Interest... Dying...

You may have noticed that I'm not the world's biggest gaming addict. Yeah, I don't tend to play computer games, and have certainly never been more than mildly interested in MMOs. (It usually goes away whenever I stop reading whatever related article I happen to be perusing.)

But when I found out about DC Universe Online, I was interested. I like the DC Universe (hurry up, Green Lantern movie!), and, yes, might just be intrigued enough to actually get in and play in there. Like I have the time for that... but I have the interest so I'd make the time...

The date of release is start of November. Fine, not out yet, neat, I can get in on this early and be there, more or less, when it kicks off. I checked our local gaming store and saw they would have it then, great.

And then I rechecked yesterday. Release date is now end of January. Okay... I guess... fair enough... probably has to go through shipping and censors and... But... there'll be people who would have been playing it for four months then. There'll be people at the top end of the levels, and in between, and dozens of alts, and lots of the good names will have been taken, and griefers will be firmly enscounced...

I could get it near the release date from Amazon (which does ship video games to some international countries... such as New Zealand). Except I might be able to get it cheaper over here... and don't games also have regionality to deal with? Would I be able to play a game from the US?

Eh... my interest is now dying in this area. Instead of popping into the local gamestore come November and then jumping online, I'm now jumping through hoops or waiting many months... I guess that's my interest in DC Online over with...

[END]

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Zombiegeddon: 8th Bite!

Not really been much in the way of zombies recently. Take the guild hall for example. After kobolds outside, we go inside and... fight more kobolds... with a wyrm priest. Blinky found us some vile flasks of firey damageness, but since he used them during the fight we didn't need to worry about keeping track of those.

The fight was, as mentioned, against kobolds. Not exactly a huge problem. At least, not for me, and I'm the only one who matters. The monk got beat up a lot, and others got hurt as well, but I was fine. After the fight, the priest with the magical staff turned out to be a magical priest with a normal staff. However, I did find a nice set of armour that suited me well. [Yay Shimmering Armour!] We also found a way down into the sewers, which was apparently a good thing.

Without taking anything more than a short rest (as I said, I was fine) we ventured down, and Blinky took us to see his dragon. The others saw it, not me, as by the time I got there, the sorcerer had already nuked it with his orb. From what they tell me, it was less a dragon and more a crocodile. There was one awkward moment where I and the bard were surrounded by oozes, but I managed to deal with most of them. [I really like Shimmering Armour.]

We found out that the guild we were in backs onto the Alchemist's Guild. I'm sure there's no trouble there we could get up to. But first, a full rest for the others...

[END]

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Where No Chimp Would Bother Going

The monkeys got themselves a sequel... because... umm...

I'm not sure why. There's about 20 minutes of story in this 80 minute movie. I can only guess at the scripting stage, they got a bunch of people in a room and got them to shout out ideas "bouncy mushrooms!" "Titan does a million crunches!" "Dr Jagu does ballet!" and then they strung those ideas together until they had enough of a script to pad the movie out. One would think that this movie should be about "Zartog", possibly in some manner of "Striking Back", but, as indicated, that only takes up 20 minutes of time.

(Or was this a direct to video release and I missed that?)

Most of the actors come back to do their bits, although Kilowatt is recast (that said, she sounds the same). It's still the same CGI models, and the only sign of advancement is that they've inserted space shots for about five minutes into one scene.

If your kids liked the first, they might enjoy the second. But only if no-one's really paying attention to what's going on and just happen to have the movie playing while they're doing something else...

[END]

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The Devil Made Me Go... Meh

Despite not writing the screen play, nor directing it, this movie is associated with M. Night Shyamalan. A lot of movies are associated with the director, and sometimes the writer, but now "being based on a story by" is enough to get the main credit.

Not that there is much to credit in this movie. People are trapped in an elevator. One of them is the Devil. And... there you go. Amazingly, being trapped in with the devil means you no longer are hungry nor need to go to the toilet. And since they seem to be trapped for many hours, I would have thought that issue would have come up.

