Vigilant readers may have noticed that it has been quite a while since I last posted a book review here. There is a reason for this. I have three books that I’m reading at once: one actual book, one on my Kindle and one on my 3DS. Having three on the go at once is quite useful, because it means that if one of them isn’t that great, I don’t grow tired of reading entirely, because I can focus more on one of the other two, while slowly making my way through the more boring one so that it still gets read.
However, as foolproof as this system may sound, I very recently discovered that there was a possibility I had never considered: what if I end up reading a boring book on all three platforms? Well, I know the answer to that question and it’s this: I end up reading much less and then am unable to keep up with my bi-weekly book reviews. Once I start a book, I always make sure to see it through to the end – which is good and bad. Sometimes my opinion of what had initially seemed boring turns around as I come to the end, but other times I find myself slogging through an unenjoyable book with no payoff. Ulysses by James Joyce is a good example of this.
Anyway, the good news is, I finished a book today! I started something shortly after and right away, I loved it. I want to read beyond the designated reading hour I had in the day and it felt so good to feel that way again, because after spending so long with unengaging books, it was something I hadn’t felt in quite a long time. It’s a shame because that’s actually a pretty great feeling and I missed it… but I guess now I appreciate it all the more! Plus, it helps because my renewed enthusiasm for reading in general means that I can more easily make my way through the more boring books – which probably doesn’t make sense to non-readers, but think of it like this: bad books are not good exercise for the brain’s reading muscle, but good ones are, so now my reading muscle is being exercised properly again and I can make more progress with everything.
Starting a new, good book after finishing a chore of read feels amazing – even better than starting a good book after a good book would do. That’s one nice role that boring books play. Sadly, the bad news is that the boring book I finished was just one of the books of The Bible and I’m not going to review them individually, just one of the whole thing, so I’ll still be book reviewless for a short while!
Still, it’s great to be enjoying reading again! Its like reuniting with an old friend…
Link has a minor cameo as one of Cranky Kong’s Video Game Heroes.
Link has a minor cameo at Rose Town Inn.
Link is a playable character and there is a stage based on the series.
Link, Young Link, Zelda and Ganondorf are all playable characters and there are some stages based on the series.
The Running Man appears (disguised) as a non-playable character.
Link has a minor playable cameo in a microgame.
A Stalfos has a very minor cameo in a mini game.
Link reprises his minor cameo as one of Cranky Kong’s Video Game Heroes.
Link has a minor playable cameo in a microgame.
Link and other characters and elements from the series appear in various game modes.
Link, Toon Link, Zeda and Ganondorf are all playable characters and there are multiple stages based on the series.
The Legend of Zelda characters appear once certain levels are beaten.
Zelda characters appear in several puzzles.
A new game, The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, is included.
Elements from the original Legend of Zelda are remixed into new scenarios.
Link, Toon Link, Sheik, Zelda and Ganondorf are playable and there are two stages based on the series.
Link is a playable character and there is a race track in Hyrule (via DLC.)
Link, Toon Link, Sheik, Zelda and Ganondorf are playable and there are three stages based on the series, plus two additional DLC stages.
Several characters from the series are playable via Mystery Mushroom.
To celebrate the series’ 30th anniversary, a set of badges depicting characters from The Legend of Zelda interacting with other Nintendo characters was released.
Wolf Link, Ganon, Epona and Medli all appear as villagers in this game, along with a range of pieces of clothing and furniture from the series.
With a lot of long-running video game franchises, we really love the instalments we play as children and consider them our favourites. We then enjoy the games which come later, but never feel like the later games reach the heights of the earlier ones. This happens with me quite a lot and was certainly the case with the Zelda series. My number one favourite was either Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask and I honestly thought that was always going to be the case – in part, due to nostalgia. With this in mind, what I’m about to say is quite a big deal: Breath of the Wild is my favourite Zelda game.
But I have to admit, I wasn’t won over right away. When I first started playing it, I was overwhelmed. I was kind of having fun, but I thought to myself “This doesn’t feel like Zelda. This is too open. I don’t know what to do or how things work. This is unfamiliar and I’m not sure I’ll get used to it.” I see a lot of people whose final thoughts on the game are similar to my first impressions, but I am pleased to say that my opinion soon turned around.
This is the most open the series has ever been and it does take some getting used to. The first game was pretty open, but it still required you to collect certain items to do certain things and had general order to it. With Breath of the Wild, you could literally head straight to the final boss immediately after the tutorial. It would be ridiculously hard, but it’s possible.
