Fierce_LiNk

Gwent is just too fun. Have you just got the base game or have you bought the DLC too? I remember I couldn't sleep one night in the summer, so I just stayed up and started sailing around the islands in Skellige. I'd stop every now and again to go diving for treasure and then trade it in for lots of money. I pretty much know the Skellige soundtrack off by heart now.

Regular standard barbells should be able to handle 100kg with no problem at all. It's when you get to the 150kg mark that it'll start to feel the strain. Maybe even slightly less than that, depending on the quality of the barbell and how often it's put under that strain. Dumbbells should be absolutely fine. Yeah, it's unlucky that you're not in the UK or fairly nearby because the quality and selection of plates is pretty good. It's a really good weight set, just not what I need anymore. The 25kg plates are excellent. Just need to get around to photographing it all and putting it on Gumtree or something. Saying that, I completely adore my bumper plates. I know that they're going to last me a veeeeery long time, which is very reassuring to know.

Originally, when we lived in the flat before we bought this house, we used to go to the gym fairly regularly. As time went by, it became tricky finding the minutes and hours to get to the gym after work and weekends and it was always too busy. So, I couldn't always do the workouts that I wanted within that timeframe because the equipment that I needed would be used. It was difficult to find the space to do Deadlifts for example, and there was only one squat rack, too. To ease some of the pressure off going to gym, we invested in a skipping rope to do some cardio and I also bought a small set of weight plates with dumbbell bars to go with it. The plan was to just pick up a small, cheap set, so I bought some York cast iron standard weight plates. Think they were 2.5 and 5kg plates. The difference between standard and Olympic weights is that the standard weights have a 1inch hole for the bar to go through, whereas the Olympic weights have a 2inch hole. The Olympic weights are usually a bit more expensive, so I went for standard. Not an amazing picture, I'll try and find a better one. Over time, I found it limiting to just use the dumbbells, so I bought a few more extra plates. Then, I bought a small 5 foot barbell. After that, I then purchased an adjustable weight bench and then a set of adjustable squat stands. Before I knew it, we had our own makeshift bedroom/home gym! We then cancelled our gym subscription and just worked out at home. @Eenuh bought a cross-trainer machine and I ended up buying a 7 foot barbell, as well as additional weight plates. I've got sets of 0.5, 1.25,2.5,5,10,15 and 25kg plates in standard weight. The more I trained, the stronger I became. It was so much easier to work out at home and I was able to work out 5 or 6 times a week if I wanted (mixing cardio with weights. My squats and deadlifts improved massively and I managed to get up to 160kg for the deadlifts for reps. I could work out straight away when I got home from work, or I could do it early on the weekends and then have the rest of the day to myself. It made life so much easier. The issue is that the bar bent! Not even just a little, but a lot. A very noticeable bend, so it couldn't be used safely anymore. I had pretty much pushed that bar to the limits and I knew it was going to be impossible to find a strong enough bar to go beyond that. The issue with the barbells for standard weights is that they are limited hugely by how much weight they can hold. Due to standard weights only having a 1inch hole, the bars themselves are not particularly thick. Because Olympic weights have a 2inch hole, the bar tends to be thicker and it has a far greater maximum capacity. Most Olympic barbells can withstand up to 320kg and there is also a far lesser chance of them bending. I could buy another barbell, but the issue is that it might pretty much bend and be unusable within weeks due to how often I was using it and the amount of weight on it. Not only that, but my 25kg weight plates are not very tall in height. So, when deadlifting, I was essentially doing this on a deficit. On many occasions, I had to prop up the plates to get it to the appropriate height. The Olympic bumper plates are bigger and so the bar is at the perfect height for deadlifts or barbell rows. It makes a difference because you don't want to be rounding your back trying to get to the bar to make up the height difference, as that could lead to injury. So, I ended up buying a set of Olympic bumper plates, along with a 7 foot barbell. We've also moved into our new house and have converted the garage into a home gym, complete with a proper power rack. There is absolutely no fear that the bar will bend and I don't need to prop any weights up to get everything to the appropriate height. I can deadlift normally, etc. The only issue is that I now still have my set of standard weights that I need to flog. Looking back, we didn't really plan to go down the home gym route. If it was the original plan, I no doubt would have gone straight for Olympic bumper plates.