At least the rest of the people around aren't stupid. The guards pick up on the stuck lift quickly, and escalate the problem when weird things start to happen. And others (such as the fire department) are called in to help as well. Not that they can do much in a fictional story, but it's better than people being trapped with everyone stupidly ignoring them.

I'm not aware of any of the actors being big names, but they do a decent job. Chris Messina in particular, as Detective Bowden, did a very good job. And this movie is dark. Not in story (it's rather obvious), but in picture. A lot of made out of darkness and strange sounds but that just makes you go 'sigh, come on, bring out the scare when we can see again'. As I note, Meh.

Not a great movie. At least it keeps it short, but it doesn't contain any surprises worth noting. This is #1 in a set of three, we can only hope they get more interesting...

[END]

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Yes They Do

In the same vein as the humour of Scary Movie, Epic Movie, Date Movie, etc., etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum, we have Vampire Movie. One positive note: it's short. And, hey, I actually smiled 4 times... laughed out loud once...

However, on the negative side, this is all about Twilight. As in the first half of the movie was taking off the first one, and then the second two were heavily compressed further. Admittedly it was about as sensible as the original movies, and a lot more palatable (as it is shorter), but if you've seen the originals, then you've seen this, as the writers simply repeated many of the moments of the other movies and tried to make them funny. See above for how amusing I found it.

Jenn Proske and Matt Lanter replicate the two leads well, and indeed there are several good picks for casting to the actors. Fortunately the movie doesn't go for heavy effects (aside from the broken body moments), and it explains glittering vampires far better than Meyer ever did.

If you haven't seen the originals (and why would you want to?), just see this instead... although I'm not really recommending seeing this either. On the other hand, in many ways, this is far better than Twilight will ever be.

[END]

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$#*! His Dad Says

In the midst of other shows kicking off or restarting (yay, new House!) we have the comedy sensation of... about the beginning of 2010. Namely the show of the twitter series... (I suspect there will be others.)

The basic premise is William Shatner gets a chance to one-up everyone with continual one-liners, and there's a heartfelt emotional story about a father and son trying to form a relationship... which is also undercut by one liners. There were a few comedy routine moments in which it would have been perfectly reasonable to rejoin with "Third Base!"

I really hope they expand the range of the series, but I can see it being very formulaic story lines with, as mentioned, one liners dropped every where. The main thing it's got going for it is William Shatner's presence, but even then that can't be the only thing it's riding on.

It has an initial amusement factor. We'll have to see if it can keep it up or if it gets pulled before mid-season...

[END]

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Apokebits

While Marvel have got out a few live action movies, DC have been pumping out animated movies.... although I do prefer the live action stuff, DC have produced solid work and have built up quite a large collection of movies.

The latest introduces Kara and is partially set on Apokolips. Yep, once again we have various superheroes quite easily going up against Darkseid, and while Darkseid should stomp them without a second pause, well, I'm sure you can see where I'm going. (Not that it's that easy, but the worse the heroes seem to end up with is a couple of bruises, whereas Darkseid's forces...)

As well as a set of movies, DC have also set up a continuing set of actors. Kevin Conroy has Batman's role set, and Tim Daly is the voice of Superman. Susan Eisenberg has Wonder Woman, and so on... but as this is Kara, we need a new voice. And so we now have the addition of Summer Glau (who also plays Supergirl in DC Universe Online, although I have no idea which came first). But the best casting is, of course, Ed Asner as Granny Goodness. Just spot on casting there.

Despite the range of movies, there hasn't really been a standout one (although I could biasedly point at Green Lantern...). Apocalypse is... good. Not great, but... good.

[END]

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After Resident Life Evil

UmbrellaCorp gets really bad press. You let loose one zombie making virus...

In this installment, Alice attacks in droves... then the movie restarts to an earlier version and nothing of note happens for the rest of the movie. Seriously. We come here for zombie kicking action, and there isn't anything worth talking about. No mid-movie set pieces. Hardly an end battle of whelming zombie hordes. What's up with that? Did they decide that no-one cared any more, so they'll just give us some special zombies and that's it?

Speaking of, when I saw the Axeman, all I could think was "is someone jealous of Pyramid Head?" Otherwise, the various split-head zombies reminded me of Parasyte. Frankly the first movie has zombies of character, now they aren't bothering to try.

