He stood there. Gazing over the field and sighing. His cloak covering him from head to toe as he continues his lonely life.
Walking through the field he is joined by many. Rich and poor, men and women, religious and non-religious, black and white. He unites them all as one for nobody can deny him. Nobody can say no to him.
As he walks he amasses an army behind him, and continues his slow march around the world. He never speaks, he never smiles, he never shows his face. He just walks and is followed.
Some day we will all meet him, some will take it well and others will not be able to handle it. But surely enough he is coming for each and every one of us, and this scares people. He's alone in a sea of people simply because he is feared and hated.
He doesn't mean to though. He knows that they wish him gone. He knows that they wish him destroyed. But all he can do is march on with everyone following behind. At first he cried, now he just sighs. For loneliness has embraced him, and he has embraced it.
He comes for us all.
It's not his fault, and it's nothing personal. It's just a part of life.
So if you ever see him do not hate him, approach him, and tell him some stories. Maybe he'll finally smile.
Sunday, 4 October 2015
Saturday, 26 September 2015
Final Fantasy X
Ok so I just finished Final Fantasy X and honestly the game is amazing. It's a beautiful game with some very powerful messages themed around family and the sense of loss. FFX is a game that plays with your emotions; and trust me when it ends you will be smacked in the face with "the feels".
************************************Spoilers**************************************
So FFX is a Role-Playing Game in which, as is the norm with Final Fantasy games, you control a team, or party, of people and progress through the game levelling up, getting new abilities and saving the day. Although you don't level up in all RPGs such as Legend of Zelda. In the case of FFX you level up but not exactly. You get experience and grow Sphere levels which you can then use to increase your stats. Whereas in the long run this is good and dandy, increasing sphere levels is pretty easy and long before the final battle you can make your characters strong enough to not find any enemies to be a threat. Other than that this is a pretty standard RPG.
Now with the story and why I consider this an amazing game.
You start off as a character called Tidus, who lives the life of a blitzball star. Blitzball is like football......but cooler (boy am I gonna get hate for that). One night during a blitzball match Tidus' city of Zanarkand is under attack by a giant whale like creature who's called Sin. This monster sends down parts of it called Sinspawn to attack our main character and his protector Auron. After the attack Tidus gets washed away and wakes up alone in some ruins, and after a run in with a monster is saved by a group of people called the Al Bhed. Sin attacks and he loses his new friends waking on a shore near the town of Besaid.
There he meets summoner Yuna and her guardians, Wakka, Lulu and Kimahri. A summoner is a person who goes on a pilgrimage to enlist aeons, powerful beings created from the dreams of the fayth. The fayth are people who willingly had their souls sealed in stones so that they could continue dreaming. Spira, you could say, is a place where dreams come true. As the pilgrimage continues Sin attacks the party multiple times, Tidus finds out that the monster Sin that has been terrorising Spira for hundreds of years is his long lost father, the Final Aeon will become Sin upon it's death, the main religion are the Teachings of Yevon and the maesters (kind alike the popes) of Yevon turn out to be assholes. All of them being unsent which are basically zombies....kinda. Maester Seymour in particular has the party accused of treason, attacks the party, is killed and then tries to become Sin in order to kill everyone on the planet so they can stop grieving about death.......logic? The fuck is logic?
After the entire Yevon religion has been brought into chaos, find out that Tidus is a dream who will disappear when Sin is destroyed for good and Tidus and Yuna have a small makeout session (about 7 minutes with a japanese folk song "Suteki da ne" playing under the full moon) they move on to the ruins of Zanarkand and meet Lady Yunalesca who admits that the summoner must have one of his/her guardians become the Final Aeon by being sacrificed. The Final Aeon would then become Sin over the course of the next 10 years thus continuing the spiral of death. After Lady Yunalesca is sent to the afterworld (aka the faplane) the party makes a plan to destroy Sin once and for all. From the inside.
Once inside Sin they find his core. Defeat Jecht (Tidus' father) and enter the final battle after a long heartfelt goodbye. Yuna summons her aeons one by one as Yu Yevon, the one behind the Teachings of Yevon, who is the real mastermind and the real form of Sin, takes over each aeon, planning to use them to kill the party and make a new Sin to continue terrorising Spira. The party defeats the aeons one by one until only Yu Yevon is left who, without an aeon to hide in, falls easily to the party. The battle over the main characters must say their final goodbyes, as Tidus fades away. The last thing Yuna tells him being that she loves him. The first and only time she had said it. Tidus realising that Yuna truly loves him, attempts to hug her but can't as his body is dematerialising. He then disappears.
Spira celebrates as the monster who destroyed their homes, their families, their hopes and dreams is finally gone.
