C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 107

The Social Satire of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Warning - This will contain spoilers for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

    I've got to say, I don't know what is wrong with people. Just about every forum I go, people are always taking pot shots at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and calling it a violent jingoistic power fantasy. Which, of course, means these people have never played Modern Warfare 2 since the game is about how jingoism and rampant militarism ruins people's lives.

    I mean, it's a story about Am...

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare review

    I mentioned in my review of Black Ops 2 that, until that game, I had never played one of the Call of Duty franchise. As such, I had an enormous hole in my video game review credibility. It, like my complete unfamiliarity with the Halo games, marked me as someone who had let a cultural milestone pass me by. Having run out of Xbox One games I wanted to play, I decided to give the series a try. Having very much enjoyed Black Ops 2, I've decided to give the Modern Warfare trilo...

Spirals of Destiny: Sorceress review

    I really enjoyed Jim Bernheimer's Spirals of Destiny: Rider, which was far more enjoyable than any book about a sixteen-year-old unicorn riding battle-maiden had any right to be. The premise of the books is they follow the adventures of a young woman named Kayleigh, who discovers she has the magical gift to bond with unicorns as well as wield magic far in excess than what a normal woman her age possesses. Living in a high fantasy world where war is between her kingdom and t...

Spotlight: Farryn's War

    It's always nice when authors want to use your website to talk about their books and I was pleased when Christie Meierz decided to contact me about sharing an excerpt from her book. Christie Meierz is the author of Faerryn's War, a science-fiction novel about a man exiled from his home planet after trying (and failing) to spark them into a space race. It's a sci-fi romance which is not something you very often see--at least in my circles.

    A novel of love,...

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 review

    I have, until this week, never played a Call of Duty game. Given the CoD games are some of the most popular games ever created, indeed some of the most popular media ever, this is a very-very glaring oversight in my gamer street cred. So, I've decided to play the franchise and give my opinion on all of the modern releases.

    Given the Call of Duty franchise's sales are OBVIOUSLY going to be affected by my opinion, especially the games in the franchise which...

Exclusive interview with Seth Skorkowsky!

We have an extra-special guest today with author SETH SKORKOWSKY, who is returning to our website from previous interviews (here and here). Seth is the author of the urban fantasy series Valducan and sword and sorcery series TALES OF THE BLACK RAVEN has recently released a second novel in the later series, SEA OF QUILLS.
SEA OF QUILLS picks up not long after the events of MOUNTAIN OF DAGGERS, following Ahren as he attempts to deal with the fact he's still wanted for murder by powerful nobles....

Splinter Cell: Aftermath review

    The Splinter Cell series is a tremendously fun set of video games. Playing Sam Fisher, you take on various terrorist organizations using stealth tactics and the occasional bit of action in order to save the Free World from destruction. The stakes are always high in the video games and this is just the same in the spin-off fiction.

    Splinter Cell: Aftermath is a follow-up to the Blacklist game. Taking place roughly a few months after the events of Sadiq's at...

Spirals of Destiny: Rider review

    It's a rare high fantasy which attracts my attention. While I enjoy just about anything set in Medieval lands where sorcery and dragons are commonplace, I tend to favor the grim and grittier side of the spectrum. Rider, with its fair-maiden next to a unicorn in a pastoral paradise, didn't exactly inspire me to believe this would that kind of story. However, it's by Jim Bernheimer, a man who I have come to trust as the writer of such gems as Confessions of a D-List Supervill...

Hitman HD Trilogy review

    This is something of a cheat because, when I tend to review older games, I generally review them individually as opposed to all in one go but I decided to do it this way because, why the hell not? Besides, there's the simple fact the Hitman games are not exactly dripping with elaborate story. There's Agent 47, he's a genetically engineered superhuman, he kills people for money. Each of the games has something more going for it but this pretty much covers the basics of the f...

The Silent End review

    The Silent End by Samuel Sattin is one of the rare horror novels released by predominately fantasy publisher, Ragnarok Publications. I had no knowledge of what this particular book was going to be about so went into it cold. The result was being exposed to a creepy, bizarre, nightmare-logic story which put me in the mind of the Alan Wake game or Stephen King's work. The book has, in my opinion, a couple of flaws but not something which prevents it from being a surprisingly...