Julius

I respectfully disagree: Monaco won Ligue 1 last season having only been promoted back to Le Premier back in 2012/13, with signings in the coming seasons such as Joao Moutinho, James Rodriguez and Falcao coming as a result of having a Russian ogliarch for an owner, but said owner has recently lowered his investments significantly due to an extremely costly divorce and the club has flourished under the development of new brass. As made clear by last season's championship triumph, Monaco have a very strong team and a great manager in Leonardo Jardim, but there are plenty of other teams which have great potential. Nice - Mario Balotelli's team - finished third last season and have signed Wesley Sneijder this summer and have a good manager in Lucien Favre. Similarly, Lille have a strong manager in Marcelo Bielsa, Marseille - who were bought out last October and have been investing in a new initiative - have Rudy Garcia, Nantes have Sérgio Conceição, and Bordeaux - who have recently changed president to someone committed to keeping their band of young players with great potential together - have Jocelyn Gourvennec. Lyon is also expected to make use of their profits this summer over the next few years having already brought in Memphis Depay and Bertrand Traore this year. Whilst this by no means spells success for the championship in the future, I would argue that, all around, it is a lot stronger than it was some five years ago and has become much more competitive than Serie A at any rate. As for Mbappe's move, whilst I agree that the championship as a whole is weakened by his move, I think it was an obvious step for him to make: he was born in Paris and still has a lot of family in Paris. A move away from Monaco - technically a principality and not even part of France - to his hometown of Paris makes a lot of sense, and the money used to fund his move can only aid in Monaco's growth - one would hope - in the coming years.

And now Lemar wanting to stay at Monaco (to play in the UCL and not the UEL - ouch) makes much more sense: Mbappe has just completed a move to PSG, and it's the most insanely sly workaround of Financial Fair Play I think we'll ever see, with a loan deal for the 2017/2018 season being followed by a compulsory purchase clause at the start of next season set to make him the world's second most expensive player at €180m. I thought their ambition to win the UCL was supposed to be a long-term one? If Mbappe and Neymar can both stay fit and gel, French and European football is about to get a very loud wake-up call.

Very happy to see Renato Sanches given the chance to go out on loan to Swansea and play under Paul Clement; he's got a lot to prove in the build-up to next year's World Cup and, if he can stay fit - and confident - I can see him being a great catalyst in the engine room for them. It's blown my mind these last few years just how many times we've seen top-6 PL players leave for another top-6 team, and increasingly so in the last 18 months, with Matic to United highlighting that. Sanchez to Man City would all but sink Arsenal this season in my eyes and effectively make the title race one with three horses instead of just two if these first few rounds are anything to go by, and the teams supposedly have a verbal agreement for a £60m which Arsenal is only willing to finalise if they can bring in a replacement - which they can't realistically do until Sanchez is sold or a few loans are finalised because of the new Short Term Cost Control rules brought into play this season (meaning that they can only increase their wage bill by £7m from last season). I've been absolutely appalled by CFC's business so far this summer, and don't expect to see much improvement tonight. We need at least another first team quality striker, winger and central midfielder, and one could perhaps argue for another wing back and centre back too. We've known all summer that we were going back into the UCL this term, and I'm confused by Abramovich's decision to not back us in the transfer market this time around, especially given the speech he gave to the team in the dressing room back in 2012 when we unexpectedly won the UCL and he vocalised his desire for it to be the first in a line of triumphs in Europe's greatest club competition. I'd go so far as to argue that this team - on paper - is even weaker than the one with which Mourinho nosedived a couple of seasons ago in terms of sheer numbers and quality, and I can see us having major problems come February/March should we make it to the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

New gameplay trailer. Coming January 23rd 2018.

Square Enix's choice to have the original Secret of Mana on the SNES Classic suddenly makes a lot of sense: it's absolutely a well-timed move to grow the fan base before the release of this remake. I can definitely see Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger receiving similar treatment in the years to come, but it's a shame we don't have a confirmation for it coming to Switch yet.

This sounds absolutely awesome, and the artwork looks great, but it instantly brought Atlus's Project Re Fantasy, another fantasy RPG brought to life by a Japanese studio, to mind. Just found it weird to find out another great JRPG studio was working on a fantasy RPG is all, but this looks great so far, and to announce this project ahead of XC2's release later this year only reaffirms my belief that they're much further along than many believe (in translation, general code clean-up and scoring still is my guess) with that game. Bring it on is all I have to say, I'm all for a fantasy action JRPG coming to Switch!

