Blog: Games of June 2020

June was a bit weird. I spent most of it happily playing Animal Crossing and trying to find cool stuff to fit in my other time. I had some work I needed to get done, so I didn't really sink into any "funemployment".

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

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Generally the games that get at least a little bit of play time each day end up pretty high on my play time list. AC:NH is a good example of that. It's been really nice to play slow and enjoy the daily play. I think the game could use a few more features, to catch up to New Leaf and also just to give you more things to do each day.
   
   

   

   A Beautiful Night on the Island

   
   


2. Europa Universalis IV - I decided to pay for the DLC subscription, so I'm spending my current play time realing from all of the things that don't totally make sense. I'm still not sure how I feel about the newest DLC, but I'm still having fun. Currently France keeps throwing me into wars which eat all my man power as Castile, but I'm learning.
   
   

   

   A New Monarch

   
   


3. Wargroove - I skipped out on Advance Wars despite it being a game I would probably have liked. Wargroove has proved to be a great game to pick up and play even if I'm finding the "normal difficulty" a little punishing. The style is great and it's fun.
   
   

   

   A Good Boy's Victory

   
   


4. Secret of Mana (Collection of Mana) - I assume I explain this every year, but Secret of Mana is a game you should play in summer. So I am.
   
   

   

   A Confident Moment

   
   


5. Xenonauts - I wanted some slow tactical gameplay to enjoy, which Xenonauts does give. I'm finding the whole thing needs a little boost to be interesting but generally it's still fun if you want to very slowly march some soldiers across a bunch of squares. I did spend a bit of time looking at the mods and I'm facinated and frusterated by how many popular mods there are to "remove all women from the game". Definetly feeling like that's not a community I want anything to do with.
   
   

   

   Almost before anything goes wrong.

Here's my total play time chart for MONTH:

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

Blog: Games of May 2020

Later stage quarantine, not actually employed, it was an interesting month for games.



My top five games (by play time) for May 2020 were:

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - I don't really know what to say about this one. It's a great refinement of the last main series Animal Crossing and it's very hip. It's easy to pick up, always has something interesting to see and is exactly the right game to have on hand when you have a moment. Definitely a happy place game.
   
   


2. Europa Universalis 4 - Remember in history class when the House of FitzGerald won the war of the roses? I think that's the part of EU4 I like the best when you're able to play with different events in history and look at interesting `ways things could be'. I played my first ever game to completion and did okay. I manage to sprawl The Ottomans across the middle east but got hung up on late game great powers. I ended up pincered between Russia and Venice and couldn't really overcome them. Still lots of fun and I'm looking forward to the next expansion.
   
   


3. XCOM: Chimera Squad - I wasn't particularly sure what to think when they announced this. My memory of XCOM 2 is being perpetually frustrated by turn limits and not quite as drawn into the story (both written and emergent). Chimera Squad seems to fix a lot of that by making the game a series quick and interesting battles. I think the game skews a little bit simple, but I also like that when I do make a mistake it's not a huge reset. I'm having quite a good time with this overall. The game does seem to have some technical problems which they'll hopefully patch up at some point.
   
   


4. Super Mario Odyssey - I love how easy it is to pick this game up and jump into something interesting. I'd love more to do and home there's some Super Mario Odyssey 2 floating around in someone's mind somewhere.
   
   


5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Given that my preference is usually to play games on my own, it's a bit weird to pick this up. But I wanted something a little different than my usual set of RPGs and tactics. I'm enjoying, trying to undo my half-remembered muscle memory from Melee and actually git a little good.
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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

Blog: Video Games of April 2020

So that was a month, huh. I'm having a hard time believing that April was just one month. At the beginning of the month I was still teaching. I've made it through completing that, all the marking and the clean up and spent a few weeks hanging out in quarantine. I'm actually having a hard time remembering what I played and why, but that's why I track this stuff I suppose.

My top five games (by play time) for April 2020 were:

1. Dragon Quest XI S - I spent a lot of the month trying to finish up Dragon Quest XI, but got hung up on the secret, prove the the mystical something-or-other that you're the best hero the world has ever seen. It was mostly fun, but that secret boss kinda soured me a bit. On the other hand hitting level 99 was pretty fun and it didn't take me too long in any one session. DQXI really shines in the late game / second game. I kinda wish I'd felt that positive about it the whole way through, but generally it was worth while. I really didn't get into the 2D / historical stuff at all, but honestly I haven't played that much Dragon Quest overall.
   
