Parts Unknown.

Just a reminder that due to me not using DW/LJ much these days, best place to keep up with my nonsense is at http://notoriousgrd.tumblr.com/

And now because I haven't changed the e-mail on my account to the current one (which I didn't realise until tumblr forced me to reset my pasasword and I don't have access to the old e-mail address) )and tumblr can't keep it's data in it's trousers (which is why it's forcing password re4sets on people), I may have just lost access to all of my tumblr blogs forever. Arse.

Please follow http://notoriousgrd.tumblr.com/ if you want to keep up with my nonsense.

If not, it will be in the top three and the only things likely to beat it are...Lego Star Wars:The Force Awakens or Monster Hunter Generations.

I have long professed my love for the Lego licenced games, they take familiar characters and stories and play around with them, making them even more fun.

( Five reasons Lego Marvel's Avengers is awesome (with spoilers for movies up to Age Of Ultron and a couple of comics things) )

Because this just happened.

(I'm guessing unlike my old fanfic, Ishtek won't be joining the Doctor as a companion, but I shall report back)

...and possibly the Fat Boys. Which has nothing to do with the rest of this post, which is all videogame stuff.

I have mostly been videogaming recently, using the time I have not having to pay Council Tax on getting some games for my 3DS. Typically, I buy two games and they announce two very similar ones are getting European releases in the next few months. Gits. :)

1. Final Fantasy Explorers is a lot like Monster Hunter. A looooooot like it. Exept it is more csrtoony and is all Final Fantasy stuff, so jobs replace weapon classes, all the enemies are recognisable from old games and there's loads of summons and characters from the series to unlock. It's simpler than Monster Hunter, but has some nice mechanics where you activate semi-random boosts that add bonuses to your skills, which you can then learn, then get another boost to add to that version of the skill and so on and so on. You can play online but like Monster Hunter you can get companions to run round with if playing solo, except in this you capture monsters and form a team to out with you, a wee bit like Pokemon, which we will get to. I don't regret picking it up, but I mioght not have had I known...

2. ...that last night they would announce Monster Hunter X is getting a release outside Japan as Monster Hunter Generations, this summer. I'm still playing MH4U a lotand will likely not nearly have "finished" it by then. MHG brings back villagers and maps from older monster Hunter games, basically the ones that weren't on the 3DS. One of these was never released outside Japan, so for a lot of people, they'll be visiting Yukomo Village for the first time and I admot, I got a wee bit emotional seeing Pokke Village again as that was my home in the first Monster Hunter I played and fell in love with.

And you get to play as the cats. And there's bonus Fire Emblem and Star Fox outfits and others cominbg as free DLC. You also get some sort of bonuses if you have a MH4U save on your system, which is nice.

3. I got back into Pokemon. I'd been kl#ind of thinking about picking one of the 3DS ones up for a while. I'd originallyplanned on getting some of the Resident Evils I was missing for my 360, but having once more tried the demos of 5 and 6 and fighting the controls in 5 and dealing with the constant shonkyness of 6, I decided against it and to get Pokemon X instead. My brother is only slightly partly to blame as he mentioned Pokemon last weekend when I was round and that got it back in my head again.

The last Pokemon game I played properly (had a quick go on a couple of the DS ones) was LEaf Green for the Gamebnoy Advance back in 2004. I still have that cartridge, it's got a ten hour game time on it. Things have changed a wee bit since then. It's proper 3d grpahics now, the Pokemon all look lovely, there's over 700 of the things now and they mix up classic and new through the game. As is always the case, I had to choose which Pokemon I wanted from three at the start. I went with Chespin because look at that cheery little face.


Little did I know I'd get to choose one from three again when I got to the main city and that these three would be the same three starters from the original Pokemon (and Leaf Green, which was a remake) so I got Squirtle too.

They've streamlined stuff, rounded off the rough edges and I'm loving it. The online stuff is great, you can do trades (I have all three classic starters now and opne of the others from the start of this game) and there's random trades, battles, shout outs and all sorts of stuff.

Plus, it's got a nice surfey version of the Pokemon Center music.

4. Then they go and annoucne Pokemon's current b iggest rival Yokai Watch is getting a Euro release next month. It's like Pokemon but set in Japan and has you wandering the city defeating and capturing Yokai which are haunting or affecting everyday people. It all looks fun and I might pick it up at some point but I'm happy with my Pokeymans for now. :)

5. I got the last pack of DLC for WWE2K16 because I likes my wrestling. It's a pack full of people who were inducted into the hall of fame last year and their oppenents in classic matches. If nothing else, it's the first time I've gotten to play as the Bushwhackers and the Natural Disasters in about twenty years. There's a suitably outrageously attired Macho Man Randy Savage, the old WCW Halooween Havoc arena, but my favourite thing is that Larry Zybysko does his little salute thing and they've animated it perfectly.

6. They announced another 3DS game I didn't think would come out over here is coming this year, Rhythm Heaven Megamix is a game with 100 music based minigames, 70 from older games (some of which never came out outside Japan) and new ones. They've got the wrestler interview one. This is a must buy.

(Originally posted on tumblr earlier today, but reposting here)

So I was having one of those days where my depression hits bad, which these days means I’m really unfocussed and can’t pay attention to much for more than a few minutes. When I get like this I stick one of what I call my “comfort” shows on. I have a few of these, some are old children’s shows I grew up with like The Clangers and Bagpuss, others are informative and entertaining (a combination that I particularly enjoy) like Qi and Mythbusters.

More often than not though, I’ll pull a DVD off the two shelves full of Doctor Who DVDs. It’s maybe a 50-60% collection, I’m filling in the holes as I go along. Eight times out of ten it’ll be something from the period that starts with the giant robot and ends with the Nimon. All three of him. That’s the era I grew up watching but nostalgia’s far from the only reason I watch those, those six years just sort of encapsulate Doctor Who for me, that wit and irreverence win ut over ancient evil, mad scientists and aliens.

Last night it was the turn of Horror Of Fang Rock, a story I’ve not watched in a while, I tend to rotate through the era semi-randomly, although I’m alternating between Key To Time stories and others right now. I have this thing about lighthouses, my favourite horror movie has one (The Fog) and several of my favourite games open with you heading towards one (Bioshock, Bioshock:Infinite, Life Is strange) and this Doctor Who story is mostly set in one.

This was a lst minute replacement script, after the BBC told the procustion team they coudn’t do State Of Decay because the “serious” part of the BBC were doing a Dracula adaptation and didn’t want a Doctor Who vampire story distracting everyone. It doesn’t really show. This is a nice base under siege story with a nice location and a bit of a twist in that what’s after them is already in the base and disguised as one of them. Leela gets to wear a comfy sweater, slap a hysterical woman and teel an eejit to sit down and shut his face.

That’s something else about these six years of Who, the companions are all wonderful, even Harry Sullivan who gets demoted to comic relief is still lovable.

The only diffuculty with Fang Rock is that due to a Scottish comedy show called Chewin’ The Fat, which has a running gag of two lighthouse keepers, one of which keeps winding the other up with practical jokes, you keep expecting someone to mournfully say “Gonna no dae that?” while the other grins cheekily and replis “How?”

As usual, good guest cast and I like how the enemy is actually tied into past continuity, with it being a Rutan, the aforementioned race the Sontarans are battling.

By sheer coincidence, the second story that night also had Alan Rowe as a guest actor. I decided to watch the new version of The Moonbase with the animated episodes for the missing arts one and three. I’m very familiar with the old Target novelisation of the story (which was the only easily available way to revisit old stories until they started releasing them on video) which I’d read recently while in a hospital waiting room.

It’s another base-under-siege story, ion fact, probably the trope codifier for that sort of story. The Troughton era’s probably my second favourite classic Who run and again, a lot of it is an amazing Doctor and great companions. Jamie spends much of this story lying down unconscious and Polly comes up with a plan to take out the Cybermen. The whole thing holds up really well, there’s a couple of hilarious Cyberman lines, the Cybermen don’t have names like in the book and the moonbase, gravitron and other things look rather different than the illustrations in the book (no reference photos probably) but barring some descriptive changes and tweaked dialogue, it’s pretty much the same as the book I’ve been familiar with for over thirty years.

The animation fits in nicely, they had the telesnaps to work from and nothing looks out of place or too fancy for the time. I can actually understand what the Cybermen are saying in this release, which was a bit touch and go with the old videotapes. I also love this design of Cyberman, it’s a tie between these and the Invasion verisons for my favourite.

So in the end, my mind was settled and entertained. It’s always worth it to go and see the Doctor.

Sleep schedule is still utterly bollocksed. Lay awake in bed for hours, eventually fell asleep then woke up at 3pm. This is *after* they've upped my thyroid meds, Combine that with my depression hitting big time so that I'm eityher restless and can't concentrate for more than five minutes, staring into space because I can't decide what to do next or end up pissing around with some technical guff with no great results and a wasted couple of hours.

Have had to cance; podcast recording twice this month due to unwellness, which is affecting othe stuff as irregular visitors is one of the ways I keep the house from getting too untidy, I've let it go a bit, lots of clutter and things lying around. I'd actually meant today to do some cleaning, but then I didn't wake up until 3pm.

Slowly going (more) loopy.

I first encoutnered Bowie's work in a roundabout way, in 1977, the London Symphony Orchestra did an album of mostly instrumental versions of classic rock songs. Life On Mars was one of those and the tune fascinated me as I was already deep into science fiction by the age of five. Then the Ashes To Ashes video hit around the time I was into Visage and Gary Numan and it fit right in there.

I dipped into Bowie now and then, I'd hear a new track or an old one and go on a bit of a binge. I was still discovering new favourite Bowie tracks as recently as a couple of years ago, the above being one of them.

Then there were his rare, but memorable movie performances, Labyrinth being the most obvious, but The Man Who Fell To Earth was also amazing and I loved him popping up is Nikolai Tesla in The Prestige.

Quite apart from his amazing musical career, references permeated the culture I was inbterested in. Numerous jokes and references in The Venture Bros, leading up to him turning up as the leader of a super villain group (sadly not played by himself) with Iggy Pop as one of his sidekicks. Then there were the Metal Gear Solid games, with Major Tom being used as a codename in 3 and V hsving you leading the Diamond Dogs and featuring The Man Who Sold The World as a story theme and as the opening music, albeit the Midge Ure cover version to fit with the eighties setting.

I'd kept things together until I saw something that didn't have anything to do with Bowie, but us intensely music related. The comic Phonogram deals a lot with music and how it can change and influence peoples' lives and the current, final part of the trilogy has coveres inspired by eighties music videos ands the very final issue is out next week and the cover's inspired by the video for Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush's song £Don't HIve Up" which gets me emotional at the best of times, but seeing the image just tipped me over and I welled up quite a bit.

Because David Bowie never gave up, he kept changing, doing what he wanted and still releasing amazing work rught until the end. Blackstar came out on his Birthday last Friday and in hindsight, definitely feels like a final farewell to everyone.

So, by my reckoning, I've three weeks to watch eight-and-a-bit seasons of The X-Files and two movies to get caught up.

(As mentioned before, I've seen three or four seasons' worth, but living arrangements and living where only the main telly could get a signal meant I missed a lot)

Also trying to organise another attempt to get the videogaming YouTube channel up and running, trying to cajole a big X-Files fan to play through one or both of the videogames with me.

The world just got considerably quieter. :(