IGN Summer of Gaming 2022 – Games I’m Excited For

I can’t believe we don’t have E3 this year but instead we have IGN Summer of Gaming, which has been just as good in all honesty! Since me and Dane have been together we’ve always tried to catch E3 every year to check out the newest games coming out on consoles and PC and the more years we’ve been together, the more invested we have been with E3. This year with it being taken over by IGN and the Summer of Gaming, everyday since Wednesday 1st June has been jam packed with game news, which has been amazing!

Last year I shared with you all games I was excited for after E3 2021 (which you can read here), so I thought I’d do it all over again this year… Because why not! I hope some of the games I share with you today are ones you’ve not yet heard about and end up liking the sound of getting yourselves.

At the time of writing this post, there hasn’t been a Nintendo Direct, which is making me sad. I think there’s been rumours of one coming later this month, but we shall see! I’m going to be mainly talking about and sharing games from Wholesome Direct, as well as Xbox & Bethesda, as they were two of my favourites this year.

So, sit back grab a hot drink and enjoy this weeks blog post! 😀

When Wholesome Games host their direct, it fast becomes one of my favourite time of year as majority of the games that are announced find their way onto my Steam and Nintendo Switch wish lists very quickly. I love wholesome games where you can sit down and play a relaxing game after a stressful day. I’ve discovered some amazing games the past two years since they started up and I really love them for that. I’ll try not to go into too much detail about all the games below as there’s quite a few to talk about… Twelve in total! 😛

Little Bear Chef – Release date TBH, on Steam and possibility on games consoles.

A game where you play as a tiny bear chef in a regular sized kitchen. Little Bear Chef is a cosy 3D cooking platformer where you play as a tiny bear chef in a regular sized kitchen. It’s all about coming up with creative and funny solutions to cook the recipe at hand.

Little Bear Chef looks adorable and one that I reckon would be so much fun to play! I love cooking and the little honey bottle inspired bear looks adorable to boot! I was hopeful this might be a multiplayer game, but the creators have stated there’s no plan for this in the future. There isn’t a lot I can really say about this right now as there’s no release date and no website either, just a Twitter page. Keep eyes peeled for this one, I reckon it’ll do really well!

LumberJack – Out now on Steam, Nintendo Switch and Xbox.

Jack is a humble Lumbearjack with a simple dream: to return to nature what is hers with the help of his trusty axe and his animal friends. Through real-time physics puzzles, fight destruction with destruction to thwart the sinister plans of up-and-coming industrial giant Evil Works.

I saw the trailer for this and thought it looks really interesting with the smash up style, but not going to lie, I didn’t quite realise it was a puzzles based game, which let me add I’m not the best at sometimes. This game is out now, so if I ever fancy giving something new a go and it’s on sale, I’ll definitely think about picking this up!

Usagi Shima – 2023 on iOS, Android and Steam.

You’ve been tasked as caretaker of an abandoned island — as you decorate and rebuild it over time, curious (but adorable!) visitors start to appear… Buy toys and and build structures on an abandoned island to entice curious bun tourists to pay you a visit! Discover, take photos, and even befriend a variety of bunnies that visit based on how you’ve decorated and arranged the island.

This game is RIGHT UP MY STREET and looks adorable! I got a quick glimpse of this on the preview at the start of the Wholesome Direct and was curious what it could be! This would be great as a mobile game as I can play it on the go and during lunch breaks at work. I honestly cannot wait for this game, it reminds me a little of Animal Crossing. 😀

Puffpalls: Island Skies – 2024 on PC, mobile, MAC and Nintendo Switch.

PuffPals: Island Skies is a game about eliciting the nostalgic memories of growing up as a kid; exploring the world and discovering everything for the very first time! From traversing new biomes, meeting new friends, and customizing your very own home, there is no shortage of things to do on these magical floating islands! The cozy, warm, yet adventurous and curious nature of being a kid is something we want our players to embrace when embarking on their journey in PuffPals: Island Skies!

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it on my blog yet, but I actually backed this game on Kickstarter about a month ago now and I’m so excited for it! It was awesome to see it advertised on the Wholesome Direct, but not going to lie, I don’t think they needed to advertise it anymore. The adverts were EVERYWHERE recently with the Kickstarter being live. This being said, I am excited for it. It’s pretty much like Animal Crossing but a little bit different and with Fluffnest‘s original characters. I highly recommend checking it out if you love Animal Crossing.

Fall of Porcupine – Release date TBH on Steam.

FALL OF PORCUPINE is a unique story adventure. The collision of work and daily life – an exciting reflection of an unhealthy healthcare-system.

I wasn’t 100% sure about this game at first but since the Wholesome Direct, I’ve watched the trailer quite a few times and really do like the sound of it. Plus the art style of it looks really cute! I’m definitely going to pick this one up at some point.

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly – 2023 on Steam and games consoles.

Dust off your coffee machine and prepare your warmest smile to meet your customers again in the second episode of the much loved coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator; Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly.

I remember buying Coffee Talk not long after I picked up my Nintendo Switch Lite back in 2019 and I really did enjoy the game, but I forgot to download it onto my Switch, so I’m only just continuing the story since the Wholesome Direct last week! I really love playing Coffee Talk, it’s a relaxing game of talking to your customers in the coffee shop and making them drinks. Nothing much to it other than that! The fact they are bringing a second game out, I must get it! Especially with the slight mystery behind the new characters revealed in the trailer too. 😀

Pekoe – 2023 on Steam. 

Blend tea and friendship in the flavourful world of Pekoe, a cosy cat-filled tea-making simulator about taking the time for self-care and connecting with what makes you happy. Build relationships, upgrade your teahouse, and discover new recipes as you work towards creating a place you can call home.

Pekoe was announced last year at the Wholesome Direct for 2021, which I mentioned at the end of last years blog post all about E3. I’m so excited to see this coming back for the Wholesome Direct this year and especially as it’s now come with more game footage too! Pekoe is such a cute little game about running a cat teahouse, whilst building a home for yourself and making friends. Perfect game for relaxing to.

Snacko – Out 2022 on both Steam, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 and 5.

Former big city kitties Momo and Mikan are starting a new life on a seemingly deserted island. Unravel its mysteries while you rebuild a community, farm, fish, and explore the island and beyond! Lift a curse and revitalized a ruined island in Snacko, where former big city kitties Momo and Mikan are starting a new life! Grow crops, raise fluffy cows, go fishing, exploring, customize and decorate as you please, and much, much more in this farming cat-venture.

This is actually a game I backed on Kickstarter a while ago now and whenever I hear news about it in anyway shape and form, I get so excited about it! I’m also part of the Discord so I’m constantly hearing updates form the developers. Snacko reminds me of Animal Crossing but with cats! I’m definitely swaying towards getting my copy on the Nintendo Switch, I love playing PC games, sure, but I love how easy it is to move around to play you Switch. I’m literally counting down the days now for Snacko to announce when this will release!

Super Mini Mart – Release date TBH on Steam.

Super Mini Mart is a cosy take on the management genre with a charming 3D aesthetic and an endearing cast of characters. Stock, supervise, and manage store activities in a laid-back environment, befriending locals and turning those one-off bargain hunters into life-long loyal customers!

I love games like this one so when I saw the trailer for it at the end of the Wholesome Direct, I knew I’d want to get it! I used to work in retail and I’d never go back to it, but alas I’m happy to play a game all about looking after a shop. Ironic, huh? 😛 I hope this comes out on Nintendo Switch too, as I’d really love to give it a go on there rather than Steam.

Love, Ghostie – Release date TBH on Steam.

Be a wholesome ghost matchmaker and grow relationships between the mansion’s residents! Gift items to brighten their lives, set them up on dates, and watch their love bloom! What romances will you create?

This game is adorable and one I may not pick up straight away, but maybe when it’s on offer or I fancy something new to play? I love kawaii ghosts and that’s exactly what these ghosts are! You need to match match people up in a house and become a ghost cupid!

Bloom – Out now on Playdate.

Bloom is a real-time narrative-driven social sim about starting up a flower shop made exclusively for Playdate. Tend to Midori’s garden while texting friends and family as she starts a new chapter of her life. The game takes place over many real-life days.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen the trailer for Bloom and it semi breaks my heart. I really love the look of this game, but unfortunately it’s currently only available to buy and play on Playdate, a new handheld console. Set in Japan you play as a young woman who has moved to create her own flower shop. It just looks like such a cute game, I’d honestly look at buying a Playdate to play this!

Now that I’ve mentioned the games I liked from the Wholesome Direct, I’m going to talk about Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase. This was one Dane watched before me but we spoke about it as I watched it. It was a good showcase to say the least, much better than PlayStation/Sony, let me put it that way… I’ll be talking about five games in total!

Redfall – 2023 on PC and Xbox.

The quaint island town of Redfall, Massachusetts, is under siege by a legion of vampires who have blocked out the sun and cut the island off from the outside world. Trapped with a handful of survivors against diabolical enemies threatening to bleed the town dry, choose your hero from a diverse roster, grouping up with others to create the perfect team of vampire slayers.

