Friday 1 February 2013

Post Akumakon Thoughts

Greetings fellow internet wanderers!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while :( The awesomeness of Akumakon left me so exhausted I caught the flu and have been sick for the last week and a half. Now that I'm on the road to recovery though I thought I'd tell you how the convention went.


First of all well done Akumakon people! The convention was loads of fun and your best one yet! The Japanese guests were amazing, their panel was definitely the highlight of my weekend maybe even my year (though its early days). For those of you who don't know their first guest was Hirokatsu Kihara who used to work for Studio Ghibli and has worked on Laputa Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro and Nausicaa of the Vally of the Wind. He also worked on Code Geass and Gundam Seed. Their second guest was Michihiko Suwa who produced Inuyasha (one of my favourite anime), Detective Conan who is celebrating its 18th year in production, and Rinne no Lagrange. They also had their recurring guest Lawrence Simpson who has done Kampfer Abridged and Naruto Abridged and is currently writing his own comic series called Project Jikoku.

The panel for the Japanese guests was amazing. Though they couldn't speak English and had to use a translator they were still very interesting and absolutely hilarious! If Kihara didn't get into animation then he should have gotten into comedy. Simply by using his small bit of English he had the crowd in stitches and really had a way of making us adoring fans feel part of something instead of us just sitting there listening to what they were saying. The best was yet to come though! Upon entering the panel everyone was handed a FREE raffle ticket that we were told to cling to for dear life and told nothing more. At the end of the panel it turned out that Kihara and Suwa had brought about ninety different items from Japan that they were handing out for FREE! I couldn't believe their generosity! The items they had weren't exactly cheap! I believe there were Miku Figurines, Inuyasha merchandise, posters that were even unbelievably rare in Japan and loads more! If you were lucky enough to have your number called you were getting an amazing item! I bet all the people that didn't go to the panel felt sorry afterwards!

As much as I would love to fan girl over this panel some more Akumakon did have some other great events! One of my favourite ones was on the Friday Night and that was the Man of Action Panel. It was three guys reading a Twilight Fan Fiction in funny voices and it had me on the floor laughing my ass off. Jim Fitz who is a regular con goer and staffer put on a Northern accent, Andrew (I don't remember his last name sorry!) had on a pretty boy English accent that I think was actually his own and John Burke last year's Akumakon Co-con director switched between Mickey Mouse, Bane and David Attenborough! The three of them together was just so funny, I would definitely see something like that again.

Another event that is worth mentioning is the Charity Auction. It was the first time Akumakon had done something like this and I must say it went amazingly well! They made over 1,200 euro! It's not surprising though when you hear some of their items they had. Kihara donated a Japanese Lucky Charm that contained 24 carat gold that ended up selling for over 200 euro! They had an over 18's goody bag with contents brought over from Japan that sold for 180 euro (I think!), an unopened original copy of Final Fantasy 9 and my personal favourite their mystery box that was hand crafted by Tadgh Tynan (a committee member and cosplay prop maker) and signed by Kihara and Suwa. It was a great success and I only wish I had money to bet on some of the items myself!

Their Maid Café which is run every year by the Wá Café, a local Japanese Restaurant was once again amazing and I really enjoyed their Noodles and Sushi. Akumakon is definitely the best Irish convention when it comes to food  as it is authentic and really reasonably priced. I go to a lot of Irish conventions and they always have the basic chips and sweets that are always ridiculously overpriced so I'm always happy when I go to Akumakon knowing that I don't have to pack a load of cheese strings and pot noodles!

Of course their Traders Hall was pretty good as always and included a make your own donut stand which was really fun and had delicious results! Their Artist Ally had some amazing talent and their Cosplay Masquerade was once again really well put together. All in all this was a great convention and I really hope Akumakon continues to get better and better. Well done to all the staff and committee you all did a fantastic job and you should all be really proud!



So guys those are my thoughts on the weekend! Did you guys go to Akumakon? If not do you want to go next year? What do you think about conventions? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time!

-BGG

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Some Random Little Games And An Awesome Convention!

Hello All!

So I have gone up by fifty page views yay! Thank you all for taking the time to click on my little piece of internet space! You are all very quiet though, I'd love to see some opinions in the comments so speak up and let me know who you are and what you think!

