Rant 07: Failure; it sucks doesn’t it?

Howdy people and welcome to another installment in my blogging rants and today’s subject will be on the concept of failure and how it continues to follow me in my life no matter what I do.

Now I’d like to think I’m an optimist, I’m normally fairly jolly and go through life with a grin on my face and I’d like to think I try my hardest in any endeavour I undertake. However for as long as I remember I’ve always found myself in a position of failure in life especially on the education front of things.

Education, one area of my life that has been plagued with failure since my days in school.

Now I’m not stupid by any means, however I’m not absurdly smart either. In school I always needed extra help trying to understand certain things and if you broke the information down for me into its most basic elements then I’d be able to work. But a lot of my teachers never bothered with me because they got tired of trying to teach me because I didn’t learn as fast as everyone else. I’d ask for help but since I found it hard to express myself when I was younger teachers never really understood me and would get frustrated with me. And because of those teachers and their lack of help my grades suffered. I never really got great GCSEs in school and that was my first great failure and while I said to myself that I’d take what I got given and move on, I never really got over my GCSE results. And its affected my life since. So then college came into play and on my new art course I said I’d make a good effort with it… However failure wasn’t too far away. Unfortunately I ran into the same issues I had when I did GCSE art in school, and while I tried my hardest and did better than I did in school I still got a pretty bad grade overall.

Luckily my media courses weren’t nearly as cruel to me. Though some of the projects on my national diploma course was full of pain and suffering. There were points where I wasn’t doing as well as everyone else and I would get really annoyed at myself. So then came last year came around I started animation at uni in Sheffield and I thought I’d be in my element thanks to it being something I really wanted to do. But fate dealt me a really cruel hand. In one of my modules I had to do work in 2D and 3D animation and photography and trying to understand the work in lessons was a tad complicated and again some of the tutors would get frustrated when you asked for help. So I did what I could with the module, but in the end I messed and never got the work in on the deadline and failed the module, which in turn means that this year in addiction to doing all my Year 2 work I have repeat my previous Year 1 module. And again I feel so pissed off that out of my entire class I’d be the person to fail that one module. It really is bullshit. And in the last year in Sheffield there’s been one other issue that’s been bugging me for some time; getting a job. Goodness knows I’ve tried looking for one and while I have had a few interviews here and there, no one’s employed me. While obtaining a job isn’t the easiest thing to do for a student, somehow people I know seem to be able to do it with next to no effort and it really makes me wonder if I’m just doing something wrong or something or whether the concept of failure is just following me in the area of job hunting too.

So after all this you may ask if you’ve got so many issues why don’t you just do something about it and sort it out? Well believe me, I’ve tried. I work harder than the year before and yet things still seem to fall apart. Some say that I am being too hard on myself and maybe that’s true, but the thing is I’ve always expected so much of myself so when I fail at anything it hurts me on mental level a lot. I’m a guy who always likes to strive for success and when it doesn’t come I get frustrated and sad at myself. University hasn’t helped my pride much and has left me in a questionable state of mind. I just hope this year I’ll be able to turn everything around and finally get my shit on track not only with university but with my life in general.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

One Year on WordPress. Yay!

As of yesterday I have been on WordPress for year exactly, so I thought why not do a blog post about it. So in this post I will be just talking about my time as a blogger and how it started as something to do for uni to becoming my obsession and favourite pass time.

So as I said before when I started university last year, we were told to create accounts on LinkedIn and WordPress. Both of which I thought were pretty irrelevant to the course subject matter. However when I started looking into the intricacies of WordPress, I started seeing the possibilities for a new form of blogging. After losing interest in Gametrailers, I thought that WordPress would be a better place to house my thoughts and express my thoughts to the world, and so that’s where my journey began…

When I started on here I just started transferring old reviews from Gametrailers and reworked/updated them for this blog. But after a while my life in Sheffield and my uni course started giving me something to write about, sometimes even without me having to plan it and before I knew it blogging became my favourite thing to do. Eventually I blogged my than I did any of my other hobbies like drawing or playing video games. I actually dedicated so much time to blogging and sometimes refused to leave my room at my flat until my post was finished. That was how dedicated I was. I never knew writing about my own life would be so much fun, from talking about my nights out to my rant series I started talking about things that bug me. It was fun.

