The Power of Dreams

I remember one day at school, a friend of mine told me "where there's a will, there's a way." I also clearly remember the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the lead character's motto was "life is short." She goes on saying that it is "not original [...] but it's true. [...] Seize the moment. 'Cause tomorrow you might be dead".

These two quotes are roughly what I have been living by since I was 10 years old. The moment I set my sights on something, I achieved it and I didn't worry about what other people thought of me. I didn't even stop to consider whether I was doing the right thing or not. I was on a mission and that mission was achieving my dream. It was and it still is the reason why I wake up every morning. However, I do not believe that there is one dream to be achieved in one's lifetime. No. There are many. Once, my dream was to work for Fox. I started my career as a production coordinator in sports media. I liked sports, I liked journalism, it totally made sense to me. Even though it wasn't the job I ultimately wanted, I gave it my all and learnt a million thing about me and where I wanted to go from there. I was very pragmatic and I knew I couldn't just knock on Fox's door right out of college, I was never a fool. Optimistic, sure. Aggressively enthusiastic, you bet. Unrealistic, never. So I put my head down and kept on working hard all the while trying to find a path to my ultimate destination. Patience and motivation paid off and when it was finally time to fulfill my dream, my drive and my resourcefulness won the day. I was in. I did accomplish my dream and reveled in it for some time. Then came the time to move on and fulfill another dream. Perhaps this can be called something different, like life goals, but it is what drives me and help me get as close as possible to my kind of success.

When I was a student, my only driver was that abstract need of being good in school. I believed it would get me to where I was supposed to go even though the destination was completely unclear. I stopped at nothing to be the best, even though it came out as narcissistic and psychotic. I did not have any friends, I was bullied and I ate most of my lunches in the bathroom. Even so, I didn't want to understand why this was happening to me and I was not inclined to change who I was just to please others. In my mind, they were the ones missing out on all the fun of tough assignments and surprise tests. I was also brash, selfish and intolerant; some of the blame can ultimately be shared. However, I never backed down or retreated to the average way of doing things. I kept moving forward to University, realizing my dream of studying in an English speaking country.

Having grown up in the smallest town imaginable in rural France, this was an achievement I was very proud of. I studied for a time in Australia and finished my studies in England. All these aspirations came right out of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. This horrendously dubbed TV Show opened my eyes to a world of possibility. It introduced me to US entertainment and the beautiful English language. It taught me self-esteem and perseverance. The latter is so very important, especially for women in the industry I am working in. In my opinion, there is no finer trait than perseverance. It will carry you to where you want to go, it will keep you up at night studying for finals, it will introduce you to your ugliest weaknesses and force you to grow. Fighting for your dreams requires perseverance as it makes you patient and makes you tough. I would have never been able to find a job in this industry without perseverance.

I wouldn't have been able to move to the United States without perseverance either. I remember having dinner with my parents when I was 12 and telling them, very solemnly: "mom, dad, I want to go live in California." Both of them looked at me like my classmates usually looked at me. I thought about it constantly for four years and they finally sent me to America for my 16th birthday. I came back for a few internships but there was no clear path for me to move to the USA as immigration is a nightmare. So I waited for my time to come, always keeping my eyes wide open for any opportunity that would form on the horizon. Hope started to glimmer when my partner's company mentioned they were looking for someone in Los Angeles. He was qualified for the role and I lobbied hard for him to make it happen. It was the hardest, most stressful and harrowing time of my life. Immigrating to a country that does not want you through a company that does very little to help you get there is extremely distressing. However, I persevered. I spent hours rewriting immigration letters and a thousand more hours following up on status and paperwork. This is the only reason why we are now living in California.

