Also available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

Muv-Luv is, without a doubt, my all-time favorite series.  I've played every visual novel released in English, seen all three anime translated into English, and have read the entire 400-500 page codex.  I'm obsessed.  One of the anime translated into English was an adaptation of Total Eclipse, and I've got that anime on Bluray and have seen it multiple times.  When the visual novel of Total Eclipse FINALLY got released in English last month, I IMMEDIATELY bought it.  Like, literally; it released at 2 am in the eastern US, and I was downloading it at 2:01 am.

Muv-Luv, since the original trilogy, has always been about two things - waifus and a hopeless but determined struggle against the unspeakable horrors of an apocalyptic alien invasion.  Muv-Luv Extra capitalized on the former, Muv-Luv Alternative capitalized on the latter, but by and large, the series blends the two wonderfully, and Total Eclipse is no exception.  Of my top five Muv-Luv waifus, three of them are from Total Eclipse.  It also has, in a manner of speaking, the most epic battle against the BETA of the series.  The English language fandom seems split on whether Alternative or Total Eclipse is better, and while I'm in the Alternative camp, it's definitely close; they're both masterpieces.

The protagonist of Total Eclipse is Yuuya Bridges, a Japanese-American test pilot who is arguably the United States's best surface pilot.  At the game's opening, he's participating in the test flights and development of the F-22A Raptor, America's third generation stealth TSF and the undisputed king of anti-human TSF capabilities.  He ends up getting reassigned, though, and sent to the UN Forces Yukon base in Alaska, positioned right between American-controlled territory in southeast Alaska and the northwestern part of Alaska that the United States leased to the Soviet Union after the BETA overran most of their territory.  The reason an American army surface pilot gets reassigned to a United Nations base is because he's sent on secondment to participate in the XFJ program, a collaboration between the Japanese Empire and American TSF manufacturer Boening to improve Japan's third generation TSF, the Shiranui.  He's assigned to Argust Test Flight, the test flight attached to the XFJ program.  What makes this test flight unique among other test flights stationed at Yukon is that it's truly international; 2nd Lieutenant Yuuya Bridges is an American, 2nd Lieutenant Valerio Giacosa is Italian, 2nd Lieutenant Stella Bremer is Swedish, 2nd Lieutenant Tarisa Manandal is Nepalese, 1st Lieutenant Yui Takamura (Western name order used) is Japanese, and Captian Ibrahim Dogulu is Turkish.  This all becomes relevant to the story and the characters' interactions as the game progresses.

For the most part, the art in the visual novel is exactly the same style and appearance in this allegedly remastered release of Total Eclipse as the other Muv-Luv visual novels, but there is one distinct difference - it incorporates scenes from the anime in a few places (mainly during battles against the BETA).  I'm kind of torn on this inclusion.  On the one hand, it's definitely nice to see genuinely animated scenes in addition to the usual scenes of a 2D art asset moving across a 2D art background that you usually see in visual novels.  On the other hand, these anime scenes look bizarrely low resolution and compressed.  There's noticeable pixilation and visible artifacts in the scenes that aren't present when watching the actual anime.  That really sort of puts a damper on the whole presentation of the included scenes.  Still, though, it IS nice to see actually animated battle scenes even those scenes do get repeated a lot and are of low quality simply because it's something no other visual novel in the series has done.

Like the rest of the visual novels, the dialog is all in Japanese with English text.  Given the...questionable...quality of the English dub in the Total Eclipse anime, this is probably a good thing all around.  Speaking of voice acting, though, even if I can't understand the voice lines, the actors do a fantastic job of expressing the characters' emotions and attitudes, especially Tarisa's voice actress.  I AM annoyed that they localized Tarisa's nickname as "Tiny" in the visual novel instead of the much-cuter "Chobi"  in the anime, but it's fine.  On the topic of audio design, the music is pretty solid here, as well.  It's not quite as memorable as the music from the Extra/Unlimited/Alternative trilogy, but the soundtrack is still a solid fit for the game's settings and events.

As far as length is concerned, Total Eclipse is pretty beefy.  l, admittedly, am very easily distracted by Discord and Twitter, so my playtime of nearly 80 hours is definitely a bit inflated, but from what other fans have told me, 50 hours seems a pretty solid average, although your mileage will obviously vary based on your reading speed and distractibility.  Still, though, I think that's a pretty damn solid bang for your buck especially with how good the story and characters are.  The last two chapters - especially chapter 17 - are substantial.  20% of the game is probably just chapters 17 and 18.  They're EXTREMELY epic, though, and the climax of the story,

Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse is a definite contender for my personal GOTY.  Sure, it helps that I'm completely and totally obsessed with the series, but it's a genuinely fantastic visual novel and one that I've been DYING to have translated to English for a few years now.  The setting, the characters, the story, the political intrigue, and - most importantly - the waifus are all absolutely fantastic and leave almost nothing to be desired.  There are no H-scenes in Total Eclipse, so prudes don't have to worry about that, and anti-censorship fanatics don't have to worry about the infamous Steam censors.  If you're a general visual novel fan, check this one out; if you're a Muv-Luv fan, you should have bought this two weeks ago.

Also available on Windows

Awakening the Nightmare is a DLC campaign for Halo Wars 2.  It's actually the second story DLC the game got, but this is the first full campaign as Operation: Spearbreaker was just two (admittedly really good) missions.  This, on the other hand, was a full five mission campaign.  It's $20, so heads up, it ain't cheap, but it's an extremely well-done campaign.

Awakening the Nightmare has you play as the Banished in a desperate fight against the Flood.  When a couple of idiot Jiralhanae commanders that Atriox sent to pillage the wreckage of High Charity, he does so with strict orders to scavenge outside the wrecked city and not to enter the city itself.  One of these two Brute commanders, being an idiot, ignores this order and leads his troops into the city.  Oops, you just unleashed the Flood upon the Ark.  Now it's a desperate struggle to contain the infestation.

This is an extremely well-made campaign with an entirely new faction and missions with a variety of objectives to keep it from ever feeling stale.  A couple of those missions are pretty damn challenging, too.  The Flood don't against you like the Banished do in the main campaign; the Flood will often slam into your defenses relentlessly and seemingly ceaselessly.  You know, as the Flood tend to do.  Fortunately, the Banished have a defensive advantage over the UNSC in one key aspect.  Unlike the UNSC turrets, Banished turrets don't have to choose a specialization; they can acquire anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, AND anti-air enhancements.  This alone won't keep your bases safe, but it definitely helps as the Flood enemies begin to diversify.

Aside from a relatively short length - five missions - and somewhat high price tag - $20 - Awakening the Banished is everything you could want from a campaign DLC.  You play as a different faction, you fight an entirely new faction, the story is great, the mission objectives have a lot of variety to keep things interesting, and the battles you'll fight are super epic.  You do get access to some new leaders and a new Firefight game mode, but honestly, the campaign is so good that I think it alone is worth it.  Remember, too, that if you've got Game Pass, you get 10% off the DLC.