June Brewed - Coffees Consumed, Games Played!

Coffee Beans
     Good morning! June marked the start of summer, and I think the temperatures outside confirm that it has officially arrived!  E3 2012 came and went. We now know a little bit more about the Wii U and some of the games for it; Sony showed off two new IPs at E3, and both seem interesting and a bit "different" if that's the word I'm looking for; and Microsoft showed off many of the core games and franchises the Xbox 360 I think has become known for.
     With June having wrapped up, here are a few posts from the month I enjoyed putting together, that you might have missed:
     Zombies Run Nintendo - Zombie Iwata & Zombie Reggie?
     Caffeinated Thoughts on the E3 Conferences - Microsoft's, Nintendo's, and Sony's
     God of War & Punch-Out!! Mixed = Rage of the Gladiator? Arena Hours Debut!
     MarioCare, or ObamaCare? Dr. Mario Online Rx's Reported Hours
     THIS is what the 3DS XL should have looked like.
     A TKO Father's Day Gift! Nintendo Selects: Punch-Out!!

     With July now upon us, what games did I play and coffees did I consume in June? Brew a pot of coffee, and read on!

Coffees Consumed
     June, like May, was pretty simple for the coffees I consumed. All the coffee blends brewed in June were Maxwell House, and the month started us off with the Maxwell House Dark Roast blend continued from May. After we ran out of the Dark Roast, Mrs. Coffee purchased us a container of the Maxwell House Gourmet Roast, and that lasted almost to the end of June. Then there was a coffee emergency, and we ran out of coffee!
     It was last week, I believe Thursday, that I got up and brewed the morning pot of coffee like normal. That afternoon, I brewed another pot like normal, and ended up using all of the remaining coffee for that pot. I brew Mrs. Coffee a cup each night before she leaves for work, but when I used it all that afternoon, it meant no more coffee for that night. It also meant there would be no coffee before I would left for work the next morning.

     What did I do? After getting the little Beans off to bed, I sped to Wal-Mart in a mad coffee purchase run. We fortunately live very close to a Wal-Mart, and I was able to make it back to the house and brew the nightly pot of coffee before Mrs. Coffee left. I ended up grabbing Maxwell House's French Roast in the coffee run.

Do you know what this image shows? I spend too much time on images!

Games Played
     Mario Kart Wii - I played this early in June, racing . While I didn't race but one or two races, our oldest Bean took notice of the game, and I decided to let him give it a try. He was pretty successful at driving backwards, and doing backwards circles, but rarely driving forward.

     PAYDAY: The Heist - I have enjoyed my short time with PAYDAY again, playing it just over an hour on my PC. I really like how Steam shows the amount of time played, and the last date the game was played, as well as any "Achievements" gained in the game. So far, I have 2/51 Achievements on my Steam copy of PAYDAY: The Heist with 75 minutes played.

     Red Steel 2 - I purchased Red Steel 2 in May from Game Stop, after I published the "Did Wii Owners Enjoy Red Steel 2? What Do the Hours Say?" post. I finished the game's story mode on Thursday, June 7. The reported average "Per person" was just under 10 hours, but my Nintendo Channel data was showing my play-time as just over 13 hours. While the game's setting and graphics were well done, and even the game-play was enjoyable, I just don't think the game should have had "Red Steel" in its title. It wasn't a perfect game, with the ending feeling kind of rushed, and I wish there was a way to go back into the main story mode to walk around and complete other missions, but considering I purchased and completed it within 2 weeks, I think shows I enjoyed it enough while it lasted.

     Rage of the Gladiator - I played a few more battles in Rage of the Gladiator during June, using the Wii MotionPlus controls in the game. I created a new file, and am working my way through it using only the Wii MotionPlus controls to see how it goes. So far, I'm enjoying the Wii MotionPlus controls in the game, and appreciate the efforts with the new Wii MotionPlus attack animations put in by the developers. It wasn't something they had to do, but they took the time and made it an option, which I think is great.

     Super Mario Bros. 3 - What happens when I didn't want our oldest Bean playing Mario Kart Wii, because of mainly being paranoid about the game running our system's disc drive? He quickly becomes an expert at navigating the Wii menu, and discovering WiiWare and Virtual Console games, and of course recognizes Mario. So, he fired up Super Mario Bros. 3, and while he can't advance very far in the levels on his own, it has been a BLAST playing through the game with him watching/participating. He instructs me well, and has repeat requests for me to go to the "Dark Castle" and "Castle" in general. He identifies the enemies in the game pretty well, but the default "Castle" boss enemies are all "Koopas", because of the Mario cartoon series on Netflix. So far, we have made it to World 4.

     Groovin' Blocks - This is referred to as "The puzzle game.", by the oldest Bean. I played a few rounds of it, and beat one or two of my older high scores, but I'm not very good with keeping the beats in the game, and getting the "points multiplier" to go/stay higher.

     Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - This was a game Keith, of the now semi-retired RespawnAction.com, gifted me. I had played through I believe the first six chapters in the game last year, and wasn't sure how much more I had to go. I randomly decided to give it another go in June, and not only stuck with it, but finished the game on June 20th. If you have a PS3 system, or are looking at getting a PS3 system, I would highly suggest picking up Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I have now added the sequels of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to my "Video Games Wish List". I watched the credits all the way through the night/morning I completed the game, and was very surprised to re-learn the game was originally released in 2007. I guess because I didn't get my PlayStation 3 until 2009, I didn't really pay attention to when it was originally released before, but was very impressed with the game considering it was released that early in the PS3's "life".

     Punch-Out!! - This was one of my Father's Day gifts this year, and I have been enjoying my time with the game. I actually won the belts from the Minor, Major, & World Circuits in June, completing the World Circuit on June 30th. My reported time for the game was showing up as 5 Hours 32 Minutes, but that was without starting the Title Defense mode, and only completing two Challenges against Glass Joe in the game's Exhibition mode. You can see me box against Glass Joe in the game's Exhibition mode, in a video from the June post on the game. I have started the game's Title Defense mode now, and getting laughed at by Glass Joe is absolutely hilarious, and almost humbling!

     Bit.Trip Runner - If there is a case for free demos helping "sell" a game, this could possibly be one. I had downloaded the Bit.Trip Runner WiiWare demo last year, but never really gave it a chance. After our oldest and I started our SMB3 adventure, I thought, "I wonder if he only had to push a button to jump, and not concentrate on running also, it would be easier for him?", and that's how I ended up giving Bit.Trip Runner another try. Our oldest knows the name, and now recognizes the menu screen, for Bit.Trip Runner, and Commander Video is known as a "ninja" in our house. While I have not downloaded the FULL version of Bit.Trip Runner, I did look it up on Steam, and I also have been thinking about just adding the entire collection on the Wii, Bit.Trip Complete, to my "Video Games Wish List". Our oldest Bean has given the game a few tries, and can hop over at least the first obstacle, though not every time.

Questions/Thoughts
     What video games did you play in June, and did you perhaps try any new coffee blends/roasts in June (like our French Roasts blend), or just stick with the regular coffee blends? Out of the games you played, would any of them come highly recommended from you, like I would definitely recommend at least Uncharted: Drake's Fortune?
     With me writing out more thoughts on the games I played during the previous month, and the ones I have completed, I may start breaking these posts up into a "Coffees Consumed" and a separate "Games Played" post, so there isn't as much of a WALL-O-TEXT. Also, if anybody has any questions about the games I played in June, or even the coffees I consumed, feel free to leave a comment below or contact me by emailing me at, Scott(@)CoffeeWithGames.com.

May Brewed - Coffees Consumed, Games Played!

Coffee Beans
     So, May marked a "return" of sorts to a more normal posting schedule here on CoffeeWithGames, since the beginning of the year! What games did I play, and coffees did I consume in May? Let's take a look!

Coffees Consumed
     May was pretty simple as for the coffees. All the blends we had were Maxwell House, which Mrs. Coffee buys quite often. First up was the Maxwell House Master Blend. It is a nice mild coffee blend, which they say is "perfect for every morning.", but I can testify it's pretty good throughout the entire day as well.
     Second, we had a big container of the Maxwell House Gourmet Roast and its flavor description says it is "Deliciously Smooth". I prefer my coffee black, and RARELY (about as rare as the Bigfoot sightings, maybe more-so) put cream and/or sugar in my coffee, but I think I have reached a point now where if a coffee is "mild", I don't notice much of a flavor difference. It's definitely not a bad thing, and perhaps it's a reflection that I'm drinking coffee to help me to stay awake, more than just to enjoy...though I do both.
    The last blend in the Coffee House for May was Maxwell House Dark Roast. Its description reads, "Rich & Full Bodied", and I do think this one has the "Dark Roast" part down very well. It's definitely noticeable as a dark roast coffee, but not so much that it tastes burnt. Being that I enjoy "strong" coffee flavors, I enjoy this blend a good deal, and have a cup of it right now, with another cup in the pot.