For the first few months I never really understood my addiction to blogging, it was just something I enjoyed doing. I liked blogging more than I did doing my own coursework from my animation course (and that was surprising). I think it was just like when I’m on YouTube where I have an opinion about something and like to share it with the world. I also really enjoyed the fact that people actually enjoyed what I wrote in their likes and comments on my blog posts. So when 2012 came around and I finally got around to watching films in the cinema again, I think that’s when things on here started to elevate. That’s when I really got into writing and creating work that was comprehensive and interesting to read. But I think the peak point of this blog was when I wrote about Kony back in March 2012, man, that just shot me into the stratosphere! One blog post got me over 1000 views in one day! I was blown away. And while I’ve never been able to recreate that success, it has been the one thing that made sure that I’d never quit blogging, ever.

Without Kony I wouldn’t have gotten all of those absurd amount of views back in March this year. So thanks Kony.

And what I really liked was at one point I got into a nice little groove and was posting every week posting 1-3 posts each week and I felt so hardcore and while I never had too many comments, I did get viewers. And to me the views was all that mattered. After the views I got from Kony 2012, I was addicted to success and was constantly needing views. Unfortunately success seems to be hard to come by. My views after May started to fluctuate and I started to get a little downhearted and for teh first time my blogging became very inconsisant. Eventually I stopped caring about blogging.

Though I thought to myself I couldn’t leave my blog completely, so then I went back in July and tried to make a comeback. And thanks to my newfound love for blogging and my constant time in the cinema, I always had something to write about. And while its been hard to continue when my viewing figures have not been anywhere near where they were back in May and June of this year, I preserve because I have so much more to write, talk and rant about.

So yeah that’s about it for now. All I want to say is thank you WordPress for giving me something to do in my spare time which made me feel like I was doing something useful. Here’s to another great year! 😀

 

First Official Photo of Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine!

Man just when I thought the world of entertainment was abandoning me and was going to give me nothing to blog about I find out about this development via IGN. We finally have out first official picture of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

All I can say is damn, this is a pretty hardcore picture of Hugh Jackman. He never really goes halfway with his physique. Look at those abs and those frigging veins are pretty insane too. While I assume that this picture has been Photoshoped somewhat, it still looks pretty badass. I’ve wondered for a while what Logan would look like in The Wolverine and this picture gives us a decent indication as to what to expect. I like how the character still has the rough and ready look about him and this picture alone makes me more interested in this film than I was before. Now obviously a good picture does not make a great film and I’m still feeling wary of another Wolverine film especially after the last abysmal attempt in 2009. But here the script this time is more impressive than the last film and if Darren Aronofsky was involved beforehand then this must be worth checking out. And Jame Mangold’s resume looks a lot better than the last guy so here’s hoping for a decent Wolverine film that I’ll actually want to watch more than once in the cinema.

2013 is getting more and more interesting for films by the day.

 

Dragon Quest X Should Come To Wii U Spring 2013

Even if this is a rough date, at least we have a rough indication as when we could get the game. Even though the Wii U will have a lot of third-party games released over the 6 month launch window, I believe if Dragon Quest X did come out around the same time as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate then that would be frigging awesome and it would also give Wii U owners some more to play one their new console. While I think March 2013 may be a little to early, I’d hope that er could possibly see a April or May release date. The reason I would like to see this game come out sooner rather than later is because it would be new and unique material on the Wii U and the online capabilities for gameplay would be insane.

My Nintendo News

Yuuji Horii, the creator of the Dragon Quest series told attendees at the Tokyo Game Show that they’re aiming to get Dragon Quest X Wii U released sometime during Spring next year. Horii said that this isn’t a firm date, but rather a target for the development team. Dragon Quest producer Yousuke Saitou also hinted that you may be able to use your Wii version characters in the Wii U Dragon Quest X open beta.

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To Buy A Wii U At Launch Or Not?

There’s been a lot of information released about the Wii U in the last week and finally gamers, developers, critics and analysts know what the specs, release date and price for Nintendo’s new home console after months and months of waiting and speculation. The end result has been generally positive from what I can see, but I also think that the Wii U at this current point in time has divided people too. There a lot of people who believe Nintendo’s next console will be a joyous experience with its GamePad and third-party software too. But there is also many who believe that the console isn’t revolutionary enough, that the software line-up isn’t strong enough and that the console is too expensive. For me I can see both sides of the argument. Though as a Nintendo fan I’d like to think that Nintendo are a smart company and they’ll have some new and innovate games coming down the pipeline come holiday 2013. But obviously the question now is whether one should by the Wii U at launch in November or not. For me I’m not sure.

