Aperson

Definitely a unique AGDQ. I missed the start of the event and have been tuning in and out due to timezones for some events, but some of what I did tune in for were Metroid Prime, Spyro 3, Crash 1, Ratchet 2, Final Fantasy VII (amazing run by the way in how they just warped to the end of the game not too long after leaving Midgar), Majora's Mask, Mario 64 Blindfolded, the TASbot runs of Freedom Planet and Link's Awakening which were both ridiculous, the Sekiro race and the Link to the Past run, well, half of it. What a ridiculous run that was! Generally the runs I have most interest in seeing are usually on during the evenings here but there are also a fair few that happen while I'm asleep so the Skyward Sword run was not one I was able to catch live, same with Super Mario Sunshine and the catch 'em all run of Pokemon Blue. Also because of when I realised that the event was already on I'd missed the Donkey Kong Country race. Hoping to see Crash 4 in a GDQ in the future. Having already seen a Devs react to a Crash 4 speedrun for a bit there are some crazy skips you can do in some of the levels.

Just finished the space world in Crash 4. And that means I have beaten N. Tropy. That fight was the most epic fight I've ever seen in a Crash Bandicoot game... The correct answer to that one by the way was that I completely missed the Bonus stage, replayed the level and managed to get the Box Gem.

Certainly found myself watching GameXplain videos on a less frequent basis, though I only ever watched some of the videos when Derek was doing them. I did get the impression that GameXplain might have been ending or something when I saw people like Jon and Derek leave the site... this sheds a whole new light on it though!

Finished the dinosaur world in Crash 4. Managed to get two box gems in the last two levels which were namely Dino Dash and it's alternate timeline level. Somehow missed the box gem in the second level in the world by one every single time, I guess I missed a different box both times... Also put out a couple more videos on Arena since the last time... the last two in the series

Honestly the issues are probably job motivation/pickiness and also the fact I have autism. I need to be able to do the job and I would ideally like to stay around the Swindon area. The type of jobs people with Aspergers are good at usually tend to be the robotic computer like jobs and companies are using, well, a computer, for that sort of thing When the pandemic started it was something of a massive turnoff as I was looking at office based jobs, I am not that great at taking the initiative it seems because lockdown deterred me from looking at jobs... which made me feel silly when friends were working from home instead. I have lost faith in recruitment agencies as they have not done enough on their part to help me get employment, university set me up pretty poorly for going into work years ago as they didn't realise I wasn't someone who could sort out a year's worth of Work Experience by himself due to autism. I have had one full time job since graduating from uni which came about due to family connections, everything else is either work experience or volunteering. I am trying to learn how to drive as that will help me with employment and open up possibilities but the pandemic set that back as well, last year was supposed to be the year I took my driving test, but the pandemic disruption meant by the time I could start seriously consider booking a driving test, my previous Theory test ran out and I had to retake the theory test again... which I then failed and then another lockdown started so I am currently on hold as to when I can do the theory test again. My plan was to book it for this month but with the whole country in lockdown again I assume that isn't happening any time for the forseeable future.

Computers. IT jobs are still a possibility but technology moves along so fast that I feel that my degree is now outdated and I either need to take a new IT course or find myself a new job prospect.

Came to the realisation recently that after years of struggle trying to get a job that reflected my degree, that perhaps the degree was no longer valid for the type of jobs I was after and needed to find a change of career. But it's scary to think about :/

On the dinosaur world in Crash 4 now. Did the first level of that world and also went back to previous level to get some of the gems, I have the red and green coloured gems too. Snow world was pretty awesome, I especially liked how one of the levels had a remix of Snow Go's theme on it, was one of my favourite themes in the game for years and it's nice it's getting a lot more recognition for that in recent years. Also, Historic Brawl week on Youtube continues with a wolf deck. We're gonna have fun with this thing!

First major activity on Magic Arena this year is to take part in the Historic Brawl event that's going on. I decided this would also now be the basis of a week long series of videos so here's the first in that series where we play a Boros deck in Historic Brawl: Yes, the use of the Smash Bros variant of Brawl logo was very intentional!

