Keeping up with Minority-opinions

Hey guys,
So I'm sorry I haven't worked a blog out yet this week, I've been working on a side project that I hope to get to you in the next month or so. I don't want to talk about it right now, but when I do get it done I'll definitely be embedding it here.

We'll be starting up Stuff and things again in a few weeks as well. Liz's newborn is just being a little fussy right now (and we want to save up a few podcasts to post in the coming weeks, just in case of issues with not being able to record. It's happened before and I don't really want it to happen again if I can help it.
I don't have a date for the release of season 2 yet (yes I just decided that we're on season 2) but as soon as I know, you'll know.

As for the games reviews I've been doing I had promised a review of Thief 4, but since I don't have that money and everything I do for here I need to have some sort of commitment to I decided not to get it just yet, based on the poor reception it's received from the gaming community at large. I will get it eventually, when I'm not quite as poor and I will review it, but at the moment it's not very high on my list. I'll try to post a review of Toukiden on Friday, but no promises.

Finally I started live streaming Outlast last night. Very scary, not helped by my dad starting loud DIY work in the background half way through.
I'm not sure when next I will delve into the world that is Outlast, but I'll give you all a heads up when I do. the links is: http://www.twitch.tv/dantejcross

That's all the news I have for you today. thanks for reading.

Tubage
- James

Upcoming

I've been doing a lot of game reviews recently so I thought I'd take a minute to give some advance notice of games I'll be looking at. This way at least if you're getting excited for something you'll know when/if I'll be taking a look.

 

Well, this weekend I may or may not be playing Wildstar, it's uncertain as their Non Disclosure Agreement is still heavily in place and I wont be able to talk about it whether I play it or not. So I guess theres no reason to mention it... except that I'm really looking forward to the game eventually coming out. it looks like a lot of fun, and like it's mixing up the MMO mechanics really nicely and in a way that brings a breath of freshness to the genre.
If you haven't seen it check it out here, http://www.wildstar-online.com/

I've been playing Toukiden for a week or so now and I'm enjoying it, but I haven't played enough to give a good review. Next week I hope I'll be able to do a review. It's fun, a lot like monster hunter but with a more eastern overlay. Where Monster hunter had dragons, dinosaurs and reptiles Toukiden has demons of all varieties. If you want to check it out here's their website, http://www.toukiden.eu/

Thief 4 is the latest game coming out on the PS4 and it'll be out next Friday so I'm hoping for some fun with that. I didn't play the old games but it seems to have all the things I've liked from other games like Dishonoured, Bioshock and things like it. Not so much magic powers, but multiple ways to do things, realistic stealth. I'm hoping to hit it hard on the weekend it's out and write up a review the following week. Here's their website, http://www.thiefgame.com/

I started playing Killzone Shadowfall recently and while so far the story is a little generic and confusing it looks very nice, so I'll definitely give it a good chance and write up my thoughts at some point. either the week after Thief or if I'm not ready for reviewing thief I'll do it in it's place. https://www.killzone.com/en_GB/shadowfall

 

The last game on my list I'm not sure when I'm going to play. I don't like scary games. I'm not good with scary films. Things that scare me in general... not good. It's strange, I'm not the sort of person to believe in the fantastical and yet this stuff... well it freaks me out and that's why I want to play it on camera. the problem of course is I only have twitch.tv to show from my PS4 (which I have it on) and at the moment they don't archive from the PS4. I'm not sure when I'll be taking a look at this, when I do I'll let you know. http://redbarrelsgames.com/games.php

Tubage
-James

That's pretty Cold

Disclaimer: Frozen spoilers ahead

So the weekend before last I watched Frozen (and then pre-ordered it). I really liked it, apart from the great music, the interesting characters and the solid story there was one element in it that I liked more than anything else, and that's the main villain.

