Scare PewDiePie - Are people going to pay for this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Youtube Videos to watch - Week of 2/1

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

Week of 2/1 Videos to Watch

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

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

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

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

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

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

SXSW Gaming Awards - Vote and vote well

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


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

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

Who are you going to give your vote to?

Jessica Jones Season 1 - Anything to say?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This has to be a 2/5 cats unfortunately.