I flat out refuse to spend £50 (or more!) on new games these days.
Why?
BECAUSE THEY'RE NEVER F**KING FINISHED!
I knew it would happen.
I knew that as soon as consoles could be hooked up online that developers would get sloppy and publishers would get greedy(er).
Most new titles are riddled with bugs or not thoroughly playtested prior to release because of the safety net that the likes of XBox Live (and its counterparts) provides.
Found a bug that'll take too long to correct? Don't fret. We'll just release the broken game and then patch it.
Why the hell should anyone pay through the nose for incomplete or flawd games?
Yes; I will pick up a copy of Modern Warefare 2 eventually, but probably not until the inevitable "game of the year" edition is released, which will have all of the extra bits that people rushing out to buy a launch copy will have to pay extra for.

I don't listen to popular music, but I'll happily watch the music videos! Mostly for the leggy ladies prancing about wearing very little, but I also get a kick out of the reactions certain parties have to such displays.

[link]

Here's a tip; if you're offended by something, ignore it! Don't look at it! Certainly don't broadcast your hatred of it as it just gives it more attention!
Unless it's being rammed down your throat it's not worth getting in a twist over!

'course, if you do that it means you won't have an excuse to burn things, and pyromania is pretty much the only thing that gets certain religious nutjobs out of bed in the morning.

Personally I think they're just angry 'cause they couldn't get a ticket.

The BBC series "Spooks" (Known as "MI5" in some parts of the world) returns tomorrow.

For those unfamiliar with it; Spooks can best be described as a sort of British "24", and has been running for just as long, beginning 6 months after Jack Bauer began his first very bad day.
It follows the activities of MI5's Section D, a counter terrorism unit, as they thwart attempts to destabilize fair Blighty's security and government.
It's very rarely something as simple as finding a bomb. The threats have included everthing from media barons trying to blackmail politicians to an attack on the Thames barrier with the intention of letting London flood during a high spring-tide.
Pretty much all the scenarios played out are highly plausible. Combine that with a ton of grit and, despite its far lower production values, Spooks keeps very good pace with 24.

The series' real charm, though comes from one of my all time fave fictional spies; Sir Harry Pearce. He heads section D, has dirt on pretty much everyone in power and uses it, along with a rapier wit, to aid his men in the field. He also looks like a spy-master should: balding and stocky. None of that US-TV, lantern-jawed, pretty-boy hero nonsense
Unfortunately for fans like me, Harry's number may be up. Out of the 8 series thus far, only two characters have survived since the beginning. Characters in Spooks are as mortal as they come, and usually get taken down when you least expect it.
The cliffhanger at the end of the last series saw Harry being gagged and stuffed into a body bag by some Russians who were rather upset at him having shot one of their number earlier on.
If he makes it through series 8 unscathed, I'll be very surprised!

Clips from previous series:
[link]
[link]

Saw the trailer for it a while back, but after that it kind of dropped off the map until I spotted a lone copy sitting on an out-of-the way shelf in my local Blockbuster.
The premise was interesting; an epidemic of blindness.
I thought it was just going to be a basic medical drama in the long run, but I was very surprised that it was something else entirely.
Though it's never been described as such, Blindness is a zombie film, just; without the zombies.
An unidentified sickness incapacitates civilization and a lone group fight to survive.
It was a brilliant, and rather refreshing horror film.
(It IS a horror film. I can think of few things more horrific than suddenly losing one's sight!)
Surprised that there hasn't been more talk about it. It's a real hidden gem of a film.

[link]

A new little time-waster.
Unlike my previous Dot Zombie games; you're not looking out for number one this time, but everyone else.
The aim is to rescue as many civilians as you can from an infection zone, deploying troops and setting up blockades and medical centres to try and thwart the advances of the walking dead.
Free to download

[link]

A 15 year old kid was told that he was too young to purchase a packet of Wine Gums* because, to quote the moron on the till, "they contain wine".

