Trending

Whats up with the trend Youtube gaming Minecraft has been a massive game but recently I took a look at Youtube's trending gaming videos and apparently even though Google searches are down Minecraft has a majority mark on the trending videos for gaming and after some review of the channels its easy to see why.

Firstly lets take a look at subscriber count the biggest trending videos are made by channels with subscriber counts numbering in the millions which can have in turn means a massive amount of views and buzz on their latest videos. first there's a channel with over 10 million subscribers but after two days his video has received 1 million views. now a million views is a lot but in terms of his subscriber count you would think it would be more as most people subscribe so that they know when the newest video comes out. so i watched some of their videos and looked at some of the games played, what I found didn't surprise me at all.

Starting with the majority of the the content Minecraft. Minecraft started getting popular in 2011 but it didn't really start becoming the industry giant we know until it was covered by youtubers and spread throughout the internet. Now looking at the statistics Minecraft searches are slowing down and numbers are dipping. but the Minecraft part doesn't concern me Minecraft has always been a go to for any channel looking to capture new viewers during the craze. What I saw was Garry's mod and the ever popular Happy Wheels and that's the basis of so many channels now. Happy Wheels and Minecraft are what I like to call the Internet Celebrity starting pack. After a popular youtuber who I wont name but rhymes with ew-tie-die covered Happy Wheels it took off even today, 4 years later, the video in question is still one of the most popular videos ever. This fact hasn't deterred some people from being "inspired," by this success.

The last thing I want to discuss is the behavior of the content creators I viewed. These personalities all share certain characteristics they are loud, intensely over reactive, and they talk quickly. these characteristics are spread through many content creators and they all sound and act with the same mannerisms and expressions. I feel like there is a certain lack of originality and certain affront to original personaliities and content that cant get through the carbon copies of eachother.

Here's Something New: A Review of Captain America Civil War

Alright so aside from the mini rant about Corn Pops this site has mostly been about videogame editorials, well diversity is the spice of life so we're shaking it up like a bartender in a Bond movie.

WARNING SPOILERS IMMINENT

Lets start with the story comparison to the comics, in the comics the story focuses around the Hero Registration Act which requires the registration and cooperation of all heroes/vigilantes to reveal their identities and work for the government. Steve Rodgers otherwise known as Captain America opposes the Act believing the bureaucracy would stop them from doing the good they do. Tony Stark also known as Iron Man believes that they are too powerful to govern themselves. This divide spreads to the entirety of the Marvel universe. The  story ends with both sides fighting and losing friends in the fighting and after witnessing the destruction of a city and the lives put in danger turns himself in. The movie is slightly different due to the limited amount of heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Also there is a reason the Movie is called Captain America: Civil War and not Avengers: Civil War is because the story starts off with the new Avengers but degrades into a Captain America story. It starts with an Avenger's mission in Wakanda where after saving Cap's life from a bomb Scarlet Witch ends up tossing it at an office building killing civilians. Meanwhile  Tony Stark is confronted by the mother of a boy killed in the last Avengers movie and he begins to see the tragedies they have caused and approaches the team with the Act. This Act starts the divide in the team, what really starts the divide in the team is when Bucky, The Winter Soldier" blows up a UN council about the Heroes Act that kills the king of Wakanda the father of T'Challa or the Black Panther. from there the teams side based on their previous feelings on the Act adn the teams fight it out with some members letting themselves get capture to let Cap and Bucky get away to stop a man from getting the 5 other winter soldiers the soviets created. after that Iron Man and War Machine go after them and War Machine is paralyzed and Iron Man goes after them alone and tries to kill Bucky because Bucky killed his parents which is the source of Tony's trauma and he snaps and nearly kills both Bucky and Cap.

While I prefer the Comic storyline the story of the film is very well written and greatly expands the cinematic universe for Marvel. With the limited characters they managed to weave together a coherent storyline while expanding the background of new characters. Focusing on Captain America also was a plus because it provided a better focus for the story and helped out  the motivation of all the characters. some of the problems are some of the introductions of the heroes are weak and some of the heroes are weakened to put them on par or make them beatable by the other heroes.

Overall the movie is the best of the Captain America movie yet and the writers and actors did an amazing job and in my opinion they particularly nailed it with Spiderman and they made a movie with leaves the future of the MCU with a ton of possibilities

OVERWATCH GIVE ME MORE-VERWATCH

Let me get this out of the way I love Overwatch. It's gorgeous, colorful, funny, and full of character and stories that are amazingly well written and well designed. I've been in love with this game since it's announcement.

If you don't know about Overwatch its a character based team FPS which basically means there are 12 different characters each with varying play styles and abilities, for instance there's Bastion which is a robot that can turn into a high power stationary turret or there's Genji a cybernetic ninja that can throw shurikens reflect incoming projectiles with his sword and do that anime dash thing where they slice an enemy and they take damage after they got slashed which is neat. But there are 12 different play styles with that can suit every kind of personality. I personally prefer Reinhardt the giant armored knight with a massive hammer and a laser shield.

