Blog: Games of March 2021

March was a bit of a weird month. I think I played the fewest games in a month this month than every before (at least in a long while). This was a combination of getting into Battle Brothers (maybe a little too deeply) and trying to be a little more mindful about my time.

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

1. Battle Brothers - I'm really enjoying how much I've been able to learn. I've done around 20 runs at this point and I usually find a dumb way to die (spiders - ugh), but I'm enjoying that each time I go back in I'm a little better and I'm able to get a little farther. I've been following the game's reddit, so I feel like there's a bit of a limit to the possibilities for high level play, but I'm enjoying my low level wandering around.
   
   
   I do think the game is a little bit limited by it's random world generation. My most recent play through ended up trailing off a bit because the world seemed to be missing some of the things I needed and where it had them they were in awkward places to get to. Still this has been a ton of fun and since it's pretty easy to boot up, it's been my go to a lot of the time.
   


2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Playing Path of Radiance has been really enjoyable. It may be the nostalgia, but among Fire Emblem games it feels like it has a good balance or like it illustrates things I'm going to enjoy about other games later on. The story is pretty good and the game play is pretty good and overall, even if it's a bit slow, it's felt like a good place to put my time.
   
   


3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - I've been playing Bowser's Fury more than 3D World. The open world where you can jump into interesting platforming challenges is a lot of fun. I've just finished up Bowser's Fury and I feel like the 100 Cat Shines was a nice challenge without sticking around for too long. 3D world is also a total joy to play and amoung all of the Mario games Nintendo rereleased this year, it's the best to go back to.
   
   


4. Mario 35 - Well, they've wrapped it up. I found I did play Mario 35 more than I might have because there was the looming deadline of them turning the game off. It's been a lot of fun and it made me play the original Super Mario Bros. way more than I would have. I'm sad it's done, but I'm glad it was here.
   
   
   I will say, I hope we see it again for a season next year and I also hope that Nintendo has thought of a follow up in the form of Zelda 35, or possibly something even more unique and interesting. I had hoped they'd announce something by now, but they haven't.
   
   


5. Valais IV - An unusual aspect of this month is that the games I very briefly try out actually showed up in the games of the month list. So Valais IV came out for the Nintendo Online service (I think) and I tried it out. It wasn't really my thing. I'd like to get into some of those SNES style combat platformers (Castlevania stuff), but Valais really didn't really grab me.
   
   
6. Kirby's Dream Course - Another quick test. I don't get this game. I've watched a couple Let's Plays and I think it looks fun. On the other hand, I just have no intuition for what the game want's me to do. Still I might
   
   
7. Animal Crossing: New Horizon - Oooof. I feel bad, but I just couldn't pick this game up this month. The couple of minutes I played were to go to one my the villager's birthday. I felt badly about missing a digital creation's birthday, but generally feel like the game doesn't really reward an emotional investment.
   
   
   
   

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 February 2021

February felt like a very busy month. I had my head down trying to get a lot of stuff done, but I also tried to pretty intentional in what I played. I happened to hit a mix of new(ish) and old and a mix of strategy and platformer / action that really made me feel good.

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

1. Battle Brothers - I head about this game years ago on Three Moves Ahead and thought it sounded like fun, but maybe a little hard and gory. I saw it go past on a good sale on Steam and picked it up a while ago and finally just started playing. I really like it. It's hard to put down, thanks to a Civ style one-more-turn and really well paced learning and difficulty turns. It's "hard" and has a bit of Dwarf Fortress "fun" in it, but honestly every time I've been wiped out or screwed something up I've been happy to start again with my next band of brothers. It *is* a little gory, but since everyone is a shown as a bust moving around the field it's not to bad (although I'm not thrilled when "brains" end up in the trophy bag).
   
   


2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - I'm trying to set aside some time each Sunday to really get into an RPG or something big. I wanted to go back through Path of Radiance and more so Radiant Dawn (the sequel). The game's a little rough compared to newer entries (Three Houses especially) but the story is pretty good and I've enjoyed playing it. (Much as I desperately want zones of control from Battle Brothers.)

