Nevsky

Oh, that's cool. Hopefully, something like that wil happen over here. Although, scanning the IMDB release dates list, was it not screened in the Netherlands back in July? Of course, that could have been a limited run. It's quite absurd checking that release info, with the huge block of slightly staggered Euro-countries (and one or two others), then a 4 month gap for the UK. Tsk.

This was initially announced as coming out in April in the UK. Now it has been delayed to February 2010, seemingly. What a stupidly long time to wait.

During the backwards section at the end, I was semi-hoping you'd go into a warped version of the News Theme to End All News Themes (or whatever it's called), but you didn't. Probably a good thing, because I probably would have blasted more than just a pod over fellow bus travellers if so. "I played this song backwards, and my head exploded!" - music.ign.com

I'd go with Patters, and check the settings in the preferences menu. [AGAIN!] I've not had problems with the headset volume yet, and I'm usually playing with the girlfriend sitting next to me, listening to music or playing Facebook Scrabble.

I suppose I have only one clerk-experience to share, and it has coloured my expectations with most game shop employees since. To cheer myself up after a pretty horrible day visiting my university house (which was a building site, a week before moving in, due to the landlady being incompetent), I decided to pick up two games in the Gamestation 2 for £25: Metroid: Zero Mission, and Pikmin. While at the till, I overheard one of the guys behind the counter loudly proclaiming the extreme idiocy of the Wii's classic controller. He said something along the lines of 'it's just fucking pointless, another waste of money, Nintendo are money-grabbing wankers etc'. I chimed in, stating it was much better for playing SNES Virtual Console games than the Gamecube controller, due to the face buttons being equally sized and spaced. His response: 'why would anyone be stupid enough to buy SNES games on the Virtual Console?'. Somehow mustering up more confidence than I usually have in the face of extreme stubbornness, I replied saying that, to take an example, Super Metroid (which had just been released on the VC at the time) was £7 on Wii, whereas a boxed copy in that very shop was £30. That £7 would go straight to Nintendo, whereas buying the cartridge only enriches the store chain - not the game makers themselves. Also, I stressed that, to the majority of the Wii's audience, it isn't viable/desirable to seek out and buy a SNES on eBay, just to play the games - they're not collectors. What about those who should be allowed to experience such a cool game? The guy just grimaced at me, like my point was irrelevant - even idiotic. Meanwhile, a girl, who had popped back up from under the counter, having found the Pikmin disc, said 'well, I have every SNES game on my DS anyway'. I can't remember how it went from there, but in my memory that last statement rings a dull, reverberating note, and I probably just left the shop, stuttering and muttering to myself.

I'm back from the screening now, just eating dinner and bashing out some notes for the review, then I'll be on. Get ready to NOT finish last. Any of you.

Ooh, I wouldn't want to miss that!

I'm at a screening of Humpday from 6, but I should be back around 9, so will boot up and suit up.

Well, you're not alone. I was going to post something along those lines earlier, but decided against it. I second ThunderPeel's linkage of the We'll Know When We Get There blog post, though. That's a really touching piece.

Just to, erm, further engage with the implicit suggestion that Britishers (and their podcasts) are somehow more sedate, intelligent, and eloquent, I offer up The Podcastle.

That really is quite an exquisite photo.

I agree, in retrospect it's underwhelming, I suppose. I like MVC2, but I'm only properly interested in Shadow Complex. And even then, I'm not sure I want to part with the points.

I find it quite interesting that you're comparing yourselves to the RPS podcasts - especially at the beginning of this one, you set them up as pipe-smoking, erudite gentlemen, in relation to your barnyard vulgarity. Admittedly, I've only listened to a few RPS podcasts, but I think they're quite scattershot - they're good, but they do venture all over the place sometimes. And sometimes it depends who is recording it. There's a whole discussion to be had about the ideal number of 'casters, but in the few podcasts I've tried out, I've usually been overwhelmed if there are more than 3-4 presenters - especially on the first couple of episodes. When you cut it down to 2 (like RPS), the dynamics of the podcast can be a little subdued at times. I prefer Thumbs, because you three guys have strong personalities when required, but can still settle in to some great discussion (plenty of recent examples of that), as well as some inventive, never-too-cynical humour. I know it can probably feel like you're fucking things up, getting off topic, losing sense of structure and purpose - but you do a good job. There are podcasts that are much longer, with much less to say. Also, the first episode of RPS that comes to mind is the overseas edition, where Gillen got hammered with Leigh Alexander - and that was certainly more raucous than a Thumbcast.

