Wednesday Wish Lists - PS5 Edition

Okay, so it's no longer Wednesday, but better late than never! 😆 Plus it actually works out that I'm posting this today, because today marks the global release of Sony's newest console, the PlayStation 5! And I am proud to tell you that I was able to pre-order my own console, and I will (hopefully) be picking it up today, probably right around the time this post goes live.

That being said, I didn't pre-order any games to go with the PS5 (because the cost of the console itself was enough self-indulgence to last the next 10 years XD). Luckily I ordered the version of the console that includes a disc drive, and the system is backwards compatible, so it's capable of playing PS4 games. I don't actually own a PS4, but my ex does and I did buy one PS4 game for myself 2 years ago, so I'll still have something to play once I get this new console set up! That being said, a big chunk of items on my Christmas list this year will be games for the PS5, and I thought I'd have fun showing you all the top 5 PlayStation 5 games I'm hoping to receive - either under the Christmas tree or sometime in 2021, since not all of these titles will be out in time for the holiday season.

Game #5: Marvel's Avengers!

Fun Fact: I once cosplayed as Kamala Khan when attending the Marvel-themed Geek Girl Brunch event in Toronto back in 2015. Specifically, I wore the outfit pictured on issue #1 of Ms. Marvel that came out back in 2014. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my cosplay to show you, my bad everybody 😓

Honestly, this game wasn't even on my radar until a week or so before its release. A friend of mine told me about how excited he was to play it, and he actually stayed up until past midnight when it came out, both to play it as soon as possible and to stream himself playing it. When he told me about it, how there was an actual plot within the game, and that it starts off with Ms. Marvel essentially bringing the members of the Avengers back together, I immediately wanted to play. This iteration of Ms. Marvel, aka Kamala Khan, was the focus of the very first comic book I ever bought, and I absolutely adore her, both as a character and for the nostalgia factor.

Game #4: Cyberpunk 2077!

I'd heard about this game through my ex-boyfriend, who showed me one of the earliest teasers from the game years before any gameplay would be ready to be showcased to the public. I knew he was excited for the game, and that had me slightly excited by proximity. But I really started getting excited for this game leading up to and after E3 2019, where they showcased a trailer for the game, as well as revealed a particular celebrity who would be playing a character in the game. Because that moment at E3 2019 was too remarkable for words, I'll include the video below so you can see for yourself - maybe it won't feel as thrilling as it did while watching this streaming live from California, but maybe it will still get you hyped for this game.

Currently... Vol. 3

Howdy folks! Hope everybody's Tuesday is treating them well 😀 I know it's election day in the US right now, and I can imagine how tense everyone must be feeling. Doing something relaxing to get your mind off things might be just what the doctor ordered - maybe put on your favourite movie or TV show, curl up with your hot beverage of choice, and throw on some fuzzy socks, even if you live in the middle of the desert 😆

Thought it was about time to catch all of you up on what I've been up to lately! Most of these things relate to the past month, but there are a couple items from earlier in the year on this list as well.

"I want to be with someone who thinks I'm the one thing he can't live without. Plain and simple." 💖

Currently Feeling...

... Lonely. Maybe this seems like a weird thing to start off with, but I might as well get it out of the way. The gist of it is, my boyfriend of nearly 5 years broke up with me. I'm not going to go into detail about it or anything, but it's been quite the struggle. It's been close to 6 months since it happened, and I'm still adjusting to not having him in my life as much as he was before - we still have a weekly Pathfinder game together, so I talk to him over Discord at least once a week. Things are amicable, but it's still a big change, especially after 5 years. I've grown a lot through the process of this break-up, and I've learned that when I'm ready to get back out there again that my end goal is to be with someone who sees me as the one thing in their life they can't live without 😍 Here's hoping that's not an impossible goal XD

Currently Playing...

