JasonM

Every year I have low expectations of the Jets, every year they manage to look even worse than that. Fortunately i'm a Ravens fan.

Not through Roll20, but I have found a pretty solid group of people through /r/LFG_Europe (since i'm a Euro and all), it can be a hit and miss and it's definitely getting a bit lucky because the demand is so high, but i'd try it there.

Time to go into this release cycle hoping they'll change/add the things I want to add, get frustrated they don't add/change the things I wanted them to, and then still buy it anyways like the mark I am.

What about poor me, having to waste my time with that competition that barely covers the cost of travel.

You hate to see it

I was vaguely interested in legion around the time it came out because I loved wd2's general vibe, but eventually decided against it because the release was so buggy. How does the game hold up now @TheGrandAvatar?

Kane and Lynch was super janky on release and I can't imagine having gotten much better in the years since. I'd suggest googling for a controller fix of sorts. I'm sure you're not the first to run into these issues. I remember it being a games for Windows live game, which attests of its age, but might also explain its further jankiness.

As @Adam mentioned, here's the rumour from Chris Medland, one of the bigger and more legit sources for paddock news/rumours.

The sport's changed

Absolute shambles from Alpine. Just no words in how much they fucked up their future because they don't know how contracts work.

Pray for Poe

On something of a whim I bought Ghost of Tsushima on Wednesday. I know it'll probably end up on pc eventually but I finally got tired of waiting on it to happen. So far 30eu well spent because I have been LOVING the game and I'm not even that far out of the prologue. The setting, the presentation, and of course the gameplay are all exactly what I wanted and more, it's just such a freaking cool game to pick up and play. I don't think perfect parties into an instant kill counter will ever tire, or mowing someone down during a standoff. There's a lot of Arkham style of "counter and kill gameplay" games out there, but Tsushima just feels fresh from the word go.

Ok so I found out that there's endless amounts of seasons and the game will generate F3/F2 talent as time goes on. That definitely has me much more interested and i'll be on the lookout to pick it up. Part of me finds it a bit disappointing there's no 'create a team' option to add a 11th manufacturer onto the grid, but I assume that it's partly because of licensing and a lack of resources during development, I can see it happening in future editions, though. One neat thing I also saw is that portraits dynamically change the suit depending on what team they drive for, someone I know decided to go crazy and fire Russell/Hamilton from Mercedes and hire Hulkenberg/Sergeant instead, and their portraits were updated. (although unrealistically, there were no teams instantly pouncing on either released talent, but I can see teams hire them at a later point). Also the presentation looks absolutely top notch, with the ability to check out replays of things happening quite easily and even with a prompt giving you the action to quick switch to an unfolding situation, really cool, and it seems like Frontier went above and beyond on a lot of aspects.

I am intrigued with it, but admittedly will hold out until I see some reviews and other news about the depth of the game itself and its longevity. I want my management sims to be able to go off many many years into the future, so I kind of want to see that in this too.

I haven't played 6, but I have played 1 2 and 4(?) and all I can say is 'maybe'. If you like your tactical jrpg to be very zany, a little short but with the ability to devolve into extremely deep post game grinding and character building then this game is definitely something you'll have fun with. You don't need to have to played past games although you'll miss some references. If you want to spend hours building an unstoppable level 9999 character that has been 'reborn' many times over so that he can do damage numbers into the millions, then this game is definitely worth a play. Also on the plus side, the actual story mode doesn't need excessive grinding to get through in a reasonable time, which makes it quite user friendly compared to other jrpgs

Just finished Wasteland 2 for the first time, I never played the first one because I wasn't even born when it originally came out and even the remake is too crusty for me to jump into, but I really enjoyed the 50 hours or so it took me to go through the game. I think I pretty much did everything I had to do, and somehow mostly canon too reading back on the divergent endings. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't mega hard or super thrilling, but I almost never felt frustrated in the game other than my loot goblin tendencies causing the entire party to be overweight a lot of times because I had to pick up every random piece of crap strewn about... But that's more on me, less on the game. I do feel the adventure itself was more fun than what inevitably became the main plot. Not that it wasn't good, it just didn't grip me and I was more engrossed with the worldbuilding and the people inside of that world, even if a lot of reused portraits took a bit of the luster from the world when there were multiple plot sensitive NPCs with the same picture in different places, but since it was originally a kickstarter game, some jank is to be expected. I also saw that Wasteland 3 is on game pass, so I might pick that up sooner or later and seeing if that game improves upon 2, there's a few things i'd like improved, so i'm cautiously optimistic.

Videodump of all the F1 Manager videos, and it's definitely super intriguing.

Not a jab, but I am surprised it was still going. I checked out around season 2/3, but also in general it feels the relevancy of the arrowverse fell off the cliff after the end of Arrow and the inability of the other shows to elevate themselves. Not that Arrow had been good at the end, but it was still coasting on a lot of early fans the other shows never really got.

