John Markley
Mass Effect 3: Multiplayer that actually interests me
I’m not typically a fan of online multiplayer modes in games. I’m not suited for it; I’m generally not very competitive, not very social, and I just find a well-designed single player scenario much more enjoyable than the frantic chaos of the typical online deathmatch. I’m also, at least where he genres that dominate that [...]
Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2
Final Fantasy XIII -2 from Square Enix is coming out at the end of this month, continuing the story of Lightning and the other characters from Final Fantasy XIII and the world they inhabit. And I’m genuinely saddened to realize that I don’t really care. It’s a strange feeling. It’s not quite accurate to say [...]
RPGs I never got to play: The 16-bit era
Last time, we had a look at a few of the 8-bit Japanese role-playing games that, due to the cruel realities of the 1980s video game market, never made it to America. Sadly, the dawning of the 16-bit age did not change this state of affairs. Nowadays the era is often remembered for being the [...]
RPGs I didn’t get to play: The 8-bit years
I had the bad timing to become a console RPG fan at the dawn of the 1990s. This was originally due to a promotional gimmick run by Nintendo Power magazine in which they gave away a free copy of the game Dragon Warrior to new subscribers. My friends were bored to tears by it, but [...]
The Revival of Classic 2-D Action Games
One of the less appreciated benefits of the ubiquitous online connections in the current generation of consoles is that it has helped to resuscitate some types of classic gameplay that had all but vanished over the prior two console generations.
Memories of Wing Commander
There aren’t many things from my youth that I truly miss, but one of the members of that elite group is the space combat flight simulator game. Once quite common, they are all but unknown today, and that’s a shame. For me, personally, my regret at the genre’s passing is about much more than [...]
The January Dancer by Michael Flynn review
Michael Flynn is one of the more unusual figures in modern SF, and especially in technically rigorous science fiction, delving into areas seldom touched by other writers: Taking a “hard” science approach to social science in In the Country of the Blind, combining nuts-and-bolts hard science fiction with emotionally charged, character-driven tragedy in The Wreck of the River of Stars, and setting a First Contact story in 14th-century Germany in Eifelheim. With The January Dancer, Flynn turns his talents to far-future space opera.
Read more after the jump…
Book Review – The Stormcaller by Tom Lloyd
The Stormcaller is the debut fantasy novel of Tom Lloyd. It is the first book in a projected five-part series called The Twilight Reign.
Long ago, the gods created the “white-eyes” to rule the world of man. Born of normal human parents, the white eyes are gifted with inhuman strength, an innate affinity for magic, and the charisma to lead armies and nations- and cursed by a terrible rage that threatens to consume them . . .
Book Review – Saturn Returns
Sean Williams is an experienced author in the field of space opera, having written the Evergence, Orphans, and Geodesica series’ with collaborator Shane Dix. Saturn Returns is the first book of Williams’ solo Astropolis trilogy.
At the outer reaches of the galaxy, over 800,000 years in the futurea man named Imre Bergasmac is recreated from the ruins and of an ancient record- a huge iron cylinder with Imre’s DNA and memories carved into vast grooves circling the interior- and given life again. . .
Book Review – Sly Mongoose
Author: Tobias Buckell Cover Artist: Todd Lockwood Publisher: Tor Binding: Hardcover Publication Date: August 2008 Sly Mongoose is the third novel of Tobias Buckell. It is part of the same future history as its predecessors Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin, but it is a self-contained story that can be read on its own. It has been [...]
Book Review – Storms of Vengeance
Author: John Beachem Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber Publisher: Mundania Press Binding: Paperback Publication Date: October 2006 Storms of Vengeance is the debut novel of John Beachem. It is the first book in his fantasy series, “The Lorradda Stone.” The story is set in the Kingdom of Faranin, a state comprising many formerly independent nations [...]
Book Review – Deepsix
Author: Jack McDevitt Cover Artist: Chris Moore Publisher: EOS Binding: Hardcover Publication Date: 2001 Deepsix is the second novel in Jack McDevitt’s “Academy” series, which can be described as mostly-hard science fiction with a few exceptions like faster-than-light travel included out of narrative necessity. However, while it has the same main character as the first [...]