I felt very aimless and drained of aspiration after moving to the US. I had achieved such a feat that there was not a lot of time left to think about my career and what my next dream could be. When I finally sat down and asked myself those questions, I realized I had just been stalling. I stopped moving forward towards my dream career because I didn't know what it was anymore. I kept taking the easy way out and the path of less resistance. And this is not me, not by a long shot. I realized that I needed to find my drive again, and I did. Unfortunately for me, I decided that I wanted to use my skills and experience to make something I was truly passionate about: video games. That's unfortunate, because, well, I have no degree in anything remotely related to video game design and even though I have worked in entertainment, game marketing and technology, this technically does not qualify as "having shipped a game." Who would have thought?? I obviously couldn't get my foot in the door the usual way as I was not fresh out of college and was definitely not willing to negate all the skills and experience I had accumulated throughout the years. So I reached out to some of the people I admire and regard as models and asked for advice. I worked tirelessly, every night, on my resume and my cover letters. I learnt additional skills and signed up for an online course. I did everything I could to give myself an edge and try and compete with professionals who had been in the industry for years. There were a lot of resumes sent. There were not a lot of responses.

When I thought I would have to settle for something that wasn't quite right but could potentially be the start of a parallel path, I received a call that, undoubtedly, changed my life. I was going to be a video game producer. The ideal role I was so desperate to find. Someone decided to be open-minded and was able to look at my resume in its entirety and catch a glimpse of the type of individual I was. I remain confident that this person wouldn't have been the only one. I do believe that with perseverance and patience, someone else would have come along to validate my aspirations. Turns out, I was right to go after my dream and the hiring manager was right to be flexible. I am a damn good producer. And part of this is due to me being qualified and right for this job but most of it is due to having fiercely persisted and pressed on to get to where I am. I won't just give 100%, I will give 200%, ever single day, because you can't be laid back about something you have craved for so long.

Hope never gets you very far, and I will never give a meaningless advice like "never lose hope." Sure, lose the hope. Trade it for hard work and for perseverance and for focus. Trade it for strength and for patience. Never give up. There are many things outside of your control and these things should be acknowledged and understood but the rest, every single other thing in your life you have control over, should be your bitch.

My dreams are back and are more alive than ever. I love what I do and I am the happiest when I am at the office, knowing that I am allowed to do what I worked so hard to get. The ultimate dream is still a long way away but I know I can make it there. I am on the right path, learning, growing and should this dream never be fulfilled, I would have been the most grateful, the most driven and the most enthusiastic participant of them all; because I made the most out of this beautiful journey, always looking ahead with big bright eyes. And should I fulfill this dream of mine, I surely will write again, this time, about how I became an Astronaut. I am pretty sure they have space walking seminars at Bioware.

Has anyone seen Alistair McNally's shirt?

When Alistair McNally is trending on Facebook, you know something HUGE is going on. The Bioware Director said he wore a t-shirt at GDC 2016 which had the developer's new IP on it. You gotta be kidding me. It seems like nobody noticed and there is no record or picture of said shirt anywhere on the bloody Internet. Also, I can't believe his tweet only got 164 likes so far.

Now, let me tell you something that you already know: I am a crazy motherfucking Bioware fan and any news about a new IP is earth shattering. However, that is just cruel. I need to know what that shirt says, what logo it displays or what picture it shows. There will never be enough Bioware IPs on this planet and I just know it's going to be great so I really cannot wait for some real news. The thing is that I really didn't expect any sort of information on this IP for a long time so now they have me pumped up. I hope it wasn't a mistake on Alistair's side. I really hope he's not going to get a slap on the wrist for saying something because it means it wasn't on purpose and we won't hear anything about this IP for a long time, as predicted. If it was a stunt and they actually mean to reveal something in the next couple of days, brilliant. Let's do that. Let's DO THAT PEOPLE!!!!!! 

If you find a picture of the shirt or happened to have been present at GDC and remember the culprit, share far and wide!!!

Why I might change my mind on THE DIVISION

I have pretty much made my mind about The Division and I was very much set on not buying it and not playing it. I still won't buy it, but I might be more open to playing it now.

