Hearthstone is a card game that I have had some great enjoyment with. The pace of the expansion packs has felt really rushed and clearly in the past three months they have been pumping out “I win” cards with each. This is somewhat understandable in a free to play format where they want to get…
The Ties That Bind
ME:A is turning out to be one of the best games this year. When you cut out the bullshit complaints and rose tinted glasses (I went back and played ME 1-3 again – MEA is far superior in pretty much every way, except the mystery. More on that later.) it is a very well done…
Mass Improvement Andromeda
I haven’t had a chance to play for five days due to travel and responsibilities and I am missing the game in a pretty bad way. I have put some thought to what could make ME:A even better and the list is pretty short and also (one would think) pretty simple. These potential improvements keep…
The Secret World: Reboot Edition
Hat tip to our friends over at Massively OP, about The Secret World relaunching as The Secret World Legends. So what is Secret World Legends? The official branding docs describe it as “a shared-world action RPG with completely revamped combat, a newly designed progression system, and updated visuals.” I have long argued here that a game…
Savoring Andromeda
I am thirty one hours into Mass Effect: Andromeda and have barely scratched the surface. Yet all 31 hours has been interesting and exciting for me. Discovery, unexpected encounters, learning about alien life forms – I am fully engaged in the universe. As far as game completion goes I have the first planet, Habitat 7…
Skeptics Guide to Mass Effect Andromeda’s Plot
While the “on the box” story line presented for Mass Effect Andromeda does seem trope-ish and unimaginative I wanted to present a-Â “I have actually played the game and there is some promise…” post – there is more going on beneath the surface. Â While I personally do not expect there to be a huge depth or…
I Hacked My Own Blogroll
Well, that was a pain in the ass. I loved my WP Social Blogroll plugin. It updated who and when blog posts were written from my links. Whenever I need a break from work, or whatnot, I can log into my site and see if any blogs I follow have written any updates. It was…
Mass Affect
Typo, for once, was purposeful. I subscribed to Origin for $4.99 for a month to get a 10% discount on my $79.99 pre-order special edition of Mass Effect: Andromeda. For you non math savants out there it was a net ~$3 savings but that is only a cursory amount compared to how much this game…
Change of Plans
I am going on vacation (again, yes, lucky me) someplace warm again (Cuba) Â to escape the cold, Canadian winter. Well, it’s mostly been mild here this winter for the most part but supposed to get a deep freeze next week which coincides with my escape that much better. My plan was to finish off the…
#NOGOODWAY
Today the #NOGOODWAY campaign launches. Here is the video: And the Facebook page, explaining it. https://www.facebook.com/nogoodway I find the video game community is particularly bad at using the R-word inappropriately, as part of everyday gaming language in forums, online, etc. I see it used too frequently. Which is why I am glad  I have a gaming…
Changing Gears
Fixing I HAS PC My web site has been loading like crap after I replaced my broken social blogroll links. I love that feature – it is one of my favorite things about having this blog, the quick, easy view of when my favorite blogs have been updated.  I have disabled it for now, and will…
Timely Coincidence
I finished chapters 2 and  3 of the Jedi Knight story arc in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and from what I can tell is the “original” content that launched in 2011. First impressions is that it was very Star Wars-y. No huge surprises but it fit the general tone and theme of…
Familiar Territory
Hoth. I love Hoth. The starting planet of The Empire Strikes Back, Han wielding a lightsaber (to gut a Tauntaun), AT-ATs, Snowspeeders, Probe Droids.. LOVEÂ that (fictional) planet. It was with much enthusiasm that I traveled to Hoth for some missions for my Jedi Knight in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Would they give…
24.9% More Important
Well, I caught up to my F2P Jedi as a full subscribing Jedi (completing chapter one of the Knight story line)Â and I shaved 3 hours off of it. That is a decrease of time of 24.9%. This was completely non scientific but most of that time was saved by being able to use quick travel,…
I Would Walk 500 Light Years
Being a big fan of Bioware games in general and also of Star Wars it may come as a surprise that I haven’t played much of SWTOR. When it was sub based only I didn’t have much time to game, so lacked investing in it. When I played the FTP version it was in it’s…
New Metrics – WoW Sub Edition
I remember fondly when bloggers and gaming media roasted Turbine for reporting the millions of characters made in gameto show how successful they were doing. Then Activision reports this gem: “World of Warcraft MAUs for 2016 grew 10% year on year, with fourth quarter MAUs spiking to 20% year on year growth. In terms of hours…
Blizzard is a Currency Manipulator
Yay, a faux Donald Trump quote as my title! Finally! Dreams do come true. Yesterday Blizzard launched their fake in Azeroth money for other fake Blizzard games / item money pyramid scheme and the value of the WoW token exploded. BOOM! Yes it crashed right back down to earth quite quickly but last night when…
Rescue Time
In my last post I talked about how Tuesdays were a fun day in Azeroth, and made some claims about my play time. Prior to that thought I had already installed “Rescue Time” on my laptop which logs all of your activities while actively using your laptop. I assumed that doing everything I had planned…
Christmas Tuesday
Tuesdays are a wonderful day in the world of the (filthy!) casual WoW player. First off, you get your Class Hall chest (free lootsz!!) for completing Mythic + the 7 days preceding. There is joy (and misery) as people open their chest and link to their lastest and newest legendary item. Much like Christmas, many…
Character Immersion
I have mentioned before I have a stable of alts in every level bracket and that current Legion content has not given me a ton of time or focus on them – although mechanics exist to help them “get into the endgame” activities quickly, there is so much to do that on my play schedule…
Better Late Than Never
During  my regular WoW playtime this weekend and paying attention to what is coming down the pipeline in Legion patches I realized that Blizzard has been doing an awful lot to ease-in playing alt characters. Make no mistake about it – there is a TON to do with just one character alone – more than…
Blog Therapy – Cleaning out old Drafts (Part 4)
There’s a zen like state to it, I tell you. I originally titled these “Spring Cleaning!”, but it was never spring and there is a far more cathartic feel to these posts for me. Like letting go of the past. Or, getting really drunk and forgetting to go to work! My other posts in this…
Vacation Catch Up
The Vacation I was on vacation last week, somewhere sunny, on the ocean, with 30 degree (Celsius) weather everyday. I had started to write up some posts to auto-post during my vacation but the whole point of why I blog is to interact with people – and doing so in an absentee fashion seemed counter…
Old Dog, New Trick
I know I am not fooling anyone here anyway, but I am really not a “cool” gamer. I am a (filthy!) casual. No RAID OR DIE, max content pushing here. World of Warcraft is my current game of choice. And I don’t hate myself for it (I used to in the old days, when I…
Third Time’s the Charm
So, this happened on the weekend. Quite by accident, and I was somewhat not trying to, but being so close to it I figured I might as well put in the effort and level up my third Legion character. Notice the awesome Bumblebee helmet and the mismatch of all the other gear from questing, time…