Julius

What a beautiful team counterattack. France are just not at it today, they've had none of their big players on the ball, Dembele has been woeful, Griezmann and Tchouameni have barely touched the ball, Mbappé has been quiet other than that attempt of his to run into the box and getting blocked out. That virus going around the camp is going to get a hell of a lot of coverage after this game, that's for sure. Mbappé looked pale as a ghost when the teams broke off after the anthems. Incredible stuff. Up until now it's been all Argentina, can't remember an opening 35 minutes of a WC final that I've watched being so one-sided. Argentina need another to kill this game off I think and then they can start to slow things down.

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Great pen. (please score a few more because I don't want a Netherlands repeat please and thank you) So obvious Di Maria was looking for a pen when he started darting into the box instead of crossing it, Dembele didn't know any better. Lack of big game maturity from him. I agree that it's super soft to give and harsh to receive, but the ref giving it and VAR needing something clear and obvious to go against it always made it one they'd need to stick with. Let's just say it's recompense for the mess that was the refereeing/VAR in that 2018 final EDIT: also, Messi first player to score in R16, QF, SF and Final at a World Cup is a nuts statistic.

In which case: Messi's still incredible, plus he's two years younger than Ronaldo, so I don't think he needs to retire just yet. Enjoy it while it lasts I say! Ronaldo after showing his true colours this last month or so though? Yeah, maybe do think he's staining his career a bit with how he's been going about things lately

Bunch of CR7 stans... Anyways, really edgy first 10 minutes. It's early but France look shaky and Argentina look like they want it a bit too much.

Ah, I see how it is. *adds to ignore list*

Think it's obvious who I'm supporting for this one. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼

It's beautiful! Think the last few months have seen a surprising amount of what I want to be remastered officially be announced (like Suikoden!), a good end to a weird year! Out of curiosity, did anyone here actually manage to secure the standard edition from the UK store when they went up? I've looked around and I'm seeing a lot about successful pre-orders for the US and EU stores, but not the UK. I ask because I was on pretty soon after they went up, with the only way to get the page up for the standard edition via the site itself was by going to the Collector's Edition page and then changing the edition, and they were already listed 'No longer available'. I'm wondering if they've managed to goof up the standard edition pre-orders on the UK side, because Gilgamesh knows they've done it before (I remember the VII Remake OST CE being listed as sold out on the UK store for a few days before it could be pre-ordered a couple of years ago). Worst case I'll just wait for someone to throw it on eBay, but the fact that it's not on eBay yet does give me a little more hope I've got to say, I do find the way S-E have handled this a little odd, though: very little fanfare for what should be a premier collection (and with a CE too, and despite TGAs being a prime opportunity to announce this just over a week ago), especially considering the notice they gave for XVI's CE (which is also hysterically priced). Can't help but wonder if some changes to plans this quarter, like Forspoken slipping into next year and only really having a collection of smaller titles, made this Q4 look a little rough for them, hence throwing these out haphazardly before the year ends? It's the only reason I can think of that might explain such a strange approach. The other being that this is S-E...so, uh, S-E gotta S-E

One of the best individual performances of the tournament by Messi against Croatia tonight, turned Gvardiol inside and out for that final goal tonight. For anyone interested in stats, he's now the joint top scorer (with Mbappé on 5) and assists leader (3) at this World Cup, and in the final he'll be the player with the outright most appearances at World Cup finals (will be his 26th appearance, compared to Lothar Matthaus' 25). Oh, and with 19 G+A at World Cup finals, he's also now the all-time joint top goal contributor with Ronaldo (El Fenomeno) and Miroslav Klose. And he's the player with the most goals at World Cup finals for Argentina, too, after tonight. Really hope he can go all the way and lead them to a World Cup win on Sunday, would cap off a brilliant career and be more than deserved. For me it's never been a question about who is the best that I've watched. Also, can I just once again voice my discontent with ITV's coverage, saying if you've watched Messi the last season and a half at PSG you'll be shocked by his performances at this WC? Like...what? Last season was objectively poor by his standards, but long COVID coupled with an unplanned family upheaval and move out from Barcelona, and how many times has he hit the woodwork since joining PSG? And that's just trying to fairly talk about last season, since the start of this season with PSG he's been on fire! According to them, 24 G+A (12+14) in 19 appearances is him being completely missing? Are they serious? /rant over Anyways, looking forward to seeing how tomorrow turns out. It has to be France that comes away with the win...right?

