With that out of the way, I have always wanted to write down what my favourite things were of the month and let people know, weather it would be through a blog post like this or through video form. So, since I have gotten my organisational skills together and have actually managed to write down what I did this January, the time has finally come for me to list my favourites (even though we are almost halfway through February...oops) . I am hoping that my organisational skills last through out the year so I can have a whole "2019 Favourites" series thing going on throughout my blog. Without further ado, here are my favourites from January 2019:
Games
Life is Strange
The Sims 4: Expansion Packs
January means that you are left with a lot of Christmas money from relatives who had no idea what to buy you and a lot of sales going on in shops. So I decided to take advantage of this and bought a lot of expansion packs for the Sims 4 (which I should state, I already owned the Sims 4 before then, along with the City Living and the Cats and Dogs expansion packs). Below are listed the packs that I bought:
- The Sims 4: Get Famous
- The Sims 4: Get Together
- The Sims 4: Seasons
- The Sims 4: Get to Work
- The Sims 4: Outdoor Retreat
- The Sims 4: Spooky Stuff
- The Sims 4: Cool Kitchen Stuff
It should be stated that I bought Outdoor Retreat, Spooky Stuff and Cool Kitchen Stuff together as a bundle, since I've wanted Outdoor Retreat for quite sometime and I thought that it was much better value to purchase it as part of a bundle with the two stuff packs rather than buy it separately.
I do not regret spending this much money on these virtual beings, I really love the expansion packs and I feel like it has really enhanced my game play experience when playing the Sims.
Out of all the packs I have bought this January, I have to say that Get to Work is my personal favourite. I think it totally expands on the career options that you have and I love going to work with my Sims and actually experiencing what their day is like. It gives me more motivation to make sure they work really hard to get a promotion rather than doing their set task and then fast forwarding while they are at work hoping for the best.
Seasons was a huge surprise to me since many people said to me that Seasons was the weakest out of the six main expansion packs. I love how each of the seasons look and how it makes gardening for your sims a little more challenging than it was in the main game. The calendar feature is really cool too, as I can actually see when my Sims are going to age up and I can plan events in advance. The only let down would be that Weddings still start as soon as you pick the venue for the event, which it would be nice to be able to plan in advance like you can with birthday parties, but other than that I love this expansion pack. I enjoy the holidays themselves in the seasons expansion packs. Winterfest and New Years Eve are my personal favourites of the holidays that are already put in the game, but you are also able to put in your own custom holiday. Since I bought the Spooky Stuff pack and wanted to see all the stuff that came with that, I put a Halloween holiday in Autumn and the amount of options you were given were great!
I can do a full review on each of the Sims 4 expansion packs if that is of interest to anyone, but these are just my thoughts and the particular favourites I had.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Obviously there was the huge hype over Super Smash Bros at the end of 2018 with it coming out in December. I finally was given the chance to play it during January before I moved back to Uni and I really enjoyed what I have played of it so far.
I personally do not own a copy (poor student issues) but I did play the multiplayer mode with my brother which I really enjoyed. There is such a huge character selection that I had no idea who to play as, I still haven't managed to play as everyone yet. I'd say so far my favourite has to be Shiek, but Shiek has been my general go-to character to play as since she was first introduced as a character to play as in the first place. One of the new characters I loved playing as was Chrom from the Fire Emblem series, but I think I have a slight bias since I won the last match of a game once as Chrom.
I haven't played any Smash outside of the multiplayer mode, so I cannot really comment on the other features yet, but I am looking forward to playing around with it when I get my own copy of the game.
Villainous
This game really took me by surprise. It was something my brother got for Christmas, and I do have to admit that in my first game I was very intimidated by it. I only managed to play two games before I moved back to uni, but I loved what I did manage to play of it.
The basic concept of the game is that you play as a Disney Villain and there is an objective you have to reach in order to win the game. There can be up to six players, with options of Jafar, Maleficent, Ursula, Captain Hook, the Queen of Hearts and Prince John. There is a catch that the other players can pick heroes that can make your goal a lot harder to reach, but makes the game much more interesting.
Although the game sounds very complicated, and I really enjoyed the games I have played so far. The first time I played I was Maleficent, and I think her goal was to finish a turn with four curses on each of her spaces. I almost managed to win this game, but then when the other players realised how close I was to winning, they put all sorts in my way, and I ended up not winning.
The second time I played this game I played as Captain Hook, and the goal was to defeat Peter Pan at the Jolly Roger. I enjoyed this game significantly more since I won, but I did enjoy the challenge of playing as Captain Hook.
I love that everyone in the game is aiming for something different, I cannot remember each of the characters goals, but I think Prince John had to finish a turn with 30 coins, Jafar had to get the magic lamp and defeat the genie and Ursula needed to get the trident and defeat King Trident. The game can get very confusing if you are not paying attention, so you need to look closely at each of the players to see what they are doing and you have to try and guess their next move.
