I’m old enough to remember the classic original trilogy (I didn’t get around to playing them until the late 1990’s) and this not quite remake/reboot from 2004 that got decent reviews (I even reviewed it for one site back in the day) and I say you should try it out even if you’re a fan of the older games who doesn’t like more action-oriented experiences. You get those three vintage games as a bonus with this newer one (so there!) and the team at inXile Entertainment actually made quite a hilarious experience to dive into. While the gameplay is purely action/RPG (in the visual and gameplay vein of the Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath games), the writing is really funny for the bulk of the Bard’s adventure and there are even “follow the bouncing ball” musical numbers that may have you single along even if you thought you wouldn’t…

Despite the humor abounding here, there’s a slightly serious tone that slips in about a few hours in that actually helps balance things out. Add in a sort of “morality” system than lets you answer NPC’s in a nice or snarky manner (this changes up potential quest rewards significantly in spots), a unique summoning system that gains you some powerful (and often weird) AI assistance, and more for a lengthy quest (upwards of 20 hours if you want to find everything) that’s worth the price (and 3.3 gig install). Hopefully, the pesky map screen slowdown and fuzzy cinemas that plagued the PC version have been cleaned up, as the PS2 and Xbox didn’t suffer from those problems. Then again, they didn’t have three old games on the disc as bonuses, either. So yes, go grab The Bard’s Tale, put on a pot of tea (or grab a “beer, beer, beer, tiddly beer, beer, beer…”) and get set to do a wee bit too much chuckling in your chair…