My Goals // 2016

Hey guys!

Sorry I've been pretty bad with blogging lately - I didn't really have a chance to blog over Christmas, as I've been busy with travelling and seeing family! Also, as you may have seen if you follow me on Twitter, a few days before Christmas I somehow managed to break my laptop screen :( so I've found it pretty hard to write when I have a massive purple crack across my screen, but I thought I'd try anyway, as I miss blogging!

Today, I thought I'd write about my goals for next year! No, it's not me making my New Year's resolutions - I've given up on making those, as I always end up failing them all before the end of January, so it's pretty pointless for me - it's a set of goals I would like to set myself, and hopefully I will end up achieving them all before the end of 2016! Some will be bigger, some will be smaller, but hopefully they're all do-able. I will also be setting myself a couple of private goals, so when I do a summary post next year, or another goal setting post, I'll tell you what they were and whether or not I managed to achieve them!
Let's start with the smaller goals first.

One - BLOG MORE REGULARLY

I feel like I need to try and set myself a proper blogging schedule, and try my hardest to stick with it! I'm playing around with some new ideas on what I want to blog about at the moment, so hopefully next year I'll be having loads of ideas about what I want to put on my blog, which will hopefully mean more - and more regular - posts!

Two - SORT OUT MY DIET

I don't eat terribly, but I do have some bad eating habits - for example, a lot of the time I don't eat meals because I don't feel particularly hungry, or I'll always crave something sweet after I've had dinner. I might even keep a food diary, so I can see when I'm eating/when I'm craving things!

Three - DRINK MORE WATER

Obviously, this goes hand in hand with my diet goal. I find that I don't really drink a lot of water - during the day, I usually reach for some fruity squash, or tea, which isn't that good - I usually have either one sugar, or a teaspoon of honey in my tea, so if I drink a few of those a day, it's pretty bad! I personally don't really like water, so I struggle to drink it, but I'll just have to try and do it anyway! (Or drink sugar free flavoured water as well, so I can have something with flavour as well)

Four - SORT OUT/PAINT MY ROOM

I've been trying to get this done for so long now, but I keep getting overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I seem to have accumulated over the years - plus the immense lack of storage/space I have in my room - so, this year I really need to get more ruthless and chuck out a load of stuff and have a really good clear out so I can FINALLY get rid of the really old, faded lilac walls I have now and make my room look nice again - less teenage, (slightly) more adult.

Moving on to the bigger, scarier goals now!

One - DECIDE WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE

At the moment, I'm so undecided on what I want to be doing with my life - I constantly flit between ideas and can never seem to stick to just one thing. In 2016, I want to finally decide on something I want to do - whether it's going on a course to get some more qualifications, deciding on a career path, or even just trying to get some temporary work experience!

Two - TRY & SORT OUT MY HEALTH

I have PCOS, and because of this I have thinning hair (one of the side effects, and the one I really hate the most). I'm hoping that I can sort out my medication, and look into ways I can (hopefully) sort it out and thicken my hair, as it literally just makes me feel so down all the time, and it knocks my confidence.

Three - TRY & LIKE MYSELF MORE

I have basically zero self esteem and confidence, so I really want to try and care less what people think of me again (when I was younger, I cared less - I find the older I get, the more anxious and lower self esteem I get) and try and find AT LEAST one thing I like about myself by this time next year! 

Finally, the sillier, more lighthearted goals!

One - DYE MY HAIR A CRAZY COLOUR

Every single year, I start off having darker, more natural coloured hair, and by the summer, I really want lighter hair, so I end up lightening it and dying it crazy colours (usually red or pink) so I'm most likely going to end up doing that again this year - or maybe I'll go a colour I've not gone before!

Two - GO ON HOLIDAY

I hardly ever go on holiday - although I did go to France last summer (my first time abroad in around 10 years!!!) so, this year, I'd like to go on holiday again, even if it's just to the beach for the weekend, or for a long weekend somewhere in the UK - I just want to try and explore some more!

Three - DO MORE PHOTOGRAPHY

I love photography - there's something so satisfying about framing a shot just right, or the feel of a SLR in your hands - but I get really bored of taking photos in my local area, so I really want to start taking my camera out to more places and get back into regularly taking photos, instead of letting my camera gather dust in my house!

So, that's all my goals that I'm willing to make public for the next year! If you have any goals you'd like to share, comment them on here - then we can compare how we did in a year's time!

