gamerdad Sometimes you need to play a game with no other objective than making something interesting.

gamerdad About a year ago the digital version of this 1990s drama-comedy came out on Apple iTunes, but I’ve been reluctant to purchase it at full price not quite sure of if I want to sit down and watch all 110 episodes of this quirky series I remember enjoying as a teenager. Luckily I located a copy at the local library, though only the first season and (due to my forgetting that it finally came up on my reservation list and there are a half dozen people behind me waiting for it so I can’t renew it) I only have a couple days to watch the first 8 episodes that was the first season before I need to return it. I sat down this evening and check off episode one, the pilot, and yeah… I can see myself making the effort. For a few more eps at least.

gamerdad I think I remember why I played this game so much and for so long: it has a way of sucking you into that #justonemoreturn mentality. You will be be sitting there trying to accomplish some particular micro-task, working on putting a particular structure into a city or build a military unit or to move that group of explorers to the other side of the plot of land so that you can plan your next move, but the thing is that you are doing dozens of those little micro-tasks, not sequentially but in sort of this staggered overlap so that you’ve always—always—got just a couple turns until the next bit of action happens. There’s never a natural pause. That might be a long way of saying that I played this for like two hours this afternoon tho I only really set my mind to open it up for a few minutes. *sigh*

gamerdad I probably own this game on a couple other platforms but it is honestly one of those awesome titles that doesn’t hurt to keep handy for when one needs to dive deep into a game zen state. So when the platinum edition showed up on sale on #ps5 (well, technically ps4) this week for like 80% off I thought I should add it to my library and (of course) play a few hours. I’ve been playing Civ since version 1 and I’ve killed so many hours of my life building and defending cities that I should probably call myself a Civ veteran, but I’ll keep things updated as I dabble in a console version of this classic for the first time ever.

gamerdad Though the mines I spent my Saturday morning plunging. Greatly expanded from the original where traversing the mines wasn’t much more than an animated story beat, this time through some of those same beats were tapped but the game went on rails (sometimes literally) for about a ninety minutes of play while Barret took lead and I had to learn some new fighting tactics. I burned though a supply of potions in another big boss fight and crossed over into Chapter 4 where the city of Junon awaits on the horizon. [read more...]

gamerdad I pressed onward. Crossed the swamp. Fought the beast. Entered the mines. And I saved my game on the doorstep of chapter 3. [read more...]

gamerdad I’m only about a quarter of my way through Murakami’s ten year old novel #1Q84 a work of surrealist magical #scifi that I consumed as an audiobook shortly after it came out, and decided to read the old fashioned way this summer. The author #murakami has been on my shortlist of favoured novelists for a long while and I’ve read most of his library at this point, and in many ways he has served as something of a personal literary inspiration for the types of stories I try to write. The style may not jive with my own writing style but definitely the bigger ideas and plots are a fascination to me and I dig the word surrealism of the journeys they take the reader on. Being a mere 250 pages into 1Q84 it’s escaping my memory where this particular plot is leading, but that just makes the discovery that much more satisfying.

gamerdad I crossed the ten hour mark in the game last night and I’m digging into the multiple side quests as an homage to my classic play style in the original: grind until your characters are overpowered enough to plow through the main plot. [read more...]

gamerdad Of course it may just be a case of new game syndrome but I played another couple hours into the story until I rightfully found myself in the true open world part of the gameplay. As it was there was another hour or so on rails as the story plodded you through a couple more quick tutorials on a few more of its myriad of systems. There are the standard mechanics of levelling and item management, but there’s also a little card game with odd and tricky rules to learn as you challenge npcs in the world. Luckily I won my first real game so I must have followed the explanation well enough. Either way, a few more rails guided me out into the plains and now I’m doing the usual stuff like fighting random encounters and collecting ingredients for portions as I reveal chunks of map. Onwards.

gamerdad I relented and as the second instalment of the Final Fantasy VII remake series went on sale this week I decided to take the plunge and begin my inevitable journey. Ive read and listened to a few reviews by this point so my understanding is that the first act is very much a transition from the on-rails story of part one into the more open world adventure of part two, so playing for the first couple of hours of the game, finishing the familiar story of Nibelheim, I think I’m almost into the open world play that I’ve been hearing so many good things about. I’ve played the original so many times in the last 25 years there was little surprise in the story, though as usual it was pretty neat to see it fleshed out so much more as a kind of extended tutorial rather than just a mid game exposition stage. I was a little confused at the outset by the into step with Zach so I may need to read up on what I missed in bailing on the last game half way thru. But either way, I think I’m enjoying it so far… more than part one as far as my initial vibe check goes.

gamerdad As far as five dollar games on #steam go, Beseige will probably make it back into my pay rotation soon. I read a little review of this that popped into my feed the other day and it caught my attention enough to look it up. It's a little sandbox game where you build little structures to attack the army or camp or castle on each stage. Kind of a hundred different tactics to try kinda simulation, and it sparks that puzzle solving vibe. It’s too bad it is very much not a steamdeck game, definitely a little too clunky for that on the control pad and touchscreen, but as a hide in the basement and play games on the desktop selection, definitely a solid 8 out of ten.

gamerdad I have been playing this dang Simpsons game for nearly 2 years now and if you look at my donut count in the status bar you’ll see that such dedication has paid off. I have not cheated nor done anything unethical to reach that level, merely scrimped and saved and played with a regularity that is the envy of my digestive system. I managed to unlock the various buildings and characters that amplify cash flow and premium currency, and after that it pretty much just flows into place.