Charlie Brooker's GamesWipe - UPDATE: Interview about show!

[spadgy]

So - GamesWipe - a UK TV show by brilliant/arrogant/cockish/hilarious/cutting UK journalist Charlie Brooker is on now.

He's covered shooters (even used the word 'shmups', mentioned Parodius and Perfect Cherry Blossom) and called the remaining fanbase 'masochistic maniacs. Excellent!

The show's pretty great so far, for a mainstream TV show about games.

Who else saw it? What do you think? Fuckin' funny at times too...


EDIT:Here's part one of the interview my workmate Ben did with Charlie Brooker just after GamesWipe was aired. It was done for MCV magazine (sister-publication to the mag I work at).

And here's part two.

And finally here's part three

The show's return (or possible lack of) is covered...

[Skykid]

What channel was this on, can i see it online?

[msm]

yeah, bbc4, just finished watching it on iplayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n1j8q

pretty good for a tv show about games

[E. Randy Dupre]

When he's on form - which is pretty much everything outside of the Nathan Barley TV series - Brooker's great. There's virtually no chance of this ever getting green-lit as a full series - if that was even ever the intention - but it's a fairly good indication of how entertaining such a show could be.

Smart choice of contributors, too.

[mr_m0nks]

Fantastic show

[Zeether]

Loved the show. The fact that they used the MSX version of Parodius was genius, and they even showed Jeff Minter's Hover Bovver in one bit!

[dcharlie]

Brooker is great and it's great to see his take on gaming.

he seems to hit every game i care about so far too , nice to see Knightlore, 3d monster maze etc on tv.

amazing stuff.

[Taylor]

Nothing but love for Brooker, I think I've posted his stuff here before. He used to be a games journalist and snuck lots of (actually relevant) games references into his other shows.

[DJ Incompetent]

They lock this out internationally. Anybody kind enough to direct me to somethin' unrestricted?

[spadgy]

He did indeed used to be a games journo . He also used to work in a second hand games store. I me him once at a games press event, and I was expecting him to perhaps be a bit of a cock, but I must say he was really friendly, and listened with interest as well as talking a lot.

I thought that for a mainstream show on a mainstream channel clearly aimed at a very wide, every-man audience, the show was great. While there might not have been much for us lot to learn, considering it was made as a guide/introduction/history of games, it did a great job of delivering an informed, funny, hardcore gamer's perspective to the masses, without patronising and with passion. It countered much of the misrepresentation of games and games without forgetting that there's a lot of bad games out thereand a lot of cringeworthy gamers (me and some of you included no doubt!).

Zero Wing got a look in, and the clip at the end from an old 80s technology TV Show (perhaps Tomorrow's World?) featured a great line along the lines of 'And there really are some very good games out there, hidden behind hundreds of very boring shoot 'em-ups'. Our genre for the win! To be honest, in the UK, in the early 80's it was probably dead true.

Mr Brooker is possibly writing an article on games for the mag I write at. If that's true I'll be sure to post it here.

As for viewing the show outside the UK? I don't know. Anybody?

[Magic Knight]

You need a proxy server to watch outside of the UK basically. I was able to watch it here in Japan that way, but I had to download it first (as it was too slow at streaming). I had to connect to the proxy to start downloading, I could then disconnect to get faster speeds, and then I had to reconnect to watch it.

[dcharlie]

They lock this out internationally. Anybody kind enough to direct me to somethin' unrestricted?

part 1 starts here, all 6 parts under same user :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjFiTd2nmI4

[JAPJAC]

I really enjoyed every second, loved the opening titles especially.

It's always a pleasure hearing Jet Set Willy being talked about (it wasn't his Wife though mate, it was his maid) and other things from donkeys ago. I had hoped to see some First Class footage which is my holy grail but they didn't. How I long to see it again.

I learnt about these new modern Western 'action' games and how shite and dull they seem as I suspected. Other people agreeing is a TV first, which was the most refreshing aspect of the whole programme.

