Chivalry's dead

So here's the story how I quit playing 'Chivalry - Medieval Warfare'.

I joined a server as an archer and took position by a cliff, so as to support my advancing infantry team mates. One of them approaches from behind and kicks me in the back, sending me flying into the abyss. I die and it is counted as a team kill... for myself. Yes, I just killed myself and got a negative score for it. The other player then proceeds to initiate a kickvote against me. Everyone else sees my magnificently high team kill rate and kicks me out of the game while said other player mocks me. Just lovely!

A PC's Lament

Greentings, everybody!
I have returned to my home city and managed to move house quite well. However, same cannot be said about my computer. As it turned out, it broke down somewhere in the middle of the moving process. I planned on getting a new PC, anyway... but not like this. Never like this!
So since I'm currently broke (as usual), I will remain unable to upload new content until I can afford a new computer. My personal guess would be somewhen in September.
I am very sorry for all the disappointing news lately and hope you guys will stay tuned for further news!

A Farewell of Sorts

My dear subscribers, followers, viewers and friends! I have some rather bad news regarding my channel.

As most of you know, I’m in the middle of an apprenticeship and this requires me to go and visit a special kind of school… however this school is very far away from where I live, so my employers decided to send me there only twice… but for a period of two consecutive months! I will be living there in a boarding school with food, bed, education and entertainment provided. Pretty neat, huh? However, the downside of it is that I cannot take my PC with me and record/edit my Let’s Plays… and I barely have any spare episodes left due to all the stressful preparations over the last month or so. What I’m trying to say here is… in all likelihood you won’t be hearing from me until end of July. Yeah, I know, that sucks.

There’s one tiny glimmer of hope that might convince you not to click the unsubscribe button and turn your back on me, though: since I don’t have to pay for anything while being over at the school, I can save up a lot of money… and maybe use it later to buy a proper new PC with which I can record newer games, edit and upload faster and produce videos of greater quality! How about that?

I know it’s a lot to ask, but I hope you guys will forgive me and wait for my return in summer. Until then: big hugs from your old green bear!

Greenbear vs. Plants vs. Zombies

As some of you have probably witnessed, I was gone for about two weeks at the beginning of April, celebrating my birthday by going on vacation. I had some episodes prepared with me on a stick so that I could upload one every other day to keep you fellows entertained, but sadly the promise of an existing internet connection turned out to be nothing but wishful dreams.

So there I was, on my birthday in a new location and without the possibility to give in to my online addiction. What did I do to pass the time? I played the only game available on my girlfriend’s laptop: Plants vs. Zombies. 

And what can I say? It wasn’t all that bad. I played it quite a lot and soon started to get a hang of it, learned the stats of all my plants, worked towards achievements and hated the music for its catchiness. I beat the game once, but admittedly turned my back on it the moment internet connectivity was established. Such a silly, pointless game, but still… thank you, Plants vs. Zombies! Thank you for entertaining me for otherwise I would have been forced to face real life on my birthday…

And the Oscar goes to…

Well, not me for losing my Oscar bets this year. You probably remember from last year that I upload my predictions via YouTube and challenge viewers to contradict me. Two users did so… and I lost against both of them. However, the small number of challengers can be seen as  a good sign. And really, while I was right about only half of my picks last year, I made it to an incredible 16 out of 24 categories properly predicted this time around! That’s 2/3, guys! I’m rather content, honestly.

However, a bet’s a bet and I agreed upon certain punishments should I lose. Let’s take a quick look at all the categories and where I was wrong:

Best Picture: "12 Years a Slave"

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, "12 Years a Slave"

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, "Gravity"

Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey, "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine"

Best Original Screenplay: "Her"

Best Adapted Screenplay: "12 Years a Slave"

Best Animated Feature: "Frozen"

Best Foreign Feature: “The Hunt”

            Instead: “The Great Beauty”

Best Visual Effects: "Gravity"

Best Cinematography: "Gravity"

Best Costume Design: "American Hustle"

            Instead: “The Great Gatsby”

Best Documentary Feature: "The Act of Killing"

            Instead: “20 Feet from Stardom”

Best Documentary Short: "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life"

Best Film Editing: "Gravity"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa"

            Instead: “Dallas Buyers Club”

Best Music (Original Score): "Gravity"

Best Music (Original Song): "The Moon Song" from "Her"

            Instead: “Let it Go” (“Frozen”)

Best Production Design: "Her"

            Instead: “The Great Gatsby”

Best Short Film, Animated: "Get a Horse!"

