Fierce_LiNk

The semi-finals are on BBC3 right now. Dat cheese. Dat political voting. Dat euro-pop. Dat costume design. Dat over-the-topness. Dat everything.

I don't even know what thread this is but...I thought Father Ted was universally adored? I don't know what to think anymore.

I've watched both extensively over the last few seasons. De Gea because of United and Courtois because of the Belgium National Team and the matches of Atletico and Chelsea that I've managed to catch. Both are unreal keepers. Along with Neuer, they're the best three keepers in the world, without a doubt. For me, I'd much rather have De Gea in my team and I think overall he is the better keeper than Courtois. De Gea's shot stopping is by far superior to Courtois', De Gea's distribution is also better and I think he's probably the better keeper now when it comes to crosses (he was shiiiiite at the start, by far his biggest flaw and it's a great testament to the guy how hard he has worked to overcome this). I'd say that Courtois is possibly better at marshaling/organising the defence in front of him. I'm a big fan of both goalkeepers and like to see both do well. Courtois is great for Belgium and he'll be a God at Chelsea and will be there for years to come. He won't concede many either because Chelsea under Mourinho won't concede too many goals and he'll have more than adequate protection there to stop that. De Gea has done amazingly for United and I'm proud to say that I stuck by him when he received all that criticism at the start. Fantastic pair of goal keepers.

I'm disappointed with the second half performance because we were all over Arsenal in the first half. We were solid, created chances and stopped them creating much. Herrera has been stunning for us this season and I can't wait to see how he gets on next year. @Kounan is right, though. On two counts. 1. Smalling had a great game and seems to be getting better. Although, he usually turns to shit again once he inevitably gets injured. Same with Jones. 2. Falcao and Van Persie are so...frustrating. At times, it's like playing with a man down. There's not enough movement off either and Van Persie spends most of the time offside. Would kill for a pacey striker. Gutted we didn't get all three points. We need a striker with pace who can finish chances and lead the line. Somebody really fucking dangerous. Our own version of Costa, basically.

The additional stages in the full game look pretty good. I like how the cars are more of an aesthetic thing and won't change the physics of the game because I think that could be a bit of a pain for some. Best to keep this particular game simple. Craving more of it.

Yup, it's there. If you get player two to log onto the PS4, a second car appears in the menu screen. I tried just doing a 1v1 game but couldn't find out how to do that, so the only choice was for us to go online together. I guess the whole point of the beta is to test the online. So, there's two of us doing splitscreen and going online together. Worked absolutely fine.

I kinda wish I had joined the beta a lot sooner. Definitely going to get the full game, I think it's awesome. I tried some split-screen earlier with @Eenuh. Two of us online together on the same team in a 4v4. We won our first game 2-1 with both of us scoring the goals.

He's one of the best, along with De Gea and Courtois. Some may even say Hart and Lloris are up there, too. They're all equally in for a shout. De Gea has almost single-handedly pushed us back into the top four, he's had little protection all season. Hazard has been the stand-out player this season in the league. Robben was immense at the world cup and ruined Spain, for example, but I'd choose Hazard based on how he's been at the moment.

Perhaps it was being overhyped by a lot of people in the first place? I never hopped on the hype train and have no interest in it whatsoever, but I'd consider it coming out at something like an 8/10 as a good result for the game. It's a new IP after all and even with all of its faults has come out rated quite highly. So, it may still be worth a go for you. I'd personally look at the game and look at what else you're playing around that time. If there's nothing else that grabs you, I'd just go for it. But, if you know you're not going to put as much time into it because of the flaws, then look at what else is worth playing. I'm super wary after buying both Mario Kart and Smash and hardly getting any playtime out of them.

Aw, Wiiiii. You say that like it's a terrible thing. "THIS GAME ISN'T THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME. IT'S ONLY 9/10! GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY, AMAZON!" Just get the game if you want it and don't if you don't fancy it. It'll mostly be about the multiplayer anyway and that's what you should be looking at. If there's too many factors that you feel annoy you, then don't bother with it.