This was the first game to be shown during the showcase and I really liked the look of it from the get go. It reminds me of a mixture of Borderlands and Left 4 Dead, which are both two of my favourite games to play with Dane and friends! Not only is this a co-op game, but it’s also open world, both sound like so much fun! This isn’t due to come out until 2023, but as it’ll be on Xbox Game Pass, both me and Dane will get this for “free” from day one to play together!

ARK 2 – 2023 on PC and Xbox.

Starring Vin Diesel (Fast Franchise) as Santiago and Auli’i Cravalho (Moana) as his daughter Meeka. Survive the past. Tame the future. Awakened on a primal world filled with dinosaurs & humans struggling for dominance, you must team-up with legendary heroes to confront dark forces. Saddle up, & join the definitive next-gen survival experience with ARK 2!

During Covid, me Dane and some friends decided to start playing ARK and we played it for months! It was so much fun to jump on and play altogether each evening and it’s something I do miss. We’re all excited for ARK 2 to come out and as it’s on Xbox Games Pass, I’m pretty sure we’ll all download it to play all over again, but this time it looks like we’ll have a story to play with it too!

As Dusk Falls – July 19th 2022 on PC and Xbox

As Dusk Falls is an original interactive drama. Join friends or play alone, making choices that impact characters’ lives in this uncompromising story of betrayal, sacrifice, and resilience.

I love these types of games and always give them a go at some point or another! I’d love to play this with Dane as you can play with friends! It reminds me a little bit of a mixture between Life is Strange and one of the Quantic Dream games. It was commented on that it was made like a UK drama? I don’t personally see that, but I may when I play it myself? This will also be on Xbox Games Pass, so I’ll try it out for sure.

Diablo IV – 2023 on Xbox and PlayStation 5.

The endless battle between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells rages on as chaos threatens to consume Sanctuary. With ceaseless demons to slaughter, countless Abilities to master, nightmarish Dungeons, and Legendary loot, this vast, open world brings the promise of adventure and devastation. Survive and conquer darkness – or succumb to the shadows.

As Dane is a huge Diablo fan, I knew he would want this game and that I would be “dragged” in to play it with him, which is fine. I started to watch the cinematic trailer and didn’t realise it was Diablo IV at the time, so when it announced it was, I KNEW I would want to play it! I really love the necromancer class, it looks so badass and awesome! I think me and Dane are playing to try and binge play the other Diablo games before this one comes out.

Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden – 2023 on PC and Xbox.

When I heard about this I was super excited! As regular readers of my blog will know, I LOVE Persona 5 and I’m currently on and off playing Persona 5 Royal. I do also own Persona 4 Golden, but I’ve gotten stuck and plan to reply at some point on Steam. However, with Persona 4 Golden AND Persona 3 Portable coming to Xbox Games Pass, I’ll be playing them both on Xbox in the future for sure! The latter was only available on PlayStation Vita and I wasn’t able to get a copy, so this makes me so happy! Of course, I would have loved these to come to PlayStation, but meh.

Finally I want to share a couple of other games I’ve heard about! I’ll mention when talking about each of these where they were announced. 🙂

Super Zoo Story – 2023 on Steam.

Build and manage your own personal zoo in the pixel marvel RPG Game, Super Zoo Story. Construct your park, care for your animals, and ensure the happiness of both critters and humans alike. Maybe even find that special someone while building the zoo of your dreams!

Dane actually showed me this game which I really like the look of! It’s apparently heavily inspired by Stardew Valley, which I’m not a massive fan of… Purely because I just don’t get the hype around it, which in turn surprises everyone. This being said I really love the look of Super Zoo Story and I discovered whilst researching for this post that it’s got a Kickstarter coming soon, which I’ll link here. Make sure to go and check it out if you love building/managing games. I really hope this will come out on Switch, but Steam is fine too. 😀

Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet – November 18th on Nintendo Switch.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet offer an open-world experience that only the Pokémon series can deliver—one welcoming even to newcomers to the series.​ You can experience a new style of adventure, with a world that you’re free to explore at your leisure and not in an order dictated by the story. You will, of course, journey to hone your skills as a Pokémon Trainer, but many more discoveries and stories await you. Meet a variety of people and Pokémon, and adventure in the world of Pokémon the way you want to.

OBVIOUSLY I have to share Pokemon announcements here! I know I mentioned a while ago on here about how excited I am for the new Pokemon game, Scarlet and Violet and I already have both pre-ordered with Gamersheek for me and Dane. They’ve announced more details about the game, which, if you’re a Pokemon fan you’ll have seen already I’m sure. 😛 I’m really excited for it and contemplating booking the day off work so I can just play it as soon as it arrives! 😛 I need to talk to Dane about whether or not he fancies us booking off the day to binge play this gen like we did with the last gen. At the time of writing this post there are supposedly leaks from the new games… I’m going to have a nose into those later. I’m never fussed about seeing leaks myself, if anything it gets me more hyped for the game. xD

Roots of Pacha – 2022 on Steam.

Roots of Pacha allows you to build, harvest crops, make friends with animals and help grow your village in single-player or co-op mode. This trailer for Roots of Pacha gameplay shows off some new elements you can experience while playing.

Another game similar sounding to Super Zoo Story, we have Roots of Pacha which looks like such a chill and cool game to play! I especially love that this has co-op mode so it means me and Dane can play together if we wanted to! I’m going to look into this sooner rather than later as this looks to be launching sooner rather than later. I didn’t know that this was a Kickstarter game until researching for this post too.

Choo-Choo Charles – 2022 on Steam.

Choo-Choo Charles is a survival horror, open world, shooter game. Navigate an island in an old train, upgrade it over time, and use it to fight an evil sentient train that terrorizes your home. Charles is hungry; don’t be his next meal.

This is actually one of the first games I saw to be announced from the IGN Summer of Gaming and it’s one I’m not 100% sure about. The concept of it sounds fucking hilarious and one I’d love to try, but at the same time it sounds so scary and I don’t know if I’d like it? I think Dane was interested in this game too, so if there’s a chance to play co-op I can see us both playing this at some point for shits and giggles!

So, there we have it guys, all the games (so far anyway…) that I’ve really loved the look of from IGN Summer of Gaming!

What games have taken your fancy so far? Have you discovered any new ones from this blog post today? Make sure to let me know in the comments below! I’m especially excited for a lot of new games to add to my library!

Until next time guys, take care and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

May Favourites ’22

Another month is due to end and with that we of course have our monthly favourites! I can’t believe it’s June in four days time, the year is just flying by and I’m not liking it… But I am sort of liking it because excited things are coming up at the start of June!

May was a weird month for me, it was full of bank holidays, and annual leave which left me wanting more four day weeks at work. As well as that, last week me and Dane went to see My Chemical Romance and let me tell you it was amazing! I haven’t been to a show that big to date. The atmosphere was great and took me back to when I’ve seen them live twice previously, as well as to how I used to be when I was younger. If it wasn’t obvious enough, I was a little emo kid. 😛 I’m going to save more details for later on in my monthly favourites, because it obviously counts!

Aside from that, June is looking to be an exciting month for me and Dane! We have the UK Games Expo coming up with my best friend and her boyfriend and then me and Dane have a week off together for our nine year anniversary, which in itself has flown by! For our anniversary this year we’ve decided to go to Manchester for a few days, which we’re so excited for! Like MCR, I’ll talk more about it later in my monthly favourites, as whilst it hasn’t happened yet, it’s something I’m excited about, so it classes as a favourite… Right?

Me and Dane also finished our first Dungeons & Dragons campaign too, which lasted for three years! We had so much fun playing it and can’t wait to start a new campaign in June/July.

On top of all that I’m going to be bloody skint this month, with MCR, UK Games Expo, Manchester AND my car needing to be taxed and serviced… It’s a good job I have plenty to keep me busy. 😛

Content wise for June I’m hoping to bring you some kawaii AF stuff, as well as some future posts about our Manchester adventures, especially geeky places to shop, fun things to do and good places to eat. I hope yah’ll are excited for it!

Anyhoo, on with the monthly favourites! I really hope you enjoy this months post, I feel like it’s going to be full of me being excited about adventures and MCR. 😛

Favourite Beauty Product – Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask in Berry.

I was planning to write a blog post showing off all the goodies I picked up from YesStyle a couple of months ago, but I decided against it as I thought I’d end up showing off the goodies in monthly favourites posts anyway (which I have!). One of the items I picked up is the Laneige lip sleeping mask in berry, which I have wanted to try for as long as I can remember. It’s recently started to hit the UK beauty stores, so it’s becoming more available to us in the west, however the price for the pot is a bit of a joke… Hence why I turned to YesStyle. From memory I only paid £10 for my lip sleeping mask, whereas here in the UK stores will charge £19 for it. Anyway, I’ve been using it for almost two months now and it’s definitely safe to say I LOVE it! It has definitely made an improvement to my lips, which is great with summer coming around. I don’t just use this at night like it’s known for, I use it in the morning before I start work (if I’m not wearing a lip tint that is), and I apply it before bedtime too. The mask is said to work best overnight as it “dissolves” all the dead skin on your lips, so you wake up with lovely soft lips. A lot of people claim it does what it says, but others claim it’s just Vaseline in a fancy jar, with some colour added to it. As someone who uses Vaseline on a daily basis, this is thicker than Vaseline and really does feel like it’s moisturising more, but that may just be me? To add a little bit of this stuff goes a long way, and due to that, I’ve not really made much of a dent, which is good! To add here, I picked up the Berry scent and it doesn’t really smell or taste like berries to me… But that doesn’t bother me, it would be a plus but yeah, it’s one of them. I’d say if you’re thinking of trying the Laneige lip sleeping mask, go for it, especially if you suffer with dry lips and live for lip balms! If you buy from YesStyle you could always get some of the little “sample” pots too to see what you think of it before buying a bigger jar.