At it’s core, the game is all about getting Link ready to face Ganon. You explore the lands and do everything you can to make yourself stronger. Maybe you try and find really strong armor, maybe you try and find the strongest weapon, maybe you create lots of potions so you can endlessly heal yourself, or maybe you do the game’s dungeons so that you can unlock powerful magic.
There are lots of things you can do, all of them geared around making Link stronger. There are ‘shrines’ hidden around the world and if you find one, you’ve got a small challenge to complete (some simply fighting an enemy, some complex puzzles) and the reward for doing so is a Spirit Orb – Spirit Orbs are exchanged for an increase to your maximum health, or an increase to your maximum storage.
You can also follow the path of the main story, which has you entering the four Divine Beasts in order to rid them of evil. These are four giant mechanical monsters and their insides are dungeons. Getting to them involves working with different groups of people, including the Gerudo, Zoras, Rito and Gorons. It’s nice that all of the main groups play an equally important role in the story.
Whatever you decide to do, there’s a whole fully fleshed out world to get to grips with as you do it. You can harvest vegetables and learn how cooking works, harvest other resources and learn how to make potions. You can even figure out how to tame horses and other creatures. But you’ll probably spend the most time experimenting with the physics – you can interact with the world by creating pillars of ice out of water, freezing items and enemies in time, creating bombs and moving things with a magnet. This allow for near endless possibilities.
I think what I love most about Breath of the Wild, is how beautiful and immersive its world is. There are times where I’d literally stop moving so that I could take in the scenery and listening to the ambient sounds of nature. Often there isn’t even any background music, just wind blowing, birds singing and insects chirping, but when there is it’s some wonderfully minimalist piano pieces. Just walking around and exploring is so relaxing. What makes this even more amazing is that you can literally go anywhere (other than past invisible walls at the far ends of the massive map) – you can look to the horizon in every direction and you can explore every inch of the land you can see.
There’s so much to see and so much to do. As well as the shrines that are hidden everywhere, there are mini-bosses scattered all around, ruins and treasures to discover, people in peril to protect, Great Fairies hiding away, towns and villages to discover, the remains of iconic locations from previous games in the series, forests and fields full of wildlife, mountains to climb, rivers to sail, resources and vegetables to gather and cook and so much more.
Overall, I’ve gotten 160 hours out of this game so far and I can’t remember the last time a game provided me with that much entertainment. Beyond the main game, you’ve also got DLC, which expands upon the story – it doesn’t continue the story, unfortunately, but adds more to what you have and provides lots of enjoyable new challenges and items to gather. Considering I loved all of it so much, I was happy to pay to extend my time with it.
If you’re an unsure Zelda fan, I recommend giving it a try or sticking to it. I realise my initial negativity was just a reluctance to accept change – but everything must change and this is definitely a change for the better. If you’ve never tried the series before, this would be a great place to start! I envy those who haven’t played, because I would so love the opportunity to discover Hyrule all over again.
I’m friends with a lot of writers and I have to say, that in general, I really like to spend my time and form bonds with people who write. Don’t get me wrong, some of my very best friends are non-writers and my relationships with them are no less valuable, but there’s a distinct quality in writers that I like very much indeed.
The distinct quality I am referring to, is the ability of writer’s to see the magic of life. And I know what you’re thinking: what a load of cliched nonsense. What am I? An inspirational quote on Facebook followed by ‘share if you agree’? And as much as it is a bit cheesy and not something which is true in all cases, it is something that I’ve observed in a number of people.
I find that writers are more likely to appreciate the beauty and poetry of places and situations. They tend to appreciate sentimentality – especially when I find creative ways to express it, which is good because I love doing that. Social events with writers are ‘adventures’ and they tend to make sure that you share unique experiences with them – they tend to make nice gestures too. You also have the unique opportunity of seeing how their minds and thoughts work, when you get to read some of what they have written.
The fact that they see the magic of life, helps me to see the magic of life too and I feel like it’s two parts of a circuit; I am a writer myself, after all. I think when we come together, we bring out the creativity in one another, provide each other with the opportunity to bounce ideas around and really let our ‘writer’ personas let loose. Writers are wonderful and I’m glad to know so many of them.
This blog recently passed it’s eighth anniversary and I had a retrospective blog post planned to mark the occasion… But then I forgot. I don’t want to wait until May 2020 to write this post, so I’m just writing it a little past the milestone.
What’s quite nice for me is to reflect upon how I’ve changed since I started this blog. Here’s a few positive comparisons:
Back then my writing style was much weaker, but now it’s strengthened significantly due to eight years of regular writing. You just need to look at some of my earlier posts to see the improvement.
