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.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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?