Favourite Film – Jackass 4.5.

This is a recent addition to Netflix and one I was super excited to see! As many regular readers and friends will know, I’m a MASSIVE Jackass fan. I mentioned last month how I’d watched Jackass Forever and that I didn’t love it as much as the previous films they’d made. Jackass 4.5 really did make up for that, I laughed so much and even had to look away a few times in the fear of feeling (or being) sick! It was amazing, I just enjoyed it so much. The amount of times though that both me and Dane said, “Why didn’t they put that in Forever?” was crazy. I need to buy Jackass Forever and 4.5 at some point to add to my collection. If you have Netflix and love Jackass, definitely make sure to check it out! You find out a lot about the new crew members too, which I really liked. I’d love to see them come back and do more now after watching 4.5

Image taken from Empire Online.

Favourite TV Show – Moon Knight.

I’ve been a mixture of excited and nervous/sad to watch Moon Knight, but me and Dane decided to binge watch it one day over the last bank holiday in May and I can honestly say it’s my favourite Marvel TV series to come out to date! There was so much I loved about it, but the thing that made me sad was the fact it’s one of Gaspard Ulliel’s last acting role before he passed away in January. That being said, the show itself was amazing and I need more! The story of Steven/Mark and their role as the Moon Knight, as well as the dark themes and character build up were just incredible! Everyone did an amazing job and honestly, I loved it. Let me say this without spoilers when I say, Steven must be protected at all costs and he’s now up there as one of my favourite Marvel characters alongside Deadpool.

Favourite Music – My Chemical Romance.

Okay, the part of this months favourites I know some of you have been waiting for! At the time of writing this post I am still struggling with some post gig blues and I don’t really know when they’ll go away? I just crave more after last Thursday’s gig and I wish I could go see them again already! First things first, the show was amazing. Gerard dressed up and the band played a lot of popular songs from all their albums to date, including “Helena”, “Teenagers”, “Welcome to the Black Parade”, “Famous Last Words” and of course “I’m Not Okay”. We got to the gig shortly after doors opened, got some merchandise, drinks and headed to our seats. Our seats were shit as they were high up and all the way at the back, even with the screens you couldn’t see fuck all. This being said, I didn’t let it affect my experience of the gig, I was so in my element singing along to the words, watching the screens, the stage and everyone else around me that I was past caring after a while. I almost cried whilst listening to “The Foundations of Decay” due to how proud I am of the band, as well as how happy I am to see them back, as well as almost crying singing “Famous Last Words” and “Welcome to the Black Parade” as they both mean so much to me. MCR are one of the bands that were always there for me when I was struggling with my mental health growing up and especially the day my gran died. I went home to be on my own to grieve and ended up putting on The Black Parade so I had something to occupy my mind. When the song “Disenchanted” came on, I couldn’t stop crying and since that day, it always makes me sad to hear. Alongside all this the show was just incredible! Everyone was so friendly to talk to (when we did) and the atmosphere was one I’ve missed from previously seeing MCR play in 2007 and 2011. I’m just dying to see them again now… Maybe standing tickets next time for shits and giggles or at least closer seats! I was going to write a blog post about the whole day, but I feel like this is enough. 🙂

Image taken from PC Gamer.

Favourite Game – Valheim.

This is a game Dane has been pestering me to play with him for as long as I can remember and finally in May I cracked and bought it, which made him so happy! Valheim is a Viking style game where you need to gather resources, build a base, defeat the enemies nearby and ready yourself to defeat even bigger enemies! We spent a weekend playing it together and I soon got my bearings with how the gameplay worked and was. However, tragedy happened when not only did I lose a lot of my stuff in a tomb (and couldn’t get back!), but then some boars we had captured and bred were all killed by an enemy! We both rage quitted after the latter and didn’t touch it for a week or so… Until one of our friends came to join us one evening to play and since then we’ve been playing it more. She’s really helped us build our base, defeat more/bigger enemies, as well as teach us a lot more about the game as she’s been playing it longer than we have. It’s such a fun little game to play, more so with people than alone and I highly recommend it!

Just a few of my favourite things…

Picking up old games/game completion goal – Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX and Persona 5 Royal.

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned on my blog since the start of 2022 how I have started working on completing games I currently own and making note of them on a Twitter thread here. This is something I was inspired to do by my friend Connor, who took part in it last year. I have a lot of games I’ve bought, played for a few hours and then never picked up again. Some games I could sell, whereas others I can’t as I’ve bought on stores/Steam. I decided to start spending less time sitting online window shopping and more time playing the games I love, but have allowed to gather dust!

The first one I want to talk about is Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX. This game is a remake of the original Mystery Dungeon games that came out in 2005 on the Game Boy Advance and DS, I still own both of these and loved them to death! The remake DX came out in 2020, just before Animal Crossing: New Horizons so I told myself I would try and complete it before Animal Crossing came out, which didn’t happen. However, what did happen is I got stuck on the second boss (Moltres) and no matter what I did, I just couldn’t get past them, so I ended up resetting the game and starting again. I grinded for ages to make sure I was ready for that boss battle again and last weekend I felt ready to take the boss on! I turned to Dane prior and said, “If I don’t beat this fucking thing, I’m selling the game.” Thankfully it wouldn’t come to that as I beat Moltres, as well as the boss after that too (Articuno), so I look like I’m going to be fine from there! I’m so glad I’ve picked this game up again, it’s making me feel so nostalgic to between 2009-2010 when I picked up both of the original games to play.

Alongside playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX, I’ve also started playing Persona 5 Royal again, which is something I also picked up in March 2020! I hardly played it due to Animal Crossing: New Horizons and only played the first palace and some of the second. I decided to play it over a bank holiday weekend and haven’t looked back since. I genuinely forgot how much I love Persona 5 and the characters behind it, it really means a lot to me as the original game helped me through some dark days. So far I’ve completed the second palace and I’m probably near to beginning the third one from memory. I always recommend Persona 5 to people to play, but these days I often suggest people playing Persona 5 Royal, just because it has more to the story than the original. I’m probably going to focus on completing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX first and then on Persona 5 Royal, depends on my mood I guess. Currently my PS4 is in the living room, which I’d love to move temporarily to my desk in our office so I can play it with Dane in the background as company, but we shall see!

Image taken from UK Games Expo.

June adventures – UK Games Expo and Manchester.

As I mentioned at the start of this post I have lots of exciting things booked in and planned with Dane and some friends at the start of June, which I’m really looking forward to!

First we have UK Games Expo the first weekend of June, which is a board game convention in Birmingham. Me and Dane went in 2019 and spent WAY too much money (which you can read about here), but we had an amazing time and always said we’d go again, but of course Covid happened… That being said we’ve finally plucked up the courage to go again this year. Due to my anxiety of Covid still, I do still wear masks in shops, as well as around the office at work, so I’m not 100% sure if I’ll wear my mask or not at the convention yet… I’m worried it’ll be really warm and I could maybe die from the heat haha! We’ll see how it goes though! There’s going to be some amazing vendors there from years before that I’m excited to purchase from and support again, plus I’m hopeful we can all play lots of board games and have fun! I’m so happy my best friend recently got into board games, because it means we can all venture to cafes and play games more! Me and Dane got into board games before Covid and then Covid happened… And we couldn’t play board games with many people. 😦

Then as I mentioned before, for our nine year anniversary we decided to go to Manchester as we’ve booked to go to Point Blank Shooting with a voucher I was gifted for my 30th. Point Blank Shooting is a simulation shooting range and bar, offering food and drinks whilst you play on the shooting simulation games! We plan to go and have a day of shopping in Manchester and then head to Point Blank Shooting, finishing up at some themed bars on the way to our hotel. The next day we plan to have some breakfast, more shopping, a big lunch and then heading to Bury for The Arcade Club! My friend Daysei is always telling me how much fun it is there and after showing Dane how many floors of arcade games they are, we booked it in to do! I’m honestly so excited for our gaming and shopping days away for our anniversary, it’s going to be so much fun.

I’m hoping to write Manchester guides and reviews of places we go to, so keep eyes peeled for those!

My Chemical Romance merchandise.

I mentioned earlier about how I went to see MCR last Thursday, well of course I had to grab some merchandise as well and man I bagged a few bits, one which has been semi sought after since. I want to state now, none of these are for sale. xD I also want to state, I apologise for how shit the photo is!

I decided to grab both the tour t-shirts, as well as the Boy Zone t-shirt as well. I couldn’t decide which tour t-shirt I wanted as they were both cool in their own ways. I’m so glad I picked up both after trying them on as they’re so comfortable! All of the t-shirts are in a men’s size large and I could have probably gotten away with a medium, but I like my t-shirts baggy!

