Fierce_LiNk

Just finished watching the second season of this utterly sublime show and loved every second of it. I have to admit, I struggled to see how they were going to top season one. Lorne Malvo (Billy Booooob) was a fantastic character, as was Lester (Freeman). They were so watchable and you couldn't help but root for them both in every scene they were in. But, season 2 added to that and the characters, writing, music, scenary, filming, editing, the whole lot was just incredible. Can't wait for season 3. Not sure what I'm going to watch next...it's a hard one to top.

Awesome trailer. It's all looking quite good, so far. I'm particularly interested in the time period they've chosen for this film. It just give it another feel entirely. I'm convinced that this will be great! Please be great.

Really looking forward to the Justice League film after the Comic Con trailer. I didn't really have any complaints, except that I want it now. Aquaman looked the tits.

I've played through this recently and loved it. It's a really fun game. You can spend hours playing it...as we found out last weekend. I played against @Eenuh in the multiplayer and it's amazing how quickly you can fail. I went through a stretch of not making it out of the Colonial Era because I didn't get my approval rating high enough. Theeeen, I spent an age trying to keep the peace with the Axis and Allies. We had a long game the other day where we ended up playing together for about....5 hours, I think it was. In the end, a rebellion/uprising took place and I didn't make it. :p

Wow, I've just been reading the last four or so pages and it's been an experience. I'm not sure where I stand on this subject at all. I'm definitely not excited...the NX seems to be going down a path that I don't personally have any interest in trekking down. Eurogamer have a fantastic reputation, so I can't and won't disregard this as bullshit. But, there's a part of me that hopes that they are dropping a massive bollock here. I've got a lot of questions about this...hope Nintendo just come out with the information sometime soon.

Unravel I've been following this game for a long time, since it's official reveal at E3 with the guy who almost cried on stage because he was so happy, nervous and excited at once. Firstly, it's clear to see that an awful lot of love went into this game. I love the storybook feature that appears at the end of each chapter, as are the pictures are appear in the book and the forgotten images that appear throughout the level in the background. Secondly, the visuals and music are absolutely outstanding. Beautiful to look at and listen to. It's really well crafted. I had an amazing time playing through the game. There were a few odd moments here and there where some of the puzzles could have been improved or were a bit fiddly. But, on the whole, the vast majority were great. There's a fantastic puzzle with a well, bucket and birds that appears later on which is pretty damn clever; a fantastic moment which shows off what the mechanics can achieve. Overall, I'd highly recommend giving it a go. If anything, just for the gorgeous visuals, sound and level design. I loved it. Games of 2016 Flower - Finished Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Finished The Unfinished Swan - Finished Grim Fandango Remastered - Finished Race The Sun - Finished The Wolf Among Us - Finished Injustice: Gods Among Us - Story Finished The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone Ico - Finished Tokyo Jungle - Finished Grand Theft Auto 5 - Finished! Batman: Arkham Asylum - Finished Batman: Arkham City - Finished Life Is Strange Uncharted 4 Heavy Rain (PS4 Version) The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine Unravel

*waking up to both Sonic announcements*

Good luck on the recovery! : peace:

Some more (no real spoilers) screens for the new game.

Super tempted by Firewatch. Can anyone give any opinions on it?

I've not had a great week/fortnight for fitness. My right shoulder has been a pain and I've had a few issues with the wrist on the same hand. Boooooh. We've got a holiday booked in Spain coming up and that should give me some time off to rest and recover, plus the start of the new term after that.

I played a bit more of this earlier and I'm back in love with it again. There's the odd frustrating puzzle or moment, but overall this game is a joy to look at, listen to and engage with. Beautiful, beautiful game. The locations are stunning.

Happy 85th Birthday, Paul.

Looking back on what I wrote when England were knocked out by Iceland, I still stand by it. England need a style of football and everything needs to be looked at from top to bottom. Upon seeing that Allardyce is the next man in charge, England aren't going to be getting that. Part of me is disappointed that England went for this option rather than actually pushing for change. I'm not massively convinced the output is going to be that much better than what England had with Hodgson. However, it's good for Sam that he's being given a job of this magnitude. He's been around long enough and it's probably time he was giving a shot at something like this. Given where England are realistically (when you watch them play, when you see how they turn up (or don't) for major tournaments), you'd have to agree that Sam is roughly at the same level as where England are at the moment. Looking at what he did for Sunderland last season, it's actually a similar sort of job he's got now in terms of morale. I do still think that this is a great set of English players and they should have achieved a lot more at the Euros than they did.

In fairness Nando, you're genetically engineered to not like anything (non-Nintendo) created within the last 10/15 years. :p

I'm playing through this atm. The first two levels were magical. The third, however, was utter shit. There's this really stupid "puzzle" involving a big log, a metal drum and a boulder (not even sure if you need the boulder) and you need to pull the drum in order to climb onto it to reach higher ground. The solution just seems utterly random and it's made my last hour and my playthrough of the third level to be unenjoyable. It's a shame, as the rest of the game was great. Getting to the fourth level in the hub is a bit bizarre, too. It's actually muuuuch easier to get to the other levels (the ones that come after it) and it actually makes more sense to actually reach these stages first due to where they are. But, nope.

