Julius

Can't believe Bale missed that. On his favoured left foot, 8 yards out, should've been a simple one for him. Hard to believe Italy are only 1-0 up. They might end up regretting that they didn't take any of their earlier chances.

Some worldies being scored in the the Switzerland vs Turkey match. I think it was late, for sure, the red just seems harsh in the context that it probably wouldn't be a red in the Prem or some of the other leagues. UEFA have called for harsher and more direct calls in cases like this though, as the commentators were saying, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Ampadu was late but I think everyone was surprised by the red there, seemed a bit harsh. Wales really up against it now.

It's been coming, Italy absolutely deserve the lead. Well worked free kick. Wales need to hold on until half time, because the momentum is very much against them. They've been adventurous going forwards though, I'm sure they'll get their chance.

Yeah, I think it helps in this instance that Filoni and the team had the rug pulled from under them after Lucasfilm was sold to Disney and had to cut Season 6 short, meaning they could only finish up and release a limited number of episodes for the Lost Missions (Season 6, especially with how it ends, really feels like it drives The Clone Wars towards its end and a point of realisation). Clips have been released on StarWars.com, but we've also heard and seen a lot directly from Filoni himself during different Celebrations about episodes which never came to be, many of which were in varying stages of production, with some fully rigged and voiced (hence the clips and pretty much full episodes we've got to see). Some have been adapted into novels (Dark Disciple, and to an extent Ahsoka) and comics (Son of Dathomir). Heck, even what became Season 7 of The Clone Wars was pretty much a known quantity: we'd been shown the entire Bad Batch arc, we'd seen tidbits and heard major beats of Ahsoka's Walkabout arc, and Dave told Ashley on stage how the start of the Siege of Mandalore panned out with Ahsoka's return. Arcs like Return to the Jedi Temple (about a Sith shrine and the skeletons of giant Kaiju under the temple, the presence of which hazed the Jedi's ability to sense Palpatine -- in terms of being built on top of it, it's like how some places of worship today are built on the ruins of others), a Yuuzhan Vong arc, a Bad Batch arc with Yoda on Kashyyyk, among others, are the ones which got unlucky. We also got to see Crystal Crisis on Utapau in full, which I'm surprised didn't get included in Season 7, where Anakin and Obi-Wan aim to retrieve a massive kyber crystal which would potentially go on to be the one used in the Death Star (to an extent it's pretty similar to the Mygeeto mission in the original Battlefront II where Ki-Adi-Mundi retrieves a massive crystal). It's an episode I really want to see adapted down the line, as we finally got to hear Anakin and Obi-Wan talk about a certain someone leaving the Order. It's definitely worth tracking down what you can on these, I think it's a fascinating thing to watch and learn about, but these last few arcs were also George's final direct works on Star Wars. This playlist has all of the clips and fully rigged episodes we've seen so far, and the Celebrations where Filoni spoke about them I believe were mainly 2015, 2016, and 2017. I mean, just look at how close we were to getting Revan be part of canon from the Mortis arc In terms of the sequels, it's worth remembering that The Last Jedi was the only one of them to have a smooth production, which is why I think we've seen much more of it than The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker. Michael Arndt, who wrote the first script for The Force Awakens, was kicked off in 2013, which is when other familiar names came in to write the script with J.J., and this is purely because Disney weren't happy to give him more time (no surprises there). The Rise of Skywalker we all know about, and I think it's a large part of why we never saw the 'Making of' books by Rinzler make a return -- Disney didn't want the tumultuous production getting coverage, and it got pulled in 2015 if I'm remembering right. I doubt we'll ever hear about the full story of what happened with the sequels, and if we do, it's probably a decade or two away. Rogue One and Solo also underwent major changes, which is why we've seen and heard so little about their production - other than it being anything but smooth - in an official capacity. It sucks considering just how much we got for the two other trilogies, but it is what it is Oh yeah, they could totally tweak it -- even if they do the Boba and Cad showdown, it might even be the case that he survived. I'm just not sure if he'd turn up there without that arc being realised, if there are still potential plans to release it down the road, as the tension of the moment would be totally gone.