That level of stupidity alone warrants a laugh, but not as much as the excuse the store manager gave to try and save face. He blamed the computer, clearly not realising that it makes his staff sound even dumber. Are they really such amoeba-brained twits that they don't question what the till says?!
If that really is the case; the species is doomed. The computers have replaced common sense.


*Fruit flavoured sweets that do not contain wine in any shape or form.

[link]

Certain boffins have theorized that the faults preventing the Large Hadron Collider (the huge partical accelerator that may or may not blow a hole in the world) from operating properly are actually being caused by the machine iteslf.....from the future.

Bit of a paradox, there.

I generally hate 4th dimensional thinking, but the evidence to suggest that skipping FORWARD in time is possible is compelling (for energy, at least. Matter would get torn to shreds by the tachyon sheer - and no; that's not from Star Trek).
Travelling backwards in time, on the other hand, just seems physically impossible.
Be nice if it were, though. I'd quite like to see the 80s again, if only to wander through the arcades

I've piled 500+ of sketches and drawings into a new book, now available through Lulu:

[link]

It's big.
Very big.
At A4 dimensions and massive page-count, it dwarfs my previous sketchbooks. It's made from much nicer paper, too

I can't usually stand public-info ads that warn against smoking, excess alcohol or drugs. Not because I have anything against the message being given, but because I don't partake in any such vice and I don't like my valuable TV-watching time being taken up by the authorities telling stupid people that they are going to die.

This one, however, had me in stitches:

[link]

"I'm bleeding!"

Caught a late morning showing of "Up" so I'd have the theater all to myself (more or less....there always seems to be one creepy old guy sitting at the back). I always try to do that when a movie I want to enjoy hits the screens.

"Wall-E" is a pretty tough act to follow. It was epic, incredibly funny and had characters that you really warmed to over the course of the film, despite them being bundles of metal.
"Up", by contrast, has a TV movie feel to the narrative. It doesn't aim to be a blockbuster like Wall-E, it just wants to tell its little story well. It's an interesting premise and never flags. The characters are unique and very, very Pixar, but their motivations will go way over the heads of younger viewers. It was the same case with "The Incredibles", but it had enough going on alongside the deeper drama to keep kids entertained. "Up" doesn't.

It's far more entertaining than "Ratatouille", infinately more interesting than "Cars" (why the fek are they wasting their time ona sequel?! Let it go!) but still pales in comparison to "Finding Nemo", which I still think (despite being a huge fan of Incredibles) is Pixar's gratest work to date.

The original Dot Zombie 2 ran so slowly that it was unplayable. I've made changes to speed up both pace and gameplay

A revised and improved version of the game can be found here: [link]

Let me know what you think

The British International Comics Show is on this weekend: [link]

As with last year, ace artist and one of my former cohorts from Rare, Mr Wil Overton, is very kindly allowing me to lurk at his table (Look for Dinkybox).
I should be there on both Saturday and Sunday (unless something untoward happens!)

Along with running his stand, Wil's also peddling a collection of comics that he's spent a good few months producing, and to which he, myself and a couple of other highly talented concept monkeys have contributed.
It’s called SMARTBOMB, and it’s available (for those in the UK) through the good Mr Overton's Dinkybox website: [link]
The rest of the world can nab a copy through IndyPlanet: [link]

Wil Overton, ace artist and one of my former cohorts from Rare , has been busy assembling a little collection of comics that he, myself and a couple of other highly talented concept monkeys have produced.
It’s called SMARTBOMB, and it’s available through the good Mr Overton's Dinkybox website: [link]
And IndyPlanet: [link]

Three new Chloe pics are available on Ebay, should there be any interested parties out there

Showertime Karaoke: [link]

Business Suit: [link]

Starfish Beachball: [link]

I've been playing around with Multimedia Fusion again, my 2D game development kit of choice.
I really must stop reading the tutorials people have written for it, though.
The more I learn, the more ideas spark off in my brain and the more I get sidetracked form the projects I really SHOULD be working on.

