The 'empty house without authority or voice', is the Scottish government, these days it has authority and a voice, it just wasn't the way back when this song was written.
I doubt that Rory and Calum MacDonald could've ever imagined at the time that tomorrow Scotland will be having a vote on if it should be a independent country, changing the UK forever.
Tomorrow is History, this is possibly one of the biggest things to happen to the UK in our own lifetimes, what will the UK be without Scotland?
I personally do not want this to happen, we're the United Kingdom, we're United, if Scotland goes independent then we're not exactly the United Kingdom anymore, the thought of Scotland breaking away is a saddening thought, I hope that I don't have to cope with it as a reality.
It won't happen overnight but if they say Yes, then the scope and lands of the UK will change forever, perhaps paving the way for the disassembly of the UK.
It's not my vote, it's theirs, I just hope that whichever they pick it's what they truly want.
Here's to tomorrow, lets hope the beautiful lands of Alba stay with the UK.
I'm a fan of great story driven games and perhaps none do it better than TellTale Games, best known these days for the sublime The Walking Dead series of games, I'm going through season 1 of it as I type this, they've also done the charming Tales Of Monkey Island, the fun if flawed 'Back To The Future' game and my personal fave, today's topic, The Wolf Among Us
Whilst the game is rated Mature, this trailer is perfectly fine for all.
The game is set before a series of comic books called 'Fables' by Bill Willingham, basically it features the citizens of 'Fabletown', characters from fairy tales and such whom were exiled from their homelands and have to set home in New York, a powerful magic spell protects them from discovery by normal humans 'Mundies' as they call them, most citizens have to use a spell called 'Glamour' to retain a human guise as they try to live their lives, Sheriff Bigby Wolf, a reformed Big Bad Wolf, tries to maintain order in their community, even though most still fear him for his actions in the past.
I got into this game from a trailer and a brief description of the story, I was immediately fascinated by the world and the characters therein, originally released as 5 separate episodes to form a entire game, I was hooked after Episode One.
I've never read Fables and this game thankfully doesn't need prior knowledge to get into the story or the characters as it's all set before the events in Fables and without giving away any spoilers, this story is amazingly good, it's funny, witty and sometimes absolutely brutal, it can leave you speechless and having to face some very hard choices.
The stroke of genius that Telltale games does is that your choices have consequences and what you do, and when you do it, matters, this game has multiple endings, characters treat you differently depending on what you have done, some may help you, others my shun you this gives you much more attachment to the character of Bigby Wolf and to the story as it feels like you have a impact on what happens.
It is currently available on PC/iOS/PS3/360 as a digital download, later this year it will be released as a retail disc copy for the previously mentioned devices as well as XboxOne/PS4/PSVita, whilst I own it on PC I am getting it as a disc for PS4 and I cannot wait to go through again and see where my choices take me.
The graphics are really good, they take from the comics and still images look like they are taken from the comic itself, the voice acting is top notch, Adam Harrington as Bigby Wolf is a fantastic piece of casting and the supporting cast roles all work out fantastically, the game is violent in some places really brutally so, Fables as a majority are quite hard to kill so it can get quite gruesome at times, there is also a little bit of nudity in some scenes but it's never really the focus of the scene, and Bigby Wolf smokes, a lot, now this can be a real distraction in a age of non smoking, for good reason, the reason WHY he smokes isn't explained in game but I found out later, as the Big Bad Wolf he has heightened senses, smell in particular, the hustle and bustle of New York City would drive him crazy so he smokes to dull out these senses to keep himself fairly sane, it's a dog's life for Bigby, though that doesn't stop him being the Big Bad Wolf again if you make him a little too angry at you...
The game plays out as a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' style game, you have fairly little interaction other than choosing dialogue and more than a few fight scenes, this is a very dialogue heavy game, but the story is very much worth it all, even if your actual actions as a player are fairly limited.
The game does suffer from what I call the 'TellTale Engine' problem, as in it's issues which are seen in other similar games from the makers, characters actions can be a little jerky and sometimes making decisions can lead to a noticeable pause before things continue as well as problematic lip sync and sound cues, but most of these have been patched out in later releases and I'm confident the retail disc versions as well will be problem free.
So it's a heavy recommendation from me, if you want a adult game with a strong story and cast, get The Wolf Among Us on the device of your choosing.
Lets hope they make a Season 2, Come on TellTale Games, Please!!!
As anyone who has known me for any length of time would know, I still have a deep love for the cartoons I watched when I was younger, now 'rose tinted glasses' aside, I will admit that most of these shows have not aged well.
I recently watched the first 6 or so episodes of 'Around The World With Willy Fog', one cartoon which I remember fairly well, it really hasn't held up over the years, the poor 'dubbing' of the voices (the show is originally Spanish so it got dubbed into English), the poor quality of the animation, repeated frames, low frame rate, it's still perfectly watchable if you can accept that it really hasn't aged quite as well as other things have.
But yet what do I remember the most?, the theme song, it's so unerringly catchy it's almost impossible to not sing along, especially if you remember it from years gone by.
This intro clip is taken from a DVD release, so it's possibly the best quality you're going to get!.
Yeah, it's cheesy but I still kinda like it, it's a fairly big influence in some ways, also note how all the good guys are felines and all the bad guys are canines, didn't notice that until I watched it again.
A trick of the cartoon industry back then and in some ways still exists today is that they'll have exceptionally good and catchy intros, usually utilizing the best animation they could whilst the rest of the series may not be as polished or decent looking, it's to lure you in to keep watching, it could be said that 'It's Sometimes Better Than The Show'.
So onto today's video cavalcade of intros from Anime series.
Yes I've gone from a western show to Japanese Anime, now I've talked at length at times about my childhood cartoons, there is a lot of intros which I know and love, so does everyone else, but Anime is different to me as it's something I got into much later and they really put a lot of effort into their intros, usually using a hit song or popular artist of the time in the opening or ending theme, it makes for a really refreshing change to what we're normally used to over here, I'm going to show a couple of my personal fave intros/outros from Anime here, now I will admit, some of these I actually have not seen the series for but I've seen the intro and like the intro for various reasons.
Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Opening 'Inner Universe'
Animated entirely in CGI (the series is traditionally animated), this intro sets the scene for the series based on 'Ghost In The Shell', a haunting song over images of the city, robots and our protagonist, I've not seen the series but I've been told it's exceptional and I should catch it sometime, if the intro is anything to go by, I should.
Not going to lie, 'FMA Brotherhood' is my favorite anime, I love the story and characters and I really recommend it to anyone, this intro is the fourth from the series and it's my fave, the music and animation are superb, setting the tone for the series at that period in the story, the animation quality also extends into the series itself and it's of a really high standard, the music combines the slightly more somber moments with high paced action and very much worth a look.
D.Grey-Man - Opening #3 'Doubt & Trust'
Another anime which I've not watched but I really like this opening, the visuals and music match to give a real 'epic' feel to this darkly gothic series, what's going on? I don't know! but I like what I see.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Ending #2 'Let It Out'
No, I'm not cheating putting FMA again on the list but this ending theme is just too good to not mention, it's a wonderful song put over more wonderful animation from the series, sometimes within the series the ending theme started playing before the credits rolled striking a emotional chord to some of the scenes within, it's a great song from a great series.
So there is a couple of faves from me, is there more out there, more than likely, to finish on another piece of classic nostalgia, here's a full episode of Trap Door which has the full version of the theme song within, curious to note is that due to the short length of the episode (average episode length including intro etc is 5 minutes!) it means you hear the song THREE times, the intro, the outro and the full song itself!
It's worthwhile to note that it was released as a single back in the day, it's exceptionally rare to find.
Some of the folks who browse around the internet have heard of Kickstarter, it's basically a fundraising thing for projects of varying scope from independent films to new technology.
One such example of a item which launched via Kickstarter is the Pebble Smartwatch, I didn't back it personally but I bought one later.
And through time I've ended up backing a couple of projects on Kickstarter, one thing which makes the whole thing slightly different is that the more you give, sometimes, the more you get, so you could pledge money just to get the product (like a DVD, CD or the item itself) or you could pledge more and get more 'perks' as a thank you for pledging more.
When I look to backing a Kickstarter I always see what the range of the perks is, now you don't HAVE to take any perks, you could just pledge money, usually the higher end 'tiers' of perks have interesting things attached to them, from Meet and Greets with the creators to personal thank yous.