Spent a couple more hours with the game today. Made my way back over towards where I knew the Moonlight Butterfly was, and as I got to the door sealed by some contraption (the one with a glow coming from its centre), I read some of the messages next to it and one said there was an illusory wall ahead. Now, I'd been hitting all of these walls I'd been told were illusory up to this point, and my sword clanged against a brick wall every single time. To my surprise, though, this wasn't a red herring, and the wall vanished to present me with a bonfire. Awesome! Used some humanity to kindle it, as I knew from my short bout with the Moonlight Butterfly yesterday that it was going to be a drawn out battle. Journeyed on and got back to the area with the stone golem knights, but before I could make my way over to some loot that had caught my eye off in the distance, the roots of this tree right next to me start wiggling. It was...disturbing, but it looked like there might be something behind it, so I started hacking away at this tree, and what do you know, it had a health bar and vanished to show me a path going down. I followed it and came across this red lizard with frills so large they were clearly weighing it down, so naturally hacked it to bits. Then I came across three of its friends, and naturally they soon joined their friend in red lizard with frills heaven. A stone golem knight attacked me nearby, but from my limited experience with them earlier when I ran away, I knew he was quite flow and had a blind spot when it came to attacking just to the right of him. So I lock on, strafe around as he slowly hits the floor with his stone sword, and even though he casts this spell which slowed me to a walk, it didn't stop me from putting him down. Following the path around a bit more, I found a soul item but that was about it. As I started to make my way back, though, I noticed a set of steps leading up into this tunnel, and so I followed them up to confront another stone golem knight. Same tactic applied here, was probably a little overconfident as I decided to not try dragging the fight outside but chose to fight in close quarters instead, but it was fine, as he soon went down. Continued following the path up and found something called a Wolf Ring -- checked the item description and it mentioned something about boosting poise, so I put it straight on. Made my way back to the area where I found the wiggling tree roots and slowly made my way over towards the loot I spotted before, being careful as I knew there was an ambush lying in wait - in the form of some stone golem knights and humanoid plants - from running around here during my trip yesterday. Well, the humanoid plants leapt up and chase me down a path I hadn't seen before, which came to a dead end and some tree with a lizard on it which kept trying to bite and poison me. Yeah, the tree dudes won out, they did that thing where they grab and munch on you, the sick freaks. I died. But no big deal, I walked back on over and, after retrieving my souls, this time drew the tree guys out and hacked them to pieces, then did the same for the stone golem knights, and claimed what at this point I had rightfully earned: the loot. Turned out to be the Elite Knight armour, which I instantly put on as it meant no longer having to look at the terrifying face of my character being hollowed! Drew out the remaining stone golem knights and slayed them too, before marching on up the stairs for my first crack of the day at the Moonlight Butterfly. I tried lobbing my firebombs at it, and while it did some damage, I was quickly down to just 2 of the 6 I came in with, and found myself getting killed by its magic arrows. This is the point where we'd probably put a training (or in this case, death?) montage, as I had no issues at all getting back to the Moonlight Butterfly, but I died a whole lot -- I kind of get the sense I might have been a bit too low a level for the fight (Lv 26), and it probably didn't help that I didn't have anything with magic resistance, and was out of firebombs after my second attempt. Early on I found that locking on and essentially man-marking it up and down the bridge, keeping it pretty much right in front of me, gave me the easiest time dodging it's homing magic arrows and what I will describe as a magic arrow blitz, two volleys in quick succession which I never really mastered dodging (though continued to get better at). Then I learned that I should strafe with it but, just as it unleashes it's attack, roll the opposite way to the way we were both going, as it seemed to give me more room to play with and the homing magic arrows didn't just follow me straight down. For a short while I tried rolling forwards, and while that worked pretty well on its magic beam attack (i-frames or just dodging it successfully altogether) and magic arrow blitz, it got me killed pretty much instantly by the homing magic arrows. Boy were those things a pain, but I was getting better, and I would count how many heavy attacks I could get in with my Broadsword reliably before needing to back off; the answer was five: four with a full stamina bar, and then tapping it repeatedly until another heavy attack came out before it would start charging it's AoE blast, and this would take it down about