Fierce_LiNk

I'm not bothered about portability at all, so I'd put battery life right at the bottom of my list. I do agree with @Serebii that battery technology hasn't improved enough and that should be a priority for those that do require it. If I were to play a game in bed, there are plenty of plug sockets around which negate the need for relying on an internal battery. The only time it would affect me is if I were outside of the house. I think the Eurostar has electrical sockets on certain carriages, so that's fine. I don't take the bus, I can't use it whilst driving (not legally, anyway), so that minimises when and where I'd use it. So, taking all of this into consideration, battery life is not important to me. After that, I'd go for frame-rate, then features (such as party chat, online connectivity, other processes) and then resolution.

It's a shame that Pardew has gone. But, it says a lot about other British choices when the next best thing is Allerdyce. This country desperately needs the next crop of young, talented managers to come through.

It's actually a bit nuts about how so many major shooters all arrived at the same time. The DLC for Battlefront has hit and we've just bought Overwatch. I haven't even touched either of those yet and still also want Battlefield 1 and am quite eager to try out Titanfall!

Saw this recently and have to agree with all that you said. It reminds me a lot of films like Contact and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Very similar in feel. It all comes together nicely in the end that leaves you with lots of questions and things to think about afterwards. I'm curious about how well it would hold up on a second run through due to the viewer knowing the answers behind the mysteries throughout the film.

Cheers for the mention, Haden. I don't think I'll be joining up though. I've lost my Xpert buzzzzzz.

It doesn't matter which character he plays. I will always know him as Trevor!

I try and arrange when I'm going to play games based on what's happening in my life around that time. E.g. if I know I've got a break coming up, I'll do a bigger or more time-consuming game or two. If I've got parent's evenings, meeting and so on, I'll make it either something shorter or will play some Street Fighter or FIFA. I don't feel that you have to play games right away as soon as you buy them. I don't mind waiting. But, I'm trying to get into the mentality of finishing my games and so I won't really alternate between two or three bigger game. I've just finished the Bioshock games and didn't play anything else in between. Same when I had the Uncharted games on the go. It's better for me because it means that I can't lose focus and can fully engross myself within a certain game's universe better than if I had to dip in and out often

Yeah, it's great viewing. I didn't feel that there were any or many standout episodes. It's strange. There's not one episode where I think back and say to myself, "that was a MAJOR episode" or stuff. But, the quality is consistently high. I wouldn't say that there's a meh episode, either. Curious to see where they go from here.

I'll try and squeeze it in when I have time. Have you not played Infinite? Just curious why you'd watch a critique of it before playing it yourself.

I finished Bioshock Infinite yesterday morning and, again, it's just been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. 10/10 ending, too. One of the finest gaming stories/endings that I've ever witnessed. I've been thinking about it a lot over the past day and I'm completely sucked in. Wow. I only paid something around £30 for the collection. A complete steal considering the quality of these games!

Bioshock Infinite I finished this in the early hours of yesterday morning. All that I can say is fucking wow! The game is graphically stunning (mostly down to art style) and the story is superb. I was blown away by the revelations at the end:

I'm thinking about their current predicament, my current gaming situation and what we do know. We know it's now in between the WiiU and One in terms of power. We know it's a console that you can take out with you and then dock at home to play on a big screen. I'm not in it for the handheld factor whatsoever. This is very much a successor to the WiiU for me and from what we've learned today it's not much of a step up. My instinct is telling me that there will be a flurry of third party games at launch, then the support will dry up as the other consoles leave it for dust. The WiiU's lifespan was short and support dried up for it too early. Today's information doesn't make me instantly think that this will change. To some, the third party games won't be important. To me, I'm questioning the value of a Nintendo-only machine. I didn't get good value for money out of the WiiU and I'm dubious about Nintendo fixing that this time around. I look back at their previous consoles (like the N64, GameCube and the Wii) and just think to myself how much poorer each console would have been without the third parties chipping in. For me, it's a major issue and the lack of power available to the system (from a home console perspective) worries me. It's interesting how we've both evolved and are both feeling similar sorts of things. I WANT Nintendo to entice me. Above all, I just want good value for money. I don't really want to spend £200 on a console and then only buy a handful of games for it. That would be a waste of funds, a waste of living room space and it could be money that's better used elsewhere. I wouldn't say I'm anti-Nintendo, but rather that I'm frustrated with them. I had one! I just remember the fucker eating up all of my batteries. Abysmal battery life! It was an ok machine. I believe I had some kind of Master System converter to allow you to play those on the Game Gear. That was pretty sweet. Decent screen quality from what I remember.

I'm desperate to find a reason to get excited for the Switch, but I'm honestly struggling at the moment. Today's revelations have been pretty underwhelming. It's very odd to know (for the second time - after the WiiU) that there's a new Nintendo console approaching and that I'm not particularly buzzing about it.

