Cryptic/Perfect World seems bent on taking up all my gaming time lately. Though I can’t seem to convince my husband to come back to Star Trek Online with me, I myself have been sucked back into the game big time. Um, yeah. This is definitely not the STO I knew and remembered. It’s bigger and […]

Here’s my new Romulan captain. I swear I did not actually try to make her look like an evil Natalie Portman, but that’s just what sort of happened. Anyway, I figure I’ll start writing this post now since I’m currently sitting in position six-thousand-and-something in queue waiting to get into Star Trek Online, which is […]

After being on vacation and gone for week, it’s mighty good to be back for The Secret World Mondays. It’s amazing how quickly your fingers can forget the controls even after such a short time, and playing a ton of Neverwinter over the last couple of weeks sure didn’t help (I couldn’t stop pressing F […]

Battle Bards episode 3 is now live and up for your listening pleasure! This week’s theme is a fun one. Syp, Syl and I (because Dodge was unavailable again…I’m starting to think he’s just making excuses to avoid us!) talk about our choices of MMO tunes that sound “spooky and magical”. What does that mean […]

You’re always bound to see some strange and disturbing things on The Secret World Mondays. Case in point — here, enjoy a picture of a wild-eyed horse in a bloodstained sweatshirt sitting next to a well-dressed man in a helicopter, gawking at one another as it crashes. Yeah, this one is probably one of the [...]

Here are the MMOs I’m currently playing: quite a bit of Neverwinter some World of Warcraft a little Defiance weekly dose of The Secret World a light smattering of Rift I used to tell myself I’m a horrible juggler and that trying to play a whole bunch of games at once never works out. Indeed, [...]

Five Templars walk into Elite Polaris…

My decision to hop aboard the Neverwinter train came as a fairly recent one. To understand how it came about, you have to know that in our family, I’m the one who keeps up with the news in the gaming industry, reads the reviews and blogs, researches the games and decides in the end whether [...]

The Battle Bards are back with another episode of the one and only podcast dedicated to the love MMO music! This week, the theme is Final Fantasy XI. Once again, we’re down one Dodge, but Syp, Syl and myself are here to feature and talk about the music from this MMO, arguably one of the [...]

I was finally able to watch the pilot episode of the TV show Defiance last night, and I have to say, I haven’t felt this excited about a program on SyFy in a long time. I mean, for a futuristic dystopian-type series on cable, it’s about as good as you can ask for.  And man [...]

I’m at the point in The Secret World where I’m picking off quests I haven’t done yet, using the achievements window to guide me. Why it took me so long, I have no idea — as there are so many of them that give you cool clothing pieces on completion. Finally got my nifty antler [...]

Thanks to catching the tail-end of a twitter conversation a few days ago, I was reminded to complete all the current Episode Missions in Defiance. Good thing too, since they won’t be around in-game after the 15th. Because of Trion and SyFy’s collaboration on this cross-media project, the timeline content in both the game and [...]

All right, here’s the straight dope from a person who admittedly feels much more at home in traditional MMORPGs with a sword and shield in my hand, rather than staring down the sight of a futuristic firearm. It’s no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of shooters, so I won’t deny I was a [...]

Another month, another deposit of bonus Funcom points in my account when I logged in to The Secret World last night. I used them to buy the outfit shown above, the new Gladiatrix armor, so I can finally look like a tank (and so my guildies can’t claim that I only do all my tanking [...]

Ever since Defiance officially went live on Tuesday, I’ve been playing Trion’s new MMO third-person shooter every night for approximately 1-2 hours each session. Granted, that’s probably optimal for me, given my hopes that this game can become a fun and casual pastime on the side. Still, I’m sure I’ll need a lot more time [...]

Long-time readers may be aware that I frequently like to feature or talk about MMO soundtracks on my twitter or blog; for me, the music has always been such a significant part of the gaming experience. That’s why I was thrilled when Syp of Biobreak approached me one day and asked if I would be [...]

The Ankh is The Secret World’s fourth instance, located in The Scorched Desert. Deep beneath the sands, Orochi agents have discovered an ancient and subterranean Egyptian temple. Of course, it’s also damp, dark, spooky and completely infested with the Filth. As if any of us needed more proof that everything the Orochi Group touches inevitably [...]

Outstanding. Apparently, my blog’s revival has serendipitously coincided with DAW, or Developer Appreciation Week. This is good, because I would have been loath to miss out on this tradition. Let’s all take part in sharing the love! Originally the brainchild of Scarybooster, DAW is a chance for gamers and bloggers everywhere to show our appreciation for [...]

Okay, so my little break actually turned out to be a pretty long break. You know how it is when things get busy; you say to yourself, “All right, I’m just going to put this blogging thing aside for a next little while just until I get back on track.” Except 2013 has been crazy [...]

I have to say Annihilation is probably one of the better Star Wars books by Drew Karpyshyn, which is quite a relief after the train wreck that I thought was Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan. It’s amazing what a good writer he can be when he’s not being rushed. Now that he is no longer [...]

Happy New Year! Here’s my first post of 2013, whose title I confess should really be “My Top 5 Gaming Highlights of 2012…And Then Some” because while 2012 was indeed a great year for games and gamers, admittedly I found myself struggling to come up with pure gaming-related entries for this list. It’s not that [...]

Looking for something to read this holiday season? Here are some of the better books (3 stars and up) I’ve read since September, the last time I wrote one of these posts. 2012 has been a great year for reading, that’s for sure. As always, feel free to give me a holler over on Goodreads [...]

Another Monday night, another Secret World session. It was our guild’s first TSW night since the game’s big announcement last week, and I must say we had a pretty good showing, considering our modest little cabal. Being a subscriber, I was able to claim my rewards which included a bunch of Funcom points, so of [...]

On 12/12/12 12:12 Norway time, Funcom officially did it — flipped the switch on The Secret World making it subscription-free, or in other words buy-to-play. If you were one of the lucky ones who picked up the game a few weeks ago during one of the many crazy video game sales, I’d be feeling pretty [...]

Dear Diary, Hey, it’s me again. Yep, still crazy for vanity pets, and still busting my butt to expand my collection. The hunt continues, and it appears my time in the field has been extended again with the release of World of Warcraft patch 5.1 toward the end of last month. A whole slew of [...]