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.


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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.

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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...

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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...


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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...

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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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