This evenings post is something I have wanted to write about for a while. I’ve been a gamer since the age of 5 and proud of that! My first console was a Super Nintendo Electronic System (SNES for short), which I still own to this day! Soon after that I was gifted a Game Boy, with a Tetris cartridge in. I loved that game so much, I never got bored of the games music either. 😛
There’s quite a lot of games coming out this year and even next year that I’m already excited about, so I thought I would share those here with you all! I talk a lot about gaming to be honest with you… In the “real world” if you will, but I feel like I never talk about gaming on my blog as much as I would like to. I want this to change and in the future I would even love to film myself playing some games to pop up on YouTube!
I know not a lot of people can afford games, or are interested enough in them to play them themselves and just want to see the story. I’m like that myself to be honest with you. I’m really interested in Cyberpunk 2077 BUT the reason it didn’t make it onto this list is because I doubt I will play it and instead I would watch my boyfriend Dane play it instead. I’ve done this time and time again with games and I have zero regrets.
Let’s start talking about the games! This post will be a long one. 😛
Untitled Goose Game – Out 20th September 2019 Nintendo Switch (link)
This is a game that I’m gutted I never got to play at EGX… I’ve seen people playing it and watched videos of trailers etc but as of yet I have not had the chance to try. I’m not going to lie, I had forgotten all about this game to be honest with you! It’s only from looking at my EGX post last year that I discovered it again. This is a goose simulator game, where your task is to annoy humans as much as possible! You get tasks you have to do to complete the level. I cannot believe this is out next week! I hope it is in the UK anyway… If so I will be buying it and spending my weekend playing it with Dane. Apparently this is available on Steam too, but I’ll be getting it for the Switch.
I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator – Out 24th September 2019 on Steam (link)
This game was announced this morning. I read about it on Twitter and I am already smitten with the idea of this game. I’m not like a massive KFC fan or anything, but the fact this is a dating sim game AND it is made by KFC makes me fucking laugh. It’s out in a couple of weeks (again, hopefully in the UK again as well) and not only do I plan on getting it, but I also plan on filming myself playing this game. I’m so damn excited for it, that I need to share the shits and giggles of playing it with others.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 – Out 31st October 2019 on Nintendo Switch (link to Smyths)
I’ve never played the Luigi’s Mansion games, but I’ve always wanted to! I never played the first game as it was around when I didn’t own a GameCube and I never played the second one because I didn’t play the first one! I’m pretty sure you don’t need to know the story to play this game. You’re Luigi (the better of the two plumber brothers, in my opinion!) with a Ghostbusters style kit and you’re in a haunted mansion. What more is there to explain, really? This isn’t a game I plan to rush out and buy the date it comes out, but if I found it at a decent price I’d definitely pick it up to play with Dane, as this is a two player game! I love that this is out over Halloween! Perfect timing to be honest with you. If a demo comes out I’ll definitely give that a go.
Pokemon Sword & Shield – Out 15th November 2019 on Nintendo Switch (link to Smyths here, here and here)
This game is already on pre-order and I’ve even bought both of the games, one for me and one for Dane! Of course for the time being I’ll be sharing Dane’s Switch (which we have been doing since he bought it in 2018) alongside him to play this game! I still don’t know which game I want to play yet, but for me it will entirely depend on which game has the best exclusives. I’m very much excited for these games though, as I have a feeling Pokemon have learnt from how lame Sun and Moon were and worked really hard to bring us better game play. Gyms are back and we also have some new features in Sword and Shield! I’m definitely swaying towards Sword though. 🙂
Alchemic Cutie – Out 2019 on Steam (link to Steam)
At EGX last year I gave this game a go and I really enjoyed playing it! It reminds me of Animal Crossing with the game style and is a very relaxing game. You live on an island that is home of jellies, which you must go out and tame to make them your own. Then once you have these jellies you can participate in competitions with them and more! It was definitely a cool little game I played during EGX and one that stood out to me the most. There isn’t an official release date yet, but it just says 2019 at the moment. I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled on this, I really like relaxing games, especially after a long day at work.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Out 20th March 2020 on Nintendo Switch (link to Smyths)
I don’t think I need to say a whole lot about this game. Everyone knows how much I love Animal Crossing and just how damn excited I am for New Horizons to come out on the Switch. As of yet I haven’t actually pre-ordered the game, as I’m praying that Nintendo will release a Switch console (normal or the Lite) to coincide with the new game. Even if it doesn’t, I’ll still be happy, but either way I would still pick myself up a Switch of my own as I would like one for playing games like this. I know Dane is planning on picking up New Horizons too so that we can play this together. This looks like there’s so much more to do now than ever before and alongside the old school Animal Crossing, it also reminds me of Minecraft too, where you need to craft and build things. Honestly, I can’t stop thinking about this game and for the time being I am trying to keep my Animal Crossing cravings at bay with Pocket Camp! 😛
Calico: Magical Girls Running Cat Cafés – Out April 2020 on Steam, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 (link to Kickstarter)
Next we have Calico, a game that I backed over on Kickstarter quite a while ago now! I stumbled across this game and after keeping my eyes on it for a couple of days, I decided to back! Again, as the game’s name explains, Calico is a game about two magical girls who are running cat cafes. This game reminds me of Animal Crossing, where you need to look after your cafe, whilst gathering cats and other animals from the woods nearby to host in your cafe. You can also create massive animals too who you can ride, including a red panda! I am so excited for this to come out in April and I although it is available on all consoles, I decided to get it on the Switch, as this is a console I have really loved playing my games on of late. 🙂
To The Rescue! A Dog Shelter Simulator – Out August 2020 on Steam (link to Kickstarter and Steam)
Finally we have the last game on this post! I’ve actually backed this game on Kickstarter. It was one I wasn’t sure about and due to that ummed and ahhed for ages about it. I’m glad I backed it in the end however, as I think I would have regretted it. As the title of the game tells you, this is a dog shelter simulator game and as you would in a dog shelter, you look after any dogs that come in, try to get them adopted and more. There is even a point in the game where you may need to put a dog to sleep if it’s not adoptable, or been at the shelter too long. However, this is a an optional option for the game, so if you don’t want to do anything like this, you don’t have to. This game isn’t going to be out for just under a year now, which is crazy! It’ll be worth the wait though.
So those are all the games I am excited for for the remainder of 2019, as well as 2020! I didn’t quite realise how many games I’m hyped for until writing this post, as well as how many I have pre-ordered.
Which games are you excited for? Make sure to let me know in the comments.
Until next time, take care all and I hope you’ve had a great week so far!
How are we less than 2 weeks away from February?! 2019 is already flying by and I don’t like it. 😛
It’s Sunday evening and I’m not going to lie, I have serious writers block. I haven’t had this for years now so I’m a bit miffed. I know you shouldn’t write when you can’t think of anything, but at the same time I want to get something in my blog. I’ve had a week of overtime, exercising in various different ways and spending the last half an hour of my night before I sleep playing games on my phone or watching a YouTube video.
This inspired me to write today’s blog post. I know a lot of people suffer from anxiety and in fact 1 in 4 people are diagnosed with anxiety, including myself. My anxiety has gotten better to be fair, but it still lingers and at the worst times is still a pain in the arse.
So I decided to combine one of loves with one of my hates. I love gaming and I hate my anxiety, of course. 😛
There are various games I like to play when I’ve had a rough day and I thought these may help you guys when you just need to chill out in your favourite space and try to forget stuff for a while as you relax.