Milla Jovovich is the main star, of course, with Ali Larter taking another acting chunk. We get a bunch of other characters, but as they mainly die (a fact that doesn't seem to bother the main characters in the slightest), they aren't worth talking about. We do have Jensen Ackles Wentworth Miller as Chris Redfield, in an attempt at some sort of continuity, but it's a bit late in the series to start worrying about that now.

If you do stumble into this movie, feel free to leave after about 15-20 minutes. You're not missing anything.

[END]

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Goofy Monster Alert!

I'm slowly watching Man From Atlantis... and for the most part the creatures have been fine... however, meet Oscar.

O_o

Yes, it's a two headed man sized seahorse thing... I've seen worse, but that's pretty goofy!

[END]

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Team Xero #001

As part of the RACC High Concept Challenge, I created this superhero based movie using xtranormal.

Still takes a lot of time, just as writing would.


[END]

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BigKnife

It's Robert Rodriguez! Of course it's going to be fun!

He's a Mexican... he's been set up... and now he's showing there are some borders you don't cross... Yeah, okay, that's not a tagline, but you could imagine it would be. But that is, in one way, the basic plot. What's missing is the motivation, namely illegal immigration, and Robert is making a big statement about that.

Which does get in the way of the bloodbath. There's a big bloody opening, but then the moments of death are paced out as we get the plot delivered in big chunks. Make no mistake about what this movie is saying, as Rob has decided that subtle might mean people could miss it. Illegal immigration. It's happening, but the answer isn't guns.

And it's a big cast. Some of the people from the original trailer (below) are in it, so we've got Danny Trejo, with Jeff Fahey (which is up with his eyes?) and Cheech Marin, but also Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez, Don Johnson, and, yes, Lindsay Lohan. And if you didn't think so before, you'll see Danny's acting chops on full display (as well as his machete chops! Ha! You see what I did there? Ha! Laugh, damn you!).

From what I heard, I wanted to like this more than I eventually did. Yeah, it's good, but I can't help thinking that it could have been tightened up to be even better.


[END]

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Mmm.... smells like god spirit...

(Although slighty annoying that the video proper is only a minute then the rest are slow scrolling credits...)
[END]

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Zombiegeddon: 7th Bite!

[There is Julius (me!), a Human Psion Controller, Raziel, a Shadow-Kai Monk Striker, Dox, a Changeling Sorcerer Striker, Kalaan, a Changeling Bard Leader, and Fig, a Revenant Fighter Defender.]

We were woken up as an explosion rocked the inn, and discovered that there was a large fire in one of the rooms. While I flailed at the fire (if only I was a telekinetic), I pointed out that Dox might be able to deal some cold powers [being a Chaos Sorcerer, his damage type is randomly determined by a d6]. While I fell through the floor, Dox leapt into battle and... did cold damage [never has a 1 been met with so much excitement]. However, the fire was still going on, so Dox tried again... and did cold damage! Then shook us with thunder for some reason. Odd, odd man...

After the fire was dealt with, we realised that the fire was in Fig's room, centered on his bed. And there was no sign of Fig [as Mark is now no longer with us, looking after his newborn]. Something magical had occurred, but we didn't know what...

Quickly giving up on him, we set out for the library to get more information and loot from better places. First stop was the city records office where we met an elderly archivist [and this is not the set up for a ISIHAC joke] who pointed out where the library was, showed us potential tunnels under the river and helped discover that the sigyl on my arm was associated with an old cult, now no longer in practice... (or is it?)

Continuing on towards the library, we came to a guild house with a kobold looking out at us. Into the guild house! Where we were set upon by, strangely enough, kobolds! [Ah, lower level PCs...] And they put some of us down! Woah! Not me though, although one did hit me. We stomped on them, leaving only a kobold with a strange blink (called Blinky) remaining, who is fast becoming a pet.

Dox and Raziel continued the investigation by heading inside the guild house, and seeking whatever dangers lurking therein...

