Fierce_LiNk

Maybe it's Nintendo's subliminal advertising. "You're not playing Pikmin 3? Why not...flash flash flash until you play it again."

He cannae see, pet. Happy Birthday to ipaul who apparently is only 22 today. What the fuck? You look way older, brah. Fabricio Coloccini says: "Maybe I'll stay in Newcastle after all?"

The stage is all yours, Magnus. Or, perhaps it will be Magnuts, after you lead the way.

You're not looking at it the right way. The reason why that particular game (WiiSports) was bundled was because it was somewhere in between a tech demo for the game and a "full" game in itself. Nintendo realised that very few people would pay full price for it, but they also recognised that the game did show off the features of the console, whilst it also brought whole families and friends together. Releasing it on its own would have been suicide. You can't really say, "Nintendo put a free game in there and they succeeded, so MS will succeed, too." FIFA is insanely popular, but it's not going to show off any new features of the console. Everything (I'm assuming here, because I don't pay attention to it any more) that FIFA can do on the One can also be accomplished on the PS4, right? So, it's not exactly the same in that sense as WiiSports, which was tailor-made for the Wii and showed off the exclusive features of that console. It had pulling power from the off. Sure, it's nice to get a free game with the system, but there's a bit more to it than that. The launch prices, timings, launch line-up will also come into play. What if Sony end up bundling a game in with their system? If it's an exclusive, it'll also have more pulling power. I would also argue that it does show a lack of confidence. The confident thing would be for MS to bundle in one of their own exclusive games. It's a statement of intent. "You can't get this game anywhere else."

Gah, I should have gone with my gut and played the formation/tactics I had in mind. Aw well...

I'm torn. I've set up my team and am relatively "playing it safe" as I want points for the first day. But, I'm also tempted to just go for broke and play something a bit unconventional. I could do him, but it could all go disastrously wrong. Think I'll play it safe for the first game. Maybe. Hmm.

We tried Bingo Battle mode tonight. Absolute carnage.

I'm convinced that, as a forum, we could make a better advert for the system than Nintendo can. I'm sure of it.

I don't think Moyes is to blame on this one. Probably like most transfer occurrences, this one is probably down to the chairman. It's a stupid bid anyway. We don't need Baines. We already have Buttner, Evra and Fabio at the club. If we're going to go for Fellaini, it needs to be him alone and it needs to be a sensible bid. 28million alone would have secured him, imo. Saying that, I think Cabaye would be a better fit at United.

It was a rap/rhyme thread where the forumers made rhymes in a blue-sy type of way. The opening line for each one was "there's a train from Alabama". I believe it was you/the uber 1337s (oh god, nostalgia) who started it off. Unfortunately, I believe it's lost now, in time. Like tears, in rain.

Somebody got paid to think up that idea and somebody else got paid to authorise it. Think on that.

I remember. I also remember the hilarious "train from alabama" threads that came around the same time as this.

Loooool, I thought Arsenal's transfer tactics/business this summer was bad, but we are challenging them every step of the way. £28million bid for Fellaini AND Baines. Rejected, of course. How clever. Wait for Fellaini's buy out clause expiry date to pass, and then under-bid for him. *slow cap* We need a graph for this. It's gone from optimistic, to promising, to uhhhh, to meh, to horrific. Terrible summer business.

Hmm, I can't say that I found it too predictable, or annoyingly so. It just seemed like a good Pixar movie to me. It's not ground-breaking and it's not going to change the world, but it's just lovely for what it is. I enjoyed it a lot. :p Saw Gran Torino yesterday. Loved it. Pretty much excellent in every respect.

I believe that I was in the transition between junior and high school and there was this craze that was sweeping through most of the UK. All of my mates were getting the game, but it was sold out everywhere. I had to wait for weeks I believe to get it. Until then, I had hardly touched my GameBoy apart from the odd game of Wario or Tetris. We had been shopping in town during that day and I believe it was a Thursday, so it must have been after school. We picked up Pokemon Red and I spent most of my time walking around town just looking/marvelling at the box and reading the manual. By the time we got home, it was getting quite late and so I quickly had my tea and got down to playing this. I was glued to it and started off with Squirtle as my starter. I remember being a bit bad and playing this for a long stretch, way after everybody else had gone to bed. I was too hooked and engrossed. The next day, I woke up with a massive headache, yet still wanted to play more. I remember that feeling of going into school and actually being able to take part in the chats now about the game. In highschool, we had lunchtime battles in the dining room, there was even a little league that took place. People would be giving each other tips about how to beat friends that they perhaps weren't on such good terms with at the time. There was even a bit of aggression at some points where one or two of the matches went sour. That was all brilliant. Red, Blue and Yellow. By far the best memories that I have of Pokemon. I remember being too burnt out by it to pick up Gold and Silver. So, skipped that. I picked up Ruby a little while after that came out and I found that nobody was really playing it. In addition to that, the game kinda blew and I didn't enjoy it. I played about a third of the way through, realised that I didn't give a shit about any of the Pokemon/they lacked charm and never touched it again. The game itself wasn't all that enjoyable.

@Charlie: Jesus dude, sorry to hear about your friend. Any idea what happened? Did the van lose control or was he hit? Hope he gets better.

