Sunshine Blogger Award

Well, I haven’t been able to write a lot recently due to commitments, but I was happy to receive a nomination from Dalton over at Off the Field Gaming yesterday. It’s nice to know that people appreciate the blog and for this, I would like to thank Dalton. For some excellent reviews and talk on college football please do not hesitate to head on over and say hello.

“The Sunshine Blogger award is a peer recognition for bloggers that inspire positivity, joy, warmth and any other emotions that you feel when you think about the sun. I’m taking a different approach and I will nominate some bloggers that are new followers and write amazing posts!”

The Rules:

• Thank blogger(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
• Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

Dalton’s questions:

What is your first video game memory?

I have two quite clear memories on this, my first portable gaming experience (I think) and my first console experience (maybe… this one is less clear). The first handheld was when I received the original Gameboy for (I think) a birthday present coupled with Tetris, contributing to that games sales dominance, and Golf an absolute classic game that I recommend anyone to check out, you can find it online if you’re inclined to. My first console experience was playing Sonic on a Sega Genisis that belonged to my dad, my second is receiving my first console (a PS1) from my Grandad with V-Rally, and loving the Subaru and that game.

If you’re a console player, which console generation so far has been your favourite?

This is a close one between PS2 and the Xbox 360, although the Gameboy colour would be in the running also. PS2 for some of my favourite games of all time being on there: the Timesplitters series, GTA: San Andreas (both games I spent a lot of time on with friends) and maybe controversially Spartan: Total Warrior. Then the Xbox 360 was for Xbox Live, the games were occasionally great, but it was that cooperative experience that made it what it was to me, particular highlights are Lava pit on Halo 3, pro-clubs on FIFA, Rainbow Six Vegas 1/2,  and the Call of Duty series. Of course, there has been the PS1 also… but choosing two is already cheating. If I was forced I’d opt for PS2 I think.

Who is your all-time favourite sidekick?

Aku-Aku from the Crash Bandicoot series. Why? Well, I struggled with this one I might be guilty of neglecting those who help me perhaps. Nevertheless, Aku-Aku is the ultimate sidekick. Make you stronger? Check. Man of wisdom? Check. Doesn’t stand there doing dumb stuff getting in the way? Check. And really, what more could you ask for? He was everything the Ghost from Destiny was meant to be.

Batman vs Superman, who wins?

Superman, he’s an OP alien.

When did you first decide you wanted to write/blog?

It was a joint decision between me and the blogs co-owner/author Shaun. We had talked about it many a time over a couple of beers, but we could never pin down what we would focus on. So one day we decided to just dive in and see where we end up. We have also written outside of the gaming domain but have yet to decide on the best way to transmit/make that. So I’d say a drive to create.

If you could live in any video game universe, which one would you choose?

Skyrim would be sweet but actually terrifying if your just some kinda town folk, and as I calculated beer is just too damn expensive. So I’d probably go with my most recent save on Football Manager 2018 where I’ve won back to back titles with Arsenal. Actually, no Skyrim, roll the dice and hope I’m some kind of overpower mage.

If you could have any movie turned into a video game, which movie and why?

My favourite movie: Gladiator. Not exactly like the movie, this would need branching narratives, such as the ability to get Aurelius’ good side perhaps only to backstab him. Actually, changed my mind, there is only one answer here: Mike Bassett England Manager the video game.

Where in the world is Carmen SanDiego?

This is the only thing that came to mind. So somewhere between Maine and San Diego.

 

How many hours did you spend on your longest marathon gaming session?

There have been times when I have opened up a game such as Football Manager and left it on from the morning to when I’ve gone asleep, so like 16 hours. But intensive gaming sessions, maybe 6-8 hours, I’m not sure how people can do longer, I get too damn tired.

 

When is the best time of day to play video games?

When everything is done, which as I get older is becoming later and later.

 

How long is your perfect gaming session?

This is very much game dependent. A perfect session of Superhot would be around 45 minutes for me, whereas the perfect session of Football Manager or Civilisation 5 is around 3-4 hours. I’d place a game like Siege in the 2-3 range so I’d say that’s the sweet spot before you start to realise you probably should have done something else.

Thank you for the questions Dalton, and the nomination is greatly appreciated. Once again, his blog is available here and I recommend you check it out.

My nominations:

Just before I begin here I’d like to mention that contribution is fully voluntary, I appreciate this is a pretty busy time of year for most people.

IPlayedTheGame – An incredibly prolific blogger who writes a variety of gaming content. He had an excellent X-Com War logs series last year that is worth digging up (in-fact, here it is). He is also a frequent commenter over here at ICan’tBelieveItsNotBlogger, maybe it’s because both our blogs begin with I, but mostly he is a creator of quality content.

Kim – LaterLevels – An excellent writer, who has created advice we have tried (and sometimes failed) to follow. Beyond this, Kim’s Elder Scroll’s fandom led her to our blog and I’m thankful this happened as I found a great blog in return.

Crackle, Pop, Snap – Perhaps file this one under nepotism as I have featured in this blog, so you can see my face there if you are so inclined. My partner writes this and it has been excellent to see her enthusiasm as she tackles her 52-week photography challenge.

Falcon Game Reviews – This is a blog that mostly does what it says on the tin: game reviews. However, it’s more than that. A writer who is not afraid to tackle challenging topics (as highlighted by his recent post) and who holds an ability to write engaging in-depth reviews.

AmbiGaming – Every time I visit this blog I come across something interesting. At Christmas, it was a recipe for Egg Nog, and just yesterday it was a deeply insightful post on gaming addiction. This is a blog that is worth a visit for sure.

Deep Sleeping Playmaker – A blog I have only recently (yesterday!) found. A fellow Arsenal fan and football manager player so most definitely deserves a place here even if he didn’t deliver quality content. I recommend this most recent post on Ajax which neatly describes what drives us to play FM – to get our own Ragnar Hjaltisson moments.

And a special mention to my co-writer Shaun, who has been picking up the slack recently as I have been busy over the past few months, with some posts well worth your time such as his recent ode to Stardew Valley and ongoing Football Manager series with Manchester United.

My questions:

1. What is your all-time favourite sporting moment? (Personal or witnessed)
2. Which food item would you most like to bring into reality from film or video games?
3. In your opinion, what is the greatest episode of the Simpsons?
4. What is your favourite blog post you feel has been overlooked?
5. What is your favourite album?
6. To the nearest thousand, how many cigarettes has the smoking man smoked in the X-Files? (Extra marks for workings out)
7. If there was one message you conveyed with your blog, what would you hope it would be?
8. If you could sit down and have a beer with any video game character, who would it be?
9. What colour is the most over-rated?
10. Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses, or one horse sized duck?
11. Is it ethically right for Pokemon trainers to keep Pokemon?

I couldn’t decide on serious or not serious questions so there’s a real mix and asking 11 questions is difficult, I have no idea how 50 Cent once managed 21, must’ve been exhausted. Choose questions as you please, and don’t feel obligated to answer any at all if you wish.

Again I would like to thank Dalton for the nomination, make sure you head over and give his content a read.