   

   

   Erik! Erik! He's our lad! If he can't do it we're still bad!

   
   


2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - It's been nice to have a slow game to play and I've played it very slow. I find myself at odds a bit with Tom Nook who's looking to fill up the island. I signed up for a virtual getaway to a deserted island, what are you doing building permanent home-owner associations... But it's been fun for sure.
   
   

   

   Celebrations!

   
   


3. Europa Universalis 4 - Getting a little better each time I play and honestly having a lot of fun. I've also developed surprising feelings about areas of Europe and the Middle East from 1444 to the 1700s. Also a minor fear of Austria.
   
   

   

   People often forget about that time the Ottomans occupied the whole of Sweden. (Including me I was super baffled when I got this message)

   
   


4. Super Mario World (SNES on Switch) - I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm fairly sure this was the first video game I purchased with my own money, because it came with my Super Nintendo, which I purchased.  I've never actually played it all the way through and so it's been nice when work's done to sit down and play.
   
   

   

   The first time I earned this screen in the 20 some years I've owned this game. (And I still had to weasel a little to get there)

   
   


5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - I've been holding off picking up Ultimate because I'm kinda short on local friends who might want to play. But I've been watching Steven and Mal play through classic mode, and it looked fun, so I picked it up . Seems like I still main Marth (sorry) and it's been a ton of fun to have to hand.
   
   

   

   Fancy fighting.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for April:

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

Blog: Games of March 2020

Well that was a month. I went from a fairly normal semester, if one where I was struggling with workload a bit, to working from home and transitioning all my teaching to online. That caused a pretty radical restructuring of my life. Interestingly it hasn't really changed how much I've played, but it has adjusted how I've played. I'm trying (I guess as always) to be better about playing mindfully, and it is a bit of an effort to not pick up EU4 when it's available on the same desk I'm working on. Also making sure I can play for some escapism is important.

On top of that, the new Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out. That's been an interesting addition to the mix, because, as with all animal crossing games, it flows in real time and so it's worthwhile to play several different times in a day. That's tied in nicely with working from home and I've done a fairly good job of keeping it down to short stop ins on coffee breaks.

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

1. Europa Universalis 4 - I'm continuing to enjoy the game, now that I actually understand what I'm doing to some extent. I've also started checking in on the Eu4 reddit from time to time and I'm starting to understand the game a little more broadly. It certainly fits the role nicely as some escapist entertainment and it's nice to have when I want to go somewhere else for a bit.
   
   

   

   This was fun while it lasted.

   
   


2. Dragon Quest XI S - I thought I'd try to finish this up before Animal Crossing: New Horizons released. I didn't although I think I'm fairly close to the end now. I did finally reach the point where I was finding some interesting challenge and some interesting opportunities in the combat system to do interesting things. I still find that I don't like this as much as Dragon Quest VIII, but it certainly has a lot of upside.
   
   

   

   Sassy Bunch 

   
   


3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - I realize that I was a bit dumb trying to finish Dragon Quest. This is an Animal Crossing game, and that means that it really doesn't benefit from going fast. I've been trying to limit the amount I play a little so that there's always something else new to think about and look forward too. It's a nice follow up to New Leaf, which I dropped a few years back, and it has some great game play and quality of life improvements. I'm not sure it's everything I'd hoped for, but it's a wonderful game and exactly the game everyone needs right now.
   
   

   

   Welcome Home

   
   


4. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - The standard continues and still feels good in the New Horizon era. I'm actually putting together some thoughts about it, which I hope to post soon.
   
   
   

   

   Always Together

   
   


5. Cursed Treasure 2 - And to think I thought the end of Adobe Flash was going to be the crisis of 2020 I was going to have to think about. As it happens IriySoft released a remastered version. Although I've discovered I don't like the remaster nearly so much as the original. Still it's nice to see that the game will live on. (And I'm sure I'll get used to it.)
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for March 2020:

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

Blog: Games of February 2020

February was another quiet month. I'm trying to get through Dragon Quest XI before ... things ... happen in March, and I've been feeling in that winter strategy mode which has left me playing quite a bit of EU4.


