Star Wars Starfighter - 20/20 hours

I tried to beat the canyon level a few more times, but I couldn't do it. I got almost to the end a couple of times, but the ship I was escorting would fly into that last open area and get blown up. I'm sure it's possible, but I don't have the reflexes for it.

So I went with my backup plan. I enabled invincibility and got gold medals on all the levels . . . in easy mode. Since many of the medals required strict time limits, this wasn't exactly a gimme, but it was pretty easy. Even the canyon level wasn't too bad, given all the practice I had on medium mode. This killed a couple of hours. Then I was left with all the ships and bonus levels unlocked, so I went to get gold on all but one of the bonus levels, using the cool "Sith Infiltrator" bonus ship. That was fine, but I still had about an hour left to go. So I decided to try the canyon level on medium difficulty, while invincible.

I couldn't get through it. Whenever I flew more aggressively, the screen-shake from taking fire made me completely ineffectual. And the Sith Infiltrator's extremely powerful gun was useless if I couldn't aim. Even cheating, that level still managed to beat me. I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse, but I do know that I removed this game from my hard drive with a great deal of satisfaction.

It mostly wasn't that bad. I may be getting a little old to keep up with it, physically, but I still understand the appeal of whizzing around in a spaceship, blasting stuff with lasers. It's light and sound and spectacle and split-second decisions, and it's been a long time since I played a game that was so adept at coaxing out both the good and the bad type of adrenaline. But it's not my thing. Not any more.

Still, I managed to finally complete the last game in my Star Wars bundle. I really feel like the end of the blog is something that's actually going to happen. Once I get Age of Wonders III, the Stronghold games, and the Divinity series out of the way, that will be the last of my big bundles. It's only a matter of time now!