The latest little trick I've learned is how to make it possible for players to save progress. This means I can put together something I've wanted to for aaaaaaages: an RPG.
It won't be a hugely complex RPG, nor will it be particularly flashy. What I'm putting together will hopefully look like something I played on a C64 as a kid.
I like that old-school look

In keeping with that theme; I'm reading through my old games magazines and watching Lord of the Rings for a little inspiration. No JRPG craziness here. Just good, old fashioned swords, dragons, wizards, goblins and gold.

OH! And I get to draw maps again! It's been YEARS since I've drawn maps!!
GAH! I NEED PAPER! NOW!!!
*glees*

Edit: I've tracked down a youtube video with samples of 100 games made using Clickteam software. Gives a good example of what you can do with it - [link]

I'm not going to pretend that I pay the slightest bit of attention to the musical calendar, but throughout summer I do look forward to one particular event and that's the Last night of the Proms (Saturday 12th Sep).

A full orchestra playing REAL music very, very loudly.

Oh, and half the country waving flags to Rule Britannia: [link]
And the annual Conductor vs Audience anarchy that is the Hornpipe: [link] (skip to 4:10)

It's been bouncing around for a while, but I've only just caught the trailer for the OTHER Avatar film (Damn you Cameron!).

[link]

To my utter surprise; it looks rather splendid!

Started off a bit "star wars kid" but when the Fire Nation fleet suddenly filled the screen, I got that tingly sensation down my spine which always crops up when I spot a flick I really, really think I'll enjoy.

With the anniversary of the event only a few days away, "102 Minutes That Changed America" was just shown on TV. It premiered a year ago, but I'd not seen it until now.
I've not watched ANYTHING to do with the 9/11 attacks since the actual event. The very concept of movies being made about it kinda turned my stomach.
This, however, was a documentary, and curiosity, morbid or otherwise, compelled me to watch.
Having now seen it, I can safely say that; I don't think there's a person on the planet that would have acted differently to those in the street of New York that day: shock at the initial impact, astonishment at the second and utter terror as the buildings fell.
If I'd been there, I'm pretty sure I would have been sh*tting myself.

Of all the iconic images in this collection of footage, it won't be the explosions that stick in my mind, nor the collapse or the menacing dust clouds tearing down the streets.
It'll be the footage of the army of firefighters and other emergency workers, all dutifully marching toward the site, even AFTER the first tower fell, and with full knowledge that the second was just as unstable.

Balls of f**king steel.

Anyone that was a kid in the 1980s will remember, no doubt fondly, certain cartoons and TV series. They were great, weren't they?

....weren't thay?

No. They weren't. Watch them now and you'll wonder why such drivvel stuck in your memory.
It's probably less to do with the stories told on the telly and more to do with the tales you told yourself using the characters. Pretty much every cartoon had its own toy line, and you probably owned a figure or two from it (or the whole set, like the spoilt brat that lived next door to me) which you then took out into your back yard to play with. It's THAT which you have good memories of.
In summary, 80s cartoons; great characters, great toys, crap stories.

I've just finished watching the complete third book of Avatar and it blows the crap out of anything I used to watch as a kid. Ace animation, BRILLIANT and astoundingly MATURE storytelling and gut-bustingly funny in places.
In 20 years time, people are going to be looking back on this series in the same way people look back at stuff like Thundercats now, but they're not going to have to don the rose-tinted specs to fool themselves that it was actually any good because Avatar IS a masterpiece, the quality of which is unlikely to be distorted by time.
Why? Because it was made FOR children (and slightly geeky adults), but isn't childish. It never dumbs anything down, it credits its audience with an intelligence greater than that of plankton, and sets out simply to tell a good, thrilling, adventure story.
It succeeded!

To anyone currently planning a cartoon series; if you don't treat Avatar as a benchmark, you're a fool.

It's finally finished and available via Lulu:
[link]

Now to hurry up and finish the next Little Victory comic