I always like villains in Disney films, that's nothing new. Jafar, Scar, Hades, I really quite like the dark sides of the Disney movies. That said Frozen's real Villain, Prince Hans is one of the cleverest. Not his character exactly, but the writing of his character. He is exactly what a villain should be in my opinion.
From the first time you see Scar in the Lion King and Jafar in Aladin you know that they're the villain. You look at them and your first thought is 'What evil thing are you going to do?'
Hans, though? Hans you start off rooting for. At the beginning and for a good long portion of the movie you want Anna and Hans to live happily ever after so when he eventually reveals his intentions and betrays Anna he betrays you, too.
I love that, I loved not knowing who the villain was until the final few scenes.
Real villains don't walk around with big signs on their fore heads saying 'I'm a villain' they act like the good guy until the end when they own everything and suddenly they're your slave master and you're toiling in the Lunar under mines.

Think about it, really, if you were evil would you walk up to your intended target wearing dark clothes and tell them your evil or would you sidle up to them with a smile and stab them in the back while giving them a hug?
Yeah, the latter. its easier and less risk that they'll shoot you first. and that's how Hans works.

He wants to be king and so he makes everyone love him, then when he gets the opportunity he 'kills' Anna, captures Elsa and makes everyone think he got married and was now technically a grieving widower... who was King.

I think it's one of the best villains in Disney and I wish he'd been around when we did the Stuff and Things Disney podcast because he pretty much tops the list.

Tubage-pretty-much-exactly-what-I-mean
- James

P.S. yay we have over 10k views

Love is in America

It kind of annoys me that my 200th post comes on valentines day, especially since I said all I have to say on the subject last year. I thought about doing something special for my 200th post, I thought about pulling out all the stops and bringing you something worth reading, but I didn't realise it was the 200th post until now.
So instead of doing something special for post 200 I'm going to announce that I'm going to do something special for the 2 year anniversary (24th of July) On the 24th of July I will begin a trip across some of the western states of America, visiting our friend, Liz from the Stuff and Things podcast. We'll be going to San Diego for Comicon, then going up to Disneyland in Anaheim and Hollywood LA, then I'll be heading back across to Las Vegas and finish off in Utah where we will podcast in person and chronicle our whole trip for you guys at home.

I've got my new camera I need inspiration and this is as good a place as any to get it.

As an extra added bonus, if I get enough interest I will go to Comicon on one of the days in cosplay. E-mail suggestions of what I should go as to James@minority-opinions.com

and incase you missed it last year, heres my valentines post:

So I strongly considered ignoring the fact that it's valentine's day and moving onto another subject, partly because I'm single but also because it's a Christian holiday that celebrates one of their saints. However I put in my atheistic notions about Christmas so ignoring Valentine's feels kind of like I'm raising the birth of a person that I believe to be fictional above the life of actual people (specifically Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni, though there were many more martyrs by the name of Valentyne)

For me St. Valentine's day isn't about martyrs who died to give christian weddings to soldiers who were forbidden or martyrs who died because they were teaching christianity under the oppressive rule of the Roman empire, its just a day that people can set aside in their relationships to celebrate.

Like their anniversary it's a moment when the celebrations should come from both side, the effort should be equal and heart felt. Often it's not, but it should be.

I see Valentines day as an opportunity to be with the one you love, to show them just how much you care despite all the things they have to put up with on a daily basis, despite work keeping them apart or the day to day life keeping you from showing it, Valentines day is an oportunity to make sure your partner knows just how much you care.

I don't know if thats callous or beautiful, and it most certainly isn't the Atheism opinion as a whole. It's just my opinion, my feeling.

Happy Valentines day everyone. I hope the ones that you most care for and who most care for you show you the way you deserve to be shown.

surprisingly-good-movie-tube
- James

Writers block

Don't you hate writers block?
I have it at the moment. I'm not sure what caused it. Maybe stress. Maybe depression. Maybe boredom. Maybe a lack of freshness to what I'm working on. I don't know, but lately I haven't been able to write the way I want to.
It's not that I can't think of anything to write. I have ideas still, I know what sort of thing I'm supposed to be writing, but... none of it comes out very well, or at least it doesn't come out the way I want it to. I find myself writing into corners, or writing an interesting piece of a scene with nowhere to take it and nowhere to put it.

