Looky, I've finally done it, posted something on the right day of my topic schedule. Annoyingly however, it is only a look at a project I am planing to do in the future since I still need to buy the materials and home life is still very hectic around here with decorating projects and a leak pipe in the kitchen. Anyway here are some patterns from Cross stitch collection Magazine that I want to get stitched up for some cards.
This set was from Jan 2012 issue, these would be a great, any occasion card, and I think I'll try and design some patterns similar to these based on the birth month flowers using the PC Stitch Program. If the ones I make they are any good I'll post them in the freebie section.
Christmas is the time of year when I make most of my cards, and these cute bird patterns where from the Christmas 2011 issue.
More cute animals patterns are from the October 2011 issue and best of all if you have a iPad (maybe iPhone too but cant test myself) you can download this issue free from the Newsstand App.
on Tuesday, Helen over at It's All Fiddle Fart, announced that she will most likely be ending her blog on 1st Jan next year, although it is very understandable due recent events in her life purely from a blogging point of view it is sad thing since I get so many wonderful ideas from the projects she shares with us all.
I'm going to spend some time pinning some of her wonderful crafts to a new board on my Pinterest (you can get there by clicking the logo below). It will in no means be all of the crafts she has posted, but a selection of my personal favourites and inspiration for myself once I crafting again.
I'm back for part 2 of my E3 posts, this time I'm looking at Sony, Nintendo and the other notable games shown this year.
First up Sony, who opened up with a rather lengthy montage of game footage before they took a look at their first game Beyond: Two Souls. Not sure what to make of this one, the cinematic shown was interesting but didn't really explain much of the game play front.
Next up was Super Smash Bros oops I mean PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale. I am not a fan of these type games so it doesn't really interest me. They announced that it could be played simultaneously with PS3 and Vita so that was kinda neat. They followed this with news about PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Vita. Neither me or Adam are really looking at purchasing a Vita (or a 3DS for that matter) so the next game was a title we weren't taken too much notice of. Assassin's Creed 3 - Liberation. Following this they showed of a bit of the PS3 Assassins's Creed 3 game, this game play demo was different from the demo Ubisoft showed in there conference, it was rather nice to see the sea battle in action.
Farcry 3 was shown off again, this time with a 4 person co-op mode. Now this is something both me and Adam noted this year, and while it is a personal rant, some of these people playing the demo's were rather poor at playing the games. I mean the point of E3 demos are to give a good impression of the game.
Anyway next they talked about PlayStation Move. We owned the Move for a both 10 minutes (we got it along with the PS3 when we took out a phone contract) before we traded the Move into Game. They had a demo of the Wonderbook, and the whole thing looked awkward.
God of War was shown next, again it's not a series I've played although it definiatly looks like it would be something I would enjoy. I think I might pick up the collection of the earlier games. Sadly the PS3 gets a little neglected in our house since most of the time any games which are cross-platform get bought on Xbox (friends only have that console).
Finally Sony showed off their big one. The Last of Us. It's from Naughty Dog, aka Makers of Uncharted, and really has that playing a movie feel that those games have. Although the guy playing the demo was rather trigger happy, I have heard several times that guns and bullets will be very very limited in this game.
Nintendo took the stage last, and unlike Xbox and Sony, a new console would be getting air time this year, Wii U is a go.
To be fair I didn't really pay too much attention to Nintendo's conference, Wii U just hasn't gripped me yet. The old Wii was the last console we purchased and to be fair we hardly use it. Although to start it was a problem with game choice, many games aimed at a younger market and some games just playing horribly different than the versions on other consoles. I'm looking at you Wolverine... , and later a problem with lack of HD.)
The other part of their conference was involving the 3DS a console I just don't like, I've played on my BIL's one and while the 3D on it is very cool, there is a huge part of me that cannot justify buying a new handheld console which in pretty much all other aspects is the same as my old DS.
So the question that is always asked at the end of E3 conferences "Who won E3?" For me it definatly wasn't the big 3. Xbox & Sony as much at they want to argue this have dying consoles on their hands, and while there are still the odd gem of a game appearing they were lacking something. As for Nintendo at the moment they haven't sold the Wii U to me which was what they were trying to do in their conference. This year I pick Ubisoft as my winner, although most of there games shown wouldn't be my first pick they all looked decent, and I was blown away but Watch Dogs (hoping they don't mess it up)
Now although the big 3 and the 2 bigger game developers get their own stage show lots and lots of other game into is announced during the course of the show, and while I won't cover everything here are some of the other highlights for me.
Square Enix Tech Demo - If it is anything like the PS3 Tech Demo of Final Fantasy 7 then this is not and never will be a finished game just something pretty to show what the next gen hardware is capable of. This footage isn't a cut scene but real time rendering which is pretty cool.
