FLiam

It has had a good couple of months after a slight dip prior. Two Like a Dragon games I want to play, but still not completed the last game. Then there’s Dead Space, Lies of P and the Lamplighters League - that’s before continuing Starfield.

Rumours of Baldur’s Gate coming to Xbox as soon as next month. Gamepass would be ideal.

Feeling nice and smug being the only one that predicted a Wolves win.

Goalkeeper injuries are getting a bit silly now though. I see a goalkeeper injured in a match seemingly every few games. Already had my starting keeper out for 6 weeks and then my reserve got injured for two weeks. I know it's an ongoing joke about FM needing a patch to be playable but this is the worst I can remember it being upon full release. Main issues I am finding are too many goals, too many goalkeeper injuries, not enough substitutions by the AI, and players complaining even more than previous games. It clearly has the potential to be a lot better than FM23 but so far, all I can see is that it needs a lot of work. Other than those things I pointed out, I am reading from people that have simmed multiple seasons that the AI are still not building squads as you would expect - clubs are stockpiling players in the same position, spending huge fees on players that don't play. Considering AI improvement was one of SI's headline feature announcements - I feel really let down by this release so far. That's not even including the shambles that is the Japanese league not being as functional as they claimed it would. But at least I can add facepaint to my manager now. I missed that SI put out a note: Might not be for at least a few weeks before it's properly playable for me.

I see the frustration with players kicking up a fuss about nonsense now. Started an AS Roma save, the day before the first game of the season (bear in mind I do have first transfer windows off), Pelligrini complains that we don't have enough depth at CB, cue 75% of the team now being unhappy and morale has dropped to almost the lowest level. Can't believe this made it past beta stage. Genuinely baffling. There is no realism in a new manager coming in and almost the entire squad being unhappy and against the manager who has no say in the current squad and cannot fix via transfers.

Wolves 2-1 Tottenham (Sat 12.30pm, TNT) Crystal Palace 1-2 Everton (Sat 3pm) Bournemouth 0-3 Newcastle (Sat 5.30pm, Sky) West Ham 2-2 Nottm Forest (Sun 2pm, Sky) Chelsea 0-2 Man City (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

Oh yeah I forgot about this one. I presume they wanted to increase the probability of a goalkeeper getting injured but whatever they did was very wrong. I definitely had goalkeepers getting injured before though, so I don’t really understand the decision behind this one.

Played a bit last night and as far as FM releases go - I would say this one is pretty bad. The AI doesn’t make many subs, if any - they come in the final few minutes most of the time. It was an issue in the beta and hasn’t been fixed. I played a few games of the season and in five games, my opponents only made three subs across all three. One came in the 71st minute and the others were in stoppage time. All this will do is lead to teams playing a second XI by October/November time. One other massive issue is that one of their headline announcements being the Japanese leagues being “fully licensed and playable” are not fully licensed and there are 100+ missing players (including Juan Mata). Whilst I wasn’t planning on managing in Japan, this is a massive false promise by SI. They must have known they didn’t have full approval yet, so to announce it weeks before release is really dishonest. On a positive note - the Tato skin has been released.

Unfortunately as it’s Chelsea, I think they will.

On the subject of the goal, I still don’t see how this doesn’t prove the ball is out of play. It’s clearly out of play.

I'm late to the party here - but how the fuck did Bruno G not get a straight red card for that forearm smash to Jorginho's head? I have seen reports that the VAR said it "wasn't nice, but wasn't an elbow so only a yellow card". So is blatantly forearm smashing someone in the head now acceptable in Premier League games? The rule on violent conduct is: When the VAR's are ignoring basic rules of the game, there's absolutely no point in having them. Not even going to get into the goal decision - the referees in England must be the lowest quality around, it's staggering how incompetent they continue to be.

Fulham 2-1 Man Utd (Sat 12.30pm, TNT) Burnley 0-2 Crystal Palace (Sat 3pm) Sheff Utd 0-2 Wolves (Sat 3pm) Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal (Sat 5.30pm, Sky) Nottm Forest 1-4 Aston Villa (Sun 2pm, Sky)

Such shit news. The man had his share of demons - I hope he is at peace now. Friends wouldn’t be Friends without Matthew Perry.

Chelsea 2-1 Brentford (Sat 12.30pm, TNT) Bournemouth 3-0 Burnley (Sat 3pm) West Ham 2-0 Everton (Sun 2pm, Sky) Brighton 4-1 Fulham (Sun 3pm) Man Utd 2-0 Man City (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

Liverpool 4-1 Everton (Sat 12.30pm, TNT) Brentford 2-1 Burnley (Sat 3pm) Nottm Forest 1-1 Luton (Sat 3pm) Chelsea 2-2 Arsenal (Sat 5.30pm, Sky) Sheff Utd 1-3 Man Utd (Sat 8pm, Sky)

Yeah - the changes to the match engine so far are very, very impressive. Everything is very fluid, the way players interchange, and the animations are excellent too. It’s nice to be able to actually mirror real-life four at the back out of possession/three at the back in possession now.

Beta is out.

We started Killing Eve last night but now I have seen that the finale has a rating of 3.4 on IMDb. Wondering if it's worth watching it all or not now. Game of Thrones has a 4.0 and (original) Dexter has a 4.7 so this cannot be a good sign.

The new fluidity with player roles looks exceptional.

Amazing lineup for the rest of this month. Like A Dragon: Ishin is also available today. On the downside, Persona 5 leaves on October 31st.

Tony Hawk’s please.

But when the end result is that image, there’s no question it’s a red.

A clear red.

Shiiit missed this. Tottenham 3-2 Liverpool (Sat 5.30pm, Sky) Nottm Forest 1-2 Brentford (Sun 2pm, Sky) Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton

Reguilon and Martinez are reportedly out with injuries now for United. Injuries are out of control this season. Can only think it's the schedule catching up with players.