one and a quarter bars of its health. Then it became a matter of aiming to get through each "round" - each time it would come down and I could get some attacks off - with about half of my health, attacking, and then using an Estus Flask to get back to just under full health as it rose back up. Slowly I was making progress, and it's health was going down further each time: a fifth, a quarter, a third...but then I felt my dodging was getting out of sync and messy, so I took a bit of a break to watch the football. I hopped back on after the football and eating some food, and died to those homing arrows again. And then I got it down to just over half of its health, before dying yet again. I figured I needed a way to do more damage, but I just didn't know what, but then I remembered something I didn't use for the longest time in Demon's Souls, and kept accidentally switching to the other day when I started Dark Souls: two-handing weapons. I tested it out on the tree guys, and sure enough, it did double the damage that I did to them with the a one-handed heavy attack before (or thereabouts), and so I knew that if I was going to stand a chance against the Moonlight Butterfly, it would have to be through switching to two-handing my Broadsword when it came down. And wouldn't you know it, on my first attempt two-handing my Broadsword, it worked! There were definitely a few close calls, especially when it came to switching back from two-handing to pulling out my shield, and I got pretty lucky as a few of its attempts at hitting me I managed to coax it into launching its arrows at me before I hid behind the wall for cover (the wall could also be a bit of a pain when the battle went to that side of the bridge and I couldn't see what it was doing for a split second, though!), yet, slowly but surely, I whittled it's health down. Once it got past the halfway mark for the first time, when it would switch side it would start dropping magic bombs, so after the first few hit me, I needed to adjust so that every time it charged one up as it went overhead, I would stop locking on and sprint away, before turning back around and locking on again. Nearly got too greedy at the end as it was about two hits from dying, but I kept my cool and backed off, and the next time it came down I killed it. Was very happy with that! After I had composed myself following my triumph, I made my way up the steps in the building on the other side of the bridge, only to find a fallen blacksmith. I figured this was the guy Andre told me about before - some divine blacksmith out in the forest - and picked up the items by him and looted his corpse, which gave me a Divine Ember, Watchtower Basement Key, and Homeward Bone. I wasn't planning to use it, but after I started to walk back I was quickly confronted by the stone golem knight at the door to the building you clamber on up to get to the Moonlight Butterfly, so ran back up to the bridge and used the Homeward Bone. Back at the bonfire, I levelled up some more to Lv 30, and a short while later, I had made it back to Andre. I handed him the Divine Ember - I didn't have any particular plans for it! - and then upgraded my Broadsword to +4 before resting at the bonfire just above. Before ending my session, I needed to come up with a plan of action for my next session, as beating the Moonlight Butterfly ultimately ended up getting me to a dead end. I figured the Watchtower Basement Key might be for that tower I couldn't climb near the crystal guys towards the Darkroot Basin, however after reading it's description, it mentioned an area called Lower Undead Burg, as did another key I didn't realise I had picked up, the Basement Key. With two keys mentioning the same Lower Undead Burg, my next plan of action is to make my way back over the bridge and to Undead Burg to figure out which door I need to unlock. Off the top of my head, I can remember two that I was unable to open: one next to Solaire at the end of the bridge with the red dragon, and another pretty much in the middle of Undead Burg. So, we'll see which of those takes me down and hopefully in the right direction towards the underground bell, and if worse comes to worse, the only other alternative I can think of are the steps which go down over by Firelink Shrine. Guess I'll have to wait and see! I hope so! It's a very unique game where I feel like sharing every detail of every encounter, be it the direction I go in or how I handle encounters. The only other game which comes to mind like this so far for me in terms of wanting to talk about everything that I do, regardless of whether or not it's driving me forward, is Breath of the Wild, but because I didn't play it until two years after it released I kind of missed the boat on that, as there was certainly a stronger emphasis there on exploring a massive world above pretty much everything else, and once it was fully explored shortly after it released, I guess it felt a bit less tempting to fully explore and discuss, if that makes sense? I already feel like the Moonlight Butterfly might be one example of where I went a different direction to others, as it seems optional (at least at this point). Though, I guess we'll see if that's the case when I make it down and get to open a door with the Watchtower Basement Key!

Absolutely the best game of the tournament (though a bit of a shame about the own goals). Germany proving they can get a result when they need one too, which is what they needed to bounce back. Portugal were a bit of a mess at the back, but unlike some other teams in the tournament (ahem, England) they still have something to offer going forward, even without Ronaldo. France vs Portugal will hopefully be an entertaining match, would love to see Hungary put up a fight against Germany too.

Haha that celebration (or lack thereof) for his goal just says it all he seems really relaxed and just wants to get on with it, kind of reminds me of Kroos (though perhaps a little more extreme, then again as we just saw, Kroos can get a bit heated too)

Agreed, they don't look comfortable at all. Even if you just look at that most recent Havertz chance, Guerreiro is just too high up the byline considering where the ball actually was

Portugal right now:

Brilliant episode this week, I saw some of the staff posting on Thursday ahead of it going up that it wasn't one you'd want spoiled, and it certainly wasn't. At this point I really just want to know the names of the people and studios working on this, as it will really help gauge what to expect from it. Sneak preview should be good, but seriously, just give me those credits already!

Continued my journey today (well, yesterday now!), admittedly not getting to play as much as I would have liked to. Progress was definitely a bit slower than how I felt it was yesterday, but still, progress is progress! First up was popping back out onto the bridge to grab some more souls in order to level up, then moving forwards through the Undead Parish. Made my way back to that skeleton knight who was giving me problems yesterday, the one with the big shield, and naturally I managed to parry him on my first try and execute a riposte. There were two paths forward, one to the left and one straight on, so figured I'd go to the left, which helped me raise one of the gates and get a nice shortcut, but not before drawing the attention of another of those skeleton knights. After taking care of him, I went to move forwards into the church but beyond another skeleton knight there was a much taller knight with a big shield at the altar, and so I decided to go around the other way, which gave me two paths again: left into the church with the big guy, or right towards an old looking church. I went right, as that guy looked a bit too menacing, and came across a bonfire before meeting the blacksmith Andre of Astora, so after upgrading my weapons, decided to head back up as the only other way was down, and I was aiming to ring that bell above the ground first, but not before checking out another gated area and meeting the onion-headed Siegmeyer, who seems to be waiting for those gates to rise. He was also surrounded by some pretty funny messages ("Fatty ahead!"). Guess we'll be back later! So I went on back to that guy with the big shield and drew him out, he moved and looked a bit like Tower Knight, so I just strafed really close to him, would wait for him to swing, get a few slashes in, back off, and repeat. Wasn't long before he was down. Picked up the Fire Keeper Soul from the altar, no idea what that'll end up being for but it seems kind of important, then noticed a tall bloke with a trident on a balcony opposite. Went to go upstairs, came across a lift which I assumed went up and would fast track me to the top, but I wanted the scenic route. Instead, I up the stairs before a skeleton knight chases me out, but I drew him outside and made quick work of him. Slowly trudge through the fodder the trident guy sends my way (who actually turns out to be magic and can float) before taking him out, notice a ladder going up (which I apparently instantly forgot about!) then continued to circle my way around the upper level of the church, and eventually got to a sign in front of a boarded up archway which said there was a prisoner up ahead. Naturally rolled through, came across this guy called Lautrec in a cell, who kindly asks me to open the door. Surely I don't have the key, and if I do I expect the game to let me decide if I wanted to open the door or not after selecting it, so I select it and...my Mystery Key is used and the door opens. Uh, okay. Talk to this Lautrec guy a bit and he says something a little concerning about "continuing his work" before laughing to himself. I let him be (for now), but I'm getting flashbacks to Yurt from Demon's Souls (even with the armour), so I don't trust this guy. We'll see how this plays out I guess. I then looked around a bit more, but again, in hindsight, I completely forgot about the room with the ladder that I didn't go up as I was so focused on exploring. Instead I go back to that lift, which takes me down instead of up, and once it stops I see white stone walls. I take a few steps forward, but I already know where I am: back at Firelink Shrine. Damn, that's good stuff, gives me a big grin whenever that happens, but especially connecting to Firelink. From that point, I figured I must have seen everything in that church, so made my way back over to Andre and went down the steps to come face-to-face with this armoured, headless demon that wasn't a boss, but could shoot lightning. Toyed around with it a bit, didn't really do much damage, but figure the bonfire is just upstairs, so I'll use all of my Estus Flasks while fighting it and die if I need to, it's no big deal because there's not much to lose from this position. Yeah, no, that took forever, I barely put a dent in it by the time I was out of Estus, and that was that. Let it kill me, grabbed my souls and continued through the archway behind it and stepped out into Darkroot Garden. At this point I'm still feeling a little lost, notice I'm going down rather than up - which I thought was strange as I even heard the bells getting closer as I went through the church and could see a tower next to it from the outside, but oh well, if this is the wrong way so be it, I'm down for a little exploring. These humanoid plant things come at me, I try a few times to parry them but I seemingly can't, so just take them in carefully. As I make my way through I get to an area from which I can see this translucent butterfly thing, which I thought was a bit odd, but anyways I went right, which took me to an area called Darkroot Basin. I slowly made my way down and came to a point where I could continue going down or go around the edge of the basin, so I went around the edge and came to a bit of a field with these weird blue crystal creatures, who were quick on the uptake to make me get a good jog on up a hill towards a nearby tower after picking up some loot. Got to the base of the tower, went to open the door...and, of course, it's locked. Blue crystal