Three things British Comedy Sitcoms can learn

British Situational comedies have evolved over the years but many at the moment just do not hit the mark. This is down to three elements that comedy writers and producers need to take note of if sitcoms are to continue to be a part of our televisual comedy future.

First of all, canned laughter, or even live audience laughter. This one worked well and helped to heighten the humour in many classic British comedies, as well as American ones, but these days comedies don’t suit this extra layer of audio and just distracts from the humour and atmosphere of the comedy. Maybe it’s to hide the lack of humour, like in Mrs Brown’s Boys. Even American sitcoms are guilty of laughter noise crimes. Big Bang Theory, though popular, I can’t concentrate because of the ear-piercing laughter that torpedo’s into your hearing. I don’t care if it’s been filmed in front of a live audience, I’m purposely watching at home because I don’t want to hear a live audience!

The second Sitcom no-no is trying to stretch a comedy over an hour instead of half an hour, across never ending amounts of series being produced. The possible biggest sitcom of our time (or indeed any) is Benidorm. The first couple of series were amusing enough, with half hour episodes poking fun at cheap and cheerful holiday resorts and the types of people that frequent them on an annual basis, but then they got greedy and tried to make more and more series with hour-long episodes, but without adding half an hour worth of jokes. In fact, with each series comes less and less jokes, to the point that the latest series contains no joke at all!

The third and final misconception is that a concept people can relate to is always funny, because it is not. Some can be, I can relate to Friday Night Dinner, which has me on stitches (though those who can’t relate don’t find it funny at all), but others are just plain wrong. PhoneShop is a prime example of this. Yes, many of us has been into a phone shop before, or had worked in retail. Some of us may even have been unfortunate enough to have worked in a Phone Shop. But unless you can put some sort of funny spin on things, or introduce interesting and charismatic people. PhoneShop does none of this. No joke, dull characters. Why bother even making a comedy with no comedy value?

The hope is that British Comedy sitcoms evolve for the best and discards the bad habits picked up from unfunny and ill-conceived comedy programmes. Only time will tell!

Game of Thrones: Genesis

Well, after spending half my afternoon trying to get the game to run to an ok level (be very careful with graphics level, screen res, and frame rate in the games Options menu), I started the campaign to play through the first few levels. Suffice to say, I was not impressed. The game doesn’t feel very fluid and is more linear than you would expect from an RTS.

 Probably the most disappointing aspect of this game, being a big fan of the ‘A Song Of Ice and Fire’ series, is the sheer lack of depth involved with the game. When I first heard about its production, the concept sounded promising, with battles, sabotage, alliances, underhand methods, interesting characters, etc. but instead, all you get are ‘bastard son’ and ‘lord’ and what-not. You really don’t feel like you have your own kingdom, just a boring, basic castle that you have very little control over and alliances with villages (which means not a lot in this game, yet at the same time is the whole aim too).

 I even tried going straight to the versus mode, where you can have all the different Houses of Westeros battling it out. What an utter waste of time. You can only go to parts of Westeros where there is something to do (such as a village or a gold mine to form an alliance with (and how does someone actually form an Alliance with a gold mine or an abandoned tower anyway!)) and this really makes the game as Linear as can be. Not only that, but the game was all but over before I got to do anything interesting, making playing time much shorter than you would like. No epic story here, just dull generic things happening.  

 If you are considering buying this game, save your money and read the books again. Hopefully a decent RTS game for ‘A Song Of Ice and Fire’ will come out in another 15 years time.

Fifa 12: Just another update?

I’ve been looking at whether I can justify spending another £37 on another Fifa, when I have an awesome Fifa game (Fifa 11) already. I only traded in Fifa 10 a few weeks ago! Well, i’ve been checking out the new features, and this is what i’ve found out:

– Manager mode is looking pretty awesome. A lot more in-depth that previous versions and (almost) feels like a Football Manager from a few years ago. Whether this is the case, only time can tell, but does make you wanna buy the game to try it out!

– Collision mode, which is supposed-to see real-life collisions resulting in real-life injuries. Can’t say this is the most exciting addition to a Fifa game, but they have been working on the engine for this the past couple of years, so might be good. Have already watched an episode of Playr taking the mickey out of some serious fails with the Collision system, which is from the demo…

– Ah, the demo. I have tried the demo, which allows you to see some of the new additions to the controls. The fact I wanted to carry on playing the demo game after game definately helped make up my mind.

– Finally, a big draw (as always) with any new Fifa game, is the updated Team rosters (oh, I sound American). When you support teams like Portsmouth & Arsenal, having the most up-to-date players on the team can make a big impact on how you play the game. This is definately a draw.

So in conclusion, will I buy the new Fifa? Answer is, I am. Pre-ordered from Shopto.net (because I know the game will be delivered on the day of the release & best price I could find). Game on!

Game of Thrones: Genesis ?

This game sounds like it has the potential to be amazing, though you can tell that the gaming world has had it’s fair share of let-downs in the past, which I feel is heavily affecting this games popularity before anyone has even played it. Shame.

Although this game is released later this month, Amazon has already marked the price down to £17 (which I am taking full advantage of 😉 ). I even looked on some ‘ A Song Of Ice and Fire ‘ forums and the fans are grumbling about how the game looks rubbish and dated. I’ve seen the screenshots and the game looks rather good to myself. I also like the concept of the game, whereby not just war but politics and diplomacy play an equal role. A good twist on the RTS genre me thinks. We’ll have to wait and see how the game finally unfolds later in the month. Winter is coming! Wear a coat 🙂

Book update: Things are looking up for Dupont

Almost finished Chapter 5. Chapter 4 will remain unwritten until I go to France (as Dupont, one of the main characters, shall be taking a similar route to myself). Chapter 5 sees Dupont (the Chef with the skills but the incorrect palette) actually winning a competition, though how he wins, you will have to read the book… when its published… which will be when I finish writing the thing 🙂

Writing a book can be relatively easy if you have the drive and a good story floating around in your head, waiting to get out into the world. This time next month i’ll probably be moaning about how hard it is, so i’m making the most of it!

Little Big Planet 2

 One game that me and the missus always go back to, irrespective of mood or time of the day, is the legendary Little Big Planet 2. If you do not own this game (and you own a Playstation 3) you should buy it. We found it for £15 preowned from Gamestation. Niiiice.

  Though I haven’t had the time to actually create my own level yet, I have enjoyed watching all 50+ Tutorial levels, narrated by the forever legendary Stephen Fry. Trying out some of the 100,000,000 or so user-created levels does give a lot of inspiration, so I will have to find the time between writing my new book, to try creating my own level. Perhaps I should create a Jedward -inspired level. Could you imagine how utterly insane that would turn out?!

 Yes, LBP2 isn’t a brand-new game, and yes it’s very similar to the first, but this game is brilliant to play with others. Just be wary of annoying people who drop into your game when you’re trying to collect items. Grrr.