007. Finish 3 games - Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2

 

For the 3 games I need to finish, I decided to begin with a fairly easy one to complete - Guilty Gear: Xrd REV 2. It was enjoyable going through each episode mode story and I always like the strangeness of most of the characters. 

My favourite character from this series has always been Faust because he's a pretty odd guy and though his movesets aren't always the easiest to use, they're so fun. Plus, I love his character design. I'm really not very good at playing as him, but I choose him anyway.

Other characters I'm fond of are Zappa (though he's not in it anymore since Faust "cured" him of his possession) and Venom (who also isn't in the newest installment).

Since this isn't a review of the game, but just explaining that I've finished it, there isn't much more to say.

BONUS - screencaps from the Guilty Gear -Strive- Beta:

101 in 1001 - Re-learn How To Play Chess

Over the past few months I've spent some time working towards the 101 in 1001 goal:

• 053. Re-learn how to play chess

Setting up the board

I used to play chess in as part of a chess club when I was a kid, but haven't played in years and have largely forgotten much of what I learnt. That was the motivation behind this goal. After talking with my friend Rina about chess one evening, I realised that I did still remember how to set up the pieces, their basic moves and the basic rules of chess. So I then watched the tutorial below (which I found as one of the suggested videos of a link Rina sent me) to give me an extra refresher. It helped a lot, especially with things like the en passant rule because I didn't remember that at all!

After that, I used the website lichess.org to practise and my friend Luciel and I played some games against each other via that site too. I lost every time, because Luciel is much better at chess and things involving strategy than I am, but they were helping me to learn, so it was fun!

A few weeks later, Luciel and I then played a game using a chess set; I was white and they were black. I tried my best and they helped me a lot, but it inevitably ended up with me in this situation:

Just the king left, preparing for checkmate

Honestly, Luciel could have won much sooner than this, but chose not to so that we could keep playing. So, I am still really rubbish at chess, but I do remember how to play it, which was my goal. It's complete! I will probably keep practising though, because I'd really like to improve.

101 in 1001 - Go Bowling

Last Wednesday (Feb 28th), I got to cross of another goal on my 101 in 1001 list:

037. Go bowling

Some people from the place I volunteer at invited me to AMF Bowling for the evening, so we had some food/drinks beforehand and then played a few games. I managed to come third (out of 7) in the first game and then ended up dead last, with a spectacular score of 44, in the second. Haha! Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos, so the wonderful public domain image of some pins and a ball above will have to do.

365 Days of Art: A Character from a Board or Video Game

48. A Character from a Board or Video Game - Psycho Mantis

This is for number 48 - 'A Character from a Board of Video Game' - in the 365 Days of Art Challenge that I'm doing (really should rename it at this point!).

This character is one of my favourites: Psycho Mantis from the Metal Gear Solid series. Looking like this, he appears in MGS, MGS: Twin Snakes (basically a remake of the first game), and briefly in MGS4: Guns of the Patriots, but he's also in MGSV: The Phantom Pain, as a child known as Tretij Rebenok (Third Child in Russian). He didn't have fire in MGS and MGS4, but he does in Twin Snakes and MGSV. So, just because I didn't feel like drawing him levitating furniture and vases around, he has something resembling fire instead.

Despite Mantis being a one of my favourites for a long time, I've never actually tried to draw him (or fire) before, so I don't think it's so terrible for a first attempt. Maybe.

Birthday Babble

Vegan birthday cake

It was my birthday on September 29th and, although I didn't do anything out of the ordinary for it, I still had a fun day!

The picture above is of a my birthday cake, which was of the dark chocolate variety. I'm not usually a fan of cake, but my mother made that one for me and it was both vegan and had a third of the sugar of usual cake recipes, so this one was nice! (Of course, my housemate and my mother also enjoyed eating it too, haha). 

As well as the delicious cake, my mother also gave me these fantastic presents:

"Fangs" the bat and some make-up

Very pleased to have them! ♥

As I mentioned in this post, my housemate already gave me one of my presents early, but on my birthday he also surprised me with Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection too!

This collection includes:
Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Plus:
Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel
Metal Gear Solid 2: Digital Graphic Novel

I didn't have this collection before, only the original games, so this was a great gift! :D

Also, lots of other lovely people took the time to wish me happy birthday and a friend from Germany even sang 'Happy Birthday' in a video to me, which made me smile! I also received other creative presents this year as well! 

'Floating Under a Full Moon' by Kei

Firstly, Kei drew me a picture of two of my favourite characters: Clear (Dramatical Murder) and Tretij Rebenok (MGS V: The Phantom Pain. AKA Psycho Mantis, from MGS/MGS4, when he was a kid). What can I say? My tastes in VN/games are somewhat varied, but in the end, I guess I just like characters in gas masks or something. Haha. Anyway, I am really grateful for this present, as it must have taken a lot of time and effort. Especially considering that she doesn't even play the MGS series at all and didn't really know what Tretij Rebenok looked like before attempting this. I think it came out wonderfully! :D

The next creative present that was given to me was from my friend Joseph, who made an animated video for the intro of a song called 'Innocence and the Angel'. The song is by a music project that another friend and I used to do (we're taking a break from it at the moment), so it had more of a personal meaning.  

Innocence & the Angel - opening from Joseph L. on Vimeo. Again, the amount of time and effort that went into this present astounds me and I'm really thankful that he took the time to make it for me. I love it! ♥

I spent the rest of my birthday with my lovely housemate watching cheesy horror/sci-fi films, laughing at silly things, and playing MGSV:TPP. Honestly, it was a wonderful day/night!

100 Happy Days: Day 40 - Flying, Jumping, Honeycomb Monster

The 40th day of my 100 Happy Days is brought courtesy of an adorable boss in the game PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate, which my friend gave to me as a present. This particular boss begins the level as a flying creature, resembling a beetle made of honeycomb. However, after losing its wings it transforms into a ground monster that moves by jumping. In these screenshots my friend is the blue "Tiki Man" and I am the red. 

100 Happy Days: 6 - Mr NyaNya

Mr NyaNya

A friend made a custom character for me in Soul Calibur V, combining my two favourite characters (Voldo & Ivy) with my personality. The result of his random concoction was the delightful, winged, ghostly being above. The character was named Mr NyaNya and uses Voldo's moveset - hurrah! My 100 Happy Days needed to include Voldo in it somewhere, so thank you to my friend for making that happen, haha.