2017 challenges, Challenges

2017 Challenges: Year in recap

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Overall, a pretty terrible year for me and the challenges. Looking back, I think I got off to a really slow start, so let’s blame that. I only achieved one of my challenges, which is really poor. Let’s take a deeper look!

Watch 30 anime series

I made a lot of progress on this one over the last half of the year, but the first half was a real let-down. My total for this challenge was 17 series watched. It would be 18, but I discounted Voltron. Unfortunately, I’m going into 2018 with a few unfinished series, which is pretty annoying, but I’ll soon get those mopped up!

Make 10 new cosplays (one from scratch)

I guess 2017 was the year of cosplay. as this was the only challenge I actually met. I did 14 new cosplays, not including tests, and one of those I made entirely from scratch. I’m really proud of my progress with cosplay this year. I think I have a really long way to go, but I really learnt a lot, and I’m hoping to improve on things next year.

Watch 30 ‘new old’ films

After spending the first couple of months of the year putting off writing the list of 30 films, I actually only watched 1 film. I’m going to bring this challenge back next year, replace the one film I did watch with another title, and burn through this list!

Watch 60 films at the cinema

I managed to get to the cinema to see 41 films this year. I think I’ve really recognised that my cinema-going habits have changed. I don’t think I did any trips to the cinema where I watched more than one film per day, which is something I used to do a lot in previous years.

Platinum 12 games

I’m determined to get back into the platinum game in 2018, as I only got 2 platinum trophies this year, which is really shameful. I had wanted to get to 60 platinums overall by the end of the year, but didn’t quite make it. Like my cinema-going, I’m not sure if my gaming habits have changed, but I still really like to get trophies, so I just need to get back into it.

Clear gaming backlog

The trouble with being a gamer is that there’s always something coming out, so the backlog just gets bigger and bigger. I don’t think I wiped anything off my list, and in fact it’s just doubled in size if anything.

2017 challenges, Challenges

2017 Challenges: August Recap

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Make 10 new cosplays (including one entirely from scratch)
We’re still at the same point with this one; seven cosplays made, including the from scratch one. The next convention I’m going to is EGX at the end of September, where I’ll be rewearing Chiaki from Danganronpa 2 (I’ve made a new skirt for her, but it totally doesn’t count). I’m also planning on attending MCM London, Hibanacon and MCM Birmingham before the end of the year, and my planned cosplays for those will bring my total to 17 new cosplays for the year, so I’m not concerned about this one at all.

Watch 30 anime series
This one is clocking in at 9 series watched. I’m quietly confident on this one still. I have a few ongoing series’ I’m watching from this season which are due to wrap up soon, so I’ll be adding a lot to this total in the next month or so.

Platinum 12 games
Although I’m only at 1 for this challenge, I still feel like I can get at least half way on the board by the end of the year. We’ll see!

Watch 30 new ‘old’ films
This should be the easy one! Still only 1 film watched, and even that was from January! Terrible business.

Watch 60 films in the cinema
My cinema-going habits have changed a lot this year it turns out, so I’m only up to 28 on this one. I’ll easily get to half way, but I’m hoping I can get to at least 40.

Clear the gaming backlog
I’ve started this now! Currently, I’m playing Danganronpa 1-2: Reload ready for Danganronpa 3 at the end of the month. Progress is slow because I have been watching a lot of anime lately which seems to be taking up all of my time, but I definitely want to have wiped a few of these games off the list by the end of the year!

2017 challenges, Challenges

2017 Challenges: June Recap

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Make 10 new cosplays (including one entirely from scratch)
Halfway through the year, and halfway through this challenge! Five cosplays done, including that “from scratch” cosplay. I have a con coming up later in the month which I’m planning at least one new cosplay for, hopefully two depending on money/how costesting goes! I also have a con in November which I’m planning six (6!) new cosplays for, so I’m confident I’ll hit the target on this one.

Here’s a photo of my Kubo, which is the one I made myself.

kubo2.jpg

Watch 30 anime series
Surprisingly, I’ve managed to add another couple of series to my list since last time; Attack on Titan s02 and Room Mate.

Platinum 12 games
Finally, a score on the board for this one! You may have read my Platinum Review, but I recently managed to complete Nubla (in 51 minutes and 1 second according to PSN Profiles).

Watch 30 new ‘old’ films
I decline to comment.

Watch 60 films at the cinema
As always you can follow my progress on this one via my Twitter and the hashtag #cs2017challenge, but I have managed to so far see 23 films in the cinema. Not quite on track, but not too far behind either. I’ve found that my cinema-going habits have definitely changed, and I find myself going a lot less frequently than in previously years.

