C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 22

Wrath of N'Kai (Arkham Horror #1) by Josh Reynolds

     WRATH OF N'KAI by Josh Reynolds is a licensed game tie-in novel, specifically for Arkham Horror. I don't play Arkham Horror but a friend of mine does and it basically seems to be a board game version of Chaosiums' Call of Cthulhu, except published by Fantasy Flight Games. I have an interesting relationship with game tie-in fiction. Basically, it's what made me the reader I am today.

    I was a fanatical consumer of Dungeons and Dragons fiction from around thirteen to nineteen with perhaps ...

Dead Space (2023) review

    DEAD SPACE (2023) is a remake of the classic 2008 video game. It is a welcome revival of a franchise that briefly was on top of the world with animated movies, comics, and multiple sequels before crashing into a spectacular inferno with the incredibly ill-received Dead Space 3. The premise is simple: in the far future, humanity discovers a series of dark mystical artifacts called Markers that drive people insane before transforming them into horrible zombie-like monsters.

    Dead Space is so...

The Last of Us 1x03 "Long, Long Time" review

    THE LAST OF US 1x03 "LONG, LONG TIME" is the first large divergence from the games. Basically, while the episode has some decent Ellie and Joel time, it is primarily about acquaintances Bill and Frank that just so happen to be a married couple. In the games, Frank is a character who died before we ever meet Bill and what we learn about him was that he was something of a manipulative sociopath. We also get some great Bill and Ellie interaction that is some of my favorite parts of the game.

I m...

Where to start with HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos

* Special thanks to Bobby Dee, author of Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos.

    HP Lovecraft is a controversial writer that has, nevertheless, left an immense footprint on the collective psyches of geeks from the early 20th century onward. The creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, his willingness to share his fictional creations with other writers and the work of men like August Derleth as well as Chaosium have resulted in incredible spin offs. Great Cthulhu and his ilk are now available in fuzzy slippers, mo...

The Sinking City review

    THE SINKING CITY is a study in contradictions and one that I have many thoughts on both good and bad. The closest game I can think of to it is Silent Hill, which is to say it has achieved something truly magnificent in terms of its setting as well as storytelling but plays like ass. It's a difficult statement because I want to like The Sinking City and it has many wonderful qualities but it also took me more than a few hours to figure out how its counterintuitive systems.

    The game is a in...

The Last of Us 1x02 "Infected" review

    "INFECTED" is the second episode of THE LAST OF US series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. In the not-so-distant future (really the alternate present), the cordyceps fungus has infected most of humanity and turned them into ravenous zombies. Most of humanity is forced into fortified communities ruled by military dictatorships but slowly dying off due to the failures of quarantine. Yeah, that doesn't remind me of anything. This video game adaptation wasn't timely or anything.

    The ep...

The Last of Us episode 2 "Infected" review

    "INFECTED" is the second episode of THE LAST OF US series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. In the not-so-distant future (really the alternate present), the cordyceps fungus has infected most of humanity and turned them into ravenous zombies. Most of humanity is forced into fortified communities ruled by military dictatorships but slowly dying off due to the failures of quarantine. Yeah, that doesn't remind me of anything. This video game adaptation wasn't timely or anything.

    The ep...

The Last of Us 1x01 "When you're lost in the darkness" review

    THE LAST OF US: EPISODE ONE: "WHEN YOU'RE LOST IN THE DARKNESS" is the first episode of the 2023 adaptation of the best-selling video game, THE LAST OF US. No duh, I know. However, I was a huge fan of the video game and am one of the ones who thinks that it is one of the best written of its genre. While I'm still holding out hope for a Bioshock and LA Noire series for their own superior stories, but this is probably the best you're going to get from a zombie show. The fact it stars     Pedro...

Fatale vol 1: Death Chases Me by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

    FATALE VOL. 1: DEATH CHASES ME by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is a work that I picked up after the fantastic THE FADE OUT comic. I'm a huge fan of film noir and it was some of the best art as well as writing I've found in comic books period. I wasn't a fan of the ending but I still wanted more and my friends said that not only was Fatale similar in some ways but it had my other proverbial catnip: Lovecraftian horror.

    Fatale is a deconstruction of the classic film noir trope: the femme f...

The Adventures of Kirk Rogers: Inside the Moon by CJ Boyle

    THE ADVENTURES OF KIRK ROGERS: INSIDE THE MOON by CJ Boyle is a book that I'd had in my TBR pile for a long time. I am a huge fan of classic sci-fi, humor, and over-the-top space opera action. The title and cover promised all of this and more. However, my TBR pile is a mountain and I never got around to reading it. However, I heard the author was releasing an audiobook so I decided to listen instead.

    Lauren Rogers is the sister of the square-jawed Air Force pilot and astronaut-to-be Kirk ...