Blog: Video Games of of July 2017

July was a really busy month and so I didn't play too much, making it quite boring. My PC was also in pieces for most of the month so I was mostly down to console games. DLC 1 for Breath of the Wild also came out, so, you know, I mostly played that.

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

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Master Mode has breathed (pun sorta intended) a whole new games worth of play into Breath of the Wild. Another 30 hours played this month and I'm still loving it.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Mario Kart 8 - Really in a different category at only 3 and a bit hours played, but still a lot of fun.




3. Pokemon Go - Between the update and it being summer, it's been fun to haul this out again.





4. Cities: Skylines - I've been hoping to start making cooler cities. Everything I make tends to come out a little bit boxy. So I've been trying to think a little more creatively and make some neater places.


5. Marvel Puzzle Quest and Mario Golf: World Tour - A bit of an odd tie at just over an hour, both of the games I tend to play on breaks in the office. Either way, more fun playing two games which seem to show up here quite a bit.

Here's my total play time chart for July: 

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

Project 15: 12 Books in 21 Weeks: Update 2

Back on the Stross wagon, with the next in the laundry files.

Project 15: 12 Books in 21 Weeks: Update

Really enjoyed reading through The Atrocity Archives again. Sadly The Jennifer Morgue is by a wide margin my least favourite of the Laundry Files, so I basically just skimmed it in audio book form.

Blog: Video Games of June 2017

I was busy in June and not in the headspace to sink too deeply into anything. So, my list for the month is a little shorter than usual. I guess, I also have to confess, that I stopped tracking Pocket Planes (which I did track last year), because I play it in weird bursts (30 seconds ever 2 minutes, or continuously for 3 hours), and because I play it when stressed, and I don't want to keep track of stress.

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

1. Mario Kart 8 - I decided back in May that it was time to GIT GOOD at Mario Kart 8. Since then, I've really been enjoying it. I can do about 4 150CC circuits in an hour and I can see substantial improvement. That's been fun and the online scene has been really vibrant and fun too.
   

   

   The look of this game makes me have all kinds of thoughts about Mario Odyssey.



2. Marvel Puzzle Quest - As always, this is my goto on my phone. Plus the game is showering us with stuff right now, and as long as you don't really care what you get, then you can just be happy to have something new to open. (Something, something, skinner box, pavlov, still having fun, something, something.)
   

   

   Time for Zap-Pow!



3. Pharaoh - You want a game that's not actually fun? Here's one. I technically love Pharaoh, and the walker-city genre in general, but seriously, this game can leave you spending hours working on a (unbeknownst to you) failed city without any real tools to fix things. It's a fun game, with great style and a great idea, but it seriously needs a modern take to make it properly enjoyable.
   

   

   I've been kicked out of my home and through no fault of my own. - from GameFAQs user yutjrft76



4. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - DLC 1 time, baby! Time to put another 110 hours in. Seriously, Master Mode is great. It puts the whole game back together in a new way, and it's making it exciting to play again, after the two pretty solid months I already put in. Both the game, and the DLC have been worth every penny.
   

   

   The Hero's Master Path



5. Sid Meyer's Covert Action - Yup, playing a game from 1990. Fortunately, the version on Steam works quite well, so I get to fulfill my urge to be a super spy. Plus, I've been thinking about trying to model a game on the concepts and style of Covert Action, so we can call this "research" even.
   

   

   Look at that box. How could you even have questions? - from GameFAQS user odino.

Here's my total play time chart for June:

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