m1stertibbs

[m1stertibbs]

Read the prologue to scifi epic Control Book Two: Hard Cell

The front lawn was a couple of acres deep, hemmed in on either side by dark, overbearing trees, heavy with beards of moss. Indeterminable age held in check by selectively meticulous gardening.  Craws flitted from one pool of shadowy darkness to another, singing their mournful songs as they did, their metallic blue carapaces catching in stray shafts of sunlight.

This was old country, even by…

[m1stertibbs]

The Science of Scifi: Big Gun Go Boom - Part 3

The Science of Scifi: Big Gun Go Boom – Part 3

When you’re putting on a firework display, always open with your biggest, but save the best till last.  Control: Bleak Pass picks up in the aftermath of a failed attempt to prevent a theft at the secret Bleak Pass facility.  The resident AI uses some very special weaponry at its disposal and still manages to miss the target.  This doesn’t cast the hi-tech guns in a very positive light, but they…

[m1stertibbs]

Playing the Destiny Xbox One Beta

Playing the Destiny Xbox One Beta

This isn’t an article I’m particularly comfortable writing.  Destiny is a big deal, probably the biggest deal in gaming since Halo, and it’s set to be even bigger than that.  At least, that’s the (ten year) plan.

Bungie have set their sights higher than most AAA studios would ever dare to and as you are no doubt already aware, the expectations of most gamers have skyrocketed to match their…

[m1stertibbs]

The Science of Scifi: Big Gun Go Boom - Part 2

The Science of Scifi: Big Gun Go Boom – Part 2

Explosions in space are all very well, but most of the action in Control takes place on the ground amongst the grunts and the specialists that fight for their lives and the safety of the people they are sworn to protect.

When I set out to write ControlI wanted to remove the narrative slightly from current preconceptions of ‘advanced warfare’ and focus on professional soldiers having to ‘make-do’…

[m1stertibbs]

Fates Forever - The First Tablet Only MOBA: Review

Fates Forever – The First Tablet Only MOBA: Review

MOBA and mobile hasn’t ever been a very comfortable match. Phones aren’t really designed to handle this kind of gameplay and lazy ports of big MOBA titles or clumsy clones of the same haven’t done the migration to mobile platforms any favours.

Making such a crossover via mobile phones and then on to tablets has been at the heart of the problem since the genre tried to make the leap from the…

[m1stertibbs]

Read the first chapter of scifi novel Control for FREE

Read the first chapter of scifi novel Control for FREE

Control: Bleak Pass Prologue

  Surface Defense Facility, The Bleak Pass, Classified Star System HY229, Systems Coalition Space

  The debrief had taken no more than four milliseconds in real time. The Eloquent Gentleman had not been impressed.

“Let me get this right as I’m a little confused here. Now, you’re probably wondering if it’s even possible to confuse a two-series, but bravo, you’ve done…

[m1stertibbs]

The Science of Scifi: Big Gun Go Boom - Part 1

The Science of Scifi: Big Gun Go Boom – Part 1

There are a lot of guns, bombs, grenades and improvised explosives in Control: Bleak Pass.  You would think that with so much bang you wouldn’t have to worry about the buck.  Just chuck it all in and wait for the noise, no need to sweat the details, right? Right?

Of course not.  Where would be the fun in that.

Playing with explosives in a novel is much like blowing shit up in real life, but…

[m1stertibbs]

The Digital Predator - Instinct in Gaming

The Digital Predator – Instinct in Gaming

There are opinions to the contrary, but I’m of a mind to believe that we are the apex predator on the planet and I’m interested in how this aspect of our nature has shaped the world of gaming.

Moreover, I’m interested in how this instinct, which has been instrumental in developing most, if not all, combative video games, may actually draw some attention away from the graphical superiority of new…

[m1stertibbs]

Scifi Update: Control Universe, The Russians

Scifi Update: Control Universe, The Russians

Most of the people of the Control Universe have been scattered by the interstellar winds of exploration, losing their national identity to the broader palate of intergalactic civilization.

In this first blog of a series I’ll be exploring the races that fought to retain their identities, their motivations and their resulting place in the universe.

The Russians are actually a collective of peoples…

[m1stertibbs]

Bending Science - Fitting Facts into a Scifi Shaped Hole

Bending Science – Fitting Facts into a Scifi Shaped Hole

Science isn’t for the faint hearted, not when it comes to stuffing it into a scifi novel.  It’s easy to be cavalier and find ways to disregard the laws of nature, but credibility is often the lingua franca of this genre and if you take too many liberties you may struggle to be taken seriously (unless you’re writing a comedy, of course, in which case go nuts).

When writing Control: Bleak PassI…

[m1stertibbs]

Watch_Dogs - The Curious Tale of Aiden Pearce

Watch_Dogs – The Curious Tale of Aiden Pearce

I’m going to be a little forgiving here as, even with all the positive press the game has received, Watch-Dogs’ leading man has come in for a lot of stick…make that plank, of the wooden acting variety.

As a character, Aiden has been described as completely void of personality, an empty trench coat without an ounce of spark, sympathy or depth, which could probably adequately describe most leading…

[m1stertibbs]

Scifi Shorts - An Early Look at Manhattan's Worst Hour

Scifi Shorts – An Early Look at Manhattan’s Worst Hour

Here’s an extract from the short story I’m working on between books.  See if you can spot the Control easter egg:

The plague was good and done with the island by the time she showed up. Four million dead in a week of chaos and horror from Inwood Hill down to the Battery and she appears without so much as a scratch.

It was a bacterial disease that spread on contact. Without people to feed on it…

[m1stertibbs]

Almost Happening - The Fear of Near Future Predictions

Almost Happening – The Fear of Near Future Predictions

If most near-future scifi is anything to go by we are basically all screwed.

Every conceivable outcome is typically grim and unpleasant, or if it looks pleasant – maybe even utopian – then it is likely grim and unpleasant underneath.  A great deal of outstanding science fiction has been produced under the banner of imminent dystopia, but it does beg the question as to why we feel the need to…

[m1stertibbs]

Falling Down - The Challenges of Writing the Science into Scifi

Falling Down – The Challenges of Writing the Science into Scifi

I’m no physicist, that much should be painfully clear to anyone who knows what they’re talking about, but I do love to tinker.

Writing science fiction encourages scientific exploration and speculation by its very nature.  Getting it right isn’t necessary (that’ll be the speculation part), but it’s great fun trying.

Take the opening scene in part two of the Controltrilogy, currently in…

[m1stertibbs]

Get Epic New Action Scifi Control: Bleak Pass on Amazon

Get Epic New Action Scifi Control: Bleak Pass on Amazon

You can now buy Control: Bleak Pass on Amazon!

Click here if you’re in the UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Control-Bleak-Pass-Niall-Singers-ebook/dp/B00K9MAU0Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1399887343&sr=1-1&keywords=Niall+singers

Or here for anywhere else:

Control: Bleak Pass

[m1stertibbs]

A Brief History of Rassist from the Scifi Action Novel Control

A Brief History of Rassist from the Scifi Action Novel Control

Rassist was a dying planet.  Not in the physical sense as such, but dying nonetheless.

It was a cold, relentlessly unforgiving world clinging to the edges of Vorstaat space, both physically and politically.  There remains some speculation as to the planetary governor’s knowledge of events, but to all eyes Rassist appeared as the unwitting host to a dramatic shift in the course of history.

From…

[m1stertibbs]

More concept work from Control: Bleak Pass Here's another couple of frames from the same scene.