CardiffGreens

Preferably, