For a few days - at least... Things have been crazy here lately so I'm abandoning the world to clear my head. Well, not quite, but I am going far, FAR away from the internet!

I was going to post loads of comments about the dark side of human nature this week, but it all seems a bit pointless today.

Maybe things will be perkier when I return.

See you all in a few days! 

Here's today's existentialistic quandry: What is the difference between a duck?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address... 

I think I'm finally growing up, for I really like this tune by the Shadow Puppets.  

Welcome to the world of real music, Stu

So, as you know, my Column is a year old, and let's be honest, I've not exactly gone out of my way to take the next step forward into the technological age.

And that got me to thinking: could I do more?

And, even more importantly, should I? 

I am, of course, talking about doing a weekly / monthly video show. I could review games, talk about life, and be generally very amusing indeed*. I'll be me doing what I do best: talking total cr@p for ten minutes. Bargain!

Is this a good idea, vote now. If I can get ten positive votes for my video show on here on in my forums, I'll do a demo next month.

Get voting. 

If you just can't get enough of your massively multiplayer addiction, then this is right up your electronic alley. Fledgling company Vollee is poised to change the face of gaming with Second Life on your mobile.

If you don't know, Second Life is a kind of reality simulator / social chat site where people get up to all the things they'd like to in real life (mostly it's a kind of frisky dating service where anything goes - literally).

Mobile Second Life looks just as good as it does on PC (the graphics were never exactly fabulous to begin with) and you've got pretty much all the functionality of the game to boot.

This is bad news for those people who go to work to escape their addictions, but it's a great leap forward for everyone else.

Check out the movie for a sample.

Just think. Now you could be wooing Darla in Kentucky 24/7... Or better still, engaging in all those carnal fantasies you never knew you had... On your mobile. In the office. In bed with your wife. Or even better, at Starbucks. It could start a whole new craze: pseudo-exhibitionism (where you have e-sex in front of lots of strangers).

This could bring a whole new meaning to the office expression: "I'm getting off at four today".

I got my Fileplanet beta key for the Age of Conan open beta week event. Hurrah!

I was particularly concerned about getting a key. As I said in last week's preview, there is no way I'm going to buy / preorder the game until I've seen signs that it's a lot more playable than it was over the PVP weekend. So many people complained of having all manner of problems, and while the game is only £24.99 (including free War Mammoth or Rhino - depending on where you order), I still got burned with Hellgate London and won't be buying another heavily bugged game again - ever!

Age of Conan looks great, but if I wanted bugs I'd go watch Starship Troopers.

And if I wanted to simulate the pain of playing a heavily bugged game with none of the joy, I'd watch Starship Troopers 2. 

The open beta event starts on May 1st, so look for more NDA-breaking news and information around then*.

Check out the Fileplanet Age of Conan mini website. I must gripe about the fact that Fileplanet now has a kind of lottery where you've got to compete with everyone else for beta slots. I know their betas are in pretty huge demand, but it still makes me think 'why am I paying for a chance to be in beta?'

I'm sure I'm not the first to grumble about this and I hope this isn't the start of a worrying new trend. 

Anyway, check out the Fileplanet page for a chance to get in beta and let's hope for a fantastic open beta with all the bugs and glitches resolved. 

* That was a joke! C'mon, you knew that, right?

I bought two new pairs of Levi jeans today of exactly the same size and shape.

Get ready for the science: while both pairs are exactly the same size, one pair is tight, another is a comfortable fit, and the ones I was wearing when I went into the shop are baggy.

But, surely if a pair of jeans is a certain size, then ALL jeans of that size should be - by definition - exactly the same size. Or else what's the point in having sizes at all?

Obviously this concept hasn't struck Levi, who think a certain size of jean is on a sliding scale.

It's all very bizarre. I now have three pairs of jeans of exactly the same size but three very different fits.

If anyone can explain the science here I'd love to hear it!

Happy Birthday to my Column! I'm one year old today.

I remember when I started this column; people said it wouldn't last, yet here we are, 365 days later and 340 posts later. I'm sure I deserve cake...