So I've been in an odd mood the last few days and haven't really fancied playing my usual games like League of Legends, Minecraft, World of Warcraft etc. After finishing Halo 4 I just wanted to play games that aren't ongoing, I wanted to complete something! I love the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you complete a game so this week I finished two games I got over the Christmas sales; Little Inferno and The Unfinished Swan.




So I bought Little Inferno after watching a few of the videos of Simon and Lewis from the Yogscast playing it. It looked like some easygoing fun just burning things and getting achievements what's not to like? There is a bit of a story to it which in my opinion is really....strange...? Basically you are playing a young boy who buys the latest craze for kids to keep warm in the freezing environment: the Little Inferno which is pretty much just a fire place with a creepy face in the middle. On arrival of your purchase you get a letter from Miss Nancy the head of the Tomorrow Corporation congratulating you on your purchase and explaining that you can buy things to burn in the catalogues you unlock as you go throughout the game. You are told about the the harsh conditions via letters from the Weatherman who rides a hot air balloon above the city and you receive regular letters from your eccentric yet strangely philosophical neighbour Sugar Plumps.

As you burn the random items you purchase you can gain money and stamps to help you buy more things to burn as well as unlocking combos such as the LOL Kitty Combo which you get by burning the Wandering Eye Camera and the Kitty Kitty Poo Poo Plushie together. Your neighbour Sugar Plumps also asks you to send her things like a magnet, fireflies and fashionable sunglasses while also telling you she cant look backwards and there is something we don't know. Just over halfway through the game you hear a rumbling sound from above and a girl screaming. A letter from the Weatherman tells you that he can see a house on fire and it is assumed poor Sugar Plumps is dead. You continue on, no longer receiving letters from poor Sugar Plumps. You do however receive a mysterious letter telling you to burn all the things you sent her together. When you do so you unlock the hidden combo and trigger the end of the game.  I won't spoil it for you but it is very strange and unsatisfying in my opinion. However I still quite enjoyed the game though the story had a disappointing ending. I loved trying to figure out the combos and watching the different effects the fire had on the items I purchased (my favourite being the Phoenix Egg). The game is so simple yet very enjoyable as it goes along. It is the type of game however you will only want to play through once. I really can't see myself getting any enjoyment out of playing it over and over but it was still a fun experience or what it is.

So the second game I played I bought on a whim because quite simply it was on sale and I like swans. Yup that's all it took. I hadn't heard much about it except that it was a short game that didn't require a lot of thought or skill so I thought it would be the perfect purchase with the last of my gaming money. I wish I had looked into it more >.<

You play as a little orphan boy called Monroe who's mother has recently died. She was an artist with a habit of not finishing her work. Monroe is allowed to pick one piece out of his mother's collection to keep so he picks his favourite a painting titled 'The Unfinished Swan'. One night he sees the swan has vanished and so searches for it in the painting (because that's what we all would do right?). This brings you to the start of the game which is you in a completely white space. You get through the level by throwing ink around to reveal your surroundings as you chase the orange footprints of the swan. You find letters written on different surfaces which when you throw ink (or later in the game water) at them gets the narrator to tell the story of this world. You find out a King has created this unfinished kingdom and is locked away near his home fast asleep mourning the disappearance of his pregnant queen many years ago. As you continue chasing the swan you pop balloons to unlock new items, grow ivy to help you move along the unfinished land and try and find the different letters to unlock the story. In one particular level where you are wondering through a forest you must also avoid being hurt my the mysterious creatures that lurk in the dark.

The Unfinished Swan is basically a puzzle game set in a blank world. At first I thought maybe it is a kids game but the story seems a bit too dark for kids so it left me uncertain if I should dislike the game for being too short and too easy or accept it as a game that is targeted for younger ages. I decided to look it up and saw it was advertised as 12+ which seemed accurate enough to me when I looked back at it. The game is simple enough that twelve year olds would find it not too challenging and the story wouldn't be too dark for them. However I think if I was twelve and sat down to play this game I would find some elements of it a bit too childish for me. The fact that you are playing a young boy is fine but things like the balloon currency and simplicity of the game won't keep a twelve year old's attention for long. Also most of the items you unlock bar the balloon locator aren't useful. What got me through the game was trying to unlock all of the achievements. Most of them are quite simple but getting through the first level by only throwing three ink blots is quite hard and I found myself not caring enough to try any more than five times. The game's unusual concept is quite clever and interesting but the story isn't very good, the game play is mediocre at best and the game comes off as a bit pretentious. I just didn't enjoy it very much but it could just be me being too old for this game.  So what did this game teach me? Research the game a little bit before you buy it!




