Julius

Defenders FC returns, what a volley that was by Koulibaly. Just in time too considering Lukaku and Timo got on the score sheet yesterday... Yeah, I'd be surprised if the score stays as it is now, that's for sure, I think Spurs are a seriously scary proposition for this season (I'd say this about any team Conte takes on and is actually supported to have success with), but fingers crossed we score another and can nip it in the bud. We haven't really had a game plan to commit to all summer - hell, I have no idea what our target for this season is meant to be, and I don't think Tuchel does yet either other than to qualify for the UCL again - meanwhile Spurs got their business finished before most clubs even started talking about their summer plans and Conte is a deadly serious coach when it comes to training, they're going to run laps - in a very literal sense - around most teams this season. Hopefully that works in our favour come the World Cup in November

I mean, I did say there was good stuff! I guess to clarify what I mean: when a track stands out to me in a game I'll normally go out of my way to look it up. The only track I looked during my playthrough was Deliverance from God of War (2018), and that was just to compare it with the Hades track. It has good tracks, just nothing which made me pull out my phone and look them up. I think that's where my bar is these days for standout tracks, hopefully II makes me pull out my phone and go music hunting I'm not planning to right now, just because if I did I'd probably end up committing to going for the Platinum, and I'm trying to wean myself off the Plat/completionist mentality at the moment and just enjoy games a bit more and play more. Obviously not to say that they're mutually exclusive, but my desire to do that comes and goes I guess, and I definitely found myself feeling a bit exhausted by it after getting the Platinum for TLOU last month. I think I've got more Platinums than I ever have before by this point in the year, not counting upgrades I think I'm at 5? 3 of which were 100+ hour endeavours, and while I'm sure there'll be a couple more I might Plat before the year is up I definitely need a rest from it where I feel I can get it. So basically: not for now, but if/when I ever come back to Plat this game, I'll be checking it out for sure!