The year is quickly coming to an end and 2017 is (hopefully!) going to be an eventful one as the Nintendo Switch will soon be in our hands. Not only that, but it should be a very interesting year for the other two main home consoles (aaaaand PC). So, looking back over the last 12 months, how was 2016 for you? Were there any games that demanded your full attention? Did any title let you down? Were there any surprise packages? Or, looking at it from another angle, did you devote as much time to gaming as you would have liked? (I'll post mine a bit later )

Just bolding the first part to show that we're basically agreeing about the most important point. Sure, they could (and probably will) drop points in games that they're expected to win. Football is unpredictable. Leicester winning the league is a testament to that. But, based on what we've seen so far with performances and results, Chelsea are clearly head and shoulders above the rest in terms of grinding out wins. They've got the best goal difference in the league and have conceded the least amount of goals. I do also think that final top four is more or less what it'll look like at the end of the season. I'd even say that the top six looks about right, too. We're in the same boat as we both need Arsenal (and preferably Liverpool) to slip up and have a poor second half of the season. I watched the game and couldn't believe the difference in Arsenal either side of half time. They were excellent in the first half and kept it tight against City. They weren't the same team after half time. No intensity, no grit and too many players not doing what they should have been. A really strange performance from them and I couldn't believe what I was watching. However, both of City's goals were offside. The first one is a close decision and I can see why the linesman didn't give it as it is fractional, but it's still offside. The second goal, however, is a piss take. David Silva is clearly offside according to the current interpretation of the law. He's stood in a position so close to the goalkeeper that he interferes with play. Clear offside. City were still the much better team, imo. Sane looked excellent in the second half.

On the subject of selling WiiUs: We're boxing our shit up at the moment and our WiiU is now packed away. I honestly don't know if/when we'll ever use it again. The stupid thing is that I've transferred all of my Wii saves and content and stuff over to it. That pretty much guarantees that I'll never sell the system as I've got too much there that I don't want to get rid of. I don't think there's any way to get that back either. I'm basically trapped in a loveless marriage with the WiiU. Thanks, Obama.

It's not over, but I will say that I do think that they'll win the league. You don't need to pump teams 4 or 5-0 to win it, you just need to be able to grind out wins and find a way to snatch goals. Chelsea are jammy enough to be able to do that and they can play badly and still win games 1 or 2-0. Kante has been an enormous signing for them. He does the work of two midfielders and is an absolute rock. It's allowed the other more attacking players to do their bit because they know that Kante is cleaning things up behind them. The only way I can see them slipping up is if they get seriously unlucky with injuries to the likes of Kante, Costa, Hazard, Courtois and Cahill.

If I had a top 10 of gaming music, this would have to be in here:

Spurs taking the "Liverpool Mentality" to new heights. "There's always next month!" "January will be our month!" "Just you wait 'til next month!"

The Witcher 3 is excellent value for money. I got so much play time out of that. Both DLCs are better than a lot of other games out there, Blood and Wine in particular. It's my favourite game of all time. I'll day one anything CDProjektRed make in the future.

Cheers, I've started it now and am in love with it!

The art style is gorgeous. Different in feel to the other two Bioshock games, but there's a familiarity about the whole thing. I'm just struggling to stop playing because there's something addictive about each of the games. Whether it's getting the upgrades or learning more about the world and story, I just want to keep playing. The collection was a steal. £32! Really happy with that. My only criticism is that it's a two disc collection, so you have the first two games on disc 1 and then Infinite on disc 2. There are two cases, too. Not a huge deal really, just a minor annoyance as I would've either preferred a separate box for each game with its own disc orrrr the whole thing on one.

So, I've started Bioshock Infinite and hnnnnnnggggggggg, this game is too fucking beautiful to look at. I've just been abusing that share button. Columbia is beautiful. Graphically, I'm blown away.

Yeah, we'd both jump at that chance. But, that's because we're not earning 90k a week in the first place, which is what Oscar is reported to be earning. Sure, for an easy life, take the 500k. But, he's 23, playing for one of the best teams in the world already in one of the best leagues in the world. In footballer's terms, Oscar could probably negotiate with Chelsea and get more than 90k a week if the money was an issue. These are crazy sums of money anyway. 90 grand a week is £360,000 a month! That's without sponsorship deals and the extras. It's not like it's a choice between being shit-poor and rich out of your fucking mind; it's a choice between being exceedingly rich and so rich that you shit money. At the heart of it, he's a footballer and job satisfaction has to play an enormous factor, too. He's playing against the best teams in the world at Chelsea, along with the best players, best coaching staff, best managers, etc. He could become an even better player if he continues to develop at that club

I've just finished Bioshock 2 and, much like the first game, loved this. I couldn't put the fucker down! Tempted to just start Infinite right away as I had such a great time with 2.