When I first heard about The Division and saw the beautiful and intriguing teaser, I was very excited about it. However, after learning that this was basically a Destiny look-alike, I bailed. There are only a few things that I will outright reject when it comes to video games but one of them is definitely "being anything remotely similar to Destiny". MMOs have their qualities but I have only found a few that really managed to keep me interested. So while I was being myself trying to ignore all The Division related news or information, I think I have missed on some crucial details that would have changed my mind a while ago should have I given it a chance. For some reason, I was a lot more open minded today than I usually am and brought myself to watching an IGN Plays Live session featuring The Division. After all, I am supposed to know what I am talking about so I thought I would at least confirm my disdain. Well, I kinda wanna play it now. Shame on me for having prejudices! Of course, the game looks stunning. There's just no denying that. It's a pleasure to look at. I was more surprised by what the game actually felt like. It seems to me like the RPG features are very prominent and it is not at all, like I thought, a true shooter game. It is an RPG and they stayed true to the genre. This means a lot more customization, story driven quests and mechanics. It also looks pretty simple to meet players and team up for missions, which comes in handy when you're not a 15 year old boy.

Of course, I wasn't able to assess the narrative complexity or the supposed controversial leveling system but this game looks fun. A lot more fun that I thought it would be and a lot more fun than I had with Destiny. I am not sure it will break the curse of me being interested in an MMO for no more than 7 days, but I sure hope it will. I am actually looking at buying a gaming PC to enjoy more of those types of games because I believe they have a lot to offer once you give it a try. I am going to stop being a little intolerant and prejudiced brat and do exactly that with the Division: Give it a try.

Are you guys going to buy it? Rent it? Do you think it has potential? If not, what's your favorite MMO? Let me know!

Let's Play NEPTUNIA VII - Didn't expect this!

I was not familiar with the Neptunia series before picking up Megadimension Neptunia VII so I really didn't know what to expect. The game came out in February in the US (in 2015 in Japan) and I thought I would give it a try. As everybody knows, I love a good RPG and I am a sucker for female protagonists so when I saw that this game was basically a female fest, I went for it whole heartedly. I am usually not a fan of Japanese games but it did look good in the trailer so I had to try it. (I have been a long time fan of Final Fantasy though, until Final Fantasy XIII).

The whole thing is pretty straightforward and simple. This is a turn base combat RPG with some degree of crafting, customization and strategy. The levels are very linear and there is close to no cinematic or animation. The whole thing is told through drawings. Mind you, they are very pretty and appealing drawings. I actually loved the concept art A LOT.

The style is very anime and recognizable but they did it really well, with popping colors and distinctive designs for each characters. The latter are very cool. Some of them are whiny and slightly annoying but that is part of the tone of the game. They were never Final Fantasy XIII Vanille annoying though. Their voices were just super high pitched and they talked like they were Valley girls (however, I very much appreciated the dubbing quality). Apart from that, they had great personalities, cute outfits and very neat combat animations. There are two things that really surprised me in Neptunia VII. 1) The story is amazing. Granted, it has a Power Rangers feel to it with mega monsters destroying cities and the girls morphing into "superheroes" but the meta aspect of this game is refreshing. I am not sure if the series always broke through the 4th wall but I thoroughly enjoyed that. The world is called "Gameindustri" and the girls are "CPUs". They also often talk about the fact that they cannot die because they are the protagonists and the fact that they need to talk to the writers about things they don't like. I really enjoyed that. 2) I got some hints of cheekiness in the first lines of dialogue but I just thought it was my filthy mind. Well, it was not. It was all real. This game is definitely cheeky. The dialogue totally uses double meanings and the girls sometimes shower together, because, tits. The drawings for that part were still amazing, if unnecessary. I just thought it was very funny and unexpected. I am looking forward to more girls showers and pillow fights!

Below is my playthrough of the 1st hour and 1st mission. Unfortunately, the shower scene only came later!! Did you play it? If so, what did you think? I personally give it a 5/5, partly because I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this game and I really didn't expect it to be that entertaining. Some people who played the previous games in the series might have a different opinion, but having a fresh look at this title, I really didn't want anything more out of it. I had fun, I was intrigued and sucked in Gameindustri, loved the characters and the gameplay. I am off to play some more.