Honestly this game was so sad and yet so amazing. It reminds me why I love Final Fantasy. Yeah the endings aren't always happy but the stories are always the best. Final Fantasy X truly delivers in that department with an expected yet sad ending.
This game does however have it's faults such as methods to obtaining the ultimate weapons being a huge pain. But hey the story is worth it.
*********************************************************************************
Honestly I love this game. The gameplay isn't out of this world but it's familiar and a traditional RPG style, the story itself while not a masterpiece is simple and entrancing, the graphics for it's time are gorgeous (although it has been remastered for the PSVita with even better graphics). This game honestly deserves the utmost respect and truly lives up to the name of Final Fantasy.
Rating: 9/10
Would I play this game again:
Not only will I play it again I would advise others to play it too.
Remember to follow me on Twitter for updates on when i'm going to next post.
************************************Spoilers**************************************
So FFX is a Role-Playing Game in which, as is the norm with Final Fantasy games, you control a team, or party, of people and progress through the game levelling up, getting new abilities and saving the day. Although you don't level up in all RPGs such as Legend of Zelda. In the case of FFX you level up but not exactly. You get experience and grow Sphere levels which you can then use to increase your stats. Whereas in the long run this is good and dandy, increasing sphere levels is pretty easy and long before the final battle you can make your characters strong enough to not find any enemies to be a threat. Other than that this is a pretty standard RPG.
Now with the story and why I consider this an amazing game.
You start off as a character called Tidus, who lives the life of a blitzball star. Blitzball is like football......but cooler (boy am I gonna get hate for that). One night during a blitzball match Tidus' city of Zanarkand is under attack by a giant whale like creature who's called Sin. This monster sends down parts of it called Sinspawn to attack our main character and his protector Auron. After the attack Tidus gets washed away and wakes up alone in some ruins, and after a run in with a monster is saved by a group of people called the Al Bhed. Sin attacks and he loses his new friends waking on a shore near the town of Besaid.
There he meets summoner Yuna and her guardians, Wakka, Lulu and Kimahri. A summoner is a person who goes on a pilgrimage to enlist aeons, powerful beings created from the dreams of the fayth. The fayth are people who willingly had their souls sealed in stones so that they could continue dreaming. Spira, you could say, is a place where dreams come true. As the pilgrimage continues Sin attacks the party multiple times, Tidus finds out that the monster Sin that has been terrorising Spira for hundreds of years is his long lost father, the Final Aeon will become Sin upon it's death, the main religion are the Teachings of Yevon and the maesters (kind alike the popes) of Yevon turn out to be assholes. All of them being unsent which are basically zombies....kinda. Maester Seymour in particular has the party accused of treason, attacks the party, is killed and then tries to become Sin in order to kill everyone on the planet so they can stop grieving about death.......logic? The fuck is logic?
After the entire Yevon religion has been brought into chaos, find out that Tidus is a dream who will disappear when Sin is destroyed for good and Tidus and Yuna have a small makeout session (about 7 minutes with a japanese folk song "Suteki da ne" playing under the full moon) they move on to the ruins of Zanarkand and meet Lady Yunalesca who admits that the summoner must have one of his/her guardians become the Final Aeon by being sacrificed. The Final Aeon would then become Sin over the course of the next 10 years thus continuing the spiral of death. After Lady Yunalesca is sent to the afterworld (aka the faplane) the party makes a plan to destroy Sin once and for all. From the inside.
Once inside Sin they find his core. Defeat Jecht (Tidus' father) and enter the final battle after a long heartfelt goodbye. Yuna summons her aeons one by one as Yu Yevon, the one behind the Teachings of Yevon, who is the real mastermind and the real form of Sin, takes over each aeon, planning to use them to kill the party and make a new Sin to continue terrorising Spira. The party defeats the aeons one by one until only Yu Yevon is left who, without an aeon to hide in, falls easily to the party. The battle over the main characters must say their final goodbyes, as Tidus fades away. The last thing Yuna tells him being that she loves him. The first and only time she had said it. Tidus realising that Yuna truly loves him, attempts to hug her but can't as his body is dematerialising. He then disappears.
Spira celebrates as the monster who destroyed their homes, their families, their hopes and dreams is finally gone.
Honestly this game was so sad and yet so amazing. It reminds me why I love Final Fantasy. Yeah the endings aren't always happy but the stories are always the best. Final Fantasy X truly delivers in that department with an expected yet sad ending.
This game does however have it's faults such as methods to obtaining the ultimate weapons being a huge pain. But hey the story is worth it.
*********************************************************************************
Honestly I love this game. The gameplay isn't out of this world but it's familiar and a traditional RPG style, the story itself while not a masterpiece is simple and entrancing, the graphics for it's time are gorgeous (although it has been remastered for the PSVita with even better graphics). This game honestly deserves the utmost respect and truly lives up to the name of Final Fantasy.