   

   From GameFaqs user Shogain

   
   
   


3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - I played 3D World at a happy point in my life, so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. Additionally, while it has some problems, it is a really good game and I appreciate how focused it is, even if that results in levels that feel a little constrained. Bowser's Fury is a a fascinating hybrid of 3D World and Odyssey, it's a lot of fun and a little frustrating. The mechanic that Giga Bowser shows up to make your life harder is really interesting, but sometimes I find the levels were just hard enough already so it tends to throw me off sometimes when I want to be focused. On the other hand I think the game would probably be a little boring if there wasn't a giant fire breathing monster on a timer.
   
   


4. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - I think musou games will never be for me, but I really enjoyed this. I finished up mid-month and haven't been back, but I thought it was pretty fun. It was also interesting to look at some people who are really into the genre and see what they liked and didn't like. In short I probably never really "got" the game, but I certainly had fun and the story was interesting.
   
   


5. Mario 35 - It's almost over! (Supposedly). Still fun to dip into and I think it's definitely set me to think about playing Mario games more. I had more fun with 3D World, but a few minutes of Mario 35 was always good.
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for February:

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

Blog: Video Games of November

I wasn't terribly settled to any specific game in November, but I'm feeling relaxed and enjoyed a lot of different things.

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

1. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - As  (pretty much) always Breath of the Wild topped my list for the month. I'm trying on this play through (still my 2nd) to do an all shrines play through and I think I'm getting close. I'm curious if the Champions DLC will arrive before I finish.
   

   

   Thank you, Mr. Iwata.

   
   Breath of the Wild has held up to more than 200 hours playing and I'm still enjoying it. Sometimes I miss the tighter story of other games (I went to the Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses last night and was reminded of just how much fun those other games can be), but Breath of the Wild is always fun to play.
2. Europa Universalis 4 - A few times a year I just get the urge to take over the world as the Ottomans, then I give up. EU4 is interesting in how it always has things to do, so you get a version of the Civilization "one more turn" and when I first stop playing I always think of what the next thing I should be doing in the game. I find that this fades for me some the longer I play a particular game as I don't have quite the skill / focus / DLC for a more in-depth play through.
   

   

   I always enjoy it when the game really wanders of historical maps.



3. Super Mario 3D World - Other than Breath of the Wild this has been what I've turned my Wii U on for in the last little while. I've been enjoying dropping in for short play sessions trying to 100% complete the game. I will admit I was a little influenced by everyone enjoying Mario Ojddesy, but I'll get to that once the PhD is finished.
   

   

   Just a giant Bowser head, how bad can it be.

   
   


4. Ogre Battle 64 - I didn't start a new play through this year! That means that I'm surprisingly close to making it to the end, although whether or not I've been careful enough to actually get the "real ending" I guess we'll see. It remains one of those games which I mostly love, but which has some problems in execution. I keep hunting for a "perfect" version, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
   

   

   Zarus and I share a birthday!?



5. Sunless Sea - Sunless Sea is a lot of fun and I should play it more. There's a related game, Fallen London, which is free to play and worth checking out. Both games revolve around story telling in a dark, dystopian(?) steam punk, world where London was stolen by bats and delivered into the Unterzee.
   

   

   It's hard to capture a screenshot that really captures the game, but this is a lot of it all at once.

   
   In Sunless Sea you travel the zee trying to make a fortune, or a name for yourself, or just sense of the world. It is a rogue like sailing game and a story card game. It plays at a wonderful pace, and, if you give yourself to it, a story that will really grab you (maybe by the foot, in the dark, with an icy tentacle).
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for November:

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

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 November 2016

Civilization VI came out in October, but I was busy for the so I didn't manage to get to play it until November. And then I did play it, quite a bit. At this point I don't remember too much about what else I was focused on for November so I'll let the games speak for themselves.

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

1. Civilization VI - You may have noticed I spent most of 2016 waiting for Civ VI to come out. And then it did. And I was really happy. The game is really well done and is a nice expansion on Civ V, and generally, the ideas they've been developing since Civ III. The unstacked cities makes city building interesting for the first time in a very long time. The improved movement system and ability to link units also solves the problems that unstacking units caused in Civ V. Breaking the research into Science and Cultural trees also makes it much easier to tailor your civ to the style you want to play. The new politics systems is also a really fresh aspect of the game, letting you further tailor your civ to the concerns of *right now*.
   
