Wordsmith's Anvil

  Image Credit: Bit Reactor Star Wars is on a roll lately.     I know that may seem like a tough pill to swallow for those who have been down on it since The Rise of Skywalker , but facts are facts. Whether it's in book s, television , or gaming , the folks at Lucasfilm have found a niche that will help to drag them out of the proverbial muck.     Star Wars: Zero Company starts us off in the boots of Hawks, a grizzled veteran who just wants to get this mercenary gig off to the right start. After a cut-short career in the Republic military, Hawks went into the private sector with the only skills that he (or she, if you prefer) excelled in. Combat.     Down on their luck, Hawks and the members of Zero Company are desperate to get out from under the heel of Gorga the Hutt... Do Hutts have heels? I suppose not. They're just trying to get the gargantuan weight of crushing debt off of them. Maybe that's better. In order to do so, Hawks is willing to bend one...

  Image credit: Marvel I've been on a bit of a Marvel kick lately. I suppose I have Midnight Suns to thank for that one. Hot damn, that was a surprisingly good game. And luckily, there are still other games from the comic conglomerate that haven't ceased to amaze me.     Guardians is just one of these.     As Peter Quill, or Star-Lord as he's so keen to remind everyone, we get to step into the boots of the un-seasoned leader of a newly formed Guardians of the Galaxy. The crew consists of poorly timed jokes and attempts at cohesion that fall flat as each member tries desperately to carve out a little piece of fortune for themselves. These fortunes are accumulated from the oddjobs that Peter amasses along their way through the galaxy, but more often than not are really just moments when the gang ends up getting in trouble for violating some code or law they were unaware of. Supposedly. Allegedly.     That goodguys who sometimes do bad things gimmick wor...

  Image credit: Jump Over the Age Ah. That refreshing Amos Roddy music again.     Some games can really nail down a feeling and a tone that you're looking for as a gamer. Not everything has to be shooting and carving people up . Not everything has to be incredibly crafted dramas fit for television . Some stuff can just be simply great writing with an atmospheric  tune ushering you along through the narrative.     Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector puts us in the shoes of a sleeper again. For those not in the know, a sleeper is an individual who has leased out their consciousness to a megacorp in order to get their ticket off-world in some shape or fashion. The sleeper themselves might be actually in a bunker several lightyears away, but the body their consciousness is operating looks and functions in a nearly-human way on different space stations, ships, or even asteroids in the belt of the Helion System. They need to eat, walk, sleep, and endure the strugg...

Image credit: The Bearded Ladies The Bearded Ladies have a solid reputation in the gaming industry because of their efforts with Mutant Year Zero , a cartoonish-yet-violent take on the apocalypse that involves anthropomorphic animals and strategic combat. Miasma Chronicles came after this, expanding on the studio's proven formula in true XCOM fashion.     In Miasma Chronicles , you play as a young kid named Elvis who is desperate to find his mother. He knows that she is on the other side of a wall of hardened miasma, a kind of radioactive swirl of microplastics and who knows what else, but getting through that wall has proven to be more difficult than he could fathom. Luckily, Elvis has an older brother named Diggs to help him out. This brother is a robot, so you can already tell the family is a bit of a blend, but he provides Elvis with the support he needs in order to boost his natural talents at manipulating the miasma with the hopes of not only finding his mother... but f...

  Image credit: Firaxis Games Now I've never really been much of a Marvel fan. Hell, I'm not much of a superhero fan in general. So many of the movies end up being corny and ridiculous. And there are also just SO many of them in general. I know I might be in the minority, here, but I'm just trying to lay some groundwork on where I stand.     Stood, anyway.     Midnight Suns is a game that operates as a strategy-type, and that makes sense since it comes from the creators of XCOM. Instead of a bunch of crunchy grunts, however, you have your pick of over a dozen superheroes from Marvel's roster that go from the obscure like Nico Minoru or Magik to the world-famous and amazing like Spider-Man.     In typical Marvel fashion, the world is ending yet again. This time, it has to do with an age-old witch from a different race of elder gods trying to wreak havoc across the planet. Lilith is ready to release Chthon upon the populace, bringing about the Midnight S...

Image credit: Disney Making my way through The High Republic books has been an amazing side quest in recent months. Not only is it really cool to be reading Star Wars novels again, but the fact that they're canon makes it all the more satisfying. The stories are well-crafted, thought provoking, and provide substance that is truly lacking in anything Star Wars has released in film format since Rogue One . My main query as I began this venture was whether or not the Young Adult novels would be able to hold a candle to the nitty-gritty displayed in the likes of Convergence or Cataclysm .     The two books in question today are the novels Path of Deceit and Path of Vengeance. While these books are written by different authors, Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland for Deceit and Cavan Scott for Vengeance , most of the characters are the same.     Path of Deceit has us following Jedi Knight Zallah Macri and her Padawan Kevmo Zink. This pair has been tasked with pathfinder-t...