Blog: Games of August 2018

August was a month where I mostly focused on getting my thesis done and on summery things, so I didn't play ton. What I did play, I really enjoyed.

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

1. Pokémon Go - I've played more PoGo in August than I have since I picked it up again (and possibly since before).
   
   

   

   This game really has it's hooks in me and I'm really enjoying it.

2. Earthbound - I pushed forward to get to the end of Earthbound. I didn't quite finish, but I did play a lot. The game definitely has charm, but was also a bit hard to play. Sadly a lot of SNES RPGs (and games in general) feel a little clunky if you don't have the nostalgia to grease the controller.
   
   

   

   How very Earthbound.



3. Paper Mario: Color Splash - I finished Color Splash over the summer. I enjoyed it quite a bit, except for the parts that I didn't. I haven't played a Paper Mario game before, and I loved the charm and the style. Some of the game play didn't quite measure up, but generally I thought my time with this game - and with friends - was well spent.
   
   

   

   Paper Mario: Color Splash, beautiful and willing to acknowledge that you've burned several of your hours on it.



4. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - Coffee, brunch and the trials of capitalism, what's not to love?
   
   

   

   I've missed August Fireworks, but got to live many Augusts this year.



5. Mario Golf: World Tour - Hey, four years in and I've just about unlocked some stuff. World Tour is a lot of fun, even with just the basic three courses.
   
   

   

   You want to land left of the tree, with enough space to chip up onto the green. (Via Super Mario Wiki)

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: Video Games of of July 2017

July was a really busy month and so I didn't play too much, making it quite boring. My PC was also in pieces for most of the month so I was mostly down to console games. DLC 1 for Breath of the Wild also came out, so, you know, I mostly played that.

My top six games (by play time) for July were:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Master Mode has breathed (pun sorta intended) a whole new games worth of play into Breath of the Wild. Another 30 hours played this month and I'm still loving it.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Mario Kart 8 - Really in a different category at only 3 and a bit hours played, but still a lot of fun.




3. Pokemon Go - Between the update and it being summer, it's been fun to haul this out again.





4. Cities: Skylines - I've been hoping to start making cooler cities. Everything I make tends to come out a little bit boxy. So I've been trying to think a little more creatively and make some neater places.


5. Marvel Puzzle Quest and Mario Golf: World Tour - A bit of an odd tie at just over an hour, both of the games I tend to play on breaks in the office. Either way, more fun playing two games which seem to show up here quite a bit.

Here's my total play time chart for July: 

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

Blog: Video Games of March 2017

Breath of the Wild hit in March. It's good. Like really outstandingly one of the best games of all time. Somehow I also played some other games, but really it was in an effort to get back to Zelda.

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

1. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - The fact of the matter is that any time a new Zelda game comes out, it's extremely likely to be the game I played the most that month. So you shouldn't be too surprised that I played 40+ hours of Breath of the Wild, but even then you'd be underestimating just how really good Breath of the Wild is.
   
   
   It's so good that, really, I don't want to say too much about it because the more you discover on your own as you play it the better it will be. The game is intended to refresh that childhood sense of going on an adventure and it does it beautifully, taking you on a truly epic journey through the Land of Hyrule. Each time you see a new vista you get a chance to see a new amazing thing in the world, and the game constantly takes your breath away.
   
   If you can get your Hands on Breath of the Wild, play it, as soon as you can. You will be well rewarded
2. Marvel Puzzle Quest - As usual, I've mostly checked in on MPQ when I've been on the bus, play for 20 or so minutes. The game is still great and I definitely miss when I haven't played for a day and it's certainly something to do while you're getting back to Hyrule.
   
   
   
3. Hearthstone - Again I haven't played too much Hearthstone and largely when I've needed a break between jobs or on the odd occasion when I couldn't get back to Hyrule.
   
