Greetings one and all!
So, this has been kicking around in my brain for a little bit and finally I decided to actually get it all typed out and onto the screens before you.
Firstly, my history with the series:
I own Monster Hunter 3 and got about as far as the Lagiacras(sp?) and maybe a touch further before I stopped playing.
I own Monster Hunter on PS2, and I think I killed the first 'big' monster...and left it at that.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate however I have..... well... I checked the time played in game and it totals up to 90 hours.
90 hours.
That surprised me. I remember getting to the 60 hour mark and being really impressed with my sticking with it, I'll admit that in the 30 hours I've played since then I've played it a heck of a lot LESS than I did before hand, however I know that I can and will pick it back up again and continue to plow my way through the huge variety of beasts and monsters that would very much like to nibble me giblets as it were.
Although my history of PLAYING the games is incredibly lax, I've known about them since about... 2005/2006ish when one of my best friends got VERY much into one of the portable games and used to play and describe the game a lot. I was curious but when I did finally track down a copy for the PS2 I found myself annoyed as I just didn't get the controls, found the weapons difficult to use and the monsters too finickity to slay and found myself putting down the game and just not coming back to it.
So when Monster Hunter 3 was coming to the Wii I was willing to give it another go, and my friend was also gonna be playing so I got the special chest edition with he controller and statuette and voice chat thingie.....ad still found myself having trouble with the game. (I'll be honest, my setup wasn't the best so that probably didn't help)
Then Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was coming soon, and I was reliably informed by said friend that there would be a DEMO on the 3DS that could be playable. I was interested but still pretty lukewarm considering my previous experiences.
They then mentioned that you could play the demo WITH friends, online multiplayer.
I was hooked on the idea. When it was released over here in summery(HA!) Britain I downloaded it and as we chatted away on Skype I gave the single player on the demo a little go first.
And liked it. I was able to understand what the tutorial was telling me, could pull off some pretty sweet moves, and was able to find and actually hunt the monster in question. I forget how long it took me to slay it but I felt invigorated afterwards and did the mission again a few times until I was nailing the creature pretty fast. Then I gave the Tetsucabre a go, and suddenly it was a challenge again. A tough challenge that I had trouble with. However I prevailed, and it felt gooooood.
Then we connected online with each other (not the easiest system but we worked it out) to take on the 'harder' level missions. The same two as before, plus trying to kill the games signature monster. Gore Magala.
We worked our way up to that (me holding us back some as I was still finding my newbie feet) and then we took on the mission. And ran out of 'lives' pretty quickly. We tried again...and again....and again. I played it on my own, and tried and failed and tried and failed.
By the time the release date came around I'd actually looked into and ended up buying a N3DS, because I enjoyed the extra camera abilities I could have with the control nub and it looked a little prettier.
I bought the game on release and was very happy with my purchase but I still hadn't managed to slay the Gore Magala in the demo. I did however get to the Gore Magala in the story line in the main game, and killing that on my own was amazing. So I kept playing.
Killing the next Magala up, was even more stunning as I beat it on my first attempt. Something I was certainly NOT expecting with my newbieness still showing.
As anyone who reads more than 1 blog of mine, I end up rambling.
I will continue to do so, but will try and keep it structured enough so you can follow me.
I played the game a lot, I'd carry my N3DS around more often than I had my original 3DS, I slay untold numbers of monsters and had my eyes forward.
Without a doubt I would say that this is the MOST accessible of the Monster Hunter games for newbies. I'll admit if there was a version for the Wii U I probably would of gotten that either/as well, simply for the extra screen space to be dedicated to the beautiful scenery and getting an even better scope of the monsters. Even if it meant holding the blasted heavy controller for long hours because it would of been worth it.
It gives a tutorial, encourages you to try out different weapons and to find what you are happy with, and go get the monsters.
I will just say, I've yet to play online with anyone other than friends I know, I'm not that brave with my little set of dual swords (I REALLY want the next upgrade but I'm just not quite far enough through to get to the monsters I need) and mixed armour. No accessories yet, I haven't made that system make sense in my head yet, and I certainly haven't purfected the Palico side of things either yet, though I get closer to grasping the full potential the more I tinker.
That's what's honestly fun abut the game. A delightful combination of ever increasing monsters that get gradually bigger and meaner and more frustratingly difficult, all wrapped up in that desire to get better, to kick the next monsters ass. To work out that pattern of attack, to learn the map layouts, which little monsters are lurking around the map on this specific mission that could well try and sneak up behind you and chomp your ass at a critical moment.
It treats you well, it gives you and idea of what you're supposed to do (beyond there's a monster go slay) and the reward feeling of having taken down that massive dragon like monster that CREAMED you in the demo is still a feeling of awesome that I enjoy.
Actually, I've gone and talked about it so much I think once I've posted this I'm gonna boot up the game and kick it's ass again just for the fun of it.
Because yes, not only do I recommend this game for the various awesome things it does.
It's also FUN.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Friday, 14 August 2015
Believable Characters
Greetings one and all!
So just as I'm trying to settle down for the night a little thought occurs to me, and then it just sits there and doesn't move. Doesn't do anything but sits and stews and I can't shift it.
That is tonight's blog I'm afraid, but it's a super interesting topic!
When I went to NineWorlds I went to a panel on 2 topics which were very interesting. Manipulative Bastards and Believable Clerics. An interesting combination but one that caught my curiosity enough to pull me out from my nervous con-newb state to go find it and have a listen. Both parts were REALLY awesome though I'll be honest the Believable Clerics bit has left me a lot to think about. Today's blog is a blending of thoughts about the two.
Loki in the Marvel Films is INCREDIBLY believable. Through an awesome combination of writing and acting, the character of Loki in Thor, Avengers and Thor 2 is really believable.
So to lead you where my brain was going this night I was just randomly watching things on Youtube and stumbled onto this music vid: Here Feel free to watch it now or later, either way I found it really interesting because the clips from the films gave my brain the insight it needed to come to another conclusion as to why I REALLY like the character of Loki.
He is believable.
Now I will admit I'm a little biased, I like the bad boy thing Loki has going, the intellectual superiority mixed with arrogance. However woven into that is a character with a history, a past, and even more importantly a PROGRESSION.
Because one of the things that really sunk in from the believable clerics talk was that when you're writing a character of faith you have to really have the character HAVING that faith, through whatever that character has grown through. Even if the character themselves resent it, it's development they've gone through.
Loki changes as a character, back in Thor 1 right at the start he's the younger sibling, over looked sure but he has a small group of friends who although don't love him the same way as Thor, love him as a brother in arms who is useful in a fight and they trust to fight alongside them.
Loki sees a slightly bigger picture when it comes to Thor's coronation and decides to pull a prank, a small and pretty harmless prank that would show the Allfather that Thor's brutish and unthinking ways aren't really the right thing for Asgard right now. But he doesn't expect things to go quite so out of hand. One thing leads to another and then they're on Jotuheim and suddenly war is very much on the horizon because what started out as a small thing, has blown up so much that Thor is banished.
Loki then finds himself with a situation that certainly wasn't what he planned. Sure he's glad the Allfather has noticed that Thor isn't suitable to rule yet and his banishment might be a bit harsh but it suddenly brings Loki into a higher position than he had in the days before, a much stronger chance at the throne promised to one of the brothers. A throne he most likely wants but knows it will be a while before he takes it. Yet the spanner in the works he couldn't prepare for was finding out he was not in fact a true son of Asgard, let alone of the parents who raised him.
This is the character development here, his whole world has been turned upside down and the scene in the Asgard Treasury is a beautiful testament to that. Loki's crying and screaming of rage all very believable feelings when you've just found out that what you have believed your whole life, has been a lie.
The rest of the Thor film then deals with the immediate result of the aftermath of that prank, that one sibling rivalry and joviality causing so much chaos and change in the lives of the royalty of Asgard. Loki changes as he tries to settle his feelings for his mother and father, who aren't biologically his parents. He tries to settle with the feelings of being descended from monsters, and how to stop them from hurting the Asgard people after Thor's upheaval of a long held 'peace'. His own desire to rule coupled with, in all honesty, his lack of knowledge in how to rule. It's clear that although Loki has the smarts, he doesn't have the experience and certainly not the people skills needed to rule in any way like the Allfather and so knowing that his subjects distrust him having to work harder to manipulate and change things around him so that his plans on how to deal with things go as planned. Trying to leave no errors for chance. And flubbing that too.
At the end of the film Loki tries to beseech the only father he has ever known to say he had tried to made him proud, and I believe the character in that. Because the character of Loki has tried to end a threat in the only way he knows how, from how he was raised coupled with the intelligence he has. Remove the king of the Jotun and then eliminate the populace when they weren't expecting it. I'm not, by the way, suggesting I condone it, but to the character it makes sense. With the Bifrost having dealt such tremendous challenge, it would be eons before the Frost Giants would ever threaten any of the Nine Realms again, and as such he will of saved the people an fulfilled part of his duty as a King. To keep them safe from such dangers. Of course the Allfather sees that Loki has caused such chaos and destruction, annihilating a peoples and although it was Thor himself who broke the Rainbow Bridge, you can see the Allfather blames Loki for that too.
So Loki let's go and plunges into the cosmos in despair and probably more than a little depression and self-loathing.
Can you BLAME him? Hell no! He is at what is most likely the LOWEST point in his life.
Which then leads to the Avangers(Assemble). Where Loki is even more manipulative than before, taking control of other peoples minds and using this information to plot and plan and judge more of how his enemies are going to act and planning everything around that. For example, the whole trip to the Helicarrier.
Sadly, for him, his arrogance has grown so much that in the end he is defeated in this plan (some say he did it deliberately, we may or may not find out about that in a later year/films) and is taken back to Asgard.
Thor 2, Loki is still clearly angry with his family and isn't thrilled at being locked up in prison. Probably doubly so as there's gonna be things down there that he assisted in putting there. Not the bast mind set.
He then loses his mother, who from what we gather he still has deep affection for (again who can blame him, he's the only loving mother he's ever known) and is even denied going to her funeral because he is such a criminal that he isn't allowed to attend it. I'd also add as an EXTRA insult to the character, it's not any of his family or friends who tell him the news either, it's a random guard. Talk about insulting!
Then Thor comes looking for his help. Now we know from how the rest of the film goes that at SOME point they discuss and concoct the plan regarding Thor's hand. But the scene where they walk down the corridor together and Loki nearly gets them caught out, is wonderful. Because there's still this brotherly bond between them, it's stretched to it's limits sure, but there's no denying that the bond is there and there's a little playing off it. Cumulating with Thor slipping the cuffs on Loki. Hehe.
Another beautiful touch is how the Warriors Three and Sif, threaten Loki if he betrays Thor and Loki gets very tired of it quickly. These people used to be his friends, and briefly subjects, and yet they are perfectly willing to threaten to kill him outright for any hint of betrayal.
As the ship flies (On a side note I LOVE the shape of the Asgard boat-ship things!) and they escape it's again good to see the family banter, how it's changed from the first film into something much more broken and yet it could be restored though scared to a place it had been before.
'She wouldn't want us to fight!'
'Well she wouldn't exactly be shocked'
and that little smile between brothers. Something in those moments, on that boat, fix a few of the things that had shattered across the previous films. Not enough to bring them even CLOSE to being back to where they were. But closer to being just brothers again.
The ending of Thor 2 I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't seen it (I know that seems weird for a film nearly 2 years released but I hadn't seen it until a month or two ago) but I will say that once again we see more character development which will be VERY interesting to see how it goes in Thor 3: Ragnarok (I'm going to have to read up on the viking mythology for that one)
So yes we have a manipulative bastard in Loki. However he's completely believable in what he does because we can see the reasons why, the changes, the developments.
I'd even say the growing up.
Seriously! Go back and look at how Loki is in Thor 1, how he looks and acts. Although Asgardians are very very long lived (I don't think they provide an exact, but things could probably be guessed in a vague timeline regarding the war of the Frost Giants and how that wove with Midgard and it's history) but I'd say Loki's a young man in terms of maturity. Emotionally the sudden changing of his life strikes him hard and deep and scars as it happens, I'd put the emotional development at around 18-21 of our real human age range? A man by society, and yet hasn't quite gotten there yet (obviously I'm generalising and trying not to bias with the 'boys' I had the misfortune to go to school with) and the events in the films change who he could of been. Change how he deals with people and leaves us believing in the character for all of it.