Let's freaking Mosey ¡¡¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

What's this, Julius posting in the songs thread? Is he lost? Nope I've fallen in love with songs (normally I'm just listening to OSTs from games and films, or stuff from my childhood) in a way I haven't since I was about 10 years old while I've been gone, making time to listen to something new every weekend while I clean my apartment, and as posted elsewhere, occasionally dancing around like a mad man Anyways, I'll mention some artists I've got into/returned to, and which of their songs I've been hooked on Keane Okay, so Keane might be an exception on this list in that I've listened to them before, but I had their 2012 album Strangeland on repeat so much that they become my top Spotify artist for the year based on the last 3 months or so. Disconnected, In Your Own Time, and Day Will Come are my favourites from this album, hits a lot of personal beats for me and just sound great. Manic Street Preachers My new favourite band? Quite possibly. Had (It's Not War) Just the End of Love stumble onto an album radio and it's an incredible song (with an awesome music video!) which I had on repeat for a week before diving into probably their two biggest albums, first 2007's Send Away The Tigers (did someone say bangers only?) and then 1996's Everything Must Go (not as consistent for me but still some standout songs). From the former, I could probably list every song as a favourite in some way, but if I had to choose one? It'd be Your Love Alone is Not Enough, Nina Persson's (of The Cardigans) voice is absolute dynamite: And from the latter, it'd be the title which shares its name with the album, Everything Must Go, followed very closely by A Design For Life and Enola / Alone. I just love the use of strings in the chorus, just...hnnnnnnnng my ears can't get enough Laufey This probably looks a little out of place here, but I've followed Laufey on YouTube for over a year now, and finally got listening to her first album, Everything I Know About Love, over the last month or so. She's a 23 year-old Chinese-Icelandic singer with a background steeped in classical music (which sneaks in a lot in her tracks, which obviously I loooooove) and a voice as smooth and rich as Ella Fitzgerald, which is to say she's an atom bomb for anyone who's ever been a romantic (which I imagine is most). My favourites of the bunch are probably Dear Soulmate and Everything I Know About Love (especially for that classical opening set-up haha), but honestly, I don't think she's got a single bad song? Which is, uh, saying a lot! Also, her rendition of The Christmas Waltz should be in everyone's Christmas playlist this year as far as I'm concerned. Oh and Let You Break My Heart Again is probably a great gateway drug into her stuff: Her acoustic versions of her songs on her YouTube channel are honestly probably my favourites (hope they get included in an album at some point!), especially when she gives a little background to the song: Yes, I'm a big, giant, romantic softie at heart. And I vibe with this. So, kindly: bite me Will Wood Another change of pace, Will Wood basically delivers explicit songs which belong either in a theatre or a Disney movie, I can't really decide which at this point. My favourite songs of his so far are probably Against The Kitchen Floor (the lyrics are hilarious and when it goes off, it GOES OFF) followed by 2econd 2ight 2eer (that was fun, goodbye.). Dude's got a bomb of a voice and some of the funniest, jazziest solos in his songs, and yeah, it's fun as hell to dance along. As made evident here: There are a couple of others I'll just quickly reel off: Sea Girls The only upside to FIFA 23 (and every FIFA) is it's music. The Wombats Used to love them growing up, and in my opinion have probably one of the most underplayed Christmas songs, and getting back into them now. Still love their sound. Two Door Cinema Club Similar to The Wombats, grew up on some of their music, and loooooove Wonderful Life. Aaaaaaaand I guess that's me caught up? But I'm sure I'll be behind again in about a week

Damn, what a boring World Cup... ...said absolutely no-one. Screw Qatar to Mars and back, but it's been one hell of a tournament so far. Gutted for Brazil on Friday against Croatia (could just tell from Marquinhos taking the deciding pen what was about to happen, the whole thing gave me the same vibes as Schweini against us at the Allianz for the 2012 UCL final; a cool, calm professional who normally isn't overwhelmed slamming the ball against the post). The Croats are penalty merchants, and frustrating as that is, I respect the hell out of them for it. Argentina against the Netherlands was something else. I've wanted Argentina to win it since before the tournament started (nothing personal against this England team, but many are young and will hit their peak in time for 2026), so seeing the Oranje pull it back so late on (LVG ditching Total Football for longball and long-legged players had me howling btw) had me screaming my apartment down when penalties rolled around and Messi and Martinez (both of 'em) pulled off what they did. Considering I've been mistaken for Argentinean before...I will now consider myself an honorary Argentine for the rest of the tournament Didn't see Morocco pulling off what they did against Portugal, but fair play to them. Shows you just how important a clear and solid system and playing style is in knockout football, great stuff for African football, would love to see them break French hearts in the semifinals (...and totally not because I think that gives Argentina a much better chance of winning the lot, no that's definitely not it). The England game last night...gah. We were by far the better team but there simply weren't enough clearcut chances created and, more importantly, taken. The French were barely in the match! But that's exactly what makes them so dangerous, they had half chances at best and they took them, and that's what differentiates them from, well, us QF bottom feeders I guess. Anyways, looking forward to seeing what else this tournament has in store for us. But still: screw Qatar.