   
   Civ VI also offers a surprisingly heavy dose of nostalgia. It feels like Civilization (the first one), it feels exciting and clean and fresh and as you play you spend a lot of time dreaming of how the future will work in a way that most of the other entries in the series don't. In Civ V, for example, you have to decide how you would like to win the game before you begin, but in Civ VI its possible to start playing and then see where your situation leads you. That and something about the scale of the world (more plains and rivers?) really touches a feeling of "home" to me.
   The game's not perfect, the AI is weak and while they've tried to spice it up by giving each ruler a "natural" and a "hidden" motive, but while these change the ruler's interactions with you, they don't really change the way they play the game. The game also feels a little bland, I like the visual style, but especially in the late game it feels a bit like everything looks the same. This also creeps into the game play, however exciting and different the early game play as the game goes on you end up trailing into the universal "Civilization Late Game" slightly slanted by the victory you're going for (and I haven't actually tried the Domination victory yet, so I may have no idea what I'm talking about). Generally the game is very good, but definitely has room for improvement and expansion (and probably mods).
   
2. Ogre Battle 64 - If you've followed this blog much you'll know that I have a long, nostalgic and slightly conflicted relationship with Ogre Battle. On the broad level, I love the game, the concept, the game play, the story, the art, the characters and the character design. On the other hand the game is both too easy and too hard (at the same time) and has so many elements that don't actually work (in detail), that as often as not when I finish playing, I end up irritated and disconnected.
   

   

   From GameFAQs user Systematic_Rpg

   The thing is, though. I love this game. It's the game I always think of come winter weather and out of all of my favourite games it's probably the game I think about playing the most often. In addition to the nostalgia it's also (provided I don't think to hard) very relaxing and just a nice stylistic experience.
   So, with the help of a little whiskey to get started, I decided to try to play this year with out thinking too hard. I haven't done as well as I might, but generally it's been a success. I've played each mission pretty much on its own and just trusted my instincts and made the best decisions I can. I might miss out on the "super important" last mission, but overall I'm getting a lot of enjoyment 2 (or 4, did I mention the missions are long?) hours at a time.
   
3. Marvel Puzzle Quest - Having a friend who keeps poking you to get better characters and having a fair amount of time on the bus makes it easy to keep picking up MPQ. The fact that it's still fun, and has a nice mix of easy-to-play and tactically-interesting is also nice.
   
   


4. Super Mario Maker - I haven't spent that much time working on developing my own levels at the moment, but I have been playing a lot of other peoples levels lately and enjoying it. I've also been rating levels for Stephen Georg's Morning Mario, which has helped get me playing interesting levels as well.
   
   


5. Super Mario 3D World - I spent a bit of time going back and forth on whether I felt more like playing Captain Toad or 3D World and ended up wanting to finish 3D World so I could play the extra levels it unlocks in Captain Toad (which I may have had unlocked already, but it was a while ago). I started with a fresh save and replayed the first three world or so. It's interesting because while it is definitely the technically best 3D Mario game I still don't like it as much as I do Galaxy. I think some of it is the refinement of the 4 stage level progression which makes the levels more internally consistent but also seems to make the levels feel disconnected from each other (also the themes of the worlds aren't carried into the levels). I think this disconnection reduces the investment I feel in the game over all, which makes me like this very good game less than I might.
   
   

Special Bonus Game:

• I decided that I'm not going to do a Games of December post (for reasons), and I've played Pikmin 3 in both November and December and I really enjoyed it.
• Pikmin 3 is a stunningly beautiful game. It also is a perfect refinement in gameplay from the first two in the series. It has a few control issues (at least with the standard controls, I had trouble wrapping my head around stylus controls, which are apparently better) but overall it's a joy to pick up and play and always interesting. I like the way puzzles and combat are mixed and I like the way you can put the three captains to work on different jobs at the same time (at least roughly). 

Here's my total play time chart for November:

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 152)

In this volume of my Favourite YouTube Videos,  we drum up some memories, hammer down some problems and then sponge up some more useless knowledge.

• First, I hope your imaginary spaceship is ready, because Dave Bulmer is really excited about Forbidden Planet and he has his iambics, his pentameters and corrugators ready. (If you're also wondering what the hell he's going on about, he explains, in this video).
• Next, Brent Black brings us Super Mario 3D World with lyrics, because it's nice to celebrate the games that can save your friendships rather than destroy them.
• Finally, John Green has some facts that you might need to know (by which of course will never *need* to know, but will still come to you when you least expect it).