Rating: 9/10
Would I play this game again:
Not only will I play it again I would advise others to play it too.
Remember to follow me on Twitter for updates on when i'm going to next post.
Friday, 18 September 2015
Updates (Twitter, ask.fm)
Hey guys I apologise for the brief *cough* 1 month *cough* absence, but life's been a bit tough lately. I do have a couple posts for you guys but I will only be posting once a week for now. That's the best I can do.
On other news I have made a twitter account so that you guys can be updated as to when I post and for any updates I may or may not make in the future. So if you guys have twitter follow me: @DarkfireDremp
Oh as for you lovely people who managed to find my ask.fm well I deactivated it mainly because I don't really use it, but if you guys wanna contact me you can message me on twitter; which should also be up on the sidebar too.
Alright guys thanks for being so patient, and to those of you going to uni or school have an awesome academic year.
On other news I have made a twitter account so that you guys can be updated as to when I post and for any updates I may or may not make in the future. So if you guys have twitter follow me: @DarkfireDremp
Oh as for you lovely people who managed to find my ask.fm well I deactivated it mainly because I don't really use it, but if you guys wanna contact me you can message me on twitter; which should also be up on the sidebar too.
Alright guys thanks for being so patient, and to those of you going to uni or school have an awesome academic year.
Lightning, butterflies and balls oh my!! (Minigames: FFX)
Ok so everyone who has played a game know what a minigame is. These are little games within the games, usually they take no longer than 20 minutes and are....alright.
Minigames range from really good to poor to awful to a nuisance. Case in point I've been playing Final Fantasy X....lots and lots of Final Fantasy X, and one of the things I love to be in RPGs is overpowered. That being said FFX has some of the most annoying minigames to complete in order to get the ultimate weapons. These include butterfly capturing, blitzball and dodging lightning 200 times (admittedly not exactly a minigame but a feature of the game in a specific area but still).
So how do these work.
Butterfly hunting: you need to get the 7 blue butterflies without bumping into the red butterflies under time conditions (roughly 30 seconds). Simple right? Well the added twist is that the red butterflies are nearly indistinguishable from the environment, to the point that you need to increase the brightness of the console you're playing on before attempting this. There's also very small room for error as these butterflies are quite difficult to dodge, oftentimes finding yourself surrounded by 2, 3 even 5 at one point. And the most evil butterfly of all is that one blue one that decides to sit right at the exit to the forest, go to far and you will exit the area thus resetting the minigame.
Blitzball: this is actually quite a big feature in the game. You have 6 players who play in a large sphere filled with water and from then it's basically football.....but with more tackling that can cause poison or sleep....I still don't get how you can punch someone and they fall asleep....doesn't that mean they need hospitalization? I just don't....anyway so the goal is well to make more goals than the opposing team. There are no fouls or extreme rules you just throw the ball from teammate to teammate, get it to Tidus (the main character) get him to use Jecht Shot next to the goal, repeat and voila, you win. The game itself isn't difficult...just irritating. You have to playthrough 3 league/tournaments to get a character's overdrives (ultimate attacks) and then you only have a 50% chance of getting the item you need to upgrade his ultimate weapon. The leagues take far too long being 10 rounds each, and it just ends up being a nuisance having to do this over and over and over again. The funny thing is, if you've beaten everyone (not that hard) and reach round 7 without losing then there is no team that can catch up to you points wise, so you could literally sit there and let them have goal after goal and still win the league.
Lightning dodging: this......this is just pure evil. The goal of the game is to press x when the screen flashes white. The times this happens in are random, the lightning comes within the same second as the flash and sometimes you get 2 in a row just coz why not? At least I don't need to do this crap 200 times right? ......right? .........damnit........It gets worse when you realise you can't save or exit the area because if you do the number of times you dodged gets reset. This means you need to dodge 200 lightning strikes in 1 sitting.....
...nope. I'm done. Who needs ultimate equipment? I'm fine with only dealing 9999 hp damage. Who needs that glorious 99,999 hp damage......*Sigh*
Alright well hope you guys have an awesome day, as for me? I'm going to grab some rubber shoes, a butterfly net and fill a dome with water. Gotta get that beautiful 99,999 hp damage.....some day you shall be mine
Minigames range from really good to poor to awful to a nuisance. Case in point I've been playing Final Fantasy X....lots and lots of Final Fantasy X, and one of the things I love to be in RPGs is overpowered. That being said FFX has some of the most annoying minigames to complete in order to get the ultimate weapons. These include butterfly capturing, blitzball and dodging lightning 200 times (admittedly not exactly a minigame but a feature of the game in a specific area but still).
So how do these work.