Back then I hated meeting in groups and would often experience social anxiety when in such situations, but now social anxiety almost never effects me at all.
Back then I was underweight, now I am a healthy weight.
Back then I had only a very small number of friends, now I have had the opportunity to form close bonds with a number of people across the country.
Back then I had never written professionally, now I have very many times.
Back then I had no university education, now I have a 2:1 Creative Writing BA.
Back then I had no real professional experience whatsoever, now I have a five year career in digital marketing.
Back then I had never met any of the cast of The Waltons, now I’ve met two!
Back then I had never had a friend round for a sleepover – now I have twice!
Back then I used to have negative attitudes about sex and the human body – now I have healthy and positive perspectives.
Back then I had never been to Nando’s, now I’ve been very many times.
Back then I didn’t have a blog, but now I have one I’ve been updating regularly for eight years.
There are so many wonderful changes which have occurred in the last eight years. I thought I’d stop the list there because I had probably covered enough points already, but there’s so much more I could have said. It makes me excited about what I’ll have to reflect on in eight years on my blog’s sixteenth anniversary….
Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog are two of the biggest icons in gaming history and, for a long time, had been rivals too. As the gaming landscape changed, Sega and Nintendo stopped working against one another and started to build a more collaborative relationship and eventually a game featuring both of these franchises coming together was possible.
But as much as Mario and Sonic meeting one another was highly anticipated, I don’t think anybody could have predicted that they’d first meet on the fields of the 2008 Beijing Olympics – but that’s what happened. I remember when I first saw some screen shots in a magazine and I genuinely thought that it was a joke. It was so absurd that I didn’t believe it could be real – but of course it was.
Essentially, the whole game is based around using the Wii Remote to play Olympic games as characters from both the Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog series. They’re mostly pretty realistic and have very few fantastical elements. Using the Wii Remote so much actually gets a bit tiring sometimes – it also is a bit annoying where certain movements don’t work properly. Sometimes no matter how hard I waggle, my character won’t run fast enough.
The controls in generally aren’t that great. Sometimes I just shake the Wii Remote to make them move (like in running or swimming) and other times I swipe it downwards to throw (e.g. a javelin) or upwards to jump (e.g. long jump). It doesn’t feel like there’s any skill or technique to these things – sometimes it works and you win, sometimes it doesn’t and you lose. The skeet event felt ridiculously hard to get right as well.
Some events make use of the more interesting elements of the Mario & Sonic universes. My favourite of these is Dream Race, which is essentially a footrace version of Mario Kart – the problem is that there’s only one track. I also enjoyed Dream Platform, which had you diving through the sky and collecting items and rings. Both were fun, but pretty basic.
In any of the events, you can play as either Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, Bower, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Blaze, Vector, Shadow and Eggman – it’s a nice selection (though I was a little sad that Donkey Kong was not present) and this is really why I play the game. I love watching these strangely proportioned characters take part in realistic Olympic events. Watching Bowser or Wario sprinting and jumping over hurdles is hilarious – as is watching Eggman propel his body through the air for the high jump. Because of his awkward body shape, I actually think I love being Eggman the most. But if it wasn’t for these beloved characters, I wouldn’t be all that interested in this otherwise mediocre game.
Basically, this is just some Olympic events playable with the Wii Remote with some popular characters pasted onto it. I really like the idea that the Olympics bring people together and that’s why Mario and Sonic are playing together after all these years – but that’s all it is, a nice idea. I played until I had unlocked and played every event, but honestly you will probably get bored after the first hour or so. You never unlock anything that good (other than Dream Platform). It could have been a lot better and I love what they were trying to do, but I can’t really recommend this too highly. I wish we got to see more interactions between the characters, I wish there had been more overall substances to it. I wish the loading screens weren’t so slow and so frequent. I wish there wasn’t so much untapped potential in this game…
Back in 2011, I started making plans for a picnic with some classmates, but it never came to be and before I knew it they’d all left school and arranging it was impossible.
Back in 2013, my friend Stacey and I had made some plans to have a picnic. Sadly, the two of us had a falling out shortly after – we had completely made up a couple of months later, but the picnic never came to be.
Back in 2014, my friends Chloe, Oscar and Sophie had formed rough plans to have a picnic. It was summer and we were coming to the end of our time at university. I was excited for it. Alas, it got pushed back a few times and before long it was impossible because I was out of university with no money and not seeing any of them regularly.
Back in 2016, I spoke to my friend and colleague Sarah about having a picnic with her and a couple of others. She was enthusiastic and I was excited. Shortly after, Sarah ceased to be my colleague and then, as we saw each other less regularly, we were never able to properly solidify the picnic plan.
