My Top 10 Most Perfect and Amazing Christmas Presents for 2012

10. Anime and manga: It'd be rude not to.

9. A retro games console: Bring back your youth in re-living your childhood days.


Of the presents I was bought last Christmas, the above titles are what I received in the way of anime.

8. Discontinued goods: Think of items from your childhood that you can no longer find, some are still being produced in other countries and/or can be found on the web. It's amazing what you can do with the power of the Internet!

These are biscuity snacks from the 90's. They have been discontinued in England but are still available in Norway.

7. Gift vouchers for an anime/manga/dvd or games store: To give the receiver the freedom of choosing what they want. This is a lot more exciting than being bought a present or being given money to do as you please with it.

6. Cinema vouchers: Go watch the latest movies!
5. Events and conventions: See what events are on this time of the year.
4. Computer hardware: Upgrade your PC to make it the ultimate gaming machine!
3. Lots of inexpensive yet groovy presents to make the present opening ceremony even longer.

Eurogamer - Playing Those Long Awaited Games

Introducing Eurogamer, the UK's biggest gaming event!
30th September 2012, my first time at Eurogamer. So my friends told me about this gaming event wherein you get the chance to play games, weeks; even months before their release. They invited me along to said event and for only £12 I thought, minus the fact I have little knowldge on the event, this could be a great day out and an excellent learning curve for me. My attitude on this was, for the amount of money, it's no real loss to me if it turns out to be less than satisfactory. I am not entirely willing to part with my money so effortlessly, though; so before buying the ticket I looked up what games would be available to play, and low and behold... Ni No Kuni! Realising that in just a few weeks time I would be playing the game that I have been lusting after for so long, I immediately went into an uncontrollable state of excitement. I was unsure, though, whether I would get a chance to play Ni No Kuni as roughly 50,000 people attend the 3 day event each year. It would all depend on how popular the game is across a mainstream audience and how many screens were set up for the game. 

How I expected the event to be: I fully expected the place to be absoloutely rammed out, heaving with the combined body odour of thousands of nerdy pubecent teens crammed in like battery hens, thriving for air; screaming in anguish as they clung onto that last breath before being swallowed up into the abyss... But this was not the case!

So I was pleasantly surprised at what I found when I got there!

Layout

Everything was very well organised (for the most part)! There were 5 different gaming zones, the 18+ zone being the most popular, as you can imagine. Oh yeah, one thing I failed to mention previously, Eurogamer is an event very much aimed at late teens/adults, so you get a fairly mature atmosphere (not so many kids running around). In the image below, each game has a number, correlating to the zone where it can be found. Stupidly, some games which are age appropriate for all, featured in the 18+ zone aswell as being screened elsewhere, which is a total waste of floor space in the 18's section.

Each game would have an X amount of screens depending on how popular it was. Some games would have only 1 or 2 rows with 4 screens in each, whilst others would have maybe double or triple that.

Hitman
Hitman, being one of the games that I qued for, had a pretty big que, but it cleared quick enough because there were plenty of screens. Now, bearing in mind I waited about 20 minutes for Hitman, Halo 4 had a que that was around 5 times longer, which was way more than I was prepared to wait! So seemingly, Hitman wasn't even half as popular as Halo 4, which worked well in my favour!

As it has taken me a while to find the time to write this extensive review on the Eurogamer event, some of the games that I saw/have played have already been released. Hitman is soon to be released here in England (November the 20th, just two days after my Birthday)!

My Hitman Review: As I gazed at the screen with high hopes and anticipation, eyes a wondering, I heard the ever familiar sound of Eva Maria ringing in my ears. Only then was it that I came to life. A part of my brain clicked on like a light switch, activating neuron pathways in my brain that I hadn't used for years. I felt reborn. I rampaged through the level, blending into crowds, stealth killing as I went, I felt unstoppable. Until, that was, I woke up to the harsh reality that I was actually getting my ass whooped.
I didn't play Hitman for all too long but I knew instantly what it would be like. It plays very much like it's prequals with the added bonus of new story lines, better graphics and all new features. The last Hitman was on the previous generation Playstation so we are now seeing Hitman in a whole new world. High definition baby!

