AJ

So I think we'll take a raincheck on this week due to the Prem league final day festivities and connection problems etc.

We'll have a fresh go at it next week when there's not so much on.

Martin will play as a roaming second striker like Giggs and Ronaldo often do. Wellbeck probably on the right with Nani on the left.

Gibson is the one to watch though, at least from that lot anyways.

Just over half an hour to go. As a North-East based neutral. I'm excited. Just wondering which will be the miserable faces at work on Tuesday (aside from the boro fans, of course. )

Nice find, that offer. Amazon's site makes it stupidly hard to find offers and link them together.

Ghostbusters is out 19th June so not far away. Looks like you're taking this PS3 lark seriously so you might want to look into buying a bigger HD for it too. Depending on how many games/demos/movies/music you're gonna put on it. Having said mine was only a 40gb originally so I HAD TO upgrade.

I avoided the magic/cavs score all day yesterday expecting it to be shown on Setanta the evening after like it was the other day but it wasn't. I hate the lack of coverage over here. I hope we get better next season.

Looks like they're showing a game on Tuesday night at 1am on five. Which will that be?

edit: Figured it's game 4 of the Eastern finals. Might have to get up to watch that.

I'm sticking with my prediction that Sunderland and Newcastle will be safe (only just in Newcastle's case). Hull to go down via Utd reserves beating.

I hope i will Finaly have the money for my PS3 in two weeks... but since it´s summer i could still wait... are there any cool bundles on the horrizont? - I am still planing to buy through Amazon.co.uk (one free game and one for 10 quid + hdmi cable)... so if any one of you wants to give me a partner linke... we could share the money that amazon payes you (that would be like 5% i belive... so around 15 British phound)

Well this bundle is out this Friday: 80GB PS3 + Infamous + HDMI Cable £279.99 which seems like a good deal but can't see where you're getting the game for £10 from?

I love FIFA, I tried the demo and thought it was shit and entirely unnecessary.

Alright, Oscar. Back in your bin.

If any of you are starting an UT I can let you have any of these for cheap-ish. I don't need them and the only trading going on on the EA forums are for 99 rated players.

85 - CB - J. TERRY (ENG) Chelsea - 451 - Contract: 12

81 - LWB - G. CLICHY (FRA) Arsenal - 5212 - Contract: 10

82 - LWB - A. COLE (ENG) Chelsea - 5212 - Contract: 10

79 - CB J. - CARRAGHER (ENG) Liverpool - 4411 - Contract: 9

85 - CDM - E. CAMBIASSO (ARG) Inter Milan - 41212 - Contract: 9

85 - CB - I. CORDOBA (COL) Inter Milan - 41212 - Contract - 6

84 - LWB - MAXWELL (BRA) Inter Milan - 5212 - Contract: 5

Someone explain the whole Ultimate Team thing to me....

You get given a starter pack full of lower league players to make your team. You play games earning coins for things like goals scored, corners won, difficulty etc. You spend these coins on further packs (bronze, silver and gold containing better players and cards) or on auctions on the trading section. You can also earn coins by putting cards in your collection.

Your team chemistry decides how well your team plays together. This is dependent on how many players prefer your formation, whether their nationalities match and if they are playing in the correct position as well as your manager's preferences.

That's as 'in a nutshell' as I can get it. Try the demo, if you're not addicted after that then you just don't like FIFA

A while back I did a lot of browsing on the club info trade pages for kits and badges snapping up the ones that would make me a profit. It just so happened that I obtained the two Sevilla kits and badge in the process so I went ahead and completed that page. Since there are more players available than space I only bought gold players that made me a profit or silvers that cost very little.

I'm sure some people would prefer to have a nice collection with pages full of top-rated superstars but only the completion bonuses matter to me really. It's not like I'm gonna ever sit and look through my collection.

I think Sunderland are safe. Chelsea will batter them I'm sure but I can't see Hull getting anything regardless of what team Ferguson puts out. I'm hoping Newcastle can get a point which would be enough in that case. I've no hope for Middlesbrough though.

None of the teams involved should be moaning about Utd's team selection. In fact I agree with Holt's column in yesterdays Mirror where he says they should be hoping Utd pick a 'weak' team. Who's going to put in more effort away from home in Hull? Ronaldo and co who'll have their sights set on Rome and know the league is already won or a group of youngsters like Wellbeck, Macheda and Nani (well, maybe not Nani) who are still hungry to prove their worth and possibly earn a spot in the squad for Wednesday night?

Did anybody else here get a coin injection? I'm not sure cause I've been away for 2 weeks but I think I got 5k due to this:

Update: May 12th, 8:00pm

I’m excited to be able to announce our plans to reward some of the early adopters of FIFA 09 Ultimate Team (aka "FUT") – we’ve had the plan in the works for a good time internally and it’s great to finally get the word out now. As you are aware, the launch of FUT was immensely popular, and because of this it challenged our server capacity for the first 3 weeks. That was unfortunate for our consumers and we want to make it up to you.

Now the day has come where we want to say thanks to all the FUT early adopters for their patience and feedback during those first three weeks. To that end, every fan who purchased FUT before April 10th will receive 10,000 coins (equivalent to two gold packs). For every fan who tried FUT but didn’t buy it prior to April 10th, they will receive 5,000 coins (equivalent to one gold pack). In reality, you can choose whatever you wish to do with these new coins: go pick up that rare player on the trade pile, make a more beefy trade offer, or buy a few packs and roll the dice on getting some awesome players! Starting on May 15th coins will begin getting distributed automatically to all eligible users. If eligible, all you need to do is log on to FIFA 09 Ultimate Team after this date and you’ll notice your coin balance has increased accordingly!

And that’s not all, we have a number of other fun ideas coming up for the FUT faithful. To get all the latest updates we encourage you to sign-up on one of the many different communication channels below and we’ll be in touch on how you can continue to build your FIFA 09 Ultimate Team:

Twitter: EAS FootballLiveTeam (EAFootballLive) on Twitter

Facebook: FIFA Ultimate Team | Facebook

Bebo: bebo.com - Profile from FIFA Ultimate Team <FIFAUT>

Also, if you're thinking about starting a new UT or picking it up then you'll be interested to know that all new teams started after 22nd May will recieve a gold player in their starter pack. I think I may start a second team on another PS3 account just to see who I get.

Finally, allow me to share with you some of the sheer stupidity that goes on over at the official EA FUT boards:

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/fifa-09...ng-players.html

I completed my Pearl game last year and completed my dex except for the two legendaries unavailable at the time.

Is there anything particularly special about Platinum that makes it worth starting a new game on?

So I gather I haven't missed very much the last few weeks?

I'll update the first post with the few match results when I get a minute. Thanks for holding the fort TCO.

I got 100% chem after swapping out Moyes for Redknapp. Having a manager that likes your formation AND matches the nationality of 6 team players gives you a huge boost. Now I can absolutely hammer teams on World Class even though over half my squad are still only silver rated players. May look to move up to legendary soon.

Got about 20k coins in the bank. Only going to be using them to buy bronze packs for contracts and perhaps staff contracts on the trade cause I hardly ever seem to get them. I made an easy 4k yesterday by buying a 442 Manager Card for 2k and selling it on immediately for 6k.

Shame the 442 player cards go for ridiculous sums like 25k cause I'd really like one for my created player and my striker Mamadou Niang cause he's pretty good.

Just added GTA Chinatown Wars, Lego Batman/Indiana Jones/Star Wars, Pokemon Platinum, Big Bang Mini, Monsters vs Aliens and Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure to my already 30+ strong DS collection.

Should keep me going during the 9 hour flight tomorrow. I imagine there's a few who've played the Lego games. Anyone got any thoughts on the others?

Wrestling Rules: Create a splash graphic for WWE.com hyping a new tag-team that has just debuted. It can consist of existing or new superstars.

Size: 550 width 450 height

Colours: Relevant to RAW/SmackDown/ECW

Other Rules: With the recent unannounced publicity photos taken of the presidents plane low over the Manhatten skyline in mind. I, for one, would like to see more vehicles/transport where they shouldn't be. Be imaginative.

Size: Any

Colours: Go nuts.

NOW HE'S A SUPERSTAR, SLAMMIN' ON HIS GUITAR

I feel dirty for actually getting interested in this whole Apprentice lark despite thinking they were all complete morons from the start. I mean, is this the best the country has to offer? Sheesh.

It's a shame Phil's team won because had they lost I'm sure he'd have had his marching orders. I was supporting him at the start being a North East lad but he's become increasingly douche-like the last couple of weeks and that pants-man idea and jingle was shit. Oh and supposedly putting his differences with Lorraine behind him and then completely ignoring her throughout the task :\ But he did redeem himself a little with the genius idea of "fuck it, let's just take it into the pub and see who we can flog it to." I do find it quite funny when Sugar or the guys on You're Fired go on about not being able to understand him as well. Not a problem for me in the slightest as I deal with people with far stronger accents than his every day.

I did start to sympathise with old melty face (as Hamstah would call her) when no-one would listen to her. I guess I'm in the minority when I say I quite like Debra as well, but that's mainly because at least she's entertaining to watch. She has that whole bitch thing going on and she reminds me of Gretchen from Prison Break except more mouth and less action.

Captain Sandhurst to go next, surely. He's survived too long.

Got Vesuvius - Promised Land? Enjoy that and it was free DLC so that makes it doubly awesome.

More on the recent price drops. I saw GH:WT complete band and game in ASDA for £127 and alongside it there was just one remaining RB1 instrument edition which they were selling for £67. That seems proper cheap.

I was totally psyched about inFamous and then I found out about Prototype just the other day which also looks incredible. Haven't done much homework (work computers struggle with graphic-intensive gaming sites) but what's the general consensus, which is gonna be better?

Double post but... Got Redknapp (700 coins) and a 442 Manager Card (1000 coins). Hello 100% Chemistry!

I picked up Di Viao and Iaquinta for a combined 2k on the trade last night as well as D.Kamara and a Rio Ferdinand for 1550 BN which I thought was a bargain.

I'm now looking out for a new manager as I've learnt that having a manager the same nationality as 6 of your players and also matching your formation nets you 15 chemistry points. Meaning that you can afford to play someone out of position or of a different nationality elsewhere. That's how people get away with playing Ronaldo who's RW as a RM and still get 100% chemistry.

Once I've ran down the contracts of some gold players I have (Cordoba, Maxwell, Niang) my best team will look something like:

Manager: David Moyes (SCO)

Wright (ENG)

Konchesky (ENG) Ferdinand (ENG) Boyce (ENG) Hoyte (ENG)

Robson (SCO) Sidwell (ENG) Carrick (ENG) Salihamidzic (B&H)

Iaquinta (ITA) Di Viao (ITA) or Kamara (SEN) Camara (SEN)

That gets me mid-80's chemistry so I really need to change Moyes for possibly Redknapp if I can find one cheap enough and I'm on the lookout for Taylor (the Bolton one) to replace Robson at LM.

I'm also thinking of starting another UT game on another PS3 user and seeing how many coins I can rack up by simply using my bronze starters until they run out and then using low-cost replacements.

Just lost the sound on my PS3 mid-game on FIFA :S

Sound doesn't work through HDMI or composite and changing the sound settings plus resetting the PS3 hasn't done anything. The only other thing I've read that it could be is my TV has overheated but I've just checked my sky box and that's got sound just fine. Very worrysome.

edit: On further inspection. I can get picture only through HDMI. I can get oicture and sound together through composite but I can't get picture on HDMI along with audio through composite (which is what I would use with my gaming chair).

I'm leaning toward the HDMI cable being fux0red. I'm sure this happened to me before :S

Bwahah yeah. My nice little bit of bargain hunting for the night was buying a Man U badge for 300c and selling it again for 1000 and that was a Buy Now price. Someone was clearly desperate.

I'm so totally addicted to the trade center. It still isn't in perfect time expiration order but it's a bit better. I've amassed so many kits and badges recently. Trying to keep myself to playing matches tonight.

My squad is sort of coming together but I'm afraid I may have to abandon my midfield and start over because good English 442 RM's and LM's are almost non-existant. Any ideas for a good but inexpensive nationality midfield wise?