Video Games of April 2022

April was a pretty quiet month. I don't have too much new or interesting to talk about. I am finding I miss my PC so it's probably about time to go and get that fixed.

The only even remotly interesting thing to talk about is that I've decided that I want to try to play at least 50 unique games this year. Currently I'm at 22. It's a very unimportant goal, but I feel like seeing more things sounds like fun.

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

1. Triangle Strategy - I finished my first play through. As I've said the last few months, the game play is outstanding. I think the construction of the story and the implementation of choices and the voting system are a little unweildly and not quite as fun as the might be. It's still worth playing if you like that kind of grid-based tactics game.
   
   
   
   
   I looked ahead to a second playthrough and decided that trying to get all four endings wasn't going to be worth the work. It looks like the "golden ending" is the only ending that's worth the time, so I've decided to do a second playthough with a guide.
   
   In new game plus, they introduced several new and interesting levels outside of the story and those have been excellent. Most of my playtime this month has been on those levels.
   


2. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe - This has been a great game, especially when my brain isn't up to something more story heavy. Beyond playing for it's own sake, I got interested in which courses are the most popular in the online multi-player so I've been doodling a new program to calculate power rankings. (I haven't written about it yet, but may do a little later). So in addition to the intrensic joy of playing, I've enjoyed the extrensic happiness that comes from "I got more data."
   
   
   


3. Eastward - As far as I've played, Eastward is an artistic tour-de-force. The game feels very intentionally and carefully built, and the world feels very intricate and lived in. The story leaves me feeling slightly uncomfortable, in the way that is very remenisent of Earthbound and Mother 3, but more grown up .
   
   
   


4. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Lunch golf is good. Maybe not the best use of lunch every day, but 20 minutes of Mario Golf still makes me happy.
   
   
   


5. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - This was a month where the top five has some pretty low numbers on it, so I played less than an hour of Breath of the Wild. Still, as always, I apprecate how after all these years, there are things I've never seen and that are great.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for April:

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

Video Games of March 2022

Most of my March got taken over by Breath of the Wild and Triangle Strategy. I didn't manage to keep up my "play whatever whenever it feels good" plan from January and February, but that's alright. There are plenty of games and plenty of days and it's nice to spend more time with something new ... and something older...

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

1. Triangle Strategy - I like Triangle Strategy. It's not perfect, but the game play is pretty fun. The tactical combat stages are great, and especially the ones you can replay whenever you want have been a lot of fun, especially as you try out different combinations of units. I also like the mechanic where your council votes on what happens next and you have to persuade them how you'd like them to vote (although I really struggle to get them to vote how I want.
   
   

   

   (Another) Fight for the bridge

   The game is really slow in the way it tells its story. I'm a little frustrated with the pacing, although I'm struggling to detect exactly why. There's some repeated storytelling, and the voice acting is very isolated, but honestly as soon as they let me out of the cutscene I'm happy again.
   
   


2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I really didn't mean to put this much time into Breath of the Wild, but here we are again. What's interesting this time is that I actually replaced a lot of my quick mid-day sessions with Breath of the Wild. I should have known, but it's surprisingly easy to drop into for fifteen minutes, find something interesting or do a shrine and then get on with your day. It's always a joy, it's still my favourite game and it's been fun to find a new way to enjoy it.
   
   

   

   Down into the Valley



3. Ogre Battle 64 - I mostly played Ogre Battle while sick. The fact that it more or less plays itself is extremely helpful.
   
   

   

   Ogres but There's Always Time to Party



4. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe - As the one person who really liked the WiiU and bought almost everything which came out for it, I've strongly resisted rebuying all of those games for Switch. The new DLC announced for Mario Kart 8: Deluxe pushed into finally picking it up and I've really enjoyed it.
   
   

   

   The Fastest Space Queen



5. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - I ... like Puyo Puyo. I play Tetris like every game is getting reviewed to let me into the world championship, and sometimes that's exactly what I want from a puzzle game. The bit where I don't have any instinct for Puyo Puyo makes it a lot of fun to just jump into (and I'm getting better).
   
   

   

   I Have No Idea What's Happening

Here's my total play time chart for March:

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

Blog: Games of March 2019

I was pretty steadily busy in March and still holding out on getting to invested in playing anything while I had work to do. I didn't play anything particularly of note, although I probably did get deeper into Xenonauts than I'd planned. I also very briefly started trying to play a version of Simon's Cat branded Snood on the phone, but that has the standard addictive gameplay and pay-to-keep-playing model so I ditched that pretty quickly.

