Getting Excited, Making Things

Sunday, July 15, 2018

I'm not sure how I feel about what I played in March, this year. In short, I played a bit more than I feel great about, and I feel a bit like I played without as much intention as I'd like to. I also feel like I played more than I should have given that my PC was broken / in the shop for the first part of the month.

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

Into The Breach - Wow. Into the Breach is great. It gives me the satisfaction of doing well as a strategy game without being so hard that I grind out and get frustrated. The certainty you have with how the enemy turn will play out is fantastic, and it's nice being able to make decisions (or mistakes) on your own term. I also appreciate its flexibility in challenge, it has three difficulty levels. Playing on easy isn't punished, but you also feel challenged to take on the harder difficulties. I feel like I've been able to learn and improve without just getting clobbered.

Vek Threat: Kinda stoppable, if you're in the right universe.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I have played 265 hours of Breath of the Wild. I have found all 120 shrines. I've found around 300 korok seeds (so I'm like 600 short). For a little while the game was starting to feel a bit like work. But even then, I can still sit down and disappear into Hyrule for an hour or two, and really enjoy it. I'm still seeing things I haven't seen before and even when I have seen things before the game still keeps things interesting. I might have to play the DLC some time.

Yes. I am charging towards to Bokoblin riding bears. No. I didn't live much after this.

Cursed Treasure 2 - Cursed Treasure 2 has a some things that really recommend it. First, it's available on the Web, so I could play it while my PC was broken. Second, it has an interesting set of challenges that keep the game interesting, and it has a meta game that leaves you with a lot of interesting choices. Finally, it's fairly quick to play so it's nice to have for a break when you need it. I've actually been enjoying it enough that I've been messing around with speed running it a bit, and can now play the first 3 levels in 4 minutes and 51 seconds.

OK. 5 minutes. Go!

Super Mario Maker - I'm actually surprised I played this game this much, but it's kinda easy to get sucked in. I started playing again because I started watching StephenPlays again, and every weekday morning he plays a level from Mario Maker. It's interesting how much level design has changed since I first started playing. Some of it is really good, and I also think some of it doesn't really result in the much fun. Still it's been in my head, and I've been noodling around with a few ideas that I hope are fun.

Welcome to the doughnut mines.

Ogre Battle 64 - In March I finished a play through of Ogre Battle 64. To the best of my recollection, that's the second time I've finished it. Yeah, it *is* probably my favourite game. It's something I've come to a certain amount of peace with, I can love Ogre Battle and think it's pretty flawed at the same time. I just need to play it however it seems to work. Anyway, it's time to put it away for now and play summer things until the snow rolls around again in October. (**Coughcough** - insert comment about Calgary's unending winter 2018)

I ... finished.