The Wii U, a console I’m sure will be awesome. But right now I’m unsure whether I should get one.

Now before Nintendo’s latest online video which previewed the Wii U in its finished format, I was very hesitant to buy a Wii U. I wasn’t overly fussed about the hardware specs because I’m not a gamer who plays games just because the console has a high CPU and GPU, I play consoles for the software. And that was the issue I had with the Wii U; the games. After E3 2012 there were only a few games I wanted to get for the Wii U and that was Rayman Legends and Zombie U, both were third-party developed games and both were miles more interesting than Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U. But I was worried about the release date and price of Nintendo’s new console and since Nintendo were being so quiet about it, I grew even more curious as to whether I’d buy the console at all. But obviously times have changed and we now have all of the information about the Wii U just under 2 months before its European release on November 30th.

The fine line Wii U details may be important to some, but for me its all about the software.

After E3 2012 I was definitely interested in the Wii U but the problem was that there really wasn’t that much software I wanted to own. A lot of the games would be ports from the Xbox 360 and PS3 or would be third-party developed games with slight enhancements for the Wii U, none of which really appealed to me. The only games I was interested was Rayman Legends, Zombie U, Scribblenauts Unlimited and Lego City Undercover. Nintendo’s material really didn’t resonate with me at all, Nintendo Land seemed like a mini game collection of Nintendo franchises that should have been full games and New Super Mario Bros. U looked like the last set of 2D Mario games with the exception of HD graphics. I just wasn’t impressed. I just wish Nintendo had something as cool as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as a launch title, I know that was originally a Gamecube game also released on the Wii too with motion controls, but it worked and the game was awesome. After E3 I thought that Nintendo really needed to quench the thirst of its fan base. However some of my thoughts towards the Wii U’s software line-up has changed a great deal.

I think it was after watching the latest Nintendo Direct which was the massive Wii U Preview everyone had been waiting for that I started to look at some of the games differently, especially Nintendo Land. Now Nintendo Land was a game I looked at back at E3 with a great of disgust, while some of the games looked nice, I wasn’t convinced that its mini game collection of famous Nintendo franchises was a good idea. Though in the Wii U preview the Metroid game looked pretty damn cool and the Zelda game looked nice too and those two games alone would actually justify my obtaining of Nintendo Land. I’ve also begun to be swayed by New Super Mario Bros. U too, for some reason there’s an attractive/addictive nature to a new Mario game that makes me want to own it. Even though this new game looks like New Super Mario Bros. Wii except in HD with some new power-ups and new modes, I can’t help but feel like I want to play this game for the sake of it being Mario haha. Also Lego City Undercover I thought looked interesting, but I think in Nintendo’s recent preview of the Wii U the game is looking even more awesome than become, I like the sandbox nature of the game and the different ways you can get across the city and use different abilities by changing into different types of people. It seems to be a Lego game beyond the basic conventional ones we’ve been getting for the last few years. Though the most interesting and most appealing game on the Wii U is still Rayman Legends, that game is something I need!

This game captured my heart at E3 2012 and is still on my wish list at the moment.

Rayman Legends is still the most pretty, interesting and appealing game that the Wii U has on offer at launch (besides Zombie U). The gameplay looks as fast and furious as Rayman Origins, except even more zany than before and with more music influenced levels and player interaction thanks to the Wii U GamePad. And did I mention how incredible the art style is for this game? Rayman Legends just looks absolutely fabulous!

