darksnowman

Yuck, now there's a corner of the Internet I hope I never end up in. Ronaldo thought he was returning like the prodigal son to cement his place in Man U folklore and fire you from second back to the top of the tree. Even his powers have limits!

Haven't played Splatoon 1 and only did the Game Trial of 2 so this new one looks amazing to me. I expected 3 to come along much sooner or I'd have got 2 long ago (similar to Mario Kart 8 to 9...) so I'm more than ready to get into this de Blob shooter. Only thing that will deter me is if I get a whiff of the recent Nintendo sports titles off it. And if they announce DLC in this Direct. No need. Just get a full game out and take it from there. Speaking of stupid issues upon starting up games, can we move past this "Press L + R to Start" malarky? I'm not even joking. In Pikmin 3 nothing else seems to work. Let me press start to play. Let me press A to play. Please Nintendo.

Heard Souness say they'd have finished 14th last season if you take Ronaldo's 18 goals out of the equation. Crazy.

Guess I've been conditioned by the footy news I absorb where Man U is always the hot topic, win lose or draw. I'd love a good look at what Brighton did rather than "credit Brighton [or insert opposition team here], but United..." or some good early analysis on how Spurs are looking after Conte knackering them in pre-season vs this time last year with Nuno, or how are Newcastle looking and what's realistic for Newcastle this term? Are Everton as good as gone? Are Leicester going to be in freefall unless they get bodies in? Second season syndrome for Brentford? These kinds of things get paid lip service at best then it's back to United. Like last year after the Liverpool and City games at Old Trafford, there was no in-depth look at the attacking prowess of those teams--that was brushed aside to get onto United... Haven't plucked up the courage to check in on the fantasy footy as I know they were a bunch of duds.

Super stuff. Looking forward to this in a big way so I'll be glad to learn what I can about it between now and launch.

Yeah, I heard an interview with one of the Brighton players on Friday and they said Old Trafford is always daunting. That much hasn't changed. Unfortunately for United, that twelfth man effect can only do so much before the XI on the pitch starts crumbling. I would have had Brighton down as a team that was getting some joy on away days at Man U in recent years so there you are. Oh well, looks like that's yet another source of points gone for the red devils.

Went through both new cups on 50cc after which I unlocked the 5,000 coin vehicle customisation option.

Just wrapped up the main game. Didn't see that coming as I felt the game was still in the process of ramping up. What turned out to be the final area was a good test and the only place I ended up using the restart option, as the knowledge I gathered with each attempt helped me get a bit further next time with some fewer losses. Basically, with everyone getting divided up, this kind of end-of-day outcome was going to be unsustainable before long: No chief, I failed them. In this quest to retrieve the Cosmic Key Drive, I'm really not sure the ends justified the means. Final stats screen showed 427 losses over the course of the game. I can only hope they honour our fallen Pikmin comrades by cultivating the seeds from the fruit I sent back to put an end to their food shortages forever. Don't check this if you're feeling weak of stomach, @viceview51! Lovely credits sequence to top off an excellent game. Those that survived will do a fine job of fending for themselves. There's some more things to go back and finish off like the 10-min levels and some fruit pieces left to grab so I reckon I'll still be on it for those--it's too soon to put this one to bed yet.

Thought Ten Hag would have instilled some confidence in them or at least put them through some drills so they have some ideas of what to do without being lost all the time... but nope. He needs time and resources though will need to show there's progress before long. Biggest surprise is probably that that's Brighton's first win at Old Trafford?? United must have been snatching draws off them until now.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond Bale was scoring a Messi-esque goal. They're calling it world class but I've seen better defending in the Irish League which is literally a farmers league. It's looking like they're picking up where they left off. Ten Hag: Cristiano, get yourself down the touchline for a warm-up. Ronaldo: Saunters down the side of the pitch, makes for the tunnel like butter wouldn't melt and off home. Ten Hag: Puffs cheeks and takes out his phone to draft the apology to the fans.

Who's gonna be the first player to open the floodgates this season with the social media apologies. Or has Ten Hag banned those, can't remember the new rules and regs.

