While I’m not some video game hipster that doesn’t enjoy the Triple-A games, I have found myself increasingly having my most compelling game experiences on games created by indie or small studios. I think this is because indie studios are no different from starups, indie bands, and indie film makers in their willingness and ability to explore risky and new ideas. I felt the same way about Braid when I played it in 2009 as I do about Bastion this year.

Civilization V (75 hrs) - What can I say about this game that I haven’t said already?  This is the series that made “One More More Turn…” famous and it still works today.  If I were to start a game tonight, I would not go to bed at a reasonable time.

Team Fortress 2 (70 hrs 45 min) - This game is almost as addictive as Civ 5.  I never thought I’d end up saying that about a first person shooter.  But I’ve played nearly all of my 85 hrs logged for this game in 2011 and in 2012 it might even surpass Civ 5!

With school over I had plenty of time to get back into video games last month.  I had a blast!

Team Fortress 2 (6 hrs) - Got back into this game because my brother-in-law wanted to play it.  I’d forgotten how awesomely fun it is to play this game!

Plants vs Zombies (5 hrs) - I wanted a quick game of fun so I went after some achievements in PvZ.  I also found this game to be a blast.

My graduate degree has stemmed my play time this month.  This is all I was able to put in.

Mass Effect 2 (1 hr)

Team Fortress 2 (41 min)

For people of my generation (and the younger ones of the previous one) video games are cultural phenomenon no less important to the way our brains work than books, music, or movies.  So it’s no surprise that our music, which has been inspired by books and movies in the past is now being inspired by video games.  What was surprising to me were all the different manifestations this inspiration has taken.

Sorry I took so long to get to this. My last post had me finding out that the Reapers were actually the most ancient species I’ve heard about until now. And after my face off with Saren on Virmire, I thought I’d have to chase him to Ilos to finish the game. But, nope, I was able to do whatever I wanted. This was kinda weird timeline-wise, but I already discussed the disconnect that makes you realize this is a game last time around.

For those who are new readers, I’m keeping track of the games I’m playing monthly (via Raptr) and then writing a little blurb on the games.  This is in prep for my year-end blog post.

Team Fortress 2 (4 hrs) – I continue to really enjoy this game.  I think of all of non-story-based games I have, this one has one of the fastest completion times for a single game.  Civilization 5 can take me a week or longer to finish.  And my other games fall somewhere between these two.  (With a few exceptions like Pacman CE DX)

Last time I blogged about Mass Effect, I had just finished up with a planet where a plant was controlling everyone. After that I did my first real tour of my ship to go talk to all the people who had joined my crew.  I got to sneak up on Ash talking to her sister and learned she had a crush on me.  I decided to nip that in the bud because I found her personality annoying compared to Liara.  I also found out about her background.  She was religious, but I wonder if Christianity has survived in the Mass Effect world or it’s something similar to that.

Mass Effect (2 hrs) - Dan tells me that if I don’t go for the optional quests, I could be near the end.  After the next major story beat I’m probably going to write up my next Mass Effect blog post. I’m really enjoying the fiction.

Team Fortress 2 (60 hrs) - I didn’t think I’d ever enjoy playing this game.  I am not an FPS person.  But it recently went free to play so I figured “why not?”  I started playing the game and it’s every bit as fun and funny as the “Meet the X” videos.  It’s a lot of fun to formulate the strategies for the game.  I’m still learning a lot about that.  And just when you think you know what to do, there are the extra weapons you earn for getting certain achievements.  They don’t throw off the balance because they give with one hand and take with the other.  The Heavy’s gun Natasha, for example, has a higher chance of critical hits, but it takes longer to spin up.

Just one game this month, it’s been quite a busy month for me!

Mass Effect (8 hours) - This is a great game that I’d heard about for a long time, but never got around to playing.  A recent Steam sale made it cheap enough for me to give it a try and I’m really enjoying it.  I’m writing about my playthrough and you can read the first part here and the second part here.