ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster

Episode 4 continues the excellence. Best of all I'm just as engaged with what's happening in the vault as outside it!

Episode 3 was great. Being able to Goggins-verse it back to before the bombs drop is a great tool to have in your armoury.

Thankfully our women have more than saved this weekend. Whooooooo!

I really liked the first episode. I think they've captured the feel really well. The clips at the end of the episode were fantastic and I went straight onto episode 2 which is rare for me as I rarely binge limited series. Big fan so far.

There's only one man for this job.

Gauntlet either needs booting, adding a fifth Gladiator like in ye olde days, or changing scoring. Maybe give them a point for every second left when they get through the end. It it was only ever used as the final event before the Eliminator it would add some tension to the competitors trying to finish a second or two faster. I'm glad if every Gladiator comes back ultimately. Give them another season to build on their characters and get stronger at certain events. My other three wishes are put the Gladiator on the left podium for Duel, add another couple of events and there really needs to be less chance of losers making it to the semis and final. I know they were unlucky with injuries on the men's side but maybe only having one fastest loser in the heats only and not quarters too. So you would have 14 competitors in the heats, seven winners and one loser to the quarters. Then it's only winners all the way through from there. It means extra episodes (7 heats, 4 quarters, 2 semis, final - 14 episodes) but I feel they'd be happier after the success of series 1.

I think the Gladiators to build the franchise on are probably Legend, Giant, Sabre and Fury. Giant's not used as much on the mic as the other three who are all good on it (Legend especially) but has a role as a Shadow-like character. He's just huge and having him on Duel or at the end of Gauntlet just works visually. Long term you're gonna want to keep Phantom and Nitro from the men - both are extremely athletic, Nitro's got great energy too and Phantom has a bit of edge to him. I feel the women are less clear cut. I'd like Comet to get another chance if she returns because I think she would have had a niche. I think Electro is worth keeping on long term too. I think next up you have Apollo who is decent enough and Steel who is alright too. If I had to replace two men it would be Bionic (the worst of the big men) and Viper (Legend is the better heel, his schtick isn't working and he loses too much. Also him causing events to be restarted isn't fun and is dangerous when contenders cool down during the pause). For the women I like Athena but it seems like they're not pushing her on the solo events. I know they'll keep Diamond but she's quite similar to Sabre who is better. Fire also doesn't have her own niche. I'd imagine they'll keep Dynamite but I'm not totally sold on her yet.

I hadn't realised this thread was here. Firstly I agree with Keith that Legend saying the segment was bad was legitimately great. he plays the role well and is decent on the mic. I also agree with him about Sabre being a megababe and gutted she got injured tonight. Our whole family are enjoying it and have our fave gladiators. The Edge is a great event. Gauntlet needs a rethink or to get dropped for season 2. Shame that Comet got injured early as I liked her as a wall/hang tough specialist. Giant's a great big man. Fury's rugby skills always look brilliant on the events that can showcase it. As for contenders, less fussed. We all want the Scottish woman to win it (taking part in semi 2) as she's been brilliant all the way through and is ridiculously rapid on the Eliminator.

If any of you want to head over to deepest, darkest Kent in March we're running our second convention with TTRPGs on Saturday and a megagame on the Sunday! Event page: https://boysfromthebaltics.wixsite.com/rpgaming Facebook group for updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/362711546184061

I've got Phantom Liberty and latest updates on PC. Last night just completed the Voodoo Boys stuff so apparently Dog Town opens up now. Which is nice as I've played some of these missions 4-5 times now due to different playthroughs! What I HAVE noticed (aside from the expected changes - skill tree, much much less med and grenades around, far fewer clothes to take off dead enemies etc) is that hacking is traced more frequently at a lower level meaning I've needed to mix up the way I infiltrate an area as I get traced. So been having to explode the gas tanks, or find cleverer ways to kill folk without getting spotted...and then having to race in to clean it up when traced. Also there's a lot more visual glitching on screen when a netrunner is messing with me. Kinda cool. Overall the game is better than ever. I'm sure they've added a few other bits here and there that are blink-and-you-miss-it things. Very very good game now, especially running on a decent PC. The map is full of lighting effects, cars and people. It feels vibrant and alive.

