JasonM

Blow the team up, tbh. I don't see how we can continue on without Boban.

It's been a bad week for Top 10 players in general. Daniil Medvedev and Auger-Alliasime were beaten last weekend by (then) #205 Tim van Rijthoven at the Dutch ATP250.

Especially Persona 3 where you shoot yourself in the head to summon your persona.

I've seen people describe Persona as 'Pokemon for grown ups', and whilst that's an extremely reductive way to describe it, there's some merit in that. There's two aspects to the game like Bobfoc described. The first aspect is that it's something of a (school-)life simulator, you go through a schoolyear and have to engage in improving personal skills, get passing grades, and form social bonds with over a dozen of characters. Then there's the dungeon crawling aspect that drives the plot forward, you go into a demonic world (every game has a different plot hook for it) and go through a dungeon to reach a goal that varies per game. (In Persona 5 it's making bad people fess up their crimes, in Persona 4 it's saving innocent people from certain death). During the dungeon crawling you fight monsters, you can recruit some of these monsters to upgrade your own arsenal of spell power, and you level them up. (hence the pokémon description). It's very unique, and definitely not for everyone. But I am a big fan of the franchise all the same, having finished another playthrough of Persona 4 a few months ago. Also glad P5 Royal is coming to PC now, I played through bits of P5 but a save game corruption kinda killed my interest dead and I never came back. A shame it's P3 Portable and not P3 FES, but I heard that Atlus no longer has the source code to the latter, so it makes sense they release Portable instead.

Spa for many years was basically the go-to track for most Dutch fans, especially since Max Verstappen showed up and started succeeding. Now with the Dutch GP, the importance of Spa has lowered for Dutch fans since they have their own. It's still a massive loss, though. Zandvoort absolutely sucks for racing, and Spa has been one of the iconic F1 tracks for as long as it has existed. But I also like the idea of seeing Kyalami back on the calendar, I don't know if it's ideal for F1 (the last few corners are really tight.), but in a global F1 there has to be at least one race in Africa along with the other continents, and Kyalami is the best circuit for that. I'd rather a few other tracks made way, but money talks and Spa by all accounts have struggled for it for a while now. It befell the German GP, and I guess Spa is now the one on the chopping block.

I mean near every other team is willingly letting their drivers take 6G shocks to the head with the insane porpoising going on, so I guess there's your answer. In general, there's not a single team that wouldn't push the absolute limits of the safety regulations for a competitive advantage. It's a nature of the beast, and the drivers themselves aren't in a position to say no, and they're also focused on maximizing their competitive edge. Unless race control or the FIA mandate more aggressive safety measures, no team will willingly implement any themselves.

My definition of perfect might be a bit more loose, but these are my albums that I can listen fully and never tire of. Spoiler warning, a lot of rock. In no real order. . ...Like Clockwork - QOTSA | This album just has everything for me, and all ten songs just hit for me. . Them Crooked Vultures | Talk about taking your only shot and hitting a bullseye. Homme, Grohl, Jon Paul Jones got together and made an album that might not be the most influential, but definitely is the most listenable. . Royal Blood | In a way getting it this good on a debut album has meant that Royal Blood has had a hard time growing further from it. Having said that, they have continued growing all the same. But this debut outing still is the best top-down album they made, with all ten songs being absolute bangers. . Turn Blue - Black Keys | El Camino got me into the Black Keys, and Turn Blue made me a true believer of them. Absolutely brilliant album. (Let's Rock gets pretty close, too) . Californication - RHCP | Blew my teenaged mind when I first heard RHCP, and whilst it took a while for me to fully listen to any album, Californication is rightfully seen as one of the best rock albums ever made. . Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen | There are so many options for the Boss, but this one probably gets the nod because it effectively put him on the map. Just a great album that has literally everything, including the most accidental pop hit that is Dancing in the Dark. Like a fine wine, the older I have become the more this album has started to appeal to me. . Vegas - The Crystal Method | The wildcard pick in many ways, and the only non-rock pick from me, but Vegas is the best electronic music album ever produced and I will die on that hill. From the energetic (and late 90s overused song) Keep Hope Alive to the near trippy (and aptly named) Trip Like I do, this album is an hour of perfection.

I second the sentiment that the first episode of Ms. Marvel was great. Perfect introduction of a great character. It had that Spider-Man feel to it, whilst being very much inherently different in so many ways. I hope the other five episodes will be as fun as this one is! The art-direction also felt akin to Into the Spider-Verse, and it really helped make it stand out and pop.

