Blog: Video Games of August 2016

I didn't play that much in August and ... I don't remember why. Possibly you should blame Netflix ... Voltron is quite good. Anyway, I definitely didn't feel the need to play that much and did other things. Possibly even read a book.

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

1. Hearthstone - Since I was mostly not playing games, it's easy to end up playing Hearthstone when you're watching TV. Also the One Night in Karazhan expansion was quite a bit of fun to play.
   
   


2. Stardew Valley - I really like starting the day off when I can with a bit of Stardew Valley. Usually I just played a day (or two) per day, but I also used it as a reward when I had a lot of housework to do. Finish your work and then you can go pretend to work. (Farming is slightly more fun in game than in real life).
   
   
   
3. Civilization 5 - Civ VI is coming.
   
   
   
4. Pokemon GO - Sadly, PoGo had some tech problems in August which kept me from playing as much, still it was nice to get out sometimes and play.
   
   
   
5. Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon - So this game is great. Also hard, which you might not realize given how cute it is. It's an actual rogue-like, by which I mean it's like Rogue and you wander around dungeons fighting enemies, changing jobs, restoring town's folk's memories and getting clobbered if you're not very very careful.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for August:

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 151)

In this volume of my Favourite YouTube Videos, we save our bees, celebrate our lab techs and lament the passing of time.

• First, if you're feeling like you've heard too many sad, weird or creepy Greek myths lately, Dael Kingsmill is here to tell you a touching story about a guy and his bees. Well it's still weird, but what can you do?
• Next we have a moment of thanks from Periodic Videos for their awesome lab tech Neil. 
• Finally, Laura Shigihara plays her cover of Chrono Trigger's Corridor's of Time, The Fall and as usual raises all the hair on my arms with this song.

Blog: Video Games of July 2016

I spent a lot of July recovering from May and June and I definitely got a bit more time to play. I was also still quite busy for the early parts of the month. Generally I tried to play games to give me a bit more focused fun, aaaand I also played a lot of Pokemon Go.

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

1. XCOM 2 - I dunno. It just eats time without me even noticing really. I also started to accept that even when I'm not actually having a lot of success playing, getting a team out to fight a level or two is pretty fun. That also lead me to tryout some Invisible Inc (which I also quite liked).
   

   

   My first ever total party wipe.

2. Pokémon Go - So Pokémon Go has changed a lot since it first came out and I started playing it before it even officially launched in Canada. While a lot of people have said a lot about the game, it's a huge amount of fun and in the early days seeing people crowding together in groups to play. I think it really delivered on the promise of creating a Pokémon adventure in the real world.
   

   

   A Pokécrowd. 



3. Chrono Trigger - I'm pretty sure that Chrono Trigger is my favourite game of all time (top 3 for sure) and so once I was finished with my first course it was nice to be able to sit down and play it for a while (even if it wasn't all that much). I got most of the way through the main game (it's shorter than I remember) and then stopped waiting for the "perfect time" to finish the game.
   
   
   


4. Cities: Skylines - Hey have I mentioned that I really like building cities? I really like building cities. And Cities: Skylines is a great way to build cities. I didn't play all that much, but I really enjoy all of the phases of city building (although I do tend to get a little board in the later ones and keep starting over). This game is great, really well designed and well executed. It's a huge amount of fun if you want to play a city builder (and they keep adding really cool things too).
   

   

   Golden Hour



5. Civilization V - I was not ready to wait until October for Civilization VI, so I played Civ V instead. It's a lot of fun, but ... it's time to move on.
   
   
   
   

   

   I can't remember why I have a city in the middle of the bay, but I do!

Here's my total play time chart for July:

And here's my total number of times played:

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

Blog: Video Games of June 2016

I was very busy with my first teaching position in June and so had less time to play than I had in previous months. I also was quite stressed, so wanted to play games that would help me distract myself.

Here are my top five games (by time played) for June 2016:

1. Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor - In terms of a game that's easy to distract yourself Shows of Mordor certainly counts. It has a lot of things to do and the challenge in the game is moderate, so it's usually easy to go kill an uruk when ever you want. Unfortunately, "victory" comes very abruptly and the final boss is, ... not interesting at all. And while you can keep on playing after you defeat the final boss, the game becomes a lot less fulfilling.
   

   

   It's nice of the bad guys to let me know where they are.

   
   
2. Hearthstone - Looking back I'm not sure if this was already in the window where people were getting excited for One Night in Karazhan or not. Either way, playing in the new standard format made hearthstone more interesting again (and at least removed Dr. Boom from my list of cards I probably should have, but don't). It was also a nice thing to play when I had a half an hour to sit down and I played quite a bit while watching TV.
   

   

   It's a box ... a box of mystery and low level play.



3. XCOM 2 - I didn't play XCOM 2 that much, since it requires a little bit more thinking than I had on hand for June. Most of when I played was my continued trying to get a little traction getting better at the game.
   

   

   Nothing to worry about here...



4. Europa Universalis 4 - Certainly this is another game that allows you to distract yourself. I sort of declared that I wouldn't play again after my initial burst, but then was drawn back in some between listening to Hard Core History discuss the Persian Empire and Extra History discuss the Ottomans.
   

   

   Uh... I think I'm in trouble. 



5. Mario Golf: World Tour - I didn't play as much of this as I meant to as my lunch time game, but it's still a ton of fun.
   

   

   GameFAQs user ollist

Here's my total play time chart for June:

And here's my total number of times played:

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