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

1. Breath of Fire II - I'm struggling to get through this a bit. Some of this game is really well done and some of it isn't. The translation is obviously awful, and it has a very SNES RPG habit of sending you to do something ... somewhere, so I've had to resort to a guide (well, several guides) to find a decent way to play. On the other hand, something does keep me playing and I enjoy the overall feel of the game.
   
   
   
   via GIPHY


2. Xenonauts - I got listening to a Podcast where they were talking about XCOM (the real one from '94). So I figured I'd fire up Xenonauts until I got frustrated and quit. So far that hasn't happened and I've been enjoying Xenonauts quite a bit.
   
   

   

   Nothing to worry about.

   
   


3. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - As (pretty much) always.
   
   

   

   Brother and Sister

   
   


4. Pokémon Go  - Also as (pretty much) always.
   
   

   

   I take it back. I'm slightly worried.

   
   


5. Mario Kart 8 - I needed something more tactile to play and this was really up my alley.
   
   
   
   via GIPHY

Here's my total play time chart for March:

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 June 2017

I was busy in June and not in the headspace to sink too deeply into anything. So, my list for the month is a little shorter than usual. I guess, I also have to confess, that I stopped tracking Pocket Planes (which I did track last year), because I play it in weird bursts (30 seconds ever 2 minutes, or continuously for 3 hours), and because I play it when stressed, and I don't want to keep track of stress.

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

1. Mario Kart 8 - I decided back in May that it was time to GIT GOOD at Mario Kart 8. Since then, I've really been enjoying it. I can do about 4 150CC circuits in an hour and I can see substantial improvement. That's been fun and the online scene has been really vibrant and fun too.
   

   

   The look of this game makes me have all kinds of thoughts about Mario Odyssey.



2. Marvel Puzzle Quest - As always, this is my goto on my phone. Plus the game is showering us with stuff right now, and as long as you don't really care what you get, then you can just be happy to have something new to open. (Something, something, skinner box, pavlov, still having fun, something, something.)
   

   

   Time for Zap-Pow!



3. Pharaoh - You want a game that's not actually fun? Here's one. I technically love Pharaoh, and the walker-city genre in general, but seriously, this game can leave you spending hours working on a (unbeknownst to you) failed city without any real tools to fix things. It's a fun game, with great style and a great idea, but it seriously needs a modern take to make it properly enjoyable.
   

   

   I've been kicked out of my home and through no fault of my own. - from GameFAQs user yutjrft76



4. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - DLC 1 time, baby! Time to put another 110 hours in. Seriously, Master Mode is great. It puts the whole game back together in a new way, and it's making it exciting to play again, after the two pretty solid months I already put in. Both the game, and the DLC have been worth every penny.
   

   

   The Hero's Master Path



5. Sid Meyer's Covert Action - Yup, playing a game from 1990. Fortunately, the version on Steam works quite well, so I get to fulfill my urge to be a super spy. Plus, I've been thinking about trying to model a game on the concepts and style of Covert Action, so we can call this "research" even.
   

   

   Look at that box. How could you even have questions? - from GameFAQS user odino.

Here's my total play time chart for June:

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

Blog: Video Games of May 2017

I finished Breath of the Wild, and then I had to figure out what people do with their time when they aren't running across Hyrule. Apparently there are ... other games. In the end I played a bunch of stuff and was pretty happy even if there wasn't anything that took up all of the time.

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

1. Hearthstone - I managed to play quite a bit of Hearthstone in half hour chunks in May. As always I'm enjoying it and possibly even getting very, very slightly better. I think the current state of the game is doing well in the "interesting choice" world of gameplay.
   


2. Cities: Skylines - This is a great game and Colossal Order keep making it better. The new Transportation oriented DLC and patch have fixed some of the stuff that bugged me and I've really been enjoying playing again the last little while.
   


3. Mario Kart 8 - Between needing something not too heavy to play on the Wii U and the talk of Mario Kart 8 on the switch, I jumped back into Mario Kart. It's been fun and I've actually been improving a bit.
   


4. Rakuen - I'm working on a post about Rakuen, but I was really happy that Laura Shigihara's game has finally come out and so I wanted to play it right away. I didn't manage to 100% it so I'll have to play it again at some point, but this is a game that's really worth taking some time to play.
   


5. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I finished Breath of the Wild at the very beginning of the month. And then having played for two solid months I needed a break. I managed to play another few minutes later in the month, but I'm definitely going to need some time before I put in another 100 hours. I think I'll wait for the first DLC and see how that goes.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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