So, yeah… got hit with a second wave of flu, seriously cutting into my time. Fantastic. East coast epidemic, for the win.

First up, DDO, which did fairly well, despite the usual infusion of fanboys of the game, who tend to have NO idea how this show works, and accusing me of forgoing basic research, not getting very far, or failing to mention certain paid aspects… Again… I didn’t do the “basic research.” Luckily it was all pretty focused from like, one source, and wasn’t all that bad. Many vets of the game liked it, even some more key players like DDO fansite and podcast runners, and, hell, even someone from Turbine commented on here, so that’s a first. I only feel slightly awful about mentioning the cash shop is a total, nigh unusable mess. (It still is. Sorry.) I’m surprised the episode lasted as long as it did, as I did cut a LOT of things I could have talked about, simply for the sake of brevity. The game is simple to grasp, but tough to fully understand, and I stand by that.

So the astute, and the fact my clue wasn’t entirely difficult, yes, this upcoming episode (provided I stop being lazy) is going to be on Path of Exile, the Diablo clone I covered over 6 months ago in a Sidequest that nobody watched. It’s nice to know that this game DIDN’T perform a complete 180 when hitting open beta, and most of the mechanics remained the same, only the Skill Web receiving the most tweaking. It might come across as a redundant episode as this was before I decided to make Sidequest a “first impressions only” show, but at least I can actually explain the mechanics  besides just mentioning them quickly. That’s a fairly common fear I have with ALL Sidequests I do, really.

Pray I get this one done on time. I still haven’t decided to stop coughing.

…I also got into the Scarlet Blade Alpha… That…. is certainly…. a thing. A thing that apparently ISN’T under NDA… I… I just don’t know…