Clear the gaming backlog
Hey, look. I only just made the post for this challenge, so let’s not rush things. Like I said in that post, now I have my mitts on Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy I don’t have any new releases on the horizon until September’s Danganronpa 3 release, so I’m hoping to make real headway with this challenge from now on. Realistically, I don’t think I’ll be clearing the whole list but I want to get a good chunk of it done!

2017 challenges, Challenges

2017 Challenges: The Backlog Post

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Wow. So, we’re almost in July and I’m only just getting round to making this list which probably tells you about as much as you need to know about how this particular aspect of the 2017 Challenges is going!

I’ve been through my game collection for PS4 and Vita and these are the games I own which I have yet to finish a single playthrough on. So much for no more buying new games until the old ones are finished!

I’m still hopeful that I can burn through a lot of these by the end of the year, but also fully aware that I’m fast running out of time!

  1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
  2. Final Fantasy X
  3. Final Fantasy X-2
  4. Beyond: Two Souls
  5. Murdered: Soul Suspect
  6. Danganronpa 1-2 Reload
  7. Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls
  8. Trails of Cold Steel
  9. Tales of Zestiria
  10. Tales of Hearts R
  11. Psycho Pass: Mandatory Happiness
  12. Steins;Gate
  13. Uncharted Collection
  14. Uncharted 4
  15. XBlaze Code: Embryo
  16. Persona 3 Portable
  17. Conception II

I’m hoping that at least a few of these can tie in with the platinum challenge. It looks like I’m clear on new releases until Danganronpa 3 comes out in September, so a good couple of months to focus on these (once I’ve finished Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy). 

2017 challenges, Challenges

2017 Challenges: April Recap

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Wooo boy, only two weeks late with this one, but it’s been kind of hectic, you know? April is done, that means we’re 1/3 of the way through the year, so I should be 1/3 of the way through all of my totals… right? Right?!

Make 10 new cosplays (including one entirely from scratch)
MCM London is next week, and as previously mentioned, I’m doing three new cosplays. That’ll bring my total for the year up to 5, so that’s pretty good going! One of my cosplays for next week I have also made entirely from scratch, and I’m really happy with it so far! I did have a minor meltdown over the wig and the trousers, but I’m through it now (touch wood). I still have some finishing touches to do on each of them, but I’m excited to share photos when they’re done!

For those interested, this is my line-up:

mcm lineup

Watch 30 anime series
I had been doing really well at this challenge, but I feel my progress has slowed down a bit the closer it’s getting to con and the more time I’ve had to spend working on cosplay. It’s really hard to watch anime in the background of cosplay as I find I need to concentrate quite heavily on both activities (I am quite prone to sewing in sleeves inside-out).

Having said that, since last month, I’ve managed to watch the first season of Black Butler, which brings the total to five completed anime series. To refresh, that’s:

  1. LoveLive! School Idol Project
  2. Voltron: Legendary Defender (s01)
  3. Vampire Knight
  4. Vampire Knight: Guilty
  5. Black Butler (s01)

I need to majorly up my game on this one!

Platinum 12 games
This is the part of the list where things start to get a bit less impressive… so the less said about this one the better, I think. *coughnoplatinumtrophiescough*

Watch 30 new ‘old’ films
I think what is needed is a weekend where I just obliterate this list, but until then, I will have to be satisfied with my one tick on this list of thirty.

Watch 60 films at the cinema
Look! An actual challenge I’m on track for! I’ve seen 20 films at the cinema so far, so bang on target for the time of the year!

Clear the gaming backlog
So little progress has been made on this challenge, I still haven’t even made the list yet.

2017 challenges, Challenges

2017 Challenges: New ‘Old’ Films

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So, I’ve finally put together this list. That’s the hard part out of the way, right?

  1. E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial
  2. Die Hard
  3. Psycho
  4. The Godfather pt. 2
  5. Silence of the Lambs
  6. Rocky
  7. Gone With The Wind
  8. Schindler’s List
  9. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
  10. American Beauty
  11. GoodFellas
  12. Reservoir Dogs
  13. Good Will Hunting
  14. Dead Poet’s Society
  15. The Usual Suspects
  16. L.A Confidential
  17. Lost In Translation
  18. Watchmen
  19. Garden State
  20. Leon
  21. The Terminator
  22. V For Vendetta
  23. Taxi Driver
  24. The Pianist
  25. Donnie Darko
  26. The Sixth Sense
  27. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  28. The Princess and the Frog
  29. The Matrix
  30. Inglourious Basterds
2017 challenges, Challenges

2017 Challenges: January Recap

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I’d like to be able to tell you things are going well, but I’m not in the business of lying. Let’s find out just how poorly things are going!

