More “It’s a Wipe!” progress in the Insect Temple. Prophet Dung Beetle – kill the P.D.B. until it splits into three colored beetles, and kill them according to the order of the color in the rainbow – Reg/Orange/Yellow/Green.Blue/Indigo/Violet. I’ve been trying this fight for weeks until it just occurred to me today what the trick was. Princess Bee – Princess Bee retaliates any damage done to her, so have healers do quick heals on the most damaged raider and expect any low HP raiders to die. The boxes contain fire bombs and respawn if killed, so just ignore them. Focus on Princess Bee and hope she dies before you do. ...

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons is on sale on Steam for less than $2 today. I really, really enjoyed this short, innovative game when I played it last summer. Highly recommended, and at this price, if you haven’t played it yet, now’s the time.Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons This was posted on Google+

My Christmas gaming vacation continues with Crypt of the Necrodancer, a gift by a friend from my Steam wishlist. It’s a roguelike, but everything happens on the beat – movement, attacks, everything. The key to winning is to interpret the enemy dance and attack them when they’re unprepared. That green dragon is on the first level. My interpretive dance isn’t expressive enough to defeat him. Or something. But sometimes it’s not the dragon and I can descend. ...

Massive Chalice might just be the hardest tactical RPG I’ve ever played. Most RPGs let you take some heroes from novice to legend at your own pace. Massive Chalice takes that away from you. You might only get a chance to play them once or twice in their life, and maybe not at all. Your nation is being invaded on all sides by a creeping doom, which every so often forms itself into monsters that you must destroy. You, in this case, being an immortal dictator tasked with preserving the nation while an ancient artifact, the Massive Chalice, powers itself up to destroy the doom once and for all. ...

Finished the first chapter of Grim Dawn – the Warden is dead. The fights move so fast that I don’t really know what’s going on, it’s just spam the heal button and do attacks. So tired right now. But it’s time, tomorrow, to pick another unplayed game off the Steam list and give it a shot. #GrimDawn This was posted on Google+ ...

Last boss in Fiery Center. Bombs cast nukes and explode after awhile, which can be deadly if you have low HP raiders. Lord of Flames attacks with melee, nukes, ground AEs that must not be stood in, and sometimes nukes that hit the back row. I put melee dps on the bombs whenever they popped and left ranged dps on the boss. When the bombs were down, melee dps helped on the boss. ...

Second to last fight in Fiery Center. Fiery Warriors hit the primary and offtank. The Fiery Wizards cast small AEs. The Fiery Medics cast heals. Kill order is Wizards -> Warriors -> Medics. Pretty easy fight once you have the right raid group. The loot from the raid is a huge upgrade for everyone, causing a lot of unrest from people claiming favoritism. My mage ruined the previous fight before, so he wasn’t in the raid. Sure enough, a mage wand dropped and had to be disenchanted. Well, he wouldn’t stop DPS when I said stop DPS. This is what happens. ...

[gallery ids=“11279,11280,11281,11282”] In retrospect, we should have chosen this week to review Christmas-themed foundries, of which there are a few. Opportunity lost. Maybe next week?** Temple of the Elements** by @marrowyn** The Cult of the Dragon is up to their new tricks again. Tiamat has risen, and her minions are fanning out through Faerûn, looking for sources of new power for the Scaléd Queen, coming at last to the ancient Temple of the Elements. Tiamat will surely appreciate the additional elemental powers the temple can grant. ...

Valkyria Chronicles is, first and foremost, a dishonest game. It tells you what you need to know, then piles on all sorts of extraneous information in each mission that you’re mentally adding all sorts of secondary objectives that are not part of the mission. For instance, the mission I just finished had as its objective to occupy a certain point. The game then went on to talk about the benefits of occupying several other points that were on the obvious path to the objective, the paths reinforcements would take, warnings about enemies stationed on high points and so on. ...

[gallery ids=“11249,11250,11251,11252,11253,11254,11255”] Finally got into the Alpha for Star Command Galaxies, a game I kickstarted a few years ago. This alpha build lets you set up a kitchen, then beam down to a planet where you get killed by aliens. I did, however, manage to set the planet on fire first. From the forums, I think it’s safe to say I’ve seen most of the game as it exists at this moment. ...