Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! – (Cool) Shite game review
A video game series that focuses on movie trivia: it’s a (Cool) Shite reader’s wet dream.
Previously published by Microsoft on the Xbox 360 platform with titles Lights, Camera, Action and Box Office Smash, the Scene It? series has branched out to include the PS3 and Wii with Bright Lights! Big Screen! (like in most forms of media, we’re just plain ignoring the Twilight). With previous Xbox titles receiving rave reviews and being quite enjoyable, does this newest, multi-platform edition maintain the same level of quality?
Straight up? No. As to why, read on.
The good: The game’s core elements, essentially untouched, are perfect for movie buffs. Trivia questions — and lots of them – are presented in a variety of different puzzle blocks such as Movie Clips, Anagrams, Celebrity Ties, Pictograms, and Songs & Slogans. Boasting 3,000 unique questions, dealing with movies as recent as the schlockfest 2012, the title is pretty good at ensuring you won’t get bogged down with the same stale questions over and over again.

Bonus points for having up-to-the-minute content.
Fans of previous Scene It? titles know that the announcer gets very annoying, very fast. Bright Lights! Big Screen! is quite successful in reigning the host in. Additionally, previous titles are notoriously bad for loading screens and gaps between question blocks; these timings have also been greatly improved.
The meh: You know you’re dealing with a crap game when you single out a less-annoying host and improved load times as big wins. To be frank, all of the game’s attributes are executed lazily and all deserve to be in the ‘meh’ column. That wouldn’t make a very good (or size-appropriate) review, though, so on we go to…
The shite: The previous Scene It? title, Box Office Smash!, was a great Xbox 360 game. It was one of the first titles to support the new avatar system launched beside the console’s NXE program. A majority of the title’s fun came from the competition you could generate via its online multiplayer mode. The title, simply put, did what a trivia game AND a next-generation game should – made an enjoyable and varied game that used online features to keep it fresh.
This new title takes many backwards steps from what made the series great – in one fell swoop, avatar integration AND online multiplayer were removed. Choosing from one of the twelve pre-rendered avatars doesn’t draw you in like seeing your own crafted representation had in the past. Worse, you will get sick of the pre-rendered character’s sobs when you get a question wrong. Continually. Take my advice and turn the avatar sound off. Additionally, other absent aspects like online leaderboards would have served to at least maintain some sort of competitive aspect to the game.
The pre-rendered avatars. They suck.
The long and short of it? The game is okay, but not great – truly deserving of a “Meh” rating because of its multi-platform nature. If you have an Xbox 360, pick up Scene It? Box Office Smash! instead. If you’ve already played that previous game, just let this new one go – it’s shite. For those who haven’t experienced Scene It? on another platform, you might consider picking this up; it’s good only because you don’t have another choice.
End of November Xbox LIVE stats
Well, I did it! I managed to break 50,000 gamerscore on the very day that marked my one year anniversary on Xbox LIVE! Don’t believe me? Well, here’s a picture to prove it:

Good times.
Stevivor’s stats:
| Rep: | 5-Star |
| GamerScore: | 52,078 |
| Zone: | Pro |
| Completed XBLA: | 4 / 11 |
| Completed Retail: | 31 / 70 |
| GS Completion %: | 61% |
| Unique Achievements Unlocked: | 2,007 |
| Country Rank: | 543 |
| World Rank: | 30,806 |
| Completion Rank: | 15,172 |
100% completed games:
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Other goals:
- Reach 55,000 gamerscore by the end of December.
Mid-November Xbox stats
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What a fortnight for completions! Goodbye Halo 3 ODST, Fuzion Frenzy 2, and FIFA 06! Hopefully CSI: Hard Evidence, Fantastic Four, and/or GUN will be added to that list — thanks, EB Games, for some cheap pre-owned games (in terms of price AND gamerscore!)
If I can hit 50,000 gamerscore by 23 November 2009, I’ll be a happy man — that’s my one year Xbox LIVE anniversary. Not so much my one year Xbox anniversary, but the date that I first connected to the LIVE system to share my gamerscore with the world. It’s totally symbolic, eh?
Stevivor’s stats:
| Rep: | 5-Star |
| GamerScore: | 47458 |
| Zone: | Pro |
| Completed XBLA: | 4 / 11 |
| Completed Retail: | 29 / 66 |
| GS Completion %: | 60% |
| Unique Achievements Unlocked: | 1,832 |
| Country Rank: | 653 |
| World Rank: | 36,867 |
| Completion Rank: | 18,620 |
100% completed games:
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Other goals:
- Reach 55,000 gamerscore by the end of December.
Finn’s new shirt
Here’s Finn, modelling the latest in cool nephew fashion. What an amazing gift from the COOOOLEST Uncle in the world!

Finn’s new shirt reads:
Finn*
*Here’s the fine print. I’m Finn. I’m a cheeky monkey, my Mum’s a babe, and my Dad is totally rad.
Finn is getting SO big, and is always smiling! I can’t wait to meet the little guy!
October Xbox stats
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Only one more achievement to go in Halo 3 ODST!
Stevivor’s stats:
| Rep: | 5-Star |
| GamerScore: | 45263 |
| Zone: | Pro |
| Completed XBLA: | 4 / 11 |
| Completed Retail: | 26/ 63 |
| GS Completion %: | 60% |
| Unique Achievements Unlocked: | 1,754 |
| Country Rank: | 725 |
| World Rank: | 40,950 |
| Completion Rank: | 20,660 |
100% completed games:
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Goal games for 100% completion:
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Other goals:
- Reach 55,000 gamerscore by December.
Hockey Night in Melbourne!
Hey, Australians!
Anyone feel like coming along to Docklands tonight to watch some REAL hockey? Not this ‘field’ nonsense you’re all so keen on.
Details below; I’m particularly interested in the game in which the Detroit Red Wings will be SURE to pummel Vancouver:
Reminder that Hockey Night in Melbourne is returning tonight, Friday Oct 30 – Remember the change of venue!
One last minute notice is that due to unforeseen technical difficulties, we *may* not have the Leafs/Stars game as originally planned. If we can’t show it, we’ll show a different game from yesterday instead, probably either the Flames/Avs or the Habs/Pens game. If you know you are coming tonight and only wanted to see Leafs/Stars, I apologise if it can’t be done for you this time, but we’ll be sure to show more Leafs later to compensate.
Date: Friday, October 30th, 2009
Time: 7:00pm
Place: The James Squire Brewhouse, G16-17, 439 Docklands Drive, Docklands
Games: Planning to show Detroit vs Vancouver (from Oct 27) then Toronto vs Dallas (or possibly a substitute) (from Oct 28)
Note the change of venue, which has very easy parking and public transport. Directions can be found by going to http://tinyurl.com/jsbhmelb
Please spread the word far and wide! Send any interested parties to:
Web – http://hockey.suburbia.org.au
Facebook – http://tinyurl.com/hnmelb
Twitter – http://twitter.com/hnim



This week saw SAG reject a voice acting contract with major video game publishers (over 70 of ‘em, in fact) largely due to what’s been classified as “atmospheric” work.



















