Well, that's a wrap on God of War. God of War? More like God of QTEs or God of Puzzles, amirite? (Yeah I'm right but it was still good fun ) I put a fair chunk of time into it yesterday (not sure what else you're really meant to do in this heat!), and probably could have beaten it last night...but it was late once I got to the final stretch of Hades, so I finished it off this morning. I had a lot of fun to with this game, from it's fluid combat, to learning fun combos (yeah, Square, Square, Triangle is reliable, but it's not the most fun and stylish way to go about playing), and using new weapons and powers as you get deeper into the game; I really enjoyed using Poseidon's Rage early on, but once I got my hands on Army of Hades, that quickly became my default magic of choice when I felt I needed to use something reliable (I ended up maxing it out, alongside the Blades of Chaos). I also really enjoyed swinging around the much bulkier and harder-hitting Blade of Artemis, to the point that the Blades of Chaos definitely took a backseat in the second half of the game or so. The music was good - nothing stood out too much, other than a part of the Hades music sounding like it was halfway to Baldur's Theme, which was almost certainly a coincidence but a weirdly nice thing to spot - and well, while the story wasn't a strong point, it was functional, but what I really enjoyed about it was the presentation you'd get with the flashbacks having something unique or interesting going on. I've said it before, but I also liked the scale of the game, it felt big, but never too big. Also, while I'm sure this is more down to sharing influences from something like The Legend of Zelda, I definitely got Dark Souls and ICO vibes from the game at times, whether it be it's interconnectedness (a few times I audibly went "oh, okay, we're doing this?" Escaping Hades and Amphitrite's Chamber were probably the best examples of this), it's atmosphere, and especially in its creature design (the Minotaur boss reminded me a whole lot of the Capra Demon) and some of its architecture (Mount Olympus and Athens definitely went to the same school as Anor Londo's design philosophy) when compared with Dark Souls. I loved that Minotaur boss fight, I think it's pretty easily the best one in the game from both a design and gameplay perspective, took me a couple of attempts! I definitely came away genuinely understanding why no-one ever got to Pandora's Box between the puzzles, bosses, and the traps also, that reminds me, before I forget: this game has a load of great and fun puzzles, and many of them felt unique! I think there's a really fine line to ride with puzzles in games like this where you need to balance a player knowing what the game is asking of them, and then knowing how to execute said ask (which becomes more complex the more tools are at their disposal), which is a really hard balance to strike I find, so kudos to the folks at Santa Monica back in the day who worked on some of these puzzles. I mean, just as a quick point of comparison: I mentioned Zelda before and actually played Ocarina of Time earlier this year, and while I'll probably get around to talking about it in a bit more depth at some point, my problem with some of the puzzles in that game is not that they were difficult, but that I found myself with so many tools at my disposal that I found myself overthinking the puzzle a lot of the time, only to then realise more often than not that the simplest solution was what the game was asking me execute. Hell, sometimes I didn't even know what the game was asking me to do. For me, I think that's one of the tougher parts of that game to understand going back to it for the first time today: whereas Breath of the Wild gives you a bunch of tools and you're free to experiment and probably find a few ways to complete a puzzle, Ocarina of Time has a few too many tools for the number of solutions it's ready for (which is normally just the one). Anyways, that was a slight detour, so back to God of War: as for the not-so-good, I'll double down on the camera being pretty woeful at times, especially any time you find yourself platforming towards the camera (which is both a camera and design failing I guess). Some parts of Hades were a nightmare because of this, not in the sense of it being hard or even that frustrating, but it just slowed the game down unnecessarily. Talking of slowing the game down unnecessarily, I don't get why some 70% of enemies have i) nearly as much health as they do and ii) respawn, I get that the game is a hack-and-slash, but it really just makes the game a bit long in the tooth at times. There are definitely exceptions to this where it's asking for more than just going on a killing spree (I really liked the Cerberus fight at the start of the Challenge of Poseidon, needing to learn to manage the pups so that they don't Digivolve into full-on beasts), but most of the time it just wants you to kind of aimlessly kill, which just becomes a bit boring - despite a fun combat system! - when some standard weaker enemies take a while to defeat and can then respawn(/are replaced?). As a minor and unrelated nitpick, there were a couple of times where the sound mixing was way off and the music made the in-game sounds or dialogue virtually inaudible despite being fine the rest of the time, and the worst case of this for me was down in the Floor of Spears™ puzzle room where the sound of the spears winding up to destroy your feet is supposed to give you an idea of how long you've got left before they, well, do that and kill you. Lastly: I thought the final boss fight section was pretty weird, and, for me, a big step down from the highs of the Minotaur, especially given that the entire game has been building up to this confrontation. The first phase with Ares was so laughable I had to check if I'd put the difficulty down by accident, because just summoning the Army of Hades and using a spin attack had him down in the space of about 10-15 seconds. The second phase taking on your past was fine, but the third phase of the fight - and the second phase of actually fighting Ares - was just weird in that you're stripped of your weapons, all of the abilities you've earned, and instead you're slowly swinging around this heavy sword. The camera is different for this fight than all of the other fights you've been in throughout the game pretty much, and the game becomes a 3D arena fighter with health bars? Maybe it's just me but I hate when games do things like this, trying to go for some epic sense of scale to serve the story, but at the cost of sacrificing the game in the way you've been playing for 8 hours up until this point! Just...I'm sure there are those who are fans of this, but doesn't get a pass from me This game was good dumb fun, with some great puzzles, boss fights, and combat, aged now a good bit by its camera and things like enemies having too much health/respawning which just stretched some standard encounters out a bit too long for my liking. I enjoyed it, but hopefully I'll see how its sequel improved at some time in the next few weeks

