Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 131)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we talk about the web then go back in time with two very nostalgic video game themes.

• First, Michael from VSauce wants to talk about how and why we surf the Web (and why the web is not the net).
• Next, Caitlin and Vaughan take a trip back in time with the Menu Theme from Wolfenstein 3D.
• Finally, Mr. Smooth McGroove straps into his Ar-Wing and takes us back to the SNES Star Fox. Goood luck!

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 130)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, it's music day. Wake up, suck up and chill!

• First, get up, and don't forget to wake Pomplamoose up before you Go!
• Next, Brentalfloss flosses up the theme to Luigi's Mansion. So grab your vacuum and get to work (although I don't recommend listening to the cover if you're planning to play the game in the near future, the ear worm quotient is ... high).
• Finally, CalebElijah plays "Sub Zero Snow Field" from Seiken Densetsu 3, which I think may be one of the most beautiful pieces of music in video games. Certainly the cover is absolutely gorgeous. 

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 129)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we pull out or magnets, bang our air drums and then try to catch them all.

• First, on Sixty Symbols, Professor Phil Moriarty shows off the fun you can have with a slow motion camera, a strong magnet and some ferrofluid.
• Next, Hank Fucking Loves Science. (There's also a clean version if you need one.)
• Finally, Michael from Belated Media invites Alex and Kellz from The Dex to talk about Pokemon: The First Movie.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 128)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we figure out who we are, why Yoshi is cool and why you should be careful when you're feeling fancy.

• First, Micheleh takes a few minutes to look at who he is through the lens of media and passes on some very sage advice at the same time. Then stick around for his DVD extras, where he rants (very well) about "Content" and why it's a useless and insulting term.
• Next, Josh talks about how Super Mario World is Really Freakin' Clever. He touches on how Super Mario World has a lot of flexibility (more than many of the following Mario games) and how Yoshi is integral to how we understand the game (and how he's an aspect of the game, not just level design). He also talked about how easily Mario game communicate what the rules of the game are and I was reminded of this video from Jamin from PBS Digital Studios Game Show.
• Finally, if you need a little dose of weird this week, Pomplamoose, covered "Puttin On The Ritz." Remember folks, always keep your trip hazards under control or the lemons won't stop singing.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 127)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, it's a music volume with space ducks, menu songs and one take feelings.

• First, Caitlin and Vaughan are taking ducks to space, with their cover of The Moon Level from Duck Tails.
• Next, Mr. Smooth McGroove is ready for a fight, in the menu (from Super Smash Bros. Melee).
• Finally, from their Season 2, Pomplamoose cover James Brown, "I Feel Good" and it feels good.

Blog: Video Games of March 2016

I seem to have split my time a little more between a few games in March than I did in February. Partly at least because I finished XCOM and really didn't feel like picking it up again and partly because most of the other games I was playing really limited the amount you can play at a time.

My top five games of the month (by play time) were:

1. Stardew Valley - I resisted playing this game because I usually end up feeling a little empty after playing any of the open farming kind of games, and also because I tend to play games like this a little too intensely (cough, 17 hours in 7 days, cough). But a few friends were interested in it and I watched how excited ProJared and Pushing up Roses were about the game and I somehow found myself buying it.
   
   
   

   

   Down on the farm, where the cat watches all.

   
   
   So far I've really enjoyed it. I think it has a little more to it than the Harvest Moon games I've played over the years and I think it also smooths out some of the hichoughs that most of the Harvest Moon games have too. You can see the amount of care and polish that went into the game and continues to go into the game.
   
   I've also tried to play the game in a very gentle way. I try (although I don't always suceeed) to keep the play sessions short and I've also worked to avoid min-maxing any aspect of the game. I'm working on roleplaying just a guy who needed a break from life and got a farm and I have to say I think it's really helped me relax while playing. My only real complaint with the game is that there's no save option except over night, which occasionally makes me keep playing after I'd really rather stop.
2. Super Mario Maker - I really hadn't expected to play this much Super Mario Maker. I spent quite a bit of time (for the first 3/4 of the month) playing a little bit each day. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to make better levels and I think I'm getting better. The problem is that it's so difficult to get your levels played by anyone that you end up shouting into the void.
   
   
   

   

   The levels from Nintendo are also usually really great to play, here you played the same level 3 ways to get the three starter pokemon.

   I finished my "First World" with 1-3 and 1-4 (completing 1-1 and 1-2) and I think they're okay, if not great. The did inspire me to start trying to do things in a more creative, less linear way and so I came up with I Ain't Afraid.
   
