“Bear approves of you!  I can feel her little tail wagging in my heart!” ~ NPC skill trainer in GW2

It turns out that you folks really, really want me to talk about Planescape Torment, and I am more than happy to oblige.  As I said in my poll last week, I have a number of titles in my GOG.com … Continue reading →

Sometimes when you love a game and you find it hard to adequately sum up why (often because there are so many reasons), it’s helpful to point out the specifics when you think about them. In the case of the … Continue reading →

These two kids in Transylvania crack me up.  Their character models are oddly not-child-like, but their dialogue is often quite hilarious so I’ll overlook the looks.

So I made a vow to myself that I’d try my best to keep up with the new living story content in Guild Wars 2 instead of being half-hearted about it.  So far, so good in that respect; I’ve taken … Continue reading →

So I was checking out the latest weekly sale on GOG.com and once again felt the urge to really invest some time into one of the many games that I’ve bought or downloaded for free.  I’d like to do a … Continue reading →

I was part of the media roundtable for WildStar’s second closed beta call the other day, and I came away from it feeling as though I’m missing out from being part of the testing experience right now.  No, I still … Continue reading →

We’ve all heard the news by now: RIFT’s going free-to-play in less than a month.  No big surprise; everyone’s wondered for a while, F2P is like a “second launch” that most MMOs enjoy, and RIFT had the structure of RIFT … Continue reading →

Betas are on the mind today — but when are they not?  Dodge and Syp take a break from cleaning out their navals to pontificate on the benefits and drawbacks to being part of a beta.  But after that?  It’s right back to belly button upkeep! Two topics in 30 minutes or your next podcast … … Continue reading →

Double rainbows in Transylvania!  What does it mean? I want to give a shout-out today to my Secret World cabal, who more or less dropped their original plans to help me get through a pair of insanely tough Transylvania quests … Continue reading →

This week on Battle Bards, the crew explores the darkly mysterious realm of music as they focus on spooky and magical tracks from MMOs.  The fun of this episode comes as each of the bards interprets what the “spooky and … Continue reading →

Ever since I’ve started a relationship with ArenaNet and Guild Wars (and its sequel), I’ve had complicated feelings about these games and how the studio manages them.  In many ways, I’m a huge fan.  The visuals and sound are stunning, … Continue reading →

“Honey, I miss Media Play.” My wife takes my hand.  “I know, dear.  I know.” It’s just something I have to say every once in a while.  When I first moved to Michigan in 2000, I quickly found Media Play … Continue reading →

“What’s the point of racing to level-cap? That’s like sprinting a hiking trail in Yellowstone National Park while wearing horse blinders. You get to the end, sure, but you never got to savor anything along the way.” ~ Massively commenter

I have a particular fondness for RPG gamebooks stemming back to my childhood.  They were like an awesome combination of D&D and Choose Your Own Adventure, and absolutely flourished in the 80s.  Now they’re enjoying a renaissance on mobile platforms, … Continue reading →

I’m still getting settled in from my vacation last week, and as to be expected, I haven’t put in a lot of video game time lately.  That said, here are five good things that I’ve appreciated from my trip! 1. … Continue reading →

I’m back and a little more tan than I was a week ago.  Also, I got to hold a baby alligator!  My life is so dang rich. Anyway, let’s take a look at the results from our April survey of … Continue reading →

It’s time once again to get a pulse on what you all have been playing recently!  Participate in the official Bio Break poll by checking any and all MMOs and MOBAs you played in April.

As I write this, my wife and I are less than two days from going on our first week-long vacation since before any of our children were born.  It’s been a while.  My parents have graciously agreed to watch our … Continue reading →

So here and there I’ve had people ask and/or act surprised about me playing Neverwinter.  Yes, I’m planning on getting into this new D&D title and no, I don’t have huge reservations about doing so.  I’m also covering it for … Continue reading →

Because getting ready to go on a vacation and preparing for Neverwinter’s soft launch tomorrow isn’t enough to keep me busy, I loaded back up SWTOR to check out the game’s changes since 2.0 went live.  I thumbed through the … Continue reading →

Whoops, I almost forgot to ask you all what you played in March!  I’ve made a few changes to the list, mostly by expanding it as much as possible and including major MOBAs in the count.  As usual, click on … Continue reading →

It’s been a really light past seven days or so in terms of gaming.  Real life has gotten in the way, and for several reasons, I just haven’t had a lot of time to get into MMOs (the fact that … Continue reading →

I have this weird fascination with Neocron that I can’t quite explain.  I think it’s one of those early MMOs that slipped under everyone’s radar, had an interesting development history, and continues to stay almost-invisible in the MMO landscape despite … Continue reading →

Last night I finished up the deeds I needed in Eregion, including doing 40 quests in the region.  Nothing super-tough; my Lore-master is smacking faces and taking names these days and my trusty bear is always there to lend a … Continue reading →