I really hope this post can help some of you the way these games have helped me in the past. 🙂
1. Animal Crossing: Pocket Came – Free on App Store and Google Play.
The first game I want to talk about is the one I’m really loving the most recently. Since I got my iPhone XR (which you can read about here) I’ve re downloaded and rediscovered this amazing free game! Not only is it free but it’s Animal Crossing, what’s not to love?! I did play this when it first came out and I loved it so much, but I was in my old job and too miserable to play it. I’d just binge watch YouTube and scroll through Instagram instead. Then I didn’t have room on my phone anymore to continue to keep it, so it was deleted. Now I have loads of room, it’s back on my phone and played daily now! It’s staying this time around. 😛 This is a bit more straight forward to play than the Animal Crossing we all know and love from various Nintendo consoles and handheld consoles. As the name suggests you have your own camp that you need to look after and make sure your animals are happy! There are always new things happening in the game due to constant updates to coincide with special events that are happening in the world. You do need a WiFi connection to play this game, but that’s fairly easy to get nowhere days. I just find this game really handy to play if I need to relax, especially before bed.
This is a game I really love and actually haven’t played for some time. It’s beyond relaxing and one of those games where you won’t realise where the time has gone until it’s pitch black outside and you can’t stand yawning anymore. As the title of the game suggests you’re a house flipper, and need to brings homes back to a good place! I love when you have a grotty house that needs some TLC. It is a very lengthy game and some homes can take agggges to put back right, but that being said it’s still so relaxing to play. You could put some of your own music on, a TV show or even the radio and you’d be super relaxed! I really want to play it now to be honest with you. 😛
3. Sushi Cat – 99p on App Store and free to play online.
This is a game I’ve played on and off over the years. Not only is it cute, but it’s actually addictive to sit and play! It’s free online for all the games that have been made to date, but you can also download it for a small fee on the App Store. You play as Sushi Cat who has fallen in love with a female cat plushie. He needs to gain weight however to get into the store to get to her, so what does a sushi loving cat do? Eat all the sushi he can get! That’s the aim of the game, get him to eat all the sushi! I love it so damn much and it really does cheer me up to play with the cut scenes, as well as the game play. Just Google search and you’ll soon find this game and the others in this series.
This is a game I love so damn much! I really enjoy playing it with Dane as it’s hilarious to play together, but I think playing this game solo is so much better and definitely more relaxing. You’re in charge of cleaning up a grim bloody scene, surrounded by bits of bodies and lots of blood and gore. It’s not graphic, just in case you’re wondering! 😛 You just have to clean up the area as much as possible, mopping up blood, burning bits of bodies, etc. It’s hilarious to play and would definitely take your mind off of stuff!
5. Pokemon Go – Free on App Store and Google Play.
The last game I’m going to talk about on this post is definitely my favourite out of the bunch! I love playing Pokemon GO! Not only does it get me out of the house to walk around and play games as and when I fancy it, but if I’ve had a hard day and need to get away from everyone for a while, you can have a walk and play this at the same time. I remember years ago as a teenager and in my early 20’s when I had stuff on my mind I’d go for a walk with my music to think things through, but I was always just endlessly walking and thinking. Now with games like Pokemon Go and the Jurassic Park one you can play games whilst you’re out walking, running, etc! I love how we have stuff like this now, it’s amazing. I find this can motivate people who are feeling anxious as well to get out of the house to try and not let any thoughts take over them too much, if that makes sense? 🙂
Which of the games do you think will work best for when you’re feeling anxious or just want something to relax you? Are there any games suggestions you have that I didn’t name on this list? Make sure to let me know in the comments!
Until next time, take care all and I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. 🙂
EGX is currently halfway through and I am so excited to say I’ll be there on Sunday for the first time ever! I’m pretty damn stoked to finally be attending EGX.
It was my best friends idea for us all to go (us two and our boyfriends) together for one day and we settled on Sunday.
For those of you who may not know what EGX is, it’s the UK’s biggest games event and it’s running from Thursday 20th until Sunday 23rd September at the NEC Birmingham.
It’s only the UK’s biggest video games event! Come along and you’ll find the most anticipated console and PC games, all playable weeks or months before they’re released. We also have presentations by game designers from world renowned studios, areas dedicated to esports, the opportunity to meet and chat with game creators and loads more.
I’ve heard about it on and off over the years but never really been bothered about going and instead would book and go to Hyper Japan or Comic Con. After my friend suggested the idea though, I was down for that!
Since booking the tickets about a month ago now I’ve been checking up on their social media and website every other day for updates on what games are going to be there and each time I look there’s a better announcement! I honestly cannot wait for Sunday now.
So, I thought I would write a blog post about what I’m excited for at EGX and why! I might also get Dane to talk about some games he’s excited about too, because why not! 😛
I’m just going to jump straight into it and I’ll also include trailers for games too. This is going to be a long lists, so I apologise in advance for all the waffling I’ll be doing. 😛
Kingdom Hearts III – Out 29/01/2019 on PlayStation 4
Although I’ve on and off played the first Kingdom Hearts game, I have always been intrigued by the game series and would love to finally get into it now the third one is finally coming out! My best friend Gabriella loves this series so even if I’m not all arsed about going to play it, I know she’ll want to play it! Even if I don’t give it a go, I’d love to watch her try the demo.
LEGO DC Super-Villains – Out 19/20/2018 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch
I’ve actually already preordered this game as I just fancied getting it for me and Dane to play together on lazy evenings and weekends in. I can’t wait to be honest with you as I remember back to one of the first LEGO games, Batman where they allowed you to be the good guys AND the bad guys. I LOVED being the baddies so damn much and since then they haven’t seemed to do that again as well. So when this was announced I knew I had to get it. I’m unsure if I’ll play the demo for the game as before I know it I’ll have it, BUT if I find we’re bored and want something to do, I’d definitely go and give the demo a play!
Life is Strange 2 – Out 27/09/2018 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Steam
If there was a game I adored it was Life is Strange. It wasn’t particularly unique but it was definitely something different at the time and no one else was really doing it and if they were clearly not as well. The graphics and mouth work of the game is pretty poor, but the story really does make it worth it! Although this will be out less than a week after we attend EGX, I still wouldn’t mind giving the demo a go to see what the game play it like before I buy the game. The story seems to be completely different to the first game, but I hope that they include Max into this story somehow. I can’t wait for this come out, I’ll be buying it when it comes out.
Mario Tennis Aces – Out now on Nintendo Switch
This game is out now and has been for a while but EGX are giving people the chance to play it, which is pretty cool. I really want this game but 1. I don’t know if it’s worth the price and 2. I don’t know if I’ll actually enjoy it! I’d definitely like to give this a play whenever I get the chance to and if I enjoy it I’ll definitely want it more than ever! I wanted it to play alone, as well as with Dane but he isn’t as arsed about getting it as I am.