   I've also been playing a bit more and I think that's helped improve my platforming and it's been fun (for the most part) too. I think the new components Nintendo has been introducing are pushing people to create levels that are more playable and less kaizo or automatic. Also, I think it stands to reason that at this point people who really like making levels are the ones still playing.
3. Final Fantasy VI (or 3) - I finished it. Finally. I'm working on a thoughts on post on the game. I enjoyed it over all. I thought the story was interesting and it has a lot of interesting types of game play.
   
   
   

   

   I'm not sure what it is, but we're fighting it. Also Setzer? Really? - From GameFAQ's user KeyBlade999

   
   
   Sadly it also has combat, and that's the thing that makes this game a real slog. I think my play-time was totalled at about 60 hours and much of that was trying to wade through the combat to get the right spells on the right person at the right time. It's still worth it, but I'm glad there are newer games that are a little easier to play.
4. Marvel Puzzle Quest - So, usually the casual games don't make it this high on the list, but between trying to keep up for the Alliance and the fact that the revitalized the progression system, I've managed to play quite a bit of Puzzle Quest over the last little bit.
   

   

   Match 3. Punch Robots. (or Ninja or Purple Guys or Melty Guys, or Soldier Guys or ....)

   
   I'd hit a point where I didn't want to play that much since I wasn't playing enough to get the high level characters, but they changed the way you level characters up and now it's been worth while and more fun. So one bus ride at a time I've manage to rack up the time on this one (it's also my game with the most play sessions for the month by a wide margin).
5. Europa Universalis 4 - So ... I started playing this again. Um, I guess my ill feelings faded and both Extra History and Hardcore History have been talking about the Middle East and it left me feeling like it was time to try to lead the Ottomans to glory again. At least I seem to have my play times down to a more manageable length of time.
   
   

   

   It's not that we're the centre of the world. It's just that we're the centre of the world.

   
   

I also started to play Mass Effect again this month. I was a little influenced by all the talk about Andromeda, and it's also just been a really long time since I played. I only played a few hours (since the game is much much slower than I remember). I'm still finding some of the charm that I remember from the first time(s) I played the game, but it definitely hasn't aged as well as I'd have hoped. My last play through I played he-shep Calrin, so this time I thought I'd play fem-shep Maria (who looks really unfortunately exactly like Ashley). I also had forgotten how bad the character models were for the first game in the series. Still it does feel a bit like home after all's said and done.

That's my Normandy. Also how effing hard is it to take a screen shot Mass Effect?

I think that tracking my play time has been good. I think I've been more mindful about what I play and how I play it. I think I've also felt a little more comfortable playing less, which is good since the next little while is going to be pretty busy.

Here's my total play time for games in March:

And here's my total number of play sessions:

Finally, here's the graph of my play time / day:

So it turns out that google is really weird about exporting charts. I'm not just bad at it.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 126)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we throw stones, get in fights and then get serious about consent and how we talk about sex.

• First, in a topic near and dear to my heart, Destin from Smarter Every Day takes a look at the highly non-intuitive physics of curling. This was before the new directional sweeping craze that seems to have taken over high level curling this year, so I don't know what's changed in the research landscape since then. Still Destin does a great job explaining the more technical matters of curling.
• Next, Caitlin and Vaughan are ready for Morrrrrrrtttttaaaallll Kooooommmmmbbbbaaaaatttt!
• Finally and most importantly, Charlie talks about sex and consent. 

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 125)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we take a look at the fancy computing of yore, learn to draw bunnies and then figure out how to produce a very successful six season television show.

• First, we start out with some of the history of the Apple Macintosh from Computerphile. The original Mac was definitely a departure from how computers would have been seen up to that point (see the smiley face when it boots), although I would love to take the chance to compare it to the Lisa which Apple was also producing at the time. If you're interested in more Macintosh history, checkout folklore.org which is a collection of stories written by the folks who created the Mac.
• Next, we stop in to learn how to draw a bunny with Simon Tofield of Simon's Cat.
• Finally, Adam Savage takes an hour to talk with Vince Gilligan, just at the end of Breaking Bad. I've never watched Breaking Bad, but I'm always kinda interested in stories of TV production. There are probably spoilers, but it has been more than two weeks since then.

Project 14 - Sketch Fiction: 46616-C

This is the third of six sketch stories. It's unrelated to the first two.

You can expect the next sketch story on March 29, 2016.

---

46616-C

Transcript - 46616-C

House: "Are we recording?"

