Chris2K

On a slightly related YouTube topic, my favourite video game YouTubers Outside XBox/Outside Xtra are doubling down on their D&D content (believed to be because they get paid independently from the Gamer Network for D&D videos), so their video game content has become gradually less and less, to the extent it's now 1 list video a week and 1 live stream a month (if any) between the two channels, with the occasional video sponsored by the game they're playing. It's a real shame that they seem to be moving on, particularly if, like me, you're not interested in D&D, but it's their decision at the end of the day and nothing lasts forever.

It's past the point of being able to make this stuff up. Red Bull have suspended the woman who made the complaint against Horner. Of all the options to take at this time, that is certainly one of them.

I've just bought Lost Judgement as it was on sale, but I know Judgement is the first game so I'm waiting for that to be on sale as well before I play Lost Judgement.

Next up on the "thank God the off-track stuff is so crazy so nobody notices how boring the races are" train is this: Mohammed Ben Sulayem: FIA president allegedly told officials not to certify Las Vegas GP There's no reason given as to why he would demand a circuit to found not safe to hold a race, but I think we're past the point of sense being a requirement.

Watching Otmar get sacked halfway through a race weekend last year is not exactly making me sad to see Alpine struggle this season.

No you're about right, certainly the biggest difference is that Wolf's behaviour was pre or post game, and whilst he lost quite a lot he rarely got intentionally disqualified or actively looked like he was trying to lose. Viper feels like he's gone off the deep end of being a whipping boy, to the point that it's just assumed he'll lose every time. They do really need to stop the best loser for next series, and I'm sure the BBC might be willing to give them more episodes. Doing it once for the 1/4 final is understandable, but again for the semi final is ridiculous. Imagine someone getting through to the semis after losing twice, but boy can they climb a cargo net quickly. On that note, I've just finished watching one of the 1996 International Gladiators semi finals...

The drama at RB was something worth watching at least. It continued on the cooldown lap as well with Yuki divebombing Danny Ric at turn 1. Meanwhile, Alpine's Technical Director and Head of Aero have already tendered their resignation.

Thank God Betti has gone. From pushing Fury's face into the mat during The Ring, to being the worst competitor in Duel history, in addition to her antics during the Eliminator in the first round, she may be the most unsporting and unlikeable contender from any series. That said, the editing made it very clear she will be the fastest loser, so I expect she'll be back. Kinda glad Ash didn't get through as well, I appreciate his representation but he looked constantly scared during every game against a Gladiator and offers barely any challenge until the Eliminator. Legend was my favourite Gladiator this week, got me to properly laugh twice with his interviews with Bradley.

Well... at least it was vaguely close?

Somehow they managed it with Bond in Skyfall, SPECTRE, AND No Time to Die.

Apparently it's not just a bunch of stuff, it's every piece of evidence from the investigation, and its been sent to every media outlet, team principal and F1 executive. This is going to be an interesting 24 hours...

Christian Horner set to be cleared of all charges of improper conduct. I'm sure this won't be the end of it.

Yakuza Like A Dragon is done, and it still may be my favourite of the series. The JRPG aspect really appeals to me, and I would probably be happy grinding levels on every possible job type if I hadn't manage to convince myself I need to move on to the next game.

I've started watching Drive to Survive season 6, because apparently I'm still a glutton for punishment, and just to add to the pain they now have "F1 expert", and the dictionary definition of a Karen, Danica Patrick as one of their main talking heads. I swear, if she starts one more sentence with "as a race car driver" I am giving up. It's even more strange for her to say that seeing as she doesn't believe the female mind can cope with motor racing. Holy crap. Episode 2 opens with Father Christmas visiting the Horner household and asking his kids "has daddy been a good boy this year"? I did a literal spit-take.

I dunno, I thought Apollo's character development was great this week, from dumping Jake into the ball bin and showing no remorse, to singing Another One Bites The Dust. I have very few complaints this week, which is a nice feeling. Really enjoyed the episode and glad the two contenders that went through did. Chung is a prototypical contender in being small enough to do well with agility events and the eliminator, plus being a perfect victim for a Duel thrashing. Meanwhile Bionic turned up for the show, only appeared in Duel, won in 5 seconds, and went home. Good work if you can get it.

Oh boy, testing has started, can't wait to see how things have changed for 2024! I hope everything is going to be closer than last year! Oh. Never mind. (I know it's just one session, but still...)

That's quite the exuberant celebration for an unforced own goal in the 27th minute. At least Spurs had the decency to wait until the 96th minute before celebrating ours against Liverpool .