Additionally, I love where the game could go from what it is now. Apparently there have been talks of making additional game packs with other Disney Villains, adding to the ones already available. The possibilities are endless, they could have Scar from the Lion King, the Horned King from the Black Cauldron, even Mother Gothel from Tangled. This game is very enjoyable and I feel like it has great replay value to have a go at each character and to try an succeed in reaching their goals.
Books
Hunted by Meagan Spooner
So I read two books in January, the other book I liked but wasn't something that I would say makes my favourites list, however I did really enjoy reading Hunted. I really liked how it was a retelling but tried to be different to the story that we already know. Yeva used to go hunting with her father in the wood as a child, but then when she grows up, she stops since it is something that a young lady shouldn't do. When their father is forced to sell his home and move to his hunting cottage with his three children, Yeva begins hunting again. Her father goes missing and Yeva goes into the forest to see what has happened to him, which is where she encountered the Beast.
I liked how the relationship built up between Yeva and the Beast, but overall I was not a huge fan of the romance as I felt like that element of the relationship was very rushed into the story. It was great that you could see that they began to understand each other, and a sort of friendship formed between them.
It was a fun book to read, not the best but every book has its flaws and I personally really enjoyed reading this book. It was a very easy to get through and took me three days to finish. I'd say if you were looking for a more romantic book or a book with intensive world building, then this book may not be for you since as mentioned before, the romance feels very rushed, and there is little to no world building in the book.
Movies
Mary Poppins Returns
I went to go and see Mary Poppins Returns, and I absolutely loved it! It made me feel very nostalgic for the original movie! I know quite a few people came out of the film thinking that the entire movie was completely pointless, especially because of the cartoon section in the middle of the movie (which if you say this about Mary Poppins Returns, you should say the same about the original movie since it followed a similar structure).
I've always loved Mary Poppins as a character, and I really looked up to the Julie Andrews version as a child. And don't get me wrong, Julie Andrews is absolutely fabulous as Mary Poppins, but Emily Blunt was absolutely fabulous in the role! Her vocals really suited the role, I was a little fearful since watching the Into the Woods movie, although her acting in that movie was very good, I was not a huge fan of the vocal performance. I absolutely loved Mary's wardrobe in this movie too! She looked fantastic! I initially thought that it would be a little weird watching Mary Poppins and not having Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Obviously the other characters had aged up so it was probably going to be believable that they were the same characters from the original movie, and with Bert being written out of the movie completely. But I feel like it was a very seamless transition with the new incarnation of Mary Poppins, with her new and still youthful appearance given a nod to with a "never ask a lady her age" joke.
I was very surprised to see the Dick Van Dyke appearance, I avoided any trailers so I have no idea if this was announced previously, but it was a lovely callback to the first movie and I cannot believe that he can still dance around at his age! It would have been lovely to see Julie Andrews have a similar cameo in the movie, but when reading up on interviews I completely understand her reasoning behind not appearing in the movie and respect her for it. It was lovely to see Angela Lansbury appear in the movie.
Mary Poppins Returns is a lovely family movie, which is appropriate for all to watch. I felt like it took a much more serious tone than the original movie, but it is still the same story that we all know and love.
Gypsy
I came across the musical Gypsy a few years ago when I was still in school, but had no idea what it was about. In the 2018 Christmas season, I bought this for my mum and we watched it together. I may be biased, since I love anything written by Stephen Sondheim, but I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was the version staring Imelda Staunton, and was a filmed and edited version of a live performance, so I felt hesitant categorising it under the movie category, but I think I will leave it since we did watch it on DVD so that counts right?
The story is basically about a mother and two daughters. The daughters were an act and the mother wanted to them to be stars. Eventually when they grow up, the star of the act runs away to get married, and the other daughter becomes a strip tease artist.
It was not the story that I was expecing before I watched the movie, but the music and the songs are brilliant and help move the story along. I think it especially works since they transition between performing shows and then naturalism, and the music changes between the situations, weather on stage or "onstage".
I feel like this is a great musical for Sondheim fans if you have somehow missed it, but also for anyone who is looking for a female focused show. The show has so many women in the spotlight and they are all great characters that are not your usual 2 dimensional princesses that you may come across on stage.
Shows
The Guy who didn't like Musicals
So I watched this on Christmas eve 2018 when it originally came out, but I also watched it multiple times since then and managed to convince my flat mates to watch it, so it felt wrong to not include this show on my January Favourites list. This show is unlike anything I have ever seen.
