Ben X

I loved series 6, it's one of my favourites! I don't see how Gunmen Of The Apocalypse was where the ideas ran out - it's a fantastic idea! You could say that the use of AR is a repeat of Better Than Life, but you could also point out that it's no more gimmicky than that episode. I also re-read the RD novels a while back, and reported on it in this zombie-cow thread. Here's what I said:

I recommend the original Rollerball - not spot-on, but damn close and a brilliant film.

The thing is, it was never 'canned' laughter with Red Dwarf - it was either filmed before a live studio audience, or filmed then edited then played before a live studio audience. This one did not dare play itself before a live studio audience, hence the lack of laughter. The general fan consensus was that Grant did the funny, Naylor did the sci-fi concepts. It's pretty obvious from series 7 onwards that Grant did everything except the spellchecking.

Yeah, new Red Dwarf was predictably, heart-breakingly awful. Still going to watch the next two parts, though!

I know that, ffs. I was talking about how I'd adapt the film overall, as if I were, say, a producer. And I don't think it's a futile and pointless exercise to discuss how we'd adapt certain games, just because we're not all film producers with the rights to those games. I think it's a fun and interesting exercise. Feel free to preserve your sanity by not joining in.

Ooh, London setting!

I think video game movies need to push boundaries and be a bit more bizarre, rather than try to crowbar their plot elements into a genre blueprint. Can we do a bit of an exercise? Let's suggest a game and how we'd adapt a film of it. I'll do Half-Life, as I've already written about it on the ZC forums If I wrote a Half-Life movie, I would have Freeman as the lead. He wouldn't speak at all, in the manner of a Sergio Leone anti-hero. The film would just be non-stop action so he wouldn't really have a reason to speak, I'd strip the plot and dialogue right down. It would be live-action, but with lots more CG backgrounds, and a mix of CG and proper Del Toro style creatures by Rob Bottin. Score by Clint Mansell. Directed by Gendy Tarkovsky. And I'd just jig around the timeline/conspiracy details so it could go straight from Black Mesa to City 17 to Xen.

I quite enjoyed it too! I didn't really like the character design that much, though, except the Missing Link and perhaps the President. It all felt a bit... Jimmy Neutron. I can't explain it any further than that! On the tv front, Charlie Brooker's Newswipe has been really good (ep 3 is on bbc iplayer right now, although it's the least strong so far). Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle is dreadful, which is a real shame as his stand-up is normally fantastic. Heroes continues to suck balls.

I suppose it's because I wasn't too annoyed about the bad science. It's only there because the studio think they have to explain and dumb down stuff for the audience, but at least they got it out of the way quickly. I thought it had a pretty specific meaning , but maybe that's just me!

Hi folks, Lemmy and Binky are a coder and artist who have just gone indie. They regularly help out on Zombie Cow games, and are very nice chaps, and they've started up an indie development forum, www.theindiestone.com. From their about page: theIndieStone.com is a community all about indie game development set up by three indie developers: Lemmy, Binky and MashPotato. Our aim is to ‘have a bit of a laugh’ with other indie developers or indie gamers. Also to share knowledge on the disciplines of art, code and design. They're putting up simple photoshop and coding tutorials regularly, and are trying to build a nice little community where everyone helps each other out. I wouldn't normally plug a forum on another forum, but this is totally different to what Idle Thumbs does. [Admin, if you take a look and disagree, please blast this thread out of existence.] In fact, I'll mostly be lurking on there and not understanding what the hell anyone's talking about, as my coding and computer art skills are zero. So, if there are any indie developers here who have questions or anecdotes or fancy joining in the weekly 'pixel-art in the shape' game, take a look: www.theindiestone.com Please pass it on to any non-Thumbs indie devs, experienced or fledgling, too! Cheers!

Knowing - I really enjoyed it. It was exciting and clever and scary, and I genuinely had no idea where it was going next. It's difficult not to associate Nic Cage with shit films these days and subconsciously decide the film is shit just because he's in it, but I managed to fight that urge. Cage is fine, and the film is a good choice on his part as far as goofy thrillers go. It goes completely mad towards the end, which a lot of people will hate. Don't let anyone spoil it for you, and get it on DVD for a fiver (or see it in the cinema for cheap if you can). Monsters Vs Aliens 3D - the film is okay, a few good gags but mostly predictable. The 3D tech is really interesting. It works very well these days, and gives a really nice sense of scale and depth. The trade-off is that it works a bit like parallax scrolling, so the actual layers, or fields of vision, are noticeably flat. That is: obviously a cinema screen is flat, but your brain ignores that and sees it as having depth; however, when they start to move different bits of it around seperately, your brain remembers that it's flat. It's still cool, and I can't wait to see what James Cameron, Peter Jackson et al do with it in live-action (I've only seen the horror film Scar 3D so far, and that didn't make use of it at all), but I can't imagine watching In The Bedroom or something in 3D without it being a distraction rather than a subtle enhancement. The Boat That Rocked - awful. Simply not funny, quite mean-hearted and with absolutely no plot. Richard Curtis having a wank. The Damned United - typical (and typically brilliant) Peter Morgan fare. Very well written and structured, great characterisation and performances. It even managed to make football exciting. But it's not terrifically cinematic despite being well-directed, and, focusing as it does on a short period of time in the characters' lives, it doesn't reach for the epic drama of a full-blown biopic.

Oh, and if you don't want to register there and post in their site suggestions thread (the site is still finding its feet), please give a bit of feedback here!

I generally try and turn things off at the plug. Is there any energy-saving benefit in doing this? Will my toaster be using up a little power simply by being plugged into an 'on' plug socket? Are there some items, like tellies or computers (assuming they're not on standby or hibernate, but properly off) that do even if most don't? And does it reduce fire-hazard in general?

Or gran-tits.

Sounds a bit like 'great-tits' though...

Shit. I'm not sure if even I am that OCD. Does turning it off at wall help a bit still, or is it remove plug or nothing?

Phew! That's two people who have lowered my expectations of this book now - I might enjoy it a bit more than before when all I'd heard was that it's this unfilmable classic.

I'm just starting on some Lovecraft, and halfway through a zombie short story compendium. Then I've got The Godfather and The Road to read.

No Screenwipe, but yeah the spin-off Newswipe has just started. You can see the first ep on BBC iplayer, it's really good (although he repeats a fair bit of material from his Guardian column, as usual).

Thanks for the bump and the attention, guys! Glad you enjoyed it, noyb. Check out the zombie-cow site for updates on the sequel... I'm writing dialogue for it right now. Here's what I just wrote for 'talk to pile of straw': Not sure if the gag comes across... gdc, a feature or review would be ace! Let me know if you need anything, and enjoy the game! You might spot Tremors and Shaun Of The Dead references, a Day Of The Dead reference, but no The Terminal or Dawn Of The Dead references....

To be fair, Shetty was pretty graceful about that whole thing at the time. Besides, what's she going to say when the press aske her about Jade's cancer? 'Good, she was involved in some ambiguously racist conversations about me, I'm glad the bitch is dying'?

Time to dust this off, then: fPgV6-gnQaE

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=24393 I think this deserves a reviewing of Ron's hilarious turn in Heat Vision And Jack. But can anyone find a better streaming copy than this? - http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/entertainment/watch/v332217tCth2FrY

You did what?!

Yeah, there were some nice sets there (little video about it here: http://io9.com/376622/building-the-watchmen-sets-before-your-eyes). I think it was more the cinematography/post-production that made everything feel shiny and clean...