This is the first slam I have ever seen, and after years of hearing and knowing how great Nadal is, this final really hammered home to me how effortless he makes it look. Utterly astonishing to watch someone dismantle his opponent in such a clinical fashion.

Death road to Canada... Oh wait

CRPG stands for "Computer Role Playing Game", nowadays it basically means games that are based in some form or fashion on tabletop RPG's like D&D, Pathfinder, or other rulesets. Or games that have their own ruleset, but heavily inspired by tabletop. Historical examples are Baldurs Gate 1/2, Planescape Torment, Neverwinter Nights, Arcanum, KOTOR1/2. Modern ones are Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Pathfinder Kingmaker/Wrath. There's also a few that could fit into the CRPG group like Disco Elysium, or Fallout 1/2, Dragon Age: Origins, Wasteland 1/2/3, Divinity: Original Sin 1/2, Shadowrun, Underrail. They tend to stand out having turn based or real-time with pause gameplay. Rulesets based on or inspired by tabletop rules, and more in line with what one would expect of playing in a tabletop setting. (dice rolls, limited use abilities/spellcasting, etc.)

Spoiler-free-ish list of stuff to keep when you find it.

The heart of the anvil is a part of Harrim's personal quest. But I wouldn't be surprised if you left Harrim at home after two minutes of hearing him be Dwarven Eeyore

Is it?

I think the worst aspect for the management is that a very specific path is required for the secret ending. Another thing about the advisor I only realized until much-much later, you can hire custom characters from Anoriel, and these characters can be turned into advisors. Which is a bit bland, but can help if you are serious about sticking (close) to your allegiance with every choice you get, and the story companions will excuse themselves from their advisor role if you make decisions going against their desires/alignment a few too many times. I had Lander walk out on being my regent because I decided against him one too many time, and it left me with a hole in that position because Valerie and Octavia where already in other positions. Very frustrating.

Yeah, I really liked Kingmaker the crpg but the kingdom management was novel but ultimately just slightly arbitrary busiwork. I actually restarted today as a lawful evil sorcerer. I really feel this game doesn't penalize for running a non-good alignment and still give you a different experience.

Good on Checo for getting the bag, he's a really good fit for Red Bull at this point in his career and especially this year he's shown to be the perfect driver to pair with Max Verstappen. He's drama free, but he can get the maximum out of the car and that's going to be worth its weight in gold as Red Bull aims for the WCC along with another WDC. But this pretty much should end Pierre Gasly's involvement with Red Bull after this season. He's stuck around in the hopes of finding his way back into the Red Bull seat, but with Checo on board through 2024, that leaves him completely dead in the water in terms of career choices. The only issue is where he might go, the only drives I can see open up soon are Vettel's seat at Aston Martin and maybe Ricciardo's seat at McLaren. The first one would be a big time step back competitively even compared to Alpha Tauri, and the second one is nowhere near a guarantee that McLaren will move away from Ricciardo. There's also a tiny chance that Lewis or Fernando might retire, but honestly I don't see either of them hanging up their boots this year or even next year.

I know you're sarcastic, but still fuck you for saying it. I legit don't care for the Champions League anymore. It's just all teams with fuck-you money nowadays.

Sucks for Checo, but with Red Bull being so focused on getting their second title in as many years, he was going to be victimized. The fact Leclerc had retired and Sainz had a dog of a race furthered the need/desire to maximize Max's point haul for this race. The choice would've been between Max being 1 point behind Leclerc, and being 6 points ahead of him. The season is still long, but with how close the title was last year, you don't want to be at the end of the season going "We should've gotten him those 7 points in Spain". Mercedes did it, Ferrari has done it back in the day. It's just a part of the sport. Ferrari should definitely scratch themselves on the head, though. Leclerc retiring is super unfortunate, but you really don't want these reliability issues because it'll cost them the title against an opponent who is nigh-on imperious every weekend. Carlos Sainz also has shown some worrying mistakes, too, and losing valuable points in the process is something you can't use. But the most surprising racer this entire season has to be Ricciardo, he's been shocking all year with only points in one race and one sprint race. Last season wasn't great but still had bright spots, but ever since the latter part of last season he's been on a woeful skid and you wonder what he's struggling with, because Lando is generally in the points and quite a ways up the field.

It sure is!