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

1. Europa Universalis 4 - Several hundred hours in, I think I'm starting to get a feel for this game. One what is about by 11th attempt at an Ottomans game, I've figured out how to manage money and growth appropriately and I'm starting to get a feel for which wars I should fight when (and how many levels of tech I should have). I'm extremely proud of taking on a giant Austria (they ate Venice and Hungary) and forcing them to give up a lot of territory and money.
   
   

   

   This is fine.

   
   


2. Dragon Quest XI S - I think the post-game is where this game actually shines. I'm having more fun now than I was for big parts of the main game. Having the correct difficulty is really important. I am a little disappointed that some of the personal growth the team goes through in the main game is undone in the post-game,
   
   

   

   This never happened.

   
   


3. Cursed Treasure 2 - This continues to be my procrastination game, or hopefully the game I play for short bursts between getting work to be done. I ended up downloading Kongregate's Kartridge program so that I could keep playing it after Chrome stops allowing Flash to play. Not sure what I'm going to do about some of the other important flash games out there.
   
   


4. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - That rainbow colour, it's Festival!
   
   

   

   This quiet moment.

   
   


5. Super Mario Odyssey - Super Mario Odyssey continues to be a real delight to pick up and play.
   
   

   

   This is fun.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for February:

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

Blog: Games of January 2020

January was a little bit about catching up from last year. I finished the Chrono Trigger play through I started and finally finished up Dragon Quest. Both have a new game plus to tackle, so I'm not really done, but it's good to get some games finished.
My top five games (by play time) for January were:

1. Dragon Quest XI S - I'm finding this one a little hard to keep going with. The story hasn't really grabbed me, but the grinding is fun and the game has just enough of that RPG build that I've had fun.
   
   

   

   The Darkness Before the Light.

   
   


2. Chrono Trigger - Still one of the best games of all time. I'm feeling a bit rusty with this play through, but I'm also trying to spice things up a bit and play with someone other than the Crono, Marle, Lucca power house.
   
   

   

   The Light After the Darkness.

   
   


3. Europa Universalis 4 - Well, I've now experimented with running up as much debt as possible (well kinda), now I'm trying to see if I can go the other way.
   
   

   

   The Austrians are Coming to Eat Me.

   
   


4. Super Mario Maker 2 - I haven't spent too much time making levels. I'm finding the switch interface a little harder to love. I think I've played enough that the weird artificial feeling I had earlier on has faded, but it does feel like it lacks a little bit of charm over all.
   
   

   

   The Team in the Dungeon.

   
   


5. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Fest - Keep on keeping on.
   
   

   

   The Ambition of Alpacas.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for January:

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

Blog: Games of November 2019

As often is the case, November was pretty crazy, so I didn't play that much. My time went primarily to Luigi's Mansion 3 with a little bit of day-to-day play of Sunless Sea and Pogo. Now, I'm tired, but the semester is hitting its end point and I'm dreaming of some of the interesting things I can turn my time to in December.


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

1. Luigi's Mansion 3 - I have super fond memories of the first Luigi's Mansion, what with it being the first game I played on GameCube. I really love the way it forms an interconnected world and an immersive environment that's really fun. Luigi's Mansion 3 seems to have a lot of those bones and is generally quite fun, but it feels a little bit short of a really engaging game.
   
   

   

   Ah, nothing haunting about this game at all.

   
   


2. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - This came up in a list of most disappointing games of the decade I watched recently. Every time we play I do find myself thinking about all the little things they could have added to make this game amazing, but it just falls a little short of what you might want. On the other hand it has enough content spread out in such a way that we still find ourselves a little surprised most times we play and its an important part of our weekend mornings.
   
   

   

   Waiting on a winter day.

   
   


3. Sunless Sea - My push to get better at Sunless Sea produced some interesting results. I definitely got to see more of the game and enjoyed the zen of sailing slowly across the vast(ish) unterzee.
   
   

   

   Crabs. As big as the ship.