Butterfly hunting: you need to get the 7 blue butterflies without bumping into the red butterflies under time conditions (roughly 30 seconds). Simple right? Well the added twist is that the red butterflies are nearly indistinguishable from the environment, to the point that you need to increase the brightness of the console you're playing on before attempting this. There's also very small room for error as these butterflies are quite difficult to dodge, oftentimes finding yourself surrounded by 2, 3 even 5 at one point. And the most evil butterfly of all is that one blue one that decides to sit right at the exit to the forest, go to far and you will exit the area thus resetting the minigame.
Blitzball: this is actually quite a big feature in the game. You have 6 players who play in a large sphere filled with water and from then it's basically football.....but with more tackling that can cause poison or sleep....I still don't get how you can punch someone and they fall asleep....doesn't that mean they need hospitalization? I just don't....anyway so the goal is well to make more goals than the opposing team. There are no fouls or extreme rules you just throw the ball from teammate to teammate, get it to Tidus (the main character) get him to use Jecht Shot next to the goal, repeat and voila, you win. The game itself isn't difficult...just irritating. You have to playthrough 3 league/tournaments to get a character's overdrives (ultimate attacks) and then you only have a 50% chance of getting the item you need to upgrade his ultimate weapon. The leagues take far too long being 10 rounds each, and it just ends up being a nuisance having to do this over and over and over again. The funny thing is, if you've beaten everyone (not that hard) and reach round 7 without losing then there is no team that can catch up to you points wise, so you could literally sit there and let them have goal after goal and still win the league.
Lightning dodging: this......this is just pure evil. The goal of the game is to press x when the screen flashes white. The times this happens in are random, the lightning comes within the same second as the flash and sometimes you get 2 in a row just coz why not? At least I don't need to do this crap 200 times right? ......right? .........damnit........It gets worse when you realise you can't save or exit the area because if you do the number of times you dodged gets reset. This means you need to dodge 200 lightning strikes in 1 sitting.....
...nope. I'm done. Who needs ultimate equipment? I'm fine with only dealing 9999 hp damage. Who needs that glorious 99,999 hp damage......*Sigh*
Alright well hope you guys have an awesome day, as for me? I'm going to grab some rubber shoes, a butterfly net and fill a dome with water. Gotta get that beautiful 99,999 hp damage.....some day you shall be mine
Sunday, 16 August 2015
The Intruder
"She gazed at the world.
Its beauty. Its shape. It's intricate little details. Her mission was to reach for this other world....but she could not. All she could do was sit and pray for a miracle.....
"Nobody will answer....nobody will help...."
How long had it been? Months? Years? Centuries? Millenia?
No. She had observed this world, this happy world for as long as she can remember...and she was sick of it. Why did she not deserve happiness? Why was she locked in this dimension?
Her rage grew...it twisted her. Slowly what remained of her humanity was stripped from her..."
"She was human?" the apprentice asked.
"Yes child. She was a human," the old man rose and looked out the window before continuing with his story. "and she was a beautiful one at that. Her beauty was unparalleled, her heart could not be tamed, and her mind was one of he strongest I had ever known."
"Then....how sir? How could she, as a human, develop such hatred that it would transform her?" asked the female apprentice.
"She fell in love...."
"But sir...is love really that bad?" asked the first apprentice.
"No child.....but when you're a fool and damage those you love....then it's bad. For you see it was at that moment that her heart closed, her rage grew and the world could not contain it. She had to be restrained, and that's when her transformation began. Her emotions changed her. Her body could not contain the hatred or the anger she carried and slowly dissolved, leaving the darkness within."
"And this is the darkness plaguing mankind." a young man had appeared at the doorway, his attire immaculate and a cocky smirk on his face.
"So you made it to the class. Unfortunately you're not welcome." the old man turned to look at this intruder,
"Aw and I was looking forward to reuniting you with an old flame," a sword materialized into the young man's hand, as his eyes became as black as coal, his smirk grew to an evil grin and a dark aura surrounded him. He opened his mouth as if to speak and what came out chilled the apprentices' voices to the bone.
A cold, and yet beautiful voice, dripping with malicious intent.
"You've gotten old my love" the voice said.
"And you my darling, are the most beautiful creature that i'll ever have to kill" the old man said as he unsheathed his sword.
"And you my darling, are the most beautiful creature that i'll ever have to kill" the old man said as he unsheathed his sword.
Wednesday, 12 August 2015
Reality Check: Friendships
Hey guys and gals of the interwebs.
And that was my lamest intro ever.....joy.
So everyone has someone special in their lives. Be it a soulmate or a family member they hold dear. maybe a role model they look up to. Heck some people love themselves too much and become their own special one.