Anyway, I've had over 200,000 people look at my column over the last year (and more than 20,000 in the last two days) but no one ever leaves comments!

So, if you've been reading my column, post something and say hi. If you're reading the Age of Conan beta information, post to say that you read it, or that you liked it (or didn't).

My poor column barely gets any posts, yet tens of thousands of you visit it monthly.

I've got two copies of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Gold Edition to give away. They're up for grabs for the best comments this month.

Hell, I'll even lob in some brand spanking new Warhammer books (courtesy of Black Library).

So, what are you waiting for? Get posting!

To inspire you to come back, here's some of the stuff I'll be posting in the next few days:

• Exclusive preview of Alone in the Dark.
• My fun day out with Dead Space
• My magical ride with Spore (not to be missed) 

Here are some of my favourite screen shots from the Age of Conan PVP Weekend.

I didn't take any of the Capture the Flag game, and I couldn't play Annihilation, so all you have is the gorgeous-looking environments and characters.

Before I start: did you know collision detection is in the game? That's right, when you run into other characters there's a hefty thud! No longer are other character spectral, they have mass, and you can't run into them. There are pros and cons to this system, but I really do prefer it as it feels more realistic. 

THE NECROMANCER

The Necromancers seemed, on the whole, to be fairly versatile. You can have a variety of weird necromantic monsters (like zombies) at your disposal, and the exact number of creatures seemed dependent on their power and your own level. They were pretty useful, although not having any control mechanism meant they were exceptionally unwieldy. A simple pet control mechanism is a must.

The Necromancers do look amazing, though, with their bone outfits and their feather headdresses.

Powers range from summonings (as mentioned above) to direct damage, AoE and Damage over Time spells. There also seemed to be the occasional rare summon when you conjured a temporary huge beastie which lasted a short while doing massive damage, before fading away.

It was all very well thought out, but the Necromancers felt, for all their powers, somewhat weedy, their spells all but useless in PVP.

DEMON FORM OF THE HERALD OF XOTLI

The Herald is another spell-casting class, and I didn't get to play with many of their powers, but they're a cross between a sword-wielding warrior and a spellcaster.

You can transform into this rather impressive looking demon form which gives you major buffs to your physical stats. The power is on a timer so you can't just turn it on and off at will. 

I wouldn't like to meet him on a dark night, though I think you'll agree that he looks fantastic. I didn't get to play too much with the Herald of Xotli, but they look a lot more capable of dishing out melee damage in PVP. 

CHARACTER PET: SUCCUBUS

Everyone's been complaining about the complete lack of boobies in game, so here you are: a rather fetching green-skinned succubus, the pet of the Demonologist. As you can see, her maiden modesty is protected by a matching emerald thong (from the infernal version of Anne Summers, probably), but she does look rather impressive.

PARTICLE SPELL EFFECTS

I chose this image because there's been a lot said about the lack of good spell effects in the game. Well, as you can see there's plenty of particle effects from spells, and lots of nice colours, too.

This is the staging area for the Annihilation PVP and the place where characters have one minute to prepare their buffs for combat. 

I really do think the game looks stunning and while I'm not running it in DirectX 10.1, I think you'll still agree how lovely everything looks. 

PVP STAGING AREA 

This is the touch down point for the Annihilation PVP game. This is the point where the timer counts down to zero and the gamers eagerly let out a whoop of joy and dash for the barrier to engage is some carnal slaughter.

I, of course, gave a sigh of despair as my PC met with the loading screen of doom - clearly, I wasn't in favour with the gods and need to bulk up a load and sacrifice my first born to the dark powers before I can engage in some Annihilation PVP. 

PVP STAGING AREA - ALLIED TERRITORY  

This is the first of the exceptionally pretty outdoor locations for the PVP - Annihilation event. I can't tell you a great deal about the actual game because my PC wouldn't load up the event (curses). But, as you can clearly see, the locations look gorgeous with lovely skies and water effects.

I will say that the FPS went down to around 7 - and this is just a staging area. I guess we can only wait and see what kind of FPS we get when the game is finally released. 

