C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 79
February 12, 2017
Resident Evil 4 review
You may ask what the point of reviewing Resident Evil 4 may be. It's a game which generally stands up there with Super Marrio Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, Streetfighter II, Halo, and a handful of others for "you know, that was really-really good." It's actually almost unheard of for people to have much in the way of criticisms about it. While hardcore survival horror fans may hate on the game for 'ruining' the series, generally people tend to think of it as the best of th...
February 11, 2017
Villains Rule by M.K. Gibson review
Have you ever wanted to reach into the reality of book or movie and shake the villain? Ever since Scott Evil pointed out he had a gun in his room and it would take just a few seconds to get it so they could kill Austin Powers, we have been in dire need of a villain consultant. This book seems to have been inspired by the Evil Overlord's List and that's fairly high praise by itself. We've all wanted a smarter more savvy villain in our fantasy and that's what the protagonist...
February 7, 2017
Blade Runner review
It's cyberpunk month here, unofficially or otherwise, here at the United Federation of Charles and I can't help but talk about the classic which helped inspire the genre of cyberpunk. Aside from William Gibson's Neuromancer, the Ridley Scott adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep remains the definitive example of what people think of when they talk about the work. Well, that and Robocop. It is also one of the rare cases where I believe the movie improves on the o...
February 6, 2017
Neuromancer by William Gibson review
Ah, here it is, the origins of the cyberpunk genre along with Blade Runner. I've read Neuromancer three times over the years and I can confirm I still have no idea what the hell this book is about. I mean, I can sort of tell you the plot and it hangs together but it is an experience rather than a story.
Neuromancer has inspired many follow-ups and its influence can be felt in Ghost in the Shell, Deus Ex, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, System Shock, Inception,...
January 27, 2017
Strange Days (1995) review
Distracting from the tragedies of 2016, I've decided to do a review of a movie about the death of a celebrity, police brutality, racial tension, and the use of social media to record crimes. Yes, I refer to Strange Days by Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron. It's a movie with such strangeness as Ralph Fiennes as an American drug dealer and a choice between Angela Bassett vs. Juliette Lewis being difficult.
Oh, it's also about technology exists that can be u...
January 26, 2017
Watch_Dogs 2 review
Watch_Dogs was a game I really enjoyed but felt had a lot of flaws. I found Aiden Pearce aggressively unlikable and while I believe that was deliberate (see my "The Subversiveness of Aiden Pearce" essay), I believe that didn't contribute to a great gaming experience. I also felt the game suffered for its unwillingness to go full cyberpunk. It felt let down by its attempts to tie itself to the present day and I would have enjoyed a much more overt near-future experience. Des...
Deus Ex: Black Light review
One of my biggest complaints about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was the fact it was a story which took place in the middle of itself. There was a very weak beginning where lots of confusing as well as contradictory information was thrown at you as well as a weak ending where we didn't know what was going on.
Despite this, I enjoyed quite a lot of the world-building and was curious about the novel set between Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divi...
January 23, 2017
The Tower of Zhaal is now available for purchase
Hey folks,
I'm pleased to say the CTHULHU ARMAGEDDON series is continuing with the second volume now available in ebook form. Continue to follow the adventures of our anti-heroes as they struggle to survive in a world ruled by the Great Old Ones.
It has been a year since John Henry Booth's exile from New America and the fall of the Black Cathedral. Cursed with a slow transformation into a monster, he has begun a doomed relationship with fellow escapee Mercury Halsey as they seek some way...
Top signs we're living in a cyberpunk future
To go along with everyone else's "Wait, did the world become cyberpunk and I didn't notice?" I should point out the following facts:
1. From Robocop. "OCP traditionally dabbled in not for profit industries like healthcare, prisons, and space travel." All of which are now common works.
2. Hacktivist anarchist groups out to bring down government and corporate conspiracies actually exist.
3. Underground journalists and leakers are actually the biggest threat to First World security in the opinion o...
January 20, 2017
Johnny Mnemonic review
As I finish off Agent G: Saboteur, I can't help but think about all the wonderful cyberpunk movies I've watched over the years: Robocop, Strange Days, Cyborg 2 (okay, that's more of a guilty pleasure but so is this). The hands down most cyberpunk of all cyberpunk movies, though, has got to be Johnny Mnemonic. It not only was written by William Gibson but was screwed with by a bunch of soulless corporate suits so it has the cyberpunk pedigree from both sides!
&nbs...