I watched this and completely agree. I only caught it halfway through, so I'm tempted to go right back to the beginning and watch it all the way through. It's a very contentious issue. I think it goes without saying that the vast majority want to see the clean athletes compete at the next Olympics. We all want a clean Olympics with athletes winning medals that they've earned rightfully and without compromise. But, there is no clear way right now of distinguishing which athletes have cheated and which ones haven't. We have no clear idea of who is and isn't complicit and this is far too near to the next Olympics to do that thorough a search. We're looking at it from the perspective of clean athletes of Russia who still want to legitimately compete. Well, what about those athletes who were clean at the last winter Olympics and finished second, third or even didn't even make it onto the podium. Think about the years of regret that they've had, every second they would have spent training thinking that they were failures, when in fact they had been cheated and robbed of their rightful prizes. Getting a medal through the post or however you get it is not going to be anywhere near as right as standing on that podium in front of your family and with the whole world watching, knowing that they earned it. Russia have cheated all of these clean, hardworking athletes who dedicated their lives towards that one moment. The fact that it's such a widespread issue and state sponsored is absolutely disgraceful. It goes against everything the Olympics stands for and it goes against the very nature of competition and of sport. It's unsportsmanlike. They have to be punished in a meaningful way in which they learn their lesson, but also to send out the message that this sort of activity is wrong and will go punished. If that means a blanket ban, then so be it. If there are ways in which the clean athletes can compete as independent Olympians, then let's here more on that.

So, Belgium need a new manager for their national team. I reckon I could do it. Easily. EASILY.

Fuck yeah, I remember being so pissed off with the Xbox One exclusivity deal. This is going to be fucking sweet. Tempted to do a playthrough of the previous game before playing this.

I think that speaks for itself. I completely understand that there will be clean athletes representing Russia, but...there's no distinguishable way of identifying who has and who hasn't been compromised. The right thing for Russia to do would be to withdraw all of their athletes, but I can't see them doing that. I really do think an outright ban is the only way forward. This was such an intricate and institutionalised operation that there really isn't any other choice. It's shameful and is completely against the spirit with which these Olympics shoud be hosted and attended. The fallout from this is going to be huge.

That's terrible, @Cube. Sorry for you and your family.

I've got the first one ready to play on PS4. I'll probably start that this week. How long is it roughly? Tempted to play Unravel before delving into it if it's on the longer side.

I had to make a thread on this subject as the more I read about it, the more fascinated, shocked, appalled and amazed I became. In short: - Russia had a very poor Winter Olympics at Vancouver in 2010. They achieved only 15 medals, which was branded as "very abysmal" at the time. - Russia seeked to improve the profile of all sports in Russia, particularly at the Olympic level. - It's claimed that it began making positive drug tests disappear from its anti-doping labs in late 2011. Before the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia created a clean, frozen urine storage bank. - Russia's security service, the FSB, worked in a building next to the Sochi laboratory, swapping positive urine samples for clean negative ones through a "mouse hole", adding table salt to make them weigh the same - A key FSB agent had access to the Sochi anti-doping laboratory, disguised as a sewage and plumbing contractor. But, in swapping urine samples, the FSB agents left miniscule tool marks on the bottles - later found by McLaren's investigators using a microscope - The Moscow lab destroyed 8,000 samples it held dated prior to 10 September 2014. For those of you who want the full facts, here's a fantastic image which illustrates Russia's involvement (more information can be found here:

A great thread, nice one @Ashley. I'd say that my confidence has improved massively over the last few years, especially when it comes to speaking out loud pubically or with a large group of people. Being a teacher, you have to have a bit of that about you. Talking to children is easy, but talking to other staff (especially when you have to deliver something) is much more daunting to me. I'm getting better at that, though. I was pretty quiet I'd say through school and uni. At work, I had a similar experience to @drahkon. We were running a massive production...Annie. I originally got asked to work backstage, which was fine by me. Moving things, lifting heavy things and putting them down again...I do that 4 or so times a week anyway! Then, things escalated. I go asked if I wanted to be a non-speaking extra. Uhhh, ok. Next, it was an extra with a few speaking lines. I said something along the lines of, "Sure, I guess...but I really can't act, or sing, or dance." The next time I met with the person running the show, I had been promoted to the character of Rooster, which meant...singing in front of over 200 people (closer to 300 I think), dancing...and acting. I was not happy! But, like @drahkon, I pulled it off and gained loads of confidence after that. Once you've done something like that, you can do anything really. A huge part of confidence is about self-belief. If you don't believe in what you say or do, then many won't either. Some people can be tricked, but not many. So, that's what you try and project. I get what you're saying @Ashley about imposter syndrome. Sometimes I still feel that way, that I'm not really great at what I do, or that somebody else is better than me at what I do. I'm learning to not let that bother me and that, actually, in a lot of ways, I am great at what I do. And the things that I'm not so great at, they can be worked at over time.