dudes are right next to me, so I need to wait for an opening and then peg it back down the hill, when I see this massive dragon or tentacled thing off in the distance, which starts shooting water my way. Yeah, screw that. So instead I get back to where the paths split off and start going down the basin, when I very quickly come across one of those tall black knights - like the one I refused to attack from behind in Undead Burg and like the one at the top of a tower in the Undead Parish - who had eyes on me like a hawk and chased me back out to the clearing where I saw the butterfly. Yeah, definitely get the sense I'm in the wrong place, but whatever. Notice a path in the direction of the butterfly and so I follow it, coming across more of those humanoid plants who try to ambush me on a few occasions, before I reach a small forested area where these stone golem knights start clambering up and casting some sort of magic which slows me down. Don't stick around too long as I dash past them to get to an abandoned building, go up the stairs, go down a path towards a fog door, which of course I open, and... ...haha yeah, you guessed it, that massive translucent butterfly is actually a boss and I felt woefully unprepared (I was down to my last few Estus Flasks by this point too, and hadn't managed to find a bonfire around here). Danced around with the Moonlight Butterfly a bit as it shot tracking magic bolts and lasers my way, it rested for a moment where I got some hits in, but unsurprisingly, I died not too long after. No big deal, imagine I'll be back here soon, and at least I know which way to go now! This brings me back to the bonfire by Andre, and I figure at this point that I must have missed something in the church - I could feel it in my bones! - and it doesn't take long for me to find myself back in the room with the ladder I was in earlier...and it is at that point that it dawns on me that I never climbed up the ladder make my way up, exit through a fog door, and am welcomed onto the church's roof by a gargoyle, who annihilates me as my timing on rolls was way, way, way off. No big deal, I go again. This time around I do much better, sticking tight to it as it slashes it's halberd and tail around, getting a good few hits in myself. It's quickly nearing half of its health, but just before I can get confident, a second bar flashes up for another gargoyle who was behind me, and starts breathing fire! I dodge it but unfortunately the other gargoyle, the one I'd been dealing with before, delivers a swift killing blow. It's the Maneaters all over again! And my battle with the gargoyles goes on for a while, I had no issue getting back to them (I actually got much better with parrying on my way up!), it was the battle with them which gave me the most cause for concern. The next time I got myself cornered to the side of the tower and couldn't escape their flames. On the attempt after that I focused mainly on the one who swooped in second and was breathing fire, and through quickly taking away my lock-on and running around to do some damage when it went to shoot flames, got it down to a slither of health, but the other one then got in the way and backed me into a wall where I couldn't escape the flames (again). I died again on my next run, when for the first time they both started using their fire-breathing abilities, but I managed to lop one of their tails off and snag a Gargoyle Tail Axe. Died again on my next run, managed to avoid taking damage altogether until the second one came out, and they wrecked shop again. Managed to die on my next run after that too, but this time found myself getting a better understanding of when to time my swigs of Estus and when to back off. After that attempt they cornered me again and unleashed their flames, so I died once again. At this point I'm not stressing over the fight, I'm still enjoying it, and am happy to continue...but I definitely start to feel a bit hot under the collar, and my cheeks feel pretty hot to the touch. I think it was the fact that I'd been going it for a good while at that point, consistently making it back to them, and then having that adrenaline pump through you that you get in these boss fights, which made me feel a bit too warm for my own comfort. I got back to the fog gate you step through to initiate the battle and then set my controller down, went and took a moment or two to breathe, and started chewing on some gum, which just helped me focus some of that anxious energy a bit more, as I felt a bit on edge. Quickly got to the point where the second gargoyle came out, managed to do a bit of damage and get it to about a quarter of it's health bar, but quite quickly ran out of Estus after that with only half of my health left -- and this was weirdly freeing! I didn't need to keep my distance to heal up, I just needed to keep my cool and focus on taking them out. Well, I say keep my cool, but I still had to risk everything by running around this fire-breathing gargoyle and just going for it until it collapsed. The other gargoyle managed a hit as I moved to a safe distance, and so I was a bit over a third of my health with no Estus and this gargoyle had just over half its health bar left... ...but I knew for a fact that once I got it down to one gargoyle, that I'd be able to manage. I moved in with my shield up (when is my shield not up in this game?), let it get a few hits in with my shield still up to protect me, but step by step got myself into the position where I was hugging this gargoyle's personal space. Locked on, strafed, slashed away at its hind quarters, and I didn't take any damage as I hacked away at it's health, and eventually put it out of it's misery. I did it! I carefully climbed up the tower and rung the first bell. With that I knew that Darkroot Garden and the Moonlight Butterfly would be my next targets on the way down towards the bell beneath the ground, and though I do have to come up with a plan for that battle, as I haven't used any ranged weapons yet, I know my way around there at least and so it shouldn't be too much of a struggle, I just need to keep an eye out for a bonfire too (not that it's too far from Andre, to be honest). Finished my session by levelling up some more and reinforcing my weapons to be a Broadsword+3 and Tower Kite Shield+3, along with reinforcing my Knight Armour to +1. Still getting to grips with it to some extent I guess, but I don't mind dying to bosses (and sub-bosses in the case of that weird headless armoured thing?) and learning more about how to deal with them (I've loved the bosses so far!), think it was just the fact that I'd been in pure boss battle mode for a bit longer than I'm used to which made me feel a little flush, so chose to end my session there. Look forward to taking out the Moonlight Butterfly next!