For those of you who have naver played Hitman before, the object of the game is to infiltrate enemy territories for one reason or another, disguised as one of the enemy. You pick up a disguise by sneaking up on an enemy whilst out of sight and knocking them uncunscious/killing them and stealing their uniform. The stealth kill aspect is very neat, your character normally pulls out a wire which he uses to strangulate the victim until they can no longer breathe.
From the new game I expect a range of different moves, stealth and otherwise. What also made me happy is that the menu theme is still Eva Maria. What a brilliant song!I expect added features, far better graphics as the previous games was on the last generation of consoles. and a new story line, which is awesome. I am very excited for the release of this so that I get a chance to play and review it properly.

The concept ceases to change; it remains the same but will continue to be unique, as there is no other game like it in the industry. Like with any good series, Hitman is long lived and with minor changes. Some see it as scraping the bottom of the barrel, I see it as continuing a legacy.



I was very lucky however that all of the games I wanted to play had relatively short ques. For the most part though, I was more content in watching other people play.

Ni No Kuni
Now, back to Ni No Kuni! There were only four screens, and the demo length was 10 minutes, and most, unlike me, would play to the end of the demo which I thought  to be both indecent and very inefficient at that. I mean they were already lacking in screens, what with an excessive length of playtime in addition to that, and the sheer cheek of those thinking they could play right til the end. could potentially create a backlog of angry gamers all waiting to have a sniff at the most desireable and quality rich JRPG of all time! Now, it seems that all of the calculations that I made prior to the event were wrong as I missed out one very important factor... I did not account for the number of weak minded people who would be drawn by the "shiny shiny" effect to more popular games i.e. Call of Duty. So it turned out that Ni No Kuni was not as rammed packed as I initially thought it would be.

Modern RPG's are being slated for being unlike traditional RPG's. Some think that RPG's are taking a turn for the worst, but I totally disgree. We are living in an aging world, one that is constantly changing around us; any step is a step forward, in the long run. Personally, I feel that game developers have done a grand job in re-creating that traditional RPG feel through non-conventional methods. A lot of RPG's these days have such rich graphics, Ni No Kuni is proof of this. The quality of the environment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89hHkJFD-u8&feature=plcp

The only thing that really disappointed me about this event... Is that there were barely any cosplayers! And I love cosplayers!

Music and Yiruma

Yiruma, my favourite musician and possibly the world's greatest music composer at present. His music is so inspirational; when lost for thought, I just listen to his pieces and words seem to flow from my mind into my finger tips with such ecstasy. Such an inspirational figure for young minds in the world today, listening to him makes me want to learn hard and play hard. His stuff really spurs creativity, I think of a world without Yiruma and wonder where I'd be, whether or not I would be doing as I am now, whether I would have stuck things out to the end, persevered through the hardships. It sounds corny I know, but some music really makes you want to live your life to the fullest, and that's what Yiruma does for me.

Known by his stage name Yiruma, Lee Ru-ma was born February 15th, 1978. Aged 5, Lee began learning the piano and at 10 years he left South Korea to study music in London, England. By 2001, he released "First Love" which is still his most popular album to date. In 2006, Yiruma headed back to South Korea to enlist in the Navy. Upon completion of his time in the Navy, he performed a comeback tour in 2008 entitled "Ribbonized" in 20 cities across Korea. Such a stand up guy that Yiruma!

Music really is meaningful to me, it has such sentimental value. I carry music through my life with me always. When I play a song that has featured in my life at defining points, it makes me remember those times. Some are sad, but it lets me know how far I have come. It is music that inspired me to learn guitar after all, and after learning guitar, I felt that I had accomplished so much and that inspired me to do so much more.

So without further ado, my favourite song by Yiruma!

Yiruma - Kiss the Rain

Weird and Random

This post contains a collection of my weirdest and most random photos for you to frown upon, maybe smile a little, but mostly judge me.

