Fierce_LiNk

I heard that it wasn't working great today either, so I haven't been online today as I didn't think we'd be able to get it running. Think @lostmario was having problems earlier. I didn't really have time today either and only actually sat down about an hour and a half ago! Tiredings. Friday is my birthday, but I may be able to sneak in our match. You never know, maybe my first three points are my birthday present this year! We're going to Brighton on Saturday, so I won't be about then. So, it's either Friday or Sunday. What time you about on Friday?

Oh aye, I know it's the easy option but I wonder if it's the best one. If the Wind Waker is worth the time and effort, surely Majora's Mask is too, even though it would have needed more work.

Lol...ok. :'( *feels slightly stupid that he wasted a shit load of time trying to get online*

Thanks to both of you. But, I am now confused because Shorty took the piss out of seagate on Jordan's facebook post. So...are they actually ok or will my PS4 be borked within a month? Help me, jeebus.

If the original game isn't a good fit for a handheld, why alter it to make it fit on one? There's a perfectly functioning home console there that would be a great fit for the game, so why not just go for that instead?

Apologies to @dazzybee for the problems getting online. At 7, my PS4 was on and I was raring to go. I couldn't connect to the EA servers and tried everything. I restarted the game, restarted the console, everything you can think of. It's now 19:49 and I have just managed to get online with it. Not sure wtf is going on, EA servers down or something? Pissed off to say the least!

Well, we technically did buy three (Shaw - left back, Rojo - left back, left sided centre back, and Blind can play in Centre Midfield, left of midfield, centre back and left back). We needed an extra world class defender and we were in for Benatia who went to Bayern and also looked at others but they didn't get through. Rojo has looked alright in the games he has played, as has Shaw. If we had the same back four plus De Gea for most of the season like a team such as Chelsea has, we would've done better, it's the rotation (due to injuries) which has been the problem. Also, credit to Van Gaal for actually giving the youth players a chance and there are already centre-backs at the club who should be given the chance to step up to the plate. They may do eventually, but right now they haven't. Doesn't mean they necessarily won't next season. Also, if you saw us last season you'd know that that we needed to improve EVERYWHERE bar in goal. We had a shit centre-midfield, a shit defence and shit wingers. Herrera and Blind have looked good when they are fit and playing, it's getting them onto the pitch which is a problem. I'm much more optimistic and pleased with our general play and future than I was last season. We will improve and get better and it's just nice to see the players playing with a bit more confidence. Obviously, yesterday was the exception to that as were genuinely awful. Of course, I may change my mind if the next four or five games go the same way. :p

If you watched us under Moyes for an extensive period of time, you'd see that we're playing much better and with more confidence, even if we aren't getting the points. Most United fans are realistic and know that even if the stats are comparable with that of Moyes, the other factors such as the injuries (think you're downplaying this a bit here) count for a lot. We've essentially had the same team for most of the season as Moyes had, except with an even younger and inexperienced defence. Putting the points aside, we finished 7th last season and all United fans would take where we are right now, especially as we are under transition right now when we should have been doing it last season. Yes, he should have bought better defenders, but we also bought a lot of players and they have ALL been injured plus others. Sorry, you can't plan for that and I think you're grossly underplaying this issue. We bought Di Maria, Rojo, Blind, Herrera, Falcao (loan) and Shaw and they have ALL been injuried for significant periods of time. Carrick spent a large part of the season out already. You can't plan for that and they all (with the exception of Falcao) haven't had any major injury problems before. This is bad luck. What else do you call it when your left back (Shaw), back-up left back (Rojo) and Blind (player who can play there) are all injured at the same time? Ashley Young is injured too and he also has played there this season. We bought two defenders, another player who can play in defence, we have used the same defenders as last season (Smalling, Jones, Evans, Rafael) and promoted younger ones (McNair, Blackett)...that's 9 defenders, 11 if you count Valencia and Young. At some point or another, each of them has been out. Of course we need to improve here and buy better players, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't get injured. :p