I guess now it just comes down to price and which bundle to buy. I think the Americans got the better deal on the Wii U as the UK retailers have been a bit corrupt with the pricing of the Wii U. Sure its new hardware and it isn’t exactly something that would be overly cheap, but when you think about it, in the past Nintendo have been the cheapest option when it came to consoles and have still been able to deliver good gaming experiences too. Right now I look at the Basic bundle contains 8 GB of storage, the Wii U GamePad and stylus, a HDMI cable, and a sensor bar which cost around £260, and I think that’s nice. But then I look at the Deluxe bundle adds on a Nintendo Network Premium Subscription, 32 GB of onboard storage, the Nintendo Land game, as well as stands for the console and controller. And I think that’s clearly the better deal, but the price is around £310! And then I’m like is it really worth that much? I’ve never paid that much for any gaming console ever. So then I think should I just wait until 6 months down the line and see if there are better deals? Or do what I did with the 3DS and wait over a year and then obtain the console when there’s much better software? I really don’t know about the Wii U right now, I really want a Deluxe bundle of the Wii U, but I have no cash at the moment to make a pre-order, plus again that £310 price tag, it’s just a bit much for me. Well I guess I’ll see where things go over the next month, but all I do know is that the Wii U is starting to sell out in many places and I need to make a decision before they become unavailable.

 

Dragon Quest X Can Be Played Entirely On The Wii U GamePad

I’m glad to finally see some footage of Dragon Quest X on the Wii U. Obviously we knew that the game would be released on both Wii and Wii U, but in terms of how it works on the Wii U and seeing an actual hands-on preview of the game we hadn’t seen anything until now. Thank you Tokyo Game Show! Thanks to IGN’s coverage we finally got see the game in action and it reminds me a lot of Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2, but with some of the visual style that came with Dragon Quest IX on the DS. The game looks very nice, colourful and fluid in animation. If you wish to watch the video it is available here:

But what I like in this article I am reblogging is that apparently you can play the entire game of DQX on the Wii U GamePad. And while you’ll be sacrificing the HD quality by switching your TV to the GamePad, Square Enix say that the process of switch is apparently very smooth and since Square normally deliver with their games I’ll trust their judgment. Can’t wait to see more info and footage on DQX! 😀

My Nintendo News

Square Enix has revealed a few new details for Dragon Quest X at this years Tokyo Game Show. One of the revelations is that you can play the entire game on the Wii U GamePad, if you so wish. Obviously the game will be displaying in HD on the television but will display at a lower resolution when played on the Wii U GamePad. Switching between the television screen and GamePad screen can be done via the menu in Various Options, and is apparently a very smooth process.

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Here’s A Ton Of New Animal Crossing 3DS Information

I’m glad to see more information on Animal Crossing 3DS being released, for a while I thought Nintendo had forgotten about this game. I know for a fact on many gaming websites and forums fans of the series have been calling out for this game for ages. Luckily Japan only have to wait until November for the next instalment in the Animal Crossing series while all of us in the west have to wait until next year! 2013 really is too long to wait for a gaming as addictive as Animal Crossing and with all of these new details being released it just makes me more excited for the game, but also frustrated that we have to wait so long for it to be localized. But as they say good things come to those who wait, so when 2013 comes around I shall pick this game up and experience epic happiness again on my 3DS! 😀

My Nintendo News

Neogaf user Streets Ahead has dug his way through a number of new Animal Crossing: Jump Out scans for the Nintendo 3DS to bring us some new information about the game. Here’s the intriguing information the user has uncovered for the game which launches November 8th in Japan.

• Can place a Reset Management Center. Mr. Resetti will appear after you have placed this on the map.
• Return of Don Resetti.
• Brewster’s Coffee Shop is separate and you can build it. If you go there a lot you can begin a ‘part-time job’.
• Can drink coffee outside.
• Can build two types of Police Stations. The police officer will vary by the type you choose.
• New Villager: Hamsuke, a hamster, born May 30th. Brisk personality.
• New Villager: Brittany, a pig, born November 14th. Mature personality.
• New Villager: Anthony, a horse, born May 22. Smug Personality.
• New Personality: Smug； talks indirectly but acts like a gentleman. Pure, so…

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Analysts Give Their Opinions On Wii U

To be honest as much as I hate to say it (being a Nintendo fanboy and all), I can see where some of these analysts are coming from. The Wii U so far looks like it’ll be a pretty interesting console when it arrives in November. It seems to have created a lot of buzz in recent times especially with both bundles going sold out a lot in America and few places over the UK too. But some don’t remain convinced, from fans to developers to analysts, some don’t believe that the console is anything special and while I love Nintendo and will probably will obtain a Wii U at some point I can’t help but hear what some of these analysts are saying here.

The Wii U, an eagerly anticipated console for some, though is it too expensive and does it need a price cut?