   
   



4. Pharaoh - I like city walker games, and this one especially. It's also a game with a lot of nostalgia and coming back to it years later I'm enjoying being actually good at it. It definitely has some flaws and could stand for a modern recreation, but it's still great. ... and I played it at least partly so that I didn't burn out on Hyrule.
   

   

   From - GameFAQs User yutjrtf76

   
   
5. Mario Golf: World Tour - Mario Golf is great. I play it at lunch. I tell you this a lot. You know what the world needs: Breath of the Wild Golf. Get on it Nintendo. Meanwhile ... Hyrule.
   

   

   From IGN

Here's my total play time for March 2017:

And here's my play time chart:

Blog: Video Games of January 2017

I wasn't sure that I wanted to keep tracking the games I played in 2017. Still, in the early days of the month it was hard to stop tracking and it's kinda fun to see the graphs and totals build. So I kept on tracking and now I seem to have tracked what I played in the month of January.

January was a month where I didn't have a strong drive to play anything, so my play spread over a few games.

My top five games (by play time) for January 2017 were:

1. Marvel Puzzle Quest - For a game I usually play for less than half-an-hour a day, it's a little surprising that this is my post played game of the month. That being said a few minutes a day builds up over time and between time spent commuting on the bus and a few quite minutes in the office here and there it's been really easy to play.
   
   
   As I said before they do a good job of keeping the game interesting and updated and every time I play I feel rewarded (even without putting in money) and for a very simple game it's continually interesting and fun to play.


2. EarthBound - I started playing this in December (thanks to the WiiU Virtual Console) as part of my SNES Nostalgia. That being said, as you might know from a few other posts, I never played EarthBound as a kid. Who want's to play a game that stinks ... or an RPG that doesn't have swords in it (yeah I was a dumb kid).
   
   
   I think though, that this is a game well arrived at as an adult who has played games for a long time. It has a lot of concepts that really resonate more as an adult than it ever could have as a kid.
   
   I've also been motivating myself to play so that I can read the Legends of Localization: EarthBound book without spoiling myself. The book is a fantastic look at video game localization and I highly recommend it and the first volume in the series.


3. Civilization VI - Civ VI doesn't grab me as much as I think it should. It also doesn't really have the "one more turn" hold that I remember other games in the series having. It may be that I just haven't hit the right mindset or that unupdated with DLC Civ VI is still a little thin on material. I am enjoying it, and it still reminds me of the good-old-days playing Civ, but it doesn't really give me good days playing Civ right now.
   
   


4. Recettear - This game is weird. It's not that well produced, although not terrible and it turns out that the best way to play it is to ignore one of its main mechanics. Still, playing the RPG shop keeper is pretty fun. It could be way more in depth or dynamic, but it's still sufficiently fun to play that I've really enjoyed pulling it out to play.
   
   


5. Mario Golf: World Tour - Other than MPQ, Mario Golf remains my in office, lunch hour break game (you can't play it on the bus, you need to be more precise). It has great tactillity and it's really satisfying to play when you're playing well (and super frustrating when you're playing badly). I feel like it could have a deeper online experience (or a better explanation of the online experience) and I wish it had a little bit more of the Game Cube's course design. It's really enjoyable in short bursts.
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for January 2017:

And here's the total times I've played over the month:

Blog: Video Games of June 2016

I was very busy with my first teaching position in June and so had less time to play than I had in previous months. I also was quite stressed, so wanted to play games that would help me distract myself.

Here are my top five games (by time played) for June 2016:

1. Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor - In terms of a game that's easy to distract yourself Shows of Mordor certainly counts. It has a lot of things to do and the challenge in the game is moderate, so it's usually easy to go kill an uruk when ever you want. Unfortunately, "victory" comes very abruptly and the final boss is, ... not interesting at all. And while you can keep on playing after you defeat the final boss, the game becomes a lot less fulfilling.
   

   

   It's nice of the bad guys to let me know where they are.

