Books Read in 2022

Harshness. Purpose. Definitions.

Books Read in 2022

Worth. Love. Numbness.

Books Read in 2022

Whack. Invisible. Cigar.

Video Games of June 2022

I like that in the chart of how much I've played, you can see the exact moment my brain released it's clamp on Dragon Quest Builders 2. Now that I can look around again I'm trying to get back to playing more games.

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

1. Dragon Quest Builders 2 - Playing in free-mode, after the story's finished hasn't been as compelling as the story mode, even though I found the story mode kept getting in the way of playing the game. I think this will settle in to be something I play every once in a while, but I also don't think I have the patience to build anything like the things I see in pictures from other players.
   
   


2. Mario Strikers: Battle League - I've always had a complicated relationship with the Mario sports games, aside from golf, and I've also found that the Switch Mario sports games have been just a little shy of the personality and interesting game play that I'd like them to have. Battle League feels like it's sitting right at the cross of these two problems, it's pretty hard and not that interesting. Playing with other people might help with that, but the league structure doesn't feel like it's working and I got my ass seriously kicked in the one online game I played.
   
   


3. Hollow Knight - It's been nice to pick Hollow Knight up again and I'm surprised how much better I am at it than I was when I first started. I've been enjoying the feeling of motion and freedom.
   
   


4. Mario Golf: Super Rush - As always, Super Rush tends to be my lunch break game when working from home. I'm enjoying that it seems to still have interesting things for me to get better at, even if it still feels a touch bland just like the other Switch Mario Sports games.
   


5. Eastward - If you asked me, without looking it up, I'd say I played almost as much Eastward as I have DQB2. It's a very dense and intense game and it feels like every moment you play is important and interesting.
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for June:

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

Video Games of May 2022

"I want to play lots of different games this year," he said.

"Oh look, the some Dragon Quest games I haven't played are on sale," he said.

"Hmm, people have said Dragon Quest Builders 2 is pretty good," he said.

"What happened to May?" he said.

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

1. Dragon Quest Builders 2 - So I had figured this would be the kind of game I might dip into here and there. I may yet do that, but I hadn't realized that the game is actually (or at least to start) a 60 hour Action-RPG. It's a game with a lot of flaws, in terms of controls, gameplay and story, but as you can see, I struggled to put it down. If you'd like to spend some time building things in a Dragon Quest world, this is the game.
   
   
   


2. Eastward - I stalled out a bit on Eastward, mostly due to Dragon Quest Builders 2, but also Eastward is a bit weird about progress in the story in the same way Earthbound is. When we were suddenly making movies with monkeys, I felt a little less compeled to pick this up.
   
   
   


3. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe - The theme for everything else this month is, I decided to play Dragon Quest Builders 2 instead.
   
   
   


4. Triangle Strategy - Dragon Quest Builders 2.
   
   
   


5. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Dragon Quest Builders 2.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

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

Books Read in 2022

Concern. Nostalgia. Warmth. Rot.

Books Read in 2022

Challenge. Force. Dad-Fashion. Change.

Books Read in 2022

Teenage. Revenge. Country. Work.

Books Read in 2022

Concequences. Loveless. Aging.

Books Read in 2022

Adventure. Living. Categories. Summer.

Books Read in 2022

Anxiety. Dominance. Cracks.

Books Read in 2022

Loss.

Books Read in 2022

Power. Heroes.

Video Games of April 2022

April was a pretty quiet month. I don't have too much new or interesting to talk about. I am finding I miss my PC so it's probably about time to go and get that fixed.

The only even remotly interesting thing to talk about is that I've decided that I want to try to play at least 50 unique games this year. Currently I'm at 22. It's a very unimportant goal, but I feel like seeing more things sounds like fun.

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

1. Triangle Strategy - I finished my first play through. As I've said the last few months, the game play is outstanding. I think the construction of the story and the implementation of choices and the voting system are a little unweildly and not quite as fun as the might be. It's still worth playing if you like that kind of grid-based tactics game.
   
   
   
   
   I looked ahead to a second playthrough and decided that trying to get all four endings wasn't going to be worth the work. It looks like the "golden ending" is the only ending that's worth the time, so I've decided to do a second playthough with a guide.
   
   In new game plus, they introduced several new and interesting levels outside of the story and those have been excellent. Most of my playtime this month has been on those levels.
   


2. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe - This has been a great game, especially when my brain isn't up to something more story heavy. Beyond playing for it's own sake, I got interested in which courses are the most popular in the online multi-player so I've been doodling a new program to calculate power rankings. (I haven't written about it yet, but may do a little later). So in addition to the intrensic joy of playing, I've enjoyed the extrensic happiness that comes from "I got more data."
   
   
   


3. Eastward - As far as I've played, Eastward is an artistic tour-de-force. The game feels very intentionally and carefully built, and the world feels very intricate and lived in. The story leaves me feeling slightly uncomfortable, in the way that is very remenisent of Earthbound and Mother 3, but more grown up .
   
   
   


4. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Lunch golf is good. Maybe not the best use of lunch every day, but 20 minutes of Mario Golf still makes me happy.
   
   
   


5. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - This was a month where the top five has some pretty low numbers on it, so I played less than an hour of Breath of the Wild. Still, as always, I apprecate how after all these years, there are things I've never seen and that are great.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for April:

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

Books Read in 2022

Lööpgaröös. Wants. Trauma.