... World of Warcraft. Even before we received the huge pre-patch update, in preparation for the upcoming expansion, I've been hard at work in WoW, whether it's been trying to grind certain reputations while we had a 100% bonus on rep gains, or doing transmog runs with one of my best friends and my main WoW buddy. I'm planning on having 2 main characters once Shadowlands goes live - two Horde, which I already have at max level, and two Alliance characters that I'm in the process of levelling since the level squish went live. One for each Shadowlands covenant! 😈

... The Survivalists. This game had its official release early this month, but it's one that I've been looking forward to since I first heard about it. Made by the same team behind The Escapists and The Escapists 2, this game has you playing as some bloke stranded on a deserted island - well, not entirely deserted. Not only are there a bunch of angry orcs running around and a whole whack of animated skeletons within the island's ruins and labyrinths, but there are also monkeys! And once you either free or feed these monkeys, they become your indentured servants, helping you to build and craft and fight and do all of the heavy lifting you'd rather not bother yourself with. It's been incredibly fun, and I've already sunken

... Pikmin 3 Deluxe. Been looking forward to this ported game since the announcement trailer - which was perfectly timed btw, because just the day before I was talking to my friend about how we needed a Pikmin game on the Nintendo Switch. I'd only ever played the first Pikmin game, so the story of Pikmin 3 was entirely new to me. I also knew there would be additional pikmin outside of the original 3, but I didn't know exactly what they would be like until I unlocked them in the game. I had fun on the lowest difficulty level, and found the bosses to be challenging enough that it sometimes took me a couple attempts, but not so challenging that it discouraged me from playing. There's also a bunch of timed side missions you can play through, and each one is a little different to give the player some variety. I might try the next difficulty level up on my next playthrough.

... The Sims 4. There's a new expansion coming out the 2nd week of November, and I'm beyond excited! It will be introducing some bigger game updates such as Lifestyles and Sentiments that I'm looking forward to playing around with 😁 I've also gone back to dabbling with some of the challenges I was playing back in the day that I was posting and writing stories with on my Tumblr - mostly my Not So Berry challenge. With a lot of the new expansions that have come out since this challenge was originally created, there are a lot of fun new ways to play around within the parameters of the rules for each generation. I'm still on the Grey generation, just at the start technically (although Greyson has already nearly completed the athletic aspiration), but I get the feeling with all the failed relationships I need to check off the list, this gen is going to be a long one XD

When Your Favourite Book Hits the Screen

Yes, I can hardly believe it myself - my all-time favourite novel, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan, has been adapted into a Netflix series titled Dash & Lily, which will be premiering this November.

And I am both excited 😁 and terrified! 😨

I'll admit I'm late to the party on this news, having only learned about this days ago when Netflix dropped the trailer for this Christmas-themed series premiering in just a few short weeks. I'm sure those more tuned into the BookTube or Netflix or even publishing scene would've been tipped off to the existence and production of this series a long time ago.

Speaking of said trailer, take a look at it below and see for yourself:

Friends of mine that I ran to after seeing this trailer - some of which have also read the book before, some of which haven't - agreed with me that the trailer for this series does seem really great, and that there's plenty of reasons to feel hopeful. But I'm sure that anybody who has learned that one of their favouite stories is being adapted by Netflix or Prime - or, gulp, Hollywood - has felt this same type of anxiety and fear that I haven't been able to shake, no matter how many times that I've re-watched the trailer.

It doesn't help that this book is one that I have read and re-read countless times before, and I've even made a tradition of reading it within the months leading up to Christmas and New Year's Eve, as that is when this story and its sequel take place. You could say that out of my entire personal library, this book is the one that I have the strongest attachment to - and that puts me in the position of getting clobbered if the adaptation doesn't live up to the original book's potential.😵

But instead of letting myself spiral into a pit of negativity, I decided to whip up a quick list of pros and cons to this upcoming adaptation of my favourite novel.

Dash & Lily Netflix Series: Pros & Cons.

Pro #1: More Love for Dash & Lily!