The tour t-shirts have the tour dates on the back for their shows between 16th May until 18th June which is always a good t-shirt to have. On the front of the short sleeved is an updated version of the bloody bride and groom from the Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge album, which I just had to get for that alone! On the front of the long sleeved there are some skulls and bones, as well as “Decay” written backwards. I LOVE the long sleeved t-shirt the most and already can’t wait to wear it. I’m really into my long sleeved band t-shirts lately to wear with joggers, skirts and trousers for a relaxed look.

Finally the Boy Zone t-shirt that everyone has gone mad for! I knew I had to pick this up and even though I probably won’t wear it out and about, I’ll definitely live in it at home on lazy days. It was designed by Kerin Cunningham with support from Gerard Way. It honestly reminds me of my early teens where I would always buy the music magazines that was full of bands, love quizzes and more. I honestly love it so much!

So, there we have it guys, all of my favourites from May! I honestly can’t believe we’ll be going into June in less than a week now, it’s really flown by. The whole year is, Christmas is just 6 months away now… How crazy is that?!

What were your favourites from May? Did you go and see My Chemical Romance in May too? If you did tell me all about your feelings, thoughts, etc! I’m eager to hear everyone’s stories and experiences. 🙂

Until next time all, take care and have an amazing weekend!

Games I’m Loving This Month

This is a post I’ve been so excited to share with you guys this month. It’s all about games, which you guys know I love. 😛

November is a month where LOADS of games (including updates and DLC too) have been released that I’ve been looking forward to for years/months/weeks, so I thought it would be awesome to share them all with you. Some of these games you may have heard about, whereas some you may not have due to them being indie/by small developers.

I hope you enjoy this weeks post, I know I’ve really enjoyed talking about the games and sharing them all with you. I’ll be sharing them in order of their release!

Unpacking – 2nd November 2021

Available on Steam, Xbox and and Nintendo Switch.

I can’t 100% remember when I heard about Unpacking coming out, but from memory I have a feeling it was during E3 2021 (mid June) through the Wholesome Games stream/community on YouTube.

Unpacking is a relaxing game all about… Well… Unpacking! You’re unpacking someone’s life out of boxes through various stages of their life, from child/teenager, student, adult, etc. You unpack their items and place them around their room/house until everything is away in its rightful place. It’s incredibly relaxing game and I spent most of launch day playing it. It’s not a game you feel you need to rush through and can pick it up and take your time. You don’t ever find out what the person looks like (not 100% anyway), nor their name, anything about their family and more. You get snippets into their life through unpacking their items, which is something I really loved. It was nice to try and put together your assumptions of their life, what has happened and more. I would go more into my thoughts story wise, but it could spoil the game for others.

Alongside the accomplishment of popping away all the belongings, you do also earn stickers for placing items in certain ways and places, which I love! I need to go back to the game again soon to replay through the levels to earn all of the stickers, as well as maybe change things up? Honestly, this game is incredibly therapeutic and I can really see it helping with my anxiety when I just need to zone out for a while.

To The Rescue! – 2nd November 2021

Available on Steam and Nintendo Switch in 2022.

This is a game I discovered one afternoon whilst browsing through Kickstarter back in August/September 2019. I cannot believe over two years have passed and the game is now out, and let me tell you, it was worth the wait for sure! To The Rescue! is a dog shelter simulator game, where you run a dog shelter, helping dogs to get fostered/adopted, all whilst looking after the at the same time. You can hire people to help you, run charity events to get funds for the shelter, as well as encourage people to come and view dogs to adopt. That’s the main part of the game really, getting the dogs happy enough to be adopted and prevent any euthanasia. This game is very realistic about that fact, you can turn off the euthanasia however if you don’t wish to have that theme in your game. I know I have.

I’ve only played the game once so far and that was the date it launched. On day one of the game coming out there were quite a few bugs, so I’ve decided to wait playing anymore since until a lot of the bugs have been fixed, which they sound like they have from release notes. So, I’ll be picking it up again at some point soon.

One thing I want to comment on so far with playing this game is, the story mode is fucking hard! It’s very stressful and takes away the nice, happy vibes that game shows and comes with. Dane is really good at games and even he commented how hard the story mode is. However, the (sandbox) mode is a lot nicer and you feel like you have a lot more control over what you can do with your shelter, and more. I do need to play some more of this game however as this could have changed since the last time I played the game.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update – 4th/5th November 2021

After the Animal Crossing Direct aired in October, I was ecstatic. I’d not felt so happy and excited about anything for a while and alongside that, a massive part of the community I love were all excited for the update too! Everyone was in good spirits, sharing what they were excited for the most and even some people restarting their islands! I couldn’t do that, I love my island and villagers too much. :’)

Anyhoo, the update came out a day early by mistake! I’d booked the week off anyway before the direct had even aired, so I was READY for the update! Dane woke me up around 6am on the 4th to say, “Nat… The Animal Crossing update is out a day early…” I shot up, updated the game, grabbed us breakfast and a coffee and we spent most of the morning/early afternoon in bed playing the update. It was amazing to sit with Dane and cuddle as we both discovered the updates in the game. Poor Dane, he went on an island trip with Kapp’n before speaking to Blathers, so missed out on seeing Brewster… 😛

I’ve been playing Animal Crossing almost daily since the update came out and have really been loving all the things you can do now. I especially love going on the island trips, as well as grabbing my daily coffee (or two) in The Roost and getting gifts for doing just that! I recently gifted Cookie a takeaway coffee after unlocking it and she carries it around with her every now and then. It’s so precious!

One thing however that DOES disappoint me with The Roost is how you can’t help Brewster anymore like you could back in New Leaf. It was my favourite part of the day (especially as I WAS a barista at the time) when visiting my town and it’s such a shame that’s now gone. I’d like to hope it’ll come back in the future, but I don’t think it’s going to happen, unfortunately. I know quite a few people who were gutted this previous feature has been removed… Maybe if we all moan about it enough, Nintendo might bring it back 😛 Who knows!

Aside from that, I am loving the update. With Pokemon coming out, I may end up playing Animal Crossing a little less, but not too much. I’m really enjoying playing it and will be sad when the time comes where I won’t be playing it as much again.

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise – 5th November 2021

I’m not going to lie, Happy Home Paradise has been out for two weeks now and admittedly, I’ve only played it twice.. Shameful, I know. As my mental health hasn’t been too great since the release of the Animal Crossing update and DLC, I’ve not really been in the mood to play the DLC after the main game. This being said, when I have played it I’ve enjoyed it so much. It’s relaxing to put together villagers paradise homes, as well as see their cute interactions on the beach before and after you create their perfect paradise homes!

On the day it came out me and Dane sat together playing it and compared the homes we’d put together, which I really loved. It was nice comparing what we’d done, who we had on our beaches and more. At one point Willow (sheep villagers) turned up on Dane’s beach and he kept commenting how cute she is, which warmed my heart. Now I’m on the hunt for her amiibo card. 😛

The DLC has brought a lot more to the game than just the usual island life, which I love. I remember back in 2015 when Happy Home Designer came out. I was so hyped for it, but the game itself was so boring and mundane, that I didn’t play it as much as I’d hoped to. Happy Home Paradise is so much different. You can do different things, change things up, invite villagers, design facilities and more!

I highly recommend the DLC if you love Animal Crossing and can’t get enough, I know I’ve hardly played mine, but with what I have done so far it’s so relaxing to play. Personally I think my reason for not picking it up to play as much is I worry the homes I design look shit, poor and tacky. This is due to social media and nothing personal to anyone. I’m not as creative as others when it comes to Animal Crossing, but that’s okay! As long as I’m happy with what I’ve done, it shouldn’t be a problem.

I wanted to pop that reminder here as I know due to social media lately, a lot of people don’t like their islands and have stopped playing Animal Crossing due to high expectations. You do you!

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl – 19th November 2021

At the time of writing this post, I am yet to play either Diamond or Pearl. It’s ready to go on my Switch, but I wanted to get this post written and scheduled ready for the weekend! 😛

I’m pretty busy this weekend of doing stuff at home, as well as binge playing either of these games, so I’ll hold off sharing my thoughts on Diamond and/or Pearl until the November favourites in a few weeks!

However, I’m still going to talk about these games because why the fuck wouldn’t I? 😛

I am beyond excited to play Diamond and Pearl. I pre-ordered both as I planned to keep Pearl for myself and give Diamond to Dane. However, Dane isn’t fussed about playing it, so I’ll just keep Diamond!

My reason for choosing Pearl is a simple one, it’s what I picked up and played back in 2008. Back in Christmas 2008 my dad asked what I wanted for Christmas. I’d always wanted a Nintendo DS, but never got one. The red DS Lite was out and as they were only £100 at the time, I asked for that. They were out of stock EVERYWHERE! I called all the GAME, Toys R Us and Curry’s stores nearby with no luck, all gone. This was a week before Christmas by the way. In one last effort to try and bag the red DS Lite, I called an independent games store in the hopes they had them, the guy has one left in stock so I asked him to pop it to one side and we’d be down soon. My dad took me to go and get the DS Lite, as well as some games as well, which I bought myself. These included Pokemon Pearl and Animal Crossing: Wild World. Pokemon Pearl was the only one in stock out of the two, but I didn’t mind.