First post in this thread in a bit over 12 years? Well, guess this calls for a slam more than it does a bump! I've outlined this elsewhere, but one of my gaming goals for the year is to play through all of the God of War series (well, the stuff that matters, so no, not the text-based Facebook Messenger game which was apparently a thing) in preparation for Ragnarök's arrival in November. With us getting the solid release date for that game early last month and me picking up everything I needed to play through the series last month, earlier today I booted up the first God of War. I played 15 minutes or so of this a few months ago testing out how PlayStation Now was on PS5 (which was fine, but I'd rather just play the game from the console or disc rather than stream it), which definitely set my expectations somewhat for the game, and today I've put in a few hours, and have just arrived at the Temple of the Oracle in Athens. As always, before jumping in: I'll probably have more middling and negative stuff to list off in this first post. I almost always do. It's very hard to not notice these things playing through some games for the first time! Let's start with the positives: this game feels fantastic. I love how fluid the combat is (even if, a lot of the time, I think it boils down to ye olde classic Square, Square, Triangle – at least it has so far), I'm a big fan of the variety of animations Kratos uses in combat, and I'm really enjoying stringing together long combos (I've not really played too many character action or combo-based games like this for a long time, maybe since I had a PS2? So it's definitely hitting that nostalgia spot for me). I have no real idea what's going on story wise, but hey, that's fine by me, because I'm just here to have fun and see what still holds up about this game. I wasn't expecting a skills-based "magic" system in this game, so I've had a lot of fun using those in general combat as I've picked them up, especially on the few occasions where it's been called for in puzzles so far. I also just really like the architecture and design ethos of the game, there have been a few times already where I feel like I've had a few options on which way to go, but I'm not really going out of my way to do and see as much as I can in this game (trying to take a break from that mindset...for now), and I think every single time I've come to some fork in the road, my gut instinct - clearly informed by some subtle design decisions - has pointed me in the right direction without fail. I also really enjoyed the first boss fight (even if it did take me a moment to clock onto what it wanted me to do because I don't think the framing of the battle does a great job of really setting you odd in the right direction), though similar to most enemies in the game so far, it definitely felt like more of a sponge than it needed to be. Now, there are some negatives, but I don't think they're necessarily bad things about the game itself, but just ways it's showing its age. Like it's camera. Man, I hate some cameras in games, especially fixed perspective cameras like the ones you got in MGS2, but at least those were consistent; this game jumps pretty freely from behind-the-back to fixed angle to another fixed angle to swinging around to another fixed angle to a wide shot and...man, it's super disorienting, not in the sense that I'm getting lost, but in the sense that it's making me physically feel uneasy at times (in fairness, it's super hot - I wonder what Kratos would do if the Greek Gods were pushing humanity off the brink through global warming? - which is definitely compounding that feeling, but I think it would still be there regardless). Aside from the general uneasiness of jumping between angles at this game's every whim, the camera just creates inconsistencies in how you approach things, for instance the age-old "you're tiptoeing across a ledge/beam/whatever, so let's change the angle while you're doing that and have you need to actually adjust your character's movement based on the angle we go to, and no you can't continue with the input you were using before", one of my absolute biggest pet peeves in gaming. I'll adjust, I'm sure, but it's stuff like this which I thinks makes some 3D games so much harder to go back to (I actually thought this game was older than it was before booting it up, so it's funny that this approach was taken in a game released towards the end of the generation where I feel it was mostly figured out?). And then there are just some general curiosities to the game, decisions which aren't really negatives to the game, but are certainly decisions made at the time which I'm not sure they'd stand by today. Such as the sex mini-game – that sure was a choice, and that sure was a thing, and I'm not really sure what to make of it, though I did find it hilarious that the top halves of these women in the cutscene prior to the mini-game being made accessible made them look like they were a generation ahead of Kratos on a purely technical perspective, you can see where the priorities were for that short moment in the game more curiously: R2 to interact with and open things, but even weirder than that, mashing R2 to lift heavy doors/gates – this has to be one of the weirdest feeling QTE-style inputs ever, especially with just how much the DualShock 3's triggers can travel when compared with the triggers of the DualShock 2. And also, right stick to dodge/roll? Man, again, just feels super weird, and definitely took some getting used to! Anyways, looking forward to putting some more time into the game tomorrow, hopefully I'll get to take on some more bosses and adjust to the camera a bit more! Maybe? Possibly? Who am I kidding, probably not

Started listening to the early Patreon release of this week's Easy Allies Podcast this morning, and it starts out with Blood mentioning that their income is getting a little on the lean side; it's been plugged a lot more in recent months (especially after last month's credit card issue on Patreon), but this is the first time I can recall it being said straight up top. I'm trying to look on the positive side, but while we've talked about it on here before, the impression that I'm getting is that the days left of the Allies - in its current form, at least - are growing severely limited