So yes, that's my 1am ramble of an idea that wouldn't leave my brain alone.
Thank you for joining me and I hope you have a lovely evening!
So just as I'm trying to settle down for the night a little thought occurs to me, and then it just sits there and doesn't move. Doesn't do anything but sits and stews and I can't shift it.
That is tonight's blog I'm afraid, but it's a super interesting topic!
When I went to NineWorlds I went to a panel on 2 topics which were very interesting. Manipulative Bastards and Believable Clerics. An interesting combination but one that caught my curiosity enough to pull me out from my nervous con-newb state to go find it and have a listen. Both parts were REALLY awesome though I'll be honest the Believable Clerics bit has left me a lot to think about. Today's blog is a blending of thoughts about the two.
Loki in the Marvel Films is INCREDIBLY believable. Through an awesome combination of writing and acting, the character of Loki in Thor, Avengers and Thor 2 is really believable.
So to lead you where my brain was going this night I was just randomly watching things on Youtube and stumbled onto this music vid: Here Feel free to watch it now or later, either way I found it really interesting because the clips from the films gave my brain the insight it needed to come to another conclusion as to why I REALLY like the character of Loki.
He is believable.
Now I will admit I'm a little biased, I like the bad boy thing Loki has going, the intellectual superiority mixed with arrogance. However woven into that is a character with a history, a past, and even more importantly a PROGRESSION.
Because one of the things that really sunk in from the believable clerics talk was that when you're writing a character of faith you have to really have the character HAVING that faith, through whatever that character has grown through. Even if the character themselves resent it, it's development they've gone through.
Loki changes as a character, back in Thor 1 right at the start he's the younger sibling, over looked sure but he has a small group of friends who although don't love him the same way as Thor, love him as a brother in arms who is useful in a fight and they trust to fight alongside them.
Loki sees a slightly bigger picture when it comes to Thor's coronation and decides to pull a prank, a small and pretty harmless prank that would show the Allfather that Thor's brutish and unthinking ways aren't really the right thing for Asgard right now. But he doesn't expect things to go quite so out of hand. One thing leads to another and then they're on Jotuheim and suddenly war is very much on the horizon because what started out as a small thing, has blown up so much that Thor is banished.
Loki then finds himself with a situation that certainly wasn't what he planned. Sure he's glad the Allfather has noticed that Thor isn't suitable to rule yet and his banishment might be a bit harsh but it suddenly brings Loki into a higher position than he had in the days before, a much stronger chance at the throne promised to one of the brothers. A throne he most likely wants but knows it will be a while before he takes it. Yet the spanner in the works he couldn't prepare for was finding out he was not in fact a true son of Asgard, let alone of the parents who raised him.
This is the character development here, his whole world has been turned upside down and the scene in the Asgard Treasury is a beautiful testament to that. Loki's crying and screaming of rage all very believable feelings when you've just found out that what you have believed your whole life, has been a lie.
The rest of the Thor film then deals with the immediate result of the aftermath of that prank, that one sibling rivalry and joviality causing so much chaos and change in the lives of the royalty of Asgard. Loki changes as he tries to settle his feelings for his mother and father, who aren't biologically his parents. He tries to settle with the feelings of being descended from monsters, and how to stop them from hurting the Asgard people after Thor's upheaval of a long held 'peace'. His own desire to rule coupled with, in all honesty, his lack of knowledge in how to rule. It's clear that although Loki has the smarts, he doesn't have the experience and certainly not the people skills needed to rule in any way like the Allfather and so knowing that his subjects distrust him having to work harder to manipulate and change things around him so that his plans on how to deal with things go as planned. Trying to leave no errors for chance. And flubbing that too.
At the end of the film Loki tries to beseech the only father he has ever known to say he had tried to made him proud, and I believe the character in that. Because the character of Loki has tried to end a threat in the only way he knows how, from how he was raised coupled with the intelligence he has. Remove the king of the Jotun and then eliminate the populace when they weren't expecting it. I'm not, by the way, suggesting I condone it, but to the character it makes sense. With the Bifrost having dealt such tremendous challenge, it would be eons before the Frost Giants would ever threaten any of the Nine Realms again, and as such he will of saved the people an fulfilled part of his duty as a King. To keep them safe from such dangers. Of course the Allfather sees that Loki has caused such chaos and destruction, annihilating a peoples and although it was Thor himself who broke the Rainbow Bridge, you can see the Allfather blames Loki for that too.
So Loki let's go and plunges into the cosmos in despair and probably more than a little depression and self-loathing.
Can you BLAME him? Hell no! He is at what is most likely the LOWEST point in his life.
Which then leads to the Avangers(Assemble). Where Loki is even more manipulative than before, taking control of other peoples minds and using this information to plot and plan and judge more of how his enemies are going to act and planning everything around that. For example, the whole trip to the Helicarrier.
Sadly, for him, his arrogance has grown so much that in the end he is defeated in this plan (some say he did it deliberately, we may or may not find out about that in a later year/films) and is taken back to Asgard.
Thor 2, Loki is still clearly angry with his family and isn't thrilled at being locked up in prison. Probably doubly so as there's gonna be things down there that he assisted in putting there. Not the bast mind set.
He then loses his mother, who from what we gather he still has deep affection for (again who can blame him, he's the only loving mother he's ever known) and is even denied going to her funeral because he is such a criminal that he isn't allowed to attend it. I'd also add as an EXTRA insult to the character, it's not any of his family or friends who tell him the news either, it's a random guard. Talk about insulting!
Then Thor comes looking for his help. Now we know from how the rest of the film goes that at SOME point they discuss and concoct the plan regarding Thor's hand. But the scene where they walk down the corridor together and Loki nearly gets them caught out, is wonderful. Because there's still this brotherly bond between them, it's stretched to it's limits sure, but there's no denying that the bond is there and there's a little playing off it. Cumulating with Thor slipping the cuffs on Loki. Hehe.
Another beautiful touch is how the Warriors Three and Sif, threaten Loki if he betrays Thor and Loki gets very tired of it quickly. These people used to be his friends, and briefly subjects, and yet they are perfectly willing to threaten to kill him outright for any hint of betrayal.
As the ship flies (On a side note I LOVE the shape of the Asgard boat-ship things!) and they escape it's again good to see the family banter, how it's changed from the first film into something much more broken and yet it could be restored though scared to a place it had been before.
'She wouldn't want us to fight!'
'Well she wouldn't exactly be shocked'
and that little smile between brothers. Something in those moments, on that boat, fix a few of the things that had shattered across the previous films. Not enough to bring them even CLOSE to being back to where they were. But closer to being just brothers again.
The ending of Thor 2 I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't seen it (I know that seems weird for a film nearly 2 years released but I hadn't seen it until a month or two ago) but I will say that once again we see more character development which will be VERY interesting to see how it goes in Thor 3: Ragnarok (I'm going to have to read up on the viking mythology for that one)
So yes we have a manipulative bastard in Loki. However he's completely believable in what he does because we can see the reasons why, the changes, the developments.
I'd even say the growing up.
Seriously! Go back and look at how Loki is in Thor 1, how he looks and acts. Although Asgardians are very very long lived (I don't think they provide an exact, but things could probably be guessed in a vague timeline regarding the war of the Frost Giants and how that wove with Midgard and it's history) but I'd say Loki's a young man in terms of maturity. Emotionally the sudden changing of his life strikes him hard and deep and scars as it happens, I'd put the emotional development at around 18-21 of our real human age range? A man by society, and yet hasn't quite gotten there yet (obviously I'm generalising and trying not to bias with the 'boys' I had the misfortune to go to school with) and the events in the films change who he could of been. Change how he deals with people and leaves us believing in the character for all of it.
So yes, that's my 1am ramble of an idea that wouldn't leave my brain alone.
Thank you for joining me and I hope you have a lovely evening!
Monday, 10 August 2015
NineWorlds Convention 2015
Greetings one and all!
So, today I have come home from NineWorlds in the UK. My very first 'proper' convention. By 'proper' I mean the kind in the same hotel you're staying at sort.
It was for all sorts of geeky types, from your desktop RPG'ers, book readers, sci-fi show watchers, fantasy peoples, film peoples and everything inbetween or around.
It was bloody marvellous!
I'll start by saying I was at the hotel from Thursday - Monday. The theory was that arriving the day before the convention started would give us (me and my boyfriend) a chance to settle in before the activities started and miss some of the ensuing chaos that would be a bigger portion of the people arriving on Friday would be.
This was, as it turned out, to be a really neat idea. We got a vague idea of the layout of the ground floor, some of the rooms, and where food could be obtained (and learned one of the key lessons, that food was very expensive and limited in options unless you ventured out back into the mundane world to find a place that sold food, which was also very limited unless you wanted to hop on a bus for a 20 minute ride kinda deal) and got to have a good little evening opening session. Me and one of my friends went to what was supposed to be the blanket fort building to find no one where (we got there a touch early) and by the time things got swinging we were playing a board game (lots of fun) and listening to kids building the forts (noisy!) but it was still a nice way to start things and met lovely people whilst playing the game.
That was honestly one of the things I REALLY loved about the convention. So many lovely lovely people. People just like me who loved geeky things and didn't judge each other and were polite and nice and whatnot. The difference I noticed just between leaving this morning and by the time I'd gotten home was kinda sad really. The convention had been all kinds of bright and wonderful levels of energy that although did get tiring after a while (naps had to be taken occasionally for this little introvert) was also pretty relaxing. Everyone was pretty upbeat and colourful and smiling and ....yeah I'm just gushing again.
I saw there were loads of panels on offer and was kinda nervous about going to them, I wasn't sure as the times rolled around if they would be my thing or not. As such I only went to one 'proper' panel as it were but it was on Manipulative Bastards and Believable Clerics which was SUPER interesting, in both talks. I ended up enjoying the second WAY more than I thought I would. However the gentleman giving the talk was truly interested in what he was talking, wove in fantastic anecdotes from person life experiences, and was a genuine priest himself (even wearing his dog collar and a geeky shirt!) I found it so interesting and it gave me a lot to think about for if/when I ever need to write or play a cleric and even on writing about gods/deities in situations too. Really nifty stuff.
I actually went to a sing-a-long, I'd looked at it thinking it'd be a bloody good blast, and I was right! A Joss Whedon sing-a-long. Now I hadn't seen Dr Horribles Sing-a-long blog before so I sat through that listening with a small chuckle as some people jumped up the front of the room (some in cosplay too!) and acted out some small bits as the singing went along. (I watched it that evening and found it really interesting as well) and then it was Once More With Feeling! A set of songs I knew well! Singing along and suddenly a cosplayer as Spike walks through the aisle being all spot on character, and later a Giles too that make me grin and laugh. We even had the keyboardist lose his keyboard at one point and with a chuckle we asked 'Where do we go from here?' quite legitimately due to perfect cosmic timing!
I had a couple of bad instances, but they were pretty much all in my head so I did make use of the quiet rooms that were on offer, though I'd argue one of them didn't really seem all that good but then it was probably more my mindset at the time rather than anything else. Again the people there were super nice and I got back into a good mindset to carry on doing things.
OH! There were TONS of board games you could borrow and play with. I finally got to play a game of Pandemic, and one of the guys at 9dice was super kind to explain the rules to us as we kind of nodded wrapping our heads around it. I know we 'ran out of time' but I was impressive we'd gotten 2 cures produced and only had 3 outbreaks for our VERY FIRST GAME! It impressed me, I don't think it impressed the rest but then I'd heard how super hard the game was and that everyone loses most of their games so I knew we'd probably fail but what we did get to accomplish was awesome.
Thinking back over what I experienced I'm TOTALLY going next year and probably with a lot more confidence, especially as now I've been to one I know what I'm expecting and will be better prepared physically and mentally (like bringing some basics for food stuff, I missed chocolate so much.) I'll also probably go to more panels, and might even bring along cross stitch to keep me occupied during slower times or heck just to enjoy doing whilst sitting in the open areas, I will admit some vanity in that I like it when people 'ooh' at the stuff I've done (and really wish I'd thought to carry my cross stitch Loki with me in the back of my lanyard pouch from day one. Ah well) Knowing what I'd be going into next time will make things easier and even more relaxed and awesome I'm sure.
Either way. I had a blast and very much look forward to future conventions.
Because you know what? It was so unbelievably awesome to be completely accepted for who I was by so many others who were just like me. Even remembering that brings a smile to me.
OH! and the twitter love I got was awesome!
So to anyone reading this who went. YAY! It was awesome.
See you again next year.
Thank you very much for reading and have a great evening!
EDIT: Weblink for anyone interested! NineWorlds
So, today I have come home from NineWorlds in the UK. My very first 'proper' convention. By 'proper' I mean the kind in the same hotel you're staying at sort.
It was for all sorts of geeky types, from your desktop RPG'ers, book readers, sci-fi show watchers, fantasy peoples, film peoples and everything inbetween or around.
It was bloody marvellous!
I'll start by saying I was at the hotel from Thursday - Monday. The theory was that arriving the day before the convention started would give us (me and my boyfriend) a chance to settle in before the activities started and miss some of the ensuing chaos that would be a bigger portion of the people arriving on Friday would be.
This was, as it turned out, to be a really neat idea. We got a vague idea of the layout of the ground floor, some of the rooms, and where food could be obtained (and learned one of the key lessons, that food was very expensive and limited in options unless you ventured out back into the mundane world to find a place that sold food, which was also very limited unless you wanted to hop on a bus for a 20 minute ride kinda deal) and got to have a good little evening opening session. Me and one of my friends went to what was supposed to be the blanket fort building to find no one where (we got there a touch early) and by the time things got swinging we were playing a board game (lots of fun) and listening to kids building the forts (noisy!) but it was still a nice way to start things and met lovely people whilst playing the game.
That was honestly one of the things I REALLY loved about the convention. So many lovely lovely people. People just like me who loved geeky things and didn't judge each other and were polite and nice and whatnot. The difference I noticed just between leaving this morning and by the time I'd gotten home was kinda sad really. The convention had been all kinds of bright and wonderful levels of energy that although did get tiring after a while (naps had to be taken occasionally for this little introvert) was also pretty relaxing. Everyone was pretty upbeat and colourful and smiling and ....yeah I'm just gushing again.
I saw there were loads of panels on offer and was kinda nervous about going to them, I wasn't sure as the times rolled around if they would be my thing or not. As such I only went to one 'proper' panel as it were but it was on Manipulative Bastards and Believable Clerics which was SUPER interesting, in both talks. I ended up enjoying the second WAY more than I thought I would. However the gentleman giving the talk was truly interested in what he was talking, wove in fantastic anecdotes from person life experiences, and was a genuine priest himself (even wearing his dog collar and a geeky shirt!) I found it so interesting and it gave me a lot to think about for if/when I ever need to write or play a cleric and even on writing about gods/deities in situations too. Really nifty stuff.
I actually went to a sing-a-long, I'd looked at it thinking it'd be a bloody good blast, and I was right! A Joss Whedon sing-a-long. Now I hadn't seen Dr Horribles Sing-a-long blog before so I sat through that listening with a small chuckle as some people jumped up the front of the room (some in cosplay too!) and acted out some small bits as the singing went along. (I watched it that evening and found it really interesting as well) and then it was Once More With Feeling! A set of songs I knew well! Singing along and suddenly a cosplayer as Spike walks through the aisle being all spot on character, and later a Giles too that make me grin and laugh. We even had the keyboardist lose his keyboard at one point and with a chuckle we asked 'Where do we go from here?' quite legitimately due to perfect cosmic timing!
I had a couple of bad instances, but they were pretty much all in my head so I did make use of the quiet rooms that were on offer, though I'd argue one of them didn't really seem all that good but then it was probably more my mindset at the time rather than anything else. Again the people there were super nice and I got back into a good mindset to carry on doing things.
OH! There were TONS of board games you could borrow and play with. I finally got to play a game of Pandemic, and one of the guys at 9dice was super kind to explain the rules to us as we kind of nodded wrapping our heads around it. I know we 'ran out of time' but I was impressive we'd gotten 2 cures produced and only had 3 outbreaks for our VERY FIRST GAME! It impressed me, I don't think it impressed the rest but then I'd heard how super hard the game was and that everyone loses most of their games so I knew we'd probably fail but what we did get to accomplish was awesome.
Thinking back over what I experienced I'm TOTALLY going next year and probably with a lot more confidence, especially as now I've been to one I know what I'm expecting and will be better prepared physically and mentally (like bringing some basics for food stuff, I missed chocolate so much.) I'll also probably go to more panels, and might even bring along cross stitch to keep me occupied during slower times or heck just to enjoy doing whilst sitting in the open areas, I will admit some vanity in that I like it when people 'ooh' at the stuff I've done (and really wish I'd thought to carry my cross stitch Loki with me in the back of my lanyard pouch from day one. Ah well) Knowing what I'd be going into next time will make things easier and even more relaxed and awesome I'm sure.
Either way. I had a blast and very much look forward to future conventions.
Because you know what? It was so unbelievably awesome to be completely accepted for who I was by so many others who were just like me. Even remembering that brings a smile to me.
OH! and the twitter love I got was awesome!
So to anyone reading this who went. YAY! It was awesome.
See you again next year.
Thank you very much for reading and have a great evening!
EDIT: Weblink for anyone interested! NineWorlds
Thursday, 30 July 2015
Livestreaming
Greetings one and all!
So, I've done something I haven't done in a while this week.
Livestream.
It's been.... far too long since I last did any, I think it was back in the first month or two of the year when I did.
Since then I've gotten a better microphone and acquired what I need to stream console games. I can say without a doubt after 2 streams of Splatoon that it works beautifully.
On the other plus side, I mostly had a good time! (technical glitches aside)
What does that mean for me?
Probably a lot more livestreaming, it's certainly worked out to be a heck of a lot easier than streaming PC games! The software I'm using is on the whole a lot easier for streaming that OBS is (once I FINALLY found the blasted button to press to make the stream go live). I can understand why OBS (Open Broadcast Software) can be complicated, it's catering to PC's which are notorious for being finickity and kinda complicated. Where as my console software is just 'here's the input, where do you want output, you want commentary too? Cool, press this button here and you're off.
My potentia-plan right now is to stream at least 1 hour once a week. It might not seem much, but for me that'll be a good starting point and if I want to do more then that's awesome. What game I'll stream, so far I'm not sure, or games. I'm also considering 2 streams in a week period and playing alternate games on those days, possibly playing through a whole game from scratch so that the views can enjoy the stream with me.
Will I upload the streams to youtube?
Possibly. I'm pretty sure I can get my software to record and stream at the same time however it won't include the chat from the stream unless I record that separately somehow.
Lots of possibilities but you know what? I'm hopeful and kinda happy with how my streaming has gone this week and by limiting it to about an hour (probably some over) I'll stop myself from burning out too quickly as I get used to a very public and very live at the time system.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
So, I've done something I haven't done in a while this week.
Livestream.
It's been.... far too long since I last did any, I think it was back in the first month or two of the year when I did.
Since then I've gotten a better microphone and acquired what I need to stream console games. I can say without a doubt after 2 streams of Splatoon that it works beautifully.
On the other plus side, I mostly had a good time! (technical glitches aside)
What does that mean for me?
Probably a lot more livestreaming, it's certainly worked out to be a heck of a lot easier than streaming PC games! The software I'm using is on the whole a lot easier for streaming that OBS is (once I FINALLY found the blasted button to press to make the stream go live). I can understand why OBS (Open Broadcast Software) can be complicated, it's catering to PC's which are notorious for being finickity and kinda complicated. Where as my console software is just 'here's the input, where do you want output, you want commentary too? Cool, press this button here and you're off.
My potentia-plan right now is to stream at least 1 hour once a week. It might not seem much, but for me that'll be a good starting point and if I want to do more then that's awesome. What game I'll stream, so far I'm not sure, or games. I'm also considering 2 streams in a week period and playing alternate games on those days, possibly playing through a whole game from scratch so that the views can enjoy the stream with me.
Will I upload the streams to youtube?
Possibly. I'm pretty sure I can get my software to record and stream at the same time however it won't include the chat from the stream unless I record that separately somehow.
Lots of possibilities but you know what? I'm hopeful and kinda happy with how my streaming has gone this week and by limiting it to about an hour (probably some over) I'll stop myself from burning out too quickly as I get used to a very public and very live at the time system.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Saturday, 11 July 2015
My Favourite Moment From: The Avengers (Assemble)
Greetings one and all!
So, I've been, mulling this one for a little bit since re-watching The Avengers, or as us Brits know it Avengers Assemble (Because the modern public can't discern between the old British action flick The Avengers, and the modern Marvel superhero film).
Why have I been mulling it over?
Well, I wanted to work out how I was going to share with you one of my favourite moments. Now, when I first saw the film in the cinema I had some favourite moments then. Who can't argue the 'Puny God' and squeak that Loki gives out. Or the fight scene between Iron Man and Thor, with Captain America ending it. Oh! Or when Iron Man finishes the fight between Loki and Captain America in Germany.
Now, these moments are still really awesome to me but there's a line that stands out from Captain America that I find really sums up how WONDERFULLY written The Avengers is. How much attention there is to the little details that tell us SO much about a character whilst not actually telling us directly the fact.
Wanna know?
I hope so else I've written this for nothing!
It's when Captain America is getting himself geared up to chase after Thor who grabbed Loki from custody and Iron Man who shot off after them.
"There's only one God ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that"
When I first heard that line, it was a 'huh' moment.
Now to quickly give some context, I had not seen ANY of the Marvel Films that had been in the run up to this film. I was given only a couple of bits of information from my boyfriend (who had) which gave me a tiny bit of context, but not much. I'd asked what I needed to know and he'd provided a tidbit or two. I honestly forget what they were but they weren't much. Because he'd already seen the film, he knew in his fantastically geeky heart that I wouldn't need a lot.
I grew up at the end of the 80's and through the 90's, I knew the X-Men from the 90's cartoon, I knew who The Hulk was, I knew who Spiderman was. I didn't know who Captain America was (beyond 'he's a superhero representing America's values right?), Iron Man (I knew who played him and he'd been doing well for himself and fans liked him), I didn't know who Black Widow were or Hawkeye were. I knew of Thor (I like my mythologies and had seen posters) and knew of Nick Fury in a 'oh isn't Samuel L Jackson playing something badass in it?' but then again Samuel L Jackson doesn't often playing anything but a badass in stuff I've seen.
So I didn't walk in with loads of knowledge, enough that I wasn't a complete newb, but enough to get a bit of an outside perspective.
That line.
That line told me SO much about Captain America. It tells me in 1 line, 14 words, so much about him. Let me break it down.
First off, he calls the pilot/co-pilot Black Widow ma'am. A respectful term that doesn't presume anything about her, other than she's female. It doesn't presume she's married or not, got children or not, it presumes nothing but respect for her. He's not even knocking what she's said!
Secondly, and obviously the biggest, he believe in A God. A single God. So probably some form of Christianity, probably one of the major splits of the religion ( You know, after the big split of Protestant/Catholic) and yet he's not pressing that issue on the woman he's talking to. He's just stating his belief that there is a single God
Thirdly, that he's saying he's 'pretty sure' he doesn't dress like that. Yet I find myself thinking that once again he's not forcing the issue. He's just saying what his opinion is without making an issue of it. This is my belief ma'am and I'm gonna stand by it (now excuse me whilst I jump out of a flying plane)
So yeah, I'm gushing about the brilliance of a single line of dialogue in a film FILLED with awesome dialogue the doesn't everything it can to tell you ALL you need to know about the people who are in it, the characters, their dynamic, how their histories blend and that as a group they will do what they can to save the world. (obviously that last bit is once the attacks started) But I wanted to share with you all just how amazing I thought that one small line was and what it meant to me.
Now, if you'll excuse me, my Lego Loki looks like he wants to bust out of the display cabinet I've locked him away in.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
So, I've been, mulling this one for a little bit since re-watching The Avengers, or as us Brits know it Avengers Assemble (Because the modern public can't discern between the old British action flick The Avengers, and the modern Marvel superhero film).