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for the well wishes, I've returned to this thread a number of times since I last signed out to remind myself that I've got people pulling for me, and it's got me through some tough mornings It's been nearly three months (!) since I posted, and I'm going to be 10 sessions deep into therapy come this Thursday. While there's still a long way to go, I can genuinely say my mental health has come on leaps and bounds over the last two and a half months. There are still bad days, I still feel a bit at odds with myself at times, but my self-esteem and perspective has slowly returned/grown, and I've come to accept that while it will take time to get where I want to get, it's about the direction, not the destination. And I'm happy with my direction right now and over these last few months. Think it helps a lot that I lost ~13kg from the end of August to the end of November, and while I've still got a bit to go with losing weight, I've put on a bit of size for the first time in years and generally feel, well, much better than before. Lately, I've been so happy and at peace that I've found myself blasting music and just dancing around my apartment like a mad man (which reminds me, I need to post in the music thread for a change!) – for those that don't know, this is nothing like me, and I didn't even realise until a good week or so after, when I just laughed about it to myself. Feeling better and more like myself has come with a bit of a melancholic downside where I can so starkly see the contrast between my mental health when I'm tired or anxious and when I'm not, so tying down a sleeping routine is up next on my agenda. Had a very rough weekend just, but went for a long walk in the cold this evening and feel okay, which continues to shock me. Anyways, I don't know what this means for me posting regularly on N-E, I think for now I'll just dip my toes in and out and play it by ear from there based on my mood, but I struggle to see myself posting as much as I once did (which could always change!). Games have kind of slipped onto the back burner for me (well apart from Ragnarök, which was fantastic!) and I feel a bit out of the loop on news for a change, but the break has definitely given me a bit of perspective on how I want to approach my time with this place. Thanks again for your support N-E, it's good to be back, even if just for a bit

Fantastic trailer – gah, the music! The summons (again)! The hype! Roll on June I say

Hey N-E, This is something I've been going back and forth in my head over for a few months now, and while I'll get into it more below, the short and long of it is that I'm going to be taking a break from posting on and visiting the forums for a while due to my mental health. I'm not sure if it'll be a month, or two, or six, or longer. This didn't really feel like it belonged in the good, or bad, or neutral stuff threads, and the main reason I wanted to say something about taking a break is because I feel like I post regularly enough that just stopping out of the blue might be cause for concern, and I didn't want anyone worrying for my wellbeing, just based on some comments I've made in the past on here about my mental health not exactly being up to snuff. The reason that I've decided to take that step now is because I've been off work for the last month - one week of that as planned annual leave, though I spent the entirety of that week stuck in bed - initially due to episodes of vertigo, extreme levels of fatigue, and a few other symptoms. I do a lot of self-reflection and introspection, but looking back at the last few months as I've been able to with no distractions due to being cooped up in bed the last few weeks, I've realised that, deep down, I'm quite plainly not happy - I normally get down while I'm sick due to the sheer fact that I am sick, and it annoys me because I'm at a stage where I hate being sick with a passion, just because of what I've gone through over the last few years with being sick pretty incessantly. There's been a lot of middle-of-the-night outbursts of crying while I just stare out of the window, or sit up on my bed in a dark room. In hindsight, for the last six months or so I think I've had every tell-tale sign of stress, or burnout, or however you want to label it, ranging from a burning scalp and shedding way more hair than usual (no family history of balding) to an eczema breakout basically looking like it has aged the skin on one of my fingers by some 50 years, to eating unhealthily and binge-eating to not eating at all and putting on a load of weight in a pretty small period of time (overweight for the first time in my life and a bunch of stretch marks can attest to the fact that my body wasn't built for this weight, though I can make peace with stretch marks as I still have a bunch from when I started working out in high school), to nearly collapsing a few times due to sheer exhaustion, to brain fog, to struggling to sleep and struggling to wake up, and so on. I think I've got out less this year than I did in 2020. On top of all this, my work life simply sucks these days - and that's all I'll say about that part of my life I think. And financially, while coping, out two-person apartment energy bills have gone from £60 to nearly £300 per month and apparently I'm £1000 in debt (yeah...I'm not going to be taking that lying down) due to some botched job at my energy provider. I have blood tests tomorrow and an eye test on Sunday to confirm that everything is as it should be, but reflecting on the last 5 or 6 years of my life and all of my previous illnesses, I think while maybe I could turn up deficient somewhere (because of eating inconsistently/binge-eating), I'm not remotely scared that it's something more serious, in terms of being a life-threatening X or Y (mental health is, of course, very serious). I'd kind of love for it to be, just because then I'd have answers, but I don't think that will be the case. I think it's most likely going to be mental. Yesterday I placed a phone call that I've been putting off the last couple of years, which was to get the ball rolling on therapy. It was long overdue. And it was kind of heartbreaking, even just for an initial assessment, to explain some of the stuff I went through as a kid, whether it was with my family, or a particular friend in high school, or a bunch of other events, to a complete stranger over the phone. It got even more heartbreaking when, even after all of my introspection and reflection, a bunch of questions basically asking how often I find myself feeling down turned into "yeah, that's how I feel pretty much all the time...and I have done for years. I can't remember the last time I didn't feel like that." Again, to reiterate: I don't self-harm, I won't start to; I haven't planned to do anything stupid and will continue not to, and I have my own personal reasons for having such a strong stance on this. I went through something with someone growing up which gave me a deep resolve that I could never seriously consider suicide as an option. I could never even remotely consider putting someone through what I went through at that age. I'm not looking forward to tackling all of that with someone, to be honest - but I know I need to. I was referred to see a clinical psychologist, and today I've started reaching out to some of their recommended practitioners in my local area. I'm scared, to be honest, but I feel like I'm already on my way to getting to the root of my issues from years of reflection on a lot of these events and my thoughts on them - but I need direction to dig deeper, ask harder questions, and learn how to manage things from here. I think it's going to be a struggle, but I've got to try to wrestle back some level of control over my life. Which brings me onto taking a break from N-E: to be honest, I've struggled more and more as the year has gone on to post here, and when I have, looking back, I think it's mostly come from a place of trying to distract myself from everything that's been going on around me; same goes for how I've been treating games and other forms of escapism. I don't think I've even posted in this year's Gaming Diary thread, which is crazy, because it's a thread I normally love to write longer pieces for. The last couple of months I've been trying my best to step back and not rush to post something first - a habit I have definitely found myself getting into; this obviously isn't a fault of N-E's, but rather just shows what my relationship with this place has become, and it doesn't feel healthy to me deep down when I scramble to put up a thread. For the same reason, I'm even trying to delay gratification wherever I can elsewhere - even though I'm signed off from work I still haven't watched Andor, and probably won't until the weekend. It's going to be a bunch of small steps. While I'm definitely going to miss talking about games and everything else I talk about on here with you all, I think the best step for me right now is to focus as much as I can on my own path, and just putting one foot in front of the other until it becomes normal again. I have weight to lose, my mental health to improve, and just generally need to find a way to at least be more content, if not a bit happier, with my life. And I simply have no idea how long that's going to take. So, until next time, whenever that is, N-E - it's been a pleasure, and take care of yourselves while I'm gone!

