'I can travel no further. You will find what you seek ahead.'

In a last ditch effort to escape his attackers Gabriel charges the wargs. His ephemeral stead dissipating as he leaps the ravine. He hurtles through the air and with a bone crunching thud he lands, living to fight another day.

A screenshot from the (very intense) opening level of Castlevania Lord of Shadows:

I've got a few ideas that might work as potential bounties/discussions.

1. Your no.1 peripheral to assist streaming and how/why you implemented it for your stream. (no doubt 90% would be stream deck, but I live for the rogue choices.)

2. Share your most successful stream formats. What works for you, what doesn't and why? (Are you a just chatting creator, gaming, arts/crafts, other? Have you dabbled in other areas and do those streams do better/worse?)

3. Sponsors. How do you go about reaching out to sponsors and what has given you the most success when reaching out to them? (Contacting via social media or sending detailed info about yourself to influencer marketing emails etc.)

My number one tip for managing a content creation lifestyle is meal prep. Now it sounds absurd I know, but if like me you spend all day every day juggling a job, content creation, relationships and hobbies, it pays to be prepped.

I spend most Saturday mornings blitzing through a meal prep for the week so that I have quick lunches that I can have hot or cold, on the go or at home. It saves so much time and means I can often focus at the task in hand, rather than having to break concentration or my creative flow to stop and cook for half an hour.

Loving exploring the rooftops of Baghdad. The golden sun set against the dusty, muted buildings makes for some spectacularly moody screenshots.

Short and sweet written entry? I can do that.

My content creation hero is none other than my partner, the wonderful 'EmmaLilico'.

I appreciate this feels like a cop-out and probably just a plug for my girlfriend, but she genuinely is incredible. She works harder than anyone I know and never complains about it. Alongside being the social media co-ordinator for both the EGX and MCM ComiCon, she still finds the time to put out her own streams 2-3 times a week, edit videos in both long form and short form formats for her youtube and TikTok channels AND put up with my shenanigans...

She really is one of a kind and, bias aside, is a dedicated content creator that strives to provide a safe space for her community whilst still putting out content across multiple social channels.

For those of you that want to support her, her socials are below.

Intro:

I’ve been umming and ahhing over the last couple of days as to which of the many RPGs i’ve dedicated my life to playing that I’d like to review first on Just About. From my love of mmorpgs in Jagex’s flagship franchise ‘Runescape’ dating as far back as 2003, to the recently released hit ‘Baldur’s gate 3’ it’s safe to say i’m a bit of a fan of the RPG genre. It would be quite easy for me to pick and write about one of the more popular games under the RPG umbrella as being my favourite, but for me, the game that has  really cemented itself as my favourite over the years and earned it’s place atop my RPG list is Monster Hunter: World.

Monster Hunter: World (MHW) is an ARPG (action role-playing game) developed and published by game giant Capcom and is considered the 5th main-line game in the series.

As with most RPGs, MHW is INCREDIBLY complex, with a huge array of ways to spec out your character to suit your playstyle. I’ll try my best to keep this review as brief as possible as there’s genuinely so much to his game that I could quite comfortably write a five thousand word essay and still miss things out...

Anyone who’s played any of the MH games knows that they’re a mixed bag. Some are quite easy and focus more on the story, whilst some are really intense and revolve almost entirely around combat and gear progression. MHW definitely falls into the latter of those two camps, taking the difficulty up a notch on it’s predecessor ‘MH Generations: Ultimate.’

MHW is not for the faint of heart and from the very outset you’ll be thrown into hunts that involve either trapping, or killing, deadly prey.

The core gameplay loop of any MH title is essentially; receive target, hunt target, kill/capture target, turn in target for a reward, upgrade gear with bits of said monster, repeat. Despite this seeming quite repetitive, there’s a HUGE variety of monsters that all have different attacks, movement patterns, health pools, defences and migration patterns. There’s a lot of skill that goes into being an effective hunter, but I’d break down MHW into two major skill groups.

Firstly, combat. What can I say? It’s fast, It’s fluid, it’s FUN! The game offers fourteen different weapons, all with multiple playstyles. For each weapon category there’s loads of different variations of that weapon, again, all that do different things. Want to fire poison arrows from a giant bow constructed of monster carapace? YOU CAN! Want to swing dual blades around in a fiery inferno, burning everything in sight? YOU CAN! Want to… well… you get the point. There’s a lot to it. But what makes it so fun is the ability to tailor it to your specific tastes based on what you feel suits you. If you want to master all of the weapons that MHW has to offer then you’re in for a long ride, but as a die-hard player I’ve managed to try all of them at one point or another and there’s not a single one that doesn’t carry its weight.