Neko Atsume - Just discovered this little gem/ cat trap!

For a person reviewing game and random content with cats, I should have been aware of this little Japanese beauty. Apparently it's been extremely popular in Japan since 2015 but I feel like a lot of people are still to discover this mobile game.

Neko Atsume was introduced to me by a colleague who, like me, is very much into cats. I rarely listen to people and I am kind of reluctant whenever someone gives me tips or recommendations so I was prepared to try this game and forget about it instantly. I really thought that's what I would do, even after the first day playing with it. However, I never deleted it and am now opening the app several times a day. There is really no wrong way to play Neko Atsume and that's what I love about it. No matter if you want to spend 2 minutes a day on it, you will still enjoy having it on your phone. I am sure you can climb the levels and get rewards and advance well in this game, but I currently really do not care. The appeal of this game for me is just opening the app and seeing a cat or two playing or lazing in my yard. Oftentimes, I will open the app and not see any cats at all. This makes the discovery of new cats a great treat.

There's not a lot to do in Neko Atsume at first. You get a little yard and some money (fish) to buy some items to furnish your cat trap. Your goal is to attract as many cat to your yard as possible so you can receive rewards to purchase MORE goodies and yard extensions etc. The only other feature available is to take pictures of the cats that decide to visit you. Of course, you need to catch them while they're around! That's the fun! Ok, it doesn't sound that great, but the game is free, extremely easy to pick up and play whenever you want. You do not need to spend hours and hours playing it to get instant gratification and fun. To me, that's what a great mobile game is. To be honest, I'd rather spend hours on a story driven console game. I want my mobile game to just be handy when I stop at a red light (oops, sorry!). Here is my video review for Neko Atsume but spoiler alert, I give it 4/5 cats! Mainly because I was disappointed at first that I couldn't do anything with the cats once they were in my yard. However, I quickly understood that this was not the game's point. Have you guys played this already? Have you even heard of this before? Let me know!

How To Cope With Video Game delays - Advice from an obsessive personality

Today, as we know, was a pretty tough day for all of us obsessive gamers. When I say "obsessive gamer" I do not mean obsessed with video games in general. I mean obsessed by one or very few specific titles. It's very easy to cope with delays if you are interested in all of the games released every year. This is more of an issue when your yearly happiness quota relies entirely on one or two games. The delay becomes more than just an additional waiting period, it brings a dreadful feeling of loss and emptiness and disorientation. The obsessive personality will understand when I say that I had planned my emotional schedule leading to the release of my favorite IP very specifically. Now the year is all messed up and I basically need to reschedule my happiness.

Of course, people will say that a delay is for the best. Indeed, it allows developers to fully finalize and polish their creation. And that is completely true. However, do not give an obsessive personality a goal to reach if that goal is going to be moved over and over. This is very disconcerting.
So if you are like me and do not cope well with change in your emotional gaming schedule and need help, here is a video that gives you steps to deal with the disappointment, pain and confusion that a video game delay brings. Stay strong my friends, stay strong!

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)

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!  

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?

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...

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?

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.

Until Dawn - My cats protected me while I shat my pants. Truth.

Trespasser Review - One arm, no job, no lover. WTF.

Dragon Age: Inquisition has come to an end you guys. Why??? I am so sad and so depressed that I have to wait more than one year until the next Bioware adventure. So how did the Inquisition finish its run? With a bloody bang!!!