I watched it on blu-ray this time, I've started to slowly immortalise some of my favourite series by putting them on my shelves From what I can see it looks like it's still up on Funimation, but isn't on Crunchyroll yet? Which is odd considering the acquisition and so many dubs coming over to Crunchyroll since then, but I'm still waiting for shows like Yu Yu Hakusho to migrate over too Actually, this is a good chance to share something I've found really cool and helpful over the years: I recommend because.moe/uk, which is an anime search engine specifically designed for finding where certain shows you're looking for are available (I've linked the UK site specifically, but they also have versions for the US, Canada, and Australia). It's best to click on the streaming service logos it shows just to double check they're still there (as oftentimes they'll keep the show's page despite the show leaving the service, such as for FMA:B having a Crunchyroll logo next to it, which messes the results up a little bit at times), but it's otherwise one of the more useful anime-watching tools I'd recommend

Started Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood for a fourth time a couple of weeks ago as something to accompany me while I started using my exercise bike again, and well...I finished it last week in the space of a week and a half or so. Yeah, it didn't remain an exercise bike exclusive watch for me for very long. I said this in 2020 before rewatching Hunter x Hunter... ...and then this after finishing my rewatch... So, uhhhhhhhh... ...I'm here to take that back. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is at least on par with HxH, and in some ways is much better - most importantly, it doesn't drag its heels at all, neatly getting in and out in the space of 64 episodes, during which it delivers a masterpiece of a storyline, with a massive frequently recurring cast which puts many other stories to shame, a great hard magic system in alchemy, an excellent score, and excellent character arcs. Most importantly: pretty much every character who isn't just sitting in the background has a clear want, and they do their damn best to go after it. There's a reason it is one of the most highly rated anime series out there, topping many lists online and being featured in many debates about the best anime of all time. I think the show most comparable to it, funnily enough, is probably Avatar: The Last Airbender: they're of similar lengths, and have many, many similar strengths throughout their run. FMA:B is also, I'd argue, the best starting point for people getting into anime today with very little exposure to the medium otherwise - it perfectly waves together a story in a distinctly Western setting with an important understanding and representation of conflict and differences in culture, and the occasional weirdness of anime, from its comedic moments to some horrifically darker ones. Unironically: 11/10. There are 10's and then there are masterpieces like this. It's FMA:B, HxH, Steins;Gate, and Princess Mononoke at the pinnacle of anime for me. Now I'm left thinking about going back to the 2003 series and picking up the manga...or rewatching Steins;Gate

Isolated comparison clips between Remastered and Part I (I honestly can't tell what's appeared where anymore, this game has had a really weird marketing cycle): If nothing else, this sure looks real purty!

Couldn't seem to find a thread for this, but anyways, it's been delayed from its vague 2022 release window to 2023 For a bit of a refresher, the game was originally revealed during Summer Game Fest last summer with this trailer, when it was confirmed to be coming to PC via Steam: Before this gameplay trailer last August (actually, a year ago to the day!) announced that the game would also be coming to the Nintendo Switch during an Indie World Showcase: Well, let the wait begin...

Overview trailer: Launching next Wednesday on 17th August; priced at £13.49.

Oh yeah 100%, that's what attracted them to her, there's little denying that I guess what I'm suggesting is the inverse? Not necessarily that people were attracted to her because of her origin, but they may have subconsciously taken that away (that they're [more] open to being attracted to people of other cultures, and Asians particularly, if they hadn't before, just due to the lack of exposure), if that makes sense? I could certainly see that being the case depending on the ages people were when they first played the game. Anecdotally, I had a friend in high school who randomly came out with "I'm into Koreans" after starting to watch anime and play League of Legends (which is a whole other kettle of fish) You're probably right about them looking at other characters like Lara Croft for what was popular at the time though, we got the final remainders of that in the early 2000's and then I feel the guys in the art departments started to calm down a little bit. Sort of. Maybe. I mean it's not all sunshines and rainbows regardless, I'm pretty sure VII is partially responsible for some of the, uh, more questionable parts of the internet and modern culture when it comes to things like Cait Sith The first link is just an article, though it does go on to point you in the direction of the feed. That second link though...yeah I'd save that one for after work, it has pictures of the questionably posed model in question Will be sure to keep that in mind definitely got my expectations set fairly low in that regard from clips/memes and such over the years, that much is sure. It'll probably be a tossup between X and Like A Dragon the next time I'm in the mood for a longer JRPG