I know a lot of people didn't enjoy it, but I had a great time with Battlefront. How EA managed to miss a clear open goal with Battlefront 2 is anyone's guess. I'm a bit tired of Star Wars at the moment, especially after the mishandling of BF2 and the disappointment that was The Last Jedi. I'd be quite content with either a break with Star Wars games (tbh, probably even films, too) and for the people in charge (whether that's Ubi or Activision or EA, at least as far as the games go) to take the time to get it right.

It's still one of my favourite cartoons ever. I had it on again today and just love it. Getting a bit tired with how much space the old standard weights are taking up. I switched over to Olympic weights but never managed to flog the old standard set. Think it might be time. There's a fair bit of space in the garage gym that is being taken up, which could be used to store the Olympic set. Gumtree, here I come.

I really hope that they show off the game at E3. Eager to see how it's progressing! Trying not to build up my hopes too much, but The Witcher 3 has set the bar reallllly high.

I'm not particularly big on Marvel's films, particularly their style. But, I've had my eye on Black Panther for some time and it just keeps grabbing my attention. Think @Eenuh wants to see Coco first, but I'll try to convince her to see this, too.

I didn't really have a problem with the movement in the game. It felt like you were moving a 100kg+ man...which is about right. Geralt is a tank. Ciri's movement later on is very different, she's much lighter and more agile. Fits with the game, imo. Same as how Aloy's movement works in Horizon and how Mario works in his settings. Different genres, styles and settings require different movement. @drahkon, Skellige is my favourite area in the game...or at least, it was before I went to Toussaint in Blood and Wine.

I've just discovered that The Real Ghostbusters cartoon is on Netflix, so I can now watch that when I'm on the cross-trainer. Woooooo! Anything to make cardio a bit less boring.

I've not read the latest issues just yet. I got up to Volume 26 and didn't keep up. So, I re-read everything from A New Beginning and am about to read Volume 26,27 and 28 now.

How odd. Me too! It's good to have a proven winner managing your team, especially the type of guy who has actually won trophies in this country and has already brought success back to Old Trafford post-Ferguson, although Van Gaal certainly got things rolling. The man has won the Champions League with two different clubs (Porto and Inter Milan, no less) and has won the league in four different countries. What's also fantastic is that he has the balls to relegate players to the bench if they are not performing well, as he has done with Pogba recently. He was also quick to ship out Mkhitaryan for not delivering, and rightfully so. Not really sure why you'd particularly want someone of that calibre as the manager of one of your rivals, but Liverpool fans are a funny bunch.

That sucks, dude. A similar thing happened to me when I was driving my Ford Escort on the way to see a friend. Hate how expensive cars can be when they have issues. Could you maybe get a bank loan to get a car, maybe?

Is there really such a lack of top quality defenders out there that Jones and Smalling still regularly start and get games for United? They were both abysmal today, Smalling in particular. Made a stupid 'tackle' that should have been a penalty and dived (fucking DIVED in his own half) to give away the free kick that led to the goal. Newcastle completely outplayed us and deserved the win. They possessed all the qualities in this game that we've not really showed all season. Grit, desire, hunger, aggressiveness. Somebody pass these on a post-it note to Pogba, please. I've thought it for a very, very long time and I'll say it again: there is a fundamental coaching problem at our club. There was no composure on the ball today, no particular style or willingness to do something creative with the ball, players coming in-field too often and getting into each other's way. No control from midfield. Matic is having to do the work of 2 or 3 players in midfield because Pogba can't cover the ground or make tackles. We are stupid to play him in a two-man midfield because he can't do it. We need to go 4-3-3 and put a player like Herrera in there.

Happy birthday, Asssshley! (I actually can't look at that statue anymore without laughing)

Advanced Party Messages! Happy birthday to the wonderful @Eenuh. The world's number one D.Va enthusiast, who loves all things D.Va. She is gonna have to shoot you down! We are just getting ready to go out for some food and hopefully play a few games tonight as part of her birthday celebrations. Eenuh's food of choice tonight...the birthday burger! She's been thinking about this all week. Then, there will be the birthday cake to go with the birthday hugs with the cats on the birthday sofa. Merry birthday! NERF THIS!

