Well, here it is, my 100th post. I’ve written 100 posts for That Green Dude since I created this blog last January and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing on here. As this is my 100th post, I thought I would talk about myself, my blog and how it started and what I want to do in the future. However, before I get started I want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who has read my blog, everyone that has left a like and a comment on my posts, everyone who has followed me here on WordPress and on Twitter.

How That Green Dude was created

Last January I created That Green Dude and back then I was still at university. Creating That Green Dude was part of a module for the course I was studying. The original aim for That Green Dude was to be a portfolio of my freelance work and the occasional blog post here and there. I posted links to some of my work that I did for Gamereactor on here and I started writing gaming related blog posts.

My first proper blog post was my Yakuza 0 Review and I loved every second of writing it. It was this piece that got me wanting to turn That Green Dude into a fully fledged gaming blog/ site. I still post links freelance work here from time to time which is something I will continue to do for the forseeable future. However, That Green Dude is primarily a gaming blog/ site where I can write about video games in any way I want.

Frequent readers of my content will know that I haven’t just written about video games on my blog. As well as games, I have written about Asian Cinema, Martial Arts movies, a little bit about wrestling and recently, I did a piece about some of my Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I wanted to increase the variety of content on my site so people don’t get tired of reading about video games and also as way of getting to know me a little better. The response to the non-video game content has been wonderful.

 

More about me

As this is my 100th post, I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about myself. I am Brandon Green and I live in Stoke-on-Trent in the UK. If you haven’t heard of Stoke-on-Trent before, it’s okay, the city is usually forgotten about. I’ve lived in Stoke all my life and whilst it isn’t perfect (derelict buildings galore), it’s home.

I was a good student at school, I kept my head down and I behaved. I got bullied a lot whilst I was at school and whilst it was horrible, it toughened me up. I learned to completely block the bullying out and it eventually stopped. A little bit of sarcasm thrown at them may have helped as well. I made many friends whilst I was at school and I still keep in touch with most of them today.

After I finished high school, I went straight to college. At college I studied many subjects but my favourites were Creative Media TV and Film, Media Studies, History and English Literature. I loved my time at college and I felt as if I grew a lot as a person whilst I was there. When I finished college I took one of the biggest risks of my life, I went to university.

I went to university and I studied Games Journalism and PR (yes, that is an actual course). I studied it for three years and whilst it wasn’t perfect (nothing ever is), I don’t regret going. I made so many memories, learned so much and met so many amazing people.

 

How I started playing video games

I started playing video games when I was three years old and my first game was Tekken 2. My mum and dad are big fans of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and when they watched films with them in, I watched them too. I used to practice the moves from the films on my dad (he didn’t like that). One day I watched my dad play Tekken and he picked Lei Wulong and I immediately thought he was Jackie Chan. I saw Marshall Law and I thought he was Bruce Lee. After seeing who I thought to be Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, I had to play Tekken 2. I started playing Tekken 2 with my dad and I loved it. I quickly got the hand of it and by the time I was four/ five I was able to beat my dad at it pretty much every time.

Since 1998 I have been playing video games and I have enjoyed the medium ever since. This is why I love Tekken so much and why it has huge place in my heart. If I didn’t play Tekken 2, I don’t think I would be playing and enjoying video games as much as I do. I could waffle on about some of my favourite games but I won’t, otherwise the post wouldn’t end.

 

Some of my favourite work on That Green Dude

I’ve written many posts but here are some of my favourites. Apologies for the long list:

• Yakuza 0 (Zero) Review (PS4)

• My Kingdom Hearts memories (Kingdom Hearts 15th Anniversary)

• Chaos Legion: Retrovision
• Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy – Review (PS4)
•  I finally played Bloodborne
• Digimon World 1 (PS1) – Retrovision

• Yakuza Kiwami – Review (PS4)

• Damascus Gear: Operation Tokyo HD Edition – Review

• 10 Jackie Chan Films You Have To Watch

• L.A. Noire – Retrovision

• 6 Things I’d like to see in Virtua Fighter 6

• Sonic Forces – Review

• Creative Christmas: A Christmas Gift For Someone Special

• Creative Christmas: A Christmas Kiss

• Creative Christmas: My Christmas Dinner Menu

• Dino Crisis 2 – Retro Review

• Do You Miss Cheats and Cheat Codes?

• The Video Game Royal Rumble.

• I Still Can’t Get The Happiness Of The Katakuris Out Of My Head

• Video Game Poetry – #1 – Kingdom Hearts

• Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams

• QOTM – I’ll Need A Gummi Ship

• Yakuza 6: The Song of Life – Review

• A Look At Some Of My Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards #1

 

What’s coming to the blog in the future

A Tale of Seasons – Preview

This post was originally going to be posted at the end of last month but as mentioned in my June overview I didn’t get around to doing it because of E3 and the heatwave in the UK making me ill.

This game was made by my good friend Casey and a group of very talented people. This post is still coming don’t worry but I have another perspective on it. Whilst playing through the demo again, my mom watched me play it and she enjoyed watching me play it. My mum plays games and like Dragon Quest, so that is more than likely why A Tale of Seasons caught her eye. My mom is playing through the A Tale of Seasons demo now, she hasn’t done it yet but she’s nearly done. Once my mom has completed it, I’m going to try to get few words from here about the game, that way you have my take and my mom’s.