Persona 3: Dancing In Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing In Starlight – Out 04/12/2018 on PlayStation 4
If there is a game series I fast fell in love with almost 2 years ago, it’s Persona and it’s all thanks to Persona 5. So when they announced the dance game for the fifth game I was so damn happy! I’ve finished Persona 5, and about halfway through (and severely fucking stuck!) on Persona 4: Golden. I also own the Persona 4 dance game and really enjoy it. I love the Phantom Thieves so I’m so excited to see more of them before they’re gone completely. Although I haven’t yet played Persona 3, I would still love to give the demo a play to see what it’s like. I’ll definitely be playing the Persona 5: Dancing In Starlight demo, no matter what. This is actually a game I haven’t preordered yet and it’s pretty much because Dane wants it as a possibly Christmas present idea. The cutie. 😛
Pokemon Let’s Go! Eevee and Pokemon Let’s Go! Pikachu – Out 16/11/2018 on Nintendo Switch
Oh man as soon as this game was announced and released for preorder I was on that ASAP! There were rumours that this game was going to be coming out on the Switch when leaks popped up all over the internet. I won’t lie, I thought it was bullshit and would just become another 3DS game or nothing at all. Alas, I was wrong and it was announced a mere few days later for the Switch. I’m stoked for this to be honest with you and I’ve ordered the Eevee version, of course with the PokeBall! I’m unsure if I want to try the demo of this or not. I really want to, especially if you can play with the PokeBall but at the same time I really want a surprise… I’m more than sure I’ll end up going to play it… Got to get my Pokemon fix a few months in advance. 😛
Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Out 13/11/2018 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4
Oh man I have been so excited for this game since it was announced months ago! Of course I was gutted when it got pushed back, especially as I’d have been playing it right now! I’m not bothered loads about playing this at EGX BUT if I find I’m bored and want something to do, I’d definitely go and give this a play if I had the chance to.
Untitled Goose Game – Release date TBC but sometime in 2019 on Nintendo Switch and Steam
If there is a game I definitely want to have a go on, it’s this goose game! The release date hasn’t been announced yet but I’m hoping it’ll be sooner rather than later. This is such a fun looking game and I wish it was 2 player so you could be evil geese together. You play as an annoying goose who is terrorising and trolling people in a village. It appears that you do each part of the village in levels/stages and have to do certain tasks before you can move on. Overall it just looks like a really fun game and is definitely one I’ll be getting on the Switch in the future.
Now onto the indie games! I would do what I did previously with the other games and post videos and talk a little about them but there are so many games I’m interested in that sadly I won’t be able to do that as there are just too many. I will of course list them all down below! Whether or not I end up playing them all or not is another thing, but they’re definitely games I’ll be trying out! Anything that is bold are games I’m more interested in than others.
Alchemist Cutie
Bee Kind
Beyond Blue
Billie Bust Up
Catastronaughts
Doggo
Figment
Flashing Lights
Flotsam
Heaven’s Vault
Honey, I Joined A Cult
How To Kill Monsters
Inmost
Kingdom: Two Crowns
Meridian Line
Mice On Venus
Misfolded
My Time At Portia
Nippon Marathon
Obviously Inappropriate Content
Phoenix Point
Phogs
Primetime Detective
Soundfall
Stay
Those Who Remain
Tony Slopes
War Groove
We Were Here Together
What The Golf?
Wrong World
Of course as well as playing games there will be plenty of opportunities to take photos at special stands and from what I’ve seen so far these include Kingdom Hearts, Fallout 76 and many more!
They also have merchandise stands and I know that Insert Coin Clothing will be there who I’m sure I’ve mentioned on my blog in the past. There will be more merchandise stands there who I’ll be checking out whenever I get the chance to.
Overall I think it’s going to be a super busy day and I don’t honestly know what to expect at this moment in time… After viewing Twitter the past couple of days the event seems super busy with nothing but queues, mostly at the bigger games such as Kingdom Hearts III and Pokemon Let’s Go!
I am to check out all the indie games first and then focus on the bigger games, as I can only imagine everyone will run to the bigger stuff first! Most of the games I’d want to play I’ve preordered and are out soon anyways. Indie games are always worth supporting and trying before buying.
Either way, I know I’ll have an amazing time and quite honestly I can’t wait!
I’ll pop all of the EGX links down below for anyone who may want to follow on social media, or even book tickets so you can come to the event yourselves!
Are you attending/attended EGX at all? If so what are you looking forward to the most/what did you enjoy the most? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below or over at my Twitter – @maybeecoffee
Until next time, take care all and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Hello there coffee lovers! Dane here taking over Nat’s blog for a bit. Hopefully I didn’t bore you last time with declaring how much I needed to get a virtual reality headset with a gaming PC to power it. I had actually planned to follow up the post with a games wish list and things you need for VR but there really isn’t much point in that now because…
I got myself a new PC! I know only a few of you may actually be interested in reading this post and I do apologise for its subjectively boring topic.
By the way, my jimmies have been rustled by the cost. 😉
I just couldn’t wait any longer and I had to make the jump to get everything I needed. I had already bought a couple of the items like the PSU, case and so on. These were all things I could test out before hand to prove worked just so I could send them back if needed. It is always wise to get everything together as you wont know if there is a problem until you power them on, and with a computer you need everything together to make sure it works.
Sadly in my excitement, I didn’t get many photos of the build. I just had to build it, and yes this was built by myself. Nothing was pre-built and it is much easier than some people may realise.
The PC isn’t the most powerful workstation in the world but it’s certainly enough to play the current generation of games.
If you’re interested here’s the specs:
Ryzen 5 1600 Processor
16GB Corsair vengeance 2666MHz RAM
Gigabyte B350 Gaming 3 Motherboard
Asus GTX 1070 Expedition Graphics Card
NZXT S340 Case
There are many reasons I went for this set up. After looking at components for over a year, seeing how the market has changed and the right deal for me came up I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
I have wanted Ryzen to succeed since it launched because Intel have been the dominant processor producer for several years and competition always helps the market. After it got released and the major players recommended using it I knew this would be the direction I would head. It has been commented that Ryzen is better at handling streaming and other multicore applications, it lacks the pure power that Intel produces but is a cheaper alternative for those who still want to game. The 1000 series is actually out of date already, Ryzen has in fact released APUs (CPUs with Vega Graphics embedded) and even released the full second generation 2000 series. This caused prices to drop for the 1000 series processors and I had to snap one up.
Buying a motherboard these days is somewhat of a simpler purchase. There are 3 options that you can go for with Ryzen processors (AM4 Chipset) A320, B350 and X370 which are the budget, mid and enthusiast levels respectively. I went for B350 as I want something which has some of the fancier bits of the higher end X370 but a more reasonable price. Someday I may end up overclocking the processor which the B350 will allow me to do. Other than that aspect it is just brand preference, aesthetics and price that you need to look for. I chose the Gaming 3 for its red and black theme and little bit of RGB.
The graphics card was a slightly different story. All along I was going to go for an MSI GTX 1060 6GB, this changed for a few reasons. Since last year prices for GPUs have been astronomical due to bitcoin mining and ram shortages, prices started to decline about a month ago to a point where I felt it was time to purchase. A 1060 6GB is supposed to be more than enough for 1080p gaming and VR but as my monitor is ultrawide and I wanted a little bit of leg room for if a game became extremely taxing in VR I decided on a 1070. It just allows that extra bit of comfort and you definitely know the component is VR Ready. I chose the Asus 1070 Expedition on a bit of a gamble. It has a red accent which is quite nice but no RGB, there weren’t even many (if any) reviews on it. If you search Asus 1070 it doesn’t even come up! The main reason was the price though, it was on sale at Overclockers.co.uk and was cheaper than the 1060, for the power I could not pass up on that opportunity (not for the second time as a 1070ti was actually on sale at Scan.co.uk which I did miss out on).
So there we have it. I made the jump and have given you my reasons for doing so and I have no complaints whatsoever with everything that I have. I can happily play all the games I have at very high/ultra detail and I love it. There is still a few bits that I want to get to make it more aesthetically pleasing, increase the disk space and I may even overclock it in the near future. All in all I am incredibly happy with what I have, and the day it arrived I was like a little kid at Christmas.
SO if you have made it this far through the post, well done! I know this post wasn’t the most exciting in the world and as I said above, only a select few may enjoy this post. Nat asked if I wanted to have a go at writing on her blog today whilst she suffers with her hayfever, and this is what I came up with.
