IIRC there is a code to add more stars to your count so you can then(during a level intermission) add them to whatever force powers you choose. Doing that, you could just redo one level or so.

Got "Judgment" last night. Didn't get very far before work but I'll be spending all evening on it tonight.

Jagged Alliance 1, as soon as I get home from work. It's the first game I bought on GOG!

Does this look structurally sound to you?

Masochism: The Game. Better known as Darkest Dungeon.

Age of Empires II

After many aborted starts, I managed to beat "The Fall of Rome", the final mission of the Attila campaign. This was the first time I finished an AOE2 campaign on Hard difficulty, and it only took me 20 years to do so. And since everybody and their grandmother considers Attila the Hun one of the easier campaigns, I just want to collapse in exhaustion.

Truth be told, "The Fall of Rome" had me stumped from the very beginning. It's your typical slugfest versus four AI players, and your starting location is tricky to defend. If you select all your villagers and immediately build a Castle, you have just enough time to complete it before you get attacked. Unfortunately, since the enemy also sends a few Scorpions, Mangonels, and Trebuchets, you have to actively micro with your Tarkans and Cavalry Archers in order to keep everyone alive. All of this happens quickly and without pause, so my economy was minimal or even nonexistent for nearly 45 minutes. It was hard even laying down a new military building due to the constant need to micro. Whenever there was a rare break in the action, I sent my villagers to hunt a boar before sending them back into the Town Center.

I decided to attack Green first since his base was directly below mine. Although he was one of the "easier" opponents, he had no fewer than three Castles. Once I got him to resign, the game became much less hectic. Unfortunately, by this point, Purple had just about completed a Wonder and Orange was halfway finished with theirs. So while I finally had breathing room in between enemy invasions, I now had a timer to beat. What annoyed me about taking out Purple is that they're Britons, so their Longbowmen forced me to go micro-happy with my Cavalry Archers. This is harder than it sounds when enemy infantry and siege units keep surprising you from every direction.

When Purple was neutralized, I faced the stressful dilemma of having only 100 years remaining on Orange's Wonder timer. Seeing as how Orange was my toughest opponent, I was unable to beat him without first researching Atheism (thereby adding another 100 years to the timer). With that extra time, I doubled my economy, built an advance Castle outside Orange's base, and hurriedly trained lots of Halberdiers. After retrying my saved game multiple times without success, I finally destroyed Orange's Wonder by the skin of my teeth. While my army was taking heavy losses, I snuck several Capped Rams through a hole in Orange's walls and the AI thankfully ignored them until after the Wonder fell. I had to rebuild most of my army, but with only Red remaining, the worst was behind me.

This mission reminded me a little of the last Zerg mission from Starcraft: Brood War, where you fight tooth and nail against two Terrans and one Protoss. Surprisingly enough, "The Fall of Rome" wasn't nearly as hard by comparison. Once I learned how to survive the initial invasions, the rest became more or less routine (if a bit hectic). Now that one campaign is finally over, dare I move on to another one?

Knights of the Old Republic 2.

The combat is a breeze with little to no tactics involved and the mechanics feel like a dumbed down version of Neverwinter Nights, but it's still fairly enjoyable. The story is quite good for being Star Wars fanfic.

Nothing in this game is outstanding, but the whole is better than the sum of its parts if that makes any sense. This is the cRPG-equivalent of a popcorn flick, and that can be a good thing depending on the mood.

I've had an itch to play some FPS, so I've been bouncing between Marathon and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Bound By Flame. Didn't play it at first because of bad reviews but now decided to try it and so far I'm having a fun time with this game.

Several, but trying to finish Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.

I prefered Risky's Revenge despite the absence of dungeons and short length, it was easier and had signature Shantae dances.

Playin' "Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones".

Great game, but soooooooooo many bugs. ;(

Sacred 2 Gold. Great sale; even got one for a friend.

Great game choice...if you finish it(or if you are done already) you should try out DS3. It has minuses like a few co-op only areas(in SP), some micro-transactions(all optional, and used for gun/etc upgrades & such one can get in other ways), and is a bit more action focused....but I loved it and the ending to the DLC. Shame it ends on a cliffhanger, though.

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Plus Pazzak is pretty addictive.
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As for me: Replaying System Shock 2 and also almost done replaying the first one as well.

Also playing Pillars of Eternity(complete-XB1) and going through the stronghold dungeons/missions & building it(it costs a ton...lucky I did one mission early that netted a ton of loot). I did try stronghold bounties but they are tough as f**k atm.

And lastly Doom 2016(XB1) - Great action packed doom game, imo.....almost done with the main campaign(sp), and having a blast so far.

They *seem* expensive at first, but the game is just HUGE - you get your stronghold very early on - as you move along in the story you'll be able to build it out with less pressure on resources. I really enjoyed the game despite its length. And the ending story is just great - the "story" in most of the game is sort of... background. You learn about this world and sort of have an idea about the villian / forces at work but it's not really personal... until it is. I had put in enough time that I never felt the need to do The White March but the base game was more than enough for me to enjoy.


I'm actually juggling TWO games that are very good. I was having a blast in Technomancer when Mechanicus went on sale... I regretted not grabbing that one on release here so it was a no brainer. I couldn't resist firing it up "just to play a couple missions and check it out..." with the idea of going back and forth between the two... but it totally sucked me in. Fun game for reasons I can't quite explain. There's something really entertaining about tricking out my little Tech-Priests with new gear, armor and abilities.

I *think* tonight I might finally go back to Technomancer before I forget how to play ;)

Finally got a chance to play some more Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. When I left off with it last time, I was in No Man’s Wharf. I was close to the boss, so I finished making my way to Flexile Sentry. Oddly, I don’t remember ever having much trouble with this boss, and while I did kill it on my first try, I felt like I had more trouble with it this time than I ever had before. I actually took so long to defeat it that the water was high enough to slow my movement, which was a frightening experience when the most effective way of dealing with the boss’ attacks is to bait an attack, roll away and stay just out of range of the follow ups, then get in close to get in a bit or two.

Anyway, I moved on to Lost Bastille, which I explored as thoroughly as I could. I got to the Ruin Sentinels without much difficulty, and I also managed to kill them on my first attempt.

Onward to Lost Bastille, which is relatively small as an area. I would like to note, though, that it was a rather poor decision to make the Flexile Sentry a respawning enemy here. There’s only one, but considering it must be fought in water that slows you and the fact that it seems to be a little quicker than the boss version, I found the fight with it far more difficult than the boss fight.

As for the actual boss fight of the area, the Lost Sinner killed me on my first attempt, but my second attempt went much better. She’s effective at taking advantage of attempts to heal, which keeps things interesting. This is a fun boss fight, too, and probably my favorite of the batch I did last night.

Overall, I’m finding that this entry is a lot easier this time around. I suppose I can contribute that to just more experience with the series and a more focused character build. I’m excited to see if I experience any major difficulty spikes, or if this trend of slightly-easier-than-expected will continue.