Good luck!  

TAG // Fifteen Festive Questions!

Hey guys!

It's so close to Christmas now that I can practically smell it! Are you all getting excited too?

I was browsing some blogs I read yesterday, and I stumbled across this cute little festive tag, so I decided to nick it from Becky/milkbubbletea!

If you'd like to check it out, Becky's tag is HERE

So, without further ado, let's leap in! 

One - Favourite Christmas smell/scent ?
My favourite Christmas smell is the smell of dinner cooking or the smell of Christmas cake. My favourite festive candle fragrance is probably spiced apple, it smells so nice and I have at least one every year! 

Two - Gingerbread or Candy canes?
I can never seem to get the wrapped off candy canes unless I break them, so I'm going to go for gingerbread because not only does it smell amazing, but it tastes amazing too.

Three - Is your tree real or fake?
We used to get a real tree, then for the past few years we decided to have a fake one instead, as real ones shed a lot - I think I prefer real ones though! 

Four - Quality street or Roses?
Mmm, I think that Quality Street is more Christmassy - for me and my family, anyway - so I'm going to go for those, even though I only really like the strawberry and caramel ones. 

Five - Do you dress up or down on December 25th?
I usually just dress in something comfortable, as we spend a few hours on Christmas day travelling! However, my plans have changed a lot this year, so we're doing less travelling, but the plan is probably still to dress in something comfy with the added bonus of my first Christmas jumper! 

Six - Do you have any specific festive traditions?
I think I've written about this before, but every year my dad usually comes over on Christmas Eve and we have dinner and stuff, then I go to bed reasonably early, then on Christmas Day we go to my grandmas and spend a few days there. This year, that's changing quite a lot, so we'll possibly be making new traditions, which will be nice. 

Seven - Any embarrassing Christmas moments that come to mind?
None are really coming to mind, to be honest - I'm sure my parents would probably be able to think of something though!

Eight - Do you wake up early or late on Christmas morning?
I've always woken up early on Christmas Day! We usually get up at around 6am, open a couple of stocking fillers, then wait for my dad to come over so we can have breakfast and open our main presents! Even when I was little, we used to get up around the same time, and then my parents had to check and see if Santa had been! 

Nine - If you had a stocking where did you hang them?
I still have a stocking, haha. We usually hang them over the fireplace, and then my granny usually gives us one too, with our presents, which is cute! I usually always get an orange, an apple and an assortment of nuts in mine (even though I don't like nuts, haha, but it's like a tradition!

Ten -  Favourite festive film/s?
I'm not really one for watching many films anyway, so I don't really watch any festive films either! The one festive film we usually watch every year is Jingle All The Way though, I caught it a few weeks on an obscure channel and it still makes me laugh now! 

Eleven - Was there a present you always asked for as a child but never received?
Like most kids, I usually asked for a pet every year and never got one, which is probably a good thing, as I was pretty fickle as a kid. I still always want a pet to this day though - for the past few years I've been secretly hoping for a pug! 

Twelve - What was the best gift you received  as a child?
I think that was probably my bright pink Gameboy Colour and Pokemon Red! I still have the game in a box somewhere, I think I still have the Gameboy somewhere too! I also got a metallic blue CD Walkman one year, which I loved - I used to take it to school every day with a selection of CDs and listen to it on the bus.....and in lessons, oops. 

Thirteen - What is on top of your Christmas tree?
Up until recently, it was an angel made out of one of those paper doilies that I made at school, but I think it ripped! Now we have a big silver and purple star! At my dads, we have some gold bells.

Fourteen - Favourite festive food?
Technically it's probably not necessarily just a festive food, but definitely pigs in blankets! I could eat soooo many of those and never get sick of them!

Fifteen - Favourite Christmas activity?
I like giving presents, in all honesty! I also really like getting up early in the morning and sitting with a cup of tea while waiting to open my stocking! 

 

Feel free to steal this tag and do it yourself, or if you like, you can just answer the questions in the comments! 

I hope you all have an amazing Christmas! Keep your eyes peeled, as I'll be posting a yearly favourites before the end of the year too! 

My New Blogging Goals!

Hey guys!

As you may know if you read my blogs over on Birds, I've been in a blogging slump, and I've been feeling pretty down too, which is why it's taken me a while to post anything properly on this blog and have been unintentionally neglecting it (oops).