That doesn't really make a lot of sense because Arsenal and Liverpool fail almost every season. Some teams do well and some do not so well, with others who are surprise packages or loiter in beween. We focus on our own football and if other teams fuck up then that's their problem. Liverpool didn't finish higher in the league than us last season because we fucked up, they finished higher because they were better. The only team who aren't doing well out of those is Everton. All of the rest are pretty much where they usually are or have been for the last few seasons, with the exception of Liverpool who had one great season. For every good team that doesn't do so well (Liverpool), there's one that exceeds expectations (Southampton, West Ham, or even Swansea). We have to spend more because the players that were brought in to be the next generation of defenders (Jones, Smalling, Rafael (possibly), Evans) aren't up to it or the youngsters that are already there (McNair, Blackett) need experience alongside them in order to improve. Last year should have been the transition year where we planned all of this out and decided who needs to go and who needs to come in to improve things. We didn't do that, so we're doing that this season. See the points I made above. That £50 million striker you mentioned hasn't been fit half the time and hasn't done that well when he has played, bar a few games here and there. He wouldn't have made much difference, imo. Also, we had Wilson on the bench, so at least Van Gaal is giving the younger players an opportunity to prove themselves rather than relying on big, expensive talent. Finally, Southampton got a new manager and sold loads of players, but they have been able to select near enough the same or their best 11 every week, so they're obviously going to be playing better. They sold expensive, over-rated British players and brought in other players who are at least equal to the ones who had left. Let's see how well they cope with their entire first choice back four out or go without their star players regularly throughout the season.

We're inconsistent, especially defensively. The defensive injuries have ruined us and we've had to go through too many different combinations which has ruined the base of our team. Playing 3-5-2 also hasn't helped us in certain ways because we lack that defender in the middle/the sweeper who is meant to bring the ball out from the back. The closest to that has been Carrick and even he has only just come back from injury. It's a mess in a lot of ways because Van Gaal is trying to get us to play a different way and the players either aren't used to it, can't adapt or they're injured. Blind is the typical Van Gaal player because he can play well in 3 or 4 positions, he's adaptable. Somebody like Rooney also works and he's played well this year. Young has been very, very good and he was a player who looked to be on the way out under Moyes. Considering all the trouble we've had with our defence and injuries, to be in the top four at this point is good going. We've got a good base to work on and I think we'll improve. We played awful yesterday, but that's over now so we have to move on. Next game, we need to be much more attacking and we need to see more pace and aggression.

On face value, it doesn't look good. But, you have to consider a wider range of facts: 1. How many times have those signings started and started together? Di Maria has spent long periods out, Herrera had broken ribs and he hasn't played enough, Rojo has been out, Falcao has had injuries and Shaw has been the same. Same for Blind. So, for the most part, Van Gaal has been using the same squad Moyes has had. 2. Moyes had Evra, Vidic and Ferdinand to choose from and had it a LOT better with injuries than Van Gaal has had. We've had more injury issues to contend with, as shown in point 1. 3. Moyes took a team that finished first to seventh. Van Gaal is taking a team that has finished seventh to third/fourth. Typically, Van Gaal's teams finish off better than when they started. Van Gaal isn't really getting a free pass at all, but I think fans know that his pedigree is a lot better than Moyes' and the injury concerns are freak events. We're in a much better position now than we were at this point last season.

Should be able to do that with no issues, I usually get home just before then. 7 ok for tomorrow, then?

Bitches, I'm looking to upgrade my HDD and I'm thinking of going for this. £79.99 from Amazon. Is there any reason at all not to do this? Let me just make sure I get this right. I've uploaded all of my saves to the cloud. It did this automatically when the PS4 was in rest mode yesterday, so I'm good there, right? It'll just be a case of swap out the HDD and redownloading my stuff, yes? Anyone else done it? 2TB is the size I'm going for.

I'll be home from about 7. Any time after that is fine for me.

Sorry mate, we're cooking our tea now and I've gotta get a few bits and bobs ready for work tomorrow. I was planning on playing a bit of GTA tonight, but I could do our game instead if you like. 11 sounds fine. Tomorrow night is also fine by me, might even be better as I've exercised today so I have most of tomorrow evening free. (hurray!)

Worst we played all season. We created nothing all game and didn't even look threatening. Southampton were better in every way. I don't think any of our defenders bar Shaw will still be here in 3 seasons time. All of them are currently not good enough.

When are you available? If it's not possible for you tonight, when is best in the week?

You'll pick it up as you go along, same with the stats really. The more you play, the better your pro will get. You could do the drop in matches if you wanted, although you're probably just as well off taking part in the Club Nights with our lot. You'll get good advice from the crew and you'll figure out how to play with the rest of the team that way.

@RedShell, I've noticed that you've been playing this. How far are you into it? From what I saw on my PSfeed, you got trophies for missions 15 and 16. How are you powering through this so quickly?

That's good going. I squatted yesterday, played football today for two hours and I'll be squatting tomorrow. MEIN LEGS!

