The 2015 summary and what's to come in 2016

As I write this on the last Monday of 2015, a nice breeze and a warm sun entering my room, I have to say, there's not a lot to talk about with this in terms of this year, unlike last year, there wasn't a lot that wasn't addressed earlier on. But at the same time, still a lot of exciting things to say. So gather round, as we cast of 2015, and talk about what's in store for 2016.

In terms of content, it was pretty solid. The Digimon Marathon had to be cut short, and the review of Batman Arkham Origins is still far away as I still don't have a copy, but I do believe enough has come out to supliment that, for the time being. We got all the episodes of Digimon up to the start of Digimon Fusion Season 2, a series I've honestly stopped following due to time. The review of almost the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe took up all of May, that was fun to work on until Twitter trolls started to latch their claws into what little free time I had post Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The funny thing is that they're still trying that pathetic "gag", I'm not even angry any more, I find the idea of them still trying is hilarious seven months after. The rest of the year was more smaller things like the week of opening impressions more because of burn out, and preparation for what's coming up. Not only has this site broken 200 posts with the release of the Undertale review, but recently the site has broken 25,000, with the Pokemon Zeta and Onicron (Omnicron is still a cooler name) and Digimon Adventure 02 breaking over 1,000 views on their own. Considering the site isn't even two years old, and yes to many those may not seem great, but to me that's amazing, and it's what keeps driving me to write more content, especially when this time last year we just broke 4,000. So to all who have been following this site in some form, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. That's probably going to become a reoccurring line as more milestones break, but it'll continue to be true.

If there's something specific you want to know about what has come out, ask me in either my Ask.fm, Twitter, Facebook, Retrospring (Which is something I really need to remember to check because I don't get email notifications on it) or any other way to get in contact with me, all the sites linked to this are on the side in the same place. I know this year wasn't very interesting in terms of back story, but there wasn't anything like last year that I didn't address in other posts. Before going into the planned reviews and impressions next year, a few changes are coming to the site itself and how it's managed.

• A name change will be happening shortly after this post goes live, including a change to the web address. With Marissa now writing for the site, I personally don't feel comfortable keeping the name as it feels like I'm writing her content, which some people may think if they don't notice the "keybug55's reviews:" or the fact that she tags her posts with "keybug55" and "marissa", which I'll be going through my posts and adding "blaster" and "liam" to mine when I get some free time, and you'll see why. The new name is Mediaholics.
• More of a focus will be put on my Patreon. I do want to start doing this with more of a focus but that requires the site having a budget. Sadly the world doesn't work for free. Now while I'm not going to be barring core content behind a unbroken paywall. What I will be doing is giving Patreon supporters access to my video content a week early when applicable (this doesn't really work for E3 and similar topics, but will be used for Let's Plays and other videos), will get to decide what gets to be covered every now and then, akin to the strawpolls for the Comic arc reviews, but not as limiting and will get to see my notes and other behind the scenes documentation. I'm also going to be doing other Patreon supporters exclusive content when I have the resources to do it.
• The site is going to become a more general content site, with videos from mine and maybe keybug's channels (depending on how things go), including lets plays along with the reviews site and the projects site to be merged.
• More video content is on the way. For the time being I will be putting Earthbound on more of a hiatus just due to time, but Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky will be returning very soon.
• First Impressions are going to become videos when possible. E3 conference summaries will probably stay as text, but Pre and Post E3 will return as videos, and impressions of trailers will be videos as well.
• No more comic arc polls for a while, as most of them didn't get a lot of votes, which defeats the purpose of a poll. However this does mean that arcs like Civil War and the Phoenix Saga will be covered in 2016.

June update: Festivals, E3, videos and mood swings

It's that time of year again, E3 month. And once again, I'll be covering the E3 news, however, its slightly different this year, but I'll get to that later

First, reviews are going to be returning back to a more manageable schedule, there's no marathon this month, and three reviews planned, the first being Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney next Wednesday. The other reviews are going to be on two different perspectives on story telling, but you'll see what I mean when I announce them.

E3 this year, I'm going to be writing posts that talk about the press conferences again, but I'm not going to do a marathon of Impressions afterwards. Instead, I'm going to be getting together with a few people and posting a video of the conversation we have talking about the announcements. I'm hoping this means more coverage of E3 in a shorter amount of time. Right now there's one video planned, but that could change depending on what else is shown. I'll also be doing another "wishlist" of what I personally want to see at E3 before it starts like I did last year.

Now about that festival part of the title... I'm going to be volunteering at the Tech Games Festival at the Chisholm Institute of TAFE this year from the 30th of June to the 2nd of July. During this week, the E3 video I talked about will go live, so there won't be a void of content like the last two events I worked at. If anyone who reads this is also going to the festival, say hi if you see me. I don't know what I'll be wearing as a way to show who I am, due to the fact that I am working at it. I do have prior experience with what the event used to be, the Computer Games Boot Camp, at Monash University.

The E3 video (maybe videos) won't be the only video coming out this month. I am currently working on two promotional videos for the two sites (mainly the reviews site). One of them is a standard trailer (though potentially longer then a normal trailer, due to the song choice) and the other is a montage of the reviews and impressions posted since the sites launch. I'm hoping to debut them at the Tech Games Fest, with the videos being made public the week after when I return to University for Semester 2. On top of that, there are two other joint reviews in the production process, with planned release dates in the coming months.

