Wordsmith's Anvil

  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: Egg Nut In order to do this game justice with my review, I'm going to keep it short and sweet. That is exactly what the developers did, anyway.     In Tails Noir you play a private investigator named Howard. Howard's typical clientele are people looking for cheating spouses or those who have misplaced a valuable bauble or two. Nothing big time. And he knows it. He also is well aware of how lame his life feels as a result.     The latest case that drops in his lap seems just like all the others. A pregnant mother is looking for her deadbeat husband. She just knows he's two-timing, but she doesn't want to fully boot him out without proof. Howard is on the case! When investigating this particular dirtbag, however, Howard discovers a lot more than he bargained for. For one, the guy is dead. And secondly, his corpse is being chopped up and packaged off as if it's going to market. Could there really be people in elite society feasting on the flesh of t...

Image credit: Ember Lab Oh man. I don't think I've ever actually done back to back 10/10 reviews before.      You ready for it?      I know I am.     Kena: Bridge of Spirits is one of those games that comes by and captures you from the moment you set forth in the titular character's shoes. As a spirit guide, Kena is expected to help wayward souls on their voyage to the afterlife. Or maybe just accept the fact that they are not of this world any longer. Either way, it's a job that she inherited from her father but has always felt a bit apprehensive about. This is mainly because she feels like she could never be as great of a spirit guide as those who came before her.     She is wrong.     Kena's journey goes across a village and the surrounding acreage to include some river landscape, forestry, farmland, and even a bit of snowy peaks. Along the way she encounters several spirits like Beni, Saiya, Rusu, Taro, Hana, Adira, Zajuro...

Image credit: Jump Over the Age "'More Human than Human' is our motto," Tyrell says with a mixture of matter-of-fact clarification and barely contained pride.     Deckard scoffs at the very idea that one of these replicants could be anything like a human.       Let alone more.     Blade Runner is, and probably always will be, my all-time favorite movie. It combines the raw human emotion I love in films alongside great sci-fi action. I could go on for hours, but we're not here to talk about Ridley Scott's masterpiece. We're here to talk about the one created by Jump Over the Age.     You read that right.     In Citizen Sleeper , you play as a "sleeper" on an almost-forgotten space station in a remote corner of the galaxy. To figure out just what the hell I'm talking about, let me clarify a few things. First off, in this distant future AI has been outlawed entirely. Perhaps not such a bad thing... Either way, it is illegal for an...

 Image credit: Glen Cook & Tor Books I love me some Glen Cook.     For the longest time I was on a Bernard Cornwell and Joe Abercrombie kick, and don't get me wrong those two are still among my top tier of writers, but I eventually stumbled into my Glen Cook phase and haven't looked back.     For those who don't know, Cook is a grimdark writer. The founder of the genre, really, who has given inspiration to the likes of Mark Lawrence and Joe Abercrombie. While those latter two are potentially heavier names in the modern day, Cook more than earned his stripes starting in the 80s. The Garrett Files just delivers further notches to his credential belt.     The Garrett Files is actually the title of a trilogy of his novels that revolve around the detective work of the titular character. The actual books within are titled Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts , and Cold Copper Tears. All of them are standalone mysteries, but the character that Cook buil...

  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 Black Salt Games When you look up Dredge in an attempt at defining the game, one of the labels it possesses is that of a role-playing adventure game. I'm not entirely sure that I would classify it as adventurous in the traditional sense of that word at all. And role-playing is also a definite misnomer. It's a misnomer that has been repeatedly utilized throughout gaming in recent years, however, where every game and its offshoot are classified as "role-playing" simply because it might have an element or two found in a true RPG.     But I digress.     Dredge is, in my humble opinion, a cozy/casual game where the player will spend more time navigating the puzzles of where, when, and how to catch certain kinds of fish than anything else. As a humble fisherman, it's your job to help supply the townspeople of a couple habitable locations with all the fish they need whilst also solving the disturbing nighttime occurrences plaguing those same people....