Showing posts with label Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Show all posts

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Blog: Games of May 2020


Later stage quarantine, not actually employed, it was an interesting month for games.



My top five games (by play time) for May 2020 were:
  1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - I don't really know what to say about this one. It's a great refinement of the last main series Animal Crossing and it's very hip. It's easy to pick up, always has something interesting to see and is exactly the right game to have on hand when you have a moment. Definitely a happy place game.

    Animal Crossing villagers celebrating a new bridge.

  2. Europa Universalis 4 - Remember in history class when the House of FitzGerald won the war of the roses? I think that's the part of EU4 I like the best when you're able to play with different events in history and look at interesting `ways things could be'. I played my first ever game to completion and did okay. I manage to sprawl The Ottomans across the middle east but got hung up on late game great powers. I ended up pincered between Russia and Venice and couldn't really overcome them. Still lots of fun and I'm looking forward to the next expansion.

    EU4 Map with Ottomans covering the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula

  3. XCOM: Chimera Squad - I wasn't particularly sure what to think when they announced this. My memory of XCOM 2 is being perpetually frustrated by turn limits and not quite as drawn into the story (both written and emergent). Chimera Squad seems to fix a lot of that by making the game a series quick and interesting battles. I think the game skews a little bit simple, but I also like that when I do make a mistake it's not a huge reset. I'm having quite a good time with this overall. The game does seem to have some technical problems which they'll hopefully patch up at some point.

    Verge and Cherub looking away from the camera

  4. Super Mario Odyssey - I love how easy it is to pick this game up and jump into something interesting. I'd love more to do and home there's some Super Mario Odyssey 2 floating around in someone's mind somewhere.

    Mario standing in Mario Square in New Donk City

  5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Given that my preference is usually to play games on my own, it's a bit weird to pick this up. But I wanted something a little different than my usual set of RPGs and tactics. I'm enjoying, trying to undo my half-remembered muscle memory from Melee and actually git a little good.

    The hands bosses just being defeated by Ganondorf

Here's my total play time chart for May:



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




Thursday, May 07, 2020

Blog: Video Games of April 2020


So that was a month, huh. I'm having a hard time believing that April was just one month. At the beginning of the month I was still teaching. I've made it through completing that, all the marking and the clean up and spent a few weeks hanging out in quarantine. I'm actually having a hard time remembering what I played and why, but that's why I track this stuff I suppose.

My top five games (by play time) for April 2020 were:
  1. Dragon Quest XI S - I spent a lot of the month trying to finish up Dragon Quest XI, but got hung up on the secret, prove the the mystical something-or-other that you're the best hero the world has ever seen. It was mostly fun, but that secret boss kinda soured me a bit. On the other hand hitting level 99 was pretty fun and it didn't take me too long in any one session. DQXI really shines in the late game / second game. I kinda wish I'd felt that positive about it the whole way through, but generally it was worth while. I really didn't get into the 2D / historical stuff at all, but honestly I haven't played that much Dragon Quest overall.

    Erik! Erik! He's our lad! If he can't do it we're still bad!


  2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - It's been nice to have a slow game to play and I've played it very slow. I find myself at odds a bit with Tom Nook who's looking to fill up the island. I signed up for a virtual getaway to a deserted island, what are you doing building permanent home-owner associations... But it's been fun for sure.

    Celebrations!


  3. Europa Universalis 4 - Getting a little better each time I play and honestly having a lot of fun. I've also developed surprising feelings about areas of Europe and the Middle East from 1444 to the 1700s. Also a minor fear of Austria.

    People often forget about that time the Ottomans occupied the whole of Sweden. (Including me I was super baffled when I got this message)


  4. Super Mario World (SNES on Switch) - I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm fairly sure this was the first video game I purchased with my own money, because it came with my Super Nintendo, which I purchased.  I've never actually played it all the way through and so it's been nice when work's done to sit down and play.

    The first time I earned this screen in the 20 some years I've owned this game. (And I still had to weasel a little to get there)


  5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - I've been holding off picking up Ultimate because I'm kinda short on local friends who might want to play. But I've been watching Steven and Mal play through classic mode, and it looked fun, so I picked it up . Seems like I still main Marth (sorry) and it's been a ton of fun to have to hand.

    Fancy fighting.

Here's my total play time chart for April:



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




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