Now Overwatch has your standard objective based game modes there's king of the hill, payload, and objective defense/attack. while the game modes are basic the varying team compositions really change up every single game especially if you and your friends are trying some gimmick like 5 Bastions with 1 Reinhardt shielding them or 6 Tracers blinking all over the battlefield.

Another amazing part of Overwatch is the character and world crafting that Blizzard has done. Each character has a backstory and relationship with other characters. These stories are expanded on in the Overwatch comics and and animated shorts (which can be found here). The story of Overwatch starts 30 years in the past when there was an uprising of sentient robots that built their own military bots to destroy humanity. When the governments of the world couldn't stop them an elite team of the best and brightest around the world was assembled. They were a small team than included Reinhardt, the German soldier, Torbjorn Lindhorn, the Swedish engineer, the Egyptian sniped Anna Amari, and two soldiers from an American super soldier program Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. The team quickly became the most effective fighting force against the robots. the war left certain countries devastated but eventually resistances started forming and the strie force became Overwatch which expanded as more men and women proved themselves to be heroes. (if you want even more story check out the whole story we know so far here)

The game as of the beta is well balanced and each character seems to have an antithesis which is able to challenge that hero's play style. the most obvious being Genji and Bastion because they can counter each other in every way based on the players knowledge of the other the Bastion can take down Genji very quickly but if Genji hits his reflect and the Bastion starts firing the bastion will kill itself. Overall every character seems useful and unique. One thing to remember is the game is based on switching heroes so you can counter the opposing team and your favorite character is not the best character for the job. I'm a little biased but this game seems like one of the best unique and new IP's to come out in a good while.

Bloodborne More Like Blood-swore-n as in "How Come I Swore so Much?"

Bloodborne, is a game developed by FromSofware the creator of DemonSouls and the more recent Dark Souls III. These games are known for their difficulty and unforgiving enemies and systems. I have no experience with any of the souls game and I wasn't about to dive into a series with no experience so I borrowed Bloodborne and dove in. What followed was a never ending tale of frustration and an increasing amount of expletives of varying volume.

Going into the game blind I only knew of Bloodborne and the other souls games by their reputation. I expected things to be difficult and I expected to die which I thought I was prepared for, it instantly went out the window as I was one shot by practically everything and attacked by hordes of enemies and I got even more frustrated as 2 hours in I hadn't even reached the first boss. Now admittedly I went right past it because I wasn't interested in the dead end of a bridge so I went right past it.

Surprisingly the things that killed me the most were the enemies because unlike most games enemies will attack at the same time and will combo you into a corner of frustration and defeat. I beat the first boss my second try and the "Blood Starved Beast," on my first try which made me quite impressed with myself. Unfortunately everything else started to destroy me like some absolute goose with a gatling gun who i ended up having to shoot off a roof in the lowest point of my gaming life.

Now on to my usual shtick the combat in this game is amazing. The raw visceral nature of the combat makes every hit feel solid and and damaging. The other part of the combat is Bloodborne's "Trick Weapons," the weapons in Bloodborne morph into another weapon to change the move set and range of the weapon. One weapon, The "Threaded Cane," is a cane sword that transforms into a bladed whip that is used to hit multiple enemies and extend the reach of the weapon at the cost of its damage. The weapons I've been using have been "Kirkhammer" and "Ludwig's Holy Blade" both start off with a one handed sword and the hunters sidearm which is usually a gun but when it transforms the former transforms into into a massive two handed hammer and the latter transforms into a great sword by combining with its sheath. this changes the gameplay from a counter and multi hit based fast attacker to a dodge based style while using heavy attacks on the openings the dodges produce. fast paced combat is favored in Bloodborne because of the counter based gameplay and the fact that after you're hit you have the opportunity to regain your lost health by hitting enemies.

The story from what I've gathered starts with a foreigner (you) being given the blood of the beast which turns you into a hunter. After your first death you wake in the Hunters Dream which is the hub of the game where you level up, purchase items, and repair/fortify weapons. After you are given the blood your goal appears to be escape the godforsaken, monster filled, hellscape that is Yharnam. Oh and the second boss is an old hunter who reveals that due to the beast blood injected into the hunters they turn into the worst  of the beasts, so there's that to look forward to.

Overall the game beats you down and emphasizes the savageness of tearing your way out of the grey and desolate city by rewarding you for tearing apart your enemies. The game overall was a positive experience that emphasized the careful planning of strategies in order to fight large groups and massive enemies. Bloodborne is solid and incredibly well done which is expected from the company that brought out games like Demon Souls and the Dark Souls franchise.