Testing, testing

This is test footage of me playing Papers Please, there's no game audio but I do talk in the video, this is only a test to see how videos work on here and a test of the capturing software, future videos will be edited and be much more interesting!, the watermark at the top is only the site of the software, I may decide to purchase it in the future but for now using the free version is good for me ^_^

Games, Please

As a gamer of no particular affiliation with any particular console, I have my preferences but the whole console wars and the console vs PC arguments bore me senseless, they all have their pros and cons.

One of the things I like about PC is how just vastly open it is, you can get a whole range of stuff on it and you can also use it to emulate older systems too like Amiga's and the like.

Recently I've been lucky to discover a whole bunch of games on the PC which are pretty much unlike anything else you may have seen.

(Warning, this is a fairly 'graphic' game and not really for the squeamish)

Surgeon Simulator 2013, whilst lampooning the HUGE array of simulators that have come out in recent years, Wood Cutter Simulator?, Oil Platform Simulator?, Farming Simulator?, Bungee Jump Simulator? (all these are GENUINE games that I've seen for sale in shops), this game is really it's own thing, the original version of this was made in only 48hours and it went viral, it's odd control system and very dark humour made it stand out, so they decided what could they do in 48 days and this is the result, it's strange fun and absolutely frustrating to play, it's 'Ambulance Mode' has to be seen to be believed it's very frantic and a lot of fun if you can deal with the slightly cartoonishly gory dealings of a persons insides then this will be one of the most interesting games you could play this year.

Papers Please, one of the most original games I've ever seen in my life, described by it's creator as a 'Dystopian Document Thriller' it sets you in the role of a border control clerk, having to check the 'papers' of travelers wishing to get into your fine country, making sure EVERYTHING is absolutely correct, get it wrong, you pay, don't process enough people, your family suffers. Dealing with the sob stories and trying to keep your job in such a hostile environment makes this game such a refreshing thing to play as weird as it sounds, it's not out yet but the beta is available to try and I really recommend seeking it out and when the full game comes out, you might just see a familiar name crop up as I entered my name, albeit 'sovietized' to be a citizen in the game.

That's all for now, I'm looking to in the future perhaps recording some game-play footage of me playing and uploading it here, maybe Surgeon Simulator, I don't know!

By the way Surgeon Simulator also has a very cool soundtrack, if you think it sounds just a little bit like the BBC show Casualty then you'd be on the right lines, the original version of the game had the Casualty theme as it's music and it's very clearly the inspiration for the games official soundtrack.

The Internet Is A Series Of Tubes...

So that wonderful procrastination site called Youtube, as you can see I've already linked a ton of videos from there, it's a wonderful resource full of stuff you used to remember and all the lovely new stuff, unless it's music and your in Germany and then you are kinda screwed, cheers GEMA!

Here's a couple of videos from a couple of Youtube creators which I really like.

Be warned, whilst I'll try to stay PG and family/work friendly, sometimes videos that I link to may contain swearing and bad language, I will try to warn you guys each time.

(Occasional Swearing)

Nerd³ a very funny British video-gamer whom I discovered not too long ago, he's daft and silly and his videos are very enjoyable, this video is him trying to survive 'Carmageddon' a mod for GTA4 which sends the cars absolutely crazy, his squeaks of panic/surprise crack me up every-time.

(Mostly SFW, one instance of swearing)

Hannah Hart's 'My Drunk Kitchen', it's basically what it says in the title, she gets drunk and cooks, don't worry she's usually never alone when she does it, the videos can vary in quality sadly but this one is one of my faves from her. She's daft and her creations are not always what I'd call edible but occasionally very funny to watch.

(Update: 2 Instances of swearing and one graphic scene around 6mins and 6:50)

Noah Antwiler AKA 'The Spoony One', he's been one of my fave youtube personalities for years, he reviews games, movies and even tv shows, usually leaning onto the obscure, his first reviews I watched were his Final Fantasy 8 reviews, this one is one of the TV Show Knightmare which by coincidence is coming back next month for a one off episode, which stars the last guy on this list today.

(Occasional Swearing)

Stuart Ashen AKA 'Ashens', the master of parading cheap 'tat' in front of a camera and making it interesting and hilarious, feared by Poundland (not really), he has a razor sharp wit and a really geeky sense of humour, some of his more hilarious videos involve him eating stuff, the one above is him looking at an 'All Day Breakfast' in a tin, the next one which also deserves linking is when he tries an 'Century Egg', you'll be shouting at the screen trying to stop him!

(yes, more swearing)

Brace yourselves, this one's a rough one!

"Not The Sort..."

I have a tattoo, when I tell people this I get the same usual reply "but you're not the sort to have a tattoo", er since when do I have to be anything to get something that I want, tattoo's used to be the realm of big hairy biker gangs and criminal thugs, but today I'd say it's fairly trendy to have a tattoo, but why do I get the same reply of 'not being the type', it bugs me just a little bit.

