Blog: Books Read in 2018

Intrigue! 

Good Reads

Blog: Games of July 2018

I was pretty focused on work and watching football in July, so ended up not playing a lot. Also Dan Floyd started playing Kingdom Hearts, ProJared started playing Illusion of Gaia, and Chuggaconroy started playing  Earthbound, so I've suddenly been watching way more than my usual allotment of Let's Plays. All this reduced the usual amount I play, but I've had a lot of fun with what I've played.

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

1. Paper Mario: Color Splash - I'm 100%ing this game (ish*) and so I've ended up putting quite a bit of time into wandering around and hitting things with hammers, when necessary. I've also been playing with my partner watching for the most part, which has been a lot of fun (plus *someone* gets to see all the jokes).
   
   

   

   My research would have gone way faster if I had a science claw. - Wait no, the other thing. Slower. Much. Much. Slower.

   
   
2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I'm still not good enough at the Master Sword Quest (well technically at fighting a pair of Silver Lizalfos) so I'm still just trying to git good.
   
   

   

   Look, I've been on the Sword Trials for a loooong time now.



3. Mario Golf: World Tour - Playing mostly on lunch. I'm surprised at how oddly they have the unlocks structured, none of the playable characters are available until after you unlock all the courses, and to unlock anything you have to complete some fairly tough challenges to get coins. I'm also a little disappointed that they implemented the club house, but then most of the actual content of the game has to be accessed through the main menu, a little more "role play" might have worked nicely.
   
   

   

   Sniper Luigi - Via Super Mario Wiki



4. Pokémon Go - Uh, yeah. Back on this train. Friends help. So does the rebalance in items. I think they've done really good work on this game recently, and I've really been enjoying this.
   
   

   

   Leveling Up



5. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - Another month, more coffee, Animal Crossing and Chill. The game has 12 months, which changes the events and the length of the game. We've been keeping ourselves to only playing the current month, which keeps the game fresh and fun (and makes us say "We should play one more time while it's still July".)
   
   

   

   Fancy Brother / Sister Game Day

Here's my total play time chart for July:

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

* I've decided not to get all of the cards as that just seems to be a bit more time than I'd like to spend on this game.

Blog: Books Read in 2018

Izabel!! Science!

Good Reads

Blog: Games of June 2018

I travelled for 10 days in June and that - along with trying to get enough work done to travel - left me playing a little less than I usually do and it *slightly* modified the games we usually see on this list.

My top five games (by play time) for June 2018 were:

1. Mario Golf: World Tour - Between lunches and evenings on the road, I played Mario Golf on my 3DS a bunch. I'm in a state right now where I'm getting pretty good, and really enjoying it. I will say I think there are some weird game design choices for the game surrounding the actual golf, and I'm disappointed in how the spin is managed since you're limited to hitting the touchscreen without really knowing how much spin you have, or need, - as opposed to Toadstool Tour, where you can plot spin and then have to aim while you shoot.
   
   

   

   Fore! Lunch! Road!

2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I've slowed down a lot because I swore to myself that I would finish all of the Master Sword trials. The problem is that, I'm not nearly as good at this game as I probably should be having played almost 280 hours. Anyway, I've spent the last little while trying to git good, and I'm *slowly* improving.
   
   

   

   Gotcha. (Yes, I need to fix my WiiU's Internet)



3. Stardew Valley - Still love playing this in the mornings, although I'm into spring in my third year and as usually the game feels a little like its starting to run low on content. 
   
   

   

   Feast Season.



4. Europa Universalis 4 - Always easy to drop a few hours into EU4. Playing ironman has felt pretty good. My Ottomans are questing to control the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, while not getting crushed by the really large Russians and Polish Commonwealth - or the HRE - or Spain which controls most of France - or Portugal which controls the entire west of Africa. (I really like it when the game goes alt-history).
   
   

   

   Getting a little non-traditional. (Or why is Spain so BIG!?)



5. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - As I've said before, this is a weekend morning game for coffee and chill time. That being said, while some of the actual game mechanics are out of your control (think snakes and ladders), the design and charm of the game really stands out. Also, we've accidentally spent a lot of time dropping cats in to the water in the name of "getting more points".
   
   

   

   We're glad you're hosting Punchy. Sorry about the water thing.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for June:

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