Planetside 2, now I've not played this but Adam made a rather audible (manly) squee noise when he saw this, and an even bigger squee when they reveiled it has no monthly subscription.
Lost Planet 3. Now me and Adam played number 2 a while back and enjoyed it, for some reason we never bothered to finish it and I can't really remember what that was.
Epic Mickey 2 and it's on every console! This makes me so happy, I really liked the first game but the camera and Wii Controler where painful to use.
Dark Souls - Prepare to Die. Adam adores this game (and Demon Souls) and was so happy when they annouced it would be coming to PC. Now considering this a game that been out for the better part of a year and it's just being ported to PC with some extras( which are DLC for the console verisons) I wasn't expecting too much fuss made at E3 but they did show some trailers as well as some gameplay of the new bosses.
Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2. I loved the first LoS, and the ending was cool, and this looks awesome.
Now this wasn't an E3 announcement but it fits really well in this gaming post. Disney's up coming film Wreck It Ralph finally got its first trailer.
That's all for today folks, sorry this post has been a tad delayed. It's been super busy at home and the blog has been put on the back burner for now.
Gosh everyone has been super busy here the last few weeks. Soon after the upstairs bathroom was completed, we started work on my bedroom. We cleared everything out storing it in the craft room of course, the walls have been striped, the messy coving ripped off. The new furniture delivered and checked.
Adam has worked super hard over the jubilee holiday, installing spotlights in my bedroom and in the kitchen (which turned into a bigger job than we first bargained for).
In other news, E3 has kicked off again, and to be honest my predictions for a rather lack lustre show have so far been proven right. Of course there was some nice games being shown off, but we are getting close to the end of the current consoles lives but only 1 of the next gen consoles being shown off (Wii U) we're left with the swan song from the other big players.
Xbox headed up the show with their live conference. Kicking off things with a Halo 4 live action cut scene followed by a game play demo, expanding a fair bit on there teaser trailer they showed last year, giving us some nice hints on who enemies Chief will be facing this time around.
Next up was a demo of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Now I've never played any Splinter Cell games in the past, any while the trailer looks good enough, I properly won't be in the future. However one thing I do like from this demo was using Kinect to issue voice command and distracting enemies.
EA showed off Fifa 13 and Madden NFL 13 as they do every year, and just like very year I went and made a cup of tea. I'm not a sports fan when it's real and I have zero interest in game versions.
Back on track, Fable: The Journey. A Kinect game. Not really sure what to make of this, still not seen it in action so how it handles is still the big question. As for Fable itself, the poorly implemented co-op game in the 2nd game tainted my enjoyment quite a bit.
A new Gears of War game popped up, this is another game that seems to pass me by. Never played the series so can't really comment on the trailer. It's that weird camera over the shoulder view that has put me off not sure why just don't like it.
Forza Horizon was next, and driving games for me are on the game level as sports games. I pretty much glazed over and got a snack from the kitchen.
Now here comes the boring part. Xbox yapping on about things like putting a browser in Xbox, new movie and music services in the Xbox dashboard. While I sure this info is nice enough I just feel far far to much time was devoted to this, when the millions of people that are watching E3 are watching it for the games. At some point Nike started talking about a fitness game. I was still a little switched off from the last segment so didn't pay to much attention. However if it's a well done game (and imo Kinect is the better motion control system for working out games) I might pick this up.
Again Xbox came out with silly filler info. Connecting all different Microsoft devices together. Which for someone like me is completely useless. All my devices are made by different companies and it is like this for a reason. This whole segment was meaningless to me.
Finally something decent. Tomb Raider. Last year they teased us with a pretty opening cutscene. This year they showed us a nice chunk of game play. It looks and feels a heck of a lot like Uncharted which I really enjoyed. This is one on my to play list.
Next up was Ascend: New Gods (a hack/slash type game, could be interesting so see what develops of that one). Loco Cycle: Just a teaser trailer which was a bit weird and Matter which both me and Adam thought was a portal game at first. No real info from any of them so hard to form a strong opinion on these three.
Resident Evil 6 up next. It looks good, very good. The Show game play featured a section with Leon but reports from the booths say that each character to play handles differently reflecting the game they were from (but control really well), even the various character inventory screens and HUD's are different. Kinda a nice touch.
Now they focused a little on Xbox Live games. Leading the way Wreckateer which looked pretty much to be an Angry Birds game using Kinect.
Now this next game shown was a bit of a wow moment. 1) because if some of those clips in this trailer are game play then this game will be how a TV cartoon based game should look. 2) because I just thought is this game really gonna be in my highlights of E3? Anyway South Park: The Stick of Truth.
