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!