Blog: Video Games of September 2016

I started by second teaching gig in September and decided to try to be more organized in how I spend my time and more intentional in what I play. I also replayed Illusion of Gaia which is a game that still leaves me feeling a bit uncomfortable so it was a good time to be conscious about what I was doing while I played.

My top five games (by play time) for September were:

1. Illusion of Gaia - This is one of the games that I really remember from being a kid. First off because was easy to play and thematically it's a really really striking game. It's also terrifying, but I'm working on a separate post about that. Either way it was fun to get back to and a good game to sit down and play when I had time in the evenings.





2. Stardew Valley - I continued my slow playing of Stardew Valley and I really enjoy how fulfilling it is to play. I may yet hit the point where it starts to feel rote, but so far it still feel's pretty dynamic and fun.





3. Halcyon 6: Starbase Command - This is an interesting game. Part turn-based combat part management game / clicker. The game play is pretty good, although I haven't returned to it much since September and I think it has a bit of an imbalance in the difficulty. It feels like the enemies are either too difficult or too easy. The game may also just have too many moving parts, and I felt a little unsure what I was supposed to be doing. I'm sure if I played a little more I'd get a better feeling, but I just haven't felt compelled. Still I think if you haven't played it it's worth a look.





4. Cursed Treasure 2 - I really like tower defense games and this is a really good one. It was also a game that was easy to play at lunch time. I like the way the game is arranged in terms of the composition of the types of critters that come to attack you and I like that you get a chance to react when one of the critters makes it past your defenses. The ability tree system is also fun and every new ability you get lets you feel like you're sticking it to the bad guys ... er, good guys. Interesting to see that IriySoft has started work on Cursed Treasure 3 recently.





5. Civilization 5 - Have I mentioned that I'm really looking forward to Civ VI? (PS: I've played it now and it's excellent.)
   
   
   

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for September:

And here's my total number of times played:

And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month: