Now then. I've been busy. Busy sorting out Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles and The Chameleon Chronicles with story outlines so I'm not wondering in the dark about what to add next. As such, new parts can now be added easier by following those outlines. You can expect new parts to be added sometime today or tomorrow for both.
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While I might not fully migrate here just yet, it is good to test the waters. Complete integration with Google+ and Youtube is better than limited amounts, after all. And so.
With just under two months to go until Mario Kart 8, I thought I'd revisit a little something I did two years ago with Mario Kart 7.
In that first challenge, starting 5th of July at 14,205 coins, I had until the end of the month to reach 20,000 coins - the last unlock milestone on the game. I had to race properly though. That was what I'd said to myself. Race properly or the challenge is void. After all, a challenge is no fun if your just staying in last and quickly collecting the coins half a lap behind everyone else. And so I raced through many GPs, earning podiums almost every time, getting over 30 coins almost every time. And so, since that time I had played the game less. In fact, for the whole of 2013, I hadn't even reached 25,000. At the beginning of March though, I did. With Mario Kart 8's release coming up within two months, I started playing MK7 more throughout that month. That's when - beginning of April - I reached the point where I thought to myself "Why not make another coin challenge out of this?" There is one major difference though. At that point in 2012, I had just finished my first year of college. This year, I'm on my first year of university, and with an end of year show coming up, I've got work to be doing. So I've got less time for gaming. Hence the two months instead of one. Anyway, this challenge. Starting today, with a coin total of 26,433, I have to reach 30,000 coins by the release date of Mario Kart 8. If that gets reached easily though, an extension to 32,000 should make things harder. And so, here I go. [New Edition Note: While I didn't cover it on the blog, I had actually passed the challenge. The Excel document I still have saved reveals that I completed the challenge a week before MK8's release with 30,028 coins to my profile. I had gone beyond the set 12 GP's per week for the last two to bring in almost 2000 in just those two weeks. I suspect uni must have finished for the year for that to have happened.] So, after the Nintendo Direct of Wednesday, more footage of Mario Kart 8 was shown. As well as numerous new courses, more returning characters were shown. No new characters or Retro courses were shown, but this does make one think. With nine new courses already shown off in the two trailers, as well as two returning 3DS courses, the tracks in this game are looking great. We know of the anti-grav feature - allowing traversal on walls and ceilings - as well as the return of gliders, underwater driving and bikes. Customisation will return with more options. Coins do return, but their purpose hasn't been clarified.
Some things still remain a mystery, and I'm going to have a crack at giving my predictions and why I think they will happen. You know me, I've always got ideas. I'm always storing them away for future reference. Whether fan fictions or original creations, I'm always considering them and changing them. From the two original creations on my website, Zincite Storm Cup, and the one being fully revitalised into a proper e-book - TV and Film Residential Camp - to the number of fan fictions like Pokémon: Shadow Boom, Star Wars: Darth Maul, and Doctor Who: Star Wars Chronicles.
Only one of each has been finished and so, while I am continuing with Doctor Who: The Star Wars Chronicles and TV and Film, I was wondering about those less fortunate fan fictions. The ones that have really only just been started. Animal Crossing: Time Origin and The Chameleon Chronicles fall under this category, even if Animal Crossing has two chapters to its name already. The original Ice Age film was one of the first I ever actually owned. It was one of the best films I had seen. When the second film then came out, I loved that one too. The films of Ice Age have references for all ages, and when I was growing up, I might not have understood them all at first, but over time I did.
I have watched all four films countless times [the fourth less so, due to it being newer], and each have held a lot of thoughts, and all of them are different depending on which film it is. Lost in the World.
Don't get me wrong. This game is good. But something is lacking within. It's a typical Sonic affair. Eggman's up to no good, and Sonic and Tails set out to stop him. Amy and Knuckles are in the game too, but Knuckles hardly does anything, and Amy is just for contact with the Earth below, and due to a very specific plot point, I can't say more than that. The Lost Hex, where the action takes place, is home of the Zeti, who are under Eggman's control. The story has some interesting twists in it, but the end result can be predicted. Anyone can tell that I haven't been active, on either site. No new story posts, no new blog posts. In fact, apart from a small amount of posts on social networks, you'd be forgiven for thinking this operation had got the red light and been cancelled. Thankfully, it hasn't. I've just been super busy.
Spoilers. Spoilers. Oh so great.
Spanish or not, it's too late. Videos pasted. Game surprises wasted. Avoid Youtube at all cost, Otherwise the wait is lost. Just a little poem there, to show how displeased I am at this news. You heard me. Sonic Lost World has had its street date broken. Spanish retailers [or at least one] have broken the official release date for Sonic Lost World, and spoilers have already been posted onto YouTube. So, I was thinking about my reviews that I have done on here so far, and feel that they have been very varied in their style and approach. Especially the games. If anyone has been on Neoseeker and read my reviews on there, you'll know what I'm talking about. This is for game reviews only, however, and when I do other reviews, I will outline how I will go about them first.