I was also feeling pretty lost, as I felt like I didn't have a blogging niche, as such - I've always loved blogs which post a variety of topics, not just all one thing, and that's always been my aim with my blog (although I did quite like blogging about games so much in my 30 day blogging challenge, as it's something I'm passionate about) so I never wanted to stick with one main topic for my blog - I want to feel like I can blog about makeup one day, games another day, and post about meaningful issues occasionally too if I fancy it!

However, now I've decided that I need to get out of the negative mindset I've put myself into when it comes to blogging - I need to stop panicking that no one reads my posts, I need to stop being upset when no one comments on my posts, and I need to stop second guessing myself so much when it comes to writing posts - so often, I'll have an idea, then not write the post, or even just not post it if I feel like no one will read it or like it. I need to stop being so scared about what might happen negatively when I post, and focus instead on the positives. For example, I love writing, so when I feel like a post is well written, I'm happy to post it online! It also makes me happy when people comment on my posts, telling me how much they like my posts, or when people message me to let me know they read my posts and they're enjoying them. 

So, I've set myself a new set of blogging goals! 

1 - do not be afraid to post about whatever you want.

2 - it doesn't matter if you don't get comments

3 - hell, it doesn't even matter if no one reads it, as long as you're happy with what you post.

4 - post about things that make you happy, as well as more serious posts! Also, listen to feedback, it's important!

5 - don't force yourself to blog if you're not feeling motivated, or you have no ideas. It's better to wait until you're feeling inspired and you can write a good post, rather than post several mediocre posts that you're not proud of instead.

6 - maybe start taking pictures again to go with certain posts (I miss taking photos that aren't just for instagram/twitter)

7 - finally, JUST HAVE FUN! 

Hopefully, I'll be back blogging with a vengeance now that I'm beginning to rediscover my spark, and I hope you'll still be here for the ride!

My Birthday // Pugs, London and TATINOF!

Hey guys!

So, a couple of days after Blogtober - which I'm really happy I managed to finish successfully, and I hope you all enjoyed it too - it was my birthday! 

I didn't really want to do much for it, as it wasn't a "big" birthday like 21 or 25, but usually on birthdays my dad will come over and me, my mum, my dad and my brother will have a meal and stuff - I also usually wait until my dad comes over to open most of my cards/presents, although I can't resist opening a few early!

I started off this birthday by playing Animal Crossing New Leaf for a bit - on your birthday in the game, the animal you have the highest friendship with will come to your door when you go on, and lead you to a party at their house - there will also be two other villagers in the house, who you have high friendship with too! There'll be a cake and they'll also give you a present, and a birthday song will be playing too! This year, I ended up getting some birthday shades (basically massive sunglasses that look like cake)

When my dad came over, I opened cards and presents - I ended up with 4 pug cards, haha, and some other really lovely ones, and I wasn't really expecting presents but I got a few! I got a nodding pug (which is adorable), some awesome stationery, an Amazon gift card, a metal pug sign (also adorable) and some Animal Crossing amiibo cards! My mum cooked a paella, which was delicious, then I got surprised with.....A PUG BIRTHDAY CAKE! 

The next day, me and my mum headed into London, which was my present from her. We started off grabbing some lunch, so we decided on Yo! Sushi (I really like sushi, if I have a choice I'll pretty much always choose that) and it was really good - it was the first time I'd eaten in at a Yo! Sushi, I usually just grab a takeaway, but it was awesome! We weren't really sure what we wanted to do next, so we wandered along Southbank with a hot chocolate. We ended up going onto the bank/shore bit of the river (I don't really know the correct terminology but you know what I mean) before going back along the riverside for a bit. We eventually got to the Tate Modern and decided to have a quick look round, but we weren't really feeling it. Not long after, we realised we didn't really feel in the mood to be in London - a rare occurrence for me - so we hopped on a train to Kingston for some retail therapy - however, we both came away empty handed, but I did get to try the honey and almond hot chocolate from Starbucks and it's so nice, it tastes like chocolate marzipan! 

 

Then, on Sunday, it was finally the day I'd been looking forward to since my best friend Lisa booked us VIP tickets in March! (yes, I've been impatiently waiting for this for 8 months!) My favourite YouTubers, Dan Howell and Phil Lester (aka Danisnotonfire and Amazingphil) wrote a book and planned a tour, and we had VIP tickets to the tour - meaning, we finally got to meet them! (we met them briefly like 2 years ago, but I don't really remember very much of it because I was freezing and nervous!)

