When the dog bites, when the bee stings, I simply remember my favourite things. And recently, many of them have been joining together, presumably for extra “not feeling so bad” goodness. BioWare are making an iPhone Mass Effect game. Gillian Anderson might be appearing in Doctor Who.¹ There’s a Tom Baker style costume available in Rock Band. The Cosmic Machine have made EventBox, which combines Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader and a few other things.

Also, the combination of me and a lack of swine flu is particularly gratifying.

1. Although, she’s rumoured to be the Rani; perhaps the most sucky returning villain in Doctor Who history. ↩

Coming from ‘band mode’ in Guitar Hero World Tour to Rock Band is like trading your ASUS Eee PC for a MacBook Air. Let me count the ways. Spoiler alert: there are five.

1. The band you are in does not change depending on the band leader. You have a specific band which you choose from a list.

2. Being in a band is more meaningful than some different words on banners in the animated backdrops. You have fans, you have vehicles, you earn your money together, you unlock things specific to your band.

3. Downloaded songs turn up while you’re playing sets in band mode (and probably, solo mode, I just can’t verify that yet). Compare and contrast to the Guitar Hero World Tour method, where they languish in the background, only available in custom sets.

4. The interface: it’s prettier, which is subjective, and faster, which is not. Much quicker load times and such.

5. The songs. This is key really. There’s a far better selection of music. I guess this is subjective too, but let’s put it simply: Rock Band has Radiohead and GHWT does not. Or, if we compare band-specific releases, Rock Band has the fricking Beatles and Guitar Hero has Aerosmith.

And now, one way in which Guitar Hero World Tour kicks Rock Band‘s arse:

1. Hitting the hi-hat and cymbal at the same time is a more satisfying way to activate star-energy-power-thing than waiting for specific phrases to turn up.