I feel like a huge flaw with it is the fact that the main character does not have a song of his own, but at the same time this is a huge reason why I love this show. There isn't another show that I am aware of where the main character does not have at least one solo. It feels very Alice in Wonderland esque since there are a lot of characters that we are introduced to that go away after one or two scenes, and we stay with the same main character through out.
As a Team Starkid fan, I can say that this has easily become one of my favourite Starkid musicals and may be one of my favourite musicals ever. The music is amazing and is integrated into the script really well, and the acting and singing from the actors in the show is outstanding.
I don't really want to go into too much here, but the whole musical is available on YouTube for free if you want to watch it.
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror show is currently on a tour around the UK, and I went to see it at the Manchester Opera House with my friend for his 20th Birthday, and the whole experience was not anything like I was expecting.
I knew that people dressed up to go to see the show, but I had no idea that people shouted during the performance. I was really thrown at first because I was not sure if it was supposed to happen or if it was just a really drunk person shouting at the actors on stage, therefore I was not sure if I was supposed to laugh or be really angry with them. As it got further through the performance, I realised that this was just a thing that happened during Rocky Horror.
The actors were fantastic, I had no idea how they were ale to keep a straight face with some of the things that the audience were shouting at the stage. I loved the choreography in this show too, even though there were such iconic songs in this show, the choreography was unlike anything that I have ever seen before.
This was one of my favourite how experiences, the show itself was very good, but there was also just a general feel good atmosphere in the theatre, which is a feeling I have never really experienced before in a live theatre performance.
Music
The Guy who didn't like Musicals
This links back to the section above. I really enjoyed the music in The Guy who didn't like Musicals, and bought the soundtrack. There isn't really much I can say here that I didn't really say in the section above, but all I can say is that this is a really high quality cast recording and sounds absolutely fantastic, whether you are playing this through your phone, headphones, laptop or speaker. Plus buying the album is supporting Team Starkid so they have money to put towards putting on their next production.
Six: The Musical
I recently discovered this musical when listening to recommended music on Spotify, and I fell in love with it instantly. I think that musicals based on our history is a brilliant idea - especially seeing the huge success of Hamilton - and it really gets young people interested in the stories of the past.
How many of us have sat through history class with the whole "Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced Beheaded, Survived" thing going on. I know that during history I didn't really think that these women had much of a personality, I just thought they all got married to the King to become Queen, and were all pretty much okay with it when the King divorced them or wanted to move on. I always felt odd assuming this, but this type of thinking is what my early history classes encouraged.
This musical - although not the most historically accurate (but then again what musical is? Look at Anastasia, that entire story is pretty much fictional) I think that the fact that this show depicts Henry VIII's wives with personalities and allows them to explain their own stories rather than the musical explaining it from Henry's point of view is very refreshing and important, especially for women of that time.
I also love how every Queen's song is clearly written in the style of a female singer, just adding to the reasons why I love this soundtrack. The album is available on Spotify or available on Youtube to listen to. It is truly incredible.
Company
Just to make this clear, this is not the Company 2018 cast recording (although a post about that may be appearing in the not so distant future...stay tuned!!) Before going back to University, I was advised to listen and watch a version of Company by Stephen Sondheim as we would be looking at some of his works in the next term at University (particularly the opening number).
I did listen to the Company soundtrack before January 2019, but I was very confused with what was going on and was not a huge fan of the album. However, after doing some research and understanding that it was a concept musical and what it was about, the songs grew on me and I eventually ended up enjoying listening to it.
Particular favourites on the soundtrack for me was Another Hundred People and the famous song Being Alive, but I do also enjoy the other songs on the album. I do wish that this was something that I had watched first to understand what was going on before listening to the soundtrack, but I do love the songs in this musical now, and that is the important thing!
The Greatest Showman: Re-imagined
The Greatest Showman had some lovely songs in it anyway, but I love this new version of the soundtrack. The songs feel fresh and new and I love the way that this new album sounds! Its definitely one that I have listened to a lot while writing blog posts!
She used to be mine (from the musical Waitress)
I have not watched or listened to the entire soundtrack of Waitress, but I was recommended to add this song to my rep book by one of my friends since she thought that it would really suit my voice, which lead me to listening to this song. And I fell in love.
This song is such an emotional song to sing and to listen to. I don't know much about the context since I want to see Waitress before I know the details about the story, but I beliee that in this song its about an abused woman in her 30's who is pregnant, and this song sounds as though it comes at a point where this character is at her lowest point and is singing about how things used to be.
I may be completely wrong, but this it how I interpret the song as someone who has never seen or heard any of the other songs from Waitress. The song is absolutely beautiful and has easily become one of my favourite songs that I have added to my rep book.
So there you have it, here are my favourites for January 2019. I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed writing about these things and experiencing them during the month. Did you have any favourites in January? Let me know!
No comments:
Post a Comment