Why have I been mulling it over?
Well, I wanted to work out how I was going to share with you one of my favourite moments. Now, when I first saw the film in the cinema I had some favourite moments then. Who can't argue the 'Puny God' and squeak that Loki gives out. Or the fight scene between Iron Man and Thor, with Captain America ending it. Oh! Or when Iron Man finishes the fight between Loki and Captain America in Germany.
Now, these moments are still really awesome to me but there's a line that stands out from Captain America that I find really sums up how WONDERFULLY written The Avengers is. How much attention there is to the little details that tell us SO much about a character whilst not actually telling us directly the fact.
Wanna know?
I hope so else I've written this for nothing!
It's when Captain America is getting himself geared up to chase after Thor who grabbed Loki from custody and Iron Man who shot off after them.
"There's only one God ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that"
When I first heard that line, it was a 'huh' moment.
Now to quickly give some context, I had not seen ANY of the Marvel Films that had been in the run up to this film. I was given only a couple of bits of information from my boyfriend (who had) which gave me a tiny bit of context, but not much. I'd asked what I needed to know and he'd provided a tidbit or two. I honestly forget what they were but they weren't much. Because he'd already seen the film, he knew in his fantastically geeky heart that I wouldn't need a lot.
I grew up at the end of the 80's and through the 90's, I knew the X-Men from the 90's cartoon, I knew who The Hulk was, I knew who Spiderman was. I didn't know who Captain America was (beyond 'he's a superhero representing America's values right?), Iron Man (I knew who played him and he'd been doing well for himself and fans liked him), I didn't know who Black Widow were or Hawkeye were. I knew of Thor (I like my mythologies and had seen posters) and knew of Nick Fury in a 'oh isn't Samuel L Jackson playing something badass in it?' but then again Samuel L Jackson doesn't often playing anything but a badass in stuff I've seen.
So I didn't walk in with loads of knowledge, enough that I wasn't a complete newb, but enough to get a bit of an outside perspective.
That line.
That line told me SO much about Captain America. It tells me in 1 line, 14 words, so much about him. Let me break it down.
First off, he calls the pilot/co-pilot Black Widow ma'am. A respectful term that doesn't presume anything about her, other than she's female. It doesn't presume she's married or not, got children or not, it presumes nothing but respect for her. He's not even knocking what she's said!
Secondly, and obviously the biggest, he believe in A God. A single God. So probably some form of Christianity, probably one of the major splits of the religion ( You know, after the big split of Protestant/Catholic) and yet he's not pressing that issue on the woman he's talking to. He's just stating his belief that there is a single God
Thirdly, that he's saying he's 'pretty sure' he doesn't dress like that. Yet I find myself thinking that once again he's not forcing the issue. He's just saying what his opinion is without making an issue of it. This is my belief ma'am and I'm gonna stand by it (now excuse me whilst I jump out of a flying plane)
So yeah, I'm gushing about the brilliance of a single line of dialogue in a film FILLED with awesome dialogue the doesn't everything it can to tell you ALL you need to know about the people who are in it, the characters, their dynamic, how their histories blend and that as a group they will do what they can to save the world. (obviously that last bit is once the attacks started) But I wanted to share with you all just how amazing I thought that one small line was and what it meant to me.
Now, if you'll excuse me, my Lego Loki looks like he wants to bust out of the display cabinet I've locked him away in.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Thursday, 9 July 2015
Thoughts Followup: Splatoon
Greetings one and all!
So last time I wrote, I blogged about how I'd kinda fallen in a strange kind of love with Splatoon.
I've pumped a fair few more hours into the game now
One moment
20 hours and 59 minutes I'm up to now.
Considering the kind of game that Splatoon is, this really surprises me in some ways and really doesn't surprise me in others.
Seeing as I bought the game a week after release I really expected to already be behind when it came to the online multiplayer and yet there were always people with a lower level than myself. So far you start at level 1 and can get up to level 20. The first couple of levels progress very quickly so that you can unlock a few more weapons rather than just the basic shooter. Then things start to slow down some and as of the moment I think I'm about level 14ish? (I'm not gonna check, sorry)
Which means all the level 20 people I was playing with and against when I was level 7 had been playing FAR more Splatoon than I had and yet back then I was kicking some ass. Not so much in the multiplayer.
I participated in the recent Splatfest! Here in the UK (or possibly whole of Europe, I've no idea how they decided they were gonna break up the world into chunks with different questions) we got the choice of supporting wither 'Rock' or 'Pop'. I went for Rock, I like both (not so much modern Pop but a fair chunk of 80's pop was AWESOME) and in the grand scheme of things after the inky dust settled it turned out more people had gone for Rock anyway.
Considering quite a few matches I was in my team had to face another team of Rock supporters because there wasn't enough Pop ones at the time. It was a bit of a no-brainer.
Funnily enough speaking of that, there was a bit of mis-matching going on with the Splatfest.
Some poor person, whoever they were, ended up against 3 of us Rockers. YUP the matchmaking failed so badly that it was a 1 vs 3 match. I went in with the thought that I wouldn't go in and try and knock them off cos it was so unfair, I'd just potter around inking the place up and go for as much cover as possible. They decided to try and wipe me out, I defended myself, then continued inking up. At one point they were holding out really well. Unfortunately for them we were better.
That said, the amount of matches where someone just stood still and did nothing really got on my nerves.
OH! what's worse? The people who walk around slowly inking as many walls as possible. Inking walls does nothing unless you need to climb said walls, this one person though was inking every wall they could get ink to stick on which really effected the whole team.
Grr, moan moan.
Rather more pleasantly I finished off the Single Player and found that the final boss took me a fair few goes. I never completely ran out of lives on the thing but it was tough! The premise was simple enough once I worked THAT out, but the fact you had to get your timing just right amongst chaos made it quite the challenge. I enjoyed it!
1 more slight niggle. I know that one of my good friends would really dig playing this game. The nutiness and neat art style are totally their thing. However they probably won't be able to play the game due to a nerve problem in their hand. I'm planning to record myself playing through the bosses in the next few days and will upload that for your and their delight. So keep an eye out for that!
Finally I will say that with near enough 21 hours plugged into the game I still find it quite fun. I've yet to do any of the Ranked Battles but that's because I know I'm not THAT good at this game. But whilst Nintendo still have the friendly battles I'll still play some multiplayer from time to time, and probably next time I play it'll be time to try out a new weapon. Whilst the base roller USED to be an awesome powerhouse people have been working out the balance and can now come back and kick my ass in ways that seem quite unfair (Though I'm pretty sure they're not, those people are just better than me)
So yes, I'd say it's still worth a blast and good for a giggle!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
So last time I wrote, I blogged about how I'd kinda fallen in a strange kind of love with Splatoon.
I've pumped a fair few more hours into the game now
One moment
20 hours and 59 minutes I'm up to now.
Considering the kind of game that Splatoon is, this really surprises me in some ways and really doesn't surprise me in others.
Seeing as I bought the game a week after release I really expected to already be behind when it came to the online multiplayer and yet there were always people with a lower level than myself. So far you start at level 1 and can get up to level 20. The first couple of levels progress very quickly so that you can unlock a few more weapons rather than just the basic shooter. Then things start to slow down some and as of the moment I think I'm about level 14ish? (I'm not gonna check, sorry)
Which means all the level 20 people I was playing with and against when I was level 7 had been playing FAR more Splatoon than I had and yet back then I was kicking some ass. Not so much in the multiplayer.
I participated in the recent Splatfest! Here in the UK (or possibly whole of Europe, I've no idea how they decided they were gonna break up the world into chunks with different questions) we got the choice of supporting wither 'Rock' or 'Pop'. I went for Rock, I like both (not so much modern Pop but a fair chunk of 80's pop was AWESOME) and in the grand scheme of things after the inky dust settled it turned out more people had gone for Rock anyway.
Considering quite a few matches I was in my team had to face another team of Rock supporters because there wasn't enough Pop ones at the time. It was a bit of a no-brainer.
Funnily enough speaking of that, there was a bit of mis-matching going on with the Splatfest.
Some poor person, whoever they were, ended up against 3 of us Rockers. YUP the matchmaking failed so badly that it was a 1 vs 3 match. I went in with the thought that I wouldn't go in and try and knock them off cos it was so unfair, I'd just potter around inking the place up and go for as much cover as possible. They decided to try and wipe me out, I defended myself, then continued inking up. At one point they were holding out really well. Unfortunately for them we were better.
That said, the amount of matches where someone just stood still and did nothing really got on my nerves.
OH! what's worse? The people who walk around slowly inking as many walls as possible. Inking walls does nothing unless you need to climb said walls, this one person though was inking every wall they could get ink to stick on which really effected the whole team.
Grr, moan moan.
Rather more pleasantly I finished off the Single Player and found that the final boss took me a fair few goes. I never completely ran out of lives on the thing but it was tough! The premise was simple enough once I worked THAT out, but the fact you had to get your timing just right amongst chaos made it quite the challenge. I enjoyed it!
1 more slight niggle. I know that one of my good friends would really dig playing this game. The nutiness and neat art style are totally their thing. However they probably won't be able to play the game due to a nerve problem in their hand. I'm planning to record myself playing through the bosses in the next few days and will upload that for your and their delight. So keep an eye out for that!
Finally I will say that with near enough 21 hours plugged into the game I still find it quite fun. I've yet to do any of the Ranked Battles but that's because I know I'm not THAT good at this game. But whilst Nintendo still have the friendly battles I'll still play some multiplayer from time to time, and probably next time I play it'll be time to try out a new weapon. Whilst the base roller USED to be an awesome powerhouse people have been working out the balance and can now come back and kick my ass in ways that seem quite unfair (Though I'm pretty sure they're not, those people are just better than me)
So yes, I'd say it's still worth a blast and good for a giggle!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Monday, 15 June 2015
Magic Thoughts: Splatoon
Greetings one and all!
Well, rather than blather on about it being a
while. I wanna share something quite fun.
Splatoon.
I didn't get it on launch as I wasn't too sure if
I'd like it or not. Sure it was a fun shooter but would it hold my
enjoyment?
Well. I'm 4 hours and a half in and I think it
will.
Splatoon for any who haven't seen it yet is a
shooter by Nintendo.
Nintendo? Aye.
Shooter? Aye
Nintendo came out with a shooter? Yup
It's also mostly multiplayer focused.
Okay okay don't faint, I was pretty sceptical too.
That's why I didn't get on launch however I did grab it a week later
and I can get why people whose opinions I think are alright have been
giving the game praise. It's fun running around small arenas on teams
of four covering as much ground and your enemies in splatty paint in
contrasting bright colours for a few minutes at a time and then you
win depending on which team has painted the most ground.
Yup. That means that although you can cream the
other team members, it's not the focus and I will say that this was a
pretty damn spiffy way of Nintendo to go about doing a multiplayer
shooter. There's so many which are purely based on how many of the
other team you've wiped out it's refreshing to see one that isn't.
That said as I typed that last paragraph I was
strongly reminded of why I liked Team Fortress 2 so much. My
favourite gamemode in that is Payload. Get the bomb into the enemies
base. I was never a fan of the 'capture all the points' or the 'KILL
EVERYONE' modes. I quite liked the 'Capture the Flag' one but my
heart was really in the Payload.
Which comes to another point I want to raise.
I'm not a huge fan of multiplayer shooters. I'm
also not very good at them on the whole either making it even less
fun.
Splatoon seems to acknowledge that the people
likely to buy this AREN'T going to be the worlds best and as such, it
gives you a basic premise 'PAINT EVERYTHING' and takes away the
ability to scream and shout at each other, gives you a level and
tells you 'have at it' and I like that.
I also like the single player, it's fun and bright
and joyful and also gets you used to the very basic principals of the
game and it has platforming too! Well it's a Nintendo game so there
was gonna be some wasn't there. (Note this is not a complaint)
So yeah. I'm enjoying the game so far and I'm
gonna play some more tomorrow. I'm only playing in about 2 hours
splurts though because of my 1 complaint with the game. It uses the
WiiU Controller. Which obviously it should, however after about 2
hours my arms start to ache a little as it's a bit heavy. Guess my
wimpy little arm's aren't ready for a marathon of Splatoon yet.
