Best Games of 2019

2019 was the year that I truly indulged myself in playing video games and didn’t even have to feel guilty about it because I can *technically* count it as doing ‘research’ now (and I’m pretty sure playing more video games was one of my 2020 goals)! I’ve been able to play so many games that have completely captivated me and reminded me of why I love video games so much, some of which I have been sharing with you all throughout the year in the form of more video game oriented blog posts. At the beginning of last year, I posted up a ‘Games I want to play in 2019‘ list which I thought would be cool to briefly revisit to see how many, if any, of those games I played before moving on to my best games of 2019.

Planet Zoo | First Impressions + Gaming Diary

Released just a few days ago on the 5th November by Frontier Developments, Planet Zoo is a game that has been on everyone’s lips and, as I was lucky enough to be able to buy it on launch day and already log 17 hours of playtime, I thought I’d share with you some of my initial thoughts of the game, some of the adventures that I’ve been on with my zoos, and some tips and tricks that I’ve picked up.

Like a lot of other gamers, I loved Zoo Tycoon but hadn’t played it in years due to the outdated graphics and simplified game story. When I saw Planet Zoo trailer drop at E3 earlier in the year I was over the moon. The graphics and amount of detail put into the game looked incredible, the creative possibilities for building elaborate zoo enclosures and zoo park’s seemed endless, and the focus on animal welfare and conservation made me super happy. From the moment I finished watching the trailer at E3 to release day on November 5th, I have kept up with Planet Zoo developments and eagerly marked off the days in the lead up to release day. Although there was an opportunity to play Planet Zoo a month or two in advance for customers who had pre-ordered the game on Steam, I preferred to wait until the full game was released before playing. So, how does the game match up to my expectations going in?

Upcoming Video Game Releases 2019 that are here to take all my money

Throughout the year I’ve been keeping a close eye on 2019 video game releases because there have been a tonne of great releases so far this year. But, the year is not over yet and there are several games due for release in this month along that I am super hyped for. As November is the month when most of these games are being released and I’ve been giving a lot of thought about which ones I can attempt to justify buying, I thought it would be good to do a post sharing my gaming purchase dilemmas with you all. If you want to add me on Steam then you can find me here or drop me a message for my Switch friend code!

Video Game Wrap Up | June 2019

Welcome, friends, to my first video game wrap up on my blog!

Although I’ve been blogging a lot more about video games on my blog recently, it never occurred to me to do a separate wrap up for them. However, in my last wrap up I had a lot of books to wrap up and personal news to share and didn’t want to make the post even longer, so decided it was finally time to give video games a wrap up of their own!

As I mentioned in my general wrap up a couple of days ago, June ended up being quite a stressful month for me in terms of personal life stuff so I found myself turning increasingly to books and video games as a way to have fun/escape from real world stuff. It was nice to actually get to play so many games for a change, instead of struggling to find time for them.

Wrap Up | May 2019 + the unintended hiatus

Hey friends!

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed that I’ve been absent for pretty much the entirety of May. I had planned to take a little step back from blogging anyway as this summer is going to be really busy for me on my Master’s degree, but then I managed to catch/develop gastroenteritis – a nasty contagious stomach bug – which completely knocked me out for almost 2 weeks. Then I had to return to work, start planning my long summer of uni work, and celebrate my partner’s birthday on Sunday. Before I knew it, I found myself at the end of May? I feel like I blinked and missed it.

A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted about my concerns around being able to manage book blogging alongside starting my PhD in September (not to mention squeezing it in amongst all my Master’s work this summer) and I’m still not sure what the outcome of my ponderings will be. It’s definitely something I’m planning on writing a discussion post about so that I can talk about it more in-depth and speak to other book bloggers who manage their blog alongside busy lives. What I do know though, from having my unintended break this month, is that I feel a lot less happy when I’m not blogging and I felt so isolated from my book blog friends. Writing this post is already beginning to lift my low mood but I’m also anxious about how much work I have to do. Anyway, that’s not a decision to be made right now – instead, I want to share with you all what I did manage to get up to during Moody May ❤