There's a zombie on your lawn

So currently I'm playing a few games quite a lot and I thought I would talk a bit on them. Firstly the pc games.

Jona (brother) bought me the Game Of The Year Edition of this on steam. I've already almost completed it on Xbla (Xbox360 Live) (only got one achievement left to get - 40 waves on endless) but I really like my tower defence games and this one is rather good (that and steam had a sale~). It's pretty user friendly, it's basic enough that it's accessible to almost anyone but has enough difficulty that it isn't boring. The graphics are cheerful and the music isn't all that bad.

I've already completed the first play though and I'm well on my way through the second. I'm not sure why I find this so addictive but I do. Do you want to know my favourite part? The Zen garden. I'm not even joking, my favourite part (after completing the main game) is growing plants and picking up new plants from either Crazy Dave or on other levels. As the name Zen suggests, it's soothing. The music is nice and I like finding out what new plants I have acquired. It sounds ridiculous I know, especially when I'm so absolutely terrible at keeping plants alive in real life.

Any way, essentially I love this game because you can just turn it on and play for a short burst of time. There's no plot at all so that's not an issue and each level is about 5 to 10 minutes long (except for each last level of the area which is a double level).When my 360 was in my room I would play it a lot on that and now it's on my computer I'm playing it a lot at the moment. 'Chievo hunting (because the achievements on Steam are different to the Xbla ones).

Ahh good old Minecraft. I don't actually play this as often as I seem to make out. In fact I haven't played this in a couple of months and have only just reinstalled it today after the windows overhaul. Jona mentioned that the sheep had been altered so they are producing wool again after shearing (which I was having a major issue with last time) so I thought I would open it again and have a mooch. They've also added apples a a tree drop which is fab.

I do love this game, mostly because I just like building a nice house and then going off on a wander around the countryside and through the caverns and caves. I like exploring, although really I should head off to the Nether and the End at some point but that's kinda where all the scary things live.

I tend to play this game solidly for about a week (in a darkened room because it makes it easier) and then after that week appear, bleary eyed and blinking at the sun, and don't play it for about a month. It is a good game but I overkill on it. This is how I play most games really. I play them for hours each day and then stop. Then when I finally get back to them I'm all "dude, why did I stop? This game is AWESOME!". As it is I'm in the early stages of building a house (making the walls out of dirt and any other random materials that don't require tools to gain, because I like to play it out perfectly and dirt is easiest to change). I have already found sheep and pigs near by and I'm situated next to the sea. It should be fun so I'll let you know how I get on.

On Xbox I'm playing this: Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3, another game that Jona bought me (this time for christmas). We are somewhat collecting these games (currently own DW1 (PS), DW2 (PS2), DW3 Strike force (I think, PS2), DW5 Empires (Xbox360), DW6 (Xbox360), Tactics (PS2), Warriors Orochi 1+2 (Xbox360) and DW Gundam 1, 2 (still with Anth, I really should get that back) and 3. DW in original format is about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in China and the warring that happened then. You generally play as one of the factions (Wu, Shu or Wei) and as a person from one of those. Throughout the game you unlock new people to play as and stuff. It's hack and slash in the extreme (press x to win). Orochi takes DW and Samurai warriors (a spin off from the same game company) and some demons and makes them all fight because some demon dude called Orochi decided that would be cool. It's quite fun because Jona and I are sitting there going "you don't fight together, you hate each other!" or "Lu Bu!? No one defeats Lu Bu!" and then steal his horse Red Hare (the fastest in any of the games). It's certainly interesting but the plot is pretty meh whatever. Mostly we have it for more co-op game play and because, like I said, they're fun. Hack and slash is awesomes.

Gundam is basically the same except with mechas. 1 and 2 followed the same formulae and were almost ctrl+c, ctrl+v of each other with some slight graphics changes. The story was the same, the campaigns were the same. It was the same game. Kinda disappointing. Actually one of them has the option for Japanese speech and the other doesn't. I don't remember which one but the American voices aren't too good (especially when they keep saying the same thing when they take a base/kill a named guy/kill x amount of people).

DWas of yet. Also the plot is different (although essentially the same as Orochi). There are also a million chapters and missions to do (mostly copy/paste but that's fine) so I'm going to be taking a while on it. It is good if you're angry, upset or insomniac though. Many a night has been spent on DW6 with Jona and they're good fun. Just don't play them for plot, or interesting things happening. They're all kill loads of guys and then kill the big bad boss at the end. Sometimes there are "save this guy" or "don't let X die" but mostly "kill Y to win".

Again one of the best features about it is that I can normally complete a mission in about 10 mins (they give you a time limit of 90mins. I think that would be soul destroying and really hard to require that length of time. I reckon my AI allies would defeat everyone in that time if I didn't :P) so I can pick up a controller and quickly kill some people and then go do something else.