   
   


4. Europa Universalis IV - Most of my time came from a pretty chill Saturday at the end of the month. Every time I play I'm struck by the interesting balance of feeling of in control and out of control. I think for EU V they could do some streamlining of interfaces and some clarification about implications and consequences, but now I'm enjoying understanding what the flow of a war is likely to be before I actually start it. I've found it extremely beneficial to play on Iron Man because it causes you to follow through and see exactly how things happen.
   
   

   

   Never quite enough resources to take over the whole world.



5. Pokémon Go - I'd have liked to get out a bit more, but didn't leave myself the time or mental space to really do so. I'm thinking even if the weather's a bit crappy in December I should put myself to doing a little more intentional play.
   
   

   

   Big and shiny.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for November:

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

Blog: Games of October 2019

October was a month where I didn't really have a game I was setting out to play. I've hit a point where I'm a little tired of Three Houses. I played a lot of Dragon Quest as a game to relax with and then somewhat distracted myself with EU 4 a few days in the month. It's also been one of those months where I've found myself watching more things rather than playing, which is often a mid-semester thing for me.

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

1. Dragon Quest XI - As a game to pick up in the evenings and play for a little bit, DQ XI has been great. The feel of the game is very good, even while I have some concerns with other factors about the game.
   
   

   

   Hello! Everything is fine! Perfect! Going exactly as expected.



2. Europa Universalis IV - EU 4 has an amazing capacity for "fun", where in once things start going a little wrong they immediately explode into many things going very wrong. So a lot of my play time has been me trying to crush either the Papel Seat, England or Poland in retribution for the thing they did to me last time.
   
   

   

   Whelp. Time for another vendetta play through.



3. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - October is probably the most interesting month to play Amiibo Fest. They introduce an extra candy collecting mechanics which has a roughly 50/50 success rate and means that you actually have to play with a little thought. We still play a bit on autopilot these days, but Amiibo Fest is still a weekend morning tradition for us.
   
   

   

   Racoon butts.

   
   


4. Sunless Sea - Mark Brown produced a video about rogue-likes talking about how the player skill and the difficulty curve interact. I am bad enough at most rogue-likes that I never really seem to see the game change. Lately I've been trying to improve how I play, or experience, or something, Sunless Sea. The story elements are still interesting, although I had a couple of captains die in quick succession, which broke a little of the illusion of continuity in the story structure.
   
   

   

   Perfect. Totally not doomed.

   
   


5. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Remember how I hadn't burned out on Three Houses last month? Well, now I have. The problem with the 4 endings the game has is that it does require a lot of replay of very similar missions and eventually it starts to feel like I've just done the same thing over and over again. The combat simply doesn't support the amount of story the game has and the reuse of maps is kinda disappointing, at least if you play the Golden Deer and the Blue Lions one after the other. The Black Eagles - Crimson Flower have definitely been more different so far, but I needed a break.
   
   

   

   Inconceivable!

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for October:

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

Blog: Games of August 2019

We could just call this post Game of August 2019, because I've played a lot of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I got sick, and it turns out that the switch is a great game platform to bring to bed, play until the battery runs out then sleep until the battery charges up again. Also Three Houses is really good.


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

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - So yeah. I played 30 hours in a couple of days last month. This month I played more than a hundred hours. I've started on a third play through now. My first Golden Deer play-though was around 70 hours and my second Blue Lion's play-through was around 80 hours (there's a little discrepancy between my recorded time and what the save-game things I have recorded). The game play is compelling. My first play through was on normal, which was a little easy for a Fire Emblem game, especially when playing without permadeath. For my second play-though I moved the difficulty up to hard, which was a better feel overall, although some of the difficulty was in limiting repair of weapons rather than the actual tactical gameplay. The story is also very good and the different facets you see depending on which house you play and which support stories you build gives you a lot of reason to keep playing to understand more.
   
   

   

   To Battle!

   
   


2. Europa Universalis IV - It's been a little while, but I fired this up again needing a little break from Three Houses and I'm having a lot of fun. As usual (pretty much) I'm playing the Ottomans again, but the new mission structure is illuminating interesting things to do while playing.
   
   

   

   Decisions decisions.

   
   


3. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - Honestly should have played this more. August is the best in game month.
   
   

   

   Sisters...

   
   


4. Opus Magnum - The game is still very approachable, but the late story missions are a little more work than I feel like putting in right now. The missions from the Steam Workshop have been a nice follow up.
   
   

   

   Be fancy. Make potions.

   
   


5. Pokemon Go - Didn't play that much what with not wanting to leave the house. I'm hoping to see the number for September be a lot higher.
   
   

   

   The summer.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for August:

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

Blog: Games of June 2018

I travelled for 10 days in June and that - along with trying to get enough work done to travel - left me playing a little less than I usually do and it *slightly* modified the games we usually see on this list.

My top five games (by play time) for June 2018 were:

1. Mario Golf: World Tour - Between lunches and evenings on the road, I played Mario Golf on my 3DS a bunch. I'm in a state right now where I'm getting pretty good, and really enjoying it. I will say I think there are some weird game design choices for the game surrounding the actual golf, and I'm disappointed in how the spin is managed since you're limited to hitting the touchscreen without really knowing how much spin you have, or need, - as opposed to Toadstool Tour, where you can plot spin and then have to aim while you shoot.
   
   

   

   Fore! Lunch! Road!

2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I've slowed down a lot because I swore to myself that I would finish all of the Master Sword trials. The problem is that, I'm not nearly as good at this game as I probably should be having played almost 280 hours. Anyway, I've spent the last little while trying to git good, and I'm *slowly* improving.
   
   

   

   Gotcha. (Yes, I need to fix my WiiU's Internet)



3. Stardew Valley - Still love playing this in the mornings, although I'm into spring in my third year and as usually the game feels a little like its starting to run low on content. 
   
   

   

   Feast Season.



4. Europa Universalis 4 - Always easy to drop a few hours into EU4. Playing ironman has felt pretty good. My Ottomans are questing to control the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, while not getting crushed by the really large Russians and Polish Commonwealth - or the HRE - or Spain which controls most of France - or Portugal which controls the entire west of Africa. (I really like it when the game goes alt-history).
   
   

   

   Getting a little non-traditional. (Or why is Spain so BIG!?)



5. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - As I've said before, this is a weekend morning game for coffee and chill time. That being said, while some of the actual game mechanics are out of your control (think snakes and ladders), the design and charm of the game really stands out. Also, we've accidentally spent a lot of time dropping cats in to the water in the name of "getting more points".
   
   

   

   We're glad you're hosting Punchy. Sorry about the water thing.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for June:

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

Blog: Games of May 2018

I played some stuff I really enjoyed in May, but also felt really unsettled about where I wanted to put my play time. I also found that when I did have time to play, I often didn't have anything I wanted to sit down and play. Also, I often found myself playing things when I really should have been focused elsewhere. So I'm trying to be more mindful again, and to take time to enjoy games after taking time to - you know - get excited and get stuff done.

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

1. Paper Mario: Color Splash - I was hoping to find something new to play when I needed an evening off. I've never actually played a Paper Mario game (I thought it was dumb to have a "2-D" game on the N64, but I had a lot of dumb thoughts back then). I've found Color Splash to be interesting, the world and the characterization are great (as is the dialog), the game play mechanics are pretty good, but the boss fights are really bad and the game is bad about respecting the time you put into it. I will say it's extremely charming and I'll enjoy finishing it.
   
   

   

   The Princess and her fixer.

2. Stardew Valley - As I often do, I've been starting days in May playing a day or two of Stardew Valley. As always, it's a relaxing and gently consuming game.
   
   

   

   A good day on the farm.



3. Cities: Skylines - I drifted back into to Skylines a bit with the Park DLC coming out (although I haven't actually picked it up yet). I enjoy the city building, but I keep kinda feeling unsatisfied a bit when I play. Still very good and very worth poking from time to time.
   
   

   

   The University District.



4. Civilization VI - As I said, May may just have been not the right month for me to really get into and enjoy anything. I played some Civ VI, but I'm finding that my mindset isn't right either to stick it out for the long term, and also to play well the way the game expects (and granted I haven't picked up the DLC for this either).
   
   

   

   So what we built the Hagia Sophia in the tundra.



5. Europa Universalis IV - While I haven't been playing it a ton, I have been enjoying EU4 quite a bit. I like the new mission system they've added in, and this particular play through I feel like I've managed to do a much better job understanding how the game wants me to play to really get the most out of it.
   
   

   

   The center of everything (but the outsides are mighty big).

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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