Wordsmith's Anvil

The Footpad The Phoros slowed to a halt on Triton’s soft sands. Donovan stood at the stern of the ship with his arms folded. He had to mentally prepare himself for what he was to do on the island. It was not that murder was abstract to him, he had assassinated more men and women than he could remember. However, he always took precautions. “You must find a way to make it seem a suicide,” Nicolette had told him back in Tellus. He had been agitated with their exchange but did well to hide his thoughts, counting from one to a hundred and then back down again as the conversation ensued. “I know my job, Madam. Leave the thinking to me.” Nicolette had touched his muscled bicep then and grinned. “Do the job to my satisfaction and you will find me worth more than mere coins.” “The job won’t cost mere coins,” Donovan had replied and moved his arm away from her touch. It was not that the diplomat was not attractive. The footpad figured he would enjoy rutting with her enough, but he never mixed bu...

  Images courtesy of Harebrained Schemes I think most trilogies try to improve upon their formula with each iteration. This can be seen with film classics like the original Star Wars trilogy, and also with gaming epics like Mass Effect . It's a tried and true method of getting your audience to continue returning. The stakes have been amped up from piece to piece, and we all want to find out what happens next.     The same can definitely be said for Shadowrun .     I never had the privilege of playing the original Shadowrun on SNES, but I was pretty excited to find out that some of the original creators of the work landed themselves in Harebrained Schemes to set up the Kickstarter campaigns needed to flesh out a new series for the title. Now, granted, this trilogy came out quite a few years ago and then was ported to current consoles several years later (still a couple years back, by now), but it was a new foray for me into a cyberpunk world the likes I'd never...

  Image courtesy of WolfEye Studios This was an odd one that I glommed onto. And I don't just say that because of the title.     There are a lot of things in Weird West that make it such an appropriate title. Some of them work. And some of them don't. Either way, it's guaranteed to stick in your craw for a fortnight or two once you've played it.     Weird West is led by five different protagonists that are all controlled at separate times from the actual player. There's a bounty hunter, a pigman (yes, you read that right), a Native, a werewolf, and a cultist. Each one of them has their own goings-on that would likely never intersect in their daily lives, but for reasons unknown to them... they do over the course of the weeks transpiring in game-time.       Put simply, a calamity has made its way to the west, and it's not just the run-and-tell-the-sheriff kind. This is more along the lines of a devastation that could wreak havoc across the ent...

Image courtesy of Complex Games I've definitely gone down a bit of a rabbit hole in the last year or so when it comes to Warhammer 40,000. It started with Owlcat's  Rogue Trader and then continued with Neocore's Inquisitor . Now granted, both of these titles were really more brought to my attention because of the respect that I have for the developers. Owlcat has been my favorite studio since the long-gone glory days of BioWare, and Neocore captured my interest with their spin on King Arthur . Nevertheless, these studios have introduced me to the wide world of 40K and everything it entails, and I've been more than intrigued enough to pursue other titles to delve further into the grim darkness of the future.     Chaos Gate takes Warhammer 40K and puts an XCOM spin on its tactics. We play the newly elevated commander of a ship filled with Space Marines and led by a rigid old commandant, a mouthy tech-priest, and a pushy Inquisitor who will stop at nothing to combat an is...

  The Morrigan: Celtic Goddess of Magick & Might by Courtney Weber  9/10 Epic Over the past couple years, my wife and I have explored spirituality in different directions than the traditional sense. Weber was one of the hosts of my wife's favorite podcast, and her dive into the origins and stories behind several witchy icons caught my attention. The Morrigan, as an entity and not necessarily the book, specifically captured my eye. It was with this line of thinking that I decided to give the book a read, and I must say I was more than pleasantly surprised. Weber weaves an intricate take on the goddess, her influence thoughout Celtic myths, and even ventures into the claims of present day worshippers. For anyone who is looking for explanations as to why those crows and ravens seem to be seeking you out like they have something to say... The Morrigan is a great read. The Silver Spike by Glen Cook  9/10 Epic Glen Cook has quickly become one of my favorite authors of all ...

Image courtesy of Don't Nod Entertainment Now at least once a year, any gamer worth their salt will play an absolute banger. Something memorable that will transport you to another world with its lore, gameplay, and storyline that will resonate with you for years to come. For me that already happened this year with Banishers , but I wanted to explore some more of what brought Don't Nod to their current stage by examining where they came from. As Banishers is something of a spiritual sequel (prequel, maybe? Thanks for normalizing this, George Lucas), I figured that Vampyr would be worth my time.     London, 1918.     Dr. Jonathan Reid is coming home from the Western Front to an ailing mother and his heartbroken widow of a sister. He wakes up in a pile of corpses, just as confused now as he probably was in the throes of the Great War's combat. To make matters worse, a sickness grips his belly as he makes his way to the street and the loving embrace of his sister. He emb...