So I was going through some personal stuff a couple years back and honestly I had a lot of difficulty dealing with it, to the point that each day would be a struggle to get out of bed. So one day as I was working at the school library I met this random girl who was kinda weird and shy but friendly. Little did I know that that she would change my life completely for the better. She really helped me think more and be myself, and though honestly I probably don't show it, she helped me mature into a better person.
So a long time ago I was asked the following question: What to you is a friend?
I couldn't come up with an answer because at the time I felt genuinely alone. Heck to this day I dunno exactly what constitutes a friend. Is it most trustworthy? Most loyal? The one who would help me cover up a murder? I really dunno. I will say this though. My friend, lets call her E, is someone I trust, someone I adore and someone I would gladly throw myself in front of a speeding bus for. She helped me discover the value of friendship, and even though I still can't answer that question she's helped me draw some conclusions.
A friend isn't someone who always agrees with you or who hangs out with you, but one who listens and knows how to make you laugh, one who you can talk to after months and months of not talking as if it's only been a day; and to me friendship means family.
So on the day this post is being written on is actually E's birthday. So this post is mainly for her but also for all you readers out there so please raise your imaginary glasses for a toast:
E you're a truly amazing friend. I am who I am today because of you, I'm here because of you. You introduced me to a world where I wouldn't have to be ashamed of myself, you helped bring me out of my shell. Went along with some of my stupidity at times, to show me how much of an idiot I was being. Most of all you've always been there when it mattered. You're a very strong, independent and remarkable young woman and I know you'll go far in life, so keep being strong, keep being you, don't let anyone belittle or hurt you because you're worth so much more. You're a person who I know can make a huge change in the world and I'll always be here to protect you my dear friend whether it's from statues and mannequins or boos and sentient masks that bring destruction via the moon. So I wish you a very Happy Birthday. May the rest of your life bring you the happiness you very much deserve and may our friendship last until the end of time.
So guys comment below what a friend is to you.
And that was my lamest intro ever.....joy.
So everyone has someone special in their lives. Be it a soulmate or a family member they hold dear. maybe a role model they look up to. Heck some people love themselves too much and become their own special one.
So I was going through some personal stuff a couple years back and honestly I had a lot of difficulty dealing with it, to the point that each day would be a struggle to get out of bed. So one day as I was working at the school library I met this random girl who was kinda weird and shy but friendly. Little did I know that that she would change my life completely for the better. She really helped me think more and be myself, and though honestly I probably don't show it, she helped me mature into a better person.
So a long time ago I was asked the following question: What to you is a friend?
I couldn't come up with an answer because at the time I felt genuinely alone. Heck to this day I dunno exactly what constitutes a friend. Is it most trustworthy? Most loyal? The one who would help me cover up a murder? I really dunno. I will say this though. My friend, lets call her E, is someone I trust, someone I adore and someone I would gladly throw myself in front of a speeding bus for. She helped me discover the value of friendship, and even though I still can't answer that question she's helped me draw some conclusions.
A friend isn't someone who always agrees with you or who hangs out with you, but one who listens and knows how to make you laugh, one who you can talk to after months and months of not talking as if it's only been a day; and to me friendship means family.
So on the day this post is being written on is actually E's birthday. So this post is mainly for her but also for all you readers out there so please raise your imaginary glasses for a toast:
E you're a truly amazing friend. I am who I am today because of you, I'm here because of you. You introduced me to a world where I wouldn't have to be ashamed of myself, you helped bring me out of my shell. Went along with some of my stupidity at times, to show me how much of an idiot I was being. Most of all you've always been there when it mattered. You're a very strong, independent and remarkable young woman and I know you'll go far in life, so keep being strong, keep being you, don't let anyone belittle or hurt you because you're worth so much more. You're a person who I know can make a huge change in the world and I'll always be here to protect you my dear friend whether it's from statues and mannequins or boos and sentient masks that bring destruction via the moon. So I wish you a very Happy Birthday. May the rest of your life bring you the happiness you very much deserve and may our friendship last until the end of time.
So guys comment below what a friend is to you.
Updates! Huzzah!
Hey guys.
So I haven't uploaded anything lately. I'm sorry.
Basically I've been writing some reviews for games that are taking a little longer than I thought. I won't say which ones but one in particular is long.
I also am working on some new content and juggling that with trying to get a job. Student life truly is like a beach. Easy going and gentle, sometimes relaxing at first, then rough and unforgiving at night.
Anyway so this update is basically to apologise and to thank you guys for being patient with me.
Oh and I'm also working on another blog. It's not yet ready but it's underway. The content from this blog will all be moved there and this one will shut down. Don't worry i'll keep you guys updated as to when i'll actually move things over and when the new blog will be ready. It's going well so far and I'll probably get a Facebook page and the facebook commenting system ready there, so you guys can just use your facebook to comment or check things out.