If this does turn out to be the case - and judging by the images it very well could be, though I've yet to watch the trailer myself (due to sketchy connections whilst on holiday) - then I could certainly foresee many fans, potentially myself included, being upset with TPCI on this occasion. Not only is the story of SM being somewhat retconned with what seems to be an alternative story (outlined in the descriptions and the earlier trailer) in USUM, as opposed to a much more anticipated potential sequel, it could potentially be taking us back to Kanto (and with an alternative story, it's possibly that Lillie doesn't even leave for Kanto in the end), a move which would have made much more sense in SM which were celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the franchise, perhaps especially so considering the circumstances presented at the end of the games, and it's a move which could be seen as a cash grab by many. This is something I've personally been screaming for since we found out about Sun and Moon last February - in my opinion, as I mentioned before, it made a lot of sense to revisit the region given it was an anniversary year for the franchise, and the Gen I rereleases, I argued, only played into a potential return, making us familiar once again with the region in its classic form before a potential return some 10+ in-universe years later - and something I know that many more seasoned fans than myself have argued against the logic of, considering the limitations of the 3DS (and perhaps this makes even less sense considering some performance issues with SM). The truth is, this potential news has totally got me back on board, but it annoys and confuses me to no end that, if a return to Kanto is indeed in the cards, this will be the only real "pull" for me to play USUM. An alternative to the subjectively great story and characters of the objectively well-critiqued SM didn't grab my interest at all, to the point where I was planning on skipping these games entirely, but now that a return to Kanto could be on the cards? It will be interesting to see how much more Kanto we potentially see in marketing for the games leading up to November, but I feel this potential news would have landed much better had these games been sequels.

https://mobile.twitter.com/LEGO_Group/status/897489066425552901 Starkiller Base or Snoke's mobile command centre, that will probably feature in The Last Jedi (and as thus be a great tie-in) and was hinted at during the TFA build-up and cooldown, perhaps? The inclusion of D'Qar's ring is an intriguing one, for sure... The promise of the largest LEGO Star Wars set ever is a pretty huge one: the Ultimate Collector's Series Millenium Falcon bricks in at 5195 pieces (with the infamous Death Star sets at merely 3000+). Whatever it is, i can't wait - it's been a while since I've bought some LEGO, so it seems like a set to keep an eye on!

I'm absolutely fussed, and deeply concerned, by what I saw yesterday from the club. We're aiming to go far in each and every competition, with the additional European matches until at least December in the CL, and yet our squad list is still ridiculously shorter than Arsenal's. We need a full-back or two, a central midfielder or two, another playmaker, a winger, and at least one more striker at a bare minimum, in my opinion. Remy should be on the way out, Costa is on his way out, etc., and it's crazy to me that Matic was allowed to leave for United to join up with Mourinho (who, as my own personal conspiracy goes, only really came back to Chelsea to make us crumble, despite the PL triumph). The way I see it, we still haven't got around to replacing Lampard with a similar box-to-box midfielder, despite it being a few seasons since he left, who can both play deep and serve us creatively, and Morata is more of a playmaking striker with stylised play than he is a poacher - which we're sorely going to need if we want to be pushing for trophies this year. He doesn't suit our current formation at all, and won't score bags of goals unless the formation is changed accordingly to a 4-3-3, 4-5-1 or a 4-2-3-1. I think we should be after Isco and Mario Gomez to fulfil those two roles, personally, and we're already chasing the right names at full-backs (Alex Sandro). I really hope Conte figures out now that his tactics from last season aren't going to work as well this season - whether that be the formation or using practically the same team every game - and gets everyone in that he wants to; I don't want to feel that the board is, once again, to blame for the club's poor performance in a transfer window. We've still got three and a half weeks to go, but this is probably the most concerned I've been about the state - and size - of the squad since I started supporting Chelsea some 15 years or more ago. As for Neymar...WOW, I did not see that coming. I don't think anyone did until it was far too late, to be honest, Barça included. People may complain, but the game has been revolving around the El Clasico duo's performance in the Champions League for far too long now, so I welcome the move, no matter how ridiculous that amount of money is. I just hope Barça make the right move in filling the massive gap he's left in their squad in time, and I think Dembele or Dybala would be their best options (even if it means Messi has to move to a more central position).

