The Animal Crossing Birthday Calendar is So Cute!

Animal Crossing is one of my favourite series. It's a series I dip into frequently, as it never fails to make me smile, and is a fantastic game to play when you are looking for something relaxing, and less taxing. What can be more relaxing than talking to cute animals, and completing simple tasks like fishing, bug hunting, and fruit collecting?

I was happy to see that just before Christmas, Nintendo had released a printable Animal Crossing 'birthday calendar' on the My Nintendo store. Purchased for 80 Platinum Points, this calendar includes the birthdays of a collection of Animal Crossing villagers, so you can load up Animal Crossing New Leaf on any of these days, and help the villagers to celebrate their birthdays! Sent as a PDF, you'll then get the choice to print it out and create your own calendar - something I plan to do soon.

In the meantime, here's a few of the graphics and birthdays you'll see in a few of the months.

The calendar can be purchased with points on the My Nintendo store here. 

#MyPS4Life - My time on the PS4!

Sony recently released 'My PS4 Life', a site where a video will be generated with interesting stats based on your time on the PS4 over the past 5 years.

Here's a few snippets of my video:

Unsurprisingly, The Witcher 3 took my top spot.

You can find your own here. Enjoy!

Review: Castaway Paradise

Die-hard Animal Crossing fans have been begging Nintendo for a new addition to Nintendo's popular series for years now. Happy Home Designer, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, and the mobile game, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp tried to wet the appetite of fans, but ultimately, still left them wanting more. 

Thankfully, Stolen Couch Games' Castaway Paradise does a pretty good job at filling the gap. But, is it enough? Keep reading to find out!

E3: My Best In Show - Part 2

I'm back, for part 2 of my 'best in show' posts for 2018's E3! Part one included a staggering amount of games that caught my attention...so much so, that it made sense to split this into two sections.

Part 2 covers Microsoft, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

Keep reading to see what my favourite reveals were!

Things We Want from Sea of Thieves

Lately, I've been plunging into the world of pillaging with my husband and two friends. While we've been having great fun sailing the seas together, there's no denying that Sea of Thieves could do with a bit more content, to keep it fresh. 

This got us talking about what we'd like to see if we had the choice to add a little more to the game. Here's what we came up with as a group!

Throwback Thursday: PC Ace

It's Throwback Thursday, the time so many of us love to wax nostalgic about old memories of things we love from our past. This week, I've been reminiscing with my brother about a magazine we used to subscribe to as kids - PC Ace.

Aimed at kids between the ages of 10 and 14, PC Ace was a magazine published by Eaglemoss Publications, between 1999 and 2001. This educational magazine aimed to provide tips and tricks for kids on how to operate a computer. There's not really much about this magazine online, but I did manage to track down a scanned portion of one issue, which you can see below.

My Top 5 Songs from Lost Odyssey

Lost Odyssey is one of my favourite RPG's. Underrated, and definitely worth a play! Directed by Final Fantasy's Hinorobu Sakaguchi, this Xbox 360 exclusive turn-based RPG blended a steampunk-esque setting, with a great story, and challenging, but enjoyable gameplay. When it was released as a backwards compatible game on the Xbox One, it was great to see people discover (or in my case, re-discover), this gem. 

One of the aspects of Lost Odyssey I love the most is the fantastic soundtrack. Scored by renowned composer Nobuo Uematsu, the soundtrack captured the games tricky battles, it's keen taste for adventure, and the elements of beauty, and sadness that Kaim's story presented.

A regular CD that's found it's home in my glove compartment for car journeys, it's fair to say that I return to this music a lot. Check out my top 5 tracks from the Lost Odyssey soundtrack below!

My Favourite Mario Kart Courses from Each Game!

Super Mario Kart turned 25 yesterday! The now renowned and popular series paved the way for fun item-shooting racing games that we've all come to know and love. Allowing players the chance to race as one of their favourite Mario heroes or enemies, the game offered a bunch of truly fantastic tracks, as well as a multi-player Battle Mode. 

To celebrate the games anniversary, join me as I share my favourite course from each of the games so far. 

Super Mario Kart 

Rainbow Road 

There's no way I could do a list like this without mentioning Rainbow Road somewhere! The track that has no doubt made plenty of people utter profanities as they slipped to their doom, Rainbow Road provided a challenging final course in Super Mario Kart's Special Cup. Pretty simple in design, this multi-coloured road offered sharp bends, angry Thwomps, and holed-up pathways. The simplicity is deceiving, as when you're trying to traverse this with other players, there's no doubt at one point you'll find yourself being nudged off the side. 

Rainbow Road also included some truly memorable music, and has since seen several reiterations throughout the games 25-year history.

Review: Beholder - Complete Edition

New home, new job, new prospects. All of this should be pretty welcoming and a potentially exciting change for a family, but it's not it's cracked up to be in Beholder. Whisked off on a train ride to a brand new home and a 'promising' new career in a Cold War-esque 1984, we soon realise that Carl is yet another pawn for the Ministry, the games totalitarian government, to use as they see fit.

Injected with a serum that supresses his need to sleep, Carl is set to work as his new apartment block's landlord. Not only is it his duty to maintain the wellbeing of his residents, and condition of their properties, but he's in charge of reporting tenant's personal life and activities. 