Thank you all again for being so patient with me. I have another post coming up after this one and possibly a creative writing one a bit later on this week.
That's it for this update so until next time guys, keep that imagination flowing.
(Oh i may also be experimenting for intros and catchphrases.......yep proof on 12th of august at 1:33am that my jokes get lamer and lamer with each passing second)
So I haven't uploaded anything lately. I'm sorry.
Basically I've been writing some reviews for games that are taking a little longer than I thought. I won't say which ones but one in particular is long.
I also am working on some new content and juggling that with trying to get a job. Student life truly is like a beach. Easy going and gentle, sometimes relaxing at first, then rough and unforgiving at night.
Anyway so this update is basically to apologise and to thank you guys for being patient with me.
Oh and I'm also working on another blog. It's not yet ready but it's underway. The content from this blog will all be moved there and this one will shut down. Don't worry i'll keep you guys updated as to when i'll actually move things over and when the new blog will be ready. It's going well so far and I'll probably get a Facebook page and the facebook commenting system ready there, so you guys can just use your facebook to comment or check things out.
Thank you all again for being so patient with me. I have another post coming up after this one and possibly a creative writing one a bit later on this week.
That's it for this update so until next time guys, keep that imagination flowing.
(Oh i may also be experimenting for intros and catchphrases.......yep proof on 12th of august at 1:33am that my jokes get lamer and lamer with each passing second)
Saturday, 25 July 2015
ID Crisis
Ok so this is gonna be my first review....and unfortunately it's not a good one. A while back I had my passport renewed. Why? Because I'd like to visit my family for a month or so who don't live in the UK. 2 weeks later hooray my passport is on it's way......enter DX delivery.
DX delivery is a company much like Royal Mail or FedEx and apparently it's also the government's choice of courier when delivering important mail......like my passport. My passport was meant to arrive in 14 days, I got it 21 days later and here's why. There was a problem at the delivery site (my girlfriend's brother didn't know my name so denied the courier access to the building), fine it just means that i'd ask for a re-delivery. So I text them to redeliver it and 2 days later sure enough....they don't. I'm just sitting here doubting whether I sent the message even though it does say it was sent. So I decide hey let's call these guys and see what the hell is going on.
Apparently I was supposed to call them even though on the calling card they leave it doesn't state anywhere that calling is mandatory for those expecting passports. What am I supposed to do, sit here and guess what they want? Or do they expect me to somehow know their policies off by heart when i've never used this courier before. So I call them and arrange the re-delivery.
It arrives at my girlfriend's house again and NOBODY told me that I was supposed to stand there with my ID (which by the way is my passport), and claim it. This was never mentioned. So I had to arrange for yet another re-delivery, to which I was told that I would need to pay for it. I accepted it, fine, I don't have money but whatever, I need my passport. Before hanging up I warned the company that this was my last time being able to go to that specific place because I had no money for another trip. So I use the last of my money to go to my girlfriend's place. Here's where shit gets fun. After using the rest of my money (and consequently starving for the next week or two) the courier NEVER CAME. I went there at roughly 11:30am and the courier claimed to have arrived at the house at 12:20pm.
This is utter bull because 2 other companies arrived each with packages and we heard them perfectly since the room we were sitting in was situated above the door to the building and they need to buzz to be let in. This means the courier LIED about coming to the building, skipped the building entirely and then I had to arrange yet another re-delivery whilst having no money. I told them for a SECOND TIME that I had no money yet hey they don't give two shits; (we also discovered that there was a way to get the re-delivery for free so another lie) so I told them to give me their address. Might as well pick it the hell up.
That's when I made a wonderful discovery. Their depot was a little over an hour away with 3 bus rides and a 12 minute walk. In other words, it was in the middle of bloody nowhere. So Cynthia and I went to this place. The two buses were fine. The third bus wasn't part of a London route and we didn't have enough cash to go on it, so instead we walked.....and walked.....and walked....
....and walked.....
......still walking....
....oh you want me to get to the point? It was a 50 minute walk, crossing the motorway, in blistering heat (the one time it's actually sunny in London), and when we finally got to the complex we found that it was situated near a waste disposal building. The place smelt of burnt rubbish; and when we did get to the building the employee was a little rude.
We managed to actually get my passport and I walked away without hulking out. Hell I don't even want my passport renewed in the UK anymore. If i'm getting it renewed i'm going to Cyprus and doing it via the British Embassy. I can't trust a company whose couriers lie and they give only half the information they're supposed to. The customer service is terrible and the stupid policy of: "we can only re-deliver to the first address given to us". If they had just delivered to my place when I asked them to, all of this could be avoided. I even have a list of messages after their courier lied saying that they attempted re-delivery and left a calling card. So Cynthia should have 8 calling cards, but well either she's blind or they're invisible to the human eye.