In all seriousness, while there were many smart decisions made around Final Fantasy VII, the decision to have two girls (well, and Barrett) each representing the game's target markets geographically (Aeris/Aerith is distinctly Western, I'd go so far as to say European, in her design; and Tifa is distinctly Eastern) was absolute genius. Not only does it cater to both markets, I think considering that this was well before the mass globalisation of anime/Asian culture/etc. and that what we find attractive physically is typically an aggregate of what we're exposed to, I think there's a good chance it could have helped younger folks (and potentially older too) who played the game at the time in the West be more open to being friends with/dating people of a different race, and the same could probably be said for those playing the game in the East, too. I'd also be willing to bet that for many it was their first "real" exposure to an Asian girl or woman, just because that was the reality back then in a lot of the Western world. And I'm sure her, uh, features also didn't hurt in that regard either. I might be reaching there, but I imagine it's true for some (even if they've never consciously thought about it before). Hell, I'm mixed race (White/Asian) and being surrounded by white folks 99% of the time growing up meant that I didn't even really meet people of different races outside of my own family and their group of friends until I actually moved country. I don't think I could have been attracted to a different race if I tried because I simply didn't even know I could find them attractive due to lack of exposure in fact, if anything, the overbearing strength independence of Asian women (Filipinos, specifically) in my family put me off that idea entirely until just a few years ago And no, my parents didn't meet due to Final Fantasy VII and my dad cheering Tifa on as best girl. Though now that I think about it, they did meet and get married in 1997, the same year VII got release...coincidence? Anyways, I do agree with @Happenstance: while I thought Tifa was by far and away better in VII (and I still would say I'm Team Tifa after Remake), I do think VII Remake did a great job of fleshing out Aeris/Aerith in a way which the original game did not. VII's music is ridiculously good and, two years later, I still can't believe that Remake made a lot of tracks even better – I didn't even imagine it would be possible! I think there are very few soundtracks - gaming or otherwise - which come close, and even in the realm of Final Fantasy, I think the only thing I could debate (with the games I've played) is that VI might do a better job of giving party members their own theme and then recalling them throughout the game, which leads into the outrageously good reprisal of each theme during the credits? But even then, that's down to a different approach rather than VI's OST being outright better than VII's. Too many tracks to name that I love, but while I love how preposterous One Winged Angel is, I still think Those Chosen By The Planet (and how it's awesomely recalled in Birth of a God) are stronger themes for the character of Sephiroth, whereas One Winged Angel does an excellent job of capturing how ridiculous the position he ends up in really is. I'm so glad we got some of it in Remake! Oh wow that's super interesting, I first played it in 2017 too (though I don't think I finished the very last part until the very beginning of 2018..?). I think my key takeaway was that there were definitely some parts to the game which don't hold up tremendously these days from a design and technical perspective (general room-to-room navigation is a bit of a nightmare at times, gorgeous as some of those pre-rendered background are, and then there's obviously the well-documented translation errors, things like that), but more surprising to me was that I don't think the final act of the game - until you reach the very end - holds up under any real scrutiny? I found it very messy, to put it lightly, it went off the rails in a way which I don't think the game benefitted from (well, until it all got turned into memes and the sillier parts of the extended VII canon). I thought everything up to and including Temple of the Ancients was virtually flawless from a character and story perspective, though! There's a reason she turned up in the Italian senate, that's all that has to be said oh, and there was also that questionably posed Tifa statue! Damn, Tifa's having a busy 2022 I've only played VI, VII and IX so far, all for the first time in the last 5 years or so, and I find my answer tends to swap between all three pretty regularly – I think they're all great games with (well, other than the music) entirely different strengths. Overall, though, I'd probably say that I consider VI to be the strongest of the three from a critical perspective, so maybe that's my favourite? It's mechanically airtight, and something I think it has over the other two games (sorry VII and IX) is that there is a natural narrative throughline from beginning to end, whereas VII and IX both fly off the rails in their final act somewhere along the way for me in ways which have me going "uh, the how hell did we get here?" I need to play more Final Fantasy games, though, can't believe it's nearly been two years (!) since I played through IX! It'll probably be I, IV, or X next (sorry @Hero-of-Time, VIII is kind of just...waiting off to the side with V )

