It ain’t no lie / baby BB Eye

By | May 25, 2013
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[So it doesn’t get lost in the melee, there’s a quiz runthrough happening on June 6th in London, they’re willing to pay £50, details here. Also we’re playing Pot Limit Omaha tomorrow night.]

The Big Brother eye was revealed a few days ago (fingers on the pulse, us). Here’s the picture we’ve nicked off of Digital Spy:

bbeye
It’s Emma Willis surrounded by loads of doors in the shape of an eye!

We probably won’t be covering Big Brother an awful lot (unless something very notable happens), so you’re well advised to have a look at BB Spy, which is the Bother’s Bar Big Brother fansite of choice. We just can’t commit to the amount of time BB requires of us these days, although we appreciate it as a production, and we’ll probably tune into Bit on the Side quite a lot (and we’re very pleased Willis will be staying on that).

However this year sounds actually rather more exciting than most because they’re subtitling the series Secrets and Lies and sounds like there’s going to be some quite interesting meta-gamage going on. The obvious suggestion is they’re going to be taking leaves out of Secret Story‘s book (Secret Story is an international BB variant), where everyone has a secret they have to defend whilst trying to work out the secrets of others. Whatsmore the house has plenty of secrets, usually with a big overarching puzzle with a prize being a direct trip to the final week. Obviously we love this sort of thing, but it is quite unusual for the UK production to directly borrow ideas from other countries without putting their own spin on it, more usual for everyone else to borrow our ideas, but this is a route we definitely like the idea of it going down.

An idea I idly had was one housemate being given something innocuous as an accessory to keep on them at all times that granted immunity for as long as nobody else in the house realised, but being given secret tasks that’d annoy the rest of the house with BB dripfeeding hints to the house if they didn’t perform.

If things like that happen we’ll be quite pleased. If things like “do this thing and we’ll reward you! Oh! We lied.” Is the overarching theme it will be rather more disappointing. Similarly prize fund twists can sod off.

No start date has been given yet, although the week 9th-15th of June is looking probable.

Quiz runthrough opportunity

By | May 24, 2013
2 Comments

Happy weekend!

Chocolatemedia are looking for contestants for a quiz runthrough on June 6th:

We’re looking for a range of contestants, male and female, to take part in a run-through, they don’t all need to be excellent quizzers but good all-round general knowledge will be helpful.

As the show is a pilot, it will not be broadcast on TV but each contributor will be paid £50.

They will need to be available from 10am to 6pm on Thursday 6th June but may not be required for the entire duration of the day.

And I think it would be safe to presume it would be in London. If that sounds interesting to you, send Louisa an e-mail ASAP.

Don’t forget we’re playing Pot Limit Omaha Hi in the penultimate round of Mix It Up Real Good on Sunday, feel free to join us for the lols if you’ve got no chance of winning the league, which you probably don’t.

New Catchphrase app out

By | May 23, 2013
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It’s out on iTunes and it costs 69p. I’m also reliably informed there’s an Android version that’s free to download but charges to unlock the full game. In-app purchases are available, but not necessary for fun.

catchpAnd it’s quite good fun! This is a solitaire reimagining of the show (although multiplayer is promised later). You get twenty “rounds” included, each one consisting of 12 catchphrases and a bonus catchphrase. We’ve played almost half of the rounds and haven’t come across a repeat yet. It also features the show’s new theme and some of the show’s think music.

In each round you stop the bouncing light going round a 3×4 Bonus Catchphrase grid and then you have to solve a Catchphrase to reveal the piece of puzzle underneath. The score is kept as coins, and the faster you answer the more coins you win (most are worth 25 plus a time bonus, but some lucky squares can earn you more). You get one guess at the Bonus Catchphrase for a substantial bonus that decreases with each square uncovered, you have to decide when you make that guess. With judicious use of hints you can go quite early.

The Catchphrases are rendered as 2D Flash-style animations and they’re bright and look good – crucially Mr Chips doesn’t look like a psycho in them. You’re told how many words are in the Catchphrase and you will get a grid of words to select from, and you tap the words to make the phrase. It works well, although it’s a shame the words aren’t in some sort of order – if you work something out in the last few seconds you have to desperately scramble to try and find them on the list. There is a hint system – you get five for free and one extra after every completed round, or you can buy them with actual real money, and using one highlights the next word in the phrase. The Catchphrases are of a decent to very good standard, albeit with an occasional one that you wish was a bit more directed and descriptive.

Coins are the game’s scorekeeping – you don’t buy things with them – and you can give it Facebook access for leaderboards and such like, although if you want to compare with just friends I haven’t found an option for that yet. In fact the leaderboards could do with a bit of work as they don’t seem to rank you anywhere unless you have somehow made it into a Top 10. You can’t redo a puzzle to get a higher score on it, which is fair.

Multiplayer and extra puzzles are promised – doubtless for a fee, but what you get for 69p is good value I reckon. I think it is more fun to play than the original Classic Catchphrase app.

If you’ve got an iThing, Welsh outfit Cube Interactive who made this also make the game for S4C kids show Y Lifft, which features several light-but-fun mini games in a stylish package, which you can also play along with on telly. It’s also free at time of writing, so have a look. And yes, you can play in English.

Hey! That new Channel 4 schedule starts today

By | May 20, 2013
27 Comments

We’ll just repeat what we accidentally wrote last week:

Also Channel 4′s shuffled afternoon line-up begins  next Monday (oops), 1001 Things… at 12:40, Four Rooms at 2:10, Countdown 3:10. Looks like a big upgrade for Countdown although I suspect that half hour won’t actually make a huge difference – 400-450k maybe? The interesting figure is the one that 1001 Things… gets, because we toyed with the idea of Countdown moving to lunchtime, so it will be interesting to see if it pulls any audience there.

Only Connect is on tonight as well, map lovers against people from Wales.

Edit: Oooh it’s too exciting, apparently Tipping Point begins new episodes today, to little fanfare. Thanks comments peeps.

IN OTHER NEWS: The new Fifty 50 Show is out, Lewis Murphy and David Howell chat about Eurovision and stuff.