Back in 2018, I was working in a call centre. I’d formed a rough social circle out of my colleagues there and together we made plans for some things we could do. One of which was a picnic – but it never happened, because soon I (and several of them) left. I said as soon as it came up, however, that it would never come to fruition. I knew then that I was cursed never to attend a picnic.
This year (2019, for those reading in the future) my friend and colleague Kat suggested having a picnic. I said I was enthusiastic, but that I did not believe it would happen – picnics always got cancelled when I was involved in them. Sure enough, Kat and her family were struck down with a terrible virus for ever daring to suggest that I might join them for a picnic.
However, Kat was not to be deterred. A few months later, she tried to rearrange the picnic. I accepted the invitation, of course, but after an unfailing track record of eight years, I did not expect it to come to pass. Indeed, just one week before I was taken into A & E and Kat thought that the picnic curse had struck again – was there nothing that could be done?
Well, thankfully, I was feeling up to it after all and today I went to the picnic – my first ever! It was a delightful afternoon; I ate cake and got to come along with some children on a treasure hunt. I also found out about some unusual banging things called Fun Snaps. Wonderful.
The moral of the story is that you must never roll over to fatalism. If your goals seem hopeless or unattainable, worry not, for you, too, will eventually get your picnic.
My friend Sophie and I recently started playing the game Ever Oasis together. By using the word “together” I don’t mean to indicate that the game is multiplayer, rather we’re just playing independently at the same time. It’s a nice experience and a new one for me; I’ve never really played a game with somebody like that before.
Anyway, that’s not the main point of today’s blog post; interesting idea though it is. Instead, I wanted to document especially heartwarming exchange which came about as a result of this joint venture through the digital world of Ever Oasis!
One of the main characters in Ever Oasis is a water elemental named Esna. The main character meets her early on and then after a short while gives them a short speech about how they believe in them and that they’re a good person. All good and uplifting stuff and, to be honest, it reminded me somewhat of Sophie, because she often tells me similarly uplifting things about myself, they also used a few similar turns of phrase.
After playing for a few minutes and getting to a point where I could happily put my 3DS down without spoiling my journey through the plot, I picked up my phone to send Sophie a message to say that Esna had reminded me of her – only to find a message saying that she felt like Esna reminded her of me. I couldn’t help but smile. A sure sign, no doubt, of a positive and supportive relationship!
I joked that Esna perfectly represents what we can achieve if we work together and support one another: a powerful elemental capable of changing the world. Sopham was the name we decided on for that concept – and a very good concept it is, because the best friendships, I feel, should be all about bringing out the best in one another. Oh, also it works on another level because Esna is water and I like Trusty Water Bottles.
First of all, I’d like to acknowledge that I didn’t update this blog as I usually would have done on Monday. You see, I actually had a very hectic start to the week. In recent times, I have had certain health-related issues – nothing too serious, but on Tuesday I had a doctor’s appointment about it and, while there, it was decided I should go to A & E just to be completely safe. I then travelled up to the hospital in Bath and underwent a series of very invasive (and somewhat painful tests) and ended up staying there for quite a long time.
Sounds like a pretty horrible experience, doesn’t it? Well, it wasn’t. You know why? Well, the old saying goes that you find out who your true friends are when you really need them and, as it turns out, all of my friends are my true friends! Everyone of them came through for me.
The local doctor indicated that I’d need to quickly pop into A & E for a check, then be able to leave before long. But when I arrived, I was told that I might well have to stay the night! I wish I had been warned, as I would have brought a book or my Kindle or my Switch. I did have my 3DS, but before I knew it I was in a gown, in a bed and my 3DS was away in my trousers and I was told I wasn’t allowed to get out of bed. All I had were my yo-yo and my phone and the cannula inserted into my arm made yo-yoing quite painful.
So I used my phone and one nice thing I have is infinite texts, so I texted. I let my friends know that I was there and the outpouring of support was overwhelming. People were keeping my company through texts, offering to come and visit as soon as they could, offering to bring me clothes and food, offering to do anything I needed, offering sympathetic words, expressing concern, leaving nice voice mails.
It’s not that I didn’t think they cared about me before this, I knew that they did, but I just didn’t expect this much support. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve such loyalty and kindness, but it makes me realise that I am an incredibly fortunate person. I have a huge support network made up of all the best of humanity – with that in my life, I can overcome any problem. Any time a problem arises in the future, I’ll always remember the support I received on that day and know that I am not alone.