[END]

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There's Proms and then there's Proms

And, in particular, there's the 2010 Doctor Who Prom. Although, as is happens, there are a couple of them. There's the 60 minute version. There's the 90 minute version. And then there's the full prom (around 120? minutes) which isn't broadcast.

I saw the 90 minute version, and aside from the Doctor Who songs there are some classical music pieces (most of which aren't there). There's also a missing DW song, but that's in the Backstage behind the scenes bit.

Anyway, big songs as ever, with various villains tramping around the hall, including Silurians, Vampires, Cybermen and Judoon, 'cos they featured prominently in series five... oh, but it's good music.

While the 2008 Prom had a recorded bit with the Doctor, in this the Doctor does a live skit, with audience interaction, and an actual scene with a kid from the hall (selected "at random" but I noted that the banister was marked, so I dunno about that...). Almost Panto really...

While it was recorded a few months ago, showing it now does help keep up the show's identity until Christmas (although no sneak peak in this one). Nice to see they included proper classical pieces, and no doubt it'll be back another year...

[END]

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That's Not What It Says!

I'm not sure if it's a case of some editor having a bit of fun, or just a slip of the line, but there's an amusing headline I spotted (which I will quote as it might get modified over time): 1000 police in weekend booze bust.

Ooohh... big bust of 1000 police doing booze? I want to read about that! As it happens, it was 1000 police involving in busting up a booze-ful weekend. Huh, not quite as exciting, although less of a problematic issue for the police...

[END]

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Of Steam, Steel and Murder

We're still on Storm Haven island, and there's an incoming plot collision we can't do anything to stop. The only thing you can do is beat everyone up, then threaten genital torture...

Check it out in Game 22.

[END]

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Pastry-Moving-Laughter

This movie is a throwback to the classic style of monster pic. Lots of young people, frolicking, and monsters killing off people as "promiscuity = needs punishment".

So the story is, such as it is, spring break happens, some piranhas are let loose, and people die... Um... yeah... that's about it... meh, this isn't about the story anyway. You can tell 'cos when the deaths really kick off, we get a lot of deaths, and any sense of progressing the "story" takes a back seat. Oh, and there are a lot of deaths, mainly by stuff Mythbusters already debunked.

And just look at the cast (aside from the pr0n stars): Richard Dreyfuss, Ving Rhames, Elisabeth Shue, Christopher Lloyd, Eli Roth... Has Jerry O'Connell aged at all over the years? But the main criteria is how well they scream and/or die. Ha!

It's a fun movie. The 3D moments are contrived in a few places, but the fish look good. On to the sequel!

[END]

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The Americano

Since I liked the last George Clooney movie I saw, I thought I'd give this one a go. After all, the poster has Clooney looking all dangerous with a gun!

The movie is about Jack, a killer, who is tracked down in his personal life so runs away and gets a job making a gun and... you know what? I don't care. I'll tell you something else. The movie doesn't care either. It doesn't even know what genre it's in. It's not action, it's not thriller, it's not drama, it's not... it tries to be, but it just doesn't get it right. One moment people are shooting at Jack, the next he's trying to romance a prostitute, and then he's talking guns... what? And that ending...

George Clooney is, of course, great in the role. Not his fault the movie doesn't actually know what his character is supposed to be doing or how he's supposed to react to the world around him. To be honest, the rest of the actors are mainly Italian, and I don't know any of them, and the movie didn't make me want to know their characters either.

Bad movie. I'm sure it'll be a bit hit with the star, but don't go see it just because he's in it.

[END]

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Raven about a scene

The man is in the caves, where supernatural strangeness has been happening. He is mesmerized by strange sounds, and steps forwards down a tunnel. A sigil glows in the air as he steps through, and is dissipated. A moment later, rocks fall, sealing him in... Others bore through to rescue him, inserting a pipe for him to breath and communicate through, but then something snake-like emerges... people scream, run, it is caught on television screens as they flee the mines...

This is a scene I remember from my childhood. I was sick, in bed, and the TV had been brought in to me, and I saw the above... and it was scary!

However... it never happened. At least, not quite like that.

A few years ago, I asked around about this, to see if anyone remembered it and could help place it for me. Jon Preddle directed me to an old British series (old as in 1977) called Raven, and helped source a novelisation. Having read the book, I had a hard time aligning it with what I remembered.

