C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 96

Halo 3: ODST review

    Halo 3: ODST is one of my favorite types of video games. Specifically, it's a game which takes an already popular and successful video game like Halo 3 and then simply makes more content for it with a different story. These are known as "Mission Pack Sequels" and form the basis for a lot of really good games like the Elder Scrolls series or Assassins Creed. I'm not a great believer that you need to reinvent the wheel to make an entertaining video game and think some of the...

Halo 3 review

Halo: Combat Evolved review
Halo 2 review

    Halo month continues with my experiencing the third of the Halo series on the Master Chief Collection, which is a steal at 30 bucks right now. Halo 3 isn't the sort of game you should play without having done the previous two entries in the series as it is a direct continuation of their plotlines. It's a testament to Microsoft they were willing to release their first major Xbox 360 release based on the build-up from two (admittedly un...

AGENT G and SECRETS OF SUPERVILLAINY approved for publication

AGENT G: INFILTRATOR and SECRETS OF SUPERVILLAINY have been tentatively accepted for publication by Amber Cove. I was pretty sure there was no real doubt on either but it never hurts to receive official confirmation after your boss returns from his cruise where he read them.

For those unaware, AGENT G is a a series about an assassin for an organization called the Society which removes the memories of its agents for a ten year period before promising their return if they succeed in fulfilling...

Halo 2 Anniversary Edition review

    Halo month continues with my review of the second of the series. I never owned an Xbox and didn't join the Silver Age of Gaming until my wife bought me an Xbox 360. Still, having enjoyed Halo: Combat Evolved, I was eager to start the next phase of my journey through the Master Chief collection. As with the original game, I'm playing the Anniversary Edition, which is basically the same game with better graphics and movie quality CGI cutscenes.

    Unlike the pr...

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition review

    I have a confession to make: I have never played Halo until recently. Being as I review video games for a living (okay, for fun), this is a bit like being a fantasy magazine publisher who has never read Tolkien. Purchasing a copy of The Master Chief Collection, I decided to correct that oversight.

    Still, Halo is one of the most successful video games of all time and I was eager to see what it had going for it. I tried to keep my expectations reasonable, th...

Every Kingdom Divided review

    I'm not usually a standalone novelist sort of fellow but a friend of mine asked me who I thought was the best standalone novelist I read in independent fiction. I was like, "That's a pretty loaded question, friend." I knew a lot of author who would be offended if I didn't pick them because we are, by nature, a prickly and narcissistic lot. However, after a long time, I decided the answer was Stephen Kozeniewski. He's the author of The Ghoul Archipelago, Braineater Jones, Bi...

Elysia review

    Brian Lumley's Titus Crow series is one of the first novels I started reviewing here on the United Federation of Charles and with Elysia I finished up the Seventies fantasy/horror/sci-fi series. It was a genre-busting work for its time and managed to take the works of H.P. Lovecraft and put an entirely unique spin on them. That spin isn't something for all Lovecraft fans as Lumley eschewed cosmic horror for tales of daring Pulp heroes finding ways of defeating the Great Old...

Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice review

Warning - Long Rant ahead about the nature of Superman and Batman. Also, minor spoilers.

    It's always the job of the critic to be true to his actual feelings on a movie even if they're going to be unpopular or go against the geek group-mind. Now I'm not an actual critic, just a guy who has a blog but I like to think some of you bother to care what I think when I read this. So, I'll be straight up: I liked Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice. I liked it a lot and this is going...

In the Moons of Borea review

    Brian Lumley's Titus Crow series are a series from the 1970s which follow the adventure of a trio of Pulp adventurers (Titus Crow, Henri de Marginy, and Hank Silberhutte) as they deal with the Cthulhu Mythos. I've reviewed the majority of the series before this entry and found them both enjoyable as well as immensely frustrating. Part of this is due to Brian Lumley's desire to humiliate the Great Old Ones and undercut cosmic horror with human ingenuity every chance he gets....

Grimdark Magazine 7# is out!

 Hey folks,

We've got the latest issue of GRIMDARK MAGAZINE coming out today with articles by moi among them including a review of FALLOUT 4 as well as "Is the First Law Trilogy the Anti-Lord of the Rings?" where I discuss how Joe Abercombie's famous trilogy parallels the Tolkien classic but inverts many of its themes. Check it out if you're so inclined.

GdM#7 Table of Contents
Fiction:
The Penitent Damned by Django WexlerThe Nu-Thai Screwjob by Gav ThorpeRed Sails, Red Seas by Victor MilanA...