Can you name them all?

Games Played
     Jett Rocket - I downloaded this WiiWare demo last year, and have played through it twice now, enjoying it both times. As I was preparing the above image, our oldest Bean saw Jett Rocket and asked, "Who's that!?", which then ended up with me finding a few YouTube videos for him to watch while I was piecing it together. I haven't downloaded a WiiWare game in a long-time, but I'm hoping that Nintendo will confirm next week that all WiiWare/Virtual Console purchases already made will transfer to the Wii U, without any major issue(s). If they can finally announce that, I might just perhaps download Jett Rocket and give the full game a try. If you missed the WiiWare Wednesday post on Jett Rocket's reported game-play hours, you can read the full report HERE.
     Sanctum - Sanctum is the very first demo I downloaded after I started my Steam account. I had attempted it last year I believe, and it ran pretty rough due to my GPU at the time. In January, I upgraded my PSU and GPU, and then at the beginning of May I finally gave the Sanctum demo another try, and completed the full demo. Sanctum is a "tower defense" type game with a FPS view, and it does have weapons to shoot at the enemies (not sure how this is compared to other tower defense games). It was the first tower defense game I can recall playing, and the more time I spent in the demo, it started to remind me of chess games. It really does seem to require a good strategy to setup the defenses around the level, and try to be planning ahead for the next waves of enemies that will be coming, even though you aren't sure what those may be.
     Rayman Origins - I started playing Rayman Origins, again, from the beginning on May 18, and finished the campaign yesterday afternoon. According to the Nintendo Channel data, I put just over 27 hours into the game, in 2 weeks! Now, I do know some of that time was the game being left on, as I was going to check on the little Beans at night, and I also recorded some footage one night for the data report on the game, but I would suspect most people should get a good 20 hours out of it easily. Which makes me wonder how/why the reported game-play hours for it are barely over 10 Hours "Per person", as I showed in my "Platforming Awesomeness! Rayman Origins Hours Report" post.
     Red Steel 2 - What happens when you reserve a game with $5 down on it about a month before the game releases, but fail to purchase the game? Then skip 2+ years into the future? Well, you can't remember if the $5 credit is still on the game, if you already used it on another game, or if the wonderful corporation that is Game Stop made it magically disappear. I reported on Red Steel 2's reported game-play hours over the last 2 years in May, and the same day I left the house and decided to stop by Game Stop to see if my $5 credit was still on the game. While the credit wasn't anywhere to be found, I did end up purchasing Red Steel 2, and so far I have played it just under 30 minutes. I'm enjoying the art style, but still getting used to the controls and I'll try to share more thoughts on the game when I either finish it, or perhaps as I progress through it more.
     Rage of the Gladiator - I decided to battle the first boss in Rage of the Gladiator using the game's Wii MotionPlus control settings before I started playing Red Steel 2. While I did defeat the first boss, I failed to defeat him perfectly! One hit too many. If you haven't played Rage of the Gladiator, you can find the WiiWare demo for it on the Nintendo Shop Channel.
     PAYDAY: The Heist - What happens when you go to Game Stop, and spend cash on a game? Well, you come home and find an incredible sale on a PC game, that you can't believe! Amazon.com had PAYDAY: The Heist on sale in May for only $5! I own the PS3 version, but was curious as to how/if my PC could run the game. For $5 bucks, I figured it was worth a try, and sure enough, the game runs pretty well, and I already completed the first "heist" in the game. When I was purchasing it from Amazon.com, I didn't realize the game was actually going to run through Steam, but that's what it does. Fortunately, I already had the Steam account, so that wasn't an issue for me.

Question
     What games did you play in May, and did any coffee blends help you survive the month?
     Also, if you have any questions about the games I played in May, or the coffees I consumed, feel free to ask in the comments below or by contacting me directly.

October Brewed! Coffees Consumed, Games Played

Coffee Beans
     I turned a year older early in October, and you can read about some gifts Mrs. Coffee got for me HERE.  I have been working more hours each week than I would like, especially with school and full-time family duties each day, but I am grateful for a job; especially one where I can grab a cup of coffee each day on my way home.  Speaking of coffee, if you missed my review post, "Surviving 48+ Hours Without Coffee?  Ed Hardy Energy Snacks Review", you can read that to see how I went for just over 48 hours without any coffee, and I didn't get a caffeine headache!
     Now with November brewing, what coffees and caffeinated products did I consume and what games did I play in October?  Let's take a look!