PVP STAGING AREA - PARTICLE EFFECTS

I thought this picture was worthy of note because of the particle effects, swirling smoke and mist effects.

The world really is a dark and violent place, and the developers have gone out of their way to make it a dark and brooding, yet beautiful fantasy world. 

CHARACTER PROGRESSION SKILL TREE

The skill trees (of which two are shown here) are plainly identical to those of other games, you get one skill point per level, with a bonus every ten levels. 

We can't talk about the Skill Trees too much but the system is really evocative and atmospheric and there were lots of skills I'd have liked to have bought. Fortunately, with eighty levels and around 84 skill points at maximum level, you've plenty of points to play around with.

What IS interesting is that you have different ranks for the different Talents, which means you have a hundred different ways to specialise - lots of options means lots of different character specs - exciting. 

It looks like you start accruing skill points at level 10 and get 2 for every 10th level (hence 12 at 20). By that reckoning you'll have 86 at level 80. 

I just hope all skill trees are equally viable (something that's never really happened in other games) making multiple options possible rather than one cookie-cutter version of each class. 

There were some delicious looking skills in that list, and did I see Lich Form at the bottom of one of the skill trees? Why, I do believe I did!

THAT'S ALL, FOLKS 

And that's your lot for this screenshot session, coming next is the open beta, which should be a whole lot more fun.

I will say, as a summary: PVE great fun. PVP needs a lot of work.

Funcom has already said that with all their analysis software working in this version of the beta things were running rather slow, but once all that has been turned off and the engine optimised even more, we should be seeing great FPS and the game should be a lot faster.

Now all we can do it leave the game in Funcom's capable hands and see what they can deliver in the next thirty days. I imagine there'll be some serious sacrificing to the dark gods in order to get this game in ship shape condition for the end of May release.

In closing, Age of Conan could be amazing. It's certainly done all the ground work for an exceptionally fun and different enough to other popular games to carve a niche for itself. All that is needed now is a month of polish from the developers, some serious server streamlining, and we've got a cult hit on our hands.

Geekgasms abound, for '80s TV show Star Fleet is finally coming to DVD. After twenty long and miserable years, Fabulous Films is bringing the sci-fi puppet show to DVD in its complete (and hopefully remastered) format.

You can preorder it at Play.com by clicking here

Or at Amazon.co.uk by clicking here

You can also order The Mysteries Cities of Gold - another unheard of series since it vanished from our TVs in the '80s, by clicking here. 

This is fantastic: it's a scale version of the various objects in the night sky.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj261/ruka_yun/i6cfbl.gif

Makes you feel incredibly tiny, doesn't it?

I've been checking out the Age of Conan beta again this morning, and while there have been patches galore, I still can't access the Annihiliation PVP, which is a great shame as the preview is all about it. The Capture the Flag game is dull as dishwater and I've no more interest in playing it (after two games).

So, to close off this weekend review I've got some screen shots (which I'll post later) and some closing words.

The game really does look great. I know Funcom is working on the PVP imbalances, but my concern is that without complex analysis, their balancing efforts are going to be lacklustre at best. I'm no great technology expert but there MUST be programs you can run to perform millions of simulated battles to get the best balance.

I do think the game needs another few months of development time, even with my high end PC I still only got 7 FPS in the PVP areas. 

I still feel that from an old gamer's perspective, Age of Conan isn't quite ready for a release. The engine isn't as robust as it could be, nor does the game have the right amount of polish to compete with games already in existence. The patcher still doesn't work properly (was getting all kinds of error messages) and the Loading Screens still endlessly hang with no indication as to whether things are working way in the background.

It is an intriguing concept, though and has lots of nifty ideas - lots of things done different enough (to WOW) to stand out from the crowd, but for me, it's not different enough.

While I'm sure Funcom will swiftly iron out the most glaring of bugs before release, for my taste, it still needs another few months of polish before eager gamers everywhere get their shapechanged paws on it!

For the player, a beta is a chance to see a glimpse of a game and to see how stable the engine is. It’s like a try-before-you-buy offer, a chance to get excited at the wonderful potential of a new game.