DX delivery sum up:
- Lying couriers
- Unhelpful customer service
- Information not given
- Multi-dimensional calling cards that are invisible to the human eye
- Unsympathetic employees
- Terrible depot location
- Policy whose existance causes problems
Rating: 3/10
Would I use this service again: Hell no.
DX delivery is a company much like Royal Mail or FedEx and apparently it's also the government's choice of courier when delivering important mail......like my passport. My passport was meant to arrive in 14 days, I got it 21 days later and here's why. There was a problem at the delivery site (my girlfriend's brother didn't know my name so denied the courier access to the building), fine it just means that i'd ask for a re-delivery. So I text them to redeliver it and 2 days later sure enough....they don't. I'm just sitting here doubting whether I sent the message even though it does say it was sent. So I decide hey let's call these guys and see what the hell is going on.
Apparently I was supposed to call them even though on the calling card they leave it doesn't state anywhere that calling is mandatory for those expecting passports. What am I supposed to do, sit here and guess what they want? Or do they expect me to somehow know their policies off by heart when i've never used this courier before. So I call them and arrange the re-delivery.
It arrives at my girlfriend's house again and NOBODY told me that I was supposed to stand there with my ID (which by the way is my passport), and claim it. This was never mentioned. So I had to arrange for yet another re-delivery, to which I was told that I would need to pay for it. I accepted it, fine, I don't have money but whatever, I need my passport. Before hanging up I warned the company that this was my last time being able to go to that specific place because I had no money for another trip. So I use the last of my money to go to my girlfriend's place. Here's where shit gets fun. After using the rest of my money (and consequently starving for the next week or two) the courier NEVER CAME. I went there at roughly 11:30am and the courier claimed to have arrived at the house at 12:20pm.
This is utter bull because 2 other companies arrived each with packages and we heard them perfectly since the room we were sitting in was situated above the door to the building and they need to buzz to be let in. This means the courier LIED about coming to the building, skipped the building entirely and then I had to arrange yet another re-delivery whilst having no money. I told them for a SECOND TIME that I had no money yet hey they don't give two shits; (we also discovered that there was a way to get the re-delivery for free so another lie) so I told them to give me their address. Might as well pick it the hell up.
That's when I made a wonderful discovery. Their depot was a little over an hour away with 3 bus rides and a 12 minute walk. In other words, it was in the middle of bloody nowhere. So Cynthia and I went to this place. The two buses were fine. The third bus wasn't part of a London route and we didn't have enough cash to go on it, so instead we walked.....and walked.....and walked....
....and walked.....
......still walking....
....oh you want me to get to the point? It was a 50 minute walk, crossing the motorway, in blistering heat (the one time it's actually sunny in London), and when we finally got to the complex we found that it was situated near a waste disposal building. The place smelt of burnt rubbish; and when we did get to the building the employee was a little rude.
We managed to actually get my passport and I walked away without hulking out. Hell I don't even want my passport renewed in the UK anymore. If i'm getting it renewed i'm going to Cyprus and doing it via the British Embassy. I can't trust a company whose couriers lie and they give only half the information they're supposed to. The customer service is terrible and the stupid policy of: "we can only re-deliver to the first address given to us". If they had just delivered to my place when I asked them to, all of this could be avoided. I even have a list of messages after their courier lied saying that they attempted re-delivery and left a calling card. So Cynthia should have 8 calling cards, but well either she's blind or they're invisible to the human eye.
DX delivery sum up:
- Lying couriers
- Unhelpful customer service
- Information not given
- Multi-dimensional calling cards that are invisible to the human eye
- Unsympathetic employees
- Terrible depot location
- Policy whose existance causes problems
Rating: 3/10
Would I use this service again: Hell no.
Monday, 20 July 2015
Satoru Iwata
Alright so my first gaming post is admittedly a sad one. Originally I was going to review Final Fantasy 9 but well.....life. Speaking of which a great man has passed away 8 days ago (yes i'm late with this but like I said....life) Satoru Iwata was the president and CEO of Nintendo and died at the age of 55 to Bile Duct Growth. It's heartbreaking to see him go honestly.
For those of you who don't know, i'm a huge Nintendo fan. Nothing passes the day better than sitting down with my 3DS while Youtube is playing in the background; so Mr. Iwata's death comes as quite a shock to me.
From a young age Mr. Iwata was a huge video game fan, he loved them to their core and this pushed him to become a games developer and very talented programmer, although against his parents wishes.
Some of Satoru Iwata's accomplishments include:
For those of you who don't know, i'm a huge Nintendo fan. Nothing passes the day better than sitting down with my 3DS while Youtube is playing in the background; so Mr. Iwata's death comes as quite a shock to me.