This is the tattoo as it was just after it was finished, I've always wanted a tattoo and this was a lovely defining moment for me, it was uncomfortable to get yes but you know that sometimes it's worth to get through pain.

This is the original piece of art which the tattoo is of, it was drawn by a very good friend of mine and the original idea was also from another friend, I had a number of ideas for what I wanted to get but I got some inspiration and it lead to this, it's a Dragon and a Orca (Killer Whale, seriously, when I say Orca sometimes I just get blank looks!) in a yin-yang styled fashion, you can see this just ever so slightly in the middle, for me it represents balance, I'm a firm believer in karma and this encompasses me in a number of ways, it's more a personal tattoo than anything but then surely all tattoo's are personal?

I have been bitten firmly by the 'tattoo bug' and I do wish to get another in the future, what of?, eh, time will tell.

And since I've given myself the rule that every blog of mine has to come with something to watch/listen to, here, have some random cute.... thing.

The Music Question

"So what kind of music do you like?"

Argh!

This is possibly one of the most awkward questions I get asked, mainly because I don't really follow mainstream music, no I'm not a hipster!, bah!, what I mean is that I think music today is a whole load of samey guff, what happened to the originality, the classics, the songs which everyone remembers off by heart, these days it's all 'boom boom boom' and I tired of it quickly.

That doesn't mean I hate all music today, just most of it!

So what do -I- like, well I've joked before that it ranges from ABBA to ZZ Top and it pretty much does!

What in the worlds come all over me?

I ain't got a chance of one in three

Aint got no rap, ain't got no line

But if you give me just a minute I'll be feeling fine.

One of my fave ZZ Top songs, Rough Boy, I don't know particularly why but I do like it, plus it's a weird video, I joked about this with my step-dad not too long ago, I said I remembered 'the space car wash', he said he remembers the legs, haha!

And you gave me love

When I could not love myself

And you made me turn

From the way I saw myself

And you're patient love

And you help me help myself

And you Save Me

Gotye, best known for his huge hit 'Somebody That I Used To Know', is quite possibly now one of my fave musicians ever, his music is vivid and creative with videos to match, 'Making Mirrors' is one of my all time fave albums with absolutely amazing songs, 'Save Me' is one of my favorites, 'Easy Way Out' 'Eyes Wide Open' and 'Bronte' are all worth a listen too.

Every river I try to cross

Every hill I try to climb

Every ocean I try to swim

Every road I try to find

All the ways of my life

I'd rather be with you

There's no way

Without you

Okay slightly cheating here but forgive me, Runrig is 'my' band, I've grown up with their music all my life, every album, every song relates to me in someway or other, whenever I mention I'm a fan people go 'Who?' 'Never heard of them' or 'Oh I think my parents listened to them', Runrig have been going 40 years and I will never stop listening to them, they're just such a part of my life, this video is to my all time fave song, perhaps ever, 'Every River' this version here is done by my good friend Fox Amoore with vocals by the angelic Ashley Serena, I had this commissioned as it's me and my boyfriends song, originally by Runrig, I think they've done superb justice to this song and even today long after Fox Amoore gave me the completed version I still cry just a little bit.

She went down in an airplane!

Fried getting suntanned!

Fell in a cement mixer full of quicksand!

Help me, Help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!

I blame my boyfriend for this one, so counteracting all the emotional stuff here, here's a song I like by Train, it's incredibly silly and even features David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff, it's silly light hearted and very catchy.

So what music do I like? Well being honest it varies greatly, I have my staple music tastes but occasionally something comes out which I'll like, just don't expect me to like the latest bibbler, one derivative or daft poink.

Nostalgia And The Reboot

Because I'm a massive geek, I love looking back at all my fave cartoons when I was little, I can spend whole evenings just listening to the intros, that's usually all it takes, the lyrics come back to mind and your spine gets all tingly as you remember, it's a lovely feeling.

Here's a couple of my faves from long ago

Ahh DuckTales, possibly one of the most catchy and memorable themes, I remember fondly that we'd always rent out this one VHS from the rental store, plus I do remember watching the Movie with my family, though when I say to most people there was a movie, they don't believe me!, honestly there was a DuckTales movie and it's quite a good one too!

Trap Door!, possibly one of the funniest shows I remember, I very proudly have the DVD of the entire show and a poster on my wall, one thing that I always adore about this show is that it's all voiced by one guy and animated by a couple guys, it's incredibly British and is just so funny even today, I know for a fact we darned near wore out a VHS tape of this, so much so I could recite entire episodes from it!

Another slightly less common choice, The Adventures Of TinTin, I love this series, recently it got adapted into a movie which I think is superb and I really do hope they make another.

