Fierce_LiNk

My solution is to behave like a stud all year round. Inb4 @Eenuh.

The new tracks are pretty great. Visually, they look great and it's nice to be able to drive around a city track. I hope we see more tracks soon. A new country would be excellent. Maybe some more snow tracks? Or perhaps the option to have snow in other locations, such as Scotland. The new tracks look great when transitioning from dark and dry to dawn/day and rainy. I love the transitions in this game.

LVG's subs and tactics are crap. Martial scored a goal and generally played well on the left hand side of the pitch. So, he rewards him by switching him to the other side in the second half, where he maybe touched the ball three times. Crap performance, crap tactics and a crap result. Sunderland outplayed us and were, by far, the better team. All LVG had to do was come in and keep the club stable, we didn't have to "change the philosophy" or completely destroy the way we play football, which will no doubt get changed again when the new manager comes in. He had the right idea for most of last season but now he's set us back even further thanks to this year.

I just destroyed everybody at two games of Cluedo and an almost 5-hour game of Monopoly tonight. Cluedo was easy. I played it really fucking well and I'm considering hanging up my teaching shit and becoming an inspector of the law. Monopoly was just...wow. We played the Game of Thrones version. This is only the second game ever that I've won. But, by the end of it, I had bought so much...literally controlled half of the board. We ran out of Keeps/Hotels so I actually couldn't build anything else by the end of it. I tried to form an alliance with @Eenuh early on, but she wouldn't...so I just went ahead and did my shit and destroyed everybody and everything. By the end of it, I did want to climb onto the table and beat my chest at those beneath me. Fuck. Don't think I'll sleep tonight.

Happy birthday, Ashaleeeeeeeee. May the mudkipz be with you.

Happy Birthday to my darlingk, wonderful @Eenuh/Ine today. My co-op partner for life. Here she is in her natural habitat: and here she is with a member of her own family: We're going to see The Revenant tonight and will also be out for a meal. Tomorrow, we're out again for Chinese new year celebrations! Should be a lovely weekend.

I think the part in bold is perfect. You don't understand it. Ronnie doesn't understand it and there are some in this thread who still don't understand that it's such a poor, poor comparison. Bloodborne is NOT a mainstream game. It does NOT appeal to the masses and to say it does so is wrong. I would call myself a "typical" gamer. I grew up with Nintendo and SEGA, I own a Commodore64 (somewhere still in Wales) and I play a mixture of stuff, from FIFA to Zelda to Uncharted to Cities Skylines. I've only ever traded in one game in my lifetime: Pokemon Red, because I wanted Twisted Edge Snowboarding. I massively regretted my choice and vowed to never ever trade in another game again. I still live by that. HOWEVER, I came reeeeeeally fucking close to doing that with Bloodborne. I never, ever post on Facebook about games pissing me off, but I did with Bloodborne. I never tend to post negative thoughts so early on in a game, but I did with Bloodborne. I got extremely angry at the game. I hated everything about it. I hated the clunky combat. I hated the lack of a map. I hated that I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I hated that there was no tutorial, or even an introduction to explain where I was, or what the objective of the game was. I hated that there were no objectives! (all of the things which make games accessible to the masses...Bloodborne has NONE of these!) I played the game for about two hours straight (maybe more) and didn't make it past the now infamous "street with 50 dudes" as it's known by many. I would run, hit a few enemies, get killed and go back to a loading screen. Oh yeah, the save system! Fuck me. This game is ANYTHING but mainstream. It is not a mainstream game. The vast majority of people would play this game, have no fucking clue what they were doing and turn it off immediately. I turned it off and had the intention of returning this to the store. For me to want to do that tells you how much I hated this game. However, I stuck with it (persuaded by many on here) and I ended up finishing it...and it's now in my top ten of all-time games. Fucking incredible, incredible game. It's also made me appreciate and look at the Machina album by the Smashing Pumpkins in a whole new light, with it now becoming my new favourite album by them (due to listening to them on Spotify whilst playing this game). To compare this to Splatoon is laughable. They are nothing alike. It's a ridiculous comparison to make and anybody who has played Bloodborne would know that instantly. They're aimed at completely different markets, have different gameplay mechanics, are of completely different genres and styles and are just not comparable. You can't say "this is a first party game, that's an exclusive, let's compare" because that's just such a basic thing to do. It's that sort of stuff which causes arguments; ill-informed comments and comparisons which are just made to stir up trouble rather than actually having an intelligent debate. Instantly, it ruins the credibility of the poster because...it's just such a bad comparison. Sorry to criticise you and Ronnie on this, but you are both very, very wrong. Play the game and see for yourselves.

Don't be a h8r. Join us. Also, I'm too lazy to get up and put my wand into it. We're all lazy here. Keep up, Nando!

I almost made a thread about 2016 being insane for gaming but didn't, for some reason. Might've been tea time, who knows? It's going to be an insane year. I just hope that the big games live up to expectation, that'll decide whether this year is a good one or a great one.