For the developer, a beta is chance to get some much-needed server performance code and to show their engine off to a massive number of players.

One thing we’ve learned from years of betas (and there has been a decade of MMO betas now) is that polish is king. A smooth running and easily accessible beta will get the gamers flooding in. That didn’t happen here. It’s my experience that Age of Conan is not that game, at least from this weekend's PVP beta experience. Read on to find out why.

Playing the Game: There were two elements to the beta: the short single player game and the PVP element. The single player game was fun (taking you up to around level 6) and gave you a brief teaser into the powers of your characters. There’s a great deal of atmosphere and the quests are interesting enough. Combat is fun and fast, although the three 'directional' button to attack different parts of the body system seems something of a redundant mechanic and I don’t see the point of it (it's like a watered-down system of a far more complex system). It didn’t feel much like real-time battling to me, although it did feel different to, say Warcraft, which is a good thing for those people wanting something new. I will say that it was nice and responsive, which helps with that split-second timing. I think I need more time to grow to like it – it certainly was intriguing. Weapons and abilities are on timers but it doesn't feel like you're endlessly left with nothing to do while those timers reset (as in other games).

Graphics: With eye-gouging DirectX 10 compatibility (although that was disabled for this release), the graphics are stunning. That said, with the lag monster and his mother conspiring to make everything behave so erratically, it’s impossible to give a true indication of how the game will look in the final product. While the graphics weren't so good for the environments, the characters were stunning - quite certainly the best in any game so far. My necromancer had a raven feather headdress and bones for his outfit - everything was beautifully realised and looked stunning. How the game will run with fifty people running around in battle is another matter entirely...

Stability: I’m very concerned about stability. If the developers can’t get the game to work smoothly for a few (and there were only perhaps a hundred people in game) players, then what will the game be like when there are hundreds clamouring to access the log-in servers? We'll get a better indication in the Open Beta, but right now I'll admit to being somewhat nevous about server performance...

Game Balance: Release is almost upon us and for Funcom to be making such fundamental balancing acts at so late a stage in the game is a tad worrying... But change is needed, for the classes are horribly unbalanced with some classes simply unable to defeat others. It makes PVP very frustrating right now and it'll take more than a few developers to vaguely tweak the numbers to put this right.

PVP: The PVP is interesting enough, but it's nothing new (capture the flag, anyone?). It's too slow and confusing and, as I said, the class balance is totally off. It certainly didn't feel like cutting-edge next-gen MMO technology (or indeed anything revolutionary and exciting) which is what I was hoping for. Talking of character imbalance, some characters were barely taking damage with three of my minions on them and me chain-casting offensive spells. Mind you, as a necromancer, I was advised that they are exceptionally weak – again another major negative for a PVP-based game where balance is vital.

Loading Screens: What the game needs more than anything else is more loading screens. Because right now, there just aren’t enough of them! There’s one when you log, one when you die, one when you zone, one when you cough (OK maybe I made that one up!). And with every loading screen I had no idea whether the game would load up, crash, or hang. At one point I half expected a “Bonus Loading Screen - Get Ready to Reboot!” message to flash up (but it didn’t – that was just my natural cynicism taking charge)! There are too MANY loading screens. A small, but personal gripe.

In summary: What we have with Age of Conan is an experience with code that plays like alpha code at times – far from the polished software I'd hope to expect on the verge of release – although this could just be the beta phase we’re in – it’s very hard to draw many conclusions from this. Everything was so slow and unreliable (especially in PVP) that it was almost impossible to give an accurate indication of the kind of experience we're going to see on release. I find it exceptionally worrying that so many bugs / omissions and problems still exist in a game not 30 days from being on shelves. That said, my FPS were consistently high, and, despite some weird server glitches, constant crashes and game freezes, there looks to be a really interesting game here with lots of potential.

That said, I would strongly advise the world to hold fast on those pre-orders until the reviews come flooding in. I said exactly the same about Hellgate London, and aren’t you glad you waited?

There’s a lot that’s interesting in Age of Conan, but poor server performance, some very high PC requirements, and a buggy engine offset those positives. There's a lot of room for improvement, but is just one more month enough to iron out all the creases in this title?