There's a demo for this already out there, which most of us who have Wii Us have tried out to begin with. It is frantic, but it is meant to be that way. It's quirky, frantic, a beautiful mess to look at. I didn't have any problem with the control scheme after more than a few minutes playing it and I'm sure it'll be the same in the final product. Mind blown that people still read/care about IGN.

Arsenal fans: Mind blown that your club haven't gone after Julio Cesar. He should be playing for a massive club.

@bluey, what exactly does that thing do? How does it work? I'm partly interested because my sleep patterns this month have been shit, for some reason. @nightwolf: I'd really suggest you get an adjustable weights set. Basically, where you can buy a barbell, a dumbbell or two and some weight plates. The reason I'm suggesting this is that you will progress with weights. Sooner or later (probably sooner) those 2KG weights will become far too easy for you. Instead of buying 3KG weights and then 4KG weights, you could buy the adjustable sets and alter the weight for your benefit. You'll also benefit from this because it saves space and it could save you more money in the longer run.

The two things that I'm doing at the moment: Exercise, but I wouldn't really say it's a hobby. Like reading is for you, it's part of my daily life. Also, it encompasses so many things that you'll most likely find at least one way of exercising that you'll enjoy. Could be swimming, running, jogging, lifting weights (seriously addictive and fun), or a sport of some kind. I'm playing lots of squash at the moment. Learn another language. I'm re-learning/learning/improving my Spanish and Dutch at the moment, so you could always try that. It then opens you up to the idea of foreign films and books and even music. Those are my two suggestions.

I'm a school teacher and have taught 7 year olds who do have their own games consoles and go online. Most of the 9/10 year olds I taught last year have their own youtube accounts and go on Xbox Live regularly. The women might not let their kids do it, but the Dad's certainly don't mind as much, from what I've seen. Also, parents are very good at pulling the wool over people's eyes and letting you believe that they have all kinds of systems in place at home. But...why? We've already had Pokemon Stadium, why do we need another one? It's such a waste of all that potential that it's unreal. I'm tempted to facepalm here. :p Nobody is saying that they want the next game after X/Y to be home console. Nobody is saying that they want the series to be strictly on a home console, but rather have its own home console game whilst the handheld games continue to do what they do. Yes, different to the handheld. No, not Colosseum as that was gash. In short, what gamers actually want: A 3D home console Pokemon ADVENTURE (not Stadium or any of that shit) where you have a proper storyline, proper characters, sidequests, a good and memorable soundtrack, a functioning online mode and potentially some connectivity to the 3DS title to upload your Pokemans and use them in battle or in the main quest. What games will get: Pokemon Stadium 3 Colosseum 2. Both of the above.

Well, yes and no. Yes because the game does pause, and no because it's much easier to plot the courses on the touch-screen as you tap where you want them to go. Also, importantly, the map keeps updating on the touchscreen, meaning that you know where your team are. So, if I sent one Koppai off to point B and another off to point C whilst I was at point A, I can still keep track of how they're doing and whether they're close or not, then switch between the two/three to accomplish that task. I'd say it is multitasking because your looking at the map to see how far along your team are whilst also looking at the tv and doing whatever you're doing there. You are potentially doing more than 3 things at once, since there are 3 Koppai there.

It's changed a lot, but it hasn't evolved in ways that it could have. Especially not a home console. The Gamecube Pokemon games were garbage. You are absolutely wrong with the part about 7 year olds having no internet connection. 7 year olds have internet connections, mobile phones, tvs in their room and games consoles these days. Most people have internet in their houses, most 7 year olds will have their own games console, and all three home consoles can access the internet. So, 7 year olds will have access. Like I said, times change. They don't just go outside and ride bikes til the early evening any more. The handheld game is made for that purpose. We are talking about the home console game, which would be something else entirely. So, you'd like a home console game, which is brilliant. Nobody is saying that they want the handheld ones to stop, but rather that the home console game would act in its own right and in a different way to the handheld. The thing that seems to be putting most people off is a weird sense of nostalgia. "No, no online, no home console. You should go around to your mate's house and trade Pokemon that way." Yes, it is very nostalgic and it was very wonderful at the time. But, online is social in its own way. There's absolutely no "real" reason why it can't work on a home console.

Groucho is about Groucho Marx, the comedian. So, that's the first part, but I don't know what a number 10 is. Could be an earlier reference to the rum and coke, so it might be a cigarette or something. It gives you the scene that's they're drinking, telling lots of rude/dirty jokes and just acting like idiots, so I reckon it probably is to do with cigarettes or something. Somebody on one of these lyrics meaning websites said that the whole song could be about a scene from Quadrophenia were Jimmy catches a train, but I've never seen the film so can't comment.

One of my best mates from home lives in Salisbury, but somehow we haven't met up on many occasions down here in Bournemouth. Today, he came around and we chatted and just generally chilled out together. It was most excellent. That was nice, plus the football season has started up agaaaain. In addition to that, we celebrated with some pizza and a few naughty chocolates. (it's only one night) Also also, my Spanish and Dutch are both coming along now. I'm suddenly remembering things and finding things a bit easier to remember. The light switch has finally turned on.