We met up early and, after having a massive hug because we hadn't seen each other in ages, we decided to find a Nandos and get some food - I've been craving it for weeks, and she practically lives off chicken, so it was a good choice! Also, if you ever go to Nandos and they have vanilla frozen yogurt, get it - it tastes like a 99 ice cream but it's fat free. So good! 

Doors didn't open till 5.15 for VIP, so we wandered around the shops for a while before deciding to head to a Starbucks near The Palladium, where the show was. I got a hot mulled apple drink - it's so yummy, it's like Christmas in a cup! - and Lisa got vanilla hot chocolate, and I was showing her Xenoblade Chronicles because I wanted to see if I'd streetpassed anyone and I'd promised her last time I saw her to show her the game.

We went to the front of the venue at around 5, and I started feeling really faint and nervous and panicky, and I still felt like that when we went inside. We were told to sign a book when we came in, for the boys to read, so me and Lisa both did, and not long after we were told they would be coming up in a few minutes. I won't bore you with too many details, but we were put into a queue and told to have whatever we were getting signed open to the right page if it was a book, or just out if it was our ticket, and to make sure our phones were open on the camera. 

When I met them, most of the nerves somehow melted away. Phil was closest to me, so I got to hug him first, then Dan, who said he liked my hat. Then they signed my notebook, I waffled a little bit (sorry guys, if you ever see this, for being so waffley and awkward) and then Dan took the photo for me (apparently he takes them because he has the longest arms, haha) and it was all over! After I'd walked away, I realised that my hands were shaking from belated nerves, haha, but it was an amazing experience and I'm really glad I got the chance to meet them.

I can't really say much about the show - they're very strict about the fact they don't want anyone to give spoilers, as they're planning on taking the tour around the world - but it was amazing, and it was clear that they'd put so much work into it and it really paid off!

Day Thirty One // Happy Halloween!

Hey guys!
So, this is the final day of October, which also marks the end of this Blogtober! 

I know the challenge I did was only 30 days, so I decided to turn this extra day into a kind of summary!

On the whole, I feel like I did pretty well with planning everything - I actually stuck to writing a couple of posts at a time, made sure I always had one written and saved in case I couldn't find the time to do a day, and I also made sure to try and include pictures/screenshots in as many posts as I could, so you had something nice to look at, you could see what I meant when I was describing things (or the cover of the game in case you were interested) and it breaks up the big chunks of text a bit better - plus I like putting in pictures because I find them interesting! 

I know that some posts were shorter than others, and I apologise for that - I tried to make sure that posts were as long but interesting as I could get them, but sometimes there wasn't a lot to say, or it was a picture challenge instead of one that needed many words, so I decided to let the pictures speak for themselves. Plus, I feel like sometimes I was waffling on a bit too much, so I cut a few posts a bit shorter so I wouldn't be boring you - and myself!

Through doing this challenge, I learnt that, as long as I'm prepared, I can just about handle blogging daily - however, I do feel like I would struggle a LOT if I didn't have some kind of plan. For example, if I had another daily challenge, or a massive list of ideas, I'd probably end up doing another bout of daily blogging, as it's been pretty fun and it's pushed me a lot.

I hope you do still stick with me and my little blog, though - I've had a lot of fun doing this challenge, and I will be continuing to post regularly on here (just not every day!)

I hope you enjoyed my blogging challenge - thank you to anyone who was here for the ride, whether you just popped in and out occasionally, only read one post, or if you were here for the whole challenge (or maybe even longer)! 

Happy Halloween! 

Love, me and the (Animal Crossing) czar of Halloween, Jack!

Day Thirty // All Time Favourite Game!

Hey guys!
Today is day 30 of my 30 day blogging challenge - the final day, in fact! (I'm surprised I made it this far, haha, there's been a few challenging days along the way) I left a photo of the questions in my first blog, where I summarised this challenge, in case anyone wanted to do it, but I'll also copy the question I'm answering into my post every day too.

Sometimes, these posts may contain spoilers for a game - when that happens, I'll warn you before I answer the question, so you can choose whether or not to read on!

Today's question is - what is your all time favourite game?

This is pretty much the hardest question of the lot, aha, and I've struggled to answer it for ages now - I've been deliberating how I'm going to answer it pretty much since day one.

