April – August 2014 Video Games Report


April:

Civilization V (7 hrs): Met Dan in Mesa Bros; Waiting in Lefties Game

May:

Civilization V (11 hrs): More of the multiplayer games.

June:

Civ V (3 hrs): More multiplayer games.

Super Meat Boy (30 min): I played a few levels until it began to get too hard for me. It is a very well-designed game, but I was never that good at platformers. Really, I just stuck to Mario and Sonic growing up. The others were often too hard for me; at times even Mario and Sonic were too much. I don’t think I ever beat a Sonic game although with one of them (3 or S&K) I used to always get to the final Robotnick.

Guacamelee Bilingual Bonus! (If you speak spanish you will get a bit more out of the game)
Guacamelee Bilingual Bonus! (If you speak spanish you will get a bit more out of the game)

Guacamelee (30 min): To say that this is a fun action game filled with fun Mexican stereotypes is possibly to sound a bit too harsh. Then again, I’m Cuban, not Mexican, so I’m not in the best place to say what is and isn’t cool for stereotypes. However, it all seems to be in good fun – I only played the first few areas so far. My character is a tequila distiller who saves the governor’s daughter and ends up putting on a luchador mask that gives me special powers. Each area has a regular version and a land of the dead version. Overall it’s fun. I intend to get back to it in 2015 after I graduate.

July:

Civ (30 min): More multiplayer

Aug:

Beatles Rock Band (1 hr): I’ve been trying to help Scarlett make the connection between instruments and music and one of the best examples I have (since I lack music-playing talent) is Rock Band. Scarlett actually really enjoyed both playing the drums and the guitar (even though she wasn’t really doing anything)

Mario Kart Wii (I won!)
Mario Kart Wii (I won!)

Mario Kart Wii (1 hr): I was experimenting with getting the Wiimote and the PS3 remote working with my main Linux computer (Supermario) and it paired over Bluetooth perfectly. My Kubuntu machines are using an older version of BlueZ so they didn’t work, unfortunately. I don’t yet have an IR source, so I wanted to see if that would affect driving since the steering wheel has a hole for the IR receiver. Nope! I was able to drive perfectly. I’d forgotten some of the controls but quickly learned them and took the cup.

Mario Kart Wii - I won the whole cup
Mario Kart Wii – I won the whole cup

Civ V (1 hr): A little more multiplayer.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (30 min): Scarlett’s been obsessed with Mario so I figured it’d be fun to show her a game with Baby Mario. She enjoyed the heck out of it for a about 10 minutes. (Which is pretty good for anything that isn’t a cartoon she already likes)