Then a few months ago, it was released on DVD. I got it, but only recently got around to watching it. I can see what happened in my mind, more or less, but first I'll need to discuss the story.

Raven is a teenager, let out from a borstal to stay with a mature couple for a month to help him get a sense of the world. The Professor is digging in nearby caves while the government is sizing it up as a place to dump nuclear waste. He's an invalid, so has cameras in the cave to help him see what the team is up to.

Initially Raven is on the side of progress, but the Professor converts him to the side of stopping nuclear waste dumping. Raven also meets up with a local budding journalist (a pretty woman who seems to start blonde but is brunette by the end!), and she spouts a load of complete nonsense about how the cave symbols are astrologically significant. According to her, the government team start digging in the wrong place. And then...

I have no idea if I saw the other episodes, as the story was a complete blank to me, but I definitely must have seen episode four. It starts with Bill (head of the local team doing the government work) walking through a tunnel, there's a symbol and the tunnel collapses. People run around (this must have moved in my mind to afterwards) to help rescue him, and bore through to get him. The episode ends with a snake like thing coming out of the bore hole, its head a jawless human skull!!!

Now that, I think you'd agree, was a pretty scary image! I won't spoil what was revealed the next episode, but safe to say there is more astrological rubbish and then it abruptly ends. Badly. Like the story slams to a halt because it's won. And the winning in this case is against nuclear waste as there is no middle ground for the authors in that battle and the audience is left to only side with one position. And Arther (king and co) gets layered all over it badly as well.

Ultimately, it was, hardly surprisingly, more scary in my mind than actually on screen. Still, I'm glad I finally managed to get this sorted out, even if I'm not recommending the series for general viewing.

[END]

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The So-So's Apprentice

Are we all settled in for yet another story about a kid who finds magic? Good, then we'll review...

In some ways this is the core generic movie. Kid find himself a magic apprentice and has to master his powers for the boss fight at the end. How many movies have we seen with that? And there's the love interest, of course, because we have to have that nowadays. It's not a bad updating of the idea. There's the whole "coming of age" aspect to it, but they do try to throw in a dollop of science... but they also use the "10% of our brains" cliche which just PISSES ME OFF!!!

Nicholas Cage is decent in this. He's not trying to particularly over emote anything, but this more straight performance fits him well. Jay Baruchel manages to French Stewart his way through the picture, coming off as awkward without the charming. Alfred Molina, like Nick Cage, turns in a straight role and wears it well. Teresa Palmer, as said love interest, is put into the blonde role of "I don't understand physics", while she does get "cool music". And Toby Kebbell has had better parts.

A nice light picture with impressive enough graphics, but hardly a deep story. One of those "if you happen to be there, then see it" pictures.

And, of course, there's the question of this scene:

[END]

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The Christchurchian Good News

Now we can see what the "best" thing to come out of the Christchurch earthquake was. [Note the quote marks.] The whelming newspaper coverage! Never before in New Zealand history have we been able to get so much newspaper milage out of a major quake! Stuff has a whole section on it.

We have details on the quake itself. We have the basic info. We have pictures. We even have video.

We have the many humanitarian stories. We have missing elderly. We have people opening their homes to others. We even have an increase in domestic violence!

We find out that businesses are in trouble. Insurance companies are failing. Small businesses are seeking help and advice. A coffee shop owner may go out of business.

We have the government. John Key has spoken. The Opposition agrees. There's a $15m package inbound. And Mayor Bob Parker isn't sleeping.

Finally, let's get a few things clear. This was a national disaster. We do want coverage. I am questioning: do we want this much coverage just because we can have it?

[END]

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She's Super Pop-py!

Madonna has done many many songs that haven't been properly released. I've heard a fair few. Most of them are rather generic, in the style of the time. There are a few that I really like, and this is one such one. Produced during the Confessions on a Dance Floor, it wasn't considered appropriate, but nearly did make it all the same. It's a very bouncy track called Super Pop.


[END]

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New KFC money making scheme

[Yes, I eat KFC. Deal with it.]