I think the key problem with this price hike is the way they've gone about doing it: by telling fans you're pretty much going to be doing more of the same - which fans aren't too happy with as is - there is no immediate justification for the sudden increase in price; then again, if I recall correctly, the US got a similar price hike last year and it was likely shelved for Europe until it was clear that the £/€ had more-or-less balanced out. Can you imagine what fans would have been screaming if they hiked up the prices last year when the £ and € were so volatile during the months leading up to and following Brexit? i think it's also interesting to note that rumours of a 5.0 update coming this autumn have been floating around recently, and, take this with a grain of salt, will supposedly finally allow us to change our PSN usernames, along with many other rather major updates (or so the rumour went). If the rumours are true, then this price hike doesn't surprise me too much - especially in combination with the stabilisation of the £ and € in comparison to last year when prices were increased in the US - but again, it's this apparent lack of transparency which I think is pushing people to the point where they feel that now is the time to say "I'm out" when it comes to PS+. A statement such as "Our prices will be increasing in Europe after the US received an increase in PS+ subscription price last year. We have big plans for the PlayStation 4 5.0 update, such as the long-awaited feature to change PSN usernames amongst many other new features, and plan to overhaul our online capabilities to deliver the best online experience for you, the player. Stay tuned for more, PlayStation." would have gone down a lot better than how their current statement has gone down, and now any plans to overhaul online functionality or for update 5.0 will now be seen as a response to player reaction as opposed to being seen as it's own announcement. They've made this announcement a lot messier than it should have been, that's for sure.

Yeah, that's how I think it will end too (I can see Kylo achieving his goals to rule the galaxy in IX - possibly by usurping Snoke). If this were the case, then the next trilogy would probably go about telling Kylo's journey to the light (coming full circle and reflecting Anakin's journey from light to dark, keeping the ring theory in place). Whilst I agree that there are many talented individuals in the film industry these days, I think the chance of taking an Episode X, XI or XII almost instantly limits the story that you are allowed to tell (especially with the story group in place). And, while I don't believe TFA to be the greatest score from the films, I think there is a depth that is only unravelled by repeat viewings of the film/listenings of the score, and it has much more depth and weight than any score to come before it in a Star Wars film, in my opinion. Rey's Theme was great (the piece and her two motifs), as were Kylo's two motifs and a lot of the work with the Force theme this time around.

I'm madly in love with Star Wars and yet I actually find myself - currently, I guess - not wanting Episodes X, XI and XII. Crazy, I know. I can't pin down why exactly this is, but I can think of a few reasons as to why it might be the case, such as George Lucas only having originally planned for nine films to tell the Skywalker story (regardless of whether or not Rey is a Skywalker, I think Kylo, Luke and Leia can be argued to carry on this tradition), the thought of an episodic saga film not being scored by John Williams (I'm worried about him getting the chance to score IX as it is) or the fact that I want to see completely new ideas with a completely new set of characters without the necessity to tie the plot into the Skywalker story, such as an Old Republic era trilogy/saga, a story steeped in political drama or - as I would like to see - something completely new and off the wall. The truth, I feel, is that this universe is so HUGE that to only allow the feeling of the development of characters or the passage of time over multiple films is lost if it's only going to be applied to the Skywalker-centric movies. In LFL, Kathleen Kennedy and the story group I trust, but I want there to be films capable of capturing huge interest and box office without having to be an Episode X, XI or XII. I suppose it's worth mentioning the ring theory - and how LFL seems to be preserving it to some extent - had clearly been applied to VII and could hold up with ending the Episodes with IX or continuing onto a XII, but I do want to see a definitive and complete end to the Skywalker's arc in the galaxy far, far away before it becomes tedious in Episode XXIV.

New trailer for IT.

As in romantic interest. It's pretty weird to think about - and off the table if they're related - at first, but there's quite a bit of evidence to support it (I'm not the biggest fan of the idea, though; guess we'll have to see how TLJ turns out).

Listed in Nintendo's financial release as "2018 or later".

I read this yesterday on the BBC @Grazza, and it has me thoroughly concerned too. Like it or not, I think humanity's beginning to fall victim to its own designs, whether that be in societal structuring, power- and money-hungry ideologies that we all "need" more and more (which is ingrained in our minds by the media - just to make a quick point, Samsung spent more on advertising than Norway's population earned working back in 2012, and I can only hazard a guess that it's got even worse) or the belief that our mindset is all that matters, instead accepting solipsism as the way the world is as opposed to accepting that we, as a species, fail to address a lot of the problems we come across in our day-to-day lives and resort to escapism; it's no coincidence that the film and video game industries are at an all-time high (in almost any metric you can find, whether it be numbers of games sold, distributor revenues, or anything else) in a world filled with stressed and confused inhabitants who are beginning to fail at fulfilling our roles for society rather than in society; a good education and jobs, and the stress that comes with them, is wearing our species thin. Whilst terrorism and war fill the news and we are made aware of such cruel actions against one another, I think we forget to be mindful and spend time looking inwards: the onslaught of advertising; the constant stream of news; it's a bombardment of the mind which is damaging the human psyche as a whole, and I think we'll see it talked about for a while to come before - eventually - we acknowledge and act upon the knowledge that we weren't designed (whether you think that be by a God/gods or by evolution, or even a fair share of both) to live the lives we current find ourselves living. This was a very important topic to bring up, so I'm glad you decided to start the conversation, @Grazza (with the way things our going I feel that a "Serious Talk: Big Issues" thread will come about sooner or later). Humans face more challenges in a day today than we did some 10,000 years ago in a week - perhaps even in a month - and I think we stand to learn from, and, I pray, overcome the current climate of living; many might say that this is simply another apocalyptic scenario being thrown out there, but, like with global warming, the warning signs have been in place for decades now (hence the article) and yet we still won't see much in the ways of action regarding this matter by those better positioned to do so than ourselves.