I doubt it just because I think there's only been one standalone Pokémon amiibo (outside of the Smash Bros. line), which was Detective Pikachu? But that would be funny I'm just imagining Sakurai going into a janitor's closet and all around are scrapped Smash characters as amiibo: these starters, Geno, Dante, Master Chief, Kratos... I think TPCi likely had these ready to go regardless, I'm not sure who is in charge of Pokémon toy production these days but I imagine that they've got multiple permutations of each Pokémon ready to go for things like this, but not necessarily designed for this specific purpose. Or at least I think that would make sense, but Anyways, just give me my Paldean Wooper statue already!

I think it's simply that we haven't been shown anything so far which makes the game unique and feel totally necessary – and I do mean unique here, not different. How many trailers have we had at this point, three or four? It still just looks like Splatoon to me, be it the first or second game (and, note: I'm someone that hasn't played either), for better or worse. Compare that to Mario+Rabbids - where again, I'm someone that hasn't played the first game - and I see footage from either and can quickly tell which game I'm looking at because of some mechanic or feature of the game which gives me an inkling of the game I'm looking at. Same goes for Xenoblade, same goes for Pokémon, hell the same goes for BOTW2's two trailers so far, and we've seen like three minutes and change of that game. I mean, let's be totally fair: just how different do you have to make a third person shooter which is primarily centred around online multiplayer so that I can tell from a glance which game I'm looking at? Other than the UI and new maps, I'm having a hard time imagining being able to tell that from a glance at gameplay. Now, this all isn't to say that there isn't a smorgasbord of mechanical tweaks and adjustments under the hood, or that hard work hasn't been put into the game, or that it won't sell amazingly well (of course @Hero-of-Time is right that this game is going to sell millions of copies, heck, I think it could be a critical failure and it still would!), but I think it's undeniable that Splatoon is unique in the pantheon of Nintendo IP in that they aren't looking to reinvent the game with each entry; they are innovating. Nothing about Splatoon 3 looks so off the walls to me that it wouldn't have been possible in the second - or even the first! - game, whereas I look at the other games you're talking about and again, can clearly tell which is which. It's refinement over reinvention. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's undeniable that the approach being taken is completely different with Splatoon, and I think it's given rise to the feeling some have about this game in this thread. And yes, there's an aspect of refinement to these other games too - of course there is, that's a key part of the industry moving forwards and a huge part of why I'd say Nintendo's first party is so strong! - but, much as I loathe it in some cases (ahem, Pokémon), they consistently bring new things to the table which either weren't possible or weren't thought of previously, and this helps newer entries to feel fresh and significantly distinct in a way which I can empathise with others for thinking Splatoon does not.

It's been nearly a decade and they're still giving off the same energy they were when Moyes took over, which is barmy to me. Remember when they spent a window targeting every world class midfielder under the sun, missed out on even challenging for players like Thiago because they were too busy twiddling their thumbs, and ended up with Fellaini? It's exactly that all over again! Also @Fierce_LiNk I totally agree. I feel like Ronaldo has gone through what Mourinho went through with United where he was coming in with an idea of changes needing to be made, not necessarily underestimating the undertaking to do so, but more realising as time went on that the abyss staring back was much, much, much deeper than they had first anticipated.

It's hard to look away from a trainwreck More seriously, as a United fan, I'm curious: where do you stand on Ronaldo's goings-on? I'm seeing a lot of fans use his situation as a black hole for all of the other issues at the club (such as the lack of signings this transfer window - apparently you're now getting Rabiot?), and from the outside looking in, I couldn't blame him for wanting to leave for UCL football if that's he wants. I've also seen some suggest he knew this would be the case at the end of last season, but I could easily imagine he was planning on staying if there was enough activity this summer to show that United wanted to get back to the top the same way he does, but there simply hasn't been. Then there's also the matter of him losing a child, I could understand him not being in the right headspace for that reason alone, and also potentially wanting to return to Portugal because of that (such as a potential return to Sporting) to be closer to family. It's crazy seeing some fans and the occasional pundit act like he's the issue, especially considering how many goals he scored last season, which was probably the best season anyone's had in a United shirt outside of goal since Ibra left