Finally when I'm out and about I've been taking my Gameboy color with me to play this. I've already mostly completed it on emulator years ago but I finally picked up a copy for cheaps off Amazon. It's a very basic game with a similar layout to the original Red/Blue in the way that there are gyms and you defeat 3 people then a gym leader. There is also a rival (who I can't remember the name of) who turns up every so often. You get to choose your starter deck (Bulbasaur/Charmander/Squirtle and friends) and off you go. The cards that are used in the game are from the base, jungle and fossil sets with the promo Meowth (Blackstar 10) that was originally released with this game also used (I didn't get one because it was second hand but I can get one off ebay pretty cheap).

There isn't much to the game but I quite enjoy it and sadly I also rather enjoy thinking "yup I have that card in reals". It's a game about collecting things and in my family that's quite a trait that we have. I'm not very far in it but I'm still having fun remembering how to play the original TCG (the updated version I play on TCGOnline is better but nostalgia!).

So you may have noticed that very few of my games at the moment are plot driven. Really only DW:G3 can boast any kind of plot and even that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. It's mostly because at the moment I don't want to be thinking "so I have to go here to talk to this guy to get this quest to get to this part of the game to find out blahblahblah". All I really want is action at the moment. At some point I'm going to go back to my pile of incomplete Squenix games (Persona4, FFXIII, Last Remenant, other FFgames) and Mass Effect (finally got for Christmas) but I feel like it would just be too much (I also need to find a synopsis for the first disk of Last Rem because I haven't played that in about 3 years and I need my maps for FFXIII and probably need to restart VII, X and get a synopsis for I and III). See! Look at how much effort plot driven games are when you are a sporadic gamer like me! Maybe after these games I'll go back to Theme Hospital (with no plot) and finally complete it (on consultant level because I enjoy it hxc on there). I should also go back to Pokemon.... Soul Silver, Black, start Diamond and Emerald. We got them all at roughly the same time so I have a major backlog on that front.

And then I have other things I need to be doing other than gaming! :P I need to start applying for a second job (bleh), reading all my hundreds of unread books (le sigh), tidying and decluttering my room (all the frikking time!), getting a good night's sleep for work the next day (very important!), sorting out the Iolanthe files so I can send some to Hazyshade (because I've overkilled my mind on copying up the score and it's just a little too much and he is fabulous and keeps offering, also 70 page 1st act finale anyone?!). I also want to be practising my instruments more and learning how to play the ones I've bought but never learnt (or acquired) but I don't seem to have enough hours in my day! I agree with Blue on the thought that sleep is such a waste of time but such a damned necessity!

Now I should make a checklist for tomorrow and go to bed because it's almost 00:30 and I should have been in bed an hour and a half ago so goodnight all my lovelies and may all your dreams come true (just the good ones and not the nasty nightmares).

Lemonses and butterflies, Buttercup xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tell you that I love you then I'll tear your world apart, just pretend I didn't tear your world apart

Everything is a bit topsy-turvy at the moment. I'm totally mood-bonkers so doing things is really hard but here is a blog because I have things to say! I've something to say, I've something to say! (She's something, she's something, she's something, she's something to say).

So I was trawling (not trolling) the internet and I came across something really pretty:

KNITE

I could possibly find out how to embed that into this blog but really go read it, it's beautiful. The style is fabulous and the story is going to make me cry by the end I can just tell! I almost have done twice, it's just so beautiful. I wish I could make things that wonderful. I hope that she releases a book format (the author already has a publisher and they're going to make an iPhone interactive book but I don't have an iPhone so I want to be able to buy a colour book). I <3 Sen because he is a dreamer and I have a soft spot for that type of person and Kai is so sweet and caring... just go read it now! It'll take you about 10 minutes to read/watch all 3 chapters and the bonus ones (there are links on each chapter page to the corresponding bonus and next chapter). I don't know when the next one is out but I want more now! *Impatient*

I've been playing Pokemon Black recently (Jona bought it for me but I guess I make up for it by buying Xbox360 games and letting him play them =p) and it's a bit weird but it's certainly pretty good. I've not played much because we're doing the collection of starters at the moment so I've only played just past the first gym but I can certainly give some thoughts. Firstly the girl character (over on the far left) you can be is a bit silly looking (seriously what is with all that hair?) and I'm almost tempted to play as a boy  (who looks kind of like a girl anyway) because of it and that never happens in games for me. But I'll probably play as a female in the end anyway... it's just a bit bothersome, superficial but bothersome =p. I've taken to some of the pokemon already actually. It's kind of like playing Red/Blue again for the first time because I don't know any of them properly yet. It's good fun =) 

Here are some more characters:

This is Cheren (I think... I call him Ishida because he's basically the same character hahahahahaha =D) and Bianca (also known as dense hooka or other negative terms). They're ok. Actually they have a lot of potential. One takes the pokemon strongest against you (shock! Like so many of the other games!) and the other takes the weaker (guess who is who ¬¬). Bianca is the ditz, they've really gone quite far on stereotyping there but she might have a possibly good story going on, I just haven't got far enough. Ishida is smarmy and reckons he knows everything and is all tactical and everything. Which sucks for him because I keep beating him =p.