Bonus points for Trey Parker and Matt Stone for taking the mickey out of Xbox for that whole connecting all your devices junk.
Harmonix followed with Dance Central 3. Usher pranced around on stage promoting it, but as far as the game goes its more of the same really. Not to say I dislike the game, far from it, I rather enjoy Dance Central. However at the end of the day I can only form an opinion of the game from the full list of songs included in the game.
Finally things were wrapped up with Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2. Yes it looked pretty, and action packed but, I just don't care any more about the series. For one reason and one reason only. The on line community. It is a drain to play with the so very vocal whiny kids that cry if you shoot them, rage quit the game if they are losing and pretty much just spam obscenities at anyone and everyone when not doing one of the first two. Sadly I wish I could say I just ran into a bad bunch of players but it's always the same and it's got to the point where the game is just not enjoyable so I'll be saving the money on the game (and the endless DLC they pump out during the year).
EA took the stage next showing off Dead Space 3 first. I'm hoping that Co-Op mode doesn't take too much a way from the feel of how the older DS play. The whole element of Issac losing his grasp on reality while being rather isolated was just as key to the game as necromorphs jumping out at you. I'm just worried having another character to bounce off of will take that a way from Issac and from what I've seen from the game play it looks like it's leaning more towards Lost Planet style (even though I enjoyed that game).
More Sports was up next so I excused myself for another cup of tea.
Sim City next starting off with Sim City Social.... a Facebook game... really? Nothing wrong with Facebook games, but is E3 really the place to be announcing them. Anyway they showed off the real thing next Sim City. Now I like Simulation Games, I find them after relaxing, so I guess I'll pick this one up sooner or later.
Next Battlefield 3, they talked a bit about Battlefield premium which if it is anything like Call of Duty Elite it's nothing I would be prepared to pay for.
Next up they talked about Star Wars: The Old Republic. They announced new playable races, flashpoints and quest lines. I played this for a couple of months when it launched, and while it wasn't perfect (no newly released MMORPG's are), it wasn't bad. I just think I've grown out of MMORPG's in general, and I just don't have the will to play them any more. In truth I much prefer Diablo style multi player RPG.
Medal of Honour was up next, I don't play this series so while the demo was playing I took the moment to make up our bed for the night since we're sleeping downstairs while we're working on our room. I came back to UFC game being talked about I was told I missed Fifa 13 segment (bonus).
Need For Speed: Most Wanted was shown, again driving games are a no no for me, but I know Adam sometimes dabbles in the Need for Speed series so he might be interested.
E3 wrapped up their show with Crysis 3, another series I haven't played ( FPS tend to give me a headache if I play them too long so I don't play too many of them, don't really think about it until E3 rolls around and so many FPS's get shown off).
Ubisoft was the last show I would be watching that night. So snuggled up with a mug of hot chocolate to enjoy their offerings.
The opened with Just Dance 4, and Flo Rida jumping around on stage. While I like Dance Central I've never played Just Dance. I'm not THAT into dance games (plus Just Dance always is marketed heavly as get your friends together and dance (cue my forever alone face).
Farcry 3 looks pretty, although I doubt we'll get this one, Farcry 2 was a game bought for us as a gift played a little then just got put on that "I'll finish that another time pile" and has remained there ever since.
Splinter Cell showed up again, but just as a cinematic this time.
Next up Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth. I'm a big comic nerd and while I would have loved to have heard more about Marvel Heroes, I'll settle with this for now. The commented this game would be on the Wii U which led on to some talk of games using the new system.
Rayman legends highlighted the Wii U controller. Looked interesting, but it didn't have be begging for a Wii U. Followed was something a lot less cartoonish and was a nice step for the Wii U platform
ZombiU the trailer reminds me a lot of Dead Island, (which I enjoyed), and was little nod to the Jubilee with God Save the Queen playing and the London setting.
The game everyone was expecting was next Assassin's Creed. The game play reflected the trailers that I'd seen so far so nothing major stood out with this one, since it focused on the usual AC fare or sneaking around with your hood up, tip toeing above people on branches, taking out the guard or two, a gorgeous cinematic and jumping off very high places.
There was a whole section on E-sports, I didn't really "get" this segment. It felt like filler, it looked like filler. The game they used in the demo, didn't even look that good. They show cased a few more Online games then moved on.
Now they showed something that caught my attention. First up was a teaser trailer. Info-graph style.
Then came the game itself. I really liked the look of this, felt like a real world Deus Ex melded with GTA very interesting. This game for me was definitely the winner of the day.
Tomorrow I'll review my highlights from Sony, Nintendo and other shows.
