Chindie

The multiplayer is free but includes the ability to buy things with real cash. Apparently it has proven absurdly popular with big returns for basically no effort for them, whereas a new DLC is a big effort and is a single one off purchase that there's no guarantee everyone buys. Hence the word was that Rockstar was leaving GTA single player content alone.

Blood and Wine reviews are out and it's brilliant it seems. Have seen a suggestion that is good enough that the reviewer wouldn't have begrudged paying full whack for it as opposed to it being 'just' a DLC.

All day I've been fancying some BBQ style chicken so spent an hour earlier on putting together a marinade and whatnot. Now a niggly headache I've had all day, which I'm convinced has been brought on by the weather, has got worse and is turning my stomach to the point the thought of the chicken I've prepped makes me gag to the point of nearly wretching

Kotaku has a story today stating Microsoft are developing a new upgraded Xbox with the (amusing) codename Scorpio. More powerful etc etc, and possibly able to support Oculus VR and 4k. They also say that they expect an E3 announcement of a slim Xbox One fit late this year. Which would be interesting as one of the arguments made for the PS4.5 was that the usual cycle to make a slim model was so expensive this time around that it was easier to just bump to new standards rather than develop slim versions of existing chips... They also expect a lot of Microsoft pushing is unified platform with the gap between Xbox and Windows shrinking ever smaller. Which should mean Microsoft bang on about PC a lot at E3. There's been some talk of this on Gaf with potentially another device announced that is basically a Steam Link.

Take Two have revealed Rockstar are working on 'projects' at the moment, which was discussed on this week's Computer Games Show podcast. Interestingly the podcast hints at hearing some rumours, which they heavily suggest are in the money, that suggests that at least something they're producing isn't exactly an earth shatterer, with further hints that they might be talking DLC or a remaster in the near future... If they're right, it's probably a decent bet now that RDR2 is announced at E3, as that seems to be an open secret, but that they will also announce GTA5 DLC and/or a remaster of an old title to come beforehand. GTA DLC would be surprising as Rockstar pretty much seem to have said they're ongoing focus with GTA5 is multiplayer stuff as it's a licence to print money and a big DLC isn't. As for remasters, RDR we know is being tested for back compatibility on the Xbox, so it seems odd they'd also remaster it, and do we really need GTA4/LA Noire? But certainly expect an announcement of some sort soon it seems. Edit - they've also trademarked the name 'Judas' recently...

As D1 says, Preacher is absolutely not a superhero story. It's a satire of.. well loads of things. Notably religion and modern America. It was originally published by Vertigo comics, which is an offshoot of DC (home of Batman, Superman) set up to publish new properties that were more 'adult', violent, graphic, sexual in content. Preacher has loads of that. I need to reread Preacher, but there are certainly things in that series that absolutely will not be allowed on screen that I can remember even now.

In part 2, ignore everything that isn't yellow. The retread missions are just there for padding, you don't need to play them. Missions and tapes in yellow progress the story. It's possible to see the entire plot, including the secret ending, without touching them. Do everything in yellow, if nothing opens do a few side missions, and they'll slowly open new missions and tapes and cutscenes. I didn't touch the revisit missions and got the 'true' ending. Part 2 of the story is almost entirely down to problems in the development where they rushed it out and basically turned what would have been in the older games VR missions or challenge maps into part of the game proper for no reason.

The wheels will fall off the moment his style of adrenaline rush management burns out.

They want some of that Google money but won't wait for people to organically provide them the information Google uses to generate cash so instead have resorted to the same tactics ransomware use. It's despicable. It nearly caught me out the other day was I'm a reasonably careful user.

I'd stay away from KitKats in Japan if that turns your stomach. Hundreds of varieties including soy sauce, cheese and sake.

It's looked absolutely awful from the get go. The CGI quality is about the only thing that looked to have any merit, but then what they do with it looks dreadful. They needed to make a Warcraft movie about 8 years ago for it to have any great traction, and even then it needs to get over the fact that Warcraft looks like the worst pulpy unoriginal fantasy property imaginable to make it break out from just the existing fanbase. I'll bow to the greater knowledge of fans that it goes beyond that with its lore and plot, but on paper the design of everything is terrible knockoff high fantasy. Jones is a good director but I think you have to chalk this up as a really bad case of judgement.

Completely unsurprisingly, Warcraft has had a critical mauling already. Calling it 'the Beginning' always looked ambitious...

Apparently these remasters look worse than the originals, but higher res.

It needs to make about £300m to turn a profit. Unless it's absolutely mauled by critics, and audiences boycott it, it'll probably make money. The new trailer played ahead of Xmen when I went to see that at the weekend. In a 60/70% full screening, not a single person laughed at any of the gags in the trailer. For a comedy, least of all one that takes the name of one of the best comedies of all time, not to raise even a titter in a screening, is damning. And also indicative of why most people are against it - it appears to be shit. Nothing to do with a female cast at all. Everything to do with it being as funny as your dog being run over.