Communications: "Yes, Sir."

House: "Very Good. Sit Rep 46616-C, is called to order."

"Package A is inbound from Incident 46616. Estimated time of arrival, T minus 35. Package A includes, Agents Blue, Red, Green, Black and Violet. Primary mission objectives were achieved with minor complications. Medical, can you give us an update on the members of Package A?"

Medical: "Yes, Sir. Agents Red, Green and Violet are all nominal and teams are standing by to provide standard medical debriefing for each. Agent Black has received minor injuries from physical projectile weaponry and received field treatment. Agent Black will require minor surgery to repair damage to the right shoulder.

"Agent Blue was struck by a non-standard energy weapon. This weapon has caused negligible physical injury, but does seem to have caused Agent Blue to speak in an unknown language. Agent Blue will require a full medical examination, as well, we suspect, as significant further investigation from both medical and science branches.

House: "Very Good. I believe Communications has secured assistance from our partners at Organization F to assist in matters with Agent Blue."

Communications: "Yes, Sir. A linguistics team from Organization F will arrive by 0800."

House: "Very Good. Security?"

Security: "Yes, Sir. The external security indicator is low. Given that Agent Blue is demonstrating unusual behaviour, internal security is being stepped up to manage a rogue agent situation."

House: "Very Good. Housekeeping?"

Housekeeping: "Yes, Sir. Catering and laundry services are standing by. Rooms are made up for all non-resident agents arriving. Resident agents' domiciles have been prepared. Staff are standing by to assist all agents. "

House: "Very Good. Science?"

Science: "Yes, Sir. A lab has been cleared and prepared to investigate Agent Blue. Funding has been established under the project code S-46616-B, and the project has been codenamed "Surprise Translation". We are ready to proceed as soon as the Agent and the linguistics team have arrived on site."

House: "Very Good. Then finally we can receive Transportations report."

Transportation: "Yes, Sir. Envelope A received minor damage during the incident, although none of it affected flight-worthiness. We have teams standing by, and believe Package A should be fully operational again in thirty-six hours. In the mean time Envelopes B and C are ready and on standby."

House: "Very Good. We seem to be operating by the book and, in good order. Please ensure that all staff are prepared for the returning agents and in particular not to react unduly to Agent Blue's condition. Emergency Sit Rep 46616-C is now closed."

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 124)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we cut to the chase, drink tea and attend a play.

• First, this Video. (from Mike Rugnetta)
• Next, Charlie talks about his patriotism, how to be patriotic when you're British and how wonderful hot leaf water is.
• Finally, dust off your Greek classics and watch John Green talk about Oedipus on Crash Course Literature.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 123)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we play some video game music and take some video game facts out of the guts of a PlayStation.

• The first video is from, Caitlin and Vaughan, of Geek and Sundry Vlogs, playing "Into the Wilderness" from Wild Arms. I've never played Wild Arms (I had a real it's not an RPG if you don't have armour and a sword thing going for way too many years), but the music's good. 
• Next, Ben Chan presents his arrangement of "Wind Scene" from Chrono Trigger. This music always grabs me, and I like his performance and his improvisation in the second half.
• Finally, on VSauce 3, Jake takes apart a PlayStation and finds out that it's full of interesting facts. 

Blog: Video Games of February 2016

XCOM 2 came out this month and that's really all you need to know about the video games I've played in February. Beyond that I've had fun keeping track of the games I've play for another month. I think it's been interesting to be mindful about what I'm playing and making sure that I'm getting the most out of my XCOM ... I mean games.

My top five games for the month (by play time) have been:

1. XCOM 2 - I played 42 hours of XCOM 2. That's ... a lot of playing. A bit of that is that at $80 (CAD) it felt really expensive, so I felt like I really should be getting my money's worth out of it. The other part is that the game is pretty great.
   
   

   

   The wanted posters are a really great part of XCOM 2.

   
   I found XCOM 2 really hard in the first little while. I mean really, *really* hard. Eventually I knocked the difficult down and it got to the point where I could at least play it. The game was still pretty tough but now that I've played a lot (and I think I'm near the end) it seems to have balanced out (to a bit easy, which is good since I was playing on the easiest level). The new easiness seems to be one part the XCOM hill (oh wow aliens are hard to kill, oh wait this is a new gun, hahahaha take that aliens) and a bit that I've figured out what the designers were going for.
   