If you’re interested in getting your own gaming PC but don’t know where to start then I’ll leave some links down below of where you can buy any parts for your gaming PC if you want to build it yourself, like I did AND I’ll also be sharing where you can buy a gaming PC built for you.
SCAN UK – Decent prices, they offer finance, their returns policy is brilliant (they’re understanding when it comes to PC components) and have incredibly friendly staff in their Bolton store.
Overclockers UK – They do pre-built PC’s so if you don’t want a gaming PC then you’re good with going here and the prices are reasonable and like SCAN UK they offer a brilliant returns policy, they also do finance. The delivery from them is secure and you feel good in the knowledge that your goods are arriving safely, and very quick delivery too!
So from buying my gaming PC it has also allowed me to use this…
Yeah. I did it.
BUT MORE ON THAT LATER!
I hope you guys enjoyed reading my post today and I am so excited to talk more about the above very soon!
I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend and until next time, take care all.
Not only can I believe we’re less than 2 weeks away from July, but I honestly cannot believe that E3 2018 has come and gone in the blink of an eye!
As we have done for the past couple of years me and Dane both watched and kept up with E3 2018 as much as we could. In all honestly I was quite disappointed with E3 this year. The majority of presentations were poor, some lacked any information on games or didn’t even show anything new, whilst others didn’t seem professional at all. We’ll talk more about this later.
Not only did we keep up with the couple of days that E3 had their conferences on, but we also kept up to date with YouTube channels such as IGN to keep up with any games that were announced outside of those conferences.
Like we did last year, we’ll take it in turns to talk about certain conferences, as well as favourite announcements this year. I don’t want to do it like we did last year and have me talk for ages and then Dane, I want it to be a mixture of us both!
As I would have said on last years post, I really hope you enjoy reading this post as much as we both enjoyed working on it together. Let’s throw ourselves into it! I’ll be the one talking majority of the time, I’ll state if Dane is chatting about anything. 😛
So EA were the ones who kick started us off for E3 2018 and whilst they did a good job, I do feel like it could have been better. I personally loved EA last year because of how much they spoke about Battlefront II, which at the time I was SO excited about! I was also pretty excited for the announcement of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, which sounds incredibly cool and exciting! Also Unravel 2 being announced was pretty awesome and it’s a game I can see me and Dane playing in the future.
Dane – EA, what happened to you? I think the only good thing that came out of it was Unravel 2. Battlefield:V has a battle-royale mode now. It looks like a typically good Dice game, but don’t try and force shit that didn’t happen in a historical setting and act like it could’ve happened. Also fuck them for ruining Command and Conquer. I fucking hate what they did to a beloved franchise.
To me alongside Bethesda, Microsoft brought it to E3 2018 and they were both the best this year by far! There was loads of announcements during Microsoft that I got so damn excited for. The first one that comes to mind is Battletoads. I used to play this on my Nintendo SNES growing up and I have so many fond memories of playing it, so now I can’t wait for it to be out on the Xbox to play with Dane. Another game that I cannot wait to download next week when it comes out is The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. It’s by the same guys behind Life Is Strange AND is also in the same universe as that game. I am incredibly excited for it already! Forza Horizons 4 is set in the UK and although I’m not a massive player of the Forza Horizon 3, I want to play this game now so I can play in the UK in autumn. 😛 We Happy Few is a game I’d like to give a go as it really reminds me of Bioshock and I LOVE that story so damn much… Whether I do or not is another story. I think overall though my favourite game that was announced at Microsoft is definitely Tunic, who is a cute little fox with a sword… Think Zelda but in fox form. 😛 I cannot wait for it to come out to play, I just wish it was on my PlayStation 4 but meh, whatever. 😛
Dane – Microsoft killed it this year, largely due to the fact that there was a lot of shit this year (looking at you PlayStation and EA!). I think Microsoft always have a good show and always present it well, they do just struggle with exclusives and giving gamers something to really talk about. This year though, they teamed up with a lot of individual studios to showcase their games, even going as far as buying them up and incorporating them within Microsoft Studios. Definitely excited about Fallout 76 though, I like the move towards multiplayer but the no NPCs is a interesting format which we will have to wait and see. Halo: Infinite didn’t really get me excited as Halo: 5 was mediocre, just hope 343 industries can do something good after their separation from Bungie. Session was an interesting announcement, lets hope it fills the void Skate left after EA did its thing to Black Box Studios. The biggest and best hype for me though was the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077. It was actually announced several years ago and with them showing codes for Witcher 3 (with DLC) hidden in the trailer was a smart move.
Now onto my favourite conference of E3 2018, Bethesda. Oh man they just brought so much to the table this year, especially in comparrison to last year. Their conference last year bored me and was just bland. This year not only did they shock us all with Fallout 76 and what they have planned for it, but they also revealed that Elder Scrolls 6 is in the works! I remember back when Morrowind was out how me and my cousins would play it all together. Then when Oblivion came out I played it so much, on both my laptop and my PS3! Then Skyrim came out and I was so disappointed by it. My dad had bought it me for Christmas the year it came out and I was gutted. It just didn’t play like the previous two had and recently I parted ways with it and took it to GAME. Now that we have something new and fresh on the way, I’m so fucking excited! As for Fallout 76, oh man it’s hella exciting for gamers alike who have loved the Fallout games for many years. They’re bringing so many exciting things for us to do on the game, but at the same time I worry about what it could cause. Are you going to build up your game play only to have it blown up by some dickhead who got the nuclear codes? Maybe, maybe not. We shall soon find out as this game will be out before we know it! Speaking of, how fucking cool is the power armour helmet that comes out with the limited edition game?? OH and one more game I’m excited for? Doom Eternal, but only for the music. HELL NO would I play that game! xD
Dane – My God. All good things and it was well presented, Todd Howard knows how to please. Fallout 76, Elder Scrolls: Blades, some new faraway game called Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6! What I really care about is a sequel to motherfucking Doom. Doom: Eternal ’nuff said. Motherfuckers.
Now we’d talk about Square Enix but we didn’t watch it… We know they would have shown Kingdom Hearts 3, but who the hell didn’t?! I’m not arsed about the Kingdom Hearts games and have played Kingdom Hears 1.5 on my PS3 in the past. It was fun to play but I don’t know if it was for me. I’m not a huge fan of the Final Fantasy games, which are practically the same but with Disney. When it’s cheap enough in the future I’ll probably pick it up.
So onto Ubisoft! The start of their conference to me really worked and it got me excited for what was to be announced throughout. I’ve never played a Just Dance game and I didn’t really know what they were advertising with all the dancing. When Dane suggested it, I wondered how I hadn’t thought of that myself. Either way, it was really cool and I love when people do things like this! To be honest apart from this the only game I was at all interested in was Skull and Bones, which looks like so much fun! Other than that, meh I’m not arsed. Let’s put it this was, near the end of the Skull and Bones talks, I fell to sleep. 😛
Dane – Zzzzz… Oh Ubisoft are on. They’ve announced a game set in Ancient Greece, that’s surpri… wait those animations look like Assassins Creed… Wait! It is Assassins Creed! *Sigh* I know they need to do something to differentiate the games as their formula started to suck but it no longer feels like you’re an assassin. It just looks like a standard adventure game set in Greece. Division 2 was also unsurprisingly announced with a very boring fake game play showcase. I wish the Tom Clancy games would go back to realism and make a single bullet count. Why can’t they make it play like Wildlands?
