14 DAY TRIAL // The name of my new obsession is Galactic Civilizations III, the new turn-based strategy title from Stardock, which was launched earlier in the week and will probably dominate my free time for a huge number of hours.
I liked the previous title in the series quite a bit and played it for a while, but my science fiction fix at the time was mostly Sins of a Solar Empire, which is more focused on combat and plays out in real time.
Galactic Civilization III has a bigger scope and aims to simulate all the ways in which a faction can expand through space and then dominate its neighbors.
There's a lot of variety in the game and those looking for more details about the core mechanics can check out the official Softpedia review.
There are moments when the burden of guiding an entire civilization towards victory or defeat can become too much and that's the moment when I will abandon the new Stardock experience for Game of Thrones Ascent.
The new Tales of Ice and Fire mode is now live once again (I missed it the first time around because I was on holiday) and I am aiming to play it as much as possible to get some solid rewards when it ends.