It's 2021 and I'm still playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2019. The game-play clip below is a great example of the core game-play loop that keeps me coming back for more.

After a few moments of terror, frantically trying to clear the ball out of the box, I get a second or two to breathe. Then it's straight into a counter attack. My excitement building as I start to see passing lanes forming before my eyes. It culminates into a shot at goal, at which point I get off my seat and silently scream (because the kids are sleeping), GOOOAAAALLLLL!

Found myself playing XCOM 2 and ended up frustrated once again. I very nearly got my whole squad wiped out in a “Retaliation” mission. The Muton enemy was so strong. It was able to consistently hit my soldiers who were in good cover and those who were on the rooftops with regular cover. Initially, I had it disoriented, which made it ineffective in combat. But I didn't have enough Flash-bang grenades to keep it disoriented until I could take it out.

I tried a new tactic of falling back into an overwatch position during firefights. The intent here was to avoid getting shot, while at the same time, giving my soldiers a free shot at approaching enemies. It works well against regular enemies. But it didn't work at all against the Muton.

I did learn one good tactic for a “Retaliation” mission that involves saving civilians. That is to make sure that the soldier approaching the civilians has a shotgun or a sword. And that the squad's sniper, has good line of sight to the civilian being approached. This is so that in the event that the civilian turns out to be a Faceless enemy, the sniper can shoot it, taking a good chunk of hp in the process. While the soldier who approached it, can finish it off with a shotgun or sword.

This is what my typical lineup looked like, during a game in the 2022-2023 Master League season.

---

Had an amazing game against FC Barcelona.

Due to the way they were defending, I couldn't keep the ball in the center of the field. Once I pass the ball to my AMF, he would have just a few seconds before he is dispossessed. It's just not enough time to build up an attack. So, I tried a different way of attacking. I went from sending short passes into the center of the field, to lobbing through balls over their defenders.

I noticed that Goios times his runs perfectly. But even after a perfectly timed pass, Goios is just not fast enough to get to the ball before the defender clears it away. This happened 2-3 times before I realized, it is not going to work with Goios. That's because Goios only has a Speed rating of 70.

So, at the 55 minute mark, I decided to take Goios out and brought in K. Gameiro — one of my more promising strikers. The important thing to note here is that Gameiro has a Speed rating of 90. That makes him the fastest player on my team.

Finished my 4th Master League season (2021-2022) and I finally won a title as a manager. My team, Paris FC, were crowned Ligue 1 champions. It was a welcome result after a heart-breaking loss to Real Madrid in the European Club Championship. For next season, my goals are to win the French Cup and progress farther in the European Club Championship.

I'm at the Inquisitor Fortress in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I'm stuck in a place where I have to fight through wave after wave of enemies. This includes going up against Purge Troopers who are tough in battle. One in particular, wielded a huge sword or hammer, as big as the one that Cloud (from FFVII) uses. That enemy does AOE stun/lockdown damage. Need to be wary of when and where they strike, so as not to get damaged.

In the early fights, the platform splits up into separate sections. I can use Force Pull to cause enemies to fall through the gaps.

Finished the Potomac Event Center Story Mission. This was the most fun mission yet. The Outcast Controllers use RC cars equipped with saw blades. Those are annoying. It is best to take out the Controllers as soon as possible.

The problem with the Outcast Controller's RC cars, is that they are heavily armored on the front and sides. So, just shooting it outright oftentimes won't be enough to bring it down. One way to try and protect yourself against the Controller's RC cars is by using the Hive skill. Place the Hive along the path that the RC car will most likely take to get to you. As soon as the RC car enters the Hive's attack radius, it will start taking damage. Hopefully, it will have taken enough damage that you can finish it off with your weapons.

In my last play-through, I made a huge mistake of not keeping my army up to date. I went with defending cities with one Legion unit. Some cities had Pikeman units, and others had ancient Warrior units guarding them. This happened because I was taking a pacifist approach to the game. I was trying to win the game through religious victory. To win with a religious victory, you have to convert all other civilizations to your religion. You don't have to capture or invade cities belonging to other civilizations. So, my army was only for defense. I never started any wars against other civilizations. After clearing out the barbarians on my home continent, I let my guard down. I didn't notice that Japan, my next-door neighbor, was amassing Samurai units beyond my borders. Their target was my capital city of Rome.

It's been awhile, but tried playing The Division 2 again. I initially could not play because I was getting a “Bravo-09” error. I'm not sure what caused that error, though my guess is that it was caused by switching to a new Wifi router. I tried restoring my Xbox and fully shutting it down and turning it back on; didn't fix it. The only thing that seemed to fix it was uninstalling and re-installing the game. After re-installing it, I opened the game and it downloaded a patch/update. And then I was finally able to login and play the game.

On to the game itself, the Striker Drone skill really helps when you're playing Division 2 solo. It gives the bad guys something else to shoot at. I especially like using it when I'm going one on one against an elite enemy. In this situation it will draw fire away from me, allowing me to get better shots in, all while also dealing considerable damage to the enemy.

I pair the Striker Drone with the Reinforcer Chem Launcher skill, which helps you stay alive when playing solo. It is basically used to repair your armor during battles. And since it is a skill, it simply recharges over time. So, it's not like you will run out of potions or anything like that, which is why I think it is a very good skill when playing solo. I also found out that you can use it to stop yourself from burning.

In my previous PES2019 Game Log entry, I talked about contract renewals. In this one, I'll share some tips for managing your Master League lineup and keeping your salary budget in check.

Prioritize Contract Renewals on Transfer Windows

What I've started doing during Transfer Windows is before even looking to make a new signing, I try and get contract renewals for my players whose contract's are expiring within a year or two. Some players who are already old, or have already peaked, or have a lot of love for the team will be looking to extend their contracts for longer than 2 years. This is almost always a good deal as it will save you a lot of money in the long run. I was able to secure 4-5 year contract renewals from role players using this approach. This frees me up from not having to worry about them in the future, which means I can then focus on keeping or getting star players. Most star players in my experience will only extend their contracts for up to 2 years using this approach. So for those players, you will just have to wait until they ask for contract renewals themselves when their contracts are about to expire.