That Christmas I binge played both of those games. It introduced me to Animal Crossing, but also re-introduced me to Pokemon. I completely bypassed gen 3 due to my dislike of the Game Boy Advance and had spent around five years playing Pokemon Silver… Until the cartridge broke. 😛

Pokemon Pearl really did re-ignite my love for the games again and since then I’ve pretty much played most of the new (and remade) gen games… Apart from Black 2 and White 2 as I didn’t see the point and I’m not even going to talk about Sun and Moon. 😛

I did also play Pokemon Platinum too, but I doubt we’ll get that added to the series this time around with the remakes.

I’m really excited to be able to replay through the game(s) that helped fuel my Pokemon addictions more, I’m especially excited to get Leafeon and Glaceon, as well as go mining, it was one of my favourite things about the game and I was gutted they never brought it back.

So, there we have it guys, just some of the games I have been loving and also been VERY excited for throughout November. I can’t quite believe the start of December is just around the corner now. Maybe if you like the sound of some of these games, you can stick them on your Christmas lists in the hope someone might gift you with them. 🙂

What games have you been enjoying recently? Any of the same ones as me? If you’ve picked up Pokemon, which version did you get? Honestly, share away! I love talking about games!

Until next time all, take care and having a great weekend.

October Favourites ’21

In the blink of an eye, October has flown by and I don’t know how I feel about that! xD October wasn’t the best month for me in regards to my mental health but the end of October, start of November has been really nice so far. Albeit with cute games coming out this week and some time off work with Dane… 😛

Of course I won’t go too much into my personal issues but instead I’m excited to share how exciting the first week of November has been for me! Not only did the Animal Crossing: New Horizons update and DLC (Happy Home Paradise) come out, BUT so did indie games Unpacking and To The Rescue! came out too, with the latter being a game I backed on Kickstarter. So, my week off mainly consisted of playing games with Dane, doing things around the house and catching up with people. It was great and very much needed. I’ll be talking about the games on a separate blog post at some point this month, so keep eyes peeled for that!

For now however, I want to share my monthly favourites with you guys! I hope you enjoy this months favourites.

Favourite Beauty Product – Badedas 3 in 1 Original Indulgent Bath Gel.

This is something my mom bought for me and Dane Christmas 2020. I’ve always loved the smell of Badedas as it was always something we had on the side of the bath when I lived at home. It smells really fresh, masculine and gorgeous, plus it always reminds me of my dad so it has a nice comforting/familiar feeling to it. I used some of this throughout the winter period at the start of 2021 and stopped when spring and summer hit. Now the weather is colder again, I’ve brought it out to use not only as a bath gel, but as a shower gel too! When I was poorly with flu later on in October, this helped clear my sinuses somewhat, as well as comfort me with the scent. I know it’s a bath gel both me and Dane used too with the flu (I passed it onto Dane…), so it’s definitely good it being in our cupboard! It’s a bloody huge bottle and it feels like it’s lasting forever! This isn’t something I’d buy for myself to be honest, but I did enjoy receiving it as a gift last year.

Favourite Film – Violet Evergarden: The Movie.

For any regular readers of my blog, you’ll know I LOVE Violet Evergarden and have done since it first came to Netflix in 2018. Violet is about a young girl/woman who has fought in the war as a child and comes out to be “adopted” by a post office owner. She begins training to become a ghost-writer and the feelings and emotions she lost during the end of the war slowly start to come back through helping people by writing their letters. Violet is also pained by the meaning of some words spoken to her during the war. I don’t want to say too much for fear of spoilers, but the movie basically ends a lot of questions that long time viewers will have been asking/wondering. It definitely answered these for me and Dane and my emotions were all over the place! We’re still asking questions after the movie, but we hope this won’t be the end of Violet Evergarden’s story and only the beginning of a new one!

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite TV Show – Squid Game.

Okay, now I know you’re either thinking… “YAY someone else who loves Squid Game!” or, “Urgh, someone else who loves Squid Game?” and of course I loved it. I heard all the hype around it on Instagram and Twitter and wanted to watch it before spoilers started to show, which I thankfully missed. Damn, Squid Game is a journey and it was one me and Dane completed over two evenings of watching nonstop. I don’t want to share spoilers, even if the majority of people HAVE seen it. It’s basically a Battle Royale style show about people competing in life or death situations to win a lot of money. It’s really good to be honest and much better watched in subbed (subtitles), not dubbed (voice over in your language), which I know a lot of people have watched it in.

Favourite Game – Dorfromantik.

This is a game that Dane introduced me to fairly recently and since then when I need a moment to relax and not think about stuff for a while, I pop this on. Dorfromantik is a game where you need to build a town/village with puzzle style pieces. Pieces will differ, whether they be pieces of river, railway track, farm, trees and homes. You need to pop pieces in certain places to make up targets, such as fifty trees altogether, or ten homes, etc. It’s such a relaxing game and I really do love to play it!

Just a few of my favourite things…

Black Milk Clothing Ghouls Night In photoshoot with Dane.

I want to say a massive thank you to Dane for doing the mini photoshoot on Halloween for my last blog post, which was all about Black Milk Clothing and their Ghouls Night In collection for Halloween. I was sick the week of Halloween with flu, as was Dane so we both felt a little sorry for ourselves. My original plans for the photoshoot I wanted to do was to venture out into the area(s) nearby and take photos in autumnal weather… Because why not! Alas, due to how we were feeling, those plans didn’t go ahead. Instead Dane suggested we grab some Halloween themed props and take photos in our office. We were able to change our smart bulb to various different colours to make the photos look better and personally, I feel like they came out amazing! I’ve received so many lovely compliments and comments in regards to the photos, which has made me so happy! I can’t wait to do more fun photoshoots in the future! You can read all about the Halloween collection here.

Rae Dunn boo ghost candle.

I fell in love with some of the Halloween merchandise offerings that TK Maxx brought out this year, including the massive DW Home ghost candle I bought in September (you can see it in my September favourites here). I’ve been on the hunt for the Rae Dunn boo ghost candle for the same amount of time and in October I found one at a decent price on eBay, so I ended up snagging one. I started burning it on Halloween and it has a lovely toasted marshmallow scent to it, but it isn’t very strong… Which is a shame. I mostly wanted it for the jar though, which I’m probably going to use for fake flowers. 😛

Halloween nails!

Guys you know me by now (well, I hope anyway!), I bloody love Halloween! Last yeah my Halloween nails were ON POINT and gave Beetlejuice vibes. This year I decided to go for orange and black and white stripes instead after getting some major inspiration from Pinterest. I wasn’t going to bother getting the stripes as I hadn’t booked in the extra time with my nail technician and instead I was going to get white with black glitter. However, my nail tech being the amazing person she is did it anyway and at no extra charge! She is such a star and I honestly always look forward to my nail appointments. I’m currently rocking glittery purple and green nails… Halloween isn’t done for me yet. 😛

BarleyBlossom Glow In The Dark Animal Crossing Halloween Timmy & Tommy T-Shirt.

Finally, I wanted to show you guys the Halloween Animal Crossing t-shirt I bought by BarleyBlossom. I wore this t-shirt on Halloween, as well as earlier in the week and it’s SO BLOODY COMFY! As you can see, Timmy and Tommy are dressed up as ghosts for Halloween. The white fabric glows in the dark, so when in a dark room the Nook brothers look spooky as fuck! I was planning to write a blog post all about my purchase, but when I was due to, BarelyBlossom was taking the Halloween goods down from the store, so unfortunately I didn’t see the point in sharing the item at the time if no one could buy. 😦 This being said, at the time of writing this (4th November) BarelyBlossom has listed two Molly pieces (t-shirt and sweater) where she is dressed up as a bat, so make sure to go and check it out!

So, there we have it guys! All my favourites from October! Honestly it really did go by quickly and I partially hope November doesn’t go as quickly. I’m not ready for Christmas yet… xD

How was October for you guys? What were your favourites from the month? PLUS are you all playing Animal Crossing now? 😛 Make sure to let me know in the comments below.

Until next time guys, take care and see you soon!

July Favourites ’21

I feel like I always say stuff like this when it comes to my monthly posts, but seriously… How is it August already?! This year has really flown by, so much so I didn’t realise my boiler was due a service because it only felt like yesterday that it had had one! xD

This month feels like it’s been… Strange? My mental health hasn’t been very good to be perfectly honest but at the same time it actually improved due to dog sitting my best friends dog Eddie. I’ll be talking more about him later… 😉

I’m hopeful for August being a better month. I have lots of fun things planned with friends and I can’t wait to go on some mini adventures with some of them too.

Beauty.

• Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Soap in Peppermint.

This is an all purpose soap that my mom recently gave to me in lavender form. She’d treated herself to some of the scents but had found she had too many. As I wasn’t using it due to having a lot of my on stuff to use, I gave it back to my mom. When I did however, she offered me another scent that she hardly had any of, the peppermint one. This came at a good time with the heat wave we experienced in the UK. This is a multi purpose soap that can be used as a body wash, shaving and even for cleaning around the home! I’m yet to try it for shaving, but so far both me and Dane have used it on the body. As this is peppermint it leaves a lovely cool feeling behind after rinsing off of the skin, which felt amazing during the heat wave! I don’t know if I would go out of my way to buy this soap as I feel for less money I could pick up the Original Source mint shower gel for a lot less money.

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Film – All the Jackass movies!