From a young age Mr. Iwata was a huge video game fan, he loved them to their core and this pushed him to become a games developer and very talented programmer, although against his parents wishes.
Some of Satoru Iwata's accomplishments include:
- Saving HAL Laboratory from bankruptcy by creating a relationship with Nintendo
- He took a month to complete a project (Mother/Earthbound) which would have originally taken 2 years.
- He also had a huge involvement in Kirby's Dream Land.
- Assisted in founding Creatures Inc.
- Coded 64 battles in a week for Pokemon Stadium for the Nintendo 64 shocking the Pokemon programmer Shigeki Morimoto
- Savior of Pokemon Gold/Silver by creating a graphics compression tool to fit the Kanto region into the games
- He became the head of the corporate planning division at Nintendo
- Assisted in ncreasing Nintendo's profits from 20% to 41%
- Iwata became the fourth president of Nintendo and the first to not be a family relative to the founders of Nintendo.
- Worked on popular titles such as Legend of Zelda, Mario and Animal Crossing
- Assisted in the debugging of Super Smash bros. melee in time for it's scheduled release date
- Fostered a relationship with Capcom
- Lead the company to the creation of the Nintendo DS as well as pushing for the development of the Nintendo Wii
- Doubled Nintendo's stocks by the development of the aforementioned hardware
- Improved public relations with Nintendo's fans
- Took the role of Nintendo of America's CEO
- Established a partnership with mobile provider DeNA
Although his accomplishments are many there is one thing that truly stands out for this man. He is a true gamer at heart and shall live on in not only our hearts but in the hearts of those the games he assisted on touched as well. Personally without Satoru Iwata I don't know how I would have managed to cope with society, this man has managed to bring people together simply by loving video games and by being passionate in what he believed in. So please join me in saying farewell to a man who helped revolutionising the world of gaming. May you rest in peace.
Thank you and blog updates
Hey guys so I just wanted to say a quick thank you for coming to this blog and for your feedback. It's always awesome to see people give opinions whether good or bad. I hope my posts spark some interesting conversations and maybe change a life or two to the better. Anyway the blog will now include some extra posts for different content.
Creative Writing: This will include all the content from before such as Idol, Loneliness and Perfectly Imperfect. The blog will always be focused on the creative writing aspect as it's about expressing feelings, thoughts and inspiring creation.
Gaming: So most of my friends know this about me: I LOVE VIDEO GAMES. I'm a huge nintendo nerd to the point that I have 2 of most handheld nintendo consoles. So here I thought i'd write about my gaming experiences and maybe some live updates from games i'm currently playing.
Lifestyle: Ok this one is basically more about observation or personal opinions on things. It differs from Creative Writing in that this is where debates will hopefully form. In this section i'll talk about any issues in today's world or about anything i'd like to give my general thoughts on. This differs in that it will be purely factual and in some cases serious.
Reviews: Ok not gonna lie I have no clue what i'm gonna do here. I thought I might review some places I go to or books i've read. This'll be completely random until I makeup my mind really.
Schedule: This isn't a section yet but I'll have it up there at some point. So far each column will be updated whenever possible or if I have content to be put there but so far there will be no set schedule as to when the new posts will occur.
Updates: This section will be to inform you, the readers, to changes that will happen within the blog.
Again thank you for reading and please bear with me a little while longer as I get things more organised.
The next (and first) gaming post should be up by tomorrow (i'm writing it just after finishing this).
Have a nice day guys :)
Creative Writing: This will include all the content from before such as Idol, Loneliness and Perfectly Imperfect. The blog will always be focused on the creative writing aspect as it's about expressing feelings, thoughts and inspiring creation.
Gaming: So most of my friends know this about me: I LOVE VIDEO GAMES. I'm a huge nintendo nerd to the point that I have 2 of most handheld nintendo consoles. So here I thought i'd write about my gaming experiences and maybe some live updates from games i'm currently playing.
Lifestyle: Ok this one is basically more about observation or personal opinions on things. It differs from Creative Writing in that this is where debates will hopefully form. In this section i'll talk about any issues in today's world or about anything i'd like to give my general thoughts on. This differs in that it will be purely factual and in some cases serious.
Reviews: Ok not gonna lie I have no clue what i'm gonna do here. I thought I might review some places I go to or books i've read. This'll be completely random until I makeup my mind really.
Schedule: This isn't a section yet but I'll have it up there at some point. So far each column will be updated whenever possible or if I have content to be put there but so far there will be no set schedule as to when the new posts will occur.
Updates: This section will be to inform you, the readers, to changes that will happen within the blog.
Again thank you for reading and please bear with me a little while longer as I get things more organised.
The next (and first) gaming post should be up by tomorrow (i'm writing it just after finishing this).
Have a nice day guys :)
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