Annoyingly that trailer looked pretty good. Currently with a PS4 and a gaming PC though, it's likely I'll be waiting quite a while to play it!

I will enjoy it! It's easier to watch these series if it's your team that it's following!

Surfer Rosa, not Doolittle, is the best Pixies album. Oh and unironically "Enema of the State" by Blink 182 should go down as one of the "best" albums ever written. Of course it won't, but it should.

If anyone wants a trip down to Kent in March we're running our second convention! Saturday is all roleplaying games while Sunday we're going to be running a Megagame! Come and hang!

Good fantasy week for me with Tua on both teams and Tyreek Hill on one of my teams. I love my Dolphins right now.

Good call on the Carry On films. I still love (most) of them. They didn't try to build a bigger interlocking story outside of "what setting are our cast double-entendreing their way through this year"?

England need to win this one. It has the most partizan crowd while the Oval and Lords gives them much less of an advantage in that regard.

I'm going to see Placebo in Margate this Friday. Good times.

If anyone is at a loose end in an hour or so (11pm BST) we are playing the latest adventure in our Tony and Rudi adventures - two treasure hunting museum curator friends are in St. Moritz at a winter academic symposium, but as they enjoy their dinner and drinks the evening after giving their presentation, things are getting extremely strange as the evening seems to be repeating itself.... Come and hang with us at https://twitch.tv/boysfromthebalticstar

I definitely had to replay the mirror section a few times but for me it was the Sea of Corpses chapter where you have to fight wave after wave in that water with the anguished corpses hanging out of the cliffsides and fire everywhere. I was playing it on hard I think and that was tough.

I enjoyed the Picard finale, although mostly the part after the threat was over. I'm at an age now where nostalgia of something I loved from childhood just feels so lovely that I'm willing to forgive stuff in order for that fuzzy hit. I know that's not necessarily good for "the art", but when it comes to sci-fi I just love it.

One of the best things about streaming games is that I have to power through. Usually I ask chat for help, or tell them I'm going to look at a walkthrough as the shared experience and story is more important than getting bogged down in the same place for hours. I've had two games where I really got stuck on stream and took almost an entire 90 minute stream to get past a section while dying repeatedly, but it felt so good after - a couple of sections in Alien Isolation and a very tough series of fights in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

This season does make me realise more than ever that I wish we had a DS9 version. I'd gobble up every single cliche, guest star and overused DS9 plot. Avery Brooks is retired and said he'd never return though and Rene A, Louise F and Aron E are sadly no longer with us so there would be some gaps but I'd be well up for Worf to act as a bridge into it, ending up on DS9 with Kira and Quark still there, before O'Brien, Bashir and Ezri Dax join him and Kira on the little D for some reason. Make sure Jake is involved in some way. Include a Morn plot point, Rom, Keiko, Garak being their undercover contact for something.... I would love it so much, but I feel that any further nostalgia series would probably just jump to Voyager as DS9 has always been shoved to the background.

I generally finish most series feeling a sense of loss that the series is over, but am often quickly won over to the next batch! We've just finished series 12. I'd say that over the last five series (8-12) my order of preference is probably... 12. (Davies, Burch, Khan, Robinson, Coren-Mitchell). 10. (Cooper, Vegas, Parkinson, Rizwan, Herring). 11. (Ritchie, Maddix, Mack, Wozniak, Kendall). 9. (Baddiel, Gamble, Brand, Wix, Matafeo). 8. (Stirling, Thomas, Sanders, Sinha, Gibson). 12 really hit high. I hadn't really seen Desiree Burch before (she was great) but I've long loved Davies, Khan, Robinson and Coren-Mitchell and they all turned up big time.

Finished streaming The Quarry a couple of weeks ago. Great game, do love those interactive styles of game (Quarry, Until Dawn, Heavy Rain, Detroit, Beyond: Two Souls) but can't play one after another as I also find them pretty stressful!