For example, I recently wrote this:

There are few problems worth crying about that can’t be solved by reaching the bottom of a glass, assuming it’s filled with something worth getting to the bottom of. Of those few problems there are fewer still that can’t be solved by finding the bottom of another glass. If that doesn’t work then nine times out of ten the bottom of a third glass will see you right.

I believe that, truly I do. It just happens that my problems learned to swim a long time ago, still; every time I drop an empty glass down onto the table in front of me, all I can think is ‘maybe the next one’.

I ain’t nothing if not persistent.

No rent, no money to pay for the next glass, no jobs to speak of. At least the shop I got this cheap bottle of scotch from ain’t cottoned on yet that my tab ain't gonna get paid. I pour another glass and re-cork the bottle, standing it up on the edge of my desk.

“I move funny, that bottle’s going to fall and smash on the floor…” I noted, bleary eyed as I laid my head down on my upper arm, holding the glass outstretched ahead of me. I didn’t retrieve the bottle. I just realised what would happen.

Masterful powers of detection still count when I don’t use the information.

Now I like this scene. I Think it flows quite well, but it starts and finishes. It doesn't leave room for anything else and it greatly requires to go onto something or come from something. My only real thought (which I got by my friend Liz saying it to me) was to write a prologue about the reason his life is so shit.
It was a good idea, I liked it and I gave it a shot, but... well that scene didn't flow. Theres so much I need to put into it that it just didn't make sense.
I wanted to explain everything without outright explaining it and when your character can communicate with ghosts, can travel to and from the spirit world and is a world class detective it's a little hard.
I'm going to keep giving it a try, but... yeah writers blockages :(

In completely unrelated news I set up a twitch.tv channel to broadcast me playing PS4 games (I know you are totes interested in such things).
The web address is http://www.twitch.tv/dantejcross I'll tweet and blog when I'm going to be doing sessions.

Other than all that there's not much to say. Liz's baby is doing well, it's 13 days old today and things are starting to edge back to normal.

PMSL-Tube
- James

The Wolf Among Us - Review

The Wolf Among Us is an adventure game from TellTale Games, the minds behind the Walking dead game... the good one.
I'd played the first chapter and a half of Walkingdead, but never really got into it. I liked it. I thought it was good, but I didn't complete it (I still haven't). However when I saw The Wold Among us the whole idea just instantly clicked.

The game is based on the comic series 'Fables' in which a community of fairytale characters live in New York under the community title of Fabletown. at the beginning it shows the Big Bad Wolf (Bigby Wolf) as the sheriff who keeps the people safe.
The Wolf Among us is a prequel to the comic series, following Bigby as he tries to solve the murder of a fable in fable town. It's a really interesting story that takes a lot of twists and turns, at least in the first two chapters. Parts three, Four and Five aren't out yet.
That's episodic gaming for you I suppose.

I absolutely loved Part 1, it kept throwing me for a loop, every time I thought I knew what was up I was wrong. It just worked really well and was written really well.
So well in fact it made me buy the first thirteen volumes of fables just to get more. (pro tip; don't do that. kinda ruins a lot of the story)
Part two however wasn't nearly as good. Maybe it was my play style, maybe it was because I missed something, but I felt like it didn't have nearly as much awesome as the first one, nor did I feel it was as long (I completed it in an hour and a half) but that's not going to stop me playing the next one. I want to know who did the killings.

It shows a darker side of fairytales, shows how they can fall through the cracks and how bureaucracy can screw over even near immortal fables when it wants to.

It's a great game and I highly recommend you play it (360, PS3 or steam).

Tubage
-James