These posts are a bit bizarre. I don't really understand why you're comparing two games in two wiiiiiiildly different styles in completely different genres with each other. Splatoon is a team shooter, designed for a specific crowd. Aimed at a Nintendo audience. Bloodborne is a REALLY FUCKING HARD game aimed at a completely different demographic altogether. It's a niche game. Very niche. It's aimed at a small crowd who want to play difficult action-rpg games where very little help is given to the player. The game features no map, no tutorial, no difficulty selection and no instruction about where to go or what to do. I think this is the sort of stuff that causes arguments, for the opposite reasons that you've intended. You've basically taken two separate games (you really couldn't have picked two different games if you had tried!) and have tried to compare them based on one set of criteria...which is the AAA-status. It causes arguments because it's just an ill informed comment that's meant to stir up hornet's nests and cause conflict, rather than actually generate any meaningful discussion. That's precisely the only reason you've linked those two games, because they have zero in common. Zero. Bloodborne is a triple AAA game and it's completely fucking awesome. It's also viewed by many as one of the best games of last year, as well as one of the best games of its type of all time. It's in my top 10 of all time for sure. Very high quality game. Not for everyone, but still top tier.

There are plenty of upsides to digital games. I don't really care about boxarts and all that anymore. Having to find storage for all of your games is a real pain in the arse, as well as the thought of having to pack up all our shit one day when we eventually get our own house. I'll definitely be considering getting any multiplayer games digitally in future. That way @Eenuh and I can play together with one copy, like we've been doing for Battlefront. It's pretty amazing, tbh. I love how you can just switch from one game to another then to something like Netflix and maybe then jump to Spotify...all whilst having nothing inserted into the console.

Playing the DLC is a bit surreal. I feel like I already knew this world inside out, yet there are now suddenly new places and things going on in places that I had already visited. It's how storytelling should work in gaming. Stories don't technically end, they just morph into other stories. I love how that all works in this game.

Can't believe you still haven't jumped aboard the PS4 train yet. What's holding you back? Can't wait to get this. It's the one I'm looking forward to the most, joint with Uncharted 4.

That's pretty rough, @Happenstance. Our thoughts are with you. Sorry for your loss.

Still not sure what to make of this. I think I'm looking forward to it. This'll probably be one that will depend on what the reviews say.

It's waaaay more satisfying slugging it out and doing it with an A or X-wing.

Yeah, I'm enjoying it, too. Think that lifting weights 3x per week is really the best way to do it, imo. 3, maybe 4 times max. It still gives you enough time to do other still like play sports, game, have a social life, etc.

I've got to agree with all of this. Although, it may partly come down to me just not giving a fuck anymore with what I buy or play. Bloodborne has destroyed everything I've ever really believed about gaming. It's probably the game which has rewritten the rule book for me. Tutorial? Nah, you don't need that. Maps? What the fuck is that? EASY MODE? BWAHAHAAHAH. Auto-save...lawl. In general, there's a ton of diversity out there. The only thing standing in the way of that is the mindset of the gamer. If you go into each game not giving a fuck and go into it completely open, then only good things can come of it. I NEVER would have thought that I would ever love a game like Bloodborne.

Wow. I have to admit, although this has been on the cards for a while, I'm surprised that Guardiola has gone for the much easier option. It's a bit of a chump's move, tbh. For so many reasons. Chelsea have had a poor season, have lost an important player in Lampard and are losing another one in John Terry. So, there's lots of work needing to be done there in order to get them playing attractive and winning football. United have been shiiiiiiiiit since Fergie (notably this season and with Moyes) and are in urgent need of work, similar to Chelsea (perhaps even more work needed!). Guardiola could have taken either one of these teams and finally could show that he can work with clubs that aren't already doing great before he gets there. He's had it so fucking easy with Barcelona and Bayern, I'm disappointed that he's yet again gone with the easy option. It's a cop-out. Doing it in this way whilst Pellegrini is still at the club is pretty shocking, too.

Has anybody else been keeping up with this? Could it be DiCaprio's year, at last? I guess a lot of the focus seems to be on the lack of nominations for black actors and actresses in the big categories. What's everyone else's view on this?

Dropzone was pretty fun last night, @Eenuh and @Cookyman. We hardly dropped any points/pods in those games at all. Although I didn't get many kills, I felt that I got quite a few crucial ones which led us to victory. We obliterated the enemy in Supremacy, finished some of the games within minutes. I'm loving the variation in modes in this game. Looking at it after plunging a decent amount of time into it (40+...@Eenuh has over 60+), the only thing I think it's lacking is maps. Maybe a few more weapons, too. Aside from that, I'd consider it money well spent.

I've changed my emphasis slightly and have moved towards 8-reps per set but with lighter/more moderate weight. I felt it was time for a change and it does take a looooot out of you having to go heavy all the time. We'll see how I go with this before I decide to switch it back over. In general, I feel like there's quite a bit of zip about me these days. I'm noticing in work that I'm moving around quite quickly, getting more things done these days whilst others are flagging or lagging behind.

I feel the same way. Although, tbh, there was a lot that I did enjoy about the game. I did enjoy the characters and the humour. The puzzle-solving is what lets it down, imo. I'd definitely be up for another game with the same characters, similar humour and storylines but with a more modern take on puzzles and a bit more sign-posting going on.

Oh my god, that looks fantastic. Can't fucking wait!