Was watching Dunkey's Nintendo Direct vs Sony Direct video, got to Bayonetta 3, and he played Riders of the Light... ...and now I need to play Bayonetta. I already knew SEGA's Sound Team generally went hard, but damn, that's one hell of a track!

In a shocking turn of events that no-one could have predicted, RADWIMPS will be in charge of the soundtrack for Makoto Shinkai's next film, Suzuke no Tojimari. In other news, water is wet

Just imagine

The trend of job listing announcements and underwhelming blog entries for huge projects continues. From EA's news section: Such an interesting time for the industry when it's a constant toss of the (three-sided?) coin on whether a game is announced closer to launch, gets a CGI trailer years out, or is shuffled onto a blog down some back alley. I'm definitely surprised in this case, just considering the property involved, and maybe even more so considering D23 was just a couple of weeks ago! See you in 2025 or 2026

As is tradition: GameXplain's mega-analysis for Tears of the Kingdom comes in at nearly 50 minutes long! Takes me back to the simpler times of watching their old BOTW (Zelda for NX!) trailer and gameplay breakdowns Short answer: no Longer answer:

Not related to the eShop, but related to the winding down of services for both consoles: Image Share will be discontinued as of 25th October 2022.

Yeah, I think you're right about that. Also, with the detachable disc drive either being bundled in or sold separately, I think that in light of the recent pricing changes for both the Digital and Disc Editions of the PS5 as a result of the current economic climate, this is a great opportunity to give people the push to buy the console at a Digital Edition price of £389.99 rather than the Disc Edition at £479.99, and then at some time down the road, leave it up to them to pick up the detachable disc drive. And if they never pick up the detachable disc drive? Well then, PlayStation get the even greater benefit of more digital sales! Got to imagine Xbox are considering it for the Series S, I swear there were rumours dating back to the all-digital Xbox One S that they were planning on something like this.

According to Tom Henderson, the PS5 is set to get a new model next year...with a detachable disc drive. This model is reportedly set to replace the current models.

Yeah, apparently the guy leaking everything attempted to blackmail Rockstar...which seemingly didn't go as planned. Looks like Rockstar are trying to file takedowns on YouTube, but once it's out there, well...it's out there Apparently he's also threatening to leak the source code for GTA V and GTA VI, too. So, unfortunately, it looks like it could still get worse for Rockstar if there's any truth to what he's saying