I posted my Age of Conan Beta review just over an hour before the NDA went down.

Now, it's a fact that my column barely gets ANY hits at the weekend, and in the last year  I've had maybe thirty hits from the VN boards, but as soon as my column went live I started getting criticism for posting my review.

An hour early.

On a column that barely sees any hits over the weekend.

It was a simple mistake. I - obviously - never considered that anyone would actually look at my review. I thought people would only read it on Monday morning... I should have known better. This is the internet where any secret is unearthed in about five seconds.

Now I know if I read a review on a game that I really liked, I'd be grateful that someone had posted something - especially when it said: hold fire on buying this game until you read more reviews - I'd not be in arms about it, screaming and shouting how I couldn't be trusted or whether I should be prosecuted for breaking the NDA.

A simple email to me informing me of the fact would have been the considerate approach, not this raining hellfire down on me - which is pretty much what's happened.

I think it's all really petty. And totally losing sight of the big picture. It's an example of trying to help people (which is really all my review was about) and getting slapped in the face for it. 

Are people really are SO quick to jump on the offensive and to point the finger? Someone actually told me I couldn't be trusted, as though my posting a review an hour early was some kind of indication that I was a bad person.

Update: Someone actually thought it was reasonable to inform Funcom of my NDA breach! That anyone would do that is beyond reason. I actually find it shocking that someone would be so needlessly vindictive. But I guess people will always find ways to punish others, no matter how pure their intentions.

I think my faith in humanity has slipped a notch tonight... I wonder how many of those people think nothing of downloading an illegal movie or have illegal downloads on their PCs. 

Oh it's easy having the moral superiority when half the facts are concealed.

I've griped loads about the price of movie tickets these days, but I wasn't at all stunned when I found out that Cineworld is now actively banning people from bringing their own food into the cinemas.

Posted from Cineworld's website:

"Can I bring in my own food and drink? Cineworld have a strict NO FOOD AND DRINK policy. We reserve the right to refuse customers entry into the screens with food or drink bought outside the premises. All our cinemas display the necessary signage, advising customers of this policy.

As a food operator we offer a wide range of drinks and snacks to satisfy our customers but also protect our cinema finishes and customers clothing. Not all movie-goers are considerate of others in their snack choices and we have needed to set clearer guidelines on what is appropriate."

Staff will try and confiscate any externally purchased items they find, which is somewhat disappointing as the food items in store are so ludicrously expensive. It's even worse that they cite 'not all movie-goers are considerate' when all they sell is noisy / smelly / and highly distracting food.

And back on to the extortionate price of things.

• It's £2.25 for a medium sized bottle of water.
• It's £4.25 for a large popcorn.

So, after you've bought your ticket, you're adding almost another ten pounds on to the price of admission for some crummy production line popcorn and a drink.

That makes by price of a single movie, by my reckoning, to a whopping £15. That makes it almost unaffordable for a family of four (which would work out around £40).

Here's a great idea that's catching on in the UK:

Message from the UK Ambulance Service

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would find our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to contact. Yes, we have hundreds of numbers stored in our mobiles, but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign.

The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As mobile phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person [or persons] who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE'.

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognised name for this purpose.

In an emergency situation, emergency service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialling the number you have stored as 'ICE'.

So J. K. Rowling is suing the writer of the Unofficial Harry Potter Lexicon. She has stated that she intended to write a similar book herself in order to give the proceeds to charity, but now this new book has "destroyed her desire to pen such a work".

I find that incredible; it's clearly a statement made solely to boost her prosecution. She's sold 375 million books, surely she can't be so flakey that a single book based on her work can shatter her confidence. It's far more likely that Mrs Rowling is intent on keeping a firm grip on her kingdom.

It's not the control I have a problem with. It's the lies surrounding it. If she just said: "no one can release books on my world", I'd be fine with that, but it's the deception surrounding it.

I'm sure we'll see her Encyclopedia when she needs a new house or two.

Oooh, cynical! 