Before I head off I just wanted to mention a little convention called Akumakon that is run in Galway City where I live. It is a great convention that I go to every year with my friends and I always really enjoy it. A lot of work is put into it and the people who run it are really friendly and deserve a lot of credit as they don't get paid and do it completely during their free time. If your in Ireland this weekend I highly suggest you try and make it! I will put a link to their facebook page and website below!

So what do you think of these games? Did you like them? Are you going to Akumakon? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Enjoy the rest of the week guys!

-BGG

Akumakon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Akumakon?fref=ts

Akumakon website: http://www.akumakon.com/

(Akumakon flyer image courtasy of bubblecat's deviant art http://bubblecat.deviantart.com/gallery/39317784)

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Pokémon Explosion!

Hey guys!

Hope everyone is doing well and has recovered from the Steam Sales! (my mind has, my wallet hasn't).

So the topic of conversation going around for gamers young and old at the moment is of course yesterdays announcement of the sixth generation Pokémon games X and Y. I for one was really happy that it was a generation six announcement and not a remake of generation three like a lot of people were expecting. Growing up Pokémon Gold was one of my favourite games so I rushed out to by Heart Gold on release and to be honest it was kind of meh. I loved that you could have the Pokémon of your choice walk around with you but that was all that really stood out or me. Also I don't know why but I am way more hyped up for X and Y than I was for Black and White. I'm not really sure why but it could be down to the three starters for X and Y. I will go through them in a moment but in my opinion they are the best starters we have had since Chikorita, Totodile and Cyndaquil. In the other Pokémon games I find you have maybe one or two good choices and the others are pretty average. For example Piplup in my opinion was the best choice in Diamond and Pearl with Turtwig being average and Chimchar being a good design and cool concept but landing up being a bit of a disappointment. In Black and White Snivy was the obvious choice over both Tepig and Oshawott. However the X and Y starters all look equally interesting in their own way which if you have been looking at 4chan you will already know has completely split Pokémon fans instead of them showing a clear favourite.

So here are my thoughts on the three starters!


Froakie has a really cool design and is rumoured to be water/psychic which I think would suit him perfectly. I love the way they made it look like he has glasses and he is holding his head a bit like Psyduck which makes my think water/psychic is definitely a strong possibility. My bets are water/psychic or water/ ice since in one of the previews it looked like he was using some sort of ice move. I think he will be very popular for people who like originality and who like intelligence when it comes to games (for example people who would pick the Asura in Guild Wars 2). I'm really looking forward to him but I think he is in danger of being ruined by his evolution's designs. We will have to wait and see!


Chespin is really adorable! I mean he comes with his own hat! However his design is very generic. He kind of looks like a happy brown Dewott wearing Chikorita as a hat. I still really like Chespin though and I think he will still be a very popular choice because of the 'cute factor'. He is also in danger of being ruined by his evolution's design even more so than Froakie. I have a feeling this cute little fella will evolve into something quite ugly and chunky but I really do hope I'm wrong! I think I like Chespin because in my opinion he is the underdog for this generation and I always love the underdogs! I'm going to put my bets on him being either grass/normal or grass/fighting.


Last but not least there is the beautiful Fennekin so called after an actual type of fox called the Fennec fox which is known for its huge ears. This is the starter all of the girls are going to want to choose. I know, its sexist but come on look at her she is the new Vulpix. Did we need a new Vulpix? No, probably not but this is their way of appealing to the girls and I'm not going to lie this starter is going to bring in the bucks for them. She is the nicest looking fire starter since Torchic and a lot of people are going to pick her since getting a good fire Pokémon is tough in the games. My bets for her are either fire/normal or fire/dark.

I myself am finding it hard to choose between these three but another choice is playing on my mind and that is the decision between X and Y. The two legendary Pokémon are both gorgeous and mysterious as you can see. The buck or fabulous stag as I like to call it is called Xerneas and reminds me of the spirit in Princess Mononoke. The legendary bird is called Yveltal pronounced ee-vell-tall. I don't really like the way its wings and tail look the same but other than that I love the black and red colouring. I don't really think we need another legendary bird though so I will probably be picking fabulous stag.


So what are your thoughts on the new Pokémon game? Do you have a favourite starter? Will you be buying X or Y? Do you think you can wait until October? I'd love to hear your thoughts so post a comment below!