Also enjoyable from BBC4 was Electric Dreams - 1970's. An awful Family (the Father is a penis) nearly ruins it but incredibly well done and nostalgic (TV Pong, Choppers, SodaStream etc). Next week is in the 1980's and they get out the old BBC Micro, Sinclair C5 and Game Watch from the looks of the trailer. Should be good.

Cheers.

[spadgy]

I saw that too. He is a bit of a penis, but he's not too unpleasant. I liked it when he was proud of his son for sneaking off on the chopper...

[JAPJAC]

True. Even his Wife thinks he`s a penis though; "It wasn`t that funny." She said. He must be a right penis though to of selected her as a Wife, awful.

[Rupert H]

He also used to work in a second hand games store.

My second hand game store.

[spadgy]

He also used to work in a second hand games store.

My second hand game store.

I thought it was CEX, but I wasn't sure if I'd made that up!

[Rupert H]

Yeah, although I didn't actually work with him I have some outrageously funny stories, but none that I would divulge on a public forum.

[E. Randy Dupre]

I thought that for a mainstream show on a mainstream channel...

Heh, BBC Four is anything but mainstream.

[spadgy]

I thought that for a mainstream show on a mainstream channel...

Heh, BBC Four is anything but mainstream.

You think so? In the end it's a BBC channel, and barely obscure and niche. Still, you're right in a way I guess - it's not BBC1, CNN or ITV.

[E. Randy Dupre]

The Wikipedia page has a BARB chart showing a high of 0.7% of the viewing population. It's pretty niche, despite being a BBC channel - I think I'm right in saying that even the ITV digital channels average higher ratings, and all they seem to show are repeats of repeats of repeats of things from ITV1 and the same three or four movies in rotation.

[thegreathopper]

It's on again today at 11.20 pm I have just set the recorder.

[spadgy]

The Wikipedia page has a BARB chart showing a high of 0.7% of the viewing population. It's pretty niche, despite being a BBC channel - I think I'm right in saying that even the ITV digital channels average higher ratings, and all they seem to show are repeats of repeats of repeats of things from ITV1 and the same three or four movies in rotation.

Yeah - you're right. I guess when I was addressing mainstream I confusing the issue a little, but I meant to the fact that the show was for a mainstream/general/every-man audience rather than hardcore gamers.

[mr_m0nks]

I thought Dara's comments about games being the only media type that restricts content was an interesting point. It could come down to the argument over whether games are too easy/hard but I still think he had a point.

[Skykid]

He also used to work in a second hand games store.

My second hand game store.

I thought it was CEX, but I wasn't sure if I'd made that up!

When did he work there, must have been before I was doing my stint?

[Klatrymadon]

I thought it was great, aye. Graham Linehan was an especially good contributor.

"I don't want to play you; you're an idiot."

[oli_lar]

The Wikipedia page has a BARB chart showing a high of 0.7% of the viewing population. It's pretty niche, despite being a BBC channel - I think I'm right in saying that even the ITV digital channels average higher ratings, and all they seem to show are repeats of repeats of repeats of things from ITV1 and the same three or four movies in rotation.

Thats because ITV show shit TV, and the majority of people in the UK seem to like shit tv. I read somewhere that this show was the most watched piece of Charlie Brooker tv and its in the top three things watched on iplayer. Also if you've seen the episode of Screenwipe that deals with ratings you'll see ratings are a pretty shit indicator.

Anyway I thought the show was good yeah, brilliant to see stuff like that covered on TV. He was funny as usual, though I did think the Wolfenstein and fiddy cent reviews went on too long.

[neist]

Got around to watching this today.

Very entertaining stuff. Hope the rest of the leak into the interwebs one way or another, as they are region locked.

[system11]

Not bad actually.

[Rupert H]

A bit before both of our times, Tom. It was in the late nineties and as I recall, he ended up in Harrow.