I have a lot of games that I really like - as you'll probably know if you've been keeping up with this blogging challenge (thank you very much if you've read any of them, and especially if you've been amazing and read every single one! <3) and it's been really hard trying to narrow it down to one single game - or even franchise - that I could call my all time favourite!

There's so many different genres of game out there, and sometimes you're in the mood for one kind of game more than others - for example, when I'm in the mood to relax, I'll play something like Animal Crossing, and when I want to adventure, I'll play something like Pokemon or Xenoblade Chronicles.

So, for this post, I decided to have a couple of different answers, as I genuinely cannot choose just one game as a favourite! 

Favourite relaxing game - 

at the moment, I definitely think this would be an Animal Crossing game. I've always really loved New Leaf, since it was released around two and a half years ago, and I've played *most* days, but I'm also really loving Happy Home Designer since it came out at the beginning of this month and I definitely feel myself switch off when I'm playing it. So, the winner of best relaxing game is definitely ANIMAL CROSSING.

Favourite adventure game - 

#this is hard, because if I want something that's a bit more laid back I'll play a Pokemon game (at the moment, I'm working my way through Pokemon Omega Ruby, as I bought it earlier in the year and have been distracted since getting it, oops) and if I want something I really have to think about and immerse myself in, I'll play either a Zelda game or Xenoblade Chronicles. However, purely down to how much I've loved the story and the sheer amount of hours I put into playing it the first time around (well, technically the first two, as my brother accidentally saved over my first file partway through) I'm saying my winner of best adventure game is XENOBLADE CHRONICLES.

Favourite retro/older game - 

the final game I'm choosing is pretty much a no brainer. I've liked playing this game since I was little, and even now, I love the soundtrack, the graphics, and just the game in general. Yes, it's not as retro as it could be, but it's from when I was a very young child so it's like 20 years old or so, and that's retro enough for me. My winner for best retro game has to be SUPER MARIO 64.

I recommend all of these games to everyone, and even if you've never picked up a gaming console before, you should. I love playing games - I always have - and I feel like there's such a diverse gaming franchise out there that you will always find at least one game that someone will like, whether it's brain training and puzzle games, to war games and racing games - you will always find a game you like, and that is the beauty of gaming. 

I hope you've enjoyed this blogging challange - I definitely have, even though I've struggled with it a lot along the way, and I'm happy yet sad that it's all over now! 

Come back tomorrow, when I'll have one final mystery post up! ;)

Day Twenty Nine // A Game You Didn't Think You'd Like

Hey guys!
Today is day 29 of my 30 day blogging challenge, where I'm going to be tackling a gaming challenge I found a few weeks ago that I thought looked interesting. In my blog summarising this, I left a photo of the questions, in case anyone wanted to do it, but I'll also copy the question I'm answering into my post every day too.

Sometimes, these posts may contain spoilers for a game - when that happens, I'll warn you before I answer the question, so you can choose whether or not to read on!

Today's question is - what is a game you didn't think you'd like, but ended up loving?

Definitely Xenoblade Chronicles, without a shadow of a doubt. I didn't know who Shulk was when Nintendo put him in Super Smash, and I wondered who he was, so my brother tried to explain it to me but I didn't really care at the time, haha. Then, a Xenoblade Chronicles remake for the New 3DS was announced and he was really excited and pre-ordered it. When it came, he played it endlessly and kept going on about how good it was - he didn't tell me very much about it, as he wanted me to play it when he was done, and I didn't want to at first - I was midway through Majoras Mask, in fact I still am - but in the end, I decided to play it.

I didn't have very high expectations that I'd like it - I didn't think I'd like it at all, in fact, as my brother likes more RPGs and story based games, and I play a lot more games like Animal Crossing and Pokemon (although I like playing RPGs and more adventure/story based games too) and sometimes we don't like the same games. However, after the opening credits and story of the game, I was intrigued, so I decided to give it a chance.

I'm really glad I did, as it's now probably right up there as one of my favourite games, and I like it so much that I ended up buying my own copy (even though it meant having to start again after completing the game)

The thing I like about it is that the story is amazing, the characters are likeable and you warm to them quickly (well...most of them, haha) and I love the fact that there's a ton of side quests to do as well, so you don't just have to stick to the story. You also get loads of experience and the occasional reward if you explore, so it's definitely worth straying from the path and going off exploring more if you can.

