JasonM

Does he even remotely have any ATP ranking points? Because that sounds an utterly miserable career switch if I were him. Unlike motorracing, you can't simply pay yourself into ranking tournaments, and at his age he'd be even more out of his depth than he is in F1. But if it's true, then that's honestly something I applaud him doing if only because it'd get his ass out of F1 and open up a seat for someone that isn't there because his dad owns the team. I fully expect this to just be a joke being taken well out of proportion by the media, though.

Slough. Although I am currently doing a save with LKS Lodz, and I am absolutely loving managing in Poland. It's less hectic than the big leagues where you have three matches per week for months on end.

Wouldn't be half bad if it was ODB.

I assume many of the issues stem from low level DND which is always the most frustrating and generally least satisfying part of DND. You're extremely squishy, you have only a few spells/feats you can use between rests, and you miss a lot of your attacks to boot. I personally feel it's not until level 3-5 where you start things opening up a bit with a reasonable amount of things you can do in combat without getting two tapped by a mook mob.

Pryor had so much coke in his system he might've very well be superman himself.

As a Euro, my experiences with country is extremely limited. But I love me some Highwaymen (and it's constituent parts) and Jerry Reed.

I played it to near enough completion last year, and I'd say it's perfectly playable and fun too. I wouldn't replay it, mind, and I somehow got glitched out of the Silverhands sidequest to my dismay, but the rest I still 100% as much as possible. Avoid smart guns, they will trivialise combat, especially the ones that go through walls. You can literally just stand outside and clear a building without ever setting foot inside.

Fwiw I didn't get mega far in dos2 due to other reasons than the difficulty, but I eventually learned that hyperfocusing on dealing one type of damage was a must. Either blow up physical or magical barriers, or you'd never get to dealing actual damage. Even then I agree there were some devilishly brutal fights, like the scarecrows (which me and a friend beat by liberal pre-placing of napalm barrels). Also it didn't do a particularly well job explaining some core battle mechanics.

I for one am relishing when Poppovich rests the entire squad for those games.

Low Ki and Fake Painmaker?

I had the same reaction to way of water as I did with the original Avatar. "This is an extremely elaborate tech demo." I just feel it's a film that's so heavily dependent on how good it looks because the rest isn't there.

Finished Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice yesterday. Really enjoyed it from start to finish, it wasn't a particularly long game clocking around 10 hours in it from start to finish, but I definitely am very glad I played it all the same. In terms of gameplay the game wasn't anything special, middle of the road souls-ish game where the combat is about parrying and hitting your enemy a lot. There were puzzles which were fun, but also not things that would break your brain like o.g. Myst or any of that. Where it really shone was the storytelling though, and despite there being only one actual character in the game (Senua herself), it provided a deep and engrossing experience about a young woman stricken by grief, and furthermore having to deal with a form of schizophrenia. The world is phenomenally built, the 'trials' you go through are also amazingly sculpted to provide different visceral reactions. Just a great game, and one of those titles that you should be approached as an experience rather than a game. Take your time and just let it all come over you. I honestly am intrigued in the upcoming sequel, and how it'll approach things going forward.

A shame about South Africa, but with the current scheduling crunch as well as F1M finally putting in efforts to lower the amount of general travel going on, it was always going to be a race completely out of the way of the rest of the calendar.

IIRC I think it were the Bucks who early in production pretty much confirmed that they wanted the game to be in the vein of No Mercy, and it's looking bang on. Also was 'timing the same button for a counter' a No Mercy thing, or is that more inspired by Fire Pro?

Clarification, extra seasons in games tend to also require buying that season's pass. The general advantage of a season pass is that the total costs of the pass will most likely be less than the sum of its parts. And for smaller or fringy games or developers it can provide a more short term confirmation of product interest. (I.e. motivates Devs to release more seasons rather than pull the plug on support) Also massively game and developer dependent, you know that a WWE game will have a yearly cycle before they release a new game, whilst Fight Forever seems like it might have a long term cycle.

They're honestly the most dogged team in the NBA and they've shown it by basically running the gauntlet of contenders in the east and being on the cusp of blowing out the Celtics to go into the finals. Butler is honestly on another level when the playoffs roll around, might be one of the best playoff players ever.

I'll have you know we scored a top 3 and won once in the past decade.

Watched Your Name yesterday evening and boy, it pretty much hit every emotional button I have in my soul. Also an absolutely gorgeous looking film, with a phenomenal score. Fully understand the high praise it got, because it really managed to keep me hooked from start to finish.

First one.

Suikoden 2 on modern systems would make me a very happy chappy

What a time for Brecel to find his groove back and finish the final frame with panache. Definitely a bit lucky from a Selby blinder, but in the end he got there on his own and made it count when it mattered. Absolutely massive to see a European lift the cup and win the world championship, never thought i'd actually see it happen but here we are. Part of me hopes it will create more interest in the sport going forward, if only in Belgium, because that was a brilliant tournament.

Brecel gone over 50 minutes without a single pot, and every long attempt he's tried in the evening session have been off by quite a ways. The occassion is definitely getting to him.

Brecel came back unrattled and got 4 centuries on the bounce and is going into the final session with a 5 frame advantage having to win three more to clinch it. Absolutely phenomenal performance from him, and I am admittedly a bit biased in favour of a player from the continent to not just make it into the final, but be on the cusp of a world championship.

I'm rooting for him because he's the underdog, but I think Selby is likely to run through him if Brecel can't be clinical. If Brecel plays like he did on Thursday and Friday, it'll probably get ugly for him and Selby isn't likely to get crushed under the pressure like Si did.