Time to sit down for another YvoCaro plays: as always, these are about the video games I’m playing. These thoughts just spring up in my mind, sometimes game related, sometimes they are not.
It’s only fair to warn you that spoilers might be ahead! And by the way, if you like these blurbs of gaming thoughts, you can find the previous ones here.
The grey cells are overworked
The end of year is approaching, which is a time of celebration and joy for many. Long dark nights, candles on the table, spending time with family. The other side for me is that this time of year is always crazy busy at work too. And I mean in my regular job, as creating content for the site doesn’t exactly feel like work. As I am in finances the end of the year also means more reports, budget meetings and audits. A lot of numbers and figures fill my days at the office.
This also effects the games I want to play. I have played The Room on Switch for a couple of weeks now in order to make a review. I like the game a lot, it really challenges you to jog the grey cells. No frills as the gameplay is confined to……a room. But the visuals are good, the controls are awesome and it even has touch-control. But I find that it’s not easy to bend my mind around the puzzles presented when I’m already so stressed with my job. At such a time, I need some relaxing gameplay where I don’t have to think too much. Time to find myself some laid back gaming!
Time for casual farming
Reviewing games for LadiesGamers.com is an awesome duty. You know me, my motto is that I always game where the mood takes me, but I have been very diligent when it comes to the review games. But it also means I have even less time to play the games I buy for myself. I still have two waiting for my attention: Okami and Harvest Moon Light of Hope. Fitting in with the need for more casual gaming I turned to Harvest Moon.
I bought the game back in June at release in Europe. And I have yet to play it. Light of Hope is made by the people who own the rights to the name Harvest Moon here in the West. So not the real Harvest Moon, which series is now called Story of Seasons. (confusing business decisions, I wrote about how this came about here). The first two titles on the 3DS did a good job at combining farming and terra forming. I liked that, working with the landscapes in blocks like in Minecraft added fun for me. I do know the games weren’t for everyone, not everyone liked the addition of altering the landscape.
Light of Hope is slow going at the start, I’d already heard that from friends. Not a good sign at the moment, as I’m not sure how much time I’m wanting to spend on it. There’s one thing that always bugs me about these Harvest Moon games though: the expression on the character’s faces. Really. No one looks like this. Do they? If so, some serious plastic surgery is in order!
The joys of internet silence
This Summer we did a road trip from San Francisco to Seattle. My husband is a champ when it comes to putting together these trips and making sure we see the most awesome things. Not always big landmarks or tourist traps: he also manages to find the quirky and fun stuff. This year he wanted to visit Pete Nelson’s TreeHouse Point. You know, the guy from the television show TreeHouse Masters. We were fortunate to book two nights in one of his Treehouses, such a special place to stay in.
You can picture it: retreat, nature, silence. No bathroom in the treehouse but a compost toilet with the friendly request only to use it when there was no other way. (Don’t worry, there were two magnificent bath houses on the premises too). There was one BUT: Okami was released at that time, and I couldn’t wait to download it.
No internet at TreeHouse Point that I could use, so I saw the opportunity to download it when we were dining at a sushi restaurant in town. The Switch was in my lap under the table, and I was glancing at it furtively to see the progress. Suddenly downloading stopped: I didn’t have enough memory available!
That’s when I gave up, apparently it was not to be. Sometimes you just got to go with the flow and relax without gaming devices!