From now on, I'll be doing a free flow approach, starting with what I feel is the main point of discussion. From there, I will cover a lot of other things as well that are needed for that game. This will be varied, depending on how much time is needed to cover it. Once that is over, I will then list ten pointers, both good and bad, which will form the basis of the entire review. There will be no score, although the good pointers of the review will sort of form the basics of that score. Eight good points will be eight out of ten, for example. You might wonder where the other conferences are on this blog. EA's? Ubisoft's? Especially Sony's? I strictly didn't cover them for the reason that all of my best bits from them will be covered here.
Yes, at the end of this E3, I've had surprises thrown at me. Most of the games in this coming generation are going to be open world. Racing games, shooters and zombie survival games. All will be open world. And so we've had our Nintendo Direct goodness for the day. And, as usual, a lot was shown. And boy was it amazing.
First, a new Pokémon X and Y trailer. Oh it is looking so good, and by the time of release, it will just be too good to even play. But play it we must. Two new features, one of which is a new type - that being Fairy. It is super effective to dragon. Returning Pokémon Jigglypuff, Gardevoir, and Marill will take on this new type. Hold on, Marill? Oh well. Anyway, the new Eeveelution Sylveon also takes this type. The next feature, called Pokémon Amie [A-Me] sees you feeding and petting Pokémon to bond more with them. Seems interesting. Oh, and did I mention that the game will be coming October this year. On the twelfth? And so, no matter what you might think of the Xbox One. No matter what DRM issues we have it. No matter what policies are corrupt with it. After that conference the one thing we know it will do is sell.
The first thing the conference kicked off with was Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - the Konami game that was shown on the sixth. This was a larger trailer than the one saw on the sixth though, and was the perfect way to start the conference; confirming it for Xbox One. So the only thing here was for the fans really. Starting with a small trailer using nothing but red lines, they showed off the three games they'd be showing off, then moved to a brief history lesson and some of their projects in schools. Talk then moved to social games, even if not much was even said about them. Still, the logo's of Domo Jump! and NLB Live Challenge were shown with a bit of what each game was.
After the social stuff, it then finally moved to the first of the games. So E3 is almost upon us again. And this year, it is looking to be bigger than ever. Both Microsoft and Sony have revealed next generation consoles, and Nintendo have a lot to show for their next gen console. The WiiU, while getting some game releases, hasn't exactly been winning any wars due to lack of competition and lack of must-have exclusives. That is soon to come though, and this E3 shall prove it. But not in the way you're familiar with. Nintendo won't be holding a big pre-E3 conference, but will be active on the first day of E3 with a Media Showcase with hands-on testing, as well as a Nintendo Direct for all us fans. There's also the Pokémon conference, or whatever it turns out to be.
EDIT: There is a Konami conference on the 6th, and I'll be checking it out. Not expecting much, but I'll still give a little review of it. Now then. I've just been sat for an hour watching the conference.
Stepping up first was Don Mattrick to introduce us to the concept and the day. But before this was a trailer of people from Microsoft basically saying "We're changing gaming again." I beg to differ. So Don Mattrick steps up to the stage, talks a bit about how the original Xbox came to be, introduction of Live, then the release of the Xbox 360 [X360] and an improvement of the Live services. At this precise point everyone knows what is now coming. He didn't half big it up though. Could this be in the gaming section? It could indeed. It talks about the latest game announced - in fact, two games - in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. But I also made strict claims that this Sonic the Hedgehog story I've been hiding behind would be announced when the game was, and rather than have two separate blogs in two different sections, I've just condensed them into one.
See, I promised there wouldn't be another gaming blog post. Some might call this cheating though, but I promise it isn't. This is basically a restructure of the blogs.
First thing you might have seen is the new description and name of this section. Since it will now cover all CDS offerings and not just insights to the online novels I write. And the other rename is in GAMING COVERS [no idea why it was in caps] to Custom Game Covers. I might not be doing any more of them, but just in case I want to turn it into a big thing some time in the future, it's there as a placeholder. And so I said I would. My idea of Sonic Adventure 3. Why am I uploading this so early after the previous blog post then?
Well, a recent bout of the rumour mill has been going, and basically the game 'Sonic Excursion' seems to have been taken as fact by almost everywhere. I won't bother going into it, as I'm sure that many of you will have seen it somewhere. But onto my idea, which is more fleshed out than that rumour. I had planned this to feature Chao Gardens more in the story rather than how the other Adventure games dealt with them, which I described as "Oh look! A Chao Garden. Let's visit". This way, they can still remain optional, but it doesn't look as though they've been added in for the sake of it. Chao have been part of the story in two Sonic games - Adventure 1 and Rivals 2. This then would be the third, and as you read on, you'll see why. Now then, those on my personal Facebook feed will have seen these, but since they are to do with one of those Unannounced stories on the Pilot section, I'd thought I'd bring them all together and talk through what is happening.
As you may remember, a story started by guest writer LuckyBachi called "Sonic: The Hog Behind the Hero", which was stopped after four chapters. This was due to another story starting on her DeviantArt account. Called "Perfect Chaos II", it has a lot more of a reputation due to its complex story arcs. During the year of 2012, the same year Perfect Chaos II started, rumours were around of a Sonic game that would finally be Sonic Adventure 3. At the beginning of 2013, those rumours grew stronger. In fact, the biggest cherry on the cake was in February, when a whole host of information was announced about the new Sonic game. Well, announced as in more rumours. |