KFC recently changed how they do meals(*). At least at the outlet I use, instead of cups they used cans and bottles of soft drink. However, recently, they installed those drink dispensing machines (no idea if they have unlimited refill) and now, if you want a can or a bottle, you have to pay 50 cents more.

So, instead of a recyclable can or bottle, we now get those dinky plastic cups. I'm not sure if the cups hold the same amount of drink, but they look smaller. (I could be mistaken, I haven't measured it). If so, they are saving on the amount of drink, and probably the soft drink liquid in bulk is cheaper anyway. But if you want something that won't spill (want to trust the lid?) you get charged an extra 50 cents.

And before, to upsize the meal was a dollar. Now it's a dollar fifty. And then still fifty cents more to get a bottle and not a large cup.

In one small change, KFC have managed to hurt the environment, save on the amount of drink brought, and make yet more money if you don't want to use a plastic cup. And if you are hungry (or fat).

From a business perspective, that's a nice trick. Will have to see if this will change foot traffic. Certainly I'm more inclined not to go there...

(*) And when GST increase hits in a few weeks, I won't be surprised to see another increase to make more money, but I'll post about GST later.

[END]

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TARDIS

[Note: there's also a prologue available!]

Another month, another computer game... oh wait... like we did... several months! And who knows how long until the next one comes out? But they are available internationally, for a price now, so we can all join in the fun.

Anyways, after all that time we certainly have be rewarded with an amazing game... but it's not this one. TARDIS is set, strangely enough, in the TARDIS! The TARDIS hits a space/time rip, the Doctor gets knocked out of the console room, Amy needs to rescue him and in doing so unleashes an evil from the dawn of time! (Okay, not from the dawn of time, but still a menace to be dealt with.)

So, I hear you saying (somehow... over the internet... when I'm typing this and before you've seen it...), we get to explore the TARDIS right? Indeed the console is lovingly rendered, and is more or less spot on with the console as seen on the screen (and reprinted in The TARDIS Handbook). The console room itself... less so. There are a couple of walkways, but hardly a grand open space to find yourself in.

But we're inside the TARDIS! We can go exploring! ...in the one other room... never seen before, the Doctor's study. With lots and lots of trinkets from adventures past. I was wondering if I would have the time to really look around, given I was trying to save the Doctor/Amy...

Fortunately, after dealing with the menace, you are given free reign to explore the TARDIS, at least the parts of it available in the game (ie console room and study room), so don't worry about that. You get to play with the controls of the TARDIS and go back to make sure you've seen all the facts in the study. Nice.

But what of the actual game elements? As there isn't much exploring, and no stealth elements, what we end up with is a series of mini-games to solve. Which aren't hard, but the gameplay does come across as mini-game after mini-game. We do also have a quiz that relies on user knowledge of the show (the study room helps), and here there's a big let down in that Amy could easily have been saying 'yay' rather than the text. They also could have had the actors say all the stuff while you're playing with the controls to... (perhaps they don't want the actors to know? ;) )

However, my biggest beef is with the detection system. Steering was bad enough, but it was nearly impossible to tell what objects could be picked up and what panels should be activated (a thin blue line around a largely blue panel? huh?). I had to rely on the options coming up to examine/use things! Still not sure what panel I activated at times.

This could have been a lot more fun, but ultimately ends up rather disappointing. Short game play, and not enough to explore outside of the console panels. I hope they have something big ready for the last game...

[END]

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Dead and... Reanimated?

So Benny finally makes it onto the screen... as such. Big Finish has produced a CGI Benny in her own CGI adventure. Perhaps this is what she needs to finally get attention of the masses?

Um... except... this is really only a short scene in some greater plot. I haven't been keeping up with the Benny books (and audios, but really the books were the main plot drivers) from Big Finish, so when Benny describes her situation, I'm like "huh?" I can guess where that came from, but I'm thinking that isn't exactly open to the public...

But maybe this is just a wee moment and then we'll get a typical Benny adventure? Sort of. It might be because I've been dealing with video games recently, but I felt an urge to start a quick time event, or at least point and click for the next thing to happen. But that's nothing to do with BF. It was rather odd that the robot did identify her...