While stalking on Twitter, I came across this little exchange between Parkin and Clint Hocking, which sheds a little light on why these extra bits weren't discussed in the article: -- ClickNothing: @SimonParkin did you omit Langdell's restraining order and his expulsion from BAFTA from the article as not relevant? http://is.gd/20Iip SimonParkin: @ClickNothing Yes. They've peripheral relevance but many of EG's readers will be new to the story so I wanted to keep it clear and focused. -- So, yeah, seems he just wanted it clean and polished as a whistle. I completely understand where he's coming from. He's writing a big bastard, old-school feature - something that is trying to communicate the basics to those who don't know much about the situation. And I guess you can extrapolate that out to why he didn't lean too much on the other comments/arguments/representations of the story around the net, too.

I thought that article was great. I think that throwing in the wider concerns of the internet backlash, and then muddling it with other movements from Langdell (eg IGDA, or the apparent sexual harassment suit) would have cast the article's net a little too wide. I liked how it mostly focused on relevant context, and getting as much access to the original correspondence / statements from those involved. It was already a chunky 4 pages in the first place - and most of that seemed to be based on Parkin's own research or interviews, so I can understand wanting to keep it straightforward.

I actually think Zooey Deschanel a pretty good singer. Her album with M. Ward (She & Him volume 1, it's on spotify!) is solid, pleasant, folky alt-Americana. Can't say I think she's a good actress but, damn, those eyes.

Well, everyone needs to start somewhere, he was 20 around then. And flashes of his more whimsical, twee period crop up all over the place - from Kooks to Everyone Says Hi and his 80s pop singles (Modern Love). And, well, the campiness just needs a little more coke, cock and rock, and you have Ziggy Stardust. Another song suggestion - Under Pressure. One of my favourite songs by both Bowie and Queen.

Reznor mix of I'm Afraid of Americans would be the no-brainer, I suppose. And, yeah, if they want to keep it up to date, they could throw in the TV On the Radio and Arcade Fire - but their styles aren't very Rock Band either. (As I side point, I really hope he gets off his arse soon and does a new album with David Sitek producing)

Aw, harsh. Scary Monsters is a great album, and I stand by Outside and Heathen. There are worse albums than those in his 70s output. Also - they'd need to throw in at least the album version of 'China Girl', for the Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar solo, to appease those who care about such things. But, wow, a Bowie Rock Band would be quite interesting. And would they then throw in Mott the Hoople, Iggy Pop/Stooges and Lou Reed songs, too?

Whatever House does in his spare time is FINE BY ME.

This isn't a serious suggestion, because I don't think it works so well, but I completed Prince of Persia (2008) last night - and they tried something interesting with the end credits. I'll spoiler-tag it, just in case. Disappointment.

Hey, I said 'mini'! Mini comic, then (which has a whole different connotation). Pamphlet.

I've recently become particularly evasive when it comes to trailers, because I think that the majority of them give away the first 40 minutes of the film in question. I think with Moon, although I've got some vague whiff that there's a twist, or more to it than meets the eye, it's more that I want to go in with the majority of my knowledge being 'it's called Moon, and it's got Sam Rockwell in a space suit in it'. So even the vague nuts-and-bolts of the setting and so on are still quite unknown to me. And the pre-release marketing for films have now become so important, especially where geeks are concerned, that little is left 'unspoiled' in certain circles - you have script reviews, preview clips, etc, as well as trailers. I guess I'm trying to recapture the vague, silly notion I have that, when Alien, 2001 or Psycho were released, people were actually shocked/surprised by the actual content of the film, as opposed to just the twists and turns of the narrative (ie if they'd only seen the poster and 'In space no-one can hear you scream'). I don't mean to sound idiotically (and falsely, being born after all those films mentioned above were released) nostalgic, but when the majority of films released are remakes, sequels, or adaptations, it's hard to be totally surprised by a film. ('Shit! You mean Transformers is about robots fighting, Wolverine is about mutant Canadians, and Harry Potter V is about (the) wizards?).

Well, we can just cry over the free GOG.com version of it with nice scans of the manual and mini graphic novel, AND hi-res wallpapers, instead. I'm sorry, I'm sure everyone knows about that, I'm just saying it's not a loss that PC-ers aren't getting the revamp.

Tonight I went to see A Perfect Getaway, which is a trashy thriller written and directed by David Twohy - the chap who did Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. It was pretty enjoyable - one of those silly, trashy, spot-the-twist flicks that doesn't take itself seriously, and still manages to be quite charming, despite being a little clumsy and heavy-handed at times. Relatively spunky, beautiful cast, too, with Milla Jovovich and Timothy Olyphant. Probably the funniest aspect of it is, it is set on Hawaii - something integral to the plot - but due to tax breaks, it was actually filmed in Puerto Rico. But, using the magic of modern VFX tech, they just superimposed CG shots of Hawaii onto the Puerto Rico footage. Sweet. Maybe when they (never) inevitably scrape the barrel and make a Monkey Island 2 film, they can use the hi-res scans of the painted backgrounds. Also -- I saw Inglourious Basterds last week - but I'm bound-by-'bargo until next week. And I'm not Jonathan Ross, who twittered his opinion as soon as he got home from the screening, so I can't comment on it.