I've had flu the last few days and have been mostly bedridden. It got me to thinking about what my life would be like if I were much older and completely without support.

Being old and alone is a sobering thought, and the first time it's ever hit me.

I wonder how many people around the world have no one to look after them. They have no one to cook or clean or to help with routine chores; all those things we take for granted in health.

It's a scary time.

It’s hard to say anything about The Nines without spoiling the story entirely, but I wanted to talk about it because it’s one of those under-the-radar movies you almost certainly won’t know anything about and you’ll definitely not have seen. But it’s compelling viewing and a worthy addition to the sci-fi/supernatural genres.

 

In fact, it’s so difficult to talk about any aspect of this movie without giving the game away. So rather than spoil it, I’ll try to give you reasons to watch it. The Nines stars talented actor Ryan Reynolds who plays out the story of three men in three very different realities. Their lives are all connected – but to tell you how would be to – you guessed it – to give the story away.

It’s hard to categorise The Nines. It’s one part The Matrix, one part Donnie Darko, and another part Contact. It’s at times creepy and you’re not sure whether it’s going to shift into high gear as a horror movie. Yes the second part is a bit slow and perhaps overly long, but when you get around to the third part that’s quickly forgotten – especially when the big reveal is just around the corner.

It’s a slow movie, and, like Contact before it, it doesn’t give away all the answers but is instead thought-provoking and leaves the viewer to ponder the meaning behind the movie. It’s beautifully acted; Reynolds looks and feels totally different in each of his three guises and the script is gorgeous.

Summary: A healthy, if somewhat unsurprising 9/10. This is a movie every gamer should watch. For everyone else, it’s just a great movie with a compelling and thought-provoking story. If you liked Donnie Darko then you'll love The Nines.

I don't know quite what I make of this animated / CG Star Wars movie coming to cinemas toward the end of the year.

It just seems a bit, well, haven't they done all of that already?

Click here to watch

Eagerly anticipated Spanish zombie movie Rec makes it debut at UK cinemas this weekend. Very much in the style-of-the-day format, this story merges Romero’s recently released Diary of the Dead with Cloverfield and tells the tale of a female journalist reporting on the day to day activities of a fire station.

Little does she know when she takes the assignment that she’ll be covering a zombie outbreak.

Expect some great visuals, some scary zombies, and particularly stomach-churning camera angles. If you can stand the blurry web-cam-esque scenes without a generous dose of Dramamine, then this is one of the must-see horror movies of the year.

I just bought Enchanted on normal (mundane) DVD. I felt like I was abandoning my lovely High Definition player in some way, but as the HD war has been won by Sony and Blu Ray, and not actually having a Blu Ray player, I was faced with little choice.

I wish I hadn't bothered. The difference in picture really is astonishing. It's like going back to the dark ages of movie watching. Who'd want to go back to grainy images, rubbish colours, and blurry lines.

I's clearly true what they say: once you go black (err, HD), you never go back.

Remember way back last year when I talked about the Phelps Family and their crusade against FAGs?

Forgotten? Click here for a reminder

Now, you have to remember that FAGs aren't homosexuals, oh no; they're all sinners, whether they're fornicators, muslims, jews - or in fact - anyone who would be a sinner in the eyes of god. This family has gained a lot of publicity (and notoriety) for their supremely bigoted ways.

Now, a federal judge has ordered that the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) building and the Phelps-Chartered Law office be taken away from the owners in order to pay a $5 million fine. The religious organisation was ordered to pay the damages after members
of its congregation picketed the funeral of two American servicemen.

The group, led by Reverend Fred Phelps, is well known for picketing the funerals of homosexual victims of murder. They first came to prominence a decade ago when they protested a the funeral of murdered gay man Matthew Shepard.

The church proudly claims the following statements on its website:

"In 1991, WBC took to the streets, conducting over 34,000 peaceful demonstrations opposing the FAG lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth."

"America crossed the line on June 26, 2003, when the Supreme Court (the conscience of the nation) ruled that we must respect sodomy. WBC believes her gospel message to be this world's last hope."

Charming, eh? So much for let bygones be bygones.