Secondly. Armour. Every good hunter needs a strong set of armour and MHW does not disappoint. For every monster in the game there are multiple sets of armour that again, all do different things. The skill in armour crafting is working out what armour perks compliment the weapons you’re currently using (and bloody hell is there a lot of them). There’s perks to let you run longer, there’s perks to let you resist elemental damage, heck, there’s even perks that let you drink potions faster! Every one has it’s place in the game and i’ve experimented with most in some way or another. Capcom did an incredible job with the armour models in MHW and frankly, who doesn’t love a game where you get to run around wearing the hide of your conquests as a trophy? I mean… just LOOK at these!

Unfortunately for all that it does right, I do still have a few gripes with MHW. Chiefly that some gear is still locked behind fetch quests… I mean, come on Capcom, nobody enjoys fetch quests… Especially when they take so long because giant dragon eggs weigh one hundred pounds and mama dragon is chasing you for pilfering them!

"From across the ruined earth they came, seeking shelter from the storm."

In recent years a darkness has fallen over Earth and battle fleets from across the galaxy have converged above the Last City. A bastion of hope for all races of the galaxy, ready to the make their final stand against the encroaching evil.

I've only ever played a handful of AC titles. AC, AC2 and Brotherhood. I loved all of them, but they all felt incredibly repetitive. The games were, I felt, almost identical in their playstyle. The storylines varied slightly, but I could never bring myself to buy any of the games outside of those listed as I feared it may well have just ended up as another cut and paste job.

A few have peaked my interest over the years. (Namely Black Flag and Valhalla) But only because I'm a sucker for Pirates and Norse folklore, not because the franchise holds any particular draw for me.

I've watched the trailers and a few early access gameplay runs and must admit that Mirage does look enticing. Reviews are mostly positive and the graphics do look spectacular. I'm keen to watch more let's plays etc. before I commit to purchasing it myself, but from an initial look, this might be my first AC title purchase in quite some time if it lives up to the hype.

Christmas day 2000. A 5 year old boy rises from his slumber, unknowingly about to change the course of his life forever. Beneath all the sparkles and garish tinsel, a holy grail laid in wait. A grail so mighty that it would shape the man he became today...

WHO'S THAT POKEMON!?

IT'S POKEMON YELLOW!

I think you'd struggle to find any child born in the 80s and 90s who's not played some iteration of Pokémon at some point or another. But for me, my first foray into the magical world of Pokémon was Yellow version.

At this stage in my life, as sad as it is to admit (rapidly approaching 30) I've played almost every main-game franchise Pokémon game that Nintendo has to offer and a fair few of the spin-offs. But for me, nothing quite beats the first game I ever got my grubby little mitts on. Pokémon Yellow version. At the time I'd never owned a games console before and I was fortunate enough that my parents had managed to source me not only Pokémon Yellow, but also a particularly unsightly matching lemon-yellow Game Boy Color. - AND I LOVED IT.

5 Year old me was sadly not a gifted academic and rather unceremoniously hammered in my name when prompted by Prof. Oak... 'AAAAAAAA' and I was all set. I picked up my pal Pikachu, set foot into the world of Pokémon and never looked back.

To this day, over two decades later, I'm still in love with the franchise. As many rightfully are. There's been TV shows, Movies, Spin-Off games, a HUGELY successful trading card game (that I also collect and if you ask my partner, waste too much money on.) and much, much more. But to me, nothing quite beats the the memory of that first morning, ripping through the glitzy red paper to the prize within. The memory of Pokémon Yellow.

The game had story and intrigue a plenty and I don't mind admitting that even as a child I was addicted. The jolly chip-tune music as I ventured from town to town that I can still hear in my head so clearly to this day. The annoying rival (also named AAAAAAAA) that would crop up at the most inconvenient moments. The plethora of wild and whacky Pokémon to catch and call my own.

I'd wager that almost all of you reading this have played a 'Gen 1' Pokémon game at this point in your lives, but for any that haven't, if you ever get the opportunity I'd HIGHLY recommend it.