Spurs had the ball but weren't really creating that many chances. There were a few half chances, but I think Kane (whoever else it might have been) was flagged offside for those. When Henderson went off, it just meant that Liverpool had absolutely no protection in the midfield and this allowed Spurs to now play the ball through the middle. The pressing game from Liverpool was not as good in the second half as it was in the first. I watched the entire game live. The first one is 100% not a penalty. Kane is standing in an offside position to begin with and, imo, there is minimal contact with Karius. It's a dive. The second one is more debatable. Van Dijk begins to stick out his leg to get the ball and retracts it when he realises that Lamela is coming through. Lamela's reaction is very over the top. There's also the added factor that Lamela wasn't making an attempt to go for the ball, which can be seen clearly in the replays. Spurs certainly tried it on in the second half, as is evident with Alli being booked for simulation. Watching the Six Nations and then coming back to football is an eye-opener. VAR can't come to the Premier League soon enough. The sooner we stamp out diving and these controversial decisions, the better. All the other goals were class, however. Can't decide whether I prefer Wanyama's or Salah's second. A draw is a fair result and works out well for United. As for United, we're very inconsistent. Terrible performance against Spurs. Struggled in the bigger games. Huddersfield were dirty as hell yesterday and only came to kick lumps out of our players. Not sure if it was covered on Match of the Day (I didn't see it yesterday). Overall, we have the potential to finish anywhere between 2nd and 7th and I can't say for certain where we'll end up and whether it's been a good season or a disappointing one. Just too inconsistent. But then, according to the table, we've let in the least amount of goals (18) and have the second best goal difference, after City (33). So, maybe we're doing better than it's being made out? Most fans I know would agree that this is the best squad since Fergie, but we still haven't got that killer instinct that's needed to put teams away. I feel that we are a top four side and are worthy of finishing second or third, but not good enough or tough enough to win the league.

Is there any way to get the old reactions back? E.g. are they attached to a theme or something? I'm not a fan of the new ones.

Liverpool threw it away in the second half when Klopp decided to take off Henderson for another centre-back. They lost control of the midfield and allowed Spurs to grow into the game. However, I think Spurs have been extremely lucky with the decisions today. The first penalty is definitely not a penalty and the second one is highly debatable. I don't mind as it worked out pretty well for United today, but still.

Welcome back to the football thread, Dazzy. Glad we could help Spurs stay in contention for the fourth place trophy.

I started this yesterday and am having a great time with it. I wanted more Uncharted 4...and it's exactly what I'm getting. As mentioned above, the back-and-forth talk between Chloe and Nadine is pretty good and I'm finding that there's just the right balance between platforming, shooting and puzzle solving, so far. Obviously, the game is completely fucking gorgeous. Can't wait to see how great The Last of Us Part II looks.

Wooo, I've been looking forward to playing Rime, so this will do nicely. Hope it's decent. Haven't heard much on this since the initial hype.

So...Kane was in our half before the ball was played at kick-off, therefore the goal shouldn't have stood. Piss poor defending, but still...can't wait for VAR to be used properly in every match. Also, Phil Jones. No words.

I'm not a fan of retrospective action. If an incident occurs in the game, it should be dealt with immediately. Imagine a player committing a red card offence, the referee gives nothing and that same player goes on to score the winner. Retrospective action is better than nothing, but it's not my ideal choice. If VAR can go some way to fixing these sorts of issues, then I'm for it. Today in the Cardiff/Man City game, the referee gave a player a yellow card when it should have been a red for a terrible foul. VAR wasn't available for that match. The same player ended up getting sent off much later, but still.

Wow at those stats. There's no doubt that it makes the game more fair. Plus, surely this will lead to less diving or the other unsavoury aspects of the sports. I also agree with your suggestion about replays on the stadium screens. Would help the fans at the stadium. It'll be a success, but it'll take time. There's so few reasons not to go with VAR.

I agree with all of this. I don't get this talk about the flow of the game. A lot of matches are very stop start, with the ball going out of play, or the goalkeeper taking an age for a goalkick or when setting up walls for free-kicks. There's actually a lot of time wasted in football, probably more than we all realise. The Premier League isn't always end-to-end with quick passing and lightning fast counters all the time, for example. I'm all for VAR. I'd rather a few seconds get used up to make the correct decision rather than my team getting knocked out of a competition because a goal wasn't given when it should have been. There's a lot of "false romance" with some elements of football. There's no fun in criticising referees when they make the wrong decisions. I've heard some say that it gives you more to talk about afterwards. The game should be enough!