Some states, including Kansas, have passed laws prohibiting picketing at funerals. If the court's decision is upheld then the Phleps family will be made bankrupt and will lose both the church and the building housing the family law firm.

However, the family may be able to keep hold of the buildings through a legal loophole. By law, a person's home cannot be seized to pay legal costs, the family are maintaining that both the church and office buildings are part of the family home.

Watch this space to see what happens next? But clearly, what goes around - comes around... 

It finally seems that the stars of tomorrow aren’t necessarily the stars of today. Movie studios are saving a fortune casting unknowns in their big-budget movies, and the mega stars of a few years ago no longer have the pulling power they once had.

When stars like Tom Cruise can be dropped seemingly on a whim, one has to wonder whether things aren’t finally changing. When unknowns can star in movies like the monster smash Cloverfield and TV shows like Heroes can make superstars out of complete unknowns, the industry is finally no longer relying on a few faces to support the entire industry.

When a certain celebrity is cast to play a role (like the woefully miscast Keanu Reeves as Constantine), one has to wonder if the studios aren’t placing box office ratings over artistic integrity. It all seems like money is the one motivator these days and it a film doesn’t gross more than two hundred million dollars it’s seen as something of a failure.

So, why can't we have the actor who's best placed to fill a roll instead of a handful of celebrities playing all the meaty parts no matter how woefully inappropriate.

But times are changing, or are they… for Universal Studios has dropped director Robert Rodriguez's planned remake of the sci-fi cult classic Barbarella, citing disagreements over Rodriguez’s girlfriend, Rose McGowen. Clearly they feel she’s not iconic enough to fill the shoes of the blonde bombshell. The studio reportedly wants a bigger name star such as Halle Berry or Jessica Alba. As if we haven't seen enough of them in recent years.

So, with that thought, it seems that very little has changed. Studios are still firmly entrenched in the ‘stars put bums on seats’ philosophy.

But there’s lots of hope, for with Robert Downey Junior playing Tony Stark in Iron Man, and plenty of fresh TV studios casting total unknowns, perhaps we’ll see an end to the mega stars of yesterday and see some fresh faces – properly cast – in our future.

Yesterday's rant about Uwe Boll's poll stirred up lots of feelings and it made me wonder whether I was as guilty of suppressing other people's opinions as they were.

Someone said my comments was just as bad as the Anti Boll Poll, and that got me to thinking: were they right? Was my argument in the same league as people who vote to stop Boll from making any more movies?

It seems clear to me that I'm saying: this is wrong. No matter how you view something, there are always better alternatives than demanding an artist stop creating. You can always look the other way. 

So, is this the same thing? Am I guilty of trying to suppress people's opinions?

Of course, this is the internet where people say things often without so much a moment's thought (and rarely any consideration), but it's still worthy of a few moment's thought...

Movie director Uwe Boll has said that if the online poll Stop Dr. Boll receives a million votes, he will stop making movies forever. 

You can see the poll by clicking here.

And you can see the counter (pro Boll) poll by clicking here.

I think this is the most offensive poll I've ever seen. It really saddens me that so many are so quick to judge and jump on the hate bandwagon, just because it's cool and everyone's doing it.

Does no one have a voice of their own these days? 

I believe that everyone is entitled to express themselves in any way they choose. If someone doesn't like a movie, then why not just ignore it instead of insulting the creator. I see lots of movies, shows, and games that I don't much care for. I'd never ask for the creator to never work in the industry again - that's just mindlessly offensive to me.

All these people who think it's funny to slag someone else off so openly sicken me. It represents the prevaling closed-mindedness of people everywhere. This is a road that can only lead to the death of creativity, where we must conform to certain acceptable stereotypes.

Twenty years ago a bad movie would have gained cult status as a B Movie. Nowadays, the only cries are for the director's blood.

The Stop Boll poll gained 200 votes in the time it took me to write this piece. That's 200 closed-minded people who have chosen to crush someone else's dreams.

I find it all very depressing.

It's official. Hollywood has run out of ideas. Facing a slump at the box office, the Hollywood top PR people are struggling to pull in the punters.