I never actually 100% completed DK64 because the Wii U controls were too finicky for one of the Shooting Gallery mini-games in Crystal Caves which I never managed to beat and which forced me to put the game on hold until I want to say 2018 was when I finally beat the game. Speaking of annoying moments in platformers... wow, Run it Bayou is such a ridiculous level. I spent nearly all day on just this level and it's companion side story level. Died over 70 times on the first one trying to get the box gem and died over 100 times likewise trying the same thing on that one. The worst part? I DIDN'T GET EITHER BOX GEM. It turns out some boxes were hidden behind steps. OK... I think it needs to be said, if Super Mario Maker has taught me anything it's that there's a fine line between a well hidden secret and bad game design and I think so often Crash 4 falls on the wrong side of things with it's secrets. So many of these are hidden in such a way that you're given no hint whatsoever that something might be there, I literally think that without the internet you would never be able to find some of this stuff on your own. Run it Bayou I think is one of the worst offenders of this, I looked up where the Hidden Gem was and I'm like WHAT? How is anyone supposed to know that anything is there? With the Wumpa Fruit not doing much in this game Toys for Bob missed a trick in using it to hint towards secrets. The Naughty Dog Crash games understood the need for the player to be able to figure out secrets and they for the most part hid their secrets well. They were done in a way that was subtle and not very obvious, but something you could figure out. What happens if you go back to the Polar Bear in unbearable? Notice anything about that staircase of Nitro crates in Bee-Having? The platforms at the end of Bear Down? Crash 4 is just having secrets for the sake of having secrets and with no hints, not even subtle, that something might be there then you're just missing so many box gems because the game designers gave no clue whatsoever that there might be any hidden boxes and it is especially frustrating when the game requires pixel perfect speedrun level play in order to just get every single crate in certain sections. In Run It Bayou there is one segment where you're on top of a motorhome boat and have to hit all the crates along the way. In the remixed version you have to be absolutely perfect in order to keep up with the motorhome and hit all the crates and I died at least 50 times on that section. Anyway, I was involved in a collaboration with a friend on MTG Arena. I'll link the video below but unfortunately due a slight mistake in the recording I'm incredibly echoey. You can tell we're both amateurs when it comes to this collab stuff! Video may contain strong language, I'm posting this as the second half of the collab is going to be on my channel in a week's time.

I think this is the intended order, Terra's story, then Ven's then Aqua's. That's the order I did them in anyway. And yeah, that boss took me so many attempts to actually beat. So difficult... I think I got lucky on my successful attempt too.

Technically the game's actual ending and final boss IS that final story though. Terra, Ven and Aqua have their own story final bosses but the game's real final boss its technically fought in the final story. And then in Final Mix the story continues with an additional boss battle. That leads into the ridiculously titled 0.2 passage that comes on the 2.8 compilation which then has some bearing on III.

Should probably mention this game has a "Sonic Adventure" like structure where if you beat all the character's stories you get the "true" ending. Except Birth by Sleep has more specific requirement for getting the true ending. Difficulty matters very much so I would definitely recommend to do Ventus and Aqua on harder difficulties.

Made quite a bit of progress on Crash 4 to round out 2020. Got as far as the parade level which is absolutely fantastic, really enjoyable level that one. I will do more at a later point. Would definitely recommend this game based on what I've played so far though I also fully understand not wanting to financially support Activision... For now, I also want to embrace 2020 as a year where I started more actively posting gaming content on Youtube, including two Let's Plays and a few standalone videos so here is the highlights of 2020 for the Youtube channel. Some things that I ended up catching on recording were kind of ridiculous really...

David Wise, is that you?

Must admit when I played BbS I wound up using the internet to find out what good abilities I could get for characters. Though I only really started doing it during Ven's playthrough in the latter half which then saw me spend quite a bit of time grinding in Aqua's playthrough to get good abilities. Anyway, made some more progress on Crash 4, getting onto the Pirate overworld after spending a long time trying to get the Box Gem on A Real Grind... Don't know why the PS4 capture bugs out with screenshots when it comes to Twitter but it keeps posting two screenshots when I tweet from the PS4. The right hand image is supposed to be the one that is displayed. Also the second MTG Arena video from my gameplay sessions on that game in preperation for a collaberation is now up:

Donkey - Yellow Diddy - Red Tiny - Purple Lanky - Blue Chunky - Green Though I will admit having to run around the entire map to find certain colours of bananas only to have to switch Kongs is a massive problem with this game. At least with the last level Creepy Castle they kept all certain Kong's activities closer together.