First, Trespasser was amazing because it allowed you to say "Goodbye" and have a nice reunion with all your companions. I guess they took cues from The Citadel DLC aka the best DLC ever made. This was very welcome when you know that I spent the last DLCs running around Skyhold to see if I could get a few extra words out of my LI or my favorite party members. Some conversations in Trespasser are more elaborate than others but all in all, I felt really satisfied, especially when there was talk of a wedding with Iron Bull. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Cue the last mission ever in DAI history and you have to fight the Qunaris (my favorites!!!sob sob sob) and go through twenty different Eluvians only to find out that the two most interesting characters in this story are, really, definitely, your enemies. When Iron Bull turned against me, I couldn't believe it. I tweeted Freddie Prince Jr, I tweeted Bioware and DAI, I was in distress! I thought it might have been a twist within a twist but no. The Bull had betrayed me and apparently my Inquisitor was the laughing stock of Thedas for being so gullible. Well, Thanks!!! At the end of the day, my Inquisition was disbanded, I had one arm and killed my (awesome) lover. This was clearly not how I wanted to end my run as the mighty Inquisitor. However, was it thrilling, eye widening, surprising and upsetting? You bet it was. I love being that shaken by a video game, it means I cared about the characters and I cared about the story. The fact that the very last scene clearly, like in your face clear, hints at a new Dragon Age taking place somewhere else (excited!!) was very welcome. I got so pumped about this and really can't wait for the next round of Dragon Age awesomeness. Getting to see Solas again and finding out more information about the overarching plot was a great treat, very much setting up the next chapter of this incredibly intricate journey.

I am not going to lie, I did replay Trespasser with my human character who romanced Cullen. The ending was a tiny bit more satisfying on the romance side!!
I have read some reviews that complain about the loot and about the final map but seriously, who cares about the loot at the very end of the game? I don't care. I care much more about getting answers, more lore, closure with my characters. Go play Diablo if you're in this for the loot.

Until Dawn Review - So many twists!

I actually do not want to review this because I feel like anything I will say will be a spoiler for people who have not played it yet. I am going to keep it short and as spoiler free as I can. My message to you: play this game. There is nothing I didn't like about this game, or should I say, experience. This is a totally new and original way of doing storytelling in a video game. Of course, this cinematic, quick time events, choice driven gameplay has been done before. Heavy Rain comes to mind as one of the most relevant comparison here. They also both have a two word name.

Anyway, let's start with the cast. More and more games try to include first class actors in their projects (Kiefer Sutherland, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page...) but rarely have I seen that good of an ensemble cast in a video game. The precise motion capture definitely helped carry through little details like gimmicks and facial expressions. Watching Hayden Panettiere act out Sam's character in the gondola was pretty impressive. The voice over was extraordinary with Brett Dalton being totally in his element, as was Rami Malek.

To be fair, the writing was also stunning and helped make the characters believable and relatable. I usually like to play as one character but because of the intricate story and characters' development, I didn't mind switching back and forth. Mike was probably my favorite character as he can make friends with a little wolf, that was clearly my favorite part of the game. Sony has promoted this game as a "butterfly effect", choice driven game and it truly was. I loved the fact that when making a critical decision, it does tell you that what you just did affected the story. The latter is very cool, especially for a supernatural fan like me. There are twists and turns and shockers and I was never disappointed with the outcome of each little chapter. The publisher and developer did a stunning job at hiding what the story is actually about and only showed us what they wanted us to see. I was truly impressed by that. Until Dawn is obviously a horror story though and I was shitting myself playing it. It was really scary and creepy and all that you want from the genre. I spent about 7 hours on it and I can't wait to replay it and hopefully save more people, but most of all, save the wolf!

By the way, working for Redbox, I can tell you that we exclusively have the prop masks from the game and we are giving them away on Instagram at the end of October! They're super cool for anybody who loved the game:
https://instagram.com/redbox/?hl=en

Jaws of Hakkon Review - Thank God for DAI

When it comes to DLC, Bioware has very rarely disappointed me. Obviously, since the extraordinarily brilliant Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3, I have been pretty biased and have had faith in anything they are releasing. I don't think I have ever played such an emotional, well written, bad ass story. The one liners were witty, the inside jokes were flying and the clone storyline was very cool. However, I like that for DAI, this DLC was taking place after the win, since the Inquisitor had a very happy ending. I was looking forward to Jaws of Hakkon since I have beat DAI 8 times and wanted something new to play with. To be fair, there were a few releases that grabbed my attention (Bloodborne, The Witcher III, ESO) but it's been pretty boring and dry in terms of video game releases. I was sad when they announced Jaws for Xbox One only but I knew it wouldn't be too long until we get it for PS4. I tried to stay away from any sort of spoiler, playthrough videos or reviews so I could go in unbiased. I have been pacing myself and still haven't cleared the whole map just yet. I don't want to run out of DAI goodness too early.