As some of you may know I am a MASSIVE Jackass fan and earlier last week the trailer for Jackass Forever came out, so I was kind of an excited fan girl… 😛 I was so excited that I decided to binge watch ALL five Jackass films, including Jackass 2.5 and Jackass 3.5. I forgot about some of the scenes from the films so it’s always a delight to be reminded of some of them. I can’t tell you guys how many times I’ve watched the Jackass series as well as the films now. Whilst studying my undergraduate degree I remember watching everything over and over again as it helped me whilst I worked on my dissertation. To add here, whilst I’m really excited for Jackass Forever I’m not excited about a few things. 1. The fact Bam Margera and Ryan Dunn won’t be there (who are both my favourite Jackass guys) and 2. This is actually going to be Johnny Knoxville’s last Jackass film… Gutted! It’s obviously the end of an era in a way and the young 11/12 year old Nat probably didn’t even realise how much this show would change her life. I’ll be writing a post all about Jackass towards the fourth film, which comes to cinemas on 22nd October!

Image taken from Tenor

Favourite TV Show – Beastars season two.

Me and Dane literally binge watched season 2 of Beastars as soon as it came out on Netflix. We watched the first season last year and really enjoyed it! As I haven’t read the manga, I didn’t expect there to be another season coming out, so when it was announced a while ago I was surprised! This being said, I was intrigued as to what would happen in season two and other questions about Legoshi (wolf) and Haru (rabbit). For those of you who may not know, Beastars is about anthropomorphic animals where carnivores and herbivores are divided. We follow Legoshi during his time as a student where we see how this divide is affecting students, as well as adults outside of the school/college/university. I definitely recommend watching! You can watch it on Netflix, subbed and dubbed.

Favourite Music – Girl Talk – All Day.

All Day is an album my ex actually told me about over 10 years ago and I still listen to it to this day. It’s a mash up album with all sorts of genres mashed up to make one amazing piece of work. I love listening to this when I have stuff to do, whether it be doing paperwork, blog work or cleaning around the house, it’s the perfect album to put on and listen to. I especially love listening to it whilst driving. There are 372 songs used on this album. Honestly go and give it a listen if you’ve never heard of it before… I don’t think you’ll regret it. 😉

Favourite Game – The Greatest Penguin Heist of All Time.

This is a game that Dane introduced me to about three weeks ago now! It’s an early access game on Steam and it is fucking hilarious! If you can’t gather what it’s about from the title then… 😛 Obviously you play as a penguin and you’re off on a heist, the greatest of all time! This game can be played alone or in a group of four through private parties and it’s one that me and Dane have been really loving playing together, especially on streams. You play various different levels and each time you are set tasks to complete. You complete the tasks successfully, you make big penguin bucks which can be used to buy new areas to play, as well as weapons, clothing and more! As this is an early access game there are bugs and items still in development but this doesn’t bother us too much as it’s still crazy and fun to play. 🙂 If you fancy watching us play it on stream make sure to drop us a follow so you can watch us play games! We stream this game every Wednesday between 7pm-9pm. Dane’s Twitch and my Twitch.

Just a few of my favourite things…

New Black Milk Clothing pieces.

Okay so I found some Black Milk Clothing bargains online in July, but I also picked up the Snorlax Snoozing Snuggle Suit when it was re-released! It originally came out in the second Pokemon collection. I’d been nagging BMC via Twitter for ages to bring it back and it would seem myself and others would get their wishes (and nagging!) come true. I’ve owned it for a month now and I’ve worn it loads when the weather was cool enough to. It’s really comfortable and I feel adorable as fuck in it too! If there’s one thing I realised this year, it’s just how much I love BMC’s snuggle suits and how I need more. 😛

As I mentioned, I did pick up some bargains, two in fact! The Snorlax Apples Apron Dress originally came out in the second Pokemon collection and I snagged for £10 less than what BMC are selling it for! Although I’m yet to wear it out and about, I have zero regrets about buying it! It’s a gorgeous apron piece that I’ve teamed up with a strawberry t-shirt from TU Sainsburys. Apron pieces are some I’ve always been unsure of due to the length, but with leggings or a pair of tights with shorts on top, I’m sure it’ll be fine! I’m planning to wear this outfit soon, maybe on a day trip with a friend or for a picnic date with Dane! It’s the perfect outfit for spring and summer!

The second bargain I picked up is the Mew Sheer Midaxi Dress which came out in the first Pokemon collection. This is a piece I’d always lusted after but… Couldn’t justify the monies. I’d bought the Gastly Evolution Handkerchief Dress and felt that was enough for me. However, months later BMC put the Mew dress into the sale and I started to think more about ordering it. I put it off and just as I went to, it had sold out… I was gutted and it was clearly never meant to be. However, one morning whilst scrolling through the internet I found someone was selling the Mew dress on Vinted for a decent price! It was a size M, so a size down from what I usually buy and after some chat with the seller I placed an order. It arrived a few days later and fits perfectly! I’m so happy I bought it and I’m waiting for the right time to wear it… But with the way the weather is now in the UK I may need to wait a while. xD

Lucky art commission from Claire Likes To Doodle.

About a year ago now my amazing friend Claire/Claire Likes To Doodle would stream whilst doing art over on Twitch channel and as she would stream during the day I would join to watch during work for company. I saved enough channel points so I could ask Claire to draw something quick for me! I asked for Lucky from Animal Crossing and she smashed it! Recently I asked her if she still had that initial quick sketch she did for me and she did! I paid for her to finish it for me and paint him. I met Claire for coffee last weekend and was presented with this gorgeous piece. I love how Lucky has a cute little butterfly on his nose, as well as the bees around the flowers too! I’m currently catching loads of bees on Animal Crossing so I can make lots of bee models for my hive!

If you’re interested in getting a commission from Claire yourself make sure to check out her Instagram page and drop her a DM. 🙂

New clothing in general… 😛

I seem to have acquired some new clothing pieces over the last week of July and I have my reasons for this! xD I’d seen the Disturbia Strange Oversized Skater Dress making it’s way around social media for a while and after a lot of thought, I decided to pick one up! I’d seen and heard in a lot of posts and reviews of this dress that the sizing of it was incredibly generous and as my size(s) had sold out, I had to go for a size I haven’t been able to fit into for a VERY long time. Alas a few days passed and the dress arrived. I was so anxious to try it on in case it didn’t fit, but alas it did and it was still very oversized. This being said I don’t mind it, it feels really comfortable and with a belt around (as shown in the image above) you wouldn’t even know how oversized it is! I’m planning to wear this over the weekend.

This sweater literally arrived a few days ago and as you can see it’s a Space Jam Lola Bunny sweater from George Asda. To be able to order an item I’d wanted for AGES I had to order something else, so I decided to get this sweater. It claimed to be oversized and it had Lola Bunny on it so… Win win really! 😛 I used to love Lola Bunny growing up, so much so my dad bought me a keyring/chain with her on. I loved it! I remember being so hyped for a female bunny character and Space Jam but when it came down to watching the film, I was left feeling disappointed and a bit freaked out by the aliens. xD I plan on watching it again soon.

Dog sitting a cutie pie! ***WARNING IMAGE HEAVY***

Finally I’m here to show off this little cutie pie, Eddie, my best friend and her husbands dog! He’s a Shih Tzu Yorkshire Terrier cross, or a Shorkie for short. Me and Dane love him to death so when our friends were talking about where they could put him (aka a kennel/dog boarding) whilst they go on holiday we offered to look after him! We had him for a week and we loved every minute of it. I wanted to share with you guys some of the memorable and funny moments we had with Eddie during his week holiday at ours! We’ll be looking after him again in August and hopefully September which we’re really looking forward to!

This is our living room and for some reason a couple of days into his stay with us he got obsessed by our living room light. As you can see it’s mirrored and he kept staring at it one day after Dane had come home from visiting his family. Eddie was going crazy after a while, in the sense he was trying to get up to the light, whether it was via my airer or the dining table! We don’t 100% know why but we can only assume he saw himself in the mirror and thought it was another dog. We ended up wrapping the light with kitchen roll in the hopes he would forget about it, he didn’t. 😛

On his way home one day from work Dane brought Eddie a puppuccino from Starbucks. It’s basically just a cup of cream but damn did Starbucks give Dane a big cup! Eddie really enjoyed it but he kept wandering off thinking he was finished, when he wasn’t! We might treat him to one in August/September if we get time to. 🙂

Most of the time Eddie would nap, especially during the work day when I was busy and in the evening when me and Dane were chilling or streaming on Twitch. This was taken the day he went back home after his mini holiday with me and Dane. This was typical of Eddie to have a nap next to me on the sofa, or underneath my desk. Look at his cute little face!

The weather was mostly lovely whilst Eddie was staying with us and one afternoon whenever I let him out for a wee or was sorting my washing, he would sit on our decking (I know it’s seen better days…) and look out at the garden and take in all the smells! It was really nice to sit with him and relax, especially if I wasn’t having a very good mental health day. Taking this photo of Eddie has really added to me want to get a dog to sit and have chill moments with… As well as other reasons of course!