Food Fun - Pizza Faces

First up... Pizza faces! So I was eating pizza one day and I noticed that the peperoni pieces, if arranged accordingly, would slightly resembled facial features (eyes and mouth), like so :).

 

Mr  Happy Face :(

Mr Sad Face :(

Mr Confused face :\



And last but not least, Mr.Dreadlock face :D

Doctor Who Drawing

 

I am a Doctor Who fan, and so are some of my friends so I decided to draw a random picture for one of them one day. It reads:

"So it goes like this..."

Me: "I shall call it the 'Dalek Fez', a clever combination of a Dalek... And a fez! It is absoloutely ingenious... Even if I do say so myself!"

Dalek: "I have killed The Doctor and retrieved the fez and now I am awesome!"

The Doctor: "Goodbye cruel world, farewell fez of awesomeness and my sexy Tardis!"

I wish I still had this picture :(.



Amazing Busking Sign

I went to Canterbury one time to visit a friend who had just gone off to university the week previous. I arrived on the Friday night; so Saturday morning, we went out to explore. Nearing the end of our little venture, we came across a busker with the best sign ever!

 

I almost gave him money... Buttt, then I remembered I'm tight :P.

Which is the fake? :P

 

As of a couple of years ago, some small stores around the UK have installed cardboard cutouts of police officers to deter thieves and lower crime rates... What is the world coming to when you have to rely on a piece of cardboard to guard your store. Pathetic!

In England we have, much like America, a comic convention made to unite the comic fan community. This is called MCM Expo which occurs twice every year on the last weekend in the months of May and October. Back in May, I went there to check it out for the first time (I know, I'm lame for not going in previous years). But anyhow, so we saw this guy holding up a sign with loads of different Internet memes (link here) in one massive brawl. Check my blog in October for a whole post dedicated to MCM!

Introducing Me and My Blog (Cheeky ;P)

Hey world! You've just reached my blog. If you were looking for a little bit of everything then you've come to the right place. Boom!

What inspired me to blog?

I wanted to create an informative piece of narrative whilst being thoroughly entertaining at the same time, something that would hold the reader captive for a while whilst I pummel random information into their heads.

See the problem with today's world is that, whilst we have so many resources to aid in our learning and understanding, for many, our knowledge gap on lesser known things is quite expansive. Luckily for you, I am quite the book worm. Well, Internet worm. I, unlike most, take the time out of my day to do a little research, scouring the net for anything that I don't fully understand, constantly stumbling upon new and interesting things.

So the long and the short, I intend for this blog to be an eye opener and make you aware of everything that's out there.

Sur Moi

I have tonnes of hobbies. For one, I'm into guitar in a big way. I've always been interested but only in the last two years have I learnt to play. I've since gone on to learn the ukulele which is also pretty damn cool. Picking up hobbies that require a great deal of time and dedication can be stressful but very rewarding. My musical talents, I think, define me as a person and show just what I'm made of!

Hobbies and interests

Anime I love. I don't know quite what it is, maybe it's that it's ouside the barrier of reality but not enough to stop us fantand poses endless possibilities. Maybe it's the amount of genres you get, live action on the whole, I feel isn't as deep and as meaningful. Anime can at times be very close to the heart and warming. The sheer amount of effort put into producing the art work and making it run so fluidly impresses me to no end.

Random quirks

• Most of my moments of inspiration occur whilst on the toilet.
• I have my own quirky sayings.
• I like to make up stories in my head.
• I make up crazy theories and pretend to believe them XD.
• I think what my life would be like as an anime/manga.

Dreams and aspirations

So my ultimate dream is to travel the world doing contract work in I.T. This way, I get to see the development of technology in foreign countries first hand, learn about different cultures, pick up new hobbies and interests and most of all have fun!

What matters will be discussed in future posts you may ask?

It's gunna be hardcore and very much anime related! Of course it won't all be anime, there will be plenty of other content on here. Lots of variety for you awesome readers! I tend to spend hours just scouring the internet in search of new and interesting things - of which I shall share with you!

That concludes this session

So yeah, do come by once in a while and check out my blog won't ya? So yeah go on, don't be a stranger! Cheeky ;).