I am impressed by this DLC release. This is my verdict. It is no Citadel DLC as there is unfortunately no big party members reunion or new dialogue with your LI but there is definitely some fun to be had. I am grateful for this new, gigantic map. It is intricate and interesting, completely different from any other map that we encountered in the main game. The landscapes are very pretty with sunsets that are actually breathtaking. The feel of this new land is specific, with indigenous species and sounds. The camps high up in the trees are original and the architecture is, as always, detailed. When you have played through every main game's maps 8 times, it is very refreshing to discover a brand new world, with new enemies and new sights.

That is one of the achievement of this DLC. However, it is fairly easy to release a new map that would be empty of meaning and just stand on its own, not blending with the rest of the main story. This, I found, was not the case in Jaws of Hakkon. I very much liked the quest and its meaning. I thought including scout Harding tied everything together nicely. I was impatient to know the end and discover all the mysteries surrounding the 1st inquisitor, and this is a sign of good storytelling right there. If I had only a few complaints about this DLC, it is that your romance choice doesn't seem to matter so much. There is obviously new banter between your characters, which is welcomed, but not once is the relationship with your LI mentioned. I wish there could have been an additional scene in Skyhold, perhaps another Wicked Grace scene or another love scene thrown in there for good measure. On the other hand, I liked the new available high stats gear and the additional Inquisitor ability which made leveling up much more relevant. All in all, Jaws of Hakkon is a delightful new addition to one of my favorite game and I definitely long for more. DAI is such a vast world, there is material for a fourth game, but in the meantime, I will happily spend more time with Iron Bull, Varric and my kick ass Inquisitor in any DLC story the Bioware team crafts masterfully. Also, thank god for this DLC, I almost killed myself after 10 minutes of The Order...

Dragon Age Inquisition - Multiplayer thoughts

I have obviously bought DAI when it came out but I have only signed up for Playstation Plus yesterday. Any past and subsequent Dragon Age games were and will always be epic single player adventures for me. I have never been a fan of MMOs either, no story, and I have never been a fan of multiplayer add ons. The Mass Effect multiplayer was fun enough but it lost its appeal fast for me as it was too repetitive and didn't feel like a Mass Effect experience. That is why I postponed playing the DAI multiplayer. I kept seeing all these multiplayer events popping up on social media and the DA team referring to players as agents and I was intrigued. How can I possibly enjoy the DAI multiplayer I thought? Oh boy. Do I enjoy it. The first thing that appealed to me was the similarity between the single campaign and the multiplayer menus and design. The crafting, the inventory, everything is streamlined to be more concise but it is the same clear and familiar design which is great. The chests are presented to you by an Inquisition soldier and in it you can find your usual loot items but they are portrayed on cards, as the DA world is now depicted. It's so easy and pretty and consistent it's perfect.

The starting characters are good and what you expect them to be. All the races are there and as you put more hours into it you will be able to unlock the best of them ie: Reaver and Arcane Warrior in my humble opinion. The best part is that you are feeling like the matches you do actually matter and are part of the Inquisition. They have added the voices of Cullen, Leliana and Josephine to make you feel like your are truly on a mission for the Inquisitor which is so welcomed. Also, I had the chance to play with people with mics who were wondering what the dwarf legionnaire was talking about when the line about the Deep Roads came up. What?? You don't know about the Deep Roads? Let me educate you! It was amazing to share my knowledge of Thedas with someone who just got DAI and who hasn't played through the whole series. I can't wait to put hours into this, participate in the weekend events, meet fans like me and just have a fun time playing in the Inquisition world, in Thedas, forever!