-BGG


Wednesday 2 January 2013

My thoughts on Halo 4

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!


I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and are on route to an awesome 2013!

Santa brought me a lovely copy of Halo 4 which I finally got around to completing yesterday so I thought I would tell you a bit about it. I am quite the Halo fan and have played every game realised to date so as you can imagine I was really excited to start playing it. A few of my friends had bought it on release and had really enjoyed it but I had asked them not to spoil it for me so I tried to not get my hopes up! Of course that failed miserably and for most of Christmas Day I was staring longingly at my Xbox while talking to various family members. Finally I got to play it a few days later and I must say I was not disappointed.

The story mainly features around Master Chief and Cortana being sucked into the hollow planet of Requiem and accidentily releasing the forerunner Didact. who back in the time of the original Flood outbreak turned captive humans into Promethean warriors and was later imprisoned by the Librarian. While this happens the ship Infinity who tries to rescue Master Chief and Cortana also gets sucked into Requiem and after saving them the Captain of the ship Del Rio who is your typical power mad asshole orders you to destroy the gravity well that sucked them in and go home instead of going after the Didact who is heading for earth to destroy the human race while is device called the Composer. Another storyline running through the game is based around Cortana our beloved AI system who is suffering from rampancy which she describes as 'thinking herself to death'. If they do not get to earth soon her malfunctions will get worse and she will be shut down.

Overall I was really happy with the story. Cortana and Master Chief's bond is really shown in the game and since she is one of my favourite characters I was really glad to see her get the amount of attention she gets in game. I was also really excited to finally meet the Librarian who we have heard so much about from Guilty Spark since the early days of Halo 1. It was also nice to fight some new enemies in the form of the Prometheans instead of just the Covenant and the Flood. The Prometheans are a really good addition to the game as they do make it a bit harder. The Promthean crawlers climb rocks and trees and can jump out of nowhere if your not paying attention especially since they travel in packs. The Promethean Knights are also pretty tough especially if they sneak up on you. The terrain in Requiem makes it very easy in some levels for them to hide in places where you might not see them so you really have to be aware of the vantage points around you.

Of course with new enemies comes new weapons! :D I wont go through them all but I particularly like the Suppressor which is basically the Promethean machine gun (I'm a big machine gun fan XD ). I also found their shotgun the Scattershot to be the most effective shotgun in the game so far as it far superior to the human equivalent. When fired it can ricochet off nearby surfaces making it deadly in small spaces. Its best you have one as the Promethean Knights sure will! There is also a new grenade in the game called a Pulse Grenade! Its quite good for taking down large groups of enemies who are close together as it takes away health and shields in the area covered by the bubble it creates. It doesn't do a great deal of damage but it makes enemies spread out so they are easier to take down. The weapon I expect to be the most popular amongst players will probably be the Incineration Cannon. First of all the name is awesome but it also combines a rocket launcher, a shot gun and a flame-thrower into the most fun gun ever! But beware! Its explosive damage will take you down if you fire it too close to yourself! The only real downside to this gun though is the fact you wont see it until later in the game but I suppose that's fair I think you would be slightly OP if you could get it early on.

All in all I find very little wrong with this game. If I had to have one complaint it would probably be that the campaign is very short. I completed it in around six hours which really isn't very long. I would have liked it to have been longer and I would have liked to have seen the Didact a bit more but those are things I can easily live without.

Well those are my thoughts on Halo 4. What did you think of the game? Did you like the Prometheans? What is your favourite Halo game? I would love to hear your opinions so please leave a comment below!

-BGG

Wednesday 19 December 2012

A Very Minecraft Christmas!

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having fun in the lead up to Christmas!

Since Christmas is creeping ever so slowly towards us I thought I would tell you about my favourite thing about gaming at this time of year...Christmas Themed Minecraft!

The thing I love most about Minecraft is the endless creative possibilities, you can pretty much create anything you want by fashioning it out of the many different materials you find throughout the game. I pretty much think of it as lego for grown-ups! Though I am not talking about the lego kits you get these days where you are given pieces to make a particular fancy model of a star wars ship or a ferris wheel. I mean back in the days of my childhood when I had a huge blue box filled with random pieces of lego that would put Lego Land to shame.