I know I only joined for a few matches towards the end of the night, but I had a great time. Also, get Tomb Raider, @lostmario.

I will drop a bollock if Rime doesn't make it out this year. Also, where the fuck is Journeeeeeey? Hope we get that soon. Never played it on PS3 so I'm itching to have a go.

I quoted this bit: Mainly that second sentence with the it'll be fine part...it just seems to downplay the problems as being minor, or at least it reads that way. To me, the problems are of a great number and it's going to take years to turn this around. It's not like all they need to do is flick a switch. In thceory, yes. But, there's more to it than being in-line with the others. Nintendo are seen as out-of-touch by many and they've seriously harmed their relationship with third parties. Just having a new, shiny console isn't enough. They will need to rethink their philosophy and image...something you can't just do overnight. I know exactly how fickle young people are as I come into contact with them everyday. Nintendo is not even in the picture to a large portion of that audience and I don't think Nintendo currently have what it takes to change the mindset of these younger gamers. Their relationship with EA has been harmed and it's going to take a lot of work to repair that. If younger gamers/teenagers have already played on the 360/ps3 and are jumping to the One/PS4, they're going to be already familiar with that particular brand. There's no real incentive for them to change. It's an issue now and it also shows Nintendo's perception about what the console is all about. Even now with digital downloads, the PS4 and One ship with a 500gb hard-drive, which will no doubt need replacing eventually. But...the WiiU came with a paltry 32gb...digital downloads are coming to the forefront now and the WiiU is behind there from day one. Based on the trend of how things have been since the GameCube (even back with the N64 where they stuck with unpopular cartridges over CDs),history is going against Nintendo in this respect. They will need to seriously rethink their stance on all of this. Again, not easy to fix and it will take time. This is a huge problem for Nintendo because they need to step into the future and start drawing in new crowds. The Wii did this so well but it also alienated a certain type of gamer. Relying on old IPs is both good and bad; good because it means that you have a repertoire to work with, bad because it means that the same few titles keep cropping up. New games are going to be what draws new people in. Just like WiiSports did at the time or Brain Training. It worked for the Wii at the time, so where is the same audience who bought that console? They've abandoned Nintendo. The ones who got burned by the motion controls simply haven't come back and the casuals see no real reason to pick up the WiiU as it doesn't really have the same pick-up-and-play feel that the Wiimote and WiiSports brought at the time. The moment has come and gone in this respect. (plus they fucked up the branding right at the start...I still don't think many of the casuals know that the WiiU is an entirely new console. Not convinced in the slightest) It's not the ONLY thing lifting Sony or even putting Microsoft on the gaming map. They've established a reputation with gamers and there's a trust there that certain games will appear, or that the majority of third party releases will release on both. There's a trust there that the new CoD will get released, or Battlefield, or Fifa, or the newest thing from Ubisoft. There's a trust that the version planned for these systems will not be missing any key features or online modes, etc. Nintendo's reputation, by contrast, isn't the same. How many of us still ask daily if Splatoon will have voice-chat? How many of us were uncertain if WatchDogs would actually release on the WiiU? What about when Colonial Marines got canned? (the game is shit, but the point still stands. At least it still came out on the other systems, so they had a chance to try it for themselves. Nintendo owners got shafted, yet again) If it was as simple as you say, it would be there now. This goes for basically all of your points. Nintendo, supposedly, have the brightest minds in the business working for them. They've been in the business for so long that they should know what gamers expect by now and they should know when they've fucked up. The 360 had party chat, the PS2 had DVDs (blu-rays for PS3) and even the SNES had FIFA. To have NONE of these available is shocking business. You won't necessarily gain sales by having one of these features, but you can sure as hell lose sales if the consumer knows that they can get a better deal elsewhere. I've sorta answered this above. If they were supposedly easy fixes, then I'm confident that Nintendo could have done this by now. This either shows that they seriously didn't have a clue what they were doing with the WiiU or that their entire outlook on what modern gaming is does not fit in with what the current gamer expects. Sorry Dazzy, I love you brah and would lose to you at FIFA anytime until the end of time, but...that last part is absolutely ridiculous. There is so, so much work that needs to be done that I'm not even sure one generation (after the WiiU) is enough time to do it. They've made basic errors since the N64 days and basically all of their problems have come back to haunt them in some capacity. These are deep-rooted problems that are now 4 generations old! If they were seriously easy to fix, we would have seen some results by now and I mean meaningful results.