Watched the first episode of Light & Magic yesterday, and it's awesome. Feels so great to see people I've read about but couldn't put faces to in a series where they get to talk about their contributions in the early days of Star Wars and ILM, especially John Dykstra (because barely anyone knows about the Dykstraflex and it's one of the most important pieces of filming equipment in Star Wars!). Also just want to shout out Imagineering for those that haven't seen it already, as it has similar vibes to L&M (an incredibly polished docuseries which I feel everyone's scrolled by on Disney+ but not necessarily watched). Gaining incite into the Disney theme parks is truly fascinating, logically you can try to understand how much work goes into these enormous projects but you don't really get a grasp on it until you watch something like this. It's one of the best things I've watched on Disney+, hard recommend

United need to give ten Hag time regardless at this point, a minimum of one season in the same way that City stuck by Guardiola after his first season, when they "only" came third. Looking back on the comments from the likes of MOTD that season are absolutely hilarious, and I still don't understand for the life of me how they thought it would go any other way. I think the difference with City's approach, though, is they backed Pep to an absurd degree in the market, but that meant it only took one sort of off season and effectively four transfer windows to get the job done in making it his team. I think there's a lot more for United to do anyways due to their structure, but I also think they're going to take their sweet time in assembling the right team and getting deadwood out of the door. The bad part for United is that they don't have a history of doing this, they bring someone in, say "they've changed their approach", have a bit of a backdoor reshuffle and then don't stick by their managers when things go south or back them appropriately in the market. Considering the team he had, I would still say Mou gave United their best Premier League season, and then everyone was shocked when things went downhill when he wasn't backed in the market. How do you bring Mourinho in and not plan to back him in the market? And, similarly, now with ten Hag, how do you bring in a manager with their own deep footballing philosophy and not give them the time they need? Pep was a more than proven commodity before coming to the Prem, and it still took him a whole season and four transfer windows to adjust; ten Hag is far from a proven commodity, so I genuinely think sticking by him for two seasons would be the sensible move. And yes, even if they only make Europa League again this season, because now they find themselves up against a talented Spurs squad who look reformed under Conte and is surprisingly getting the backing he's always been worth of, and Arsenal, I hate to say it, are looking primed for a great season. I don't think it's too shocking, a massive stadium like Old Trafford is always intimidating for smaller teams, and Brighton had a long hiatus from the first division. I think the more interesting thing is that United haven't been snatching draws at home against Brighton since they came up (I wouldn't say I thought they'd be snatching draws, but I definitely thought there would have been a draw amongst the results), but actually had a 100% record against them at home since they returned to the top tier in 2017; according to this, United haven't actually drawn with Brighton since 1992, which was a League Cup game, meaning they've never drawn since English football started ()

Good result from us yesterday, not the most convincing of wins but we'll have to take it, obviously the team just doesn't feel complete at this point, but there hasn't been much time to integrate our new signings either. Curious if anyone has been keeping an eye on PSG's first couple of results this season? Because, even without Mbappé, they look seriously scary under Galtier – who knew that playing Messi centrally and actually making full use of their attacking fullbacks like Hakimi would have such an impact? Just two matches into the season and Messi and Neymar already have a combined total of 10 goals and assists. Also, Messi scored what I believe is his first bicycle kick goal (at 35!) to see their 5-0 victory last night, I think the closest he got before was a bicycle kick assist to Suarez back in the day? Well worth looking up if you haven't seen it, it's a wonderful goal. Even got the Clermont fans cheering! A lot has been made about the World Cup's potential impact on the second half of the season - especially over here, given how big a part fitness and fatigue has played in finding a winner several times over the last few years - but I haven't really seen anyone talking about the flip side to this: all being well, their summer break being cut short by a couple of weeks aside, every player playing in Europe and going to the World Cup that isn't going in injured should be in as close to peak condition as it comes when the tournament kicks off in November. Screw Qatar, but I wouldn't be surprised if this World Cup ends up being as compelling as last year's Euro's - if not more so - because of this.