Is this the best they could come up with: Zombie Strippers

You decide. 

The new series of Doctor Who started last night and there was a much-needed comedic element added to the the new season, which isn't surprising as the new companion is award winning Catherine Tate. Tate was in fine form as Donna Noble and the episode raced in a blur of action and comedy. There were some genuinely shocking moments, a super cute (but gross monster) and some tantalising snippets of future stories slipped into various scenes, making this one of the best episodes yet.

I'm not going to say too much about it, but best bits:

• Donna's mime
• The Adipose - sooo cute! I know what I want for Christmas
• The return of... well, just watch for the first shocker of the season
• Sarah Lancashire as Miss Foster - fantastic 

Not so great stuff

• The story was particularly weak
• The background music seemed taken right out of Loony Tunes
• It ended.

Overall, a great start to the new series and a new dynamic with the firey Donna Noble as the new companion. The Davies-written storylines have been getting progressively weaker, but Tenant and Tate's energy more than carried the weak script. Add a phenomenal performance from Sarah Lancashire as the Supernanny from space and you've got the best opener since Rose. Next week's visit to Pompeii looks particularly exciting. Could this be the best season ever?

Time Travellers, nerds, and fanboys rejoice for season four of beloved Doctor Who is back on our screens today and we're more excited than a bunch of Sontarans in a potato factory*.

And this time what could be more exciting than a new companion? And not just a carbon clone of love-struck Rose Tyler but the fabulous scratchy personality of firebomb Donna Noble. Donna (Catherine Tate) looks set to bring a whole new aspect to Doctor Who with her normal person's view of the universe. I'd pay very good money to see her face up to the Daleks and say her immortal catch phrase "I am bovvered" when they threaten to exterminate.

I very much doubt we're going to see that side of Miss Tate any time soon, but we can hope. 

The new series has been touted as the biggest and most expensive yet, with the return of Rose Tyler, Captain Hack Harkness for the season finale. Also returning sans lusty thoughts for the Doctor is Martha who spends the latter half of the season in the TARDIS.

You can catch it at 6:20 on BBC1 tonight, or, if you're downloading a torrent (which most of you are), around 3 hours later.

*Very geeky joke for which I apologise, more for the fact that it probably wasn't funny than the fact that only 2% of readers will actually get it. 

Remember last year when I saw The Lord of the Rings musical in London, and I panned it to high heaven?

Well, I saw it again last night (against my better judgement) and lo and behold, to my surprise, it was actually really good. They've cleaned up much of the dialogue and changed a few bits here and there, the songs are better and some of the actors have been replaced. It seemed to flow much better and the whole thing just felt a lot more like The Lord of the Rings.

Overall, I'd give it a strong 7/10. Well worth seeing.

Of course, the show shuts down in just another few months, so if you were undecided about going to see it, get on down there before you've lost your chance forever. It is worth seeing, especially if you're a Tolkien fan.

It's just a shame it's taken them almost a year to sort the show out as word of mouth has all but been the ruin of this West End musical. 

It's exactly one short month to one of my movie picks of the year: Iron Man.

To whet your appetitie, here's a slew of new pictures for your visual delights.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=7012

Isn't it weird how a 'leaked' copy of the first episode of season one of BBC TV show Doctor Who found its way on to the web, yet no 'preview' copies of seasons two, three, or four have done the same?

I find it a bit odd how certain companies have these mysterious accidents. It's along the lines of Timberlake and Janet Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction' or accidentally 'leaving' a few too many bottles of beer in George Best's dressing room shortly before a TV show.

I guess we'll have to wait for Saturday to see the new series, which is eagerly awaited by just under 102% of the planet's population* 

* Official figure from the BBC.

It seems to get more popular with every year, the chance to create spoof emails or crazy messages designed to fool the, well, foolish.

I'll post more as I find them, but here are the best:

Google's Martian moon base: http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

World of Warcraft's Bard Class: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/bard/bardclass.xml 

Scarily Realistic Flying Penguins: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

The Sun reports on sex-enhancing G-Spot injection: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article983718.ece