You need both the Nintendo Coin and the RareWare coin to ACTUALLY BEAT the game. Never mind getting 100%. These are absolute necessities. The game however doesn't let you know this until you're in the last room of Hideout Helm where the 8th key you need to unlock the final boss awaits... Anyway, I have a new video for you all... going to be going Arena videos on the channel on a more regular basis after i decided to do a collaboration with a friend on the game. We're going to be playing a few mono coloured decks against each other and then combining them, so here's the first video profiling one of those decks: In addition to this I have now started playing Crash 4: It's About Time. Enjoying the game so far, but I have to say I have been dying an awful lot more than I would like. Guessing I must be a bit rusty...

Just bought a bunch of dogs.... ....wait, don't worry, I am aware of what I'm doing. They're quite small and cardboard shaped... like this one: And this one: Yep, I decided to buy a dog deck just to have a second casual 60 card deck in the house, and because dogs. Will also allow me to use some of the space in my big Christmas gift, a fancy new card binder for all my trading cards. Be much easier to find specific cards now.

Found some new games to play. Neither of which I actually own, both are owned by my sister but even so. We have Castlevania Anniversary Collection on Switch and at the start of the year I wanted to make Symphony of the Night a game I acquired this year. That never happened! It's becoming a personal meme of mine now (or rather a running joke, since being a meme would require it to actually go viral) or when I'm ever going to download Symphony of the Night but this collection is a way to finally get into this long running series that has so far eluded me for most of it's existence. I started with the original Castlevania on NES. Being an NES game it's brutally hard, died loads of times. Fortunately the anniversary collection realises that the game is too hard without modern conveniences and makes use of the fact its being emulated to allow you to create save states. Thanks to this I was able to reach the third level of the game. That's as far as I've played so far. We also now have Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. This is a game I really wanted to play at some point but bypassed on launch. The reason? Activision. Regardless of the game's quality I find it difficult to support the game's publisher when the money I am giving is just going to line Bobby and Co's pockets with minimal payout to the people who actualyl deserve credit for making a potentially good game. Judging by Activision's approaches to the Crash and Spyro remakes I figured that the game would eventually come out on Switch anyway so while I'm interested in getting it I would only ever buy the game second hand, never giving Activision my money for it even though they effectively hold the rights to one of my favourite franchises and the game is actually a good game.... it's complicated let's just say. At least, that was the initial plan but I guess my sister had other ideas, asking for it on PS4 for Christmas. I stuck to my guns on not wanting to give money to Activision for this game, but it has worked out somewhat in that barrier has been passed and I'm very eager to actually play the game now. Been a while since I played a proper Crash game. That being said, our wide difference in attitudes when it comes to keeping/selling games (I am one to keep a collection of every game I own, she tends to sell most of the games she buys upon finishing them) means that the game will probably end up leaving the household once we're both done with it anyway. I hear the game is a miserable slog to complete but I might try to do so anyway or at least go for the box gems but it's still a great platformer regarldess. At any rate I should just be happy that Crash Bandicoot of all franchises was able to get a revival like this. On another note we also have a random copy of Star Wars Battlefront II on PS2 in the house now. I might have to try it sometime but we don't actually have a case for it and it was sitting in the other PS2 for multiple years unaware that we actually had the disc, though thankfully the original owner of the game has allowed us to keep the game. Being in the middle of a pandemic however we don't have any spare DVD cases and I can't exactly going out and get one, so the game still sits before I can get a case for it and print the game's original boxart out onto paper.

Funnily enough, some of those companies listed are owned by other companies listed in the same sentence (Pokemon Company owned by Nintendo, Wizards owned by Hasbro). It's funny really, because when you think about it TCGs like Magic have been operating on the booster pack model for years, but they can get away with it due to the products having resale value. Hence why MTG Arena is considered rather problematic because if you're buying gems in a very predatory system for that game you are paying for digital goods that can't be refunded, especially considering you can't trade your cards on Arena. It has gotten rather out of hand but I feel like things are taking too long to get sorted and properly regulated, possibly due to business interests and protecting said companies on government part. COVID won't have helped in that regard. But maybe we will start to see digital legislation on the part of governments to protect this reckless spending that can occur digitally.

Catching up with Soulcalibur VI's Season 2 content. Though I don't have this Season Pass the new stages for the characters have been made available and that also means brand new music to listen to... including this masterpiece!

Got back into Soul Calibur VI again... so decided to upload a video of all my custom characters I've made up to this point... Immediately after that I went and made another... (I have tweaked the design a bit since this screenshot) On a related note I'm doing a Youtube collaboration with a friend on Magic the Gathering Arena in the future, we thought since we both had the means to record the game that it would be good to do a collab, that's planned for the new year.