   
   
2. Hearthstone - Looking back I'm not sure if this was already in the window where people were getting excited for One Night in Karazhan or not. Either way, playing in the new standard format made hearthstone more interesting again (and at least removed Dr. Boom from my list of cards I probably should have, but don't). It was also a nice thing to play when I had a half an hour to sit down and I played quite a bit while watching TV.
   

   

   It's a box ... a box of mystery and low level play.



3. XCOM 2 - I didn't play XCOM 2 that much, since it requires a little bit more thinking than I had on hand for June. Most of when I played was my continued trying to get a little traction getting better at the game.
   

   

   Nothing to worry about here...



4. Europa Universalis 4 - Certainly this is another game that allows you to distract yourself. I sort of declared that I wouldn't play again after my initial burst, but then was drawn back in some between listening to Hard Core History discuss the Persian Empire and Extra History discuss the Ottomans.
   

   

   Uh... I think I'm in trouble. 



5. Mario Golf: World Tour - I didn't play as much of this as I meant to as my lunch time game, but it's still a ton of fun.
   

   

   GameFAQs user ollist

Here's my total play time chart for June:

And here's my total number of times played:

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

Blog: Video Games of April 2016

April worked out to be a pretty stressful month for me, between being offered my first chance at teaching a Spring Semester course and moving. So, my game play fell into a couple of weird patterns mostly determined by how stressed I felt. For a while Pocket Planes was in my top five, and that's really a game I only play when I'm stressed.

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

1. Stardew Valley - Stardew Valley is really comforting, and it's nice to have a game you can turn to without having to worry too much about what's going to happen. So it was nice to have as an anti-stress game. It also has enough depth that if you're slow playing it (which I mostly am, with a few exceptions) it feels like it will last quite well. My only complaint remains, as I said in March, is that you have to play it in 20(ish) minute chunks since it doesn't save other than over night.
   
   
   
2. Super Mario Maker - I'm still playing more Super Mario Maker than I expected. I think, to some extent, this is due to it being the game with the disk in my WiiU, so it's easier to play than bothering to put something else in. It's also quite flexible, in that you can play for just a couple of minutes, or you can have a longer play session. 
   
   
   
   
   
   Nintendo has also done a good job in keeping new material coming and I've found it worth playing each of their new example courses since you get a new amibo sprite for finishing them. I'm still a little frustrated that there's not that many people playing new levels, but it's not enough to make me feel like putting the game down.
3. Hearthstone - I'm not winning quite as much as I was in the first few days of the Old Gods expansion, and I'm slipping behind on cards and the meta again. Still I have a lot of fun for a game I'm not good at (and I get a lot of joy out of the games I do win).
4. Chrono Trigger - I'm still touring my SNES collection and after Final Fantasy VI (3) this is the natural next place to go. I think my replay has convinced me that this is my favourite game of all time. 
   
   

   

   GameFAQs user MK8

   It feels beautifully choreographed, every fight and every conversation is placed in just the right place, and it feels like people worked very carefully on how players experience the game. Compared to how drawn out and unfocused Final Fantasy VI felt it's a real breath of fresh air.
5. Mario Golf: World Tour - Wanna play nine holes over lunch? Over the years I've played hours and hours of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and while I've never been an expert at it, it's up there on my list of favourite games (and probably the number one reason I turn the game cube). Even though it's been around for a while I didn't get Mario Golf: World Tour (on the 3DS) until last summer and didn't really play it that much until this month.
   
   

   

   GameFAQs user ollist

   
   Since I've been quite busy and trying to stay focused on work, I thought taking a good break at lunch and pulling out the 3DS was a good way to have focused fun. I think I'm even actually learning to be better at the game.

Other than that I haven't played too much worth talking about in April. I've definitely tried to focus a little better on the games that are important to me and play less of the games I have a harder time stopping (hi Mini-metro, although that may just be a natural fade).

Here's my total play time table for April 2016:

And here's my total number of times played:

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