DC are just about to relaunch their universe (again) with the Rebirth storyline, and loads of the first issue has been revealed. The final reveal might be the stupidest thing I've seen in comics in recent years.

It's still not some conspiracy against Villa 'because they don't like us'. It's a story that they can fill pages with. Doesn't matter that the questions were answered elsewhere a day before, they will still run the story. As for Chinese investment... I'm thinking more narrow than just 'abroad'. UK Chinese investment isn't a big deal, and we're the first even vaguely high profile name that has had that investment seemingly, so the story is interesting.

I would be disappointed if journalists weren't digging into this. End of the season, Villa have a disastrous campaign, and note they're being sold to a Chinese buyer, which is unusual, who nobody knows anything about, which immediately should have inquiring minds want to get digging. There's nothing special about us that's making journalists want to look deeper in this. It's the intrigue of what of actually happening.

Preacher got off to a good start... comes to something when the main issue I have is Arseface not looking Arseface-y enough.

Decent episode. I'd heard it was great and... it isn't. Couple of interesting moments and obviously the reveal at the end was fantastic but other than that... meh. I continue to not particularly like Bran's plot, and the more they do with it the less I like it.

I can certainly echo those recommendations (and am hoping to soon add Absolute editions of V for Vendetta and Watchmen to my shelves...) but just picking up on Y... I'd heard all the praise for it and then was told that it's aged fairly badly, and the art is very marmite. Having had a quick browse through the first collected edition of it subsequently, I can see where that criticism is coming from. But the concept is great so if you like the art that might drag you through it until the hooks are in. Whilst we're talking comics that are of their time, Sandman. It's awesome. But damn it couldn't get late 80s/very early 90s Gothic new romantic if it tried! Each issue basically has a mental soundtrack from prime The Cure. But it's so good.

X-Men Apocalypse isn't terrible but isn't particularly brilliant either. It's a second draft of a movie. The balance is all over the shop, the film feels like a 2 hour opening act with a half-baked final conflict tacked on that hadn't really been fully fleshed out. It introduces new characters and then has them do basically nothing - Psylocke only seems to be in the movie to fill the numbers up for instance. And then they did her wrong anyway. Oscar Isaac does what he can with Apocalypse which is ultimately not a great deal, Quicksilver steals the movie, Fassbender continues to be a good Magneto, everyone else either has 3 lines of dialogue or phones it in terribly, except for Sophie Turner who is dreadful as Jean Grey. Despite that it's not bad it just isn't much cop either. There's not that much action, not much really happens, what does happen is fine... but nothing more.

The Invisibles is worth a mooch. Grant Morrison jumps off the deep end with a barking mad drug fueled epic of aliens, secret societies, government conspiracies, magic, militant lesbians, other dimensions and everything in between. It's very mid 90s so feels a little dated but I genuinely don't think I've read anything that comes close to how bizarre it is. Not quite finished the saga myself but so far it's never been less than interesting. It's referenced a lot by Last Podcast on the Left who actually did a couple of episodes about a place that features in the series fairly prominently... I'm slowly continuing my trawl through the Hellboy Library Editions, which has remained enjoyable. And, since I always recommend it, Warren Ellis's run on Moon Knight is fantastic. 6 issues, no overarching plot, fantastic art and reinterpretation of the character that risks becoming the definitive one. You can read all 6 issues in an hour and it's never short of brilliant. Ellis left after 6 issues and the following 6, whilst still good, weren't quite to the same standard. The next collected issues were, sadly, a real step down, but the comic is still being run so might have legs for a while at least. Also is very likely to become a Netflix show in which case they will use this new run as it's basis I'm sure. Moon Knight is a really daft character but this reboot wipes that away and just turns him into a badass who wears a white 3 piece suit to deal out night time vigilante justice because he likes his enemies to see him coming... I'd also recommend Supergods. What if the nations of the world in the Cold War decided to produce weapons in the shape of enormous god like creatures that represented them? Very interesting limited series.

From The National members Bryce and Aaron Dessner's enormous Grateful Dead compilation of covers by various artists in aid of HIV/AIDS research, Day of the Dead, out today.

Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson and Karl Urban have joined Thor 3 as Hela, the Grandmaster, Valkyrie and Skurge respectively, joining Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Thor: Ragnarok is going to get bloody weird on the basis on those. But makes sense in the scale of things with this film apparently doing a bunch of legwork for Infinity War. It's being directed by Taika Waititi of Flight of the Concords and What We Do in the Shadows to add to the oddness.

I don't think he'd heard of Aston Villa 18 months ago.