Blog: Video Games of September 2017

Well, it finally happened. I played something more than Breath of the Wild. Generally nothing grabbed me too much again in September so I tended to default to some basic choices. I did try to keep my streaks up in Pokemon Go, but other than that I didn't feel too attached to anything.


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

1. Civilization 6 - I figured at some point I'd sit down and spend more time with this game. As I think I've commented before, much as I like strategy games I'm never that good at them. I feel like Civ 6 is a bit more open to how you play, although it remains a little bit bland if I set the difficulty low enough to play well. And of course much as I did enjoy it, it managed to get to the top of the list through a couple of "just one more turn" nights.
   
   

   

   I am the mightiest (and only) navel power in the world and yet I can't keep the barbarians off my shores. 

   
   
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Still awesome. I'm still discovering new things. I'm still having fun. I'd like a little bit more story at this point, but I guess we'll be getting that before too long now.
   
   

   

   I was just standing here and then suddenly realized how beautiful this looked.

   
   


3. Kingdom Rush HD - My love of strategy games has a strong component of loving tower defense. Kingdom Rush is one of the best although (as noted above) I suck at it more than I probably should for how much I play it.
   
   

   

   The standard state of any Kingdom Rush game for me.

   
   


4. Pokemon Go - A few minutes a day keeps a game up on the list. Sadly I didn't really get time to deep dive too much on PoGo, but keeping my streaks alive was enough to get me logged in most days.
   
   

   

   His name is Tiny.

   
   


5. Cities:Skylines - I do like city building. But, I also like pretty pictures of video games. I keep a rotating selection as my desktop, and, more than anything else looking at those pictures makes me play Cities:Skylines so I can go get more pictures.
   
   
   

   

   The roads are quiet this late at night.

Here's my total play time chart for September:

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

Blog: Video Games of August 2016

I didn't play that much in August and ... I don't remember why. Possibly you should blame Netflix ... Voltron is quite good. Anyway, I definitely didn't feel the need to play that much and did other things. Possibly even read a book.

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

1. Hearthstone - Since I was mostly not playing games, it's easy to end up playing Hearthstone when you're watching TV. Also the One Night in Karazhan expansion was quite a bit of fun to play.
   
   


2. Stardew Valley - I really like starting the day off when I can with a bit of Stardew Valley. Usually I just played a day (or two) per day, but I also used it as a reward when I had a lot of housework to do. Finish your work and then you can go pretend to work. (Farming is slightly more fun in game than in real life).
   
   
   
3. Civilization 5 - Civ VI is coming.
   
   
   
4. Pokemon GO - Sadly, PoGo had some tech problems in August which kept me from playing as much, still it was nice to get out sometimes and play.
   
   
   
5. Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon - So this game is great. Also hard, which you might not realize given how cute it is. It's an actual rogue-like, by which I mean it's like Rogue and you wander around dungeons fighting enemies, changing jobs, restoring town's folk's memories and getting clobbered if you're not very very careful.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for August:

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 July 2016

I spent a lot of July recovering from May and June and I definitely got a bit more time to play. I was also still quite busy for the early parts of the month. Generally I tried to play games to give me a bit more focused fun, aaaand I also played a lot of Pokemon Go.

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

1. XCOM 2 - I dunno. It just eats time without me even noticing really. I also started to accept that even when I'm not actually having a lot of success playing, getting a team out to fight a level or two is pretty fun. That also lead me to tryout some Invisible Inc (which I also quite liked).
   

   

   My first ever total party wipe.

2. Pokémon Go - So Pokémon Go has changed a lot since it first came out and I started playing it before it even officially launched in Canada. While a lot of people have said a lot about the game, it's a huge amount of fun and in the early days seeing people crowding together in groups to play. I think it really delivered on the promise of creating a Pokémon adventure in the real world.
   

   

   A Pokécrowd. 



3. Chrono Trigger - I'm pretty sure that Chrono Trigger is my favourite game of all time (top 3 for sure) and so once I was finished with my first course it was nice to be able to sit down and play it for a while (even if it wasn't all that much). I got most of the way through the main game (it's shorter than I remember) and then stopped waiting for the "perfect time" to finish the game.
   
   
   


4. Cities: Skylines - Hey have I mentioned that I really like building cities? I really like building cities. And Cities: Skylines is a great way to build cities. I didn't play all that much, but I really enjoy all of the phases of city building (although I do tend to get a little board in the later ones and keep starting over). This game is great, really well designed and well executed. It's a huge amount of fun if you want to play a city builder (and they keep adding really cool things too).
   

   

   Golden Hour



5. Civilization V - I was not ready to wait until October for Civilization VI, so I played Civ V instead. It's a lot of fun, but ... it's time to move on.
   
   
   
   

   

   I can't remember why I have a city in the middle of the bay, but I do!

Here's my total play time chart for July:

And here's my total number of times played:

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

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 129)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we pull out or magnets, bang our air drums and then try to catch them all.

• First, on Sixty Symbols, Professor Phil Moriarty shows off the fun you can have with a slow motion camera, a strong magnet and some ferrofluid.
• Next, Hank Fucking Loves Science. (There's also a clean version if you need one.)
• Finally, Michael from Belated Media invites Alex and Kellz from The Dex to talk about Pokemon: The First Movie.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 74)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we virtually attend a very geeky concert.

• First, Mr. Alec Hamilton sings us a song of the struggles of the chemist and his fondest love. 
• Next, lonlonjp provides an interlude, playing the Chrono Trigger Main Theme.
• Finally, Random Encounters and Dodger play us out with The Eevee Song.