I liked the IST, but everything you say is correct in terms of that the players shouldn't have to be motivated to play the game they're being paid millions of dollars a year for, and it probably is too long a season. The courts were the only negative I really had. The All-Star game was as meaningless as always, but I did think Dame's half court shooting was pretty impressive, and it's quite funny that KAT has scored 50 twice this season, and has lost both games. He's my favourite player, but he really is too obsessed with his stat line. It seemed pretty clear that the judging panel on the dunk contest was doing their best to score based on the round, not on the actual dunk. McClung's first dunk, with the grab, release, catch and reverse dunk, was by far the best but got horrible scores even compared to Brown's standard dunks.

Had a nightmare on Yakuza LAD yesterday (not Infinite Wealth).

Whenever Kenny Smth says something stupid there's always this to bring back a smile.

I'm still irrationally annoyed about how a contender is allowed to just say they don't want to do an event because they might aggravate an injury. Either you're fit enough to take part or you're not. The show literally started with a contender dropping out because they were injured, a contender who got injured and still did two more events including winning an eliminator before being ruled out. There was also no direct penalty involved, they said he lost the chance to score points but that's only a penalty if the other contender does score some in the event. If Wesley had scored 0 in Gauntlet (seemingly impossible in this format as it is) then would this still have been allowed? Anyway, to calm myself down, here are some Duel statistics from Series 1-4. For clarity, "Won" means knocked the contender off or the contender was disqualified, "Lost" means the Gladiator was knocked off or was disqualified, and "Time Limit" means they went the full 30 seconds. Female Gladiators Total of 74 matches: Won 19 times Lost 7 times Drawn 48 times Individual - Rankings based on 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, -2 for a loss 1. Nightshade - 11 wins, 8 Draws, 1 Loss - 39 points 2. Lightning - 5 Wins, 8 Draws, 2 Losses - 19 points 3. Falcon - 1 Win, 8 Draws, 0 Losses - 11 points 4. Panther - 0 Wins, 9 Draws, 1 Loss (her first 8 fights were draws) - 7 points 5. Flame - 0 Wins, 6 Draws, 0 Losses - 6 points 6. Jet - 1 Win, 2 Draws, 0 Losses - 5 points =7 Amazon - 0 Wins, 3 Draws, 0 Losses - 3 points =7. Zodiac - 1 Win, 2 Draws, 1 Loss - 3 points 9. Scorpio - 0 Wins, 2 Draws, 2 Losses - -2 points No Duel appearances as of the end of Series 4 - Phoenix, Vogue International Gladiators - Flash (Finland) - 0 Wins, 4 Draws, 0 Losses Male Gladiators Total of 86 matches* Won 54 times Lost 15 times Drawn 17 times *More matches are due to the Celebrity Specials only using Male Gladiators for Duel Individual - Rankings based on 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, -2 for a loss 1. Shadow - 21 wins, 8 draws, 2 losses - 67 points 2. Hunter - 9 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses - 30 points 3. Warrior - 7 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses - 17 points 4. Trojan - 6 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses - 15 points 5. Cobra - 4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss - 11 points 6. Raider - 2 wins, 0 draws, 0 losses (and he's done, so he'll stay at 100%) - 6 points 7. Saracen - 3 wins, 0 draws, 2 losses - 5 points 8. Rhino - 1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss - 2 points 9. Wolf - 1 win, 1 draw, 4 losses - -4 points Only Hawk (the Welsh one) never made a Duel appearance. International Gladiators 1. Sabre (USA) - 1 win, 1 draw, 0 losses - 4 points 2. Hawk (USA) - 1 win, 0 draws, 1 loss - 1 point 3. Dynamite (Russia, not the tiny one from 2024) - 0 wins, 0 draws, 2 losses - -4 points

My immediate reaction to that face model was:

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood, but a lot of things rubbed me the wrong way here: - Bionic was terrible during Duel. It was like a game of Karate Fighters where only one side was being used. - Viper's "failed" takedown on The Wall looked incredibly like a deliberate act to miss. - I hadn't noticed how easy the new Wall is, especially as there is a set path now and barely any hand/foot grips in the middle. - The Edge needs a massive overhaul, if you have to instigate a points limit then maybe you're giving out too many points to begin with. - The female Gladiators dropping their pads during Gauntlet and tackling instead was just insane, made worse by the bizarre stance afterwards that they were "unbreakable" having just mentally broken moments before. - Apparently there's a rule that says you can just decide not to do an event if you don't want to, which is new to me. Amazing how you can close an 11 second gap in the Eliminator when you have the extra energy from not doing the previous event. On the plus side... THEY FIXED IT!!

These are the quarters, it's listed episode 6 of 11, but that doesn't make sense either because it doesn't leave room for a Final: 6 - QF1 7 - QF2 8 - QF 3 9 - QF 4 10 - SF 1 11 - SF 2 I have to assume there's only going to be 3 quarter finals, and 1 semi-finalist will be (another) fastest loser. Or they'll do what they did here and just hand a new person a place without competing, which is weird. I'll give Wesley a pass, because wrestling.

I am somehow interested in seeing how EA manage to mirco-transaction-ise the Transfer Portal.