The first two on your list are untouchable and I can see that there are arguments for the next two. But, everyone from there onwards can easily be replaced by another. Hazard could easily go in for Robben. Courtois or De Gea for Neuer. Lahm...I love him and think he's an excellent footballer, but is he top 10 of the world quality? If we're not choosing a list based on position by position, then surely the likes of Sanchez, Costa and Aguero can get in there ahead of him since they're all excellent technical footballers. I'm sure some would also make an argument for Fabregas over Modric, too. There's many problems when you look at the English teams and compare them to their European rivals. Barcelona and Real literally hoover up talent from other big teams and don't care about the prices. They also aren't afraid to tell a few porkies along the way (the Neymar deal is being looked at, Messi being looked at for dodging taxes, etc). Bayern also make it their mission to take the best players off their nearest rivals. Dortmund sell a big star player (or lose them in the case of Lewandowski) every summer. They also had next to no competition in the league and so could just concentrate on Europe. The English teams didn't do so well this year, but we also have to remember that in the last 10 years Chelsea (2012), Liverpool (2005) and United (2008) have won the Champions League, with Arsenal (2006), Liverpool (2007), Chelsea (2008), United (2009) and United (2011) reaching the final. So, it's only been the last season or two when things have changed. That can be put down to a few things: - Sir Alex leaving United. - Chelsea changing their managers/Mourinho coming back (they'll make another final within the next 5 years, guaranteed). - City not quite having the manager to make it in Europe (but they will do it eventually, they've pretty much built a title winning team from scratch (and tons of money, I know)) - Liverpool concentrating on winning the league first. They came close to winning the league TWICE in the time since they last won the Champions League. -Arsenal are building a better squad and now seem to be attracting top talent to the club in Ozil and Sanchez. There's plenty of talent in English football. We seem to be asking the wrong question anyway, which really should be Is the top talent in English football English talent? Which the answer would be no. I find that a more pressing issue.

Would throw my children at you like I was Captain Olimar.

It's not really aimed at seasoned FPS fans I guess because it's not that type of game. @Hero\-of\-Time got it right when he talked about it being similar to Mario Kart in its randomness. It's for the Nintendo crowd who want to play a shooter but don't want it in a war torn or futuristic setting. Could it be aimed at kids? Ya. But it could also be aimed at the sort of crowd who picked up games like de Blob on the Wii, so it's anyone really. I wouldn't say 5 hours is barebones, because you shouldn't really judge a single player mode on how much time you spend on it, but rather what modes there are, whether there's a story/adventure mode, time trials, etc. If there's 5 hours in it but those 5 hours include a complex adventure mode with a mixture of different things to do, then it's a good deal. If it's 5 hours of going through the cups on easy, medium, expert-ish types of levels (ala Mario Kart), then it's obviously different.

I want to watch Sony's conference but I can't stay up to do it as I need to be up for work/school the next day. I wish it was at midnight or 11 because I could have stayed up but 2am is just...in that zone when I should be sleeping. Fuck saaaaaake. I'll just have to go no contact on the entire internet until I get home and then watch it.

You getting The Witcher 3, brah? Basically, all other games are irrelevant right now in comparison to that. Brb, clearing backlog as I know nothing else will get touched once that hits.

Definitely. It's subjective though, isn't it? However, I think you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who would say that Costa and Aguero are poverty strikers or that Courtois and De Gea wouldn't make it into your team, etc. To make a world XI, you'd need to find a system for those players anyway. If you were to choose Suarez for example, would you go 4-3-3? If you were to choose 4-4-2, would that be with Costa up front and another striker like Aguero or a number 10 off it? These world XI things don't really work imo because it's not quite how football works. It's a team sport, rather than a selection of 11 individuals put together...although you try telling Real Madrid that! Hazard has been great this season, too.

I think there's been a number of injuries to key players that have stopped this season from being what it could have been. Buuuut, there is still a shit load of quality. Imo, two of the best goalkeepers in the world play in England (De Gea and Courtois), Aguero, Benteke and Costa all have been amazing, but have had injury problems. Then there's the likes of Hazard and Sanchez, who have been excellent all year long. Fabregas and Matic. I think there's plenty of quality there, tbh. Each team has had key injuries which has halted some of them from getting a good rhythm going. Even Bayern had Robben and Ribery out in the Champions League due to injury. It's been a strange season everywhere.

They bought Balotelli, Lambert and they had Borini there, too. The gamble didn't pay off and the others didn't step up to the plate. For a top team to have such a poor selection of strikers is just terrible, imo.

I know that both @drahkon and @Rowan are playing this, atm. Anybody else giving it a go? You can sign up to the beta from here.

The game is awesome. I've joined the beta and I've had a few tries and @Eenuh has played it for a bit, too. It's fun as fuck, although it's a tough game to be good at. I scored 3 in one game and was the top player in my team. In the next game, I scored nothing and got hardly any points. :p

Hnnnngggg, I love the salty taste of scouse tears.

A part of me has to laugh that Liverpool lost at home today against Palace, it was Steeeeevie's last home game and the result meant that Liverpool definitely won't be in the top four/Champions League this season AND STILL they're fifth on Match of the Day. He's a great footballer, so it'll be odd not seeing him on the pitch during our game against them and the Merseyside derby.