I absolutely agree, especially as I think this upcoming film - and the saga as a whole - stands to gain more from her being Luke's daughter rather than anyone else's from a story point of view. Whilst others might argue it's too predictable, I don't actually think the reveal of Rey's parents is supposed to be the big "No, I am your father" twist this time around, especially seeing as Daisy Ridley revealed that she thought it was obvious who Rey's parent/s were after TFA was released, and others involved have confirmed that it will be something dealt with in the film. You know, things you genuinely avoid doing if you're trying to hide a massive twist. In fact, I'd suggest that this is due to the current state of cinematic entertainment - be it video games, books, TV shows or films - viewing twists and surprises as almost a necessity, which has programmed the audience to make predictions about such twists well ahead of their time. I'd even go so far as to suggest that Lucasfilm is playing into this and, by doing so, will be able to pull off other genuine twists throughout The Last Jedi, whether it concerns Luke's, Ben's/Kylo's or Rey's past, or another character altogether, such as Finn potentially being a First Order sleeper agent planted in the Resistance. The Rey Kenobi theory is probably the only serious Star Wars theory that's really grated on me as it's gone on. I mean, forgetting the supplementary material in The Clone Wars and Rebels for a moment...pretty much everything he did in the films goes against the idea of him having a child. I've also seen a lot more Reylo theories floating around these days...and the more evidence I see, the more likely it seems

I just gave this thread a quick scroll and, surprisingly, didn't see any takes on whether or not Luke is Rey's father. So, what is everyone's take on Rey being Luke's daughter, or do you think she's related to someone else we've already met? Or is she just Rey Random?

Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War currently clock in at 100 minutes (which would make it the shortest MCU film) and 150+ minutes (which would make it the longest MCU film), respectively, in their current states, according to the respective directors of each film.

Agreed, though I think it's worth mentioning that we have at least one core Avengers member (from the first film, I mean) in each "team", so I think it's for te balance more than anything. I suppose location at the start of the film could play into it too (what with Bucky being in Wakanda and all).

Three separate posters came out of SDCC, but I held off on posting any after it became apparent that they would line up: I know we don't officially have the trailer yet, but it's something else entirely to see everything culminate on one beautiful poster! I'm sure Disney's going to break some cinema chains considering everything they've got planned for release next summer

I'm leaning towards the latter, considering just how long those rumours have persisted for. If the order of film announcements reflects the order in which the films are planned to be released, inactually think we have more of a reason now to believe he'll be leaving (with Flashpoint after The Batman, it's entirely possible that they came to an agreement to see how things go and that if Ben still desires to leave, they'll usher him out much more smoothly than would have been possible).

Well, I mean, that's exactly what would happen if an actor wanted out, and Ben Affleck supposedly wants out. Lex Luthor could then be recast, too. I think the biggest problem with DC so far is just how far off the portrayals of many major characters are in comparison to the character that many of the audience know them for being (such as Batman willingly killing people). It's not that the films are too dark, in front of the lens or in the script, but that people simply don't recognise these characters as the ones they know, which is why I'd argue that Spider-Man: Homecoming is a great film in that it clearly portrays a Peter Parker/Spider-Man that everyone already feels attached to due to such familiarity (pushed further by the orchestral take on the theme song).

Well, I mean, Flashpoint is arguably the most well known Flash-centric comic that is just as much a Justice League story, and I'm fairly confident that this will shake up the DCEU at least as much as Civil War did the MCU (and serve as a JL 1.5 by all means by my reckoning). I also highly doubt it's the one they've been working on for some time, what with the 3 directors it's had - and lost - and the numerous treatments the script has gone through, though if it is reshaping the future of the DCEU, it's entirely possible that it is (but then again, the three directors they had on board prior to this announcement weren't exactly bona fide blockbuster directors, let alone directors that have shown that they're capable of pulling such a story off) considering just how many treatments it's gone through.

SDCC 2017: MARVEL STUDIOS PANEL ROUND-UP The Infinity War footage which debuted last weekend during Disney's own D23 Expo closed out the panel.