   I will say that I really like what they did with XCOM 2, in most missions now there's an imperative (usually a ticking clock, but not always) that you have to push your soldiers out into the field and take on the enemy. That combined with the new generated maps has kept me really enjoying the game. I feel like there should maybe be one more set of enemies to fight, but it's a little hard to say how far along I am, so I've got not complaints right now.
2. Final Fantasy VI (or 3) - It's interesting that this game is the "runner up" for the second month in a row. I had intended to play a little more of it and to try to play more games with narrative. It's suffered a little bit from three problems. 1) XCOM 2 2) I'm tired of random encounters and 3) the Final Fantasy game decompression.
   
   

   

   Looks perfectly safe to me - From GameFAQs User KeyBlade999 

   
   The decompression happens in a lot of final fantasy games (but it sticks out in my mind in VI and VII particularly. Because the games are so heavily based on narrative for the first part of the game (half, two-thirds maybe) when they get to the "open world" part at the end, it can be difficult to feel like you're doing anything other than ticking off the items on the list to make sure that you're as powerful as you can be to beat the boss. I think later games in the series did a better job of fusing side quests into the story, but at this point I have three dragons to kill and I'm not that excited about it.
3. Hearthstone - It's jumped up the list to third but I've actually played a little less this month (again, have I mentioned that XCOM 2 is good?). I've been trying to take more meaningful breaks from work during the day and I can play a round of Hearthstone in about 15 minutes so that works pretty well.
   
   

   

   I've really got to remember to take these screenshots during the month. #imbadathearthstone

   Oh! Also I can now say, "to hell with you Dr. Boom!" I'm looking forward for the switch to standard (where old sets will be rotating out). I had a long layoff from Hearthstone, and while I don't play enough to be totally stocked with legendaries in any event, I definetly am missing the most cards out of Goblins and Gnomes. Also could someone please explain to me how these got to be "the old cards"? This time travel thing is rough.
4. Super Mario Maker - I'm still chugging along with this. It runs a little towards the work end of gaming, between the thought necessary to build a good level and the thought necessary to play through all the other levels pushed out there. It's still a little rough, with some levels being really unplayable or trolling you after several minutes of play, but I think the "meta" is levelling out to produce a bunch of pretty fun levels.
   
   

   

   Jitter and Jump

   I've been messing around with making more playable and fun levels. The one thing the game is a little short on is players, so it's a little tough to see what's interesting and what's not. I'd also love to see the game give you a little bit more information about how people have played your level. If you're interested in playing some of the things I've worked on I'm interested in my 1-1 and 1-2. Apparently my most popular is Jitter, so I'm also trying to follow up with that.
5. Mini Metro - Well I'm definitely not as addicted as I was in January. Mini Metro is good, but I'm not terribly good at it, so I find that a lot of my play sessions end up about the same way. I've also played through all the pre-made maps and now time I play is also a little the same. Stations appear in random locations, but the rules for each area are still the same.
   
   

   

   I'm sorry to all the shapes who live in this town.  You are going to be late for shape work.

   
   Still the game is good and it's fun. I definitely don't regret playing for a few minutes each day. It's also interesting how the achievement "Play the Daily Challenge Each Day for a Week" has kept me coming back. I keep not making it, so I've stuck with it. It seems to have slid into a nice niche with Bejeweled and Zuma Blitz.

So that's the top five by play time. I also tracked the number of sessions which left me with a top five of Bejeweled Blitz, Mini Metro, XCOM 2, Zuma Blitz and Hearthstone. I think this stands to reason, it's mostly the games I play for a couple of minutes at a time ... and XCOM. January had about the same results.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about Diablo 3. I've basically never played Diablo or Diablo 2... (It's ok, you can pass out from shock. I'll wait).

Xin is mostly glad she found pants over the course of my play-through.

(Are you back? Great!) So you can play the first bit of Diablo 3 for free and since I have the Blizzard launcher open often enough I was finally tempted to install it and play the demo. I had fun, but I'm not about to jump in and play the full game right now. One reason is XCOM (surprise) both the money I put into that was my video game budget for the mont (and then some) and it also took most of the playing time. 

Another reason is that the game ends the demo really oddly, instead of popping up a message going, thanks for playing the free part now you can play more if you pay us, the game just stops generating new content. So you can run around all you want, but the world just doesn't do anything. I actually ended up googling to see why the game was broken and even there it wasn't communicated very well (mostly it was people trying to figure out why they got the demo when they'd paid for the full game).

So, I think that's it for the second month of game tracking. I'm still having fun, so I guess you'll see more next month.

Here are my total play time and play sessions for February.