I'll get there!
That's
all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Have a lovely evening!
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
Comments
Greetings one and all!
In a recent discussion with a friend, a thought came to mind.
I like it when I receive comments.
I REALLY like it when I receive comments.
Why?
Well.
When you get a comment you know for sure that not only did someone take a look, but they were interested enough to actually engage with you ABOUT that.
That thought makes me smile.
I hope I'll get more comments on my blog or on my youtube video's in the future.
Now, before I sign off all happy like, I'm WELL aware that the comments section of youtube can be a cesspit of hatred, bile, and general asshattery. I'm not 'big' enough or 'important' enough to garner that kind of attention. I'd probably be quite happy if I never got that big to get that kind of attention. But then, if I DO start getting that kind of nasty stuff coming my way?
Oh well.
I'll deal with it then.
Have a lovely evening all!
In a recent discussion with a friend, a thought came to mind.
I like it when I receive comments.
I REALLY like it when I receive comments.
Why?
Well.
When you get a comment you know for sure that not only did someone take a look, but they were interested enough to actually engage with you ABOUT that.
That thought makes me smile.
I hope I'll get more comments on my blog or on my youtube video's in the future.
Now, before I sign off all happy like, I'm WELL aware that the comments section of youtube can be a cesspit of hatred, bile, and general asshattery. I'm not 'big' enough or 'important' enough to garner that kind of attention. I'd probably be quite happy if I never got that big to get that kind of attention. But then, if I DO start getting that kind of nasty stuff coming my way?
Oh well.
I'll deal with it then.
Have a lovely evening all!
Sunday, 11 January 2015
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Greetings one and all!
During the Steam Winter Sale one of my friends did a really awesome thing.
They bought me a game.
That game, was Crypt of the Necrodancer.
Now, I'd added it to my wish list not too long before it was acquired for me because I quite liked the idea of it. I'd barely seen any gaming videos OF the game, but the idea caught my brain and left a lingering idea that this was both a very daft but possibly very cool idea.
Today I installed and played some of it.
As of writing this, Saturday 10/01/15 I've only played 35 minutes of the game.
I was right. It's very daft and very cool.
It's also bloody hard!
It's been a long time since I really played any rhythm based games, I believe the last one I did with any sincerity was Elite Beat Agents... and although it was brilliant I did have a few issues with certain songs note QUITE hitting the beat with the touches. Just... so very close but off enough for me to avoid a perfect on certain tracks and thus driving me up the wall.
This one?
Well...
Crypt of the Necrodancer isn't a full release. It's in ... alpha or beta, I forget which one the game told me and that means there's room for things to change. That's cool! The game is very cool. I'm not doing TOO bad, as I'm still getting used to the mechanics and how the enemies move (VERY important in game) however on that first level I can't quite get into the rhythm of tapping my arrow key in time with the beat and CONTINUOUSLY tapping with the beat.
This is an odd sensation when the game is laid out like a rouge-like and my brain naturally wants me to stop and give the approaching enemies a quick look over and assessment however if you wanna keep that multiplier up then you have GOT to keep moving.
So I go around in little circles, or back and forth, to keep that beat going.
Which then distracts me from the oncoming enemies and keeping in time with their particular move sets.
Which leads to death.
It's a learning curve I most certainly was NOT ready for!
And you know what?
I'm REALLY loving it.
Also everyone seems to have forgotten that this game does in fact have some story to it!
It's right there in the opening cinematic!
I like it.
And I will be playing more of it!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
During the Steam Winter Sale one of my friends did a really awesome thing.
They bought me a game.
That game, was Crypt of the Necrodancer.
Now, I'd added it to my wish list not too long before it was acquired for me because I quite liked the idea of it. I'd barely seen any gaming videos OF the game, but the idea caught my brain and left a lingering idea that this was both a very daft but possibly very cool idea.
Today I installed and played some of it.
As of writing this, Saturday 10/01/15 I've only played 35 minutes of the game.
I was right. It's very daft and very cool.
It's also bloody hard!
It's been a long time since I really played any rhythm based games, I believe the last one I did with any sincerity was Elite Beat Agents... and although it was brilliant I did have a few issues with certain songs note QUITE hitting the beat with the touches. Just... so very close but off enough for me to avoid a perfect on certain tracks and thus driving me up the wall.
This one?
Well...
Crypt of the Necrodancer isn't a full release. It's in ... alpha or beta, I forget which one the game told me and that means there's room for things to change. That's cool! The game is very cool. I'm not doing TOO bad, as I'm still getting used to the mechanics and how the enemies move (VERY important in game) however on that first level I can't quite get into the rhythm of tapping my arrow key in time with the beat and CONTINUOUSLY tapping with the beat.
This is an odd sensation when the game is laid out like a rouge-like and my brain naturally wants me to stop and give the approaching enemies a quick look over and assessment however if you wanna keep that multiplier up then you have GOT to keep moving.
So I go around in little circles, or back and forth, to keep that beat going.
Which then distracts me from the oncoming enemies and keeping in time with their particular move sets.
Which leads to death.
It's a learning curve I most certainly was NOT ready for!
And you know what?
I'm REALLY loving it.
Also everyone seems to have forgotten that this game does in fact have some story to it!
It's right there in the opening cinematic!
I like it.
And I will be playing more of it!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Saturday, 10 January 2015
Out of the darkness
Greetings one and all!
Out of the darkness cometh a new player to the youtubes!
Into the light of the online plethora of youtubers (myself included) comes someone with a wit that is sharp, a humour that is varied and, so far, two puppets to give their distinct views on stuff.
I present:
RUGGANOID
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCn9O4ANAF72TCJX-TyFEqw
Seriously people, go check out their stuff. It's better than mine.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Out of the darkness cometh a new player to the youtubes!
Into the light of the online plethora of youtubers (myself included) comes someone with a wit that is sharp, a humour that is varied and, so far, two puppets to give their distinct views on stuff.
I present:
RUGGANOID
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCn9O4ANAF72TCJX-TyFEqw
Seriously people, go check out their stuff. It's better than mine.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Friday, 9 January 2015
Mind boggling weirdness
Greetings one and all!
Something that's been bugging me for ... at least the last 6 to 10 months is just how much of my stuff sucks.
It's nothing specific. It's just sometimes after recording I start editing it to be ready for going onto youtube and I just ... I'm not feeling it. It's not brilliant, it might have some funny moments but the thing as a whole just doesn't ... feel as good as it should?
I realise that trying to explain this with words is like trying to quantify love, or beauty. Though this is just like trying to pin down why a poem just doesn't quite work. You know that there's the potential there, but it's just not .....quite.....right.
I realise that the old adage that you are your own worst critic is completly right and that as the stuff I've recorded is still good stuff I should release it anyway. Hell I chuckle at some points on a video or two I've got waiting to be edited and uploaded.
I just haven't...because of this niggling feeling that it's not quite right.
I will get over this feeling and upload them before long, and if anyone has any idea as to how to tweak the ones that get uplaoded so they actually ARE hitting that....thing, please let me know.
But thi sis why I keep having pauses or breaks in uploading.
Another blog to go up tomorrow for those interested as I wanna give a shoutout to a friend whose started and totally deserves more likes/views/subscribers and the like because they're awesome.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Something that's been bugging me for ... at least the last 6 to 10 months is just how much of my stuff sucks.
It's nothing specific. It's just sometimes after recording I start editing it to be ready for going onto youtube and I just ... I'm not feeling it. It's not brilliant, it might have some funny moments but the thing as a whole just doesn't ... feel as good as it should?
I realise that trying to explain this with words is like trying to quantify love, or beauty. Though this is just like trying to pin down why a poem just doesn't quite work. You know that there's the potential there, but it's just not .....quite.....right.
I realise that the old adage that you are your own worst critic is completly right and that as the stuff I've recorded is still good stuff I should release it anyway. Hell I chuckle at some points on a video or two I've got waiting to be edited and uploaded.
I just haven't...because of this niggling feeling that it's not quite right.
I will get over this feeling and upload them before long, and if anyone has any idea as to how to tweak the ones that get uplaoded so they actually ARE hitting that....thing, please let me know.
But thi sis why I keep having pauses or breaks in uploading.
Another blog to go up tomorrow for those interested as I wanna give a shoutout to a friend whose started and totally deserves more likes/views/subscribers and the like because they're awesome.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Friday, 2 January 2015
On Piano's Decline
Greetings one and all!
I've noticed something in the last few days.
I seem to have stumbled over more than a couple of articles bemoaning the lack of piano playing kids in this modern age.
Now... when reading said articles I notice that most of that pointing finger of blame is pointed right at how overwhelmed with electronics the modern world is, and how no kids want to sit and play a real piano with it's variable noises depending on how hard the key is pressed.
Yet... there seems to be ONE key point all of these articles have avoided.
Piano's are loud.
I realise that this is surely obvious but whether you've got a Grand Piano or a standup. Piano's are loud instruments.
Far louder than a recorder, or a violin. Maybe not as loud as a set of drums mind you but loud nonetheless.
Now yes all of these articles state that kids are much more likely to play a musical electric keyboard rather than a piano and how it doesn't compare.
I'd agree, it DOESN'T compare.
But you know what an electric keyboard has that a real piano doesn't?
A headphone slot.
Which is far as I'm concerned is the REAL reason kid's aren't playing the piano anymore.
Well, that and price. A real piano is sodding expensive to buy in the first place, expensive to maintain and even more expensive to move. The kids whose parents aren't minted, or live in a property where the nieghbours can't hear a piano at all hours would be more likely to look towards an electric keyboard than a piano.
And as my parents and grandparents used to drum into me when *I* played instruments as a kid.
You've gotta practise. (which funnily enough means you have to have ACCESS to said instrument at all times of the week incase it's decided for you that now is practise time, or you're in the mood)
Sorry the ranting today, I just needed to get it off of my chest.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
(Oh for reference, through my school years I had lessons on: recorder, violin, clarinet. Never had piano but thought about it. My nan (currently in her 80's) STILL plays and has violin lessons as has my whole life)
I've noticed something in the last few days.
I seem to have stumbled over more than a couple of articles bemoaning the lack of piano playing kids in this modern age.
Now... when reading said articles I notice that most of that pointing finger of blame is pointed right at how overwhelmed with electronics the modern world is, and how no kids want to sit and play a real piano with it's variable noises depending on how hard the key is pressed.
Yet... there seems to be ONE key point all of these articles have avoided.
Piano's are loud.
I realise that this is surely obvious but whether you've got a Grand Piano or a standup. Piano's are loud instruments.
Far louder than a recorder, or a violin. Maybe not as loud as a set of drums mind you but loud nonetheless.
Now yes all of these articles state that kids are much more likely to play a musical electric keyboard rather than a piano and how it doesn't compare.
I'd agree, it DOESN'T compare.
But you know what an electric keyboard has that a real piano doesn't?
A headphone slot.
Which is far as I'm concerned is the REAL reason kid's aren't playing the piano anymore.
Well, that and price. A real piano is sodding expensive to buy in the first place, expensive to maintain and even more expensive to move. The kids whose parents aren't minted, or live in a property where the nieghbours can't hear a piano at all hours would be more likely to look towards an electric keyboard than a piano.
And as my parents and grandparents used to drum into me when *I* played instruments as a kid.
You've gotta practise. (which funnily enough means you have to have ACCESS to said instrument at all times of the week incase it's decided for you that now is practise time, or you're in the mood)
Sorry the ranting today, I just needed to get it off of my chest.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
(Oh for reference, through my school years I had lessons on: recorder, violin, clarinet. Never had piano but thought about it. My nan (currently in her 80's) STILL plays and has violin lessons as has my whole life)
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Something...odd
Greetings one and all!
I noticed something very odd today.
I seem to, so far, end up with consistantly more views of my blogs than my videos.
Now yes, I realise that part of the problem with my video's is that I don't really release many.
Yet... the blogs STILL get more views in comparison.
I'm probably not going to give up doing videos, despite it looking like I have at the moment, I just genuinely haven't felt the... something... that tells me inside that today is a day I'm going to make a good video.
I do have some planned. Like finishing Spyro 1 for example.
I also have an end of year video planned but that one's gonna take some making and it'll be interesting to see how that turns out... speaking of I might need to start working on that now actually.
Regardless.
I simply spotted that my view count for blogs is higher per blog than my videos.
Not quite too sure why, and not sure if I'm even going to try and work that one out.
Just thought I'd share a little thing that popped into my head not 5 minutes ago.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
I noticed something very odd today.
I seem to, so far, end up with consistantly more views of my blogs than my videos.
Now yes, I realise that part of the problem with my video's is that I don't really release many.
Yet... the blogs STILL get more views in comparison.
I'm probably not going to give up doing videos, despite it looking like I have at the moment, I just genuinely haven't felt the... something... that tells me inside that today is a day I'm going to make a good video.
I do have some planned. Like finishing Spyro 1 for example.
I also have an end of year video planned but that one's gonna take some making and it'll be interesting to see how that turns out... speaking of I might need to start working on that now actually.
Regardless.
I simply spotted that my view count for blogs is higher per blog than my videos.
Not quite too sure why, and not sure if I'm even going to try and work that one out.
Just thought I'd share a little thing that popped into my head not 5 minutes ago.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Thursday, 30 October 2014
NaNoWriMo and me
Greetings one and all!
Today, I'm gonna write about my thoughts on NaNoWriMo and what it means to me.
First off, for those not in the know NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.
From my understanding it started years ago as a writing challenge to write a novel of 50,000 words in length by tackling it in dayly chunks of about 1,667 words from Nov 1 to Nov 30.
Obviously that's a lot.
Now, in the past I've said I'd give it a go and I think my record was about 3000 words over a couple of weeks. I've just not been able to settle down with an idea and roll with it for the whole month.
Am I going to try again this year?
Well, I think this year I'm going to just try and WRITE something every day. Regardless what it is, whether it's tied into something else, a random idea or a whole story based plot. Or even just a re-write of something I've written before.
Why?
To encourage myself to get BACK into writing. By writing something every day, regardless of length, it'll start to bring back a habbit I've sadly gotten out of and keep [i]saying[/i] I'll get back into but just seem not to actually do.
(That said at the time of writing this blog post, this is my 3rd in a row so something's obviously going right in my head!)
So yeah. Whilst there are people I know who are going to give it an honest go, I'm going to challenge myself to write SOMETHING every day of November. Whether that is in an online typed document or on a notepad that ends up tucked in a drawer somewhere.
I might even say how it goes, we'll see :)
Wish me luck!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Today, I'm gonna write about my thoughts on NaNoWriMo and what it means to me.
First off, for those not in the know NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.
From my understanding it started years ago as a writing challenge to write a novel of 50,000 words in length by tackling it in dayly chunks of about 1,667 words from Nov 1 to Nov 30.
Obviously that's a lot.
Now, in the past I've said I'd give it a go and I think my record was about 3000 words over a couple of weeks. I've just not been able to settle down with an idea and roll with it for the whole month.
Am I going to try again this year?
Well, I think this year I'm going to just try and WRITE something every day. Regardless what it is, whether it's tied into something else, a random idea or a whole story based plot. Or even just a re-write of something I've written before.
Why?
To encourage myself to get BACK into writing. By writing something every day, regardless of length, it'll start to bring back a habbit I've sadly gotten out of and keep [i]saying[/i] I'll get back into but just seem not to actually do.
(That said at the time of writing this blog post, this is my 3rd in a row so something's obviously going right in my head!)
So yeah. Whilst there are people I know who are going to give it an honest go, I'm going to challenge myself to write SOMETHING every day of November. Whether that is in an online typed document or on a notepad that ends up tucked in a drawer somewhere.
I might even say how it goes, we'll see :)
Wish me luck!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Harvest Moon
Greetings one and all!
Just a fore-note.
I started this blog post several months ago but never wrote anything beyond the opening and the closing which I'd just copied and pasted from the rest of my blogs.
Since then this topic has been milling around in my brain on and off and driving me nuts.
Why?
Because I overthought the issue.
I thought about how I wanted to write this blog, where to start, where to end. Which games from the Harvest Moon franchise to include, which games that I've played to mention. Any specific game mechanics or story points I wanted to go over.
Which just lead to more delays and more worrying over it all. So fresh off of writing my last blog post about my brain being weird on writing, I thought that it was about time I just got over myself and wrote this blog.
SO!
TLDR: I started it a while ago, never finished due to my brain being weird.
Harvest Moon.
For those not in the know this is a series that started off on the SNES back when that was a thing and is a farming simulator.
Anyone trying to bring the game Farming Simulator 20xx into this conversation will be slapped with a wet fish.
You boot up the game and from the cinematic you learn you are a young man sent away by his parents (mother is tearful) to run a farm. Through the help of the local townsfolk (2 screens away and one of them is very small) you learn how to turn the run down weed filled farm into a place your proud of!
You can grow crops! Raise animals! Even get married and have babies! Or not and woo all the girls into loving you and get an ending where they all chase you.
Yes. This game has an end, 2 and a half years after you start. (I'll admit I had to look this up as I'd forgotten how long and thought it was 3 years) Once that time is up your parents come back and the game is over, you get to enjoy some ending cutscenes depending on if you have achieved certain criteria in the game.
I'm not going into them, I was quite happy with the lot I could get when I played it.
So why do I ramble about this game?
I really enjoyed it.
It was short enough to keep you running around trying to get everything done in the time you had, for that money doesn't grow on trees and if you want to be able to extend your house you need the money! Want that money? Gotta grow those crops or raise those animals or both! Want that wife? Well you better make sure to give her lots of gifts and do NOT make a mess of her specific festival related activity, oh and don't dance with the wrong girl... that just makes a whole mess of things.
So yeah, sort, fun, to the point and well polished.
I've played several Harvest Moon games since then, and I've never enjoyed them anywhere NEAR as much as this first one.
I think the first problem is that they seem FAR too long and laborious, the towns you interact with are so much bigger and feel much more restrictive in what you can do, and the wilderness areas are so very big that you have to unlock certain areas by getting so far with your farm.
Now... I remember in the first Harvest Moon that there was a cave you couldn't get to until the first winter, and another area you couldn't access until you got the upgraded axe because there was a tree stump in your way.
Well. That seems so much nicer than say blocking off whole features of the game (mining) until you've upgraded the whole TOWN so many times AND by a certain point. Oh and it would help if your animals won certain competitions but we won't tell you the best way to do this despite us insisting we have a fantastic in game help feature (Seriously, this thing doesn't tell you WHAT you feed the chickens and you have to actually go to the next day before the game goes 'oh you need to feed them, here it's this, and yes they missed a days feed because we weren't gonna tell you.)
I ramble.
Again.
Because of the want to play a Harvest Moon game I nipped into town and grabbed a 2nd hand copy of Harvest Moon 3D A New Beginning. And though I've been trying to slog through it, I've basically put the game down and probably won't be picking it up again soon. The mention above regarding help function which is pretty much useless? That's from this game. I'm in autumn in that game and getting fed up with the animal festivals because I'm not winning them despite doing everything I believe I can to get the animals 'love' for me as high as possible. Also the same with the crop festivals. I mean how much sodding fertilizer do you have to pour on this stuff (100g a bag btw!) before I win a damn festival. That stuff isn't cheap!
Also the only way to open the new areas is to have a new person move into town, meaning you have to build them a home, and then you have to play hunt the song sheet. Then hit tree stumps in colour coded note relation to the song and THEN you get a brief cut scene showing something blowing up and OMG new area...
Yeah no... this isn't what I wanted from a Harvest Moon game.
I think I'm just gonna give up on the modern ones and just replay the SNES one as that seems to keep it to the point, and although smaller, I find it works.
That said.
Whilst thinking about Harvest Moon I did a couple of searches on the net for PC Harvest Moon-esque games and came across this following upcoming game:
http://stardewvalley.net/
I'm following that and fully intend to look into it when it's released.
Why?
Because I think it's gonna get that right blend between Harvest Moon, and the current love for games like Terraria. Hopefully without going over the top.
Because you know what? Some games are BETTER for being shorter.
Well, that's my ramble over with, thank you if you've managed to stick with me all the way through to the bottom.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Just a fore-note.
I started this blog post several months ago but never wrote anything beyond the opening and the closing which I'd just copied and pasted from the rest of my blogs.
Since then this topic has been milling around in my brain on and off and driving me nuts.
Why?
Because I overthought the issue.
I thought about how I wanted to write this blog, where to start, where to end. Which games from the Harvest Moon franchise to include, which games that I've played to mention. Any specific game mechanics or story points I wanted to go over.
Which just lead to more delays and more worrying over it all. So fresh off of writing my last blog post about my brain being weird on writing, I thought that it was about time I just got over myself and wrote this blog.
SO!
TLDR: I started it a while ago, never finished due to my brain being weird.
Harvest Moon.
For those not in the know this is a series that started off on the SNES back when that was a thing and is a farming simulator.
Anyone trying to bring the game Farming Simulator 20xx into this conversation will be slapped with a wet fish.
You boot up the game and from the cinematic you learn you are a young man sent away by his parents (mother is tearful) to run a farm. Through the help of the local townsfolk (2 screens away and one of them is very small) you learn how to turn the run down weed filled farm into a place your proud of!
You can grow crops! Raise animals! Even get married and have babies! Or not and woo all the girls into loving you and get an ending where they all chase you.
Yes. This game has an end, 2 and a half years after you start. (I'll admit I had to look this up as I'd forgotten how long and thought it was 3 years) Once that time is up your parents come back and the game is over, you get to enjoy some ending cutscenes depending on if you have achieved certain criteria in the game.
I'm not going into them, I was quite happy with the lot I could get when I played it.
So why do I ramble about this game?
I really enjoyed it.
It was short enough to keep you running around trying to get everything done in the time you had, for that money doesn't grow on trees and if you want to be able to extend your house you need the money! Want that money? Gotta grow those crops or raise those animals or both! Want that wife? Well you better make sure to give her lots of gifts and do NOT make a mess of her specific festival related activity, oh and don't dance with the wrong girl... that just makes a whole mess of things.
So yeah, sort, fun, to the point and well polished.
I've played several Harvest Moon games since then, and I've never enjoyed them anywhere NEAR as much as this first one.
I think the first problem is that they seem FAR too long and laborious, the towns you interact with are so much bigger and feel much more restrictive in what you can do, and the wilderness areas are so very big that you have to unlock certain areas by getting so far with your farm.
Now... I remember in the first Harvest Moon that there was a cave you couldn't get to until the first winter, and another area you couldn't access until you got the upgraded axe because there was a tree stump in your way.
Well. That seems so much nicer than say blocking off whole features of the game (mining) until you've upgraded the whole TOWN so many times AND by a certain point. Oh and it would help if your animals won certain competitions but we won't tell you the best way to do this despite us insisting we have a fantastic in game help feature (Seriously, this thing doesn't tell you WHAT you feed the chickens and you have to actually go to the next day before the game goes 'oh you need to feed them, here it's this, and yes they missed a days feed because we weren't gonna tell you.)
I ramble.
Again.
Because of the want to play a Harvest Moon game I nipped into town and grabbed a 2nd hand copy of Harvest Moon 3D A New Beginning. And though I've been trying to slog through it, I've basically put the game down and probably won't be picking it up again soon. The mention above regarding help function which is pretty much useless? That's from this game. I'm in autumn in that game and getting fed up with the animal festivals because I'm not winning them despite doing everything I believe I can to get the animals 'love' for me as high as possible. Also the same with the crop festivals. I mean how much sodding fertilizer do you have to pour on this stuff (100g a bag btw!) before I win a damn festival. That stuff isn't cheap!
Also the only way to open the new areas is to have a new person move into town, meaning you have to build them a home, and then you have to play hunt the song sheet. Then hit tree stumps in colour coded note relation to the song and THEN you get a brief cut scene showing something blowing up and OMG new area...
Yeah no... this isn't what I wanted from a Harvest Moon game.
I think I'm just gonna give up on the modern ones and just replay the SNES one as that seems to keep it to the point, and although smaller, I find it works.
That said.