Finally my favourite part of having Eddie stay with us for the week was all the doggy cuddles we got to have… More so me than Dane as Eddie really did get attached to me. Every morning Eddie would come and sit on my lap during my morning meetings and then later on come for snuggles and cuddles on the sofa during lunchtime and then on the bed before me and Dane would sleep. These two photos of him are my favourites as he’s given me those perfect puppy dog eyes for fuss. I mean, who can say no to that face?

I know I said finally before, but the day after Eddie went home, I went to my besties for a hot tub party! Typical Eddie came for snuggles with me… 😛 I didn’t mind of course. 😛

So there we have it guys, those are my favourites from July, with Eddie being number one of course!

What were your favourites from July guys? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time all, I hope you’re having a great weekend and I hope August is a good and sunny month for us all. 🙂

Games I’m Excited For After E3 2021

The last time I wrote about E3 on my blog was back in 2018 when me and Dane wrote our his and hers reactions. I honestly don’t know why I stopped writing about E3 since then… Maybe so much good stuff happened that I just couldn’t fit it all onto one post? 😛

E3 is actually one of my favourite times of year! Ever since me and Dane have been together we’ve cuddled together with yummy food and drinks and watched the E3 presentations. Granted since COVID it’s not quite the same, but it’s still been good. I’m not going to lie, E3 2021 for us felt a bit rubbish in regards to the bigger presentations such as Xbox, Nintendo, Bethesda, Ubisoft and Square Enix.

The majority of the games I have fallen in love with (both new announcements and previous from last year) are indie and I just had to share as many with you all as possible! Especially since starting to stream on Twitch. Games is something I was introduced to from a young age thanks to my older brothers with Tetris on the Game Boy, as well as various games on the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System).

I’m going to start with my favourite presentation of E3 2021, which was Wholesome Games. It was one of the first ones I watched and I’ve now found out about twelve games! Some of these are games I already knew about or have backed on Kickstarter, but even so it was definitely my favourite direct and I’ve been talking about it and sharing as much as possible!

I’m going to be jumping straight into this! I’ll try and add trailers where possible as well information about when the game will be released and what platforms. Some I may talk about in a bit more detail, whereas others I might not at all. I don’t want to cause the blog post to be too long! I really hope you guys enjoy reading this post, I’ve had so much fun writing it and sharing some cool games with you all.

Snacko – Out 2022 on both Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Former big city kitties Momo and Mikan are starting a new life on a seemingly deserted island. Unravel its mysteries while you rebuild a community, farm, fish, and explore the island and beyond! Lift a curse and revitalized a ruined island in Snacko, where former big city kitties Momo and Mikan are starting a new life! Grow crops, raise fluffy cows, go fishing, exploring, customize and decorate as you please, and much, much more in this farming cat-venture.

This is actually a game I backed on Kickstarter a while ago now and whenever I hear news about it through the Wholesome Games directs I get so excited about it! I’m also part of the Discord so I’m constantly hearing updates form the developers. Snacko reminds me of Animal Crossing but with cats! It looks so damn cute and to hear it’s now also coming out on the Nintendo Switch has got me even more excited!

Behind The Frame – Out 2021 on Steam.

Combining escape rooms and narrative games, Behind the Frame presents a profoundly interactive storytelling of characters’ emotions and plot development. With 360°panorama techniques and an exquisite hand-painted art style, the game takes you into the world of Behind the Frame. Listening to the brisk chirping of birds under warm sunshine, the painter once again picks up her paintbrush as usual. Sometimes she would look out the window and enjoy the scenery outside when she’s having a quick break. However, a short interlude happens during her regular days. A lost cat, the old man painting next door, some handwritten notes… Everything seems unrelated yet familiar…

Loddlenaut – December 2020 on Steam and HOPEFULLY Nintendo Switch. KICKSTARTER LIVE NOW!

A creature-raising survival game on an ocean planet. Explore the depths of GUP-14 as you clean up a polluted ocean, repurpose marine debris, and take care of axolotl-like alien creatures!

This was actually the last game to be announced during the Wholesome Games direct and I’ve fallen in love with it! I’m planning to back the Kickstarter soon, but I’d love to hear about it coming to the Nintendo Switch first before I do finally back the game. I’ll see how I feel, but the Kickstarter ends on July 12th 2021, so make sure to go and check it out!

Yokai Inn – Release TBC.

You are forced to take shelter in an abandoned inn, and the place springs to life with otherworldly patrons as soon as the sun sets! Yokai Inn is a slice-of-life sim game, inspired by titles such as Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing, that is currently in the early stages of development.

Bear & Breakfast – Out 2021 on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Build and run a Bed+Breakfast in the woods, but you’re a Bear. Tourists are flooding in, your decoration senses are tingling, and the woods are making a kooky noise.

This is another game I have been hyped for for MONTHS now! Bear & Breakfast looks like so much fun, especially as you’re playing as a cute little bear running their bed and breakfast in the woods. I just love games like this, so when I see animals involved too, I’m always hooked! I’ll be getting this on the Nintendo Switch.

Shashingo – Release TBC.

Learn Japanese Vocabulary! Explore a bright, fictional Japanese city street filled with details and interesting objects to capture with your camera. Each photograph you take will translate the name of the content into Japanese and English so you can learn with your surroundings.

Unpacking – Out 2021 on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Unpacking is a game about the familiar experience of pulling possessions out of boxes and fitting them into a new home. Part block-fitting puzzle, part home decoration, you are invited to create a satisfying living space while learning clues about the life you’re unpacking. Over the course of eight house moves, you are given a chance to experience a sense of intimacy with a character you never see and a story you’re never told.

This is another game that I am so excited for and I think in the list this is probably number one for me right now! I’ve played the demo of the game twice now and I’m just craving more each time! Unpacking is such a relaxing game where you unpack your life out of boxes and into your new room/home. It’s nice to arrange items around the room and get to know the character who’s items you’re organising. It was announced recently that Unpacking would be coming out on the Nintendo Switch which has made me so happy!

The next directs I’m going to be lumping together are Nintendo and Xbox. I wasn’t too impressed with Xbox, but I was incredibly disappointed by Nintendo. It’s the direct I was looking forward to the most and it really let me down. I know a lot of people were disappointed by either no news about Animal Crossing, Pokemon or even both! I wasn’t bothered about this, it just felt like the majority of games mentioned from Nintendo were remakes of previous classics.

I really wanted to hear news about more retro consoles coming to the Switch Online. I wanted to especially hear the Game Boy/Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advance coming for us to play! Having the NES and SNES is great, but I want more now!

Mario Party Superstars – Out 29th October 2021.

I’m excited for this game, but at the same time I’m a bit miffed… As someone who already owns Mario Party, it would have been good to get some DLC instead of a brand new game. Eventually I’ll buy this as I love playing Mario Party with both Dane, as well as our friends.

WarioWare: Get It Together! – Out September 10th 2021.

I’ve never played a WarioWare game but I’ve ALWAYS wanted to! Finally I’m going to be getting that chance and I’m super excited for it. The best bit is this is (apparently) the first WarioWare game where two people can play at the same time! I’ll be pre-ordering this as soon as Gamersheek have it up for pre-order. 😀

Back 4 Blood – Out October 12, 2021.

When me and Dane first got together he would always encourage me to play the Left 4 Dead games. I never played games like that previously and I was shitting myself! It really brought me out of my shell in playing shoot ’em up games more and I’m glad for that now. Sadly about five years ago Dane decided to sell loads of his old Xbox 360 games, which including both of the Left 4 Dead games. I was gutted we couldn’t play them anymore and we haven’t since. Back 4 Blood is meant to be just like Left 4 Dead, so I am HYPED for it!

Party Animals – Out 2022.

Party Animals is a crazy and fun fighting game where it’s pretty much a free for all! Me and Dane fell in love with this game purely for how cute the animals are! The otter has stolen our hearts, that’s for sure! As this is a Games Pass game, I know for a fact Dane will be getting it.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands – Out Early 2022.

Tiny Tina—the beloved bomb-chucking star of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. In the game, Tina is your guide through an extraordinary and chaotic fantasy realm.

Borderlands 3 is the game that really did get me into playing shooter games. When Dane got it in 2019 he really encouraged me to join him in playing it. I don’t regret it and if anything I am so fucking excited for a Tiny Tina game/DLC to be coming out to play in the future!

Any other games mentioned now are ones that me and Dane have heard were featured or discussed during E3.

Tunic – Release TBC.

TUNIC is an action adventure game about a tiny fox in a big world where you don’t belong. Presented by Finji.
Developed by Andrew Shouldice, TUNIC is a game shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Crafted to evoke feelings of classic action adventure games, TUNIC stars a heroic little fox as they explore a foreign land that hides danger around every corner. Discover unique items, new combat techniques, and arcane secrets as our hero forges their way through an intriguing new world.

I remember this game being announced in 2018 and I even mentioned it on my blog all those years ago! Tunic is a cute little fox who resembles Link from the Zelda games. It’s a fox, so I instantly fell in love with it three years ago when it was announced. Nothing has really been said about it much until now, which is good! I remember back in 2018 saying I was hoping it would be out the end of that year, haha!

Life is Strange: True Colours – Out September 10, 2021.

Alex Chen hides her ‘curse’: the supernatural ability to absorb and manipulate the strong emotions of others. When her brother dies in a so-called accident, she must embrace her volatile power to find the truth — and reveal dark secrets buried by the town.

