Event Notice: D&D MMO Neverwinter

This November, the D&D MMO, Neverwinter, is hosting a massive in game event know as the Siege of Neverwinter. Hordes of dragons, demons and trolls will be assaulting the city and huge player armies will hold them off in waves and gather great in game rewards. The event happens every year and is one of best in game events that I have ever played. The themes and feel of hordes of demons and dragon bosses showing up just feel like good fantasy to me. The game offers many rare items and loot from weapons to armor. It takes place in the forgotten realms and really feels like an epic D&D one shot.

The event runs till December 2nd.  It is on Xbox, PlayStation and PC. Go and defend Neverwinter from the  hordes of darkness.

-- By Grant Nelson

Film Review: Dune

A film that is making history right now and that I recommend to everyone is, Dune, based on the books by Frank Herbert. The film is the best on screen adaption of the books I ever seen. It has great acting and story and has an all star cast raging from Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides. The film is focused around the coming of age of Paul as his Nobel house takes control of the planet Dune given to them by the emperor of the human Imperium. The story shows Paul developing empathic abilities as many factions in the empire believe he is a chosen one of sorts who will change the universe. As he comes into his powers, he has a vision of the future in which a great crusade is waged across the universe in his name as a god and he is unable to stop it. The film is very true to the book in that it destroys the heroes' journey in the right ways, in which the hero is not really the hero and is more of an anti hero. The story shows a very gray seance or morality with varying shades of characters in which everyone is making choices that come at the expense of freedom and lives of others. The film deals with the civil war for the world of Dune as the great houses fight over it similar to the war for oil in our world. Dune is the only world where the mythical spice is found, an element that makes  faster than light travel possible and gives great empathic ability to many throughout the empire. The world is very flushed out with many factions in the empire fighting through politics as well as fighting with swords.Tthe art and set design feels so much like a modern-day science fiction epic. I found the portal of Paul in this film to be very different from many failed attempts of character through the years as he felt like a normal teenage boy scared and filled with fear and hate and just overall being very passive, which shows new forms of heroes in film in my view. The effects and battles are great. This film feels like our generation's new Star Wars. I would highly recommend going to this film as it is in the views of so many modern day cinematic art.

-- By Grant Nelson

Game Review: Back for Blood

A game that I think is worth playing this Halloween season is Back for Blood, a spiritual successor to the Left for Dead games from the early 2000s. The game is an amazing fight-for-survival in a co-op mode that is filled with zombies, guns, and gore.The game is very much a mix of The Walking Dead and Leaving 4 Dead, with a very average story. It makes up for it, though, with massage online parties and fighting through hordes of the undead. The gun load outs are amazing. The game has you on the edge of your seat. The gun load outs are great and teamwork is very important. The game is very addictive and reminds me of the days of Resident Evil, but for a new generation. The game has several modes, along with hub space that feels like something out of War World Z. The game had me on the edge of my nerves as I tried to keep my party alive, while shooting as many undead as I could. This game is worth your time and will make you feel like you are in the running dead. Stay sane.

By Grant Nelson

Game review: Call of Cthulhu

A game that I highly recommend is Call of Cthulhu. This is the cosmic wet dream of most game masters, as you explore the Lovecraft mythos, and fight monsters, demons and cosmic monsters beyond imagination. This game allows you to truly role play in a dark, morbid world that fills you with the realization of how small and worthless you are in the back drop of ancient primordial horrors that walk among the stars. The game tests your sanity and what depths of shadows you can role play in. One of the key parts of the game is your sanity, which is how much you can take before going mad from all the shit you are going through. This game is far less about combat and war like dnd or Warhammer, and more just survival and trying to stay alive and find the truth of whatever evil story you are in. It's far more a test and based in scaring you and challenging your fears more than action. The game feels like you are reading a pulp fiction science novel from the 50s with all its weirdness and film noir and often feels like a detective story with alien monsters. If you want to be scared and have fun all at once, try the Call of Cthulhu out..... just don't go too far down the rabbit hole of fear.

-- By Grant Nelson

Book Review: Foundation series

A book series that I would recommend is the classic Foundation by Isaac Asimov, which has been adapted to a TV show on apple tv.  The books follow the rise of and fall of a galactic human empire and is very much based off Rome's fall.The books deal with politics and plots within plots, plus wars between rival star kingdoms. After the empire falls, a dark age descends upon the universe, but a lone faction of the empire known as the Foundation, sets out to hold onto the light of reason and knowledge. The books and their themes are what Star Wars and Dune are based on.The books delve heavily into the very soul of humanity and what makes us human. It shows the themes of history and how empires rise and fall -- something that we can all see in the real world. The books deal with a classical view of civilization and how humanity is in a constant cycle of history and how some select people with the will and knowledge can overthrow entire civilizations, and start and end wars like a game of Dominoes. The books are what all modern science fiction can trace back to. The show is on apple tv and feels like Game of Thrones in space. I say, give this fictional universe a shot.

-- By Grant Nelson