I didn’t watch the PC Gaming Show, but Dane did…
Dane – A few things… I am now once again a PC gamer. I should probably do another post on that because a lot has changed. I also have VR… so yeah. Segue! Stormlands is the new full VR experience from Insomniac Games. It looks pretty sweet, like Lone Echo but open world. Cyanide and Happiness have an isometric battle royale game, that should be fun. There is a Shark game, where you’re a shark. Odd. Satisfactory a first person Factorio clone looks interesting. Something about Sega releasing some recent-ish games on PC. Star Citizen released a trailer to a game that will be too big to ever be completed. Erm. Can’t really remember much else.
Finally we are coming down to the last 2 and what were the conferences I was the most excited for, as I am every year. Sony is the first one we will be talking about. I wasn’t disappointed by what Sony showed, but by the way they showed it. Every conference before it had spoken about most of the games it showed, or at least announced release dates. Did Sony did that? Nope. I was sad that they didn’t at least talk about new games they revealed. I was excited for a couple of games that they revealed, which include The Last Of Us II, which I have been so excited for since they announced it about 2 years ago. Spider-Man is also another game I was excited for but I have mixed feelings about it at the moment… It reminds me of the first Spider-Man game that came out on PlayStation many years ago now. I played it religiously and I loved it so much! I like the look of the one and especially of the nostalgia is gives me, but meh… I need to see more. Finally we have Death Stranding, a game I’m interested in because I want to know what the hell happens! I was disappointed that we didn’t get to hear about this game. Looking at it and seeing lots more footage for it is amazing, yes. But come on guys! We want to HEAR ABOUT IT TOO!
Dane – Sony, Sony, Sony. I have never liked you. This year though only reinforces that feeling. You were so boring and didn’t show us anything of value, you have your exclusives and decent IPs but what good is that if you have a conference like that. TLOU 2 looks pretty good, too good in fact. The animation in the fight scene from the game play section was something I have never witnessed before and thinking back on it, it has to be a planned animation. It just looked too perfect. Death Stranding was the only highlight for me really, it teased so much but still leaves you with more questions. Hideo Kojima is a batshit genius and I am excited for it. Microsoft are nipping at Sony’s heels though and as much as I am glad that Sony fucked up this year I expected more from them.
Finally we are onto the last conference of E3 2018, which was BY FAR the worst out of all of them for me… Nintendo. I’m a massive Nintendo gamer, they introduced me to gaming with Tetris and Pokemon on the Game Boy, as well as Donkey Kong, Starfox and Bomberman on the SNES. Their conference was starting at 5pm on the Tuesday, which is the same time I finish work. It takes me a max of 20 minutes due to traffic to get home from work. I managed to get out on time and even got petrol on my way home. I worried I may have missed loads and regretted getting petrol, but what did I miss? SWEET FUCK ALL. All I was watching when I got in from work was Super Smash Bros. They must have spoken about this game for at least an hour and it wasn’t even stuff that was THAT INTERESTING, most of it was just extras in the game. I know I’m not a fan of this game series, but who cares?! Let people play the game and discover the extras for themselves! It was obvious that Nintendo didn’t have much new to share, so instead soaked up an hour of their 2 hour conference with bloody Smash Bros. NOW I know all of us Nintendo boys and gals are disappointed that we didn’t get an Animal Crossing game announced for the Switch, but come on… Are you really surprised?! I knew we wouldn’t get an Animal Crossing game announcement. How? Well look at the phone game. If you ask me, Nintendo have run out of ideas for the game series, which is sad to admit but it’s true. I have the camper game but it bores the crap out of me and I only really play it when I’m incredibly bored. Of course I want a Switch game, but I’m not betting on it anytime soon. Whilst I was annoyed and disappointed by Nintendo, I was also happy to see some talk about Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee, which I am SO EXCITED FOR! I’ll definitely be getting the latter, as well as the special Poke Ball controller for the Switch. It’s not the RPG that Game Freak has been telling us about, but this will sure as hell tide me over until that game comes out. I’m just so excited for this and to hear more about that made up for the bullshit of Super Smash Bros that we had to endure beforehand. The game will work alongside Pokemon Go, which I have recently started playing again. I like the thought of being able to use your phone to play the game on the go and then continue when you get home by connecting it all up with the Switch. I also love the idea of playing this game with a friend, AKA Dane. I am a huge Pokemon fan and have been for as long as I can remember. I own and buy most Pokemon related games that come out and this one won’t be an exception, which I’ll also be pre ordering as soon as I can.
Dane – Nintendo this year was basically Super Smash Bros changelog V1.02. It was incredibly boring listening to the most minute detail they were adding to the next game. I don’t give a shit about that, just say we have added these characters and read this to find out more then move onto the next thing. The mini Pokemon games were the only thing of interest which had a small trailer and that was it, Nintendo were always the ones thinking out of the box and doing things for fun. This time it was just a waste of time.
So now we’ve spoken (and probably bored you all!) about the conferences, it’s time for me to briefly talk about some of my favourites that were announced outside of the conferences!
Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Out on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 21st September 2018.
One of my fondest memories of the six weeks holidays one year was playing this game day after day with my cousins and taking it in turns to beat the levels and bosses of Spyro 2! I then went on to play Spyro 3 on my own and nearly completing it 100% before my game file got corrupted and broke! I’ve since then played it fully again and completed it fully twice, once on my PS3 and once on my PS4! You get that I love Spyro, right?! 😛 I just cannot wait for this to come out in September to be perfectly honest with you and I was so excited when I discovered game play of the game. It’s lovely to see a refreshing look at Spyro, as well as hearing Tom Kenny voicing Spyro. He voiced him in both Spyro 2 and 3 and you’ll know him as being the voice behind Spongebob and Ice King.
Tunic – Out on Xbox One and Windows release Date TBC.
I know I mentioned this game when talking about Microsoft but I just had to show it here! I remember them talking about it last year at E3 and I fell in love, so I’m so happy they showed him again! It shows they haven’t forgotten about this little cutie and I don’t think many of us gamers have either. I cannot wait to hear more about this game and I’m keeping fingers crossed it’ll be out before the end of 2018.
Dead or Alive 6 – Out on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 early 2019.
Now if there is a game series like Pokemon that I have been behind and loved since day one, it’s the Dead or Alive games! I love them so much and I laugh so much at the bouncing boobies, like we all do! I just enjoy them and they’re some of the first fighting games I really could get into and play. I also love the stories of some of the characters, especially Ayana, Tina Armstrong, Helena Douglas and definitely Kasumi. The game play itself is the best to date and we are definitely in much need of a new DoA game after 7 years! I cannot wait for it.
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight – Out on PlayStation 4 and PS Vita early 2019.
If there was one game I was hoping to see at E3 2018 it was this one! As regular readers of my blog will know, I love Persona 5 so much, so when I heard they were bringing this out I was super excited! I already have the dance game for Persona 4 and I really enjoy playing it, so God help me when this comes out! I am tied between getting it for my PS4 and my PS Vita but I think it’ll have to be my console to be honest with you, just so I can get it to go with the main game. This is a game I will be pre ordering closer to the time!
Pokeball Plus – Out for Nintendo Switch on 16th November 2018.
I didn’t really touch upon this above but I will briefly here. The Pokeball Plus wasn’t really something I was sure if I wanted, until E3! Not only will this Pokeball be limited edition (according to workers in GAME anyway…) but it will also contain Mew, the hardest Pokemon to gain in the original Pokemon series! A lot of people have stated online how their favourite part of E3 2018 was how Mew talks to Reggie during this talk. 😛
Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee – Out on Nintendo Switch 16th November 2018.
Last but certainly not least we have what is probably one of my favourites from E3 2018 and I’m not going to talk much about it because I’ve pretty much done all of that earlier when talking about Nintendo. I just thought it would be rude not to share the YouTube video on here. 😛
So that is our his and hers post about E3 2018 and our highlights, as well as us bitching and moaning. 😛
In all honesty I don’t know if I speak for both me and Dane when I say this but this is by far the worst E3 I have watched to date and I don’t know why. It just lacked so much overall and it was disappointing because of it. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way too and it is such a shame. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED watching E3 2018 but at the same time I felt like I wasted my time at points whilst watching it. E3 2017 just had so much more going for it. There was also some technical fuck ups that me and Dane noticed at times too during conferences, which isn’t the end of the world but it’s not exactly great, is it?!
Overall though I am so happy to see some games I’ve been hyped about the past year or two and especially happy to see them all get release dates and times!
What games did you love seeing at E3 this year? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.
I hope you’re all well and had an amazing weekend, but until next time take care!
Wassup! The boy/man-child is here! Nat is allowing me to have free reign over a few posts… She doesn’t know that yet. As far as she knows it is only one, but I am planning to nerd out on you guys a lot so be warned. I will take you on a journey inside the mind of a late 20-something gamer going through what could only be called a mid-life crisis. Well soon-to-be-30 crisis.
As the title says this post will be about Virtual Reality, why I think it’s awesome and why you should care… Not about me, you don’t give a damn about me. Just bear with me whilst I ramble on… I’ll get there eventually.
Ever since I was a wee little ginge I have always had a major interest in gaming. I remember the days of asking papa-ginge to load up the original Worms via MS-Dos because my tiny little noggin couldn’t handle typing in the instructions to load it. We have come a long way from blowing up tiny worm shaped pixels; to grand sagas inside gigantic worlds put together with complex physics engines. Granted not many games encompass all three of those features but the sentiment stays the same: gaming technology is far away from what it was.
I have seen a shift in my own attitudes towards gaming in recent years, my enthusiasm and childlike wonder was beginning to wane. Every year I watch the different gaming exhibitions and the upcoming gaming releases and my reaction is, “meh, how are they going to fuck this awesome concept up?” I was putting it down to getting older and the onset of becoming my parents (apologies mum and dad, you’re awesome in your own way but… You know… Not).
Way back in younger and studiously drunk Dane days, I wouldn’t have thought twice about shelling out £500 on an Xbox One X, thank fuck for student loans, but now I’m not fussed. Yeah, I want one but I don’t want to do that when the original Xbox One achieves the same. When I consider the depressing state of the gaming industry *cough* EA *cough*, loot boxes, carbon copy games and the lack of innovation in the major developers, I realise I’m not the problem it’s the gaming world that is the problem. I am still a gamer and I still love games.
For quite some time now I have wanted to move away from console gaming and become one of the PC master race. It had been a while since I properly gamed on a PC and boy things have changed since then. No longer is 512mb enough for RAM and AMD (one of the big two processor producers) were once again in the shitter but it’s good to know that Counterstrike is still one of the most played games on PC.
I then began researching into PC’s. It took me a while to catch up and start putting together parts lists for my dream PC. It was all coming together and I was thinking, “fuck it, I am getting this!” Unfortunately this was around the time, or just after the time that me and Nat were saving for and buying the house, so my dream was crushed by my responsibilities as an adult. For the past two years that dream has been on hold whilst we adult… I understand I just used a noun as a verb… DILLIGAF. I can’t believe I quoted Kevin bloody Wilson… Sigh.
Getting a gaming PC was all I could think about and it tore me apart knowing I could not get one just yet, I even annoyed Nat to the point where the slightest mention of a gaming PC would cause conflict. During those two years all sorts of stuff happened with gaming. The gaming industry continued its general downward spiral into battle royale hell (I actually like PUBG btw, one of the more well-known battle royale games for the uninitiated), except for one aspect that to me was a light at the end of a dark tunnel. I bought an outdated PC from a colleague to get myself a foot in the door. I could feel the fire inside burning once again, I needed MORE!
I’m not going to bore you with a history of VR as I don’t know it THAT well, but I will try my best at a general overview. I remember hearing about the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive in their development stages, at the time I brushed it off as a silly concept that I would never be close to owning. I thought the technology was at a point where it was only remotely useable, let alone fun and was way off from what they were promising. As development continued I started to see that VR was becoming a genuine thing that could become a reality…. Excuse the pun. Oculus was bought by Facebook and the developer Valve (creators of the Half-Life series and the Steam store) was heavily pushing and advertising the Vive, made by HTC. I also started seeing more and more people (YouTubers in particular) owning and showcasing the functionality and games on offer. The same colleague I bought the PC from bought the Rift and told me all about it. I could feel myself beginning to get excited again and the PC I bought was starting to look feeble. It does its job but the majority of games I want to play either struggle or won’t play, I needed more power. This fire inside me was becoming a barbeque, I could grill a steak with that fire.
I needed to satiate this burning desire in me to see for myself how good VR actually is. I had no idea how I could do that, so I did some research. The only reasonable computer shops I know that allow you to walk in are based up north around Manchester (Scan) or down London area. We seem to be very limited in The Midlands. That was until I found Box.co.uk, a small-ish shop based around Castle Vale in Birmingham. Prices there can be reasonable and the staff are pretty cool. In the shop you will find the normal computer bits that are a PC gamer’s wet dream, but over the far side of the shop they have a couple of computer rigs set up for different purposes, one of them a serious driving simulator, another for flying and then a few other not so impressive rigs. All pretty cool but the majority of the area is allocated for their HTC Vive set up and that was our main purpose for going there. You can literally just go and ask to have a go to try it out (unfortunately, I have been there recently and the VR set up is no longer around – sadface).
The moment I first put the headset on I was genuinely back to being a little kid being excited at this technology, it takes me back to when I first booted up the Original Xbox and seeing the green blob pulsating as the console loaded. As the screens of the Vive came into focus it felt like I was peering into another world. To me, using the Vive controllers really felt like an extension of your arms, something I think only the Rift’s touch controllers could improve that sensation. I was genuinely immersed.
The first game I played was the VR Lab and I just spent my whole time messing around inside the different mini-games, I don’t remember playing anything else. I was in heaven. Of course Nat had her go and she had fun exploring the mountains and lab with the robotic companion dog thing. I think the dogbot had sold her on the idea.
Unfortunately, shit does indeed happen. These things we call adult responsibilities creep up, get in the way and fuck up your plans so you have to spend the money you are saving. The PC had to be put on the shelf for the time being.
In early April I was wondering what I could do for my birthday. I had noticed in the Bullring/Grand Central in Birmingham that there was a VR arcade, so we popped in to ask for prices and, me being the geek I am, I started to geek out over their PCs. That gave me the idea to go have a VR experience at an arcade, so we looked around to see if there was anything that seemed reasonably priced and local to Brum. A few places looked dodgy and I even spoke to one guy that did not sound too legitimate, but we ended up at a place called The VR Hub.
This little outfit is based out of the Zellig building by the Custard Factory in Digbeth. I cannot recommend this place enough. As you walk through the building you can clearly see the location as there is a shit ton of bright green. That is actually used for green screening the player and using a camera with an attached controller to impose you into the game (here is an example). They have four set ups in total, two in the small room (also their “reception area”) and two in the bigger green screen room (a bit more private and leads to their workshop). The store itself has glass windows all around, so sadly you will be watched by passers-by, but that didn’t bother me all that much when I was caving someone’s head in on Gorn. The guys running the place were incredibly friendly, extremely knowledgeable which made the whole experience that much greater. They understood that VR is still a bit buggy and allowed you to stay on a little longer if there were any issues and let me tell you, they were super generous with that. I genuinely wish we had taken more photos to show you guys but we were too focused on having fun, which we definitely had our fill. We booked four rigs for one hour and two rigs for another hour straight after, I needed that extra hour to have my VR fill. We were actually there for 3 hours in total with the time added.
For the first hour, me and Nat were placed in the smaller room and got ourselves used to the environment with a quick introduction to the system. I was already familiar so I got started with Arizona Sunshine, a zombie survival game with really cool gun mechanics and linear story. It was so fun to shoot zombies and see them get dismembered. I actually really sucked at the game, not because of the game itself (I am a pretty good shot if I do say so myself) but I would be too busy staring at things up close, having fun with the mechanics and accidentally ignore the zombies that were trying to kill me. Nat started with… something. She doesn’t remember what the game was called but it was a horror game on a rail cart and she didn’t last long because she is a pansy. She wanted to play Job Simulator but it wasn’t available on the PC she was on at first so she played a few games including that horror game and the VR Lab whilst the guys downloaded it for her, which was also very nice of them. She also joined me on Arizona Sunshine which was so much fun to play together. I also tried a game called Bullets and More (BAM), I had wanted to try Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (H3VR) but that wasn’t available. BAM is very similar to H3VR in that it tries to accurately recreate guns. I am a simple man, it was incredibly satisfying to shoot guns, and many times I would accidentally drop a clip or forget to chamber a round. It was a cool experience for someone who had never shot a gun (outside of clay pigeon shooting) before, using scopes on the guns could do with bit of refinement but generally the game was awesome. The time flew by for us both, I thought I had sold Nat on VR before but once she got on Job simulator that strengthened our stance with getting our own VR ready PC.
After the first hour was up we were then given the opportunity to move into the big room and play a game I was really looking forward to, GORN.
Nat had never heard of this game until that day. The owner had limited access to this game to the bigger room due to how crazy people get when they play the game, someone broke one of their monitors. It’s a gory gladiator combat game that takes it to the next level, it’s silly, simple and yet incredibly in depth. You get to pick a weapon (or two) at the start of a match, which range from swords, a bow, hammers, maces, giant swords, a spear, a rock and more. Then all you have to do is kill all of your opponents who are these hench mofos that are pretty much just cannon fodder to begin with. You can chop them up, even slicing off the slightest section, eyes get popped out if you hit their head a certain way and they even limp around limbless. It’s gloriously gory fun. Once again I found myself sucking at this game because I was too busy picking up the dead bodies and looking at the deformation I was creating. Nat on the other hand was an absolute beast, tearing through her enemies like they were butter. Don’t fuck with Nat, she’ll smush your head with a mace.
All in all this made the gaming nerd inside me go crazy and since then I have not stopped looking at computer parts and VR pricing because it is always on my mind. I want it as soon as I possibly can. I cannot recommend VR enough and to those people who are dubious about it: just give it a go, it may change your mind and I guarantee, you won’t be let down.
Having said all this, I still don’t own VR or even a PC powerful enough to play it. That will change though, it has to for my mental well-being.
I am going to end this post here as you may have had enough already. I hope Nat will let me continue on with another post where I will talk about a games wish list for VR, or may be my recommendations for PCs, I may even write something up for those looking into getting VR and give them a few pointers and basic information. We will have to wait and see!
What do you guys think of VR? Have you tried it before, or want to give it a go? Let me know in the comments or over on Nat’s Twitter account @maybeecoffee
Well, until next time I write on There Might Be Coffee, have an awesome weekend and see you soon!
FYI need to use Nat’s sign off as I don’t have my own… Yet. 😛
Christmas and New Year have both now come and gone and with that shops everywhere held their Boxing Day sales and now their January sales! I am now officially skint until next pay day and this isn’t just due to sales shopping, it’s due to bills AKA adulting. 😛
On Christmas Day and Boxing Day however, I did pick up a few little bits as I’d been after them for ages! I also picked up some goodies on my birthday when me and Dane went to town for the day. Like my what I got for Christmas post (which you can read here) I thought I’d show off what I managed to pick up in the sales too!
I hope you enjoy this post, I love nosing at what bargains people pick up!
The first things I picked up in the sales and these were both WELL BEFORE Christmas was two games!
The first one being Sims 4 Cats & Dogs on the PC. Me and Dane love playing Sims 4 and like in reality, we were craving a puppy/dog for our family to play with! So we decided to get one and although I haven’t had chance to play loads with the game, we have our puppy and we love it! The editing system for the game with the pets is amazing and I cannot wait to play more of it. The game should have cost £34.00 but I picked it up for £24.49. Not cheap, no but it’ll bring hours of game play for us both!
The second game I bought was one I actually asked for for Christmas and have been eagerly waiting for to see in the sales for quite some time, that being Persona 4: Dancing All Night on my PS Vita. It originally costs £34.99 but I snapped it up for just £6.49!!! I’m so chuffed I got it so cheap and was playing it Christmas Eve. My only issue with it so far is that the story mode has more story than actual game play, which is sort of annoying… I want to get my dance on! As well, not long after I bought this Atlus announced a dance game for both Persona 3 and Persona 5!!! AHHHH!!!! I cannot wait, I already apologise in advance for all the Persona spam I will be throwing around my blog this year.
The first thing I ordered in the sale was this oversized Kurt Cobain sweatshirt, which I’ve been lusting after since I first saw it in Fuerteventura back in September/October. Time and time again I’ve gone to order it, but always changed my mind last minute. Well, I’m glad I waited as I really did get this for a bargain! Originally £29.99, I got it for £12.99 and now it’s sold out! 😀 As readers of my blog will know, I’m a massive Nirvana fan so this is a must have item for me. It’s more of a casual dress so I’ll wear this with thick tights or leggings. Maybe even some mermaid print leggings. 😛 I think the one I was sent is a bit of a dodgy piece though, as I’ve shown in the pictures the print hasn’t been put on the front properly. My only concern is there isn’t any care instruction tag inside and I’m sure by law they’re supposed to have one? To be honest I don’t care though considering how much I paid, but I would be pissed of I’d have paid the full price for it!
The second thing I picked up is another dress and again, one I’d been lusting after a while both for work and for casual weekend wear! This is another thing I’d wondered whether to order or not as the price dropped but then stayed that way for ages. It still hasn’t changed to be honest at the time of writing this, but when I got a special Boxing Day voucher, it saved me £6.60! Originally the dress was £41.99, went down to £32.99 and I picked it up for £26.39! BARGAIN! I worried about the sizing and went for the size which I thought would be for the best and it does fit really nice… BUT 1. It’s rather short which I think will be a worry when wearing it around the office and 2. With a normal bra on it doesn’t look quite right due to the fishnet showing everything off. With a bra it’s so comfortable to wear but I can’t go braless! I’d feel naked without wearing one! We shall see how it works out. 😛
This is actually something Dane ordered for me as part of my birthday present, but considering it was in the sale, I thought I’d give it a mention. It’s a Yankee Candle and it’s a Christmas one, Macaron Treats. My friend Sophie bought me a little jar of this last year for Christmas/my birthday and we only recently finished it. This was a bit of a surprise to me and it’s nice that he ordered it for me. On Boxing Day I did actually pop into my local Boots to have a nose at what I could pick up and they had a couple of these left. I didn’t buy one though as we have enough Yankee Candles to last us years! Alas, if Dane wants to buy me a Yankee Candle though, I wouldn’t say no. 😛 This was originally £23.99 and Dane snagged it for £11.99! Boots did good with their Yankee Candle prices this year, considering Yankee Candle are charging the same price for a medium jar, this one he bought is a large jar!
Finally we have my last Boxing Day sale purchases and I’m surprised I managed to get them really. As many people will know Lush didn’t have an online sale this Boxing Day and I for one was gutted and pissed off (if you would like me to do a massive rant on my thoughts on Lush lately, let me know!!!) about that. When Dane asked if I wanted to go sales shopping the day after Boxing Day, I jumped at the chance! It wasn’t the first shop we ventured into but Lush was definitely a shop I wanted to look in. They hardly had any Christmas stock left apart from some naked body lotions, naked lip products and finally Santa’s Christmas shower creams, which is what I picked up. This was one of the items I was really hoping they’d have left as it was the number one thing I wanted to try this Christmas! I’d smelt it in stores weeks prior and fell in love, but resisted the urge to buy it due to the upcoming sales. I’m glad I waited now as I picked up 2 for the price of one! These weren’t cheap either at £17.95 a bottle so I’m glad I got them half price instead.
It’s been 2 weeks since I actually drafted this post and since then I have picked up a couple more sales items, which isn’t anything special but I felt like it deserved to be added here!
I was after some new bras and on my birthday me and Dane popped into town for the day for a look around the shops and for some food. One of the first shops we went into was Victoria’s Secret and I’m so glad I did as I managed to pick up not 1, not 2 but 3 bras and all for £14.00 each! I tried them all on too to make sure they fit okay and they were perfect. I can’t wait to wear them now to be honest, I’ve missed wearing a good fitting bra. 😛
Overall I am really happy with my sales goodies and I’m also glad I was good and only bought a handful of items. I looked loads online and found shit loads of stuff I wanted to buy, but left it as I either wasn’t sure, had stuff similar or the main factor, I wanted to save my money.
If there is anything I regret not getting it’s a Pandora ring I saw in the sale, but it sold out so fast I never stood a chance.
What did you guys pick up in the sales? Make sure to let me know in the comments and link me to blog posts!
Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having an awesome New Year so far! 😀
Oh my God I cannot believe we are less than ten days away from Christmas now! It has really flown by, and I will admit that I don’t feel in the festive spirit at all! This being said, I am still excited for Christmas itself to spend time with my friends and family, especially my boyfriend.
As I said before I went on holiday, I would be doing my present ideas posts until the Wednesday before Christmas. So far we have two down, and two left to go including this one. Today I’ll be focusing on the perfect gifts to give to a Star Wars fan, whether they be small stocking figures, or huge splurges for loved ones. There will be loads of choice on this post!
Who doesn’t like a good mug eh? Especially one that has Darth Vader on it saying he likes his coffee on the dark side… Well I’d love to receive this anyway. This would make a great Secret Santa present, or one for a brother who is hard to buy for, but loves Star Wars.
This is very much so on the expensive side for a t-shirt, but totally worth it for how awesome it looks! I wanted to buy this for my boyfriend for Christmas, but it is on the expensive side for what it is, so I left it. I’ll probably pick this up for him next week when I get paid as a present for his holiday. He’s a snowboarder, and like most snow sports people do, he’ll be off on a holiday to do just that at the start of next year. This t-shirt will be perfect for that!
Marks and Spencer love Star Wars this Christmas, and whenever I have been in store that’s what makes up the majority of their Christmas range. They released three Star Wars bath foams this year, Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, and Yoda. The only one left online (and from what I’ve seen in store) is Yoda… Which is to be expected really. This would make a perfect stocking filler for young ones, as well as for Secret Santa.
This is another present idea I had for my boyfriend but it would be rendered pointless for himself. However any die-hard Star Wars fan would love this, and I’m sure the tin would be used loads too. I think this would be an ideal gift for teenagers. I wouldn’t know who else to buy it for to be perfectly honest.
It’s Christmas, alcohol is flowing, and soon enough New Years will be joining and the same will happen all over again. What goes lovely in an alcoholic beverage? Ice of course! What better gift to receive on Christmas Day than a funky Star Wars ice-cube tray? There are loads of different styles to choose from, but I opted for the Han Solo one as it just looks cooler than all the rest. There is a style for everyone though. I would choose R2D2 myself as he’s my favourite character.
In my family we don’t do this, but I know a lot of families who sit around at the table together before, and after dinner, and play board games. Monopoly is usually a good one to play, considering how long it can go on for before someone wins. Over the years Monopoly have brought out various different limited editions boards, this one being one of their newest. I’m sure they have brought out a Star Wars board beforehand, but even so I imagine this will sell out the closer we get to Christmas.
Star Wars: Battlefront available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One – between £33.99 – £34.99
I am pretty sure that every Star Wars fan, and gamer alike will already own this, considering it came out a month ago. I’ve not yet played it myself, but I intend to this weekend when I see my boyfriend next. I’ve watched him play it on Twitch and it looks like such a beautiful game! This will be perfect for any man in your life, providing they don’t already own it.
Luke Skywalker Lightsaber Chopsticks – £9.99 (link)
I’m pretty sure I have mentioned these on my blog before, and if so they really are worth mentioning again. You can get these in various different colours, for various characters including Yoda, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalkers green lightsaber, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Count Dooku, and Kylo Ren from the new film. These make great stocking fillers for anyone who is a fan of Asian food. You can also get these in versions that light up, but of course they cost a little bit more money.
Vans Darth Vader Slip On Shoes – £34.99 in the sale (link)
I own these bad boys, and they’re some of my favourite shoes. I’m really pleased I could find somewhere online who were still selling these, considering they left Vans nearly a year ago now. These are unisex shoes so both men and women can rock these! If you like the look of these as a present for someone, I would snap them up now whilst they’re cheap, and available in most sizes. They also stock some Stormtrooper ones too, which look pretty cool. They’re the same price.
Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-Ray – £50.00 (link)
I don’t as of yet own the Star Wars movies on Blu-Ray, although I would like to own them all one day. For so many discs, £50.00 is a real bargain! If Star Wars fans don’t own this already, this will make an ideal gift for them for sure! Just make sure that they own a Blu-Ray player before you buy this… However this being said most consoles have Blu-Ray players inside of them, and Blu-Ray players don’t cost much to pick up anyway.
This was one of the final things I found when researching for this post, and it’s quite a nice little light really. The Death Star is one of the iconic things from Star Wars and this mood light really does show this. This would make a lovely gift for a young child who is just getting into Star Wars, or even a nerd who wants to jazz up their office a little bit.
I saved the best present idea until last. I want this, my boyfriend wants this, my friend Sophie wants this, and I think everyone who loves Star Wars wants this little cutie. He’s an adorable little robot which you control through your mobile phone. It’s only tiny too to be honest, which makes it even cuter. I really hope I can buy one for myself after Christmas. This is a very luxurious present, but I think anyone of any age would love to open this on Christmas Day and play with it as much as possible, I know I would.
So that is my third present ideas post, I only have one more left! I couldn’t resist talking about Star Wars, especially considering it is due out Friday! Me and my boyfriend have already booked our tickets to go and watch it Saturday, and I cannot wait.
Are you going to see the new Star Wars movie? Do you hope to receive any Star Wars goodies for Christmas? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.
Until next time take care all, and I hope everyone’s week is going well. We don’t have long until Christmas now…
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There Might Be Coffee 