Bobfoc

England can hold their heads high, at least. On recent form, that should have been a thrashing, but they got their tactics almost spot on.

Even if South Africa run away with it in the second half, at least England gave it a good go.

Along with Bobby Moore, Charlton was the player English children were brought up to see as legends of the game. He was one of only a few English players to maintain a great reputation internationally years after his retirement.

End it now.

I can imagine that's partly down to Insomniac's collective skill when it comes to optimisation. The fact that they've managed to put raytracing in every performance mode while other studios, even those owned by Sony, haven't is a testament to how good they are at the technical business. I still think the latest Ratchet and Clank looks better than almost anything else out there.

Argentina did a decent job for a while, but the gap in quality is showing now. New Zealand vs. South Africa ought to be a great final.

This is looking ominous.

Speaking of hectic fixture lists, the League One and League Two clubs have 46 league matches and the Papa Johns Trophy to deal with, plus some League Cup matches if they go on a little run. It's telling that fixture pile-ups for Premier League teams are acted upon and those for clubs with smaller squads aren't.

What is it about the game that's apparently so good?

I see they're planning to scrap replays in the third and fourth rounds. Give it a bit of time and we'll probably see something like clubs in European competitions getting a bye to the fifth round.

None of them look as though they've just stepped on a piece of Lego this time. They do, however, look as if they're accessories to a crime.

It's so strange to think that Italy were so good at Euro 2020. They've otherwise been very poor by their own standards over the last seven years.

Jusant is an intriguing one because it's made by Don't Nod, but is very different from their other games. I generally find their normal choice-based narrative games to be intriguing conceptually, but they often fall apart towards the end, but this one is a climbing game that doesn't appear to have any dialogue. I've heard good things about the demo.

That's 60 international goals for Kane. That's eleven more than Bobby Charlton, who had more caps than Kane has now.

What's particularly surprising is that Frontier managed to make Planet Coaster, in which every guest has their own personality traits and tastes, but then made all the drivers in F1 Manager have no personalities whatsoever.

F1 Manager has once again fallen below sales expectations, meaning that Frontier will lay off an as yet undisclosed number of employees. A bit of good news is that F1 Manager 2023 is coming to Game Pass on Thursday. I do hope that gives the game a bit more of a player base because, despite the game's lack of certain features, I really hope the series can continue to exist and grow.

The games are being released separately as well. It's still probably expensive for a single game that's 25 years old, though.

I've never seen Queens of the Stone Age, but I did once see Homme with Them Crooked Vultures. It was one of the most boring, self-indulgent shows I've ever witnessed.

It sounds as though it's more of the same, which will be enough for a lot of people. I thought the other ones were fun, even though the characters and story didn't do much for me, so this is the sort of thing I would probably play when it comes to Playstation Plus.

Spain beat Norway, meaning that Scotland have qualified.

Don't forget Like a Dragon.

France have a reasonably young team and should be big contenders in 2027, but they'll still be gutted. Missing the opportunity to win on home soil when they were arguably favourites will be a big setback to get over.

Yes, the original Metal Gear is mostly the same story-wise on NES and MSX, but with a few things removed from the NES version due to the technical limitations of the platform. Snake's Revenge was made without Kojima's knowledge, but it's somewhat historically significant as it encouraged him to make a "true" Metal Gear sequel that otherwise wouldn't have been his top priority. In a way, it was the catalyst for the property becoming a series instead of a one-off game.

That's four thrilling quarter finals. This is shaping up to be the most entertaining World Cup ever. Somehow, England are the only unbeaten team left in, and that was nearly not the case with the Samoa match. It's an exciting time for world rugby, even if we'll almost certainly end up with the usual suspects in the final.

Great entertainment so far. England should consider it a great success if they don't lose by more than twenty points next week.