C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 79
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...
January 17, 2017
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: Desperate Measures and System Rift review
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was a game I gave a pretty bad score to (5/10) due to the fact it, literally, felt like half of a 10/10 game. It was a score I struggled with because the parts of the game I played were fine, it's just it had an incredibly disjointed story and wasn't nearly enough of the game for what I was paying for it. Also, I felt microtransactions were shoe-horned in and were necessary to get through the game smoothly.
So, I was intrigued by t...
January 12, 2017
An end to my relationship with Ragnarok Publications
It is with a heavy heart that I announce my withdrawal of my books, ESOTERRORISM and WRAITH KNIGHT from the Ragnarok Publication calendar. I've enjoyed my time there and made several friends but it's time for us to part ways. We have, in Hollywood terms, "creative differences" and the books will be taken down soon from Amazon.com before they are re-edited and re-released. My new publishers for these books, Amber Cove, and Crossroad Press will hopefully get them up later thi...
