Blog Post: Video Games of July 2021

July was a much quieter month than the last few. I'm still working on finding my happy point for balance between getting stuff done and getting stuff played, but generally I was pretty happy. I found myself struggling a little bit with finding a game to play to relax with, but with a little bit of energy Trials of Mana has turn out to be a delight.

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

1. Mario Golf: Super Rush - This has turned out to be a good game to play when I need something to pick up at lunch (as with World Tour before it) and it's been something good to play quickly. It's not great and definitely has a noticeable lack of depth, but the moment to moment play is fun.
   
   
   


2. Battle Brothers - Other than the bit where my PC seems to be having some issues, especially while playing Battle Brothers, this continues to be a great game the play. I'm continuing to learn more and more and the depth required to play well has been really compelling.
   
   
   


3. Trials of Mana (3D Remake) - I've stalled out playing Seiken Densetsu 3 a few times. It kinda lacks the drive of early Secret of Mana and also suffers (for me) from not *being* Secret of Mana, so it results in a lot of huh, that's good but different. The combat in is also, not terribly easy to read. The 3D remake is pretty good, I've enjoyed the combat and I think they've made some reasonable chances, streamlining some of the rough places in the original.
   
   
   


4. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - This took a little longer to finish than I'd hoped. From my perspective it provides a list of all the quality of life features that were eventually implemented in later games. On the other hand I *like* the story and the characters and compared to the games before it's much more dynamic and interesting. I think it was worth playing through, especially just after playing Path of Radiance, but I'm in a good spot to wait a little bit 
   
   
   


5. Peggle - I've ended up playing Peggle and Zuma when I've needed to get a break without getting up from the desk. (And really I *should* just be getting up from the desk.) Peggle takes a little bit longer to play than Zuma, so it ended up just ahead of it in the list.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time for July:

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

Blog: Games of June 2021

June was quite a busy month and a little unsettled, so I didn't play all that much. Honestly, there's just not that much to say about the month in terms of games. Still I did have some thoughts about the games themselves.

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

1. Battle Brothers - The game is great, but it's also very quick to pick up which is how it managed to get as much play as it did this month. I've probably spent too much time looking at how the very 'expert' players play, which sometimes feels like it's too much optimization. Still haven't had a 'successful' run, but it's been fun to play around in the world.
   
   
   
   


2. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - I'm feeling frustrated with how hard it is to keep everyone alive in the later missions and that's driving down how much time I play. I'm certainly glad they made later games easier to play, even if I think this one has my preferred story.
   
   
   
   


3. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is my favourite golf game. Super Rush hasn't managed to replace it, although it certainly is pretty and has a well designed video game golf mechanic. Weirdly the big thing I'm missing is the chance to play in tournaments. I'd love a mode where you can just play on tour after you finish the story mode (I haven't finished the story mode, so maybe this will have it, but I'm not optimistic). I do like the speed golf mode, I haven't tried the battle golf yet.
   
   
   
   


4. Peggle Deluxe - I was recently reminded of Peggle and threw it and Zuma on my Steam Wishlist. They went on sale for $1 each so I picked them up. (Not that I don't have other versions ... somewhere, but who knows). I've played a lot of Peggle over my life, and I'm pretty happy to have picked it up again. I'm still working through the "tutorial" which limits it a little, but hopefully it'll pick up speed before too long.
   
   
   
   


5. Zuma's Revenge - I've played quite a bit of the Facebook version of Zuma back when that was a thing. The full version is quite good and I've really enjoyed it. It's a nice counterpoint to Battle Brothers. I do really miss the old Popcap games though.
   
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for June:

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