Now a Kickstarter works on a thing of that people 'pledge' money towards supporting the project, the project will have a goal and a timescale for that, lets say a project has a £2000 goal to be raised within a month, if the project meets it's goal it's successful and the money is taken, if the goal isn't reached, say it raised £1999 and time ran out, then it failed and nobody's money is taken.
So not everything is guaranteed to win on Kickstarter, there has been success stories but there have also been failed projects, due to lack of interest or poor planning.
So to reel this back to what I'm talking about, 'The Personal Touch'.
The strange quirk of Kickstarter is that it makes projects all the more personal, you know who gave you money, who believed in your project, who supported it and how much they gave.
The last couple of Kickstarters I've backed I have nearly always gone with a high level perk for varying reasons.
Havok and Hijinks is a really quick and easy card game featuring some wonderful artwork with absolutely adorable baby dragons, I'm all for dragons, especially when they're being protrayed in a nicer light than a big baddie, this Kickstarter had a top tier pledge level wherein they would create and print your -own- dragon card to use within the game, working directly with the creators and artist to create it, I knew I HAD to back at this level and the results are wonderful.
Note, there is text on the 'backside' of this card with the tired side, I have three cards and one of them has no game text which is the right one here.
So I have my own personal, professionally done game card for this charming wonderful card game, usually to be included in a card game like this, you'd have to be best friends with the creators, but since I gave my own money to support the project, this was my reward for doing so.
Which got me a animated cameo in a popular webseries' intro, a thank you credit in a music video (as well as a personal thank you from the musician involved, read 'Technology And Charity' for the full story).
There is another similar fundraising site called 'Indiegogo' which works the same way to Kickstarter but it'll take the money off you first, it'll refund you if it's unsuccessful, I backed a film called 'Ashens And The Quest For The GameChild', it's available on youtube fully able to be watched by anyone, it's good fun and a enjoyable romp. Plus it is now available to purchase at Amazon or your local entertainment retailer.
Stuart's look to camera just slays me.
I got some DVD's from the project and my name read out in a personal 'Thank You' video which Stuart Ashen reads out the names of everyone whom backed the project, now I'm not going to make you sit through a over hour long video just for one little bit.
Yes I could've used my real name but I decided to use my screen name instead because I wanted to get a reaction from them and I did, really made my day when I first saw it.
So what's next, well I've not gained anything like a cameo appearance in a film or video game like some other projects have provided but you may never know what's around the corner.
What I am currently backing is Eric Stuart's latest project, a 4 Song EP called 'Character', Eric is a fantastic musician and song writer and I really recommend checking out his works!
Well moving onwards, we got taken to this botanical gardens which were staggeringly beautiful in their size, we spent quite a few hours wandering around the gardens.
Later the same day we got taken to a pizzeria, to try some proper New York style pizza it was called Luigi's and I'll always remember it as the place which spoiled pizza for me forever... because it was that damn good.
Photos do these slices of pizza absolutely no justice, absolutely the best pizza I've ever had, I got a pen from the restaurant which now reminds me that I'll probably never have pizza as good again, until we go back that is!
Sorry for a much shorter post, it's hard to recant some things, the trip was overall a wonderful time, I've said that this was the single best trip to the USA I've ever had, the first time I went was fine enough but I was in a relationship which just didn't work out, the second time I went as a friend but it was overshadowed by times past, this time was full of bright wonderful memories, yes we had moments, as relationships do, but we're still together because even if you have a argument, the strength of the relationship can heal it, yes I'm admitting that we had some arguments there but the overall experience was so incredibly positive I cannot even bring myself to think of the negatives.
One thing I'll say is that during our city visit, I had a panic attack right in the middle of a subway station, it really rattled me that I broke down so easily over pretty much nothing, but my boyfriend was there whom pulled me back together, I'm only saying this because I cannot really honestly type all this out without mentioning a incident like that.
We are both already planning ahead towards our next USA visit, planning to make it a longer visit as well as visiting Anthrocon, the world's largest Furry Convention, with around 6000 attendees, it is in Pittsburgh but we are already looking at options of how to get there from New York state.
I certainly cannot wait to be a Englishman in New York again.