Day Twenty Eight // Favourite Game Developer

Hey guys!
Today is day 28 of my 30 day blogging challenge, where I'm going to be tackling a gaming challenge I found a few weeks ago that I thought looked interesting. In my blog summarising this, I left a photo of the questions, in case anyone wanted to do it, but I'll also copy the question I'm answering into my post every day too.

Sometimes, these posts may contain spoilers for a game - when that happens, I'll warn you before I answer the question, so you can choose whether or not to read on!

Today's question is - who is your favourite game developer?

I really liked the game developer Rare - they used to work with Nintendo, but then moved over to Microsoft. Some of the games they created were some of my favourites as a child - most notably, Goldeneye, Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo Kazooie. I spent so long playing the first two games with my brother - Goldeneye especially, I used to like trying to kill him before he could kill me, although a lot of the time we were on the same team. It was always pretty fun trying to navigate my way through levels, even when I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing! I also used to spend ages playing Donkey Kong 64 - I didn't like it at first, but as I played it more, I enjoyed it more, and now I'm quite keen to download it on the Wii U, as they've remastered it and re-released it for download.

I also really like HAL Laboratory - they've worked on games such as Super Smash Bros, the Kirby series and Earthbound, amongst other huge titles. Kirby is one of my all time favourite gaming characters, and has been for years now, so I'm very pleased that they made Kirby work. Originally, they hadn't decided on a colour for Kirby, so in the Japanese artwork he was white. They debated between yellow and pink, and in the end pink won out, but when you can play as a second Kirby, the default colour for that is yellow, which is pretty cool! 

Finally, of course, who could forget Game Freak - the team which brought us the Pokemon video games! These games were a massive part of my childhood - and I still play them regularly to this day - so this developer had to make my list purely because they pretty much made my childhood amazing! 

Day Twenty Seven // Most Epic Scene Ever!

Hey guys!

Today is day 27 of my 30 day blogging challenge, where I'm going to be tackling a gaming challenge I found a few weeks ago that I thought looked interesting. In my blog summarising this, I left a photo of the questions, in case anyone wanted to do it, but I'll also copy the question I'm answering into my post every day too.

Sometimes, these posts may contain spoilers for a game - when that happens, I'll warn you before I answer the question, so you can choose whether or not to read on!

Today's question is - what's the most epic game scene ever? 

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

Literally will be pretty big spoilers so avoid if you're planning to play either game!

I actually have two which I think are pretty amazing!

The first one is the scene in Fire Emblem Awakening, where your avatar kills Chrom after nearly killing Validar. For a little bit, you're like OH MY GOD THE PREMONITION CAME TRUE! (at the very beginning of the game, after you've created your avatar, you get shown a cut scene which also walks you through how to play the game, and after you've battled Validar, Chrom turns to you and somehow, Validar takes over your body and you kill Chrom) but then, something amazing happens - Chrom gets up!

It's really confusing at first - I remember being like WHAT IS HAPPENING the first time I played through the game, haha - but then it all gets explained and it turns out, you managed to keep in control of yourself enough to weaken your magic so it wouldn't kill Chrom (which I was really pleased about because he's not only one of my favourite characters in the game but on my first run I was married to him too - sucks to accidentally kill your husband in a game, haha) and then you go on to a battle and it's just all amazing!

The second one is in Xenoblade Chronicles, when you're on Valak Mountain on your way to Sword Valley, and Dunban and Mumkhar end up having a massive, epic battle! It's so good - the dialogue is perfect, the scene is amazing, the music is fabulous (to be fair, the music throughout the game is just amazing all the time, haha, they really know how to make the perfect songs for everything that happens and the areas)  and you just want Dunban to kill him there and then. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but that doesn't happen and you merely end up injuring him, but it's still one of the best cut scenes I've come across in a game so far and you should all play the game or see the cut scene!

Day Twenty Six // Best Voice Acting

Hey guys!
Today is day 26 of my 30 day blogging challenge, where I'm going to be tackling a gaming challenge I found a few weeks ago that I thought looked interesting. In my blog summarising this, I left a photo of the questions, in case anyone wanted to do it, but I'll also copy the question I'm answering into my post every day too.

Sometimes, these posts may contain spoilers for a game - when that happens, I'll warn you before I answer the question, so you can choose whether or not to read on!

Today's question is - what is the best voice acting, in your opinion?

I really like the fact they have British voices in Xenoblade Chronicles. In a lot of games, the voice acting is with American accents, and I feel that a game like Xenoblade works a lot better with British accents than American ones - for some reason, it's a lot more effective.

I also like it when games don't have much in the way of voice acting - for example, in Animal Crossing, they speak Animalese, which sounds like babbling to us, and in Zelda games, Link doesn't speak - he'll grunt and make the occasional noise, but there's not really any vocals in there, which suits me - I think it'd be really weird if he actually spoke, which is why I'm dubious every time I hear reports that they want to make a Zelda film.

I think that, going by the voices of characters, I really like the voice acting of whoever voices Dunban and Melia in Xenoblade Chronicles, and the guy who voices Chrom in Fire Emblem Awakening, and I just like the voice acting in those games anyway, so if we're going for proper speech in games I'm choosing those two, and if we're choosing voice acting in games where less is more, I choose Zelda and Animal Crossing.

10 Years Of You Me At Six!

Hey guys!

So, today marks 10 years of my favourite UK band, You Me At Six, and to celebrate I thought that it'd be a nice idea to do a blog post about my top 10 favourite You Me At Six memories! There's probably a LOT more than 10, haha, so it's going to be pretty much impossible to choose, but let's give it a shot anyway! Also, these are in no particular order, they're just my favourite memories!

10 - Q Live, London.

I managed to win guestlist +1 to this show, and I took my boyfriend at the time. For some reason, the venue decided it would be a good idea to have a rope thing as a barrier - please, never do that if you're putting on a show! I ended up being stuck leaning against the stage, haha, I couldn't get up at all and one of the metal poles of the "barrier" was trapping one of my feet. When Josh noticed (and recognised me, aha) he mouthed "are you okay?" at me, so I nodded and then between songs, he told people to move back (so I could at least get the metal thing off my foot) and he ruffled my hair before going into the next song - thanks Josh! I also managed to get a set list from this show, which is stuck on my wardrobe, and I had a little chat with most of them at some point of the night, which is always nice!

9 - Banquet Records, Kingston - TOYC instore.

The day before they did an instore at HMV in London, You Me At Six did an instore at Banquet Records, and me and a couple of friends went along - I think we all skipped school as well, oops :P but anyway, I barely knew any of the songs, and it was the first time I'd seen/met them (as far as I can remember) but it still makes me laugh to look back at pictures and see how young we all looked, and how much we've all changed since then!

8 - Kentish Town Forum, London.

This was back in the days when I used to get to shows first thing in the morning and queue (I pretty much never do that any more, in a way I miss it and in a way I really don't, haha) and I think me and my friends actually turned out to be in a Kerrang! podcast later on (which people used to vaguely remember me from). I remember this show was packed, and I don't remember much apart from being kicked in the head by crowd surfers, but I'm pretty sure it was an amazing show!

7 - The Astoria, London.  

Again, I think I may have skipped school for this, but me and my friends queued all day and we saw Josh nearly get hit by a bike in the cycle lane when they were unloading. Anyway, shows at the Astoria were always amazing (RIP Astoria!) and we were at the front all night - I like the atmosphere at the front, it's more intense in a way - and the show was amazing. I think I caught Max's water bottle too, haha.

6 - McCluskey's, Kingston - HMD release.

I think this was around the release of Hold Me Down, and we went round to the back of the venue and Max was smoking. My friends needed a lighter, so I asked him if I could borrow his and he said yeah, then gave me his and was like, keep it. So, we tried it and it didn't work (thanks Max!) so when we went to the signing, I was like "sign your dud lighter please" so that's currently with my collection of signed stuff. The instore was amazing too, McCluskey's is pretty small so it's always fun going to shows there.

5 - Alexandra Palace, London.

Me and my best friend went to this together, and got a hotel in London too. It took ages to walk there from the station, but it was more than worth it. The show was flawless - they played a good mixture of songs from past and current albums, and the supports were amazing too. It's been pretty surreal going from seeing them play tiny little venues to selling out massive shows like that, it's crazy but awesome!

4 - Kerrang! Radio, Birmingham.

I entered a competition to win guestlist to this show, and promptly forgot I'd even entered. Then, the day before, I got a phone call saying I'd won guestlist plus one for this acoustic show in Birmingham. Needless to say, I panicked, then frantically spent ages trying to find someone to come with me. Luckily, I found someone, so we went to Birmingham the next day for this show at Kerrang! Radio in Birmingham. We met Christian and Loz as well (2 DJs, idk if they're still there now) and they played 6 songs, then we got to hang out with them for a bit outside after we'd got stuff signed (I got a really old poster signed) and it was so good, I'll never get sick of seeing them play acoustic shows.

3 - McCluskey's, Kingston - Cavalier Youth release.

When their last album, Cavalier Youth, came out, me and my best friend managed to get tickets to both the signings/instores they were doing that day - she'd never previously met them before, so she was really excited to get to meet them! It was lovely for me, getting to meet them again, as they recognised me from various other times I've met them, so we had a little bit of a catch up as well as getting my CD signed. The first show was an acoustic - which was so good, as I prefer acoustic versions a lot more - and the later show wasn't, so it was nice to see songs from the album performed both ways. It was also funny getting to see them later on at the second signing and chat again, I miss how easy I used to find it to meet them.

2 - The Roundhouse, London.

Again, we got there stupidly early, so were hanging around all day. Later on, before doors, the friends I'd come with had gone to chat to some people they knew that I didn't, so I was alone near the front of the queue. One of my friends used to work at the Roundhouse, on their radio show, and she asked me if I wanted to come backstage with her to interview You Me At Six. Obviously, I said yes, so I went backstage with her and got to hang out with the band for a while (I didn't actually ask them anything to help with the interview, oops) and then we had a group picture (minus Chris, I think he was on the phone somewhere) before I headed back out to the queue and to find my friends again.

1 - Wembley Arena, London. 

 This show was amazing. They literally put all their passion and everything they had into this show - and made the X Factor final get moved to a different venue, which is pretty damn hilarious - and it really was one of my all time favourite shows I've ever been to. I even cried at a song I'd never cried at before, and I now only ever cry at that one version of it. It was everything you could ever want from a show - everyone was singing along, everything went pretty much flawlessly, and it was just a show I'll remember for the rest of my life!

Day Twenty Five // A Game You Want To Play

Hey guys!
Today is day 25 of my 30 day blogging challenge, where I'm going to be tackling a gaming challenge I found a few weeks ago that I thought looked interesting. In my blog summarising this, I left a photo of the questions, in case anyone wanted to do it, but I'll also copy the question I'm answering into my post every day too.

Sometimes, these posts may contain spoilers for a game - when that happens, I'll warn you before I answer the question, so you can choose whether or not to read on!

Today's question is - what is a game you plan on playing?

Well, I have a list practically the length of my arm of games I really want to play, haha, and I'm forever adding to it, so this is probably going to be a hard one to narrow down. I *could* essentially list them all, but the list would be ridiculously long and probably quite boring, so I'll try and narrow it down to my top 5 - which will also hopefully be the next games I'll be treating myself to!

Pikmin 3. 

My brother downloaded a demo for this a while back, and although I tried playing the first Pikmin game and didn't get very far, I gave this one a try and I ended up really liking it! I'd love to play the full version, as you obviously don't get very far in the demo and I'd like to keep playing and see what happens.

Fire Emblem Fates. 

This isn't out in the UK till next year - boooo - but I'm sooooo excited to play this because the trailers and sneaky peeks I've seen of people playing it makes it look amazing and I like Fire Emblem games anyway, so I cannot wait for this!

Xenoblade Chronicles U. 

I haven't really seen or heard much about this, but from what I have seen and heard, I'm pretty intrigued to see what happens in the game - plus, the world in the game is supposed to be massive, so it'll be amazing to explore and immerse yourself into. 

Yoshi's Woolly World.

 I was tempted to pre-order this when it was first released, but it was around the same time that Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush came out and I couldn't really afford both at once. It reminds me a little bit of Yoshi's Story, but even better, plus the woolly graphics and yarn Yoshi amiibos are just amazing and I need them in my life!

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy. 

The follow up game to The Miracle Mask, and I think the final installment of the Professor Layton series. I've played all the other games, and loved them a lot - I like puzzles and logical thinking, so I like working out the puzzles and mysteries along the way, plus the storylines of the game are always pretty gripping.

There's so many other games I want to play, too - I have a wishlist on Amazon which is pretty full of games and gaming stuff - but these are probably the ones I want to play the most!