I do not exactly recollect why I began watching Life on Mars; after not catching any of the episodes from the first series; against my law teacher's advice.

It was undoubtedly during my television faze, and somehow I actually managed to catch every single episode of the second series... not that 8 episodes is a lot mind you.

But this simple detail actually means that Life on Mars held my attention so much, that I wished to catch each episode, similar to the effect that Afterlife had on me, both shows having unfortunately come to an end.

The show is just so fun, perhaps even more fun than Doctor Who, which I find amazing seeing as if the show were simply billed as a 70s cop show, I'd stay well away from it!

So therefore it must be down to both the Max Payne-esque situation that Sam Tyler finds himself in (I must be associating the two together from most likely the dream sequences of Max Payne), and undoubtedly the Political Incorrectness of Gene Hunt, which just gives the show a nice breath of fresh air; that and a good laugh.

But without a doubt, I tell all you lovely people, that Life on Mars is possibly the best television show that I have seen in a while.
This is possibly based on the fact that I could laugh out loud at pretty every episode, and you're always left wondering whether Sam will make it back or not, as well as delivering an amazing story ever week; though I must admit, after going back and watching the first series, the second series did seem a tad weaker.

But I find it fairly strange; being set in the 1970's (not exactly a time period I enjoy in most aspects) which is why the unveiled sister show set in the 80s; Ashes to Ashes sounds so interesting, as this is a period in time I can get into, and it'll be nice to see how the 80's worked in terms of policing.

So, Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah I salute you for bringing a great gem of a show to our screens (even if it did take about 8 years for it to be shown from the point the idea was conceived) Not only did it mix cop drama with science fiction, but it also created an amazing bunch of characters.

Hands down my favourite television drama for this and possibly last year (if I had watched it, it definitely would have been)

Now I actually have two things to address in this post, but firstly I just wish to say;

I'm going to use an analogy here, and it's pretty double-sided, but much like the new Buffy serialisation, each episode of Sam & Max just keeps getting better and better! I kid you not, and yet I know that most people reading this, probably have not even played/read Sam & Max/Buffy so the question I have for you people is simple... what the hell are you doing?!?!?!

If you are a fan of video games, the newest Sam & Max should hopefully appeal to you by the bucket load!

There's some awesome references to Mario, Zelda, Tetris, Monkey Island and the good old text adventures of yore!
It's amazing fun, and I suggest that if you do not go and buy it right now, then at least buy the series when they are released at retail!!

Wasn't that just so cool??

Now, onto my next point, also Sam & Max related, but simply a random thought of my own.

Starting with episode 3's Ted.E.Bear theme song each and every sequential episode has also included a song; episode 4's amazing War Song, and now episode 5's C.O.P.S song, which is weird and annoyingly catchy!!

No don't get me wrong, I love the games, they're one of the best things to happen of recent, but the inclusion of songs seem really weird, it's sort of like something you'd expect of episodes of the Simpsons, or a Disney film.. generally games do not have musical numbers, which got me thinking, maybe some should ^_^ there was the great song of Curse of Monkey Island, and games such as Parappa and Um Jammer Lammy, but not many story-driven games featuring songs as the norm

Eveyone knows the memorable songs of old games and generally video game soundtracks are taken as seriously as in film... but perhaps more musical games should be made, because it's a common occurance in some everyday shows/films, anyway, not sure if anyone got any of what I just said but there we go! Put a musical number in your game, and you'll be paving the way forward!

Then again, perhaps musical numbers only have their place in adventure games, after all you couldn't exactly squeeze one into Gears of War could you?

April 19th-21st welcomes the Women In Games conference '07 to The University of Wales, Newport!

Boy, was it a buzz, and only succeeded in making me want to join the game industry even more!

Not only did this happen, but I also managed to see some really awesome papers; two of particular interest to me being Jacki Mori's on dress-up (being a new fan of cosplay) and Dr Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Justin Parsler on the motivations behind roleplaying and gender-bending in MMO's (being of particular interest playing as a guy in them, I'm 1 in 100!!!)

Not to mention Alice Taylor's BBC talk on how they are attempting to include games into what we get for our license fee money; a really interesting presentation, and also brought the attention of the genres that often get excluded from video games, namely;

Romance, Comedy, Character Drama; can't remember any others, sorry! It also got me thinking about how game developers should be exploiting the horror genre in an attempt to reel in female gamers; horror able to be (as Alice said) a very good seller to females, which is in fact true, knowing many fans of the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series, comprised of many females.

Also got to have a little chat with three representatives from Microsoft; Karen Wilkins-Mickey, Kelly Murrell (Lionhead) and Michelle Everitt(Rare) Which was awesome, particular Kelly Murrell(Lionhead) for remembering our faces from our previous week's testing.

Saturday brought about the absolutely awesome Raina Lee, who was just fabulous, and got to sign the copy of 1-up (her zine) that I bought from her, she was just so immensely cool, it is beyond description!

We also got to meet the most hailed (by me and catherine anyways) Aleks Krotoski (the coolest woman in gaming; having grown up watching her on TV); who wanted to meet the people that had made the biscuits (I'll get to them in a moment) I only wish we had had longer to talk to her, but she had to catch a train.. but there's always next year ^_^



Now here comes the awesome part, and a topic of much discussion at the conference (apparently).

My Game-Related

Gingerbread Biscuits(Nice with a hot drink)


I must admit it was a hard job, generally baking from 8ish to midnight, but I felt it was all worthwhile, perhaps I could have sold my self a little more, I'm not sure many people actually knew who had made them, my name in particular, but I suppose as soon as I find pictures on the internet of them (which some people said they would do) I can always ask them to credit me.

I thought that they wouldn't be very popular, with perhaps the registration desk munching on them throughout the day, but I've been complimented so many times on them its awesome. Not to mention the few suggestions that I should make them to sell, marketing to a small but sometimes obsessive -re: me- niche.

The only real downside to the biscuits, were gingerbread three days in a row did tend to get a bit samey, and the general hype of them cooled down, but prevail I shall, I'll have to give thoughts to the next game related baking that I can pursue... any thoughts or suggestions/requests, please do gimme a comment.

So from now on, I'll try to show off a bit of my stuff on here ^_^


I apologise for my lack on photos on the event, but I was a little tied up helping out.

I also realised that I forgot to wish Buffy a happy 10th Birthday on March 10th, so Happy Birthday to the amazing series!