I had hoped the Mavs to win game 7 but I wasn't expecting it. But I had NOT expected it to become a Germany Vs. Brazil kind of annihilation. Truly bizarre game to watch after the second quarter. I'm not expecting anything in the WCF, but after managing to get through both the Jazz and Suns, maybe there's a glimmer of hope for us to beat the Warriors and make it to the finals. But i'm honestly happy to be here, and to see the Mavs manage to show up when it matters.

The 35/36 season, last year had the continental treble. This year, less so. Lost to Man Utd in the European Super Cup (foreshadowing), a bit disappointed but it's not like I really needed it. In the League we lost an early game to Juventus, and that meant we were dominantly running in 2nd place with Juventus somehow managing to one-up us until the winter break and not allow us to take first place. But after the winter break Juventus finally stumbled, allowing us to run out to a 103 point season and the third Serie A title in four years. The cup was, as usual, an afterthought by design. CL teams get slotted into the 3rd round, so we ran through Modena, Inter, Parma, and then Juventus for my third cup win in a row. Also won the domestic supercup 4-2 against Atalanta, even bigger afterthoughts. Champions League, board wants us to go back-to-back. And we got a group of Madrid, Nice, and Famalicao. To my surprise, we went a perfect 6-0-0 with an 8-0 goal difference against Madrid, on top of that. First KO we get an easy draw against Celtic, who we defeat 5-0 and 5-0. So far so good. Quarter finals has the harder draw, FC Bayern being placed in front of us. But we win the first tie 2-1 before taking it home in the return with a 4-2 victory to get us back among the top four of Europe. Semi Finals we face Man Utd, the chance to get our heat back after taking the pin in the European Super Cup. But English clubs continue to be broken, and they beat us 4-2 at Old Trafford before beating us 1-0 at San Siro despite us having much better shooting, the team decides to shit the bed on top of the Man Utd GK deciding he's not a 3* player but a 5* one. Really frustrating way to go out, but at least Napoli beat City in the other Semi's, so there's hope for Italy (heh, as if). My own grade, a 8/10. Despite trailing Juventus for the best part of the season, the league eventually wasn't in doubt as Juventus stumbled hard and let us run away. We did what we have to do in the cups. And the Champions League started strong, but ended on a sour note. After four seasons at AC Milan. I got 3 Serie A titles, 3 Cups, 3 Supercups, and a Champions League victory. That on top of EURO 2032 and Nations League with the Netherlands, Conference League 31/32 with Metz, A World Cup final with Poland, and a Vana South and FA Trophy all the way back in 24/25 with Concord Rangers. I think I'm honestly done at this point. Milan has been fun in a different way, but the winning has become largely automatic as long as I don't face Man Utd or Liverpool in the Champions League. Even Juventus, my biggest national competitor, has not been able to really match up to me in the past two seasons. I know there's more Champions leagues to win, but Milan is 3rd with 8 behind Liverpool (12) and Madrid (13), but the seasons really grinds along when you have close to 60 games to play. So I really am going to think about what I want to do next. Maybe a new save, or drop FM22 from my playing schedule entirely for a bit. Or leave Milan to try my hand at a different challenge in the same save. (but I shudder to think the mess my successor will make of the team)

Finally got around to watching last Saturday's Spy x Family, and my lord, it was so ridiculously over the top, but I had a smile on my face all the way through. This show just hits all the right notes for me, I can't wait for the next episode.

That's probably the most anxiety inducing grid walk i've ever seen Brundle do. What an absolute mess. EDIT: So Aston Martin fridged their fuel too much and as a result start in pit lane so they can avoid a penalty.

Honestly surprised at the price compared to some of the other takeovers of past years. But Square-Enix never did seem to fully commit with the IP's, like sitting on Deus Ex after Mankind Divided and having Crystal Dynamics develop an Avengers game whilst Eidos-Montreal developed the third Tomb Raider title instead of CD. I'd honestly say that Square Enix didn't really know what to do with those two developers in terms of general strategy, and none of those IPs sold well on the Japanese market. Apparently Shadow only moved 60 thousand units in Japan (out of 1.74M global PS4 sales). Whilst those numbers are nothing to shake at, Square-Enix still has a strong focus on the Japanese market. So globally 300M is definitely not making a profit for them but it's also not a number they'd scoff at for a significant cash injection, but might fit well enough in Square's business plan as they're restructuring their subsidiaries.