Since Minecraft was released back in 2009 its many players have made some completely amazing creations from Disney Castle replicas to huge PvP maps. One of my personal favourite places to find awesome Minecraft creations is Yogscast Sjin's youtube channel particularly his Let's Build A Kingdom series. He has so far built the Kingdom's main city, a village, a huge dragon head shaped mountain and is currently working on an evil fortress for the Kingdom's rivals. He is very talented and has made some absolutely beautiful buildings using this simple game. I highly recommend you check out his channel (which I will post a link to at the end).

Christmas themed Minecraft creations get bigger and better every year! People make giant Santas, reindeer, snowmen, candy canes, christmas trees and of course Christmas themed adventure maps where its all down to you to save Christmas! Over the last couple of weeks a few friends of mine and myself have been making our own little Christmas Village which is starting to look quite adorable if I do say so myself. Our little village centres a giant Christmas tree which, with the introduction of different coloured lamps and redstone repeaters looks absolutely  amazing at night! Dotted all around the village our cute little red and white candy canes and small little reindeer. My personal favourite is one of my own of creations, my Christmas Bakery filled to the brim with cake! I also fashioned a little Christmas pudding to keep with the theme. What I also love is that snow golems finally look normal in our Christmasy snow biome! Snow Golems are bros I love having an excuse to make them by the dozen :D

Christmas also brings out the good in people and this is no different in the land of youtube. The yogscast are once again opening their minds and their wallets and raising money for charity by donating bees for bee keeping  It may sound odd but honey is a great way for under privileged communities to make money for themselves so it is really a great cause! They are doing Christmas Livestreams help get donations where they play all sorts of games including Minecraft! If you are interested in donating I will leave a link at the end!

So now to you! What have you been playing over Christmas? Hoping Santa brings you any particular game?If you too are playing Minecraft have you made anything Christmasy? I'd love to hear your thoughts and see your creations!

Well that's all for now!

Merry Christmas!

-BGG

Yogscast Sjin;s channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/yogscastsjin

Yogscast Honeydew's Honey Drive:  http://www.justgiving.com/yogscast






Tuesday 18 December 2012

A Little Introduction To Me

Hello people with internet access!

I thought I'd start of my little blog with a small introduction to me so maybe if you continue to read my blogs you will understand why I have the opinions I do. I have decided that for now I wont be giving away many personal details such as my real name, my friends real names etc. Maybe I will one day but since I am a first time blogger and I am quite a shy person I'm going to test the waters a bit first before I give too much of myself away. I will tell you however that I live in Ireland, in the great city of Galway and that as my name suggests I am a female gamer who doesn't think she is very good.

Now when I say I'm a girl gamer I don't mean I play Call of Duty 4 with my boyfriend and now consider myself a gamer. I have played PC and console games from the good old days of the Sega Mega Drive, Nintendo 64 and PS1. However I don't think I really would have called myself a gamer until I entered college. It was then I had the freedom to stay up until the ungodly hours of the morning playing World of Warcraft, the many Pokémon games and old reliable Super Mario. When I did venture out into sunlight and talked to other gamers who had gotten lost on their way to the many gaming stores we have in Galway they also led me on to the other loves of my life League of Legends, Guild Wars, Halo and Minecraft. If you decide to continue reading my blogs then you will probably see me talking about these games and more (especially Minecraft cause I loooove minecraft).

People will probably wonder why I chose the name 'Bad Girl Gamer' so I thought I'd clear that up before I start. I chose it because my blogs will focus on games, I am female and though I play games I am in no way a "pro" and can be quite bad at the games I play. I am not trying to be the whole damsel in distress female gamer who is hoping guys will read my blog because they see me this way. I just thought it was a catchy name that suited me and what my blogs will be about. I'm also not saying I'm bad when I'm actually quite good. I really am below average sometimes especially at LoL (my friends will vouch for this :P ). Anyway I don't mean to go off in a rant I just wanted to clear that up.

Games mean a lot to me, I have a lot of fun with them and I love talking about them with other people which is why I have started this blog. I will be updating at least once a week or whenever I have a random thought about a game! Obviously not everyone will agree with my opinions which is fine! Please feel free to comment with your own thoughts I really would love to hear them. Please try not to be mean about it though especially to other people sharing their own opinions. Lets try keep this a happy place :D

So this was a brief introduction to me the gamer and what my blogs will be about. I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to hearing your own thoughts and opinions about my future blogs!

In short welcome to my little corner of the internet! Enjoy your stay and please wipe your feet before entering :D


-BGG