 

A list about Saints Row

Earlier this year, the first two Saints Row games were made backwards compatible on Xbox One. Playing through Saints Row 1 and 2 again was an absolute joy and doing so made me remember how much I love the series, especially the first two games.

I’ve done a few list pieces on That Green Dude before but I wanted to do one on Saints Row because it’s a series that I love and one that I think could do with a bit more love. It’s been years since we have had a new Saints Row game so my list will be about what I would like to see in the next Saints Row.

 

Ratchet and Clank 3 Retro Review and Ratchet and Clank Compendium

I’ve reviewed the first two Ratchet and Clank games and the response to them has been wonderful. I wanted to review Ratchet and Clank 1-3 on PS2 all within month, obviously that didn’t happen but I still want to review Ratchet and Clank 3. I’m going to start playing it next week and hopefully by the middle of August, I will have a retro review of it published.

A while back, I mentioned that I wanted to do a Ratchet and Clank compendium. The idea behind it, is that I want a place where people can look and read about all the Ratchet and Clank games all in one place. Reviews, opinion pieces, posts about memories with the Ratchet and Clank games.

I will review as many of the Ratchet and Clank games as possible and write about my memories of the games. All of these posts would make up a part of the compendium. The rest of the compendium would be made up of Ratchet and Clank related posts written by other people. I want the blogging community and Ratchet and Clank fans from all over the world to write about Ratchet and Clank. People can do any form of writing, reviews, opinion pieces, articles focusing on one thing (e.g. hoverboarding).

However, I want to stress that the compendium is just an idea at the moment. It will need a lot of planning and time. This is something I want to do because I want to try to bring the Ratchet and Clank community together to work on one big project. I will share more about this idea when I have more time and when I have put a significant amount of planning behind it.

 

There’s a lot more to come

Those mentioned above are just a few of the things I want to do for my site and I have many more things to write about and ideas that I want to do. One thing I do want to write about in the future and hopefully soon, is Resident Evil. I’ve only talked about Resident Evil a few times within pieces but I want to have dedicated Resident Evil piece. I haven’t decided which RE game it will be but it’s something that I really want to do in the future.

 

What is currently happening

Apologies for bringing the mood of this post down but I want to talk about my current situation. I’ve been in a bit of a rut lately and last week it got to me. I felt demoralised and genuinely unhappy. I feel a lot better now thanks to family and friends reaching out to me but when it hit me, it scared the hell out of me. Anyone that knows me personally, knows that I am a very positive person. Even in sad and tough situations, I always try be positive and find the best thing out of a bad moment. However, last week I couldn’t help but let out all of the emotions.

I currently have a job that I thought I would like but I’ve realised that it isn’t for me. I just don’t feel the love and passion for it and it’s making me a bit unhappy. I’ve been wondering if I’m on the right career path, or if I took right turn when I should have gone left. Don’t worry though, I’ll figure it out.

 

The future

Live streaming

Despite the current situation, I am still looking ahead positively towards the future. Last month I got my first taste of live streaming. One of my friends does live streams because he enjoys doing them and I was at his place whilst he was streaming. He had to go out whilst live streaming and he asked me if I wanted to cover for him. I was hesitant at first but I thought, why not? I don’t know if I will like it if I don’t try. Well, after covering for him for 20/ 30 mins, I can safely say that I caught the live streaming bug. It was fun playing a game and interacting with a small group of people, it was different and oddly addictive. I didn’t want to stop but it was my friend’s stream so I reluctantly returned control.

Live streaming is something I want to do and sooner the better. It won’t happen until next year though, as I need to get new PC that can do live streaming efficiently. I will need to get all sorts of equipment which will cost me a lot of money. I’m currently looking for another job that pays good so I can get the equipment sooner. Don’t worry on that front because that is possibly being sorted within the next few weeks.

 

Stand-up comedy

Yes, you read that right, stand-up comedy.  Last year I tried my hand at stand-up comedy and I enjoyed it. It was only in front of around 20 people but I had fun and the people I performed in front of, thought I was funny, so I think I did a good job.

Earlier this year, I did stand-up comedy again and in front of the same number of people and again it went well. It made me think that maybe this is something I can work on and do as hobby from time to time. Who knows, I can do a stand-up gig in the future and impress someone and maybe hit the big time. Wishful thinking I know but anything can happen.

 

Chasing the dream once again

In October, I can start chasing my dream once again. My dream is to live and work in Japan. As I mentioned in my “Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams” piece, I came so close to achieving my dream earlier this year. I was almost in touching distance of my dream. I didn’t get it but I got so close, I know that I can achieve it.

The application process starts again in October and I can apply for the job once again. I’m currently getting all of the things I need ready for when the application opens up again and even though October is a few months away, I am already feeling more confident about it all. I’ve been through the process once already so I know what to expect.

I came so close to fulfilling my dream that I know it is possible. I’m going to try again and again and again until I achieve it.

Once again, thank you

I know I said this at the beginning but again, thank you. Writing on here is fantastic, it’s therapeutic and it’s a great way to communicate with other people who enjoy similar things. I love the blogging community that has welcomed me in with open arms, every blogger that I have talked to has been wonderful and I wish each and every one of you the best of luck with your site and everything else that you are doing.

Thank you to the people have taken time out of their day to read my content, to the people who have become frequent readers of my work, to the people who follow my site here on WordPress, thank you to those that have followed me on Twitter and thank you to everyone that has liked and left a comment on my posts.

I shall stop waffling on now, so you can go back and enjoy your day. Once again, thank you.