These characters have a very special place in my heart, and with any page-to-screen adaptation, this series will extend the reach of these beloved characters so that hundreds if not thousands more people will get to fall in love with them just as I did. 💗 Whether or not the series encourages people to pick up the book isn't that big of a concern, although that is always a great perk!

Con #1: What if it Sucks?

Obviously this is one of the biggest concerns I have, and this thought encouraged me to look back on Netflix's history with regards to adaptations. For example, the page-to-screen adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was fantastic, not just as a stand-alone show but as a great example of an adaptation that stayed true to the original books.

But if you want a less successful example, well.... One need only remember the Netflix film adaptation of the hit manga and anime series Death Note..... That thing needs little to no explanation.

5 Underrated Disney Movies

That's right - 5 Fandom Friday is back!!!! This geeky blog series is probably what helped me the most with maintaining a semi-decent blog schedule over the past few years since geeky female bloggers The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick created this link-up series to bring other female geek bloggers together, and I am so excited that it's been brought back! Thanks to the lovely team at The Sartorial Geek, we've been given a whole year of new nerdy prompts to write about, and I'll be getting to share my fandom favourites with all of you each week!

This month, March 2020, is all about Disney! And to kick things off, today I've compiled a list of my top 5 favourite "underrated" Disney movies. Let me tell you, coming up with my list this week was not easy, because it's harder than you might think to find anything put out by Disney as being "underrated" by most standards - what it made at the box office, overall popularity or public opinion, etc. With the help of scrolling through the numerous films available through Disney+ (in Canada at least), I decided that the best way to go about this would be focusing on a few of my favourite live-action films created by Disney over the years. And yes, a lot of these titles will be Disney Channel original films, but I chose them for this list because they each hold a special place in my heart as a movie I watched over and over while growing up.

So not only will many of you not have heard of at least a few of these films, but it gives me the chance to give you some recommendations that are outside the norm, and for me to tell you why these underrated films are greater than the sum of their parts. And a quick note, every movie mentioned below is now available to stream on Disney+.

#5: Eddie's Million Dollar Cook-Off (2003)
Re-watching this as an adult was more of a thrill than I expected, and I hope that any first-time viewers of this Disney Channel Original film will agree, no matter how old you are. This film tells the story of 14 year-old Eddie who is the star of his baseball team, coached by his father and where he plays alongside his best friends. He's known among his friends for making his famous 'Eddie Dogs' - essentially a hot dog loaded with every possible condiment and topping that you could think of. He discovers his passion and enjoyment for creating something out of nothing, and after signing up himself and his friends for Home Economics class, he learns about a competition titled the 'Million Dollar Cook-Off.'

For the record, the contest doesn't actually award a million dollars - it awards a small cash prize along with a million dollars in scholarships to various culinary programs across the country. He becomes obsessed with the contest, but he begins creating his original recipe for the contest entry in secret because he fears that his father won't understand his passion for cooking when he has pushed him so hard to play baseball his entire life.

Granted, this movie (as well as most Disney Channel films) are targeted towards a younger audience; Some parts are a little silly, and the level of bullying that Eddie receives for being a boy who is interested in cooking is highly exaggerated, both by today's standards and for the time that the film was released. Even so, it's a well-told story with plenty of funny moments, and for those who grew up watching this film, it's a nostalgic joy to revisit years later.

#4: Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)

I adored this movie so much as a kid that, as an adult, I decided to purchase the novel by Kate DiCamillo to re-visit the world of Opal and her troublesome yet charming dog that she meets shortly after she and her father move to Naomi, Florida. I liked the story line of this film for the same reasons that Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli was one of my favourite books for many years; A girl (and in this case, a dog) meet the various people in their community that come from all walks of life, and it's through meeting Opal and Winn-Dixie and interacting with them that their lives, or at least their general outlooks, begin to improve. It's a heart-warming film for the entire family that will make you smile and feel warm inside, as well as having its touching and deeper moments that will make you think.