It would have been really nice to have the DQ edition over here. Pity they never did any more 3DS follow-ups. Since they adapted it to home consoles for Kingdom Hearts, it might be cool if S-E cosied up to Nintendo for Theatrhythm Mario RPG Series or something. Or maybe Nintendo is still under contract with dance mat. How's that work in Curtain Call? Is it still one item equip that will be auto-used during the FMS or BMS? And is what moves you equip on characters still limited by their available CP? I checked the shard requirements of some more of my silhouetted characters vs my dark notes and closed out a few more unlocks. Snow (FF XIII) whose silhouette I thought was going to be Yuna but checking the roster I already have a lvl 1 Yuna available so I should've known better really, Kain (FF IV) and Cosmos from FF. FF doesn't mean FF I so I haven't the foggiest what this unnumbered entry is. Not sure how much it helped though I went ahead and used some Tantal Greens and Gysahl Greens just to make sure I'd get far enough on the FMS to get a shot at Boss 2 or 3 -- 3 being where my shard drops were waiting. I'm at no risk of dying on these dark notes so potions and phoenix downs aren't needed and I'm not bothered about what summon I get so I've seen no need to use the summon items. Figured I might as well be using something so the greens it was.

It's all right if you don't get familiar with them because if you're at the back then you'll be on @S.C.G's stream.

The Pool were in snooze control today until Milner and Darwin were thrown on. Even for that last 30 mins when they started to threaten, Fulham didn't fold.

The catch-up event is indeed happening here--saw it on the Switch news feed. Think I'm only short the WarioWare: Get it Together! theme from this bunch but I went on anyway for a few games in the Bowser's Fury theme. What a game Bowser's Fury is. Really should have replayed it by now.

I've plenty of platinum coins put by for the Etrian Odyssey icons that'll be up any week now.

Blue (All Rise) Pikmin saved from the brink of possible extinction and the others have enjoyed a few days of me going relatively easy on them--some drowned just now, but that aside we've managed to get through a couple of days without me leaving them for the overnight predators... or incorrectly predicting what the lock-on would catch and throwing them to their doom... or just not getting a lock-on and dropping an explosive rock slapbang the middle of the entire group (RIP x98)... or mistiming a throw and launching them straight down the gaping gullet of an enemy... or... yeah you get the idea. In the spirit of balance and equality, it's not exactly looking good for the Koppaite trio either. Just the one ration of juice remaining.

Heads up, @Glen-i. There's a Kirby and the Forgotten Land profile pic that might be up your alley.

I think I had the credits rolling in the first one before I was hardly into it too. There's still plenty left to go for after that. Managed to get a new character in the original--Seifer (FF VIII). When checking through the Chaos Shrines I found dark note where the first boss would drop Gray Shards so I went through it a few times to secure the unlock. Seven shadowed-out characters still remain so I might check what colour shards are required and search out the corresponding dark notes.

You need to catch up, then! Liverpool have players like Salah and Diaz who won't be at the World Cup, so if they play their cards right, those players can go for it now until the tournament comes around, then have a break and theoretically be fresh to go again from Boxing Day onwards. It's going to be a weird season with this pause but it could be interesting to see how (and if) it benefits teams with fewer international players.

Indeed. The full house for the Wave 2 inauguration was great to see. Can see that too. I was wondering if Vanellope Von Schweetz was lurking somewhere in the background until the whole suspended in midair aspect took precedence for me and it seemed more like a Fall Guys race. Always thought that too. In fact, I've just looked it up and there was Sugar Rush Speedway.

Sky High Sundae is a Fall Guys rip-off.

I like the inclusion of the bikes. Once I got used to the cornering, I played with them a lot on MK Wii with the wheel. At the moment I'm okay playing Mario Kart again but I'll never say never to going back to two wheels and tilt controls.

"Now in development"?? I was hoping to read COMING THIS HALLOWEEN. Looks pretty nice. Hope it delivers.

Btw this isn't a karaoke game. Sorry. Och go on. Just for a couple of songs sure. It'll only take ten mins of your time then you can get back to the big boy gaming. Don't think I got around to min-maxing the character loadout but I'm partial to the Onion Knight. Just been back into the Chaos Shrine for a few runs. I subbed in two lvl 99 characters to pick up the slack from the others I was levelling and down some bosses in the meantime. A few shards dropped but I burned through my ribbons in the process--didn't realise/forgot they were consumable. I could do with clearing the list out so I can get a look at the queue of street pass pickups that are waiting. That Into the Giant music has got me hungry for some FF IV. Now where'd the DS cartridge get to...?