And then we hit the end moment, which reinforces the 'greater arc' feeling. On one hand it could make people want to check it out... on the other, it could annoy people that it needs knowledge they don't have and thereby alienate your hopefully larger audience... I get where they are coming from, and still find myself in the latter camp...

But then again, I might finally get around to catching up with the BF stuff I have sitting there... along with all the other DW stuff I have sitting there... not to mention everything else... still, BF aren't losing the Benny license any time soon. There's time yet to catch up, one day...


[END]

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Should there be a license to make that video?

In the dark days between the TV Series being on screen, BBV stepped in and produced a range of videos. One such is Do You Have a License to Save this Planet?

Um... no... Basically... just... no. This is a "comedy" in the vein of fan based comedy. That the main role is The Chiropodist ("The Foot Doctor"... it's funny!), and there are wacky(!) moments of Autons and Sontarans and Cybermen... I mean Cyberons. (BBV did actually get the licenses to some of the DW monsters, but not Cybermen. Or Daleks.)

But anyway, the plot is... um... I'm not sure there was a plot. The Foot Doctor turned up, and aliens bumble around (the Cyberon is wearing a mustache... it's funny!!!), and... there's an action attempt at a dramatic moment at the end, but then Sylvester starts gurning again.

In spite of the script, Sylvester McCoy is quite good. Mark Donovan gets to play the role of the companion, but also manages to perform well despite the script. (He even talks to the fourth wall... it's FUNNY!!!) Unfortunately Nigel Fairs and Jo Castleton don't seem to worry about their performances, and I'm only guessing that the rest of the cast were glad to be behind costumes.

Bill Baggs did this as a 10th anniversary special... but BBV's done better than this... this video does not reflect well on them...

[END]

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Holy Hakeakala!

So the big news is that science is on TV. To be precise, we are learning about how the earth to going to go explody. To be even more precise, we've had the first episode of Bad Universe, the tv series that is basically Death From The Skies! televised.

Ah, Phil Plait. Always going for the humour. I remember when he only had one book and his own blog to his name, now he's on the Discover Magazine website, has a tv series, and is part of another series (yet to see the light).

Anyways, the first episode is about what happens if an asteroid or comet hits the earth. The answer seems to be that Sydney will be destroyed either way. Huh. But he also explains what we can do about it, and that we've got slightly less than 20 years in which to do something at all. Considering we have a plan, as such (as he outlines it), but it's not built yet, this could easily spell destruction for a large part of the earth (especially Sydney).

Phil presents the topic in a light-hearted way, as is his style, and he comes across as extremely friendly. All the better to really shock you with? But this episode, despite the topic, is fun and very watchable. Plenty of explosions too. Has it got legs for a series? We'll have to wait and see.


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War on Scales 18

Continuing on through the mine, the veins of chaos energy grow bigger and start to pose a threat. We come to a large misshapen chamber with a large demon in it, and so start another battle. The chaos vein causes some problems to those who stand in it, but otherwise fine...

The spider swarm and the two carrion crawlers cause a few more problems however. (Well, to be honest, not to me, but then I don't get involved in the fights that much.) By the time I'm in a position to do something really useful, I launch a curse and a bane of Melora on the last remaining creature [With a -7 to attack rolls and defenses!]... and it runs away! Huh.

Continuing on, we come to a large chamber with a chasm of chaos (there's no way I'm getting across that on my own), two large demons and a naga that is the actual Queen Sheba. While the others cross the chasm to take the fight to them, some kind of elemental chaos creature comes out of a chasm and attacks me. Waah! Since I can't deal out the damage, I support the rest of my allies, and brace myself for... a lesser attack. I'm then teleported across, and concentrate on kicking the demons.

Eventually, we whittle them down to just the chaos creature, which I call down Melora's curse on... and it runs away! Melora's just that good...

Then a stone golem thing turns up, revealing that it had sent the warforged golems out to save it so it could seal off the chaos veins, which is does. Yay! We win! Loot for us!

Until next time... [And the GM is about to become a father, so I'm thinking further adventures in this will be a long time coming...]

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