Honestly, it's a smart gamble for Alonso who knows that Alpine are kind of stuck in the mud and they're not willing to give him the long term guarantees he wants (which shows his ambition to still be a racing driver long term), and Aston Martin at least gives him the latter with a potential of them at some point figuring it out and producing a decent car. I have no hopes of Aston Martin as an outfit as long as Lawrence Stroll is the guy that gives his mediocre son a race seat, they've done little to make me believe in their sporting merits going forward either because they've only been going backwards with their only peak year being a literal blueprint copy of Mercedes' car from a few years ago. But for Alonso, it's the gamble he has to take. He wants to continue, and rather it be at a team that goes places AND wants to go there with him, than one that'll drop him for the young hot star when they no longer deem him useful enough. And honestly, I don't blame Alpine here either, they have a stonking good talent sitting on the sidelines by the name of Oscar Piastri, and he deserves a seat in this year's F1, so him getting it next year is the second best choice.

I think Binotto is an issue, but he's not the issue with Ferrari. Under Maurizio before they also had this bullshit where they tossed away two years where Vettel had a chance against Hamilton, same under Domenicali who was at the head of Ferrari throwing away Alonso's chances to get a WDC in the Red Bull years. The entire team right now has an identity of losing. Problems are ignored with a "Shucks, we'll get them next time" attitude and they don't seem to show any real sporting responsibility in the entire system. They seem to go along assuming that next time they won't fuck up, and act surprised when the same approach leads to the same results. Ferrari needs a heavy overhaul in how it operates, it's needed it for over a decade now but they lucked into Kimi and Massa carrying them to a WDC and WCC they didn't truly deserve, and they're still coasting on the glory that Schumi/Todt/Brawn accomplished in the 00s. McLaren had this issue, too. Then they took the broom and cleared out the team and built a better one, and whilst this season is a dip, the difference in team mentality gave them new life after they circled the drain.

Ferrari, masters of kicking own goals

I don't know Bernard's greater acting work, of which I know he's had many roles across an extremely long and respectable career. But for me he's always gonna be Wilfred Mott, who to this day is still one of my favourite companions to the doctor, and was the most likeable character of them all, and was a genuine breath of fresh air (together with Donna, too.). I like pretty much all of the companions of Tennant's iteration, but everything with Wilfred just felt warm and kind and fuzzy in a way that nothing else has been able to imitate. Rest in Peace Bernard. ❤️

Both those options would be dream scenarios for me. As a Dutchman I obviously want to see Nyck de Vries get a fair shake, because it's preposterous that a guy who won F2 and FE in consecutive years wouldn't get a look in, even if one can make a case that Nyck is a Jolyon Palmer kind of talent that simply succeeded to late. Hülkenberg grew up 15 minutes from where I live just across the border. And he's always been my favourite driver on the modern F1 grids, but honestly, he's 34 and he's honestly had his shake as an F1 driver, and it'd be hypocritical to want him back in F1 when I also claim Vettel's departure is good to get more youth into the sport. I don't see Tsunoda leaving F1, not yet at least. Whilst Honda's deal is pretty much done, and with Porsche buying into Red Bull, he's clearly still a very valued driver at Alpha Tauri and Helmut Marko has shown more patience with him than with most junior drivers. It's clear they see him as a potentially top driver who simply needs to become more consistent across a race distance. There's been races he's been on pace with Gasly, which is no easy feat. Ricciardo has been confirmed to stay at McLaren, but Zak Brown and Ricciardo have been somewhat vague about what the wording exactly means. And there's been some rumour in the media that it could also mean that it might be Ricciardo making an excursion to Indycar as the main McLaren driver, doing a swap with Herta or Pato in the process. And honestly, it wouldn't be the worst move for Ricciardo to do, because it's clear the McLaren F1 car is simply not built the way he wants it to be. Sportingly a move towards AM might be possible, but he'd leave a LOT of money on the table that he'd get nowhere else but with McLaren. Sargeant is the logical option to develop their own talent, but one of the biggest things that Williams are playing with now is their upcoming engine supply from Renault. Piastri is a possible bargaining chip if Renault/Alpine wants Piastri in a seat, but can't afford one on their own team, Williams could come in and take Piastri if there's some financial incentive in terms of the engine deal. Sarge can't offer that, and for Williams they're not out of the woods financially just yet, and would probably prefer deals that give them more financial stability.

As much as i love and respect Sebastian Vettel, I think him stepping away from the sport is good for the sport itself. There is a veritable logjam of young talent stuck on the sidelines, of which there's already a lost generation forming who never were able to get into F1 due to a lack of movement in the paddock. And in terms of sporting results, Vettel has been on the slide for the past three years and his move to Aston Martin was merely just delaying the inevitable. Having said that, like Chris mentioned, he's done a lot of work using his voice for social change and the fact he opened an Instagram account just yesterday is a clear indicator that he's not going to be any less socially active after he steps out the car for the final time. The silly season is going to start proper, now, though. With Lawrence on the prowl for the next victim to drive the nowhere-project Aston Martin. I am expecting either Ocon or Ricciardo as the main candidates, with McLaren clearly fancying giving Colton Herta a spot in F1 and Alpine undoubtedly wanting to give Piastri a shot at F1. There's also Williams F1 who has been flirting with signing Piastri, so maybe 2023 will have two rookies on the grid. One can only hope.

SDCC phase 5 releases, also posted this in the movies thread. Hook all those Disney+ series into my veins, pls.