After making my way through the tutorial level, it became clear that Beholder isn't a simple building management game. In fact, it's the exact opposite. The Ministry are constantly phoning in brand new missions, and new government directives are decided daily. Time limits are set on various tasks, and it's up to you to decide on how these should be completed. Perhaps you'll turn a blind eye to a residents law breaking (trust me...most of them will be breaking the law, as pretty much everything comes under Ministry scrutiny), or become the whistleblower and send the police to wheel them away. Mess up, and face the death of yourself and your family. Send off reports, type up profiles on each tenant, and blackmail them for a little extra cash. It's really up to you how you decide to play it.

Happy Halloween - Video Games You're Playing!

It's the spookiest time of the year - Halloween!

Whilst I myself am working a late shift today and won't be around much to endulge in any Halloween-themed activities, plenty of you have told me what games you're planning on playing for the occasion. 

If I wasn't working though, I'd be diving back into Left 4 Dead, checking out some of the on-the-rails shooters the Wii had (Umbrella Chronicles, House of the Dead), and playing through one of the Resident Evil games again. Oh, and let's not forget the Halloween event in Animal Crossing: New Leaf!

Here's just some of your comments when I asked you all what you're planning to play! How many of these do you agree with?

My Japanese Honeymoon: Day 1 - Shinjuku

After a long 11 and a half hour flight, we grabbed a cab to our first Air Bnb of the trip, situated in Shinjuku, Tokyo. After taking a shower and a nap, we headed out for a wander around Shinjuku. 

Games I Relax With

Things have been pretty hectic for me in the past few months, so I don't really seem to find myself having much free time. However, overworking has been making me pretty stressed out, and I guess it's probably a good time to remind myself that I should be having some times of relaxation, too. 

So, here's favourite 'relaxing games' I seem to resort to whenever I need to just need to switch off from the world a little bit. 

Pocket Mortys!

OK, I'm late to the party, but I finally started watching Rick and Morty this week! So far, I'm finding it to be a pretty hilarious, smart, sharp and witty cartoon. I soon discovered that Rick and Morty have a free-to-play mobile game, 'Pocket Mortys', which I've been playing this week as well as checking out the show. Again...late to the party. This was released back in January, 2016! But, better late than never, right?

The name essentially gives it away - Pocket Mortys is the show's take on Pokemon. Developed by Big Pixel Studios and published by Adult Swim Games, it's set in the 'Rickstarverse', where the sole aim is to beat fellow players (both NPC's and fellow real-life competitors) to collect various versions of Morty's that exist in multiple universes. This is where the game is pretty addictive, just like Pokemon before it.

Review: Dark Arcana - The Carnival (PS4)

Roll up, roll up! There's a carnival going on, but nothing is quite what it seems...

Step forward Dark Arcana: The Carnival. A rather charming point-and-click hidden object game that is tied in with puzzles, and a missing person storyline. A beloved genre, the point-and-click games have cemented a place on consoles in recent years, with the help of companies such as Telltale Games leading the helm. Whilst the story-driven games ala Telltale are a pretty decent ride, they're also lacking in the puzzle element made famous in the 90's by such games as Tales from Monkey Island. 

Starting Destiny

I started Destiny today! I tried it before in the past, but playing alone was a little tricky, and not as fun to be honest. However, this time around, I've been playing with two others (my Fiancé and my friend), and it was a damn sight more enjoyable.

Check out the screenshots I took whilst mucking about, below!

The Legend of Zelda: Nintendo Store Unboxing

This month, my The Legend of Zelda Nintendo Store crate turned up! I was a little disappointed with it to be honest, but the mug was my favourite.

Check it out in my YouTube video below:

Subscribe to me on YouTube here.

The Walking Dead Season 3: New Screens & Poster!

Ah...The Walking Dead. Those of you who've followed my blog for a while would know just how much I love this Telltale Games series. I've played it through several times now, on the Xbox 360, Steam and PS4, and I can't wait for Season 3.

New screens were shown off at the San Diego Comic Con via a live-stream, and colour me impressed. I knew that they'll be a new graphics engine in play here, but I didn't expect it to look this gorgeous! Hopefully, this will be ironing out the glitchy moments that Telltale Games previous efforts have been known for in the past. 

First off, here's the new poster:

New 8-Bit Girl Art!

So, 8-Bit Girl has a new design! 

My friend Mark Pearce kindly created this image of me to pop up as the banner image on the blog. You'll also see it over on my Facebook and Twitter pages too. I love that he added my kitty in, and that tongue expression? I'm totally guilty of pulling that when I'm concentrating. :P

Thanks buddy! I really appreciate it. Here's the artwork in more detail:

Pokemon Apps!

So, the Pokemon TV app has been available for quite some time now, on iOS devices and the Nintendo 3DS. However, yesterday marked it's (rather delayed) arrival onto the Apple TV.

To mark the occasion, I shared a few other Pokemon Apps available for Apple devices over on iRepairs. Take a look here. 

Music Monday: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Whether you loved it or you thought it was a little overrated, there's no denying that Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was something a little different. This "walking simulator" offered an intriguing story that is still shrouded in mystery upon the stories conclusion. Without giving away any spoilers, it leaves you to decide for yourselves exactly what happened in that bunker, as well as get an indication as to why the apparent rapture in this quaint English countryside village happened in the first place.