Wordsmith's Anvil

  Image credit: Penguin Random House A couple weeks ago I put down my thoughts on the Dungeons & Dragons prequel novel entitled The Road to Neverwinter . Now that I've finished E.K. Johnston's dive into Faerun I can officially say I'm caught up on everyone's backstory before the the events of the movie.     While Road was a bit more congruent with the overarching tale that would inevitably unfold in Neverwinter on the big screen, The Druid's Call is more of a side quest. We're introduced to Doric, one of the best characters in the movie albeit fairly quiet through most of it, and a loose connection that she has to Simon. The entirety of the novel really explores Doric's life from infancy to young adult. We see what things have been like for her as a tiefling in the elven world, a significant step up from her brief time in the human one.     Born to human parents, Doric is confined in her attic until the ripe age of six. This Harry-Potter-esque treatment ...

  Image credit: Respawn Entertainment A lot of times games age out. It's just the nature of the beast. You go back to play Twisted Metal 2 and realize that the game looks like garbage and plays even worse. Now granted, that might be an unfair comparison since it's significantly older than Titanfall 2 , but my statement still stands.     Titanfall 2 does not fall into that category.     In the game, our protagonist Jack Cooper is a rookie rifleman of the future's "Militia" acting as a protege to a celebrated pilot. Pilots in Titanfall are the main guys and gals running the frontlines. They act in conjunction with their titans to be true heroes. Smarter. Stronger. Faster. Better, right? That's how it's going for Cooper's mentor until he gets wrecked by a couple mercenaries working for the IMC. Now it falls to Cooper to take over the slot and fill the mighty shoes of BT-7274. Alongside this titan, we have to learn how to wall run, switch weapons fast, and...

  Image credit: Gasket Games Warhammer games are a dime a dozen, and oftentimes that quantity sacrifices some quality. Are they ever going to be the worst games you've ever played? Probably not. But with so many developers doing their own spins out of the universe we're bound to see some garbage in the pile.     Storm Ground takes place in the Age of Sigmar realm of Warhammer lore. It gives you the option to go through three different campaigns with various interactions along the way-no run is going to be exactly like another-to get to a final boss after perhaps a couple hours of playtime. You start in the Celestant campaign, taking down ghostly haunts and ghastly maggotkin of Nurgle on your way to defeat the Lady of Ashes. The Good One of the best parts of this game is the fact that it's set up on a hexagonal grid. Hex grids are pleasant to play on because they allow a little bit more freedom of movement. It doesn't feel so constricted and weird when pursuing an enemy,...

Image credit: Random House Worlds This will mark my first review of a book outside of the annual reviews that I've been doing. Those have been fun, but I believe that they don't fully encompass the heart and soul that many of these authors have poured into their work.     Jaleigh Johnson's The Road to Neverwinter gives us a glimpse at what life was like for Edgin and Holga in the lead-up to the Dungeons & Dragons movie. We knew that Edgin was a thief, we knew that he was a father, and we knew that he was friends with Forge prior to meeting him again in the film, but we might not know to what extent all of these things fell into place.  The Good The narrative of Johnson's work is certainly one of its strong points. We are introduced to Edgin, a father who is struggling to make ends meet for his baby daughter. He meets Holga, an exiled barbarian just looking for a place to call home.     The unlikely pair work together to raise Kira over the years, doing small...

  Image credit: Reikon Games It's been a hot minute since my last gaming review! Just kidding it's been like a literal minute. That's because Ruiner is one of those bite-size games that can be blown through in a single weekend without even having your wife grab the butcher knife and threaten your livelihood if you don't go to bed.     Ruiner is a 5-hour romp through the gritty undercity of a cyberpunk hellscape. You're a nameless, faceless, action hero armed with nothing but a busted pipe and an easily-modded gun called a "Ruiner." It starts you off with the goal being to assassinate the boss of a megacorporation called Heaven. After taking down some thugs on your way to do this task-a task that you have no real reason to do besides it just being the current assignment and flashes of someone telling you what to do-your brain is hacked by Her. "Her" is intent on getting you to safety for the time being so you can find out what's really going o...

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...