One final thing, this is a bit of a plug for a friend of mine, but I do what I can. A twitch streamer called Duk700 is planning on getting back into streaming soon, with a challenge I can only salute him for (mainly because I'm planning on doing a similar challenge soon) either starting soon, or has already begun, depending on his schedule. If you're looking for someone new to watch, You can find his Twitch account here, I'll be posting links to his streams when he's about to broadcast as well, to help him get going. There's nothing else to say on the matter except for "See you next Wednesday for Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright".

What does 2015 have in store for Blaster's Reviews and Blaster's Projects

Before I begin, thanks for the 1000 page views, I know I don't update this site often, but thats just because I don't have anything to talk about. But even still, thank you, it means alot to see people reading my content on both sites.

With 2015 almost upon us, I think it might be time to talk about some upcoming plans for Blaster's Reviews and Blaster's Projects (though not in as much detail)


For Blaster's Reviews, with some miscellaneous reviews scattered between, there are some marathons planned for the first half of the year:

1. During January, I'll be reviewing 4 Direct to DVD films to which the franchise they're based on has a spot in my heart. BIONICLE: Mask of Light, Legends of Metru Nui, Web of Shadows and The Legend Reborn.
2. To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the two sites, the Digimon Anime will be reviewed including the films. Do note that most of them will be using the English Dubs.
3. To coincide with the launch of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Marvel movieverse (not including Guardians of the Galaxy at this time) along with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D will be reviewed.
4. During July, I will once again be tackling E3, which may mean that there will be a lot of Impressions occupying the space after.

 On top of that, two new review types will be opened up during the course of the year

1. The Retake Reviews: If I or another reader thinks that one of the previous reviews could have been better, I will begin rewriting them and posting a brand new review of them. Imagine it as a sort of "Then and Now" kind of post.
2. Comic book reviews: I've always been curious about Comic books and Blaster's Reviews has given me a excuse to loo into them. These reviews will be reviews of spesific arcs and individual issues, not comic series. For those who don't know, a comic arc is a small "mini story" in a series of comic books where the story flows directly from one comic to another. Two examples of this are "Blackest Night" from the Green Lantern comics (though it is a cross over) and "Genesis" from one of the two comic book series I do follow, the Sonic the Hedgehog comics. These reviews will be dependent on requests and suggestions so feel free to make requests (I don't ignore everyone except the Patreon supporters, you can talk to me, I don't bite) as to what arcs you'd like to see a review of (just give me some basic info like name of the arc, publishers and what series its from).

As for Blaster's Projects, I unfortunately don't have much to say. But what I do have to say is this:

1. How to think like a Game Designer isn't dead and more posts on that will appear, I'm just struggling to find a topic, so feel free to make suggestions.
2. Turnabout Smash: The Project itself is currently halted due to lack of progress on the production for the Prologue and writer's block for Chapter 1 (I know how I want to end it, just not how to get to it). I have plans for Turnabout Smash so that you can still see a form of the project but I am still looking for writers to work with in order to see this project complete. More news on that plan later.
3. Super Smash Brothers: Fan Disagreement: I have nothing to say about this because SSBFD has, to me at least, become Turnabout Smash. I used SSBFD as a base so to me, the two projects are the same.

That's a little taste of what's to come next year, but there is more then that coming. As I said during the comic book discussing, seeing as it applies for all material, I'm open to requests and feedback as you're the ones motivating me to keep writing, to keep improving. Thanks for the support, and enjoy the rest of the year. Tomorrow and Saturday will be finishing off the Week of Smash and then I'm finishing off the MLP reviews with a review of Rainbow Rocks, and my built up Top 20 MLP songs list.

The Individual impressions that will be coming

So with E3 finished for 2014, I'm going to be covering some of the individual games shown off that I thought looked interesting. I won't be including games that I already done impressions on (Smash 4 and Arkham Knight) and these will be posted after the Transformers Marathon.

The titles include...
Pokémon Omega Ruby/ Alpha Sapphire, Hyrule Warriors, Splatoon, Fable Legends, Project Spark, Sonic Boom, Yoshi's Woolly World, Code Name S.T.E.A.M, Far Cry 4 ( as I don't think the impressions I have don't during the conferences do it justice), Mario Party 10 and Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. I am willing to provide in depth opinions on requests if anyone would like me to but otherwise these will be the games I cover.

Another update, going into the month of June. What to expect from Blaster's Reviews and Turnabout Smash

So what's the plan for June on Blaster's reviews?

Transformers Marathon: The first review is halfway done and planned to go live Monday 2nd of June with 11 reviews planned for the marathon, it might go into July but most of the reviews will be in June.
E3: While I won't be going to E3 (maybe someday...) I will be doing impressions of the trailers that interest me in some form and the press conferences (all of them). I doubt that they will go up the moment after the press conferences finish as I live in a different time zone and chances are, some of the conferences will happen while I'm asleep, I will get them up as soon as I can.

And what about the story on Turnabout Smash? The prologue chapter is in proof reading and work has begun on the next two chapters (thanks to a second writer). I'm hoping to go into production during June but that depends on the proof reading and producers (including myself).

Upcoming project for Blaster's reviews. The Transformers Marathon

With Transformers 4: Age of Extinction next month (maybe...), I'm going to do my first marathon of reviews, a Transformers marathon. In this marathon of reviews, I will be looking at the seasons and games of Transformers that I've watched or played. I will be missing several seasons and games, but that because I have no prior experience with them. I'll go back to those at another time. But right now it will just be the ones I've had experience with. Feel free to suggest ideas for the name of this new (and a first for me) marathon.