Robot Jazz

  ("Cyber Dreams" - created by StarryAI and named by ChatGPT. How cyberpunk is that!) Sci-fi novelist Jack Womack referred to the term 'cyberpunk' as "a facile adjective for the working vocabulary of lazy journalists and unimaginative blurb-writers" and I couldn't agree more.  I love cyberpunk not because it is some sub-genre of sci-fi, but simply because it is just another face of the "hard-boiled" or "noir" genre of literature and film.  Don't believe me?  Okay, here's proof: go watch the classic noir, "The Asphalt Jungle. " The plot of that classic 1950 film noir has everything that most cyberpunk stories have, specifically, a cadre of criminals hired by a shady "fixer" to pull off a heist that, inevitably, goes wrong.  Heck, I just described Act I of CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077 !  Sure, hacking and transhumanism are missing from that movie due to the, er, limited nature of that decade's tec...

  Even though I consider myself a dedicated, lifelong gamer, I am also one of those gamers who rarely ever complete a game. For me, games are more about exploring possibilities and settings rather than completing a campaign. In other words, I just dabble, content to immerse myself in whatever alternate reality the game developer has created.  For me, it is the moment-to-moment experience, rather than any sense of accomplishment that I seek when I play a game.  This is why it is a truly shocking development for me to return to a game that I last played when it was new - I'm talking back in 2013!   The game is Suspicious Development's (aka Tom Francis's) Gunpoint .  And like a femme fatale, I just couldn't let it go.