Make 10 new cosplays (including one entirely from scratch)
To be honest, I feel like I should be panicking a bit more about this target, but con season isn’t even here yet. I say that, but I’m actually attending MCM Midlands in two weeks time, so maybe I am in the business of lying after all. What I mean is, MCM London in May is my first ‘big con’ of the year, the first one that’s not just a day event, and that’s where I’ll put the wheels into motion for my first new cosplays of the year. I’ve got something planned for each day (including the one cosplay from scratch), so I have just over four months to pull it all together! As it stands, I’ve made no new cosplays, though I have got a variation on one of last years together, but I’m not counting that for the purposes of this challenge.

Watch 30 anime series
Failure breeds failure, it turns out. This year so far, I’m ashamed to say I’ve watched no new anime. I do have my reasons for this, and they can all pretty much be attributed to Kuroko No Basuke. My relationship with KNB feels really weird at the moment. When I’m watching it, I love it, and I want to watch more and more, but it’s just getting to the point where I actually put it on that I’m struggling with. For this reason, I decided not to start any new anime until I’d finished it, simply because I know I’ll never go back to it and I really do want to finish it. I’m about 8 episodes from the end, so looking forward to wrapping it up and making some headway on this one!

Platinum 12 games
Can you sense a theme? I’ve also not made any progress with this one. In the interest of saving money, I want to platinum as many games as I already own before I go trawling for some new ones. I’ve recently finished the main storyline of Final Fantasy XV (expect more on that another time), so I’m going to aim for that to be the first platinum of the year.

Watch 30 new ‘old’ films
Finally! A challenge I’ve done something on! My last post mentioned that I’d recently watched E.T for the first time, and this counts towards this portion of the 2017 challenges. Where I am failing is making the whole damn list in the first place, which I will definitely get to soon!

Watch 60 films at the cinema
Now we’re talking. So far this year, I’ve seen 7 films and you can track which ones on Twitter, either by following me or by viewing the hashtag #cs2017challenge. I’m keen to get as far ahead with this one as possible, as I know later in the year I’ll trail off.

Clear the gaming backlog
Damn Jade, back at it again with the weak resolve. Unless you can count Final Fantasy XV towards this one, I’ve made no progress. Once again, I haven’t even made the list of what I’m trying to clear! I will though. Very soon!

2017 challenges, Challenges

2017 Challenges: The Beginning

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So, with 2016 out of the way (finally, amirite?), I’m now looking ahead to 2017. I’ve learnt a lot about myself over the course of the past year (mostly that I definitely can’t cram as much into a year as I thought I could), so with that in mind, and all the reflecting out of the way, it’s time to set some 2017 challenges!

Coming to you this year with a brand new hashtag (#cs2017challenge), how many of the films, TV shows and games can you name in the 2017 Challenge logo?

Make 10 new cosplays (including one entirely from scratch)
I did really well with cosplay last year (8!), and I got a sewing machine for Christmas. I’ve decided I want to majorly up my game, so I’m going for double figures and the condition that one has to be completely made from scratch. I also really want to make an awesome prop, but we’ll see how we go with that one!

Watch 30 anime series
I have a couple of series I need to finish off (Dream Festival and Kuroko no Basuke), and then it’s on with the new series. This year I’m refining my rules – mostly because there’s no way I’m watching all of Black Butler and it not counting because I’ve watched the first episode, so as long as I’ve watched three episodes or less of a series, then it counts towards this years total! I’m also hoping to write a quick review of each series as I go as review practice.

Platinum 12 games
Last years target of 24 games seems a bit optimistic now, especially considering all of the other challenges going on at the same time, so this year I’ve reduced the total to just one platinum a month. I will be writing platinum reviews for each game I manage!

Watch 30 new ‘old’ films
I have a few films which when I say I’ve never seen, people are always shocked (E.T and Die Hard to name a couple). In the next week or so I’ll be compiling a list of 30 of these films, and watching them over the course of the year. I’ll be writing up my impressions of these films in an as yet unnamed feature.

Watch 60 films at the cinema
Look, we all know I failed hard at this one in 2016, so I’m reducing my total by 20 to give myself a chance. I’ll be writing reviews where I can, and logging my progress on Twitter under the challenge hashtag.

Clear the gaming backlog
My gaming backlog is shameful, and growing by the month. My aim for the year is to finish every game I own, and try to catch up with the releases I’ve missed. I’ll update this post with a proper list of which games this entails when I get a chance!