Bobfoc

This will be a big loss to the sport. Murray is a great competitor and sportsman who worked incredibly hard to earn the success he did. He's played in an era that lots of people consider to be the most difficult ever, with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic being three of the all-time greats, and yet has won three Grand Slam titles, a lot of other major tournaments and the Davis Cup too, as well as being top of the world rankings for a while. That's seriously impressive, and I imagine that he'd have won several more if he'd been around in the early 2000s, after Sampras' powers were waning and before Federer really hit his stride. It'll be a shame that he won't ever win the Australian Open because he's been a five-time runner-up. I still think he could have done it because, before this hip injury really kicked in, he was playing better than anyone. I have plenty of good memories of watching Murray play, but none more so than when he won Wimbledon for the first time. What a huge moment not only for his country, but for himself.

Dragon's Dogma is coming to the Switch.

Phil Spencer said that Microsoft is looking to address the gap between GPU and CPU during the next console generation, and so I wonder if that's what we'll see with Sony too. In theory, that ought to mean a focus on smoother frame rates, rather than graphical power. Maybe there'll be more options to customise performance vs. graphical detail, which is something that the Pro and X are already doing in some cases.

They did. Blood Money was in that collection too, though, so I can see why people would want Contracts as well.

Well done, Newport.

I'd love a scene like the one in The Terminator at the police station, only with the maesters in Oldtown. Have them all laughing about the very idea of ice zombies, only for the Night King to smash through the front door on Viserion and systematically take them out as they cower.

There's still time to salvage a Wembley replay.

My guess is that the next consoles will launch at the end of next year. Sony's missing E3 this year, and I'd have thought that they'd be everywhere they could if they were releasing a new system this year, but they've also said that we're approaching the end of this console generation.

I'm looking forward to the new episodes, but it's mainly because I want to see what happens in the end, rather than because I'm expecting great drama. I've really enjoyed the series so far and would consider it one of my favourite fictional stories ever, in both its literary and on-screen formats. At this stage, though, it's drifting further into "not for me" territory. I think the biggest thing I liked about the series was the fact that there were good, bad and middling characters on all sides. I still consider "Blackwater" to be the high point of the series because, on the one hand, you wanted Davos and his son to triumph, but you didn't want Melisandre to turn the realm into a cesspit of religious zealotry. You also wanted Joffrey and Cersei to lose, but that would also mean that Tyrion and Sansa would suffer or possibly die. That was a dynamic that was replicated on a lesser scale with the wagon train battle in Series 7, with Daenerys and Tyrion on one side and Jaime, Bronn and Dickon on the other. Those conflicts of viewer interest were what brought the action sequences to life and made me want to rewatch them. My problem now is that that dynamic has been slowly falling away. "Battle of the Bastards" was cinematically impressive and had a great moment of catharsis at the end, but it was a straight "good versus evil" showdown. I'm not saying that that's inherently awful because I enjoyed it on first viewing, but I haven't felt any great urge to watch the battle itself again. With the White Walkers, it's worse because, again, the battle of the living and the dead is your typical "light and dark" encounter, but the White Walkers have no discernible personality. In the case of Ramsay Bolton, he at least had the overblown evil bastard factor that made his death satisfying, but the army of the dead has nothing interesting going for it, in my opinion. Maybe Series 8 will shed a bit more light on the White Walkers' aims beyond "kill everyone", so I won't dismiss it completely yet. That sounds as if I hate the show, which isn't true at all. There are still a few loose ends that I'm intrigued to see tied up, and I'm still invested in the outcomes of most of the characters. I'll probably end up watching it in the early hours of the morning to avoid spoilers, so there must still be something going for it.

Full price, apparently. I've also read that it's digital only.

Interesting. With IO putting its time into the new Hitman 2, and quite a few of the aspects of its predecessors being put in, it's a little surprising that they're also bringing back these ones. It's also interesting that they're combining Blood Money, considered to be the best of the old Hitman games, and Absolution, which is seen as the "odd one out" of the series in terms of its gameplay style. In other news, it looks as though Catherine will be coming to PC soon. I have no intention of playing through the game again because it's bloody frustrating, but it's something I'd recommend for one run-through.