I find it hilarious to be honest. For as long as I've drawn breath, the national team has always been living in the shadow of what happened in 1966. I swear no other country talks about their World Cup triumphs (or just a single triumph, in our case) as much as we do. People will point the blame at Kane and I think it's embarrassing. Sure, he looks a little lethargic, but where was the service? Why did Foden come off? Why didn't Sancho come on? Why didn't Grealish come on earlier? As always, there's this massive chasm between our attacking and defending players, there just isn't a flow from back to front as you would want to make progress in a tournament. Scotland were resolute and compact, they came out with a plan, and stuck with it. They actually have a flow from the back of their to the front. Kudos to them, hope they can get a result against Croatia.

Yeah, this is why I don't care about England games and watch them reluctantly during tournaments. One of the most boring matches I've seen in a while. Sounds about right! Scotland look good though, unlucky they couldn't take more from this match. Playing with their hearts on their sleeves, could easily nab something when they come up against Croatia.

Box art looking good!

Amiibo are now up over at ShopTo for £29.85! Link. @BowserBasher @Dcubed @S.C.G not sure if you were waiting for the Nintendo store specifically, but figured I'd tag you just I'm case you're cool with ShopTo and can get there in time

Watched the new BBC Sport Ronaldo doc, Impossible to Ignore, last night. Decent watch and would recommend, though if you've read or seen anything on Ronaldo before, there's not too much new stuff to latch onto here. Was caught extremely off guard when I heard the first few notes of The Last of Us' theme come in just after 37 minutes, though. Never been more confused or intrigued during a documentary in my life than having that music play here

I'm not fully onboard with it, but it is really fun to speculate about. Kojima or not, this is one hell of an ARG. Kudos to whoever planned it, I think game marketing is boilerplate at best way too much of the time and it's nice to see someone spice it up. Just to play devil's advocate to your point about the Kickstarter though, they were bought out by a private investor under the strangest of circumstances when their Kickstarter didn't look like something worth backing, let alone not really having much of a history as a company to justify it. And then they turn out to be making a PlayStation exclusive, again with nothing to really show since they were bought out...it is just super weird. Geoff Keighley being onboard with whatever's going on is by far the strangest part to me though. A lot of the other stuff feels like you need to jump through hoops to explain, but there really is no explaining how an indie developer bought out by a private investor - and is now having their game worked on by a team called CREATEQ Interactive, another company with no real history - who has had nothing to really show for the last 5+ years is now being talked about by arguably the biggest hype man in the industry. Even if it's not Kojima, good lord do these people know how to market a game. Now, if it's not Kojima (which they've said multiple times), then I think they'll perhaps rightly get some blowback from this, as they've definitely leaned into it quite a bit, and every time they apologise they then lean into it even harder. Whole thing is bizarre and I have a tough time believing it, but I just want to see how this whole thing pans out! Yeah, as someone who never played P.T. as I didn't have a PS4 at the time (and didn't even know it existed), I've watched a playthrough on YouTube and all I can say is that is one twisted a demo. So definitely wouldn't be one for me either, kind of why I'm hoping it's not Kojima -- because then it's probably Del Toro and almost definitely Junji Ito too, and that guy's manga freaks me the hell out!

Remember back in April when this trailer for a new game called Abandoned by Blue Box Games was announced, and everyone was in a huff thinking that it was Kojima? And then the studio denied it was a game by Kojima? Well, if you're down for conspiracies and still open to the possibility that this is Kojima (not necessarily Silent Hills, but a horror game by Kojima), then start looking down this rabbit hole: And if you're down for a little extra spice: Remember too that the Director's Cut was the only game we were told we would be seeing again in the next few weeks, when there are no currently planned State of Plays as far as we are aware of. Could be a slip on Geoff's side, but I'm wondering if they're saving whatever this is for either Gamescom or that next State of Play, potentially alongside the Director's Cut. It's crazy and convoluted, which does make it sound a while lot like Kojima, and the straight up denial that this was a Kojima game got people to back off, but it's back in full force now, and I am here for it. I mean, just read it, it's so calculated that drawing up as a coincidence almost seems naive. Stock photos being used on LinkedIn for staff? A fake PSN account? We'll have to wait and see, but guess this speculation is here to stay a while longer!

BONFIRE LIT Yeah, I've been talking the last couple of months on here about how I'm starting to get a weird hunger to return to Souls after playing Demon's Souls at the end of last year, and even more so after the Elden Ring trailer. Well, with Rift Apart wrapped up last night and me still being off, I figured it was finally time to dive into Dark Souls. Just over 3 hours in, and I wanted to share my journey so far. So, right from the outset, the silent title screen was like the game trying to play mind games with me, and then I accidentally clicked a button as I put something down on my coffee table, and the silence was pierced by a sharp (and very loud) blade. Thanks, Dark Souls I was surprised by how few customisation options there were when setting up my character, but all the better, because I definitely tend to get distracted by those. Went with the Knight and I'll probably go with a Vitality/Strength/Endurance build like I did in Demon's Souls, just because it's been a little while and I love the heft of moving around in armour. I might change it up when I get to the next game, but for now, sword and board is how I'll be rolling. Started in the Undead Asylum, pitch black and could barely see as some of my blinds fell down the other day, so naturally had to pump up the brightness. As soon as I started making my way down the hallway I was filled with a whole lot of dread and questioned if I should really be playing this, that feeling of dread was what made Demon's Souls so tough to endure. I very slowly worked my way through the Asylum, constantly going back to the bonfire to replenish my health, as I wanted to make use of something I used sparingly in Demon's Souls: parrying (and by extension, the riposte). Practiced a fair bit before I made it into a massive room which screamed boss arena, so I moved to the edge of the room and the Asylum Demon jumped on. I'd spotted a door on the other side as I walked in the room, so made my way around the Asylum Demon before sprinting through the door and it closed behind me. Looped around, checked out as much as I could, and then ended up above it to land a plunging attack, which took off a massive chunk of its health. Kept my distance where I could, kept an eye on my health, rolled into attacks and made liberal use of some i-frames before landing a few hits to its belly, and a couple of minutes later it was down. I know I've beaten Demon's Souls at this point, so I've faced objectively tougher bosses, but getting past Asylum Demon really calmed my nerves, and I was happy to go forward. And so I did, then this massive crow grabbed me from above and flew away with me. The end. But no, jokes aside, crow kindly dropped me off in Firelink Shrine (which has awesome music by the way). Funnily enough, my instinct after seeing different directions to go in and explore was to reach for a map on my controller (I went to press Options) before I noticed what I was doing, knowing there wasn't a map, and smiling to myself. Spoke to the NPC's around there, one I bugged into telling me about ringing some bells (one up above and one below ground) and another who asked me to join a cult -- naturally, I agreed. Did a little looking around, found some chests and got locked in that area so used a Homeward Bone that was in one of the chests, then started heading upwards (you're crazy if you think I'm going downwards first!). Practiced a bit on these skeleton dudes too, and this bring me to my first death in Dark Souls: no, not to the skeletons, but not knowing how the jump works and so falling as I tried to reach a ledge to get across to some loot! Continued upwards and made it to Undead Burg, slowly but surely making light work of these skeleton warriors and continuing to get more and more comfortable with the parry and riposte. Already appreciate the level design and how things connect, keeping an eye out for paths and rooms not immediately obvious. I made my way down and saw the back of this black knight seemingly protecting something, but the guy was huge -- left him alone. Eventually got to this point where I was circling this tower before stepping through a fog gate onto a bridge, and noticed a ladder to the side of me, so I climbed it and killed some skeleton archers. Nothing up there, so continued across the bridge and the Taurus Demon came leaping from the sky. We danced around a little bit before I thought I'd try climbing that ladder and seeing if I could attempt a plunging attack on it from up there, and surely enough I could. Again, tried to keep my distance with an eye on my health, after plunging down would draw him out to the middle and then sprint for the ladder, and there was one time I was up there and plunged down and it jumped up which took me by surprise! But, no problems here, a couple of plunging attacks and the Taurus Demon was down. Only death at this point was still that damn jump! Continued on thinking there would be a bonfire, came across a bridge filled with skeletons, so went the other way and met Solaire. Then, as the football was on and I felt like taking a break, did something very silly: walked all the way back to that last bonfire to save my souls, lit it, levelled up, and quit the game. Went back on after the football and some food, and my second session with the game went nowhere near as smoothly as the first. Had to make my way through much of Undead Burg again to get to the bridge, as I made my way back over I felt a bit off with parrying again and found myself getting hit a bit more than I was earlier, so spent a bit more time practicing again. Made it halfway across the bridge after a red dragon tried to burn me to a crisp, so went beneath the bridge after noticing there was a room beneath the red dragon with what looked like a bonfire, and noticed an archway to my right which had stairs going down. Well, I want to move parallel to the bridge if anything, so went the other way. Killed a couple of skeletons under the bridge in pretty tight spots, got across to some rats and got myself poisoned, with only one Estus Flask left, so I used it. Regrettably, I figured the bonfire was directly above me and surely I could make it there in a hurry, so I rushed up and as 'Undead Parish' flashed across the screen and a skeleton came towards me, I succumbed to the poison. That was death #2. Then I made the long trek back there again and tried making my way across the bridge to the room beneath the dragon, but was engulfed in flames, and so lost my first souls in Dark Souls. Death #3, no big deal. So I got back there again, got under the bridge, but this time figured I'd go down that right path...and of course it knocks a ladder down to the bonfire I went back to earlier and had been making my way all the way over from levelled up some more, climbed the ladder back up, made my way back over there to the Undead Parish and found a sign saying there was a tough enemy ahead. I thought it was referencing the giant, armour-plated boar I'd spotted up ahead, so made my way up this spiralling staircase and came face-to-face with a massive knight like the one I saw earlier. Tried to run, but that guy was not slow, and my shield clearly wasn't durable enough, as he made pretty light work of me once he caught up! Death #4. Then on my next run I got poisoned by the rats again, but had all my Estus Flasks, so cheekily grabbed the souls from the start of Undead Parish and made it back to the bonfire before succumbing to poison and allowing myself to use those souls (why I didn't just light the bonfire I have no idea!). Death #5. Then got through a decent chunk of Undead Parish, backstabbed one of these tall skeletons with a cape and a cool black helmet and managed a riposte first time, but died to the next one I came across with a bigger shield. Death #6. I got back to the boar and after clearing the area decided to take it on, so lured it down the steps to the ladder I emerged into the Undead Parish from, and every time it walked away plunged my sword deep into its behind -- weirdest sentence I've typed on here I know, and weirdest backstab in Souls for me so far for sure. Then retrieved those souls and died to the skeleton knight again (Death #7), so got back there, retrieved those souls, got back to the bonfire and levelled up before deciding to change my strategy and see if I could make it past the red dragon. Naturally, I died while trying to sprint across. Death #8. Went back up there, got in position after hiding from its initial flames, the my fan started playing up so I messed with the controls and the red dragon jumped up (before scorching me again). Death #9, but it taught me what to do! Waited there a minute and what do you know, the red dragon jumps up then down onto the bridge, so I sprint past through his legs, and quickly turn the corner upon entering the room with a bonfire -- as I learned from the red dragon in Demon's Souls, you're never safe from their flames! Lit the bonfire, went outside to the right and found some guys either praising the sun or just being weird, so went back inside, pulled a lever to open the gate...wait, those steps look familiar...and found myself back at the start of the Undead Parish. Chuckled to myself, lit the bonfire again to auto-save, then left it there for the evening. I won't be counting deaths moving forwards (at least I don't plan to!), but I was really happy and a bit proud that I was able to take down the first two bosses and make it through Undead Burg with only one death suffered when trying to reach that ledge (oh yeah, I've learned how to jump properly since by the way!). I counted the other deaths mainly because it was funny how quickly things went downhill in my second session, but each time I was getting farther or trying new things out, so it was time well spent. Took a little time to get my head around Humanity before I successfully restored my humanity and kindled a flame for the first time, but it's getting there. After that initial hump I had to get over in the first 30 minutes as I made my way through the Undead Asylum - where I was making up excuses to put the game off and questioning if I was in the right frame of mind or if I could actually even beat the game - things just clicked right back into place and I felt comfortable with it, something I didn't truly feel with Demon's Souls until after beating my head against the wall taking on the Adjudicator, beating Flamelurker, and taking out some Archdemons, but it felt much later in the game compared to this. Sure, I've been dying, but I'm not getting phased by it as I found myself feeling early on in Demon's Souls. I look forward to taking further steps forward tomorrow, but I'm really enjoying it so far: the design of the levels, the brief moments of music, learning enemy attacks, getting more proficient with parrying and ripostes, and learning from my mistakes, and branching off from that - most importantly! - not being afraid to try something new that I didn't try in my last run.

Well there we go, unlucky for Denmark but once Belgium started making changes things just stopped going their way. I understand some of their key players are recovering, but playing without their spine in the first half speaks volumes about why Belgium were such a scattered mess over the pitch. Yeah, a lot of teams are just missing that efficiency in the final third to get them over edge and just pass it around for the sake of doing so (ahem, Spain); it's pretty rare that a team uses increased possession effectively. Was a good match in the end, but Belgium's spine needs to get fit pretty quickly in my eyes, they can't go on risking a repeat of their first half performance today.

Lukaku's holding play there was insane, you love to it. Wonderful passing play there from Belgium and such a controlled strike by Dr Bruyne. Lovely gesture to not celebrate it too. Feel sorry for this Denmark team, they started great in the first half but didn't take their chances, and just started petering out of energy when the changes to bring on De Bruyne, Hazard, and Witsel were made.

Lukaku's run and De Bruyne's pass were lovely, a worthy equaliser. Denmark will be ruing that they didn't take any of the earlier chances to extend their lead.