I imagine this to be much like it was in that time period though. For me, it not only added to the creepy supernatural nature of the film, it added to the realism of the situation. If there was one tiny fault I was forced to find with this movie it would be the fact that the first 20 minutes were slightly confusing and left the viewer asking many questions. However, it totally hooked me so I am not sure it was a bad thing.
There are some very disturbing scenes in the Witch. One of which involved a nipple and a crow and boy, I had a hard time watching that! Everybody in this family basically went mad and I love how the magic is, as it is in most Salem related stories, a metaphor for settlers insecurities and paranoia induced by religious fanaticism and need for survival. Religion is bloody crazy, this is what I will take away from this film, The Witch is very much a focused use case for the Salem trials within the family nucleus. It left me wanting more and stay within the world and follow the rest of the main character's story. That's a job well done!

5/5 CATS!