Wedbush Securities and DFC Intelligence do raise a pretty god point about the Wii U’s price and how it may have to have to cut after a while. And considering what happened to the 3DS I wouldn’t be too surprised. Now obviously the 3DS was a handheld console and didn’t have the software line-up that the 3DS did. But I was one of the people who bought the 3DS long after the price drop because the games that I wanted were available and much better than the 3DS’s launch titles and I believe I may do the same with the Wii U. The Wii U’s asking price I think is okay, though a tad unfair when converted from the price it costs in US dollars. I have no doubt that the console will sel well over the Christmas season because most things that come out around that period always do well, but after Microsoft and Sony get their acts together with their new consoles Nintendo may have to drop the price of the Wii U to make it look a little more appealing to casual audiences. The Wii worked well because it was not only a great gaming console with new gaming experiences, but it was also very affordable and I think the Wii U needs to be in the same affordable area too in order for sales to continue after the holiday season.

My Nintendo News

Video gaming website VGChartz has contacted a number of industry analyst to find out what they think to the Wii U now that Nintendo has revealed pricing, release date, and crucially, games. Most of the analyst seem impressed with what was announced, but there’s a few that expect a price cut next year just before Microsoft and Sony release their next generation consoles.

• Wedbush Securities thinks the console will sell well through the holiday and could hit 7 million sold by March, but also warns that the company might have to cut the price before the 2013 holiday season to compete with Sony and Microsoft’s new releases.
• DFC Intelligence thinks the price is a little too high to start with, and sees a price drop coming before the console is twelve months old.
• Sterne Agee was impressed with the WiiU’s initial lineup, and thinks the console could sell one million…

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My Response to My Favourite Version of James Bond

I found this article to be very interesting and great to read as I do love the James Bond films and there are always going to be occasions where you get asked which actor was your favourite version of the James Bond character. I like how in this article the writer brings some interesting and great points about each individual actor’s interpretation of the Bond character and the films that they were in. I’ve been watching Bond films since I was a kid and since then my interest in the Bond film series has grown and changed a great deal. At first Pierce Bronson was my favourite Bond because the way he looked, but as I grew up I came to appreciate Sean Connery and quickly became my favourite version of Bond. There was something about the way he moved and spoke that just screamed out ‘cool’ and sophisticated to me. He was just the pure awesomeness. At the same time I’ve come to like Roger Moore to some degree as Live and Let Die is one of my favourite Bond films. Obviously in more recent years I have gained a great appreciation for Daniel Craig especially after Casino Royale came out (one of my favourite films ever!). And if Skyfall is as good as I hope it’ll be and he does a few more films I think Craig will be my new favourite Bond. Only time will tell.

Fandango Groovers Movie Blog

Talking about James Bond in last weeks Radio Times, film critic Barry Norman made the statement: Ask anybody: who is your favourite James bond? I guarantee the answer will be the first one they ever saw”. I’m not sure if I am more discerning or just awkward, but it isn’t true of me. To the best of my knowledge and memory the first Bond I saw was Roger Moore in Live and Let Die. Moore is far from my favourite Bond, but I have recently come to the conclusion that I don’t know who my favourite Bond is! For years I have always claimed it is Sean Connery with the caveat that Timothy Dalton is the closest to the character from Ian Fleming’s novels.

I hold with the popular opinion that George Lazenby was the worst Bond, and this is a great shame as On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is…

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Nintendo’s Wii U Deluxe Set GameStop Pre-Orders Sold Out In Less Than Two Days

All I can say about this is wow, I knew that there would be eager Nintendo fans out there wanting to obtain the Wii U, but the fact that the deluxe set (the more expense Wii U bundle) has gone sold old anywhere in just under 2 days is insane. This to me shows that there definitely is some genuine interest in Nintendo’s new home console and it also shows an early sign that Nintendo’s next console could sell absurdly well like with the Wii back in 2006. Obviously this is only at one gaming outlet and we still need to see how pre-orders fair at other retailers, but again I think this is a good early sign of the hype of the Wii U prior to its release in November.

My Nintendo News

In under two days, GameStop sold out its pre-order supply of the Wii U Deluxe Set, which costs $349.99, includes 32GB of internal storage, additional accessories and Nintendo Land. The Wii U Basic Set, which costs $299.99 and includes 8GB of internal storage, can still be pre-ordered from the video game retailer. Claim a Wii U Basic Set from GameStop here.

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