            Instead: “Mr. Hublot”

Best Short Film, Live Action: "The Voorman Problem"

            Instead: “Helium”

Best Sound Editing: "Gravity"

Best Sound Mixing: "Gravity"

And here are my two challengers:

CnAFilmsandAnimation:      Best Foreign Feature: “The Great Beauty”

                                               Best Makeup and Hairstyling: “Dallas Buyers Club”

                                               Punishment: I have to do a haiku about them

Seargent363:                         Best Picture: “American Hustle”

Best Foreign Feature: “The Great Beauty”

Best Make-Up and Hairstyling: “Dallas Buyers Club”

Best Music (Original Song): "Let it Go" (“Frozen”)

Best Production Design: “The Great Gatsby”

Best Short Film (Animated): “Mr. Hublot”

Best Original Screenplay: “American Hustle”

Punishment: I have to sing and dance to ‘The Gummy Bear Song’

So expect some more random awkwardness in future videos!

My Thoughts on: 'The Wolf Among Us Episode 2: Smoke & Mirrors'

Spoilers ahead!

So the second episode of TellTale’s magnificent cartoon point-n-click adventure ‘The Wolf Among Us’ has been out for some time now and I finally got around to watching an LP of it. While the player’s decision has a heavy influence on the developing story, I’m assuming certain aspects remain the same. Still, I will focus on the conclusions in the very end of the episode and throw out a few wild guesses as to what they might mean.

As you know from watching the second episode (or will know now from ignoring my spoiler alert), the body of Snow White found at the end of the first episode is actually not Snow herself, but instead some random troll lady covered in magic (aka ‘glamour’) to make her look like Snow. The murder site is quickly discovered, where someone seemed to have re-enacted the classic fairy tale from the brothers Grimm, with a half-eaten apple, a pretty dress and flower petals all around symbolising the glass coffin. Serving as the big cliff-hanger for the episode, the sheriff discovers an envelope below the bloodied bed with several pictures of ‘Snow’ sleeping on the still-clean bed and then one photograph of Crane (a sort of mayor of all the fabled characters and boss of Snow White) groping under the sleeping Snow’s skirts with a disgusting smile. Crane himself watches the discovery via the magic mirror and proceeds to smash it. End of episode 2.

Now of course the case is clear as day, right? Crane had a thing for Snow, but being the weirdo he is, he paid a hooker to act out his fantasies with her instead… until he murdered her in rage for not being the right woman. Someone needs to stop him!

But hold on! Ignoring our meta-knowledge that they probably won’t reveal the true killer at the end of the second episode (of 5 or 6 parts all in all)… why would Crane bother to sever the troll’s head, dump it in front of the apartments, proceed to hide the body in a river but forget to clean the room? Why on earth would he leave some pictures of him at the crime scene? And for that matter: who took the picture of him getting intimate with the troll? Certainly not himself.

Another thing that bothered me was the ‘coffin’. The troll was asked to lie down on the bed, surrounded by flower petals. Apparently that’s where she died, given all the blood on the bed. However, the circle of petals was only broken at the foot of the bed, indicating that the body was dragged off here. But how could someone (especially someone as weak as Crane) chop a woman’s head off without her struggling and thereby destroying the ring of petals? Wouldn’t the bed or mattress be destroyed where her neck was if he had chopped through her throat? Or did he drug her somehow just to go through a careful operation removing her head without touching the surroundings?

Also: if Beauty was working as front clerk while the troll got slaughtered in the hotel, why didn’t she recognise Crane when he walked in? Was Crane using glamour to hide himself, as well? And why would he want to draw attention to Fabletown by dropping severed heads on his own doorstep, just to bail the sheriff out with more expensive glamour?

I’d say the pictures are just a distraction. Fair enough, Crane’s a pervert and has a thing for Snow White. Doesn’t really prove anything. However, someone murdering fables and then conveniently leaving proof at the site of the murder all pointing at Crane so as to send the sheriff on the wrong track sounds like a good strategy. What appeared to me as the single-most valuable piece of information we got in this episode was TJ’s observation of one person dumping the troll’s body in the river and then ordering a possibly second person to suppress their laughter. I can’t really think of any classical fairy tale characters whose laughter is their prime feature, maybe apart from Rumpelstiltskin. So this shall be my guess until I get more information in the third episode. Any objections?

Gothic Hiatus and New LP

As promised in one of my early channel posts this year, I am working on a new Let's Play, with the first episode going online tomorrow. It's an adventure made by Telltale, but not the title you're thinking of right now.
Also, I might be taking a small hiatus from my Gothic LP. Despite the Gothic franchise still being one of my favourite video games series, I never really liked the last third of any of Piranha Bytes' games. I tried a few recording and they all ended with me giving up dead as a doorknob and completely frustrated. I might have to spend a few training days off screen once more before I'm ready to continue with the main story line.