Blog: Video Games of August 2017

I don't have a very coherent story ab out the games I played in August. I'm finally able to access most of my games again and so can play whatever I'd like. This of course means that there's nothing that I own that I want to play. Hopefully as I get busier I'll find more things to enjoy and if not then I'll be able to put the time I'm not gaming to productive use.

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

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - It's good. It's still really good. I haven't even looked at the Trial of the Sword yet. I'm just over 164 hours right now. I also wrote a long blog piece about how cool I think this game is.
   
   

   

   160+ hours in. I have never been here before.



2. Pokémon Go - Well, it's summer, they cleaned up the game and it turns out if you keep playing a lot PoGo gets really good. I think they'll need to keep changing up the array of pokémon I'm getting to keep me in, but it's been a fun addition to the commute home lately.
   
   

   

   GASP! It's YOU!



3. Super Mario 3D World - I've mentioned a few times here that I've finished an embarrassingly small number of Mario games over the years. So I jumped back in and figured I'd try to finish all levels of 3D World. I'd thought some about getting all the stars, but I'm feeling right now that life's too short. The game isn't bad but suffers from not being other Mario games, especially Galaxy. It also has some really bad camera positioning making me feel like the 3D effect would be better left to the 3Ds.
   
   

   

   This game feeds my love of rainbows. 




4. Sid Meier's Ace Patrol - I listened to Soren Johnson's 4 part interview with Sid Meyer on Designer Notes. I was surprised how much he talked about Ace Patrol and so figured I'd fire it up again. I'm curious to try the starship game too at some point.
   

   

   Balloon busting is great. It's like shooting fish floating in the air on strings...



5. XCOM 2 - I'm not buying myself a Switch until I finish the PhD. But, ... uh ... my mind may be taken ... somewhere. That and the new DLC looks like a ton of fun.

   

   XCOM2 Firing at things you can't see the game. (Sometimes)

   
   

Here's my total play time table for August 2017:

And here's a chart 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: