A while ago, I wrote that I would want to focus on Big Ambitions until Planet Zoo 2 arrives - the game that I got gifted for my birthday at the beginning of September. I actually managed to stick to that for the most part. Only in the past week or so did I switch to Crusader Kings 3, as the DLC "

This is the second post for this column where I want to give random games a try that I haven't played before. The rule is this: Since I am a bit picky and cannot play everything due to motion sickness and my hand pain, I am using Playnite’s “Pick a Random Game” feature three times and will choose one to play out of these.

We all know that evergrowing Pile of Shame, right? What with all the bundles and the free games that are thrown at us (on Twitch, for example, Epic Games and the like) plus the games that we actually did buy on purpose and end up just not playing. I want to dedicate this column to giving random games a try that I have not played before.

I recently had my birthday and my husband's cousin gifted me Planet Zoo 2 which was a real surprise! We sometimes gift each other games, but the fact that out of my very very long list of wishlisted games, he chose exactly the one I wanted the most - and that I would not actually buy for myself - made me very happy!

Five posts. This is what I had set as a goal for myself when Blaugust started. And now I am looking at possibly 16 (if I manage to publish this post here today). When I started, I wasn't sure whether I was clinging to a once-loved hobby that I had outgrown. It felt strange, foreign even. My sentences felt short and unimportant.

Kalypso announced the release date for Tropico 7: January 28, 2027. I was so excited when I saw that that I had not actually noticed that they pushed the release from 2026 to 2027. Then again, it is not a huge delay. They previously only said 2026 without giving any details. I like what I see in the trailer and am just happy to know how long approximately it takes.

LEGO Skylines has been announced at Gamescom. While watching the trailer, I had exactly one thought: "Why is this only coming out now?" This should have been done years ago! I never warmed up to any of the Lego games. I have not really played any of them and just given one or two a small chance because they were part of a bundle.

I always say that I love city-building games, but I am actually often not sure whether the game really is one or not. Where do we draw the line? Surely, Cities: Skylines obviously is one because you're literally building a city. But what about a game like Islanders? Technically, you are at least building a settlement on a small island. But this game doesn't have any of the usual mechanics like a power grid or managing traffic.

After writing about all the MMOs I have been playing over the years, I realized that I have also been playing a lot of "Civ-like games". I decided to make a list. My first thought, fitting to the subject line, was to rank them. However, some of the games are so different from the others that I found it to be too difficult and not meaningful enough.

I hesitated to get Civilization VII because I did not like some of the changes they made. But with a recent sale, we decided to buy one copy of the game and use Family Sharing. Between my husband and me, it was rather cheap to get then. This happened when we were visiting family, so I couldn't play the game because my laptop doesn't have enough power for games like that.

I haven't replied to a "Daily Grind" from Massively in ages, but this one immediately got me thinking and making a list: How many MMORPGs have you played to date? I know there were a few more that I tried, but my memory is rather fuzzy about them. So, my list includes the games that I either played extensively or that I have fond memories of.

...while still feeling like I do. While in general I prefer to play non-MMOs nowadays, I still get the urge to log into an online world once in a while. Sometimes, I jump into Lord of the Rings Online, because it never feels like I have missed out on anything. I can comfortably and slowly play through older zones without seeing other players, and it doesn't bother me.

I am always amazed when I look at the layout of US American cities - especially New York City. The streets are straight lines, like somebody drew them with a ruler and a triangle! German cities, due to the age of most towns, look completely different. So, when I am playing city-builder games and placing streets, the first thing I always do is change the layout tool from straight lines to curved ones.

This week's Group Project asks us to answer a fun question: Which magical power or super power would you like to have? I initially thought of the classic choice: invisibility. However, what's the point? If I am invisible, I might hear things I do not want to hear. Ignorance is bliss - I have learned that by now. Flying would be another instant reply.

We visited some friends recently, and while we were there, my daughter got to try out Dreamlight Valley. While she does not know many Disney films yet (except for the first Frozen movie... who is surprised? 😉 ), she certainly knows Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Minnie, and Donald. She was really excited to see them walking around in the world. Additionally, our friend showed her how to decorate the house and how your character can pet the animals and harvest apples.

Speaking of changes and of Wholesome Games, I am always looking for ideas on what I can play with our daughter or what I can let her play on her own once in a while. She is not allowed to play anything with violence, anything that isn't age-appropriate, or games with online interactions. It should also not be a game that uses predatory tactics to urge her to continue playing.

In my last post, I mentioned that I prefer playing Wholesome Games nowadays. I am aware that there is no one definition for what a Wholesome Game is. I mostly use this term for games that give me a cozy comfortable feeling with no stress, which means usually no time limits. What I also love is games that do not focus on violence.

What made you decide to do Blaugust this year, and what are your personal goals? As I already mentioned, there have been some really big emotional issues in the past few months caused by several factors. I have been in a constant state of emotional exhaustion for about 10 months. Even before that with us having a little child, moving, working...

I asked Google AI for ideas what to blog about (yes, it is only day 2 and I am desperately trying to fight my months' long writer's block) and it gave me this: The Paradox of "Micro-Management" Relaxation: Why do people who work high-stress, decision-heavy jobs in real life (like psychology) love coming home to manage completely different, complex systems in simulation games?

