The Grind

So.. I was a bit dis-heartened when the 1up gang went through their old lay-off thing.. and still sad about the closing of EGM.. but the website seems to be bouncing back.. they have done a bit of restructuring.. several of the old podcasts are gone, but several more continue on (or are re-done; for example, 1up Yours is now Listen Up)... but they have added a cool blog feature.. in addition to their usually news and video segments they have added a section of "thematic" blogs.. consisting of posts by multiple members of their staff, and occasional special guests.  What's the big deal? you ask... doesn't seem that new... other sites have blogs as well...  Well, the big deal is that these 1up blogs, so far, cover really great topics, are updated multiple times a week, and are very well written.   The two that stand out for me are the Retronauts Blog and The Grind. (they also have the old Hsu and Chan comic from EGM on its own blog too!)

The Retronuats Blog is all about, you guessed it, retro games.  This is tied into their excellent podcast (of the same name) Retronauts.   Its a really great resource for those who have been gaming since the good ol' days of Atari 2600.  (did I just admit how old I am)  I actually find myself strangely nostalgic at times with this blog, and other times, its very informative.. you can learn a great bit about video gaming history with this here blog (and its podcast equivalent).

The Grind however, just started recently, and already has become one of my favorite online destinations.. This blog covers role-playing games.  It covers ALL role-playing games... as their blurb states "The Grind covers all aspects of the role-playing genre: eastern, western, console, PC, handheld, massively multi player and good old-fashioned tabletop RPGs."  They have specific segments running on different days of the week.. one day is a history of Square Enix games, another focuses specifically on upcoming RPG's, and another focuses just on table-top RPGs.   As I said, this blog is just getting started, but its a great resource, and a great read.