nobler

Cleverley's Marcus Allbäck moment

I'm looking at Porto players and just imagining seeing cartoon style stars spinning around their heads.

Just back from boozing in celebration, no regrets at all that it's Sunday night I just can't believe how good that was. For years I've wanted a Villa team to control midfield, dictate tempo and just win that midfield battle, winning midfield means you're very likely to win a game of football. We completely dominated that game in bravery, skill, and tactics and I've never been more proud of a Villa team. The fans also sounded unbelievable. I thought Cleverley, Delph and Benteke were absolutely phenomenal and oh my god, Jack Grealish.... For a 19 year old lad to step out in an arena of that size at this point of the competition and to absolutely boss the game with composure and quality that we've crying out for for years was incredibly satisfying to see. Our largest hurdle to come but ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH what if we win the FA cup

Also worth mentioning that Deus Ex: Revision should be out any day soon. A complete re-imaging mod for the original game, HD resolutions, revised soundtrack. I imagine it'll sort of be like the Half Life 1 remaster. Looking forward to playing it again.

It is a pretty complex and deep system. Pets have up to eight different breeds, consisting of different variations of speed / power / vitality. It's good to get an add on which tells you what breed your pet is, for some reason the default ui doesn't actually tell you. It is a great little mini game, really well designed. It would take you years to get every pet and just adds some more depth to the game. Usually every major patch they add new pets to the old raids so you can pick up mini versions of classic bosses. Have you tried out the celestial tournament yet Risso? It's a great challenge, makes you really feel like the hours spent collecting and levelling the pets was all worth it.

The thing that annoyed me most in Dark Souls 2 was the environment. In Dark Souls the entire world linked together, it was extraordinary when you first found those shortcuts and realised that areas were linked together. Remember that time you made it through the dark to light a bonfire in the tomb of the giants to overlook the cliff to see the Demon Ruins? It really brought home the journey that you had made. Dark Souls 2 seemed a bit 'people loved dark souls, let's make loads more of it and just bundle random areas and bosses together'. You'd climb an area with a windmill, beat a boss, get in a lift then you'd be at a random castle with lava lakes and stuff in the sky, it didn't really make sense. There were too many bosses in DkS2 too that felt nothingy and not as iconic. That said, it didn't take away the gameplay mechanics which were still absolutely fantastic and is still a perfectly great game in its own right, just not an all time classic like Dark Souls 1.

Ha. I'd usually say to not take any notice of anything I tweet. Definitely recommend this though. We've been treated with Divinity last year and this now. It improves on a lot areas that Divinity didn't quite get right though, the story being one. It's pretty brutal though, even on normal if you walk off the wrong paths. It's a good idea to research character creations before you start, I was about 5 hours in before realising i had gimped my character a bit with the starting attributes.

Pillars of Eternity is absolutely incredible for anyone interested in that sort of thing. Other than a few unresponsive combat actions, which I'm sure'll be sorted out it's almost perfect in what it sets out to achieve. There's a lot of years experience in the guys who created it and it really shows. The game just leaves you to explore, experiment, think genuinely hard about combat tactics and just feels like the most complete game in a very long time and by all accounts there's hundreds of hours of gameplay here. Can't wait to get back to it.

I agree Sie, when I play action rpgs the exploration element is where the game really shines, particularly as Miyazaki has created an absolutely intriguing way to portray his story. However, a slightly evil(?) if that's the right word, side in me really enjoys that feeling of fear when exploring in human form (in souls games) and always having to be on your toes in case of invasion. It's a feeling of being hunted which makers the palms sweaty and ups the heart rate which is quite a special thing for a game to be able to create and definitely adds to appeal of the game; but as you say, horses for courses. Is pvp in this game similar to Souls pvp?

I really would like this game but have no intentions of getting a Ps4 just for it. I hope it comes to pc one day. I don't know whether or not it will always be a ps exclusive.

This is the most fazed I've ever been.

avfc.co.uk

I can't believe how well we played that second half. We just looked like a proper team, a really good side. The link up play between Gabby, Sinclair and N'Zogbia was absolutely excellent. With Delph further up he looked effective and the player we know we have. We looked dangerous, exciting and I saw a spirit and determination I haven't seen for a very, very long time. Very proud of the team last night. It's strange because you could really see the gulf in quality between us and West Brom, even though they didn't do themselves justice, I think Pulis got it totally wrong but it really hits home that we shouldn't be struggling like we have and just how terribly mismanaged we've been. A trip to Wembley in what has been a depressing season is extremely welcome. Let's hope some of those shitty fans stay away. UTV

I'm pacing up and down like a massive div. Argh.

So glad to have won the most important game on Tuesday. Now I just feel that great FA Cup feeling, without worrying too much if we lose but just enjoying a great FA Cup day. Boggles my mind that we are one game off Wembley after everything this season. UTV.

It's a good move because to me it shows that beneath his confident shell Sherwood understands that he is a rookie manager, that this is his first proper managerial job and he can't realistically walk into a club this size and deal with everything himself or expect his ideas, alone, to move the club forward. Getting experienced men in, who understand the values and workings of the club can only benefit everyone, I think.

I'm still shaking. Whoooooooooooo

Very surprised to see us playing so well. It's great to see. Hopefully they'll come out a very confident team in the second half and continue to play without fear and with freedom and get the result we need!

edit: oops, quoted myself

We've given ourselves such a disadvantage immediately by starting Gabby and N'Zogbia. It's like theoretically starting with 9 men and we know that we have to have 11 players playing out of their skin to even score a goal, let alone win. Unless they've been on fire in training, which I imagine is highly unlikely, I would say this line up is actually incapable of winning this game. But, I dunno.... It's football, let's see what happens.

Oh dear...

We've set every negative record possible, been absolutely atrocious in every possible area, can barely even score a goal, gone on runs of losing 6-7 games regularly and we're still within touching distance of those around us. We still have a chance to stay in the division, I think we can consider ourselves pretty lucky right now. Time to capitalise on it!

They're still at 10 mill subs so it's not any sort of panic decision. They made it clear last year that they were desperately seeking ways to improve income without giving players in game advantages. Players gaining gold with real money means it might give someone a slight advantage at the start of an expansion buying up all the BoE epics but other than that gold doesn't serve much purpose in the game these days. It's a good move I think, a modern way to collect subs and less rigid.

I'm not confident of this squad doing anything. We could win tomorrow then go on another 7 game losing run. Easily.

But having the books in order is excellent news if we are relegated. I think you'll find 100's of thousands of fans that wouldnt be too thrilled by that consolation. It feels like paying off your 35 year mortgage only for your wife to kick you out on the street and move her fancy man in! Odd thing to say. It's obviously far better to be relegated in good financial state than a bad one. Just imagine we had been relegated during McLeish's season, it's just too scary to even think about. We weren't, we stayed in the league and was able to pick up the newer larger payment and we've had time to balance the books and become stable. Not in anyway a consolation but the grim reality is we'll probably go down this year and we are now in a better shape to deal with it.