Off we go! Good luck, have fun everyone! For those who do not know what Blaugust is: We come together during the month of Blaugust and will try to write 31 posts throughout that month. But even just a few posts is fine as well. We are visiting family for a few more days and I figured that I could probably write a few blog posts while we are here.

The personal struggle with a family member I mentioned before wasn't the only emotional struggle in my life, our lives. Our daughter just celebrated her 5th birthday, and we are ready for the "next chapter" in her life: This August, she will officially be starting preschool (in her daycare center)! She has been craving more cognitive challenges and stimulation in the past few months which they weren't able to give her for one reason or another.

It is that time of the year again! Blaugust will officially start on August 1. I tried to find good words for it, but I find myself repeating what Krikket already wrote on her post. So, I will keep it short and refer you to her blog instead for a longer description and more information. The very short explanation of what Blaugust is: Write up to 31 posts during August, engage with the other Blaugustans, be part of this community!

View Mark William Temple's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

It is Summer Game Fest and Guild Wars 3 has been officially announced! We already know it is being developed, didn't we? But here we are now, with a brand new trailer even. Right after they announced the game, the official website for Guild Wars 3 went down. I guess there is a huge interest in the next game! …

I have been very quiet for a long time now. Usually, I keep my private life away from this blog because I want it to focus on my gaming experiences and our shared interest in enjoying virtual worlds far away from reality (or close to some kind of reality that we want to face... depending on the games we choose to play).

First of all, I love that there are these Next Fests. They bring visibility to smaller indie developers and with the vast amount of games out there, this is always good. For me personally, though, it seems that the excitement is mostly gone. I guess this is partly because I have so many games that I want to play (and bought already because I found them on sale).

For me, it has been a really good year when it comes to discovering new games!  I looked at the games that I got in 2025 which are not necessarily games released in 2025 - but as it turns out, when checking for the release dates, all of them actually are from 2025! I did not realize how many of these games are in Early Access.

I admit, I stopped playing Guild Wars 2 not long after the last expansion came out. I like the game, but in between feeling lost when not playing it often and my chronic hand issues which prevent me from playing that game often, I lost the motivation to do much in the game other than logging in every other day.

Gaudete Theory suggested today's Blaugust Group Project: It's alive! Ancient Draft, Revived! I took a look at my drafts and decided to just go with the oldest one I have. It is this one here and I wrote the draft back in February 2013. Guild Wars 2 was merely half a year old at that point! ArenaNet did add housing with the…

Krikket gave us another writing prompt as part of Blaugust 2025. Share something about you that you don't normally talk about on your blog and you think your readers would never guess about you. I am a psychologist with a doctoral degree, but do not talk about my profession here or keep it really vague. In general, I do not share in what area I am working now.

The question how we are keeping track of our game backlogs came up in our Blaugust Discord recently. I have never heard of Backloggery or Infinitebacklog. I have Playnite installed, but have not been using it much. I mostly start up the client to check whether I own a game already (when there is a game bundle with one interesting game and I want to see whether other new ones are part of the bundle as well), because I do not usually check all individual libraries.

I love the "Find all" game series and recently realised that they have added a lot more games since I last checked. Hidden Object Games are fun to play once in a while. What I love about this game series most of all is the graphic style. Another neat feature is that once a part of the image is finished and has nothing else to find, it becomes coloured and animated.

Krikket gave us another writing prompt as part of Blaugust 2025. Talk about a tiny thing that makes you disproportionately happy. When our daughter was still a little baby, my mother-in-law brought us a really cute baby hat that she had crocheted herself. She had left me some wool, so we could decide whether we wanted tie strings and how long they should be.

After a few months of not writing about any of the games in Humble Choice, this month finally gave me several games to choose from that sound like they could be for me. My Time at Sandrock and Lil Gator Game are both games that look interesting. However, I decided to take a look at "Let's School" and write about it here.

Just when I was complaining to bookahnerk that gamescom (at least the opening show yesterday) has too many violent games about zombies and post-apocalypse or WWII or whatever else does not interest me at all and not much, if anything, that I care about - they officially announce Tropico 7! There is not much information in there. We know they plan to release the game in 2026 and we will have El Presidente!

I saw this from fellow Blaugustan Varun Barad and decided to join in as it seemed like a nice thing to do during Blaugust. So here are my answers to the questions. Why did you start blogging in the first place? I have always liked writing. And I loved reading blogs about gaming. The first blog I read regularly was…

After playing a bit of Tales of the Shire, I really wanted to pay a visit to Lord of the Rings Online again! On August 14, the Farmers Faire seasonal event started (running until September 2). Since I have been away for a longer time and can never really remember what to do at each of the game's festivals, I was hoping that my favourite event-guide-writing person was still active.

Ever since I first heard about Tales of the Shire, I wanted to have it! When it finally released, I still waited and checked the reviews before deciding to buy it. It is currently sitting at 80 % "Very Positive" reviews. But I usually don't trust the overall score. I actually particularly like reading the negative reviews. This gives me a chance to check whether the things that bother other people are things that would bother me as well.

I recently read an article about Kickstarter projects for MMORPGs in the past 13 years and whether they were successfully released or not. It is a German article, but I am not going to write about all these MMORPGs now anyway. The author concludes that out of 24 games, only 3 were actually released. Three more are in Early Access. 12 games are offline with apparently 7.5 million Euros raised and subsequently "lost" - although the money did partly end up with people's wages being paid, after all, so it's only a loss in the sense that we can't play these games.