Whilst thinking about Harvest Moon I did a couple of searches on the net for PC Harvest Moon-esque games and came across this following upcoming game:
http://stardewvalley.net/
I'm following that and fully intend to look into it when it's released.
Why?
Because I think it's gonna get that right blend between Harvest Moon, and the current love for games like Terraria. Hopefully without going over the top.
Because you know what? Some games are BETTER for being shorter.
Well, that's my ramble over with, thank you if you've managed to stick with me all the way through to the bottom.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Sunday, 26 October 2014
Creatively Stumped
Greetings one and all!
Something a little different today.
Go back 10+ years and I used to daily write creatively. No hassle, just words flowing from finger to paper/screen. Now... that's gone way downhill and now I'm lucky to write a page a month. I find I just can not settle on something to write about and my brain always tells me that I must have SOME fixed idea of what I'm writing about. I can't be allowed to just write whatever comes to mind, it HAS to have a purpose, a character, a story or just a REASON.
Now, coming from this I've been doing a lot of thinking as to WHY I have developed this issue and while I think I'm nowhere close to answering that issue. I have had a thought on something else.
In my head, characters don't have hair colour/eye colour, height, weight, facial structure.
Now... that sounds odd. However that drew me to a deeper realisation about myself.
You see. In real life, I can have trouble defining a person by their physical features. It matters when I first take a look at someone but really, what matters to me is how they speak, how they act, their demeanour, their personality and their tone. All of that lot tells me FAR more about the person than the colour of their skin, their eye colour, their hair colour or all of the rest. Yeah I take note on if they are my height, taller or HOLY HECK YOU ARE A GIANT COMPARED TO ME. But this I think then feeds back into my writing.
Because when I think back over projects I wrote 10+ years ago, whether full stories or just little things I blurted out... I rarely go into things like height and weight, sometimes into the hair and eye colour but usually only to say something about social status (as with the hair) or the look IN someones eyes more so than the colour.
I'm not entirely too sure what to take from this, as it only came to me clearly today, but it's a thought. An interesting one. A telling one.
Hmm... This didn't end quite where I wanted it too...
Ah well,
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Something a little different today.
Go back 10+ years and I used to daily write creatively. No hassle, just words flowing from finger to paper/screen. Now... that's gone way downhill and now I'm lucky to write a page a month. I find I just can not settle on something to write about and my brain always tells me that I must have SOME fixed idea of what I'm writing about. I can't be allowed to just write whatever comes to mind, it HAS to have a purpose, a character, a story or just a REASON.
Now, coming from this I've been doing a lot of thinking as to WHY I have developed this issue and while I think I'm nowhere close to answering that issue. I have had a thought on something else.
In my head, characters don't have hair colour/eye colour, height, weight, facial structure.
Now... that sounds odd. However that drew me to a deeper realisation about myself.
You see. In real life, I can have trouble defining a person by their physical features. It matters when I first take a look at someone but really, what matters to me is how they speak, how they act, their demeanour, their personality and their tone. All of that lot tells me FAR more about the person than the colour of their skin, their eye colour, their hair colour or all of the rest. Yeah I take note on if they are my height, taller or HOLY HECK YOU ARE A GIANT COMPARED TO ME. But this I think then feeds back into my writing.
Because when I think back over projects I wrote 10+ years ago, whether full stories or just little things I blurted out... I rarely go into things like height and weight, sometimes into the hair and eye colour but usually only to say something about social status (as with the hair) or the look IN someones eyes more so than the colour.
I'm not entirely too sure what to take from this, as it only came to me clearly today, but it's a thought. An interesting one. A telling one.
Hmm... This didn't end quite where I wanted it too...
Ah well,
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
New 'N Tasty
Greetings one and all!
Yesterday I found out something exciting.
The Abe's Oddysee remake known as New 'N Tasty was due out today in the EU on PS(take your pick) systems.
This brought me a whole level of nostalgic joy. This was a game I played some as a kid after it came out, and I pretty much did OK at best at it. It's also the kinda game which whilst playing as a fully fledged job weilding adult. I truly SUCK at. I don't know why, but for some reason any skill I had with this game went down the shitter as I got older.
Anyway. I'm excited for it.
WHY?
Because it looks like the kinda remake that is good. That they've taken the thought of re-doing their game so very seriously.
Have I played it at time or writing this?
No
What about seeing it?
Well, I'm watching that next-door-neighbour I grew up with playing it as I write.
Am I still excited?
Yes.
Damn it's pretty
Damn it's still got that 'oh shit' feeling when something goes horribly wrong.
Damn it's still got the charm.
THE FARTS NOW COME IN MULTIPLE SOUNDS!
Yeah. I'm excited and will at some point grab the game. Because this is how a remake should be done. With love, care and tenderness for the original.
Oh
AND A NEW NAME!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Yesterday I found out something exciting.
The Abe's Oddysee remake known as New 'N Tasty was due out today in the EU on PS(take your pick) systems.
This brought me a whole level of nostalgic joy. This was a game I played some as a kid after it came out, and I pretty much did OK at best at it. It's also the kinda game which whilst playing as a fully fledged job weilding adult. I truly SUCK at. I don't know why, but for some reason any skill I had with this game went down the shitter as I got older.
Anyway. I'm excited for it.
WHY?
Because it looks like the kinda remake that is good. That they've taken the thought of re-doing their game so very seriously.
Have I played it at time or writing this?
No
What about seeing it?
Well, I'm watching that next-door-neighbour I grew up with playing it as I write.
Am I still excited?
Yes.
Damn it's pretty
Damn it's still got that 'oh shit' feeling when something goes horribly wrong.
Damn it's still got the charm.
THE FARTS NOW COME IN MULTIPLE SOUNDS!
Yeah. I'm excited and will at some point grab the game. Because this is how a remake should be done. With love, care and tenderness for the original.
Oh
AND A NEW NAME!
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Monday, 7 July 2014
A vexing evening
Greetings one and all!
Today's is a little ramble on the stupidity of gaming I came into last night.
Beginning: Yesterday evening I fancied playing some modded Minecraft.
After looking over some of the packs avaliable from the Tekkit and FeedTheBeast launchers I chose one that sounded like some fun.
Agrarian Skies - Hardcore Quest. It sounded like it'd be interesting and fun to have a little faff about in.
So I download the pack, load it up, create a world
And instantly die
...
The world hadn't loaded underneath me, so I die again and die once more and am told I've run out of lives and the world is now deleting myself because I suck.
Okay, not what I was expecting, so I create a new world expecting the first time it to be a hiccup.
It was not. There was no world loading.
Re-reading the modpack blurb it does mention you CAN download maps for the modpack.
So I go and download the only one avaliable and find that this is what I was SUPPOSED to be doing. It doesn't automatically generate a world despite what Minecraft tells you.
So, I sit through the intro, it's interesting. I get started slowly on following the quests to acheiving the quests and unlocking more items so I can expand the world beyond the small platform that I've been given.
I die to starvation twice and thankfully gain an extra life and am finally getting on a little roll with things.
I then click on a button in a book to finish a quest and receive my items. I gain an extra life. I 'consume' the extra life
Die
World deleted.
That shat on my evening there and then.
So I decide to play something ELSE and leave modded minecraft behind.
I chose Assassins Creed 3.
A game I bought when it came out, played for a while then put down and have barely touched since then. I picked up AC4 in the Steam sale for a reasonable price however I won't actually install and PLAY it until I've finished AC3. You know. Story.
First off, it doesn't load up. I'm still not too sure why but I ended up restarting my computer because the damn thing was insisting it was loading or already running, and yet nothing loaded.
Sigh
Once reboot is complete I open the game, and it wants to patch. FINE! Patch done, Uplay now wants me to play Far Cry 3 (Another game I'm gently plodding my way through) and I have to poke it with my mouse some to get it to agree that alright I can play AC3 BUT ONLY as long as I go through a screen which tells me I'm essentially reinstalling it.
Uh...hu
Whatever. I get in.
I run around for about 10 mins, get to the next mission. Finish off a couple of story missions and then I hit one where I have to ride on horseback and stop some messengers with an optional mission of not touching the floor.
Alright, I have a bow that should be fine.
Can I work out how in all of the hell to USE the bow on horseback?
No..... I don't even know if it's doable, but it should be right?
So I jump down, kill the first messenger and oh... it's timed... Alright, not a problem, it's labled an OPTIONAL mission to kill the messengers before the time runs out.
It wasn't optional, that was APPARENTLY the main mission
Which I find out as I'm desperatly trying to charge uphill in the rain and dark on the back of a horse whose ass is taking up 1/4 of the screen who keeps jumping over stuff that isn't there, refuses to go FAST and generally is a pain. Of course it doesn't help that I can't see the damn path I'm trying to following to CHASE these stupid messengers.
Oh and then the combat when I screwed up trying to GET at the messengers.
I swear AC3 has the LEAST fun combat in ALL of the AC games I've played. (That would be 1,2,Both of Ezio's spin offs and 3) It just feels like no one TRIED to remember that PC gamers play this shit with it's ambiguous button selections and stupid ass menu system so when you DO wanna look up the controls it's an arse to get too.
Anyway, after several tries I manage that.
Next mission is take out native fighters without killing them.
Fine, I sneak up behind them. Take them down. One objects and as I press the buttons to RUN AWAY my character keeps trying to dart in and gets stabbed...... repeatedly.
W....T....F
This mission also takes a couple of tries.
I then have a NAVAL battle (I hate the naval battles) and somehow wrangle myself through the sodding things.
Only for the game to freeze mid-cut scene after a big fight.
You know what?
I was done.
So VERY done right there and then with buginess.
The amount of glitching that was going on whilst I was playing AC3 was pissing me off so much I was yelling at my computer. I even just stood and took a stabbing at one point because I felt my character DESERVED it.
Oh, yeah, that also doesn't take into account the bit I did where back in the real world Desmond just walks into Abstergo and is at one point chasing some nut case around an area... who I lost when some guard shot me off the beams and I spent 10 MINUTES running around the room trying to find the fucker so I could basically kill him. But couldn't FIND him because he was running away from me across 3 different levels. It was pure sodding luck I spotted him when I did and could dispatch him. Only for the cutscene to then jump beyond the other side of the room to Desmond darting into a lift, of which they were all closed so dunno how you wrangled that you fucker.
That was my gaming experiance yesterday that caused me to get more than a little pissed off.
Games shouldn't piss you off in that way.
I've said before I enjoy challenging games.
That means games that are well designed and yes they might be about jumping puzzles that are pixel perfect.
But at least they weren't so glitchy that you couldn't complete a mission BECAUSE the glitches and the game and level design made it stupidly difficult to complete it.
A jumping puzzle on a 2D platform, I acknowledge, is hugely different to modding a game as complex as Minecraft, or an action/adventure game with so many mechanics they're coming out of the wazoo like AC3.
But still.
Is there any chance you could maybe test your games a little more publishers?
Oh, and whilst your at it.
FIX YOUR SODDING PLATFORM UBISOFT. IF I OPEN MY .exe SHORTCUT FOR AC3. THEN I WANT TO PLAY AC3, NOT FAR CRY 3. I KNOW THEY SHARE A 3 BUT REALLY?!
*cough*
Anyway.
After a decent morning at work and an afternoon/evening spent mostly reading a brand new fiction book, I'm feeling a lot better.
I hope no one else runs into the kind of mental state I fell into last night.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Today's is a little ramble on the stupidity of gaming I came into last night.
Beginning: Yesterday evening I fancied playing some modded Minecraft.
After looking over some of the packs avaliable from the Tekkit and FeedTheBeast launchers I chose one that sounded like some fun.
Agrarian Skies - Hardcore Quest. It sounded like it'd be interesting and fun to have a little faff about in.
So I download the pack, load it up, create a world
And instantly die
...
The world hadn't loaded underneath me, so I die again and die once more and am told I've run out of lives and the world is now deleting myself because I suck.
Okay, not what I was expecting, so I create a new world expecting the first time it to be a hiccup.
It was not. There was no world loading.
Re-reading the modpack blurb it does mention you CAN download maps for the modpack.
So I go and download the only one avaliable and find that this is what I was SUPPOSED to be doing. It doesn't automatically generate a world despite what Minecraft tells you.
So, I sit through the intro, it's interesting. I get started slowly on following the quests to acheiving the quests and unlocking more items so I can expand the world beyond the small platform that I've been given.
I die to starvation twice and thankfully gain an extra life and am finally getting on a little roll with things.
I then click on a button in a book to finish a quest and receive my items. I gain an extra life. I 'consume' the extra life
Die
World deleted.
That shat on my evening there and then.
So I decide to play something ELSE and leave modded minecraft behind.
I chose Assassins Creed 3.
A game I bought when it came out, played for a while then put down and have barely touched since then. I picked up AC4 in the Steam sale for a reasonable price however I won't actually install and PLAY it until I've finished AC3. You know. Story.
First off, it doesn't load up. I'm still not too sure why but I ended up restarting my computer because the damn thing was insisting it was loading or already running, and yet nothing loaded.
Sigh
Once reboot is complete I open the game, and it wants to patch. FINE! Patch done, Uplay now wants me to play Far Cry 3 (Another game I'm gently plodding my way through) and I have to poke it with my mouse some to get it to agree that alright I can play AC3 BUT ONLY as long as I go through a screen which tells me I'm essentially reinstalling it.
Uh...hu
Whatever. I get in.
I run around for about 10 mins, get to the next mission. Finish off a couple of story missions and then I hit one where I have to ride on horseback and stop some messengers with an optional mission of not touching the floor.
Alright, I have a bow that should be fine.
Can I work out how in all of the hell to USE the bow on horseback?
No..... I don't even know if it's doable, but it should be right?
So I jump down, kill the first messenger and oh... it's timed... Alright, not a problem, it's labled an OPTIONAL mission to kill the messengers before the time runs out.
It wasn't optional, that was APPARENTLY the main mission
Which I find out as I'm desperatly trying to charge uphill in the rain and dark on the back of a horse whose ass is taking up 1/4 of the screen who keeps jumping over stuff that isn't there, refuses to go FAST and generally is a pain. Of course it doesn't help that I can't see the damn path I'm trying to following to CHASE these stupid messengers.
Oh and then the combat when I screwed up trying to GET at the messengers.
I swear AC3 has the LEAST fun combat in ALL of the AC games I've played. (That would be 1,2,Both of Ezio's spin offs and 3) It just feels like no one TRIED to remember that PC gamers play this shit with it's ambiguous button selections and stupid ass menu system so when you DO wanna look up the controls it's an arse to get too.
Anyway, after several tries I manage that.
Next mission is take out native fighters without killing them.
Fine, I sneak up behind them. Take them down. One objects and as I press the buttons to RUN AWAY my character keeps trying to dart in and gets stabbed...... repeatedly.
W....T....F
This mission also takes a couple of tries.
I then have a NAVAL battle (I hate the naval battles) and somehow wrangle myself through the sodding things.
Only for the game to freeze mid-cut scene after a big fight.
You know what?
I was done.
So VERY done right there and then with buginess.
The amount of glitching that was going on whilst I was playing AC3 was pissing me off so much I was yelling at my computer. I even just stood and took a stabbing at one point because I felt my character DESERVED it.
Oh, yeah, that also doesn't take into account the bit I did where back in the real world Desmond just walks into Abstergo and is at one point chasing some nut case around an area... who I lost when some guard shot me off the beams and I spent 10 MINUTES running around the room trying to find the fucker so I could basically kill him. But couldn't FIND him because he was running away from me across 3 different levels. It was pure sodding luck I spotted him when I did and could dispatch him. Only for the cutscene to then jump beyond the other side of the room to Desmond darting into a lift, of which they were all closed so dunno how you wrangled that you fucker.
That was my gaming experiance yesterday that caused me to get more than a little pissed off.
Games shouldn't piss you off in that way.
I've said before I enjoy challenging games.
That means games that are well designed and yes they might be about jumping puzzles that are pixel perfect.
But at least they weren't so glitchy that you couldn't complete a mission BECAUSE the glitches and the game and level design made it stupidly difficult to complete it.
A jumping puzzle on a 2D platform, I acknowledge, is hugely different to modding a game as complex as Minecraft, or an action/adventure game with so many mechanics they're coming out of the wazoo like AC3.
But still.
Is there any chance you could maybe test your games a little more publishers?
Oh, and whilst your at it.
FIX YOUR SODDING PLATFORM UBISOFT. IF I OPEN MY .exe SHORTCUT FOR AC3. THEN I WANT TO PLAY AC3, NOT FAR CRY 3. I KNOW THEY SHARE A 3 BUT REALLY?!
*cough*
Anyway.
After a decent morning at work and an afternoon/evening spent mostly reading a brand new fiction book, I'm feeling a lot better.
I hope no one else runs into the kind of mental state I fell into last night.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Future thoughts on my channel
Greetings one and all!
Today I wanted to go into some of the titles that I've had kicking around my head for making videos for my youtube channel.
As anyone whose seen some of my videos might be able to tell, at this point I'm still trying to settle in and find my [i]thing[/i], my style or just how I'm gonna DO this.
You can also tell that I've yet to finish a proper series. I'm honest about this, no point in hiding it, the videos are there as evidence.
Nevertheless.
I have plans, I have thoughts and I have ideas.
In that realm of ideas, I present a few gaming titles which I plan to do at some point.
- Spyro the Dragon 1, 2, 3.
- Tombi 2 (MAY touch the 1st one, need to decide what to do about the music because oh my it's... an exercise in retaining your sanity)
- The Lion King (Sega Megadrive 2 version. When I'm ready to do this I WILL be practising that damn move I mentioned before that I got stuck on)
- Aladdin (PC version!)
- Bioshock 1 (Anyone who knows me well re games will probably have to pick their jaw off the floor on this one. I don't blame you, I'm still considering the state of my sanity since I made the choice to do this one and actually bought the game too. This one may well be a little further down the road when I've worked out my [i]thing[/i] so I can bring something other than half blind terror to the game. Oh, and this would be semi-blind as I've never actually PLAYED the game before)
There's probably more but those are all I can think of off the top of my head right now.
So yeah, that's what my channel has to look forward to ontop of things I need to arrange such as:
- My Minecraft Realm. Coming as soon as I can finally make an edit of some footage I have that I'm happy with.
- Multiplayer. I WILL have more multiplayer on my channel, I just need to sit down and arrange details with others.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Today I wanted to go into some of the titles that I've had kicking around my head for making videos for my youtube channel.
As anyone whose seen some of my videos might be able to tell, at this point I'm still trying to settle in and find my [i]thing[/i], my style or just how I'm gonna DO this.
You can also tell that I've yet to finish a proper series. I'm honest about this, no point in hiding it, the videos are there as evidence.
Nevertheless.
I have plans, I have thoughts and I have ideas.
In that realm of ideas, I present a few gaming titles which I plan to do at some point.
- Spyro the Dragon 1, 2, 3.
- Tombi 2 (MAY touch the 1st one, need to decide what to do about the music because oh my it's... an exercise in retaining your sanity)
- The Lion King (Sega Megadrive 2 version. When I'm ready to do this I WILL be practising that damn move I mentioned before that I got stuck on)
- Aladdin (PC version!)
- Bioshock 1 (Anyone who knows me well re games will probably have to pick their jaw off the floor on this one. I don't blame you, I'm still considering the state of my sanity since I made the choice to do this one and actually bought the game too. This one may well be a little further down the road when I've worked out my [i]thing[/i] so I can bring something other than half blind terror to the game. Oh, and this would be semi-blind as I've never actually PLAYED the game before)
There's probably more but those are all I can think of off the top of my head right now.
So yeah, that's what my channel has to look forward to ontop of things I need to arrange such as:
- My Minecraft Realm. Coming as soon as I can finally make an edit of some footage I have that I'm happy with.
- Multiplayer. I WILL have more multiplayer on my channel, I just need to sit down and arrange details with others.
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
Monday, 23 June 2014
Starting with the past. Part 5
Greetings one and all!
I wasn't sure what to write about today. So many games that they all started to blur a little, however, as I was randomly browsing the internet I stumbled over an article of REALLY bad games that the writer believed should never had been written.
On that note I'm writing about a game that is NOT on that list (but is related to one that IS)
Toejam and Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron.
Sega Megadrive 2 (Are we noticing a trend here yet?)
I'll quickly mention that I never played the first game. This game came with my 2nd hand sega megadrive 2 along with a few other titles. I did know someone who was in my class in year 4 who HAD the first game, but could never get them to agree on a time I could borrow it and then the year ended and we went to different middle schools (I was schooled in a 3 tier system. R-4, 5-8, 9-11/13. That's school years, not age years)
So this game.
Fun
Silly
Bonkers
And yet, there's an extra depth to it I've come to REALLY appreciate in the last few years.
It. Is. BRIGHT.
Seriously.
I loaded this game up (via the steam copy I happily own) and my eyeballs nearly disowned me on the spot with how many bright and almost neon colours were assulting my eyes. It's beautiful to look at, silly to play and a lot of fun.
Sure there's some frustration, but that was kind of the THING at the time, and I can appreciate it.
It held your hands a touch at the start, gave tips along the way and let you get on with it. Heck it even takes the mick out of you at times by hiding rubbish in items where your searching for food (health) or special jars or points or something. Meaning if your not paying close attention to what your doing BAM! A tyre to the head, or a rubbish bin accross the bonce.
There's also the collecting items element, which if I remember rightly was REALLY difficult, even more so in a time before the internet and there sure as FIG NUT weren't any walk throughs in the local shops! Oh good LORD no we were not living in an area important enough to have a walkthrough or help guide we could buy. Even in a shop that sells games. No no no.
I don't think we ever got everything. I remember us getting MOST of the items, because they were hard to find, but yeah. A really really good game that's more than a little bonkers.
In terms of what I mentioned before about a game that was on a list of games that should never be made?
TJ+E3... For the xbox.
I never played it. I remember being REALLY excited when I heard it was an actual thing.... then I saw the box art and back cover and just gave up ALL hope.
Because turning two groovy aliens into 'hip hop' or 'rap' characters.... *shudder*
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
I wasn't sure what to write about today. So many games that they all started to blur a little, however, as I was randomly browsing the internet I stumbled over an article of REALLY bad games that the writer believed should never had been written.
On that note I'm writing about a game that is NOT on that list (but is related to one that IS)
Toejam and Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron.
Sega Megadrive 2 (Are we noticing a trend here yet?)
I'll quickly mention that I never played the first game. This game came with my 2nd hand sega megadrive 2 along with a few other titles. I did know someone who was in my class in year 4 who HAD the first game, but could never get them to agree on a time I could borrow it and then the year ended and we went to different middle schools (I was schooled in a 3 tier system. R-4, 5-8, 9-11/13. That's school years, not age years)
So this game.
Fun
Silly
Bonkers
And yet, there's an extra depth to it I've come to REALLY appreciate in the last few years.
It. Is. BRIGHT.
Seriously.
I loaded this game up (via the steam copy I happily own) and my eyeballs nearly disowned me on the spot with how many bright and almost neon colours were assulting my eyes. It's beautiful to look at, silly to play and a lot of fun.
Sure there's some frustration, but that was kind of the THING at the time, and I can appreciate it.
It held your hands a touch at the start, gave tips along the way and let you get on with it. Heck it even takes the mick out of you at times by hiding rubbish in items where your searching for food (health) or special jars or points or something. Meaning if your not paying close attention to what your doing BAM! A tyre to the head, or a rubbish bin accross the bonce.
There's also the collecting items element, which if I remember rightly was REALLY difficult, even more so in a time before the internet and there sure as FIG NUT weren't any walk throughs in the local shops! Oh good LORD no we were not living in an area important enough to have a walkthrough or help guide we could buy. Even in a shop that sells games. No no no.
I don't think we ever got everything. I remember us getting MOST of the items, because they were hard to find, but yeah. A really really good game that's more than a little bonkers.
In terms of what I mentioned before about a game that was on a list of games that should never be made?
TJ+E3... For the xbox.
I never played it. I remember being REALLY excited when I heard it was an actual thing.... then I saw the box art and back cover and just gave up ALL hope.
Because turning two groovy aliens into 'hip hop' or 'rap' characters.... *shudder*
That's all for now.
Have a lovely evening!
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