Here is the main gripe actually... the bad guys ¬¬

These are the main bad guys I have met so far (excluding the mysterious N, because he's, at the moment, on neither side... although try not to look into it too far because there are some really obvious similarities going on if you look on the internet at certain people's pictures (digging a hole here ¬¬).

The original Team Rocket (from Pokemon Blue, Red, Yellow, Gold, Silver and possibly Crystal? and the remakes of those said games). I think they were only in those games but I haven't played the 3rd or 4th gen games. The people on the right are Team Plasma. They're... well... naff. Team R were out there causing mischief, trying to steal that one pikachu and trying to take over the world. So far Team P have told me that they are battling to free pokemon from their masters. It's a bit contradictory and they go around stealing pokemon but so far they just seem lame in comparison, Especially when you compare their bosses.

Ok ignore the bright orange 90's suit, or don't if you like orange, it was the best picture I could find from the anime, in some images he's wearing a black suit. Team R had Giovanni who seems to be based on the old school mafia style bosses. There is even a map in the background for him to world dominate with and he's drinking a whiskeyish looking drink! He was the cool bad guy. Then on the right we have Team P's Ghetis... I had to go look up that name. It's ridiculous. I do not care for these bad guys at all. They're no team rocket.

Technically neither were these guys, they were pretty anti Team Rocket but you gotta love them anyway =D (don't ask why Jesse's hair is purple... some of the anime screenshots are and some are red... I think it depends on the series... I just like their smiles).

Basically the game is good if you like pokemon, it's basically the same game but with different characters. It's cute, the music isn't that bad and the graphics are pretty good for a DS. It's not the best game ever, and it's not even the best pokemon game ever but it's good, so far =)

Ok enough of pokemon.

I've been listening to a lot of music since I last blogged so here are 6 reviews, I'll try and keep them relatively short =p

Ok... formatting is playing up and it won't let me do things how I want... rubbish.

Ah hah! Got it working again. Ok so this album was pretty good actually. She's shot up to fame pretty quickly and I was worried that I would get the overhype monster coming down and ruining it for me but no she's pretty good. A nice voice, a bit souly which makes a change for me. I really like Chasing Pavements (you know that really big his she had), Daydreamer, Melt My Heart To Stone and Hometown Glory. It's a pretty good album and worth a peek at if you have time. I'm certainly going to look into her second album. Actually I started listening to this one because a fellow G&Ser sang one of her songs at karaoke and it was amazing. Mostly because of the G&Ser but it piqued my interest.

 

The Airborne Toxic Event (self titled album) are unashamedly indie. It was the first thing I thought "my gosh how indie are you guys?" The album wasn't bad; it was uninsulting and I won't mind if the music comes on again when on shuffle. I won't immediately think to listen to them again though. If you like indie rock or pop you'll probably like these guys. I like their name though, that's really cute =3

Fave track: Sometime Around Midnight

Ok I mostly stopped listening to rawr rawr rawr music. I couldn't tell what they were saying and it was just a bit gratey on my ears. I tried to be an angry little goth teenager but ultimately I preferred pop and rock and wearing all black didn't really work for me (and I certainly couldn't be bothered with the make up part =p). BUT the point of the matter is is that I thought From Autumn To Ashes huh? This will be easy *hovers over the delete button*. But I was shocked. Ok I know that I like the thrack Autumn Monologue by them but Abandon Your Friends is a pretty decent album. There is still the shouty rawr in places but also pretty melodies. A couple of tracks were unlistenable but that might have been the rip. Most were actually pretty ok. They weren't deleted and I may have to actually listen to their other albums that I have by them. I may be pleasantly surprised by their music =)

 

I like DCfC. I knew that already. Plans is the album that I already knew some tracks from so I started with that one. Weirdly some of the tracks sound very Owl Cityish so clearly Mr Owl City man listened to them... or it is coincidence. But yeah wonderful album. This one has the wonderful tracks of; Someday You Will Be Loved, I Will Follow You Into The Dark, Marching Bands Of Manhattan and Crooked Teeth. Their alternative rock indie stuff and quite chilled. It was good times.

 

 Finally, I listened through all of the Kimya Dawson music I had. She's a bit of a wild card. Some of her tracks are borderline genius (in my opinion of course, I know some people who hate her full stop), and some of her other tracks are just beyond me. She's barmy, that's certainly something I can tell. I first heard her music on the Juno film (which is indie as hell and I love it so much!) and her tunes are catchy because they're very simple. They're also pretty repetitive but her songs are mostly for the lyrics. My favourite album is definitely Remember That I Love You.

Fave tracks from everything I have?:

RTILY

• Loose Lips
• I Like Giants
• I Miss You
• France
• 12/26

I'm Sorry That I'm Mean Sometimes

• Hold My Hand
• Everything's Alright

Juno OSTs

• Rollercoaster
• Sleep
• So Nice So Smart (blog title)
• All I Want Is You

 (both)

40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45

Ok that's all for now folks =)

Just remember that I love you

Buttercup xxx