C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 52
June 1, 2019
L.A. by Night Season One review
Los Angeles by Night is one of the classic supplements of Vampire: The Masquerade that I have extremely mixed feelings about. Published in 1994, which is 25 years ago, it was a a supplement that created numerous spin-offs as well as helped inspire Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. It also helped kill the Anarchs as a viable political faction in tabletop gaming. At least until The Guide to the Anarchs by the good people at Onyx Path Publishing.
Nelli G and Victor. &nb...
L.A. by Night season one review
Los Angeles by Night is one of the classic supplements of Vampire: The Masquerade that I have extremely mixed feelings about. Published in 1994, which is 25 years ago, it was a a supplement that created numerous spin-offs as well as helped inspire Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. It also helped kill the Anarchs as a viable political faction in tabletop gaming. At least until The Guide to the Anarchs by the good people at Onyx Path Publishing.
Nelli G and Victor. &nb...
May 29, 2019
Second String Savior by Rick Gualtieri and R.E. Carr
SECOND STRING SAVIOR is a novel set in the Tome of Bill world. Rick Gualtieri and R. E. Carr have written a story that takes place roughly cotemporaneous with the first three Tome of Bill novels, culminating in the latter half of the book taking place during The Mourning Wood. As you can tell by the titles of the books, they're a comedy urban fantasy series that has a heavy emphasis on crass humor as well as puns.
This novel is surprisingly different from...
May 23, 2019
Yakuza Kiwami review
The original Yakuza (in "Like a Dragon") game was for the P2, so you can safely say that this is a late review. Well, technically not since Yakuza Kiwami is a remake rather than a remastering and is a fairly recent import. The Yakuza games are a PS exclusive series that is pretty much the most Japanese game you can make due to the fact crime is both a universal thing as well as something that is deeply specific to local cultures.
The Russian mobs, Italian...
May 20, 2019
What did I think of Game of Thrones? *spoilers*
So, eight seasons have wrapped up on the world's most successful fantasy project with the possible exception of The Lord of the Rings. Given that I am actually calling it a split decision between those two things, that's a pretty much statement right there. Game of Thrones is everywhere and completed the story George R.R. Martin may never finish. Indeed, now that we've seen what is probably an approximation of his ending--he may end up like Stephen King and wonder if his fa...
May 14, 2019
Worldbuilding 1#: Supervillainy-verse
Hey folks,
I've decided to do something cool and that's do articles on my various universes. World-building is the key to making my novels work and sharing background information about what goes into the settins is something I thought my fans would enjoy. Each article will go into discussion about one of the worlds and its history as well as how they are currently set up. My long history of being a tabletop roleplaying gamer was a big infuence on my writing style and a lot of that depended on...
May 2, 2019
Mortal Kombat 11 review
MORTAL KOMBAT!
*Techno Music*
Okay, I've used that opening multiple times but it never gets old. The Mortal Kombat series is one of the nearest and dearest to my heart. With the exception of Spider-Man, the Dresden Files, and Star Wars--it is probably my all time favorite fictional franchise. Yes, that means it beats out Star Trek. What can I say, it's the ninja-ladies and bizarre mixture of fantasy with bloodsport.
The graphics are awesom...
April 27, 2019
Avengers: Endgame review
Spoilers - Will attempt to avoid them but describing the movie comes with some risk. Let the reader beware.
AVENGERS: ENDGAME is the culmination of eleven years of storytelling. Starting with the introduction of the Tesseract, the movies have continually laid the foundation for the Infinity Gems to be found in order to do an adaptation of the Infinity Gauntlet miniseries that I read when it first came out in 1991 at age 11. Honestly, I was always kind of perplexe...
April 22, 2019
Spider-Gwen: Most Wanted? review
SPIDER-GWEN is a character I was introduced to by the INTO THE SPIDERVERSE movie. The character is an alternate universe version of Gwen Stacy who was bitten by the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker instead. Unfortunately, Peter Parker was so jealous of his crush that he created the Lizard formula and accidentally got himself killed in the process. Gwen feels immense guilt for this and struggles with her secret identity, her relationship with her father, and all the...
April 8, 2019
Spiderman (PS4) review
SPIDER-MAN (PS4) is a game that inspired me to get the PS4 as a whole. I've been wanting to update one of my two consoles for a long time and the decision to get a PS4 to go along with my Xbox One seemed like a reasonable one. The ability to play Infamous (which I played at a friends), The Last of Us, Uncharted, and other exclusives was a easy decision. However, at the end I just wanted to buy it for this game.
How much do I love Spider-Man (PS4)? So much...