The Order: 1886 new trailer - The Story So Far

We have known for a while that The Order was beautiful and that every man in it would have a mustache. But we haven't heard much about this game so far and it's a little worrying when it is launching in just a month. Remember the YEAR leading to Dragon Age: Inquisition? News after news after news after trailer after demos after Twitch streams. Obviously I am a Bioware fan so I was following those developments very carefully but I am following IGN, Game Insider and every other gaming publication and I have definitely not seen as much as I should have for a game coming out in a month.

But they released a new trailer (below) and that's a good thing. I am not sure what to expect from this game apart from the beautiful graphics and the mustaches. I love those mustaches. It has been said that the devs didn't want to give away too many story spoilers and even though the new trailer was focused on just that, I didn't think it did any disfavor to the story. If anything, it made me more excited for it because I now know there is good meaty content in there. I was worried this game would be a darker rendition of Assassin's Creed but I am pleased there is little more story to chew on in The Order. There also seems to be more interesting characters with their own story to tell. "Why did you choose that mustache and when did you know that it was the right choice for you?". That sort of thing.

The gunplay they showed in that trailer is pretty much what they have already shown and it looks great. I am not sure how hard it will be but, as a sword wielder, hopefully Mass Effect level hard. I am digging the anachronistic weapons too. I mean, in a world where "half breeds" exist, you can take creative licenses and get away with it. Looking at the trailer I was thinking that I would love to craft some of those weapons and some of those cool looking coat armors but it is not a RPG. Damn it. But the focus of this trailer was the story and the story looks intriguing. The game looks a bit overly serious for my liking. Apart from "the pint" comment, there is not much in there that lets me think that I will have as a good time with the characters as I did with Drake, Ellie or Varric. We shall see! Mustaches!

Dragon Age Keep - Why this was a bright idea

There is usually not much to do while waiting for your favorite video game franchise to spawn a new title. This is obviously without counting on the brilliant minds at Bioware to create something like Dragon Age Keep. This thing is genius.

For people who have played through the previous games and all the DLCs, it's handy to have one place where you can record all your choices and remind yourself of the story you have been creating over the years. Obviously, with the change to next gen consoles, Dragon Age Keep has all your games information no matter what changes come in the future. I think it's great. I also loved the fact that Varric was the one telling the Dragon Age story in the video, he is, after all, our story teller and hearing his voice again before DAI was a sweet treat. I am also very fond of the layout and the design they have come up with. It's very much scalable and if other games or DLCs needed to be added to the Tapestry, that wouldn't be a problem at all as you are going through the timeline very seamlessly.

I liked that the emphasis was on artwork as well, it's very pretty and in line with the Dragon Age feel and aesthetic. It's very appealing and eye pleasing if you ask me. I was pleased to see that the tiles changed with every different possible choice. Also, it doesn't discriminate in term of choices you can record or not. Like in-game principles, every choice you have made matters. You are not just recording whether you sided with the Templars or the Mages in Kirkwall, you are also recording who you romanced and if you chose to kill a minor character or not. I think that's awesome and it does justice to the story you have chosen for yourself in the past games. I am very much looking forward to adding my DAI choices in there, as well as my next DLC and (hopefully) games to the Tapestry. I was also impressed by the fact that you can save different world states and you are not stuck with one. The Last Court was also a lovely addition to the Keep while waiting for DAI to come out. Again, this is one of Dragon Age's great strength to actually add to the gamer's experience (see books etc.) while staying in the world they love, with characters they know. Not everybody will be excited by this type of mini game but it was a welcome side note you could delve into for a while.

I also think Dragon Age Keep is a great tool for gamers who haven't played through the previous Dragon Age installments and are band new to the world of Thedas and the franchise. I always feel sad for these people who don't know the lore and the inside jokes. But at least Dragon Age Keep give them a place where they can review the world and be as up to date as possible on the events and the characters involved in that great story. I hope it helped them enjoy the game as it should be enjoyed: an exciting part of a bigger and grander intrigue. I also hope they will use the Keep to record their DAI experience once the feature is available so that they can start to be part of this great world that is Dragon Age.