Lately there has been a huge spate of older 'nostalgic' things coming back and getting a 'reboot/remake/remaster' most common of which right now is video games, one of my fave videogames when I was little was SuperFrog, it was terrifically good fun if a little hard, so imagine my surprise when they're giving it the 'remake' treatment with all new shiny graphics and everything!

Another game getting the 'remastered' treatment is DuckTales, the game was originally released on the NES and was, so I've been told, a very good game and a fine example of a platformer, what astounded me was that they brought back all the surviving voice cast of the series to reprise their roles for new cut-scenes in the game, Alan Young who voices Scrooge McDuck is 93 years old and he's still going, pretty much anything with Scrooge in you can be guaranteed that Alan Young has done the voice, be it for this game or Kingdom Hearts or any animated serial featuring everyone's fave penny-thrift Scrooge McDuck.

Here's an example of a cutscene and some gameplay from the 'remastered' version, I've never played the game as we didn't have a NES when I was little but I shall certainly look into this game when it's released soon.

Nostalgia can be fun, bringing memories back of more innocent times and even if you get just a little smile, nostalgia has worked it's magic once again, don't be afraid to look back sometimes as much as we strive to grow up and move forward, remembering the times from long ago can be helpful.

To finish, here's a rockin' medley of various cartoons, I know all of these but one, enjoy!

It's a blog!

After nudging my sister to write her own blog, I figured I should do my own, hence

The Wonderings Of  A Strange Man

I'm 27, I'm British and I currently live and work in Germany, for which I can't really talk about, but what am I going to talk about, well, it's going to be a odd ride kids!

I like to call myself eccentric, I'm very very much a geek in pretty much any sense of the word, I'm a big kid, pure and simple, video games, cartoons, fantasy and sci-fi, yep I'm pretty much there!

So now then, first bloggy post, I will try to make this as often as I can but life and work can get in the way so sometimes there may not be a post for a while!

First things to note, I'm gay, people get so surprised when I tell them, they tell me things like 'you don't act gay', 'you don't look gay' and 'you don't sound gay', well my apologies if I don't fall into the stereotype and just perhaps I've had to adapt myself into the situation I'm in, I can act straight if I need to, but when I do come out as gay don't start prodding and poking it trying to make it out like it's a lie.

Blargh, needn't be so serious on first blog, this is supposed to be fun!, right?

So might'as well go on about what I've been doing recently.

I've been a fan of Anime for a while now, but I've been saying to some friends that I've been in want of an Anime series which doesn't need a month or two's worth of catch-up to get into it with the rest of the fan-base for said show, I used to watch Naruto and Bleach, when I last watched them they were at around the 300 episode mark, today? make that more than 600, if you're just discovering them it's so daunting to have this mountain of episodes to watch to be 'up to speed'.

Then I discover

Fullmetal Alchemist

Having known about it for a few years but never really seen it I got provided the 64 episode entire run of 'Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood' by my boyfriend, 64 episodes, the entire thing, so I can watch the show in a relatively short space of time and get the full appeal of the show without any 'filler' or 'in-between' episodes that other anime's thrive on when the story's abit scarce.

So what the heck is it about?

It's about two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric who are on a quest to find a philosophers stone so they can 'get their bodies back', but... why?

In this world Alchemy is a well known and oft practiced art, be it for medicine or as a tool of war, it works on the law of 'Equivalent Exchange' basically you get out what you put in.

The Elric brothers committed the most heinous of Alchemic sins, they tried to perform 'Human Transmutation', they lost their mother due to a illness and they decide that they could bring her back to life using Alchemy, but what could be equivalent to a human soul?

The process goes horrifically wrong, Edward loses his leg but Alphonse loses his entire body, in his desperation Edward sacrifices his right arm to bind Alphonse's soul to a suit of armour.

Retreating to family friends broken and traumatized by the events they try to piece together what little they have left, Edward is able to get prosthetic for his missing limbs but Alphonse is stuck as a suit of armour, unable to feel, sleep and eat, just a voice and memories, nothing more.

One day by chance Edward is selected by the military to become a 'State Alchemist', essentially a solider, Edward and Alphonse seek the chance to learn more about alchemy and to find out about the philosophers stone, something which if you possess it, you can create anything without the need to sacrifice anything.

Gosh I ramble on a bit, but it's hard to explain, plus whilst it all sounds doom and gloom it's actually a very well thought out series, it has a great string of humour and light heartedness to contrast the sometimes very dark and quite brutal scenes, the compact length of the series means that the story moves along rapidly keeping the tension going and providing some very well thought out characters and scenes, it's a terrific watch and I look forward to watching the rest of this series, as of right now I'm about half way through and I like it that much I've blabbed on about it here! Haha!