I don't have allegiances to any of the countries, so I'll just hope for an interesting underdog winner.

I think some games also get a slight frame rate boost. As far as I know, it's a fair purchase if you can afford the extra expense, but it really doesn't do anything crucial the stock PS4 doesn't already. For example, no PS4 models play UHD Blu-Rays, whereas the considerably cheaper Xbox One S does.

Barbara Berlusconi became Leicester manager in one of my 2017 games.

I didn't play Spiderman or God of War, so I can't comment on those. My favourite has been Red Dead Redemption 2, which might also be my favourite game of this console generation. Smash Bros. is a lot of fun too. I've also tried out Astro Bot Rescue Mission on someone else's PSVR unit, and it was fantastic. I won't make a list for 2018 because, as usual, I haven't been able to play all the games I'd like to. I'm much better placed to compile a selection of best games from previous years, so I might be in a position to put together a 2018 list in a few years.

I'd snap your hand off for 80th place right now.

England's World Cup run was fun, of course. It's easy to forget that it was aided in no small part by a favourable draw, but it cheered people up for a little while, which was desperately needed. Club football has been utter bollocks, though. My club of choice looks set to be relegated out of the Football League. This time last year, they were in the midst of a promotion push. I enjoyed the Winter Olympics, particularly Lizzy Yarnold's winning run in the skeleton. Watching Elise Christie was sad, on the other hand. Tennis was largely an Indian summer for the old guard, except for Andy Murray. Kyle Edmund's run in the Australian Open was nice, even if he didn't match those heights afterwards. Fury/Wilder was obviously a big highlight in the boxing world, but Josh Warrington vs. Carl Frampton sounded like a classic too. Callum Johnson, who hails from my local town, also competed for a world title, and despite the fact that he lost, it was still nice to see. The international Rugby Union scene is looking great at the moment, and it's a bit of a shame that the World Cup didn't take place in 2018. The Northern Hemisphere sides are proving to be a match for their Southern counterparts more than ever, and I really hope that's still the case when the World Cup comes around towards the end of this year. Naturally, I'll be hoping for a good showing from England, but it would be good to see a Northern winner of any description. I'll also give a mention to snooker, my favourite game. Maybe it's not really a sport, but it's officially recognised as such, so sod off with your pedantry. Mark Williams winning the World Championship fifteen years after his last Crucible triumph was memorable in its own right, but more so because it took a few days' attention away from Ronnie O'Sullivan, who I wish would go away and never come back.

Interesting point about Jones and Cormier being more athletic heavyweights than those Brock has faced before. As I've said a few times, I don't follow MMA on anything more than a basic level, but I've read several times that the fighting styles are developing so rapidly that comparing fighters of different time periods is more or less meaningless. I suppose it shows how good someone like Georges St Pierre is to come back after several years out and still operate at a high level.

I enjoyed seeing Nunes win and was unhappy at Jones' victory, although I didn't expect Gustafsson to overcome him. If Lesnar were to return to face Jones or Cormier, would anyone actually expect him to win? I know he'd have a size advantage, but he's also 41 years old, has a history of diverticulitis and lost the last two fights of his initial UFC run quite handily. Is there something I'm missing or would it mostly just be a payday for Lesnar?

I'm only a casual UFC fan, but I hope Jones loses as much as I've wanted anything in sport this year.

Playstation Plus for January: Steep (PS4) Portal Knights (PS4) Zone of the Enders HD Collection (PS3) Amplitude (PS3) Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion (PS Vita & PS4) Super Mutant Alien Assault (PS Vita)

I haven't played it, but I understand it's quite different from the others, both in terms of tone and gameplay variety.

But what about trading cards?

I'd be really annoyed if I'd bought tickets to the show and they announce they're moving it to another state just a week before it takes place. I'd imagine you'd get a refund, but it's still a big shame if you'd been looking forward to it.