I am a massive fan of the Life is Strange games. I especially love the first one and have craved a game like that since. I’m so hopeful for True Colours to be more like the first game than Life is Strange 2 was. I’m popping this mention of the game here as I’m planning to pick it up on the PS4. I have all my other Life is Strange games on that console, so why break the pattern?

I will pop some honourable mentions, as well as link to directs or trailers of the games!

Recolit

Pekoe

Button City

Pupperazzi

Amber Isle

Woodo

12 Minutes

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!

So there we have it guys! All the games I loved discovering through E3 2021! I have a feeling there a lot more games I’m yet to discover, but at the moment these are all the games I have seen and fallen in love with. I just had to share them, they’re all so bloody cute and with me now playing games on Twitch, I cannot wait to play some of these games with my friends and viewers. 😀

What did you guys think about E3 2021? Did you love it, hate it? Which game(s) have grabbed your attention? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time guys, take care and have a lovely weekend!

September Favourites ’19

Image taken from GIPHY

How are we now in October? My favourite month whizzed by so damn quickly and I didn’t get much chance to see or enjoy it. I did really love September though, it was a month of going out and doing things, as well as staying in and spending time with Dane, which I’ve really loved.

September was also a bit meh and I received some crappy news, including the Japanese language course I enrolled to being cancelled last minute (I got my money back FYI), I found out I can’t get anything to help with my anxiety on flights and I found out I have the first potential signs of cavities in my teeth. People who know me know how much I love my teeth. I’m using some special toothpaste now that may help to reverse this and I really hope it does.

So yeah… September wasn’t the best, sadly. 😦

I’m glad we’re in October now as I’m excited for so many things this month! Halloween, the Pokemon Center having a pop up shop in London, a week off with Dane and even some days off to relax. It’ll be a lovely month to chill and start enjoying autumn.

Anyhoo, enough of me rambling, here are my favourites from September!

• Philosophy Amazing Grace Eau de Toilette.

I love this EDT so much from Philosophy and I’ve owned it for what feels like forever! My mom gifted me this whilst I still lived at home as she received it in a set and didn’t want to use it herself. It’s a gorgeous soft scent and isn’t like anything else I own. I use this daily for work as it’s my go to right now, but once a week I’ll change it up for something else. It’s just perfect and the scent isn’t too strong either so if I don’t want anything heavy, this perfect.

• LISTERINE® Total Care Mouthwash.

Since my dentist breaking the news about my teeth that I mentioned earlier, I was recommended to mouthwash after meals, which I do after every meal right now. If I don’t, I used chewing gum instead. I bought some little miniature bottles so that I could carry these around, take to work and even think about taking on holiday in the future. I also have some Colgate mouthwash too, but I love the LISTERINE one more! I plan to pick up a big bottle of this in the future and I can fill up the little bottles. This mouthwash really does leave my mouth feeling clean and fresh, which I love! The Colgate one doesn’t do that.

• Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream.

I’ve owned this since the start of 2019, as I planned to use it loads to help my cuticles go lovely and soft. However, it was only from the start of September that I began to use it properly! When I cut my nails and paint them, I decide to use it all over my hands, as well as my cuticles to help my eczema. It’s been really bad lately with the change of weather but the cuticle cream really is helping. 🙂 It smells gorgeous too!

• Tangle Teezer Aqua Splash.

I picked this up towards the end of September and it’s by far one of the best things I have bought in 2019! I love the Tangle Teezer brushes and discovered them last year and since then I am so grateful that I finally gave them a go. I decided I wanted to give the wet version a go, but I wanted to try and pick up the old version as it looked good. Since buying this drying my hair after washing it has already become so much easier! When I brush my hair in the shower after washing, I feel like I’m brushing away loads of excess water, as well as smoothing is ready to be brushed and dried after. It really is a pleasure to use! I picked mine up from TK Maxx for £7.99, which I thought was a decent price.

• Yankee Candle Snowflake Cookie.

This was a brand new candle at the start of September, one that Dane had bought me years before and that I have only just started to burn! I love burning candles, especially during the colder months so when September started, I knew I had to start getting my candles going again! I decided to start burning Snowflake Cookie as it was one of the few large Yankee Candle jars that just appealed to me. Christmas scents from Yankee Candle are my favourite, so I make sure to burn them all year around!

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from Seventeen.com

Favourite TV Show – 13 Reasons Why Season 3.

I binge watched this at the end of the month (mostly as I worked through my October newsletter, this post and even my October wish list post) and I LOVED it so much. I worried that this would make me think, “Oh God they’ve ruined it even more!” after how bad season 2 was. To be fair, nothing could top season 1… So when season 2 came out I wasn’t expecting much. It felt like they were constantly bashing Hannah and it was boring. However, season 3 has really brought it back and I loved it! I don’t want to talk too much about it in case of spoilers, but something has happened to Bryce and everyone is trying to find out what and how, all whilst trying to keep their shit together. It’s crazy! The show (as it does) covers a lot of serious topics that are good to be spoken about and it’s good. If you’re yet to watch season 3, then get to it! If you’ve never watched 13 Reasons Why then I recommend it, but be careful if you have mental health issues like I do. Season 1 was good, but some of the topics were upsetting, especially as suicide is a massive factor.

Image taken from GIPHY

 

Favourite Movie – Detective Pikachu.

I know this was mentioned on my monthly favourites back in May but I have to mention it again 4 months later as this film is now out and I made sure to pre-order it ready for when it came out. The day it came out me and Dane played games instead of watching, but the day after I cooked us a yummy dinner and we sat down to watch the movie as we chilled out. It was just as good as I remember it being in the cinema and we even watched all the extras too, which were decent but sadly not as good as I feel they could have been. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t feel that extras and behind the scenes stuff on DVD’s/Blu-rays are as good as they used to be…

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Book – Erm…

Yeah I didn’t read throughout September. Which sucks to be fair. I read so much in August and then September came and I read sweet FA. I either didn’t have time due to busy, or I didn’t want to as I was playing games instead. I’m terrible for reading manga these days and due to that I do feel sad. I still have Elfen Lied to start reading again, as well as catching up with Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Himouto! Umaru-chan. I know I’ll catch up with reading… I honestly will! I’d take manga to work but I like to play Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and do blog work on my break.

 

Favourite Album – My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade.

I loved this album back in the day when it came out and I remember buying it from HMV as I had some gift vouchers I needed to use. I loved it and listened to it all the time… Even if my friends at the time hated it. I made some friends through this band, one of them who is now my best friend. One of the best live performances I’ve seen was MCR when they toured for this album. They played the set in the order of the album, it was amazing and I adored it. I’ve started using Spotify at work so I have my music on that I want to listen to, without annoying YouTube adverts coming up every 5 minutes. So I decided to add loads of my favourite albums, including this one. This album just has so many memories behind it and I love it.

Image taken from GIPHY

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Game – Borderlands 3 and Untitled Goose Game.

I couldn’t just mention one of the other of these games this month. Both deserved a spot on here!

First of all, I LOVE the gif I chose to use for Borderlands 3 because these two characters (Zane and Amara) are the two that me and Dane play when we play together. The day the game came out, me and Dane both booked it off so we could play together and relax. It was awesome! The whole weekend we pretty much played this game nonstop! This has got to be the first time I have played a first person shooter game without dying constantly (like seriously every 5 minutes!) and rage quitting. I love this game, it’s hilarious and fun to play with people. I’ve not been playing it much the past week as I’ve been busy chilling out, or playing other games instead. I never played the previous 2 Borderlands games but that doesn’t matter anyway! Honestly, go and pick this game up. 🙂

I wrote in September how excited I was for certain games to come out (which you can read here), with Untitled Goose Game being number one on that list, as it was coming out the soonest. I got home from work and downloaded it to play. Everyone was mad for this game when it came out and so was I! Both me and Dane played this game together and it was absolutely hilarious to play! We still have some bonus stuff to do, even after “completing” the game, which is proving to be so much fun. Honestly, if you own a Nintendo Switch or a Steam account, definitely download and play. Some people said to me that they don’t see what’s the point of this game before it came out. Those people clearly don’t know how to open their minds to new things. 😛

So those are all my favourites for September! September did indeed go by in a blur and I can’t believe we’re in October now. Before we know it, it’ll be December and Christmas will be upon us. It’s crazy!

How were your September’s for you? What were your favourites throughout the month and overall how was it? Please let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely week so far!

8 Games I’m Excited To Play

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. 😛

Image taken from Untitled Goose Game website

• 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.

Image taken from Steam

• 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.

Image taken from engadget

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.

Image taken from Polygon

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. 🙂

Image taken from Alchemic Cutie

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.

Image taken from Mashable UK

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! 😛

Image taken from Calico Kickstarter campaign

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. 🙂

Image taken from To The Rescue Game

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!

5 Games That Are Great for Anxiety

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. 🙂

Image taken from Nintendo.co.uk

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.

Image taken from Steam

2. House Flipper – £15.49 on Steam.

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. 😛

Image taken from Armour Games

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.

Image taken from Steam

4. Viscera Cleanup Detail – £9.99 on Steam.

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!

Image taken from Pokemon.com

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. 🙂

Things I’m Excited About EGX

Image taken from EGX Twitter @EGX

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!

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

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!