I actually finished this on Monday night, but a pretty crazy week at work has meant I haven't really been able to round out my thoughts on this game's final third...until now. Let's get to it With the game behind me and many others here, I would be curious to hear how everyone else would rank the chapters? I found myself reconsidering each chapter I had played earlier in the game with each passing chapter, to the point that my list looks very different to how I imagined it would be while I playing through each chapter. For me, it would probably be: Imperial China Twilight of Edo Japan Chapter Eight Near Future Finale The Wild West Present Day The Distant Future Prehistory To close, I think Live A Live is wonderfully presented, from its gorgeous HD-2D aesthetic, to its bright colour palette, and its surprisingly effective soundtrack, but it is held back by archaic holdovers from the game it is a remake of. It suffers from spreading its quality thin across some of its chapters, where it becomes apparent that while each and every chapter has unique ideas to bring to the table - be it a mechanic or a setting - none of these ideas are fleshed out in any great and meaningful way, which I think is also apparent in the depth of its combat (or, rather, the lack thereof). With some chapters being as short or as light on combat as they are, the order you blindly tackle these chapters in will massively colour your experience with the game, and for me it resulted in slightly longer chapters feeling substantially longer than the short chapters I played through by comparison, as well as battle-heavy chapters feeling like a slog compared to chapters with minimal combat, which made the game's pacing pretty hard to bear at times (which is the first time I've said as much for a JRPG as short as this one). In short: great presentation, good ideas, but an execution lying somewhere between poor and inconsistent. I think the most damning thing about this game is that it is such a difficult game to recommend to anyone who isn't already willing to commit and see a JRPG through from start to finish and has some level interest in 90's JRPG's, so your mileage may vary.

The tweet from our Twitter admin confirming the deal was next level daylight murder and I love it (for context, Brighton came out and publicly denied reports, such as Fabrizio's, that Cucurella was going anywhere, to which Fabrizio doubled down). Also, I agree with you, it's been a very odd window in which I don't think we've really got anyone that we wanted as first choice. We missed out on De Ligt (though to be fair he seems a natural signing for Bayern) and Raphinha (to be fair to him if Barça is his dream club what can you do?); we've got Koulibaly in, but I'd say we still could do with another CB seeing as we lost both Rudi and Christensen; Sterling is a very odd signing for us in that while I'm sure he'll put in a shift, I just don't see what the thinking is there other than "well, we should sign someone to contribute to this almost nonexistent front line", but hopefully he proves me wrong; and somehow Azpi has ended up staying (I mean, I'm happy about it, but he was meant to be one of the first out of the door), and meanwhile we had more leftbacks than we know what to do with before, but now we've got Cucurella in the mix too (though, to be fair, he's been a FIFA Career Mode LB I've used since he was at Barça, so I guess I'm happy). Werner is potentially going to be on his way out through a loan too, so I have no idea. I think scattershot is honestly too light a word for it, I think we've been absolutely rudderless this summer after missing out on priority targets, and then have basically scrambled for whatever the leftovers have been. I know Marina has clashed with managers before, but seeing as we kept Tuchel, I think we should've fought to keep her if only for another season to avoid exactly what has happened; instead, we've had no transition, and despite knowing where the holes were going to be going into this summer since Abramovich's hand was forced to sell, we've ended up with one of the strangest summers I can remember for transfers

An art book is in the works, with plans to release in May 2023:

Releasing August 11th on PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch digitally, with plans for a physical edition on both platforms later in the year. Also coming to Steam in September. Priced at £33.99/€39.99/$39.99.

I knew the general gist of its connections to Final Fantasy Tactics (and branching from that the other Ivalice projects) in that it was basically a progenitor to that project, but smaller details I like to fact check (for instance, Matsuno not sticking around was something which sounded right in my head, but if there's one thing I do best it's doubt myself ). I read what I can on the history of games, it's always super interesting to get a general idea of how things have evolved, or in this case, what essentially one game branched off into, and who ended up where and working on what. Matsuno and Ito being sidelined is hard info to avoid just because a lot of Final Fantasy speculation threads, such as for XVI, often devolve into wanting Yoshi-P to get onboard or have one of the old guys step back into the spotlight. Anyways, fact checking more often than not leads to me discovering other cool details I wasn't aware of (such as Yoshida's involvement on Bravely Default and NieR, if I had to guess I would've said that was Minaba, who also worked on XII and does work on Granblue Fantasy), so those are neat details which are always fun to just lump in