Prior to attending Animeleague London Anime and Gaming Con and Animeleague Birmingham Anime and Gaming Con as press and as a cosplayer (I cosplayed as Crash Bandicoot to show off my Crash Bandicoot cosplay to Coco Bandicoot's voice actress, Debi Derryberry. This is the second time I met her. I met her for the first time at MCM Comic Con London last year), I already covered Animeleague as a whole. Originally, I was going to cosplay as Ratchet (from the Ratchet & Clank series) last Sunday but I decided to cosplay as Crash Bandicoot instead.
Honestly, I didn't like how MCM Comic Con London does things in terms of forcing people to go back and forth between the ATM cash machine and the voice actor table which always makes for a frustrating time and wasting a lot of my valuable time when I could be doing other things. I really can't stress this enough. MCM Comic Con should've allowed people to pay via card readers. To my relief, Megacon Live and Animeleague got with the times by allowing people to pay by card via card readers which saved tons of time. What also grind my gears is MCM Comic Con kept announcing noteworthy voice actors/voice actresses at the last minute. MCM Comic Con shouldn't do that, that way people can buy tickets much earlier. It's annoying when MCM Comic Con keeps getting people guessing.
Unlike the other conventions such as MCM Comic Con and Megacon Live, it seems to be fairly easy to get interviews with voice actors or voice actresses. Fortunately for me, I managed to remember to apply for a press pass for some of the Animeleague conventions well in advance. Most likely because Animeleague isn't as huge as MCM Comic Con and Megacon Live. I didn't pick more Animeleague conventions because I'm still waiting for more celebrity guests to be announced. Not to mention, I'm worried that the Animeleague conventions will clash with other conventions or events.
I noticed the video game room had some Spyro The Dragon games such as Spyro: Enter The Dragonfly for instance. Speaking of first impressions, Sonic Forces is an okay experience so far for a first impression. I finally tried it out to see what's the fuss is about. Out of the two, Ratchet & Clank 3 conveyed the war theme better than Sonic Forces. Speaking of Ratchet & Clank, there were three Ratchet & Clank games for people to try out. Maybe next time I'd like to relive the memories. Plus, it didn't help when Sega and Sonic Team glossed over a lot of things in regards to war. For example, Sonic was said to be tortured for months but the game showed the complete opposite. In other words, Sonic is sitting in his cell, alive and well but in handcuffs. If Sonic is tortured, the game should've committed to it. Otherwise, it comes off as it's lying to the players or it's downplaying how serious war is. Unlike the critically panned Wolverine, there is zero hand-holding in the Zavok boss battle which is what a game should be. The lack of hand-holding is a double-edged sword. I haven't gotten very far in the game but prior to finally being able to try out the game, I sometimes find myself listening to the soundtrack. The "Set In Motion - Guardian Rock" music track is a banger but it's underrated and forgettable. Despite the okay first impressions, I still plan to hopefully write a sequel to the Ratchet & Clank x Sonic Forces AU song fanfiction, "All Is Fair" (named after the song with the same name by Cheryl Tweedy, who is one of the Girls Aloud members) called "Freedom" (named after the song with the same name by Sugababes). Both "All Is Fair" and "Freedom" Ratchet & Clank x Sonic Forces AU song fanfictions are inspired by Labour threatening to erase freedom of speech and freedom of press, betraying long-time Labour voters and supporters and Labour's tyrannical censorship of the internet and our way of life. Labourβs tyrannical ways and their attempt to censor the internet and freedom of speech are a threat to journalism in its entirety. I'm still experiencing dΓ©jΓ vu and I already covered the Hong Kong protests in my Dustborn video game review due to one of the main characters, Noam, brought them up during her conversation with Pax.
Seeing as I'm honestly never been a fan of anime, the majority of the karaoke songs didn't click or vibe with me. I only sung to "No Scrubs" by TLC and "I'm Still Standing" by Elton John. I also vibed to "Live and Learn" by Crush 40 despite I'm normally not a Sonic The Hedgehog fan. To be honest, I'm usually interested in the video game part of the Animeleague conventions. I would've joined in the line-dancing on Sunday but I was too tired due to spending a lot of time getting Debi Derryberry and Duncan Gutteridge's autographs and taking photos with them as well as interviewing Debi Derryberry and getting a video message from her. I find it strange that Duncan Gutteridge didn't allow me to interview him at Animeleague Birmingham Anime and Gaming Con but he allowed me to interview him at Animeleague London Anime and Gaming Con.
I met Steve at the David Lee Art Cards stall. Stumbling upon a Wolverine card caused me to go off on a tangent about how poorly-made the latest Wolverine game is. I'm fine with accessibility settings but it got to the point where the game literally plays itself. The fact that there is a GPS system and there is a "fart gas" that leads to your destination. It comes across as Insomniac Games isn't confident in the players to find their own way to their destination and Insomniac Games won't allow gamers to explore their surroundings. The unnecessary huge amount of hand-holding is patronising to not only normal gamers but disabled gamers such as myself as well. The biggest mistake Insomniac Games made is hiring Sweet Baby Inc in the first place. I'd say Insomniac Games started to go downhill the second they developed the first Spiderman game and when Insomnniac Games hired Sweet Baby Inc. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart passed with flying colours in the accessibility department but I can't say the same about Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Wolverine. Having these opinions are one of the main reasons why I became a freelance journalist in the first place so I can form my own opinions. Sweet Baby Inc is the opposite of Midas. Everything they touch, they become poop. It's heartbreaking to see what Insomniac Games has become. It needs to return to making Ratchet & Clank games but sadly, it's relegated to the Marvel slop mines. I really hate generic, boring, samey, unoriginal, realistic human characters, the last time I checked video games are supposed to be about escapism. I don't want to be reminded of real life. Is it too much to ask for me to turn off and escape real life to the universe of video games? I loathe the direction PlayStation, Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch Productions etc are going.
