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)