JoshVilla

Duran has his ice skates on today. Lost count of all the times he's slipped off the ball.

This might be a long evening.

Tonight's episode of Shogun....bladdy 'ell

Spent quite a few hours on it now and I'm actually really enjoying it. Like fleksnes said above, there's quite a lot to do if you're the kind of person that likes to cross everything off your to-do list. The combat is awesome though. I don't even notice the graphics any more, and there are moments where it does look genuinely good.

Imagine...

Can we get hold of the ball please?

I just hope that we'll be the ones dictating the pace of the game. In recent times, Wolves have look at bit more up for this. Hopefully we won't be set up to counter attack (a la Spurs game). We're the better side and we're at home. Just get into them.

Thought I'd start a new thread for this one, as there might be a few on here playing it since it's an open world Soulslike.

Put a few more hours into it last night. So far it's good. I think that it's naturally going to be heavily compared to Ghost of Tsushima and (to a lesser extent) Sekiro. I think we were slightly spoiled with GoT, as they (in my opinion) nailed the aesthetic, and the game was just stunning visually. 

Graphically, RotR is quite far behind. In some moments it looks really good, but generally speaking it's not quite up to the standard that you expect for a full price next gen title. The graphics aren't terrible though, and I'm more than happy to sacrifice visuals for good gameplay.

In typical Team Ninja fashion, they've put a lot of emphasis on the combat, and I think that's where it excels. I'm still getting to grips with it, but it's very involved and there's a lot of variation. It also wants you to get the hang of parrying pretty quickly, a la Sekiro. 

I'm enjoying it so far. I can see myself putting a lot of hours in, if not mainly due to the fact that it's a game set in Japan and that's usually enough to keep me interested 

10 hours ago, fleksnes said:

Just started up Rise Of The Ronin today. Very hard to get into the fighting mechanics. Seem to take time to learn. Wich is ok by me. The parrying system is kind of Sekiro,but still isnt. 

I've just started it too. Having a similar issue with the fighting mechanics. It's weird parrying with triangle instead of R1 or L1, so I keep getting because of it. Also struggling to get the timing of it down, but I'd imagine it'll be like every other game like this and it'll click eventually. Can see myself liking this though. 

Infinite Wealth finished. What a **** game. As said before, I think it's pretty certain that it'll be my GOTY. To me, it's the ultimate Yakuza game - it takes everything that's great about the series and smashes it all together in such a brilliant way. Got a couple more trophies that I need to sweep up to get the platinum, so I'll be dipping back in to do the last few bits and bobs.

Got Rise of the Ronin downloaded and ready to go. Reviews are a mixed bag - combat/gameplay generally getting a lot of praise (as is usually the case with Team Ninja), graphics and excessive loot getting criticism (as is also usually the case with Team Ninja....). To be honest, I'm not really arsed if the graphics aren't top notch, as long as the game is fun. If it's set it Japan it's right up my street so I'm bound to like it.

Need to finish off Infinite Wealth first though. Pretty close to the end now, though I'll probably dip back into it after I've finished the story to get the platinum. GOTY contender for sure 

Outstanding 

10 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Say what you want about the Conference League, if we win this having had to beat Ajax, Lille, Fenerbache and Fiorentina on the way, we’ve won a legit European Trophy

Exactly this. People (usually blosers and 12 year old fans on twitter from other clubs) like to shit on the Conference League and say it's not a proper trophy, but there's some good teams in there. This is a proper competition now.

Sad to see Howell go. There were always a few concerns about his size (only about 1 1/2 Tommy Elphicks), but I do think that he'll go on to be a fairly reliable QB. I think that we're trying to essentially erase all memory of the old guard in Washington. Also I'd say we're pretty much guaranteed to be taking a QB at #2.

For the first time in my 12 years as a fan, I actually have faith in the future of this franchise.

2 hours ago, Oaks said:

Also proves how overrated MMA striking is. We were told this man was granet and unable to be hurt. Utter nonsense you get hit by a heavyweight on the chin you go down. His boxing was poor and was biting on every faint.

Fury either rocked up not training and not taking it seriously or is nowhere near as good as we thought or probably all 3. 

It's not that MMA striking is overrated, it's just very different. In MMA, you're worrying about different things. Strikes come from different angles because you're taking into account kicks, takedowns, sweeps etc etc. You look at a top level striker in MMA (someone like Stephen Thompson, for example), and it's pure poetry. But it's not boxing. It's hard to erase a career's-worth of muscle memory. I train in Karate myself, which is predominantly punches & kicks - but the way you throw & set up punches is very different to the way a boxer would.

As has been said many times, stick a boxer in a cage with an MMA fighter under MMA rules and I'd be surprised if they get past the first round once they start getting their legs kicked from underneath then. It's two completely different worlds. Not to say one is better than the other, just different.

Mike Tyson will be 58 years old when they fight. Jake Paul should be ashamed of himself. He won't be though, because he's a scumbag.

The new Everything Everything album is a bit bloody good (as usual)....

4 hours ago, Leeroy said:

It's not a bad team, but only Laursen, Barry and Ashley Young would get in our team now. Luke Young v Cash is close I suppose, but think I just favour Cash.

 

Cuellar was loved by a section of the Villa fans but I always thought he was awful technically and a really clumsy defender, although defensively he was decent I suppose. Reo Coker could put in a tackle but was shite on the ball and at passing. Petrov was classy but immobile and not really a defensive midfielder. Gabby was showing potential at the time but only really had pace, his first touch was terrible. Milner was a decent winger but much better in the middle, Bailey much better as a winger.

 

I think the Ajax team we faced in 2008 had a young Luiz Suarez in it, also pretty sure Vertonghen was in their team who later moved t Spurs and was a very good ball playing centre half. They also had a very clinical Dutch striker called Huntelaar. I think I mentioned at the time that we should try to sign all of these players but MON being MON and only interested in the English or Scottish leagues, he was never going to be interested. 

Very good ball playing....but not in the way you'd think.

Why do we keep doing this?

Aye, Shogun is very good.

Can't believe MOTD didn't pick up on this.

The truth is out there...

The Facebook algorithm constantly showing me videos of this **** baked spud bloke for some reason...

Someone must have told us that we need to bring some excitement to the 3pm kickoffs today. No goals in any of the other games.

Still playing Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth at the moment. I absolutely adore this game. Absolutely no doubt in my mind that this'll be my GOTY. There's still things coming out this year that I know I'll love (Rise of the Ronin being the main one), but I don't see anything else being this fun or making me feel the way that his game has.

I have an Ibanez AZ2402 Prestige (made in Japan), which is by far my "best" and most expensive guitar. Phenomenally put together, plays great and sounds amazing. But I got a '68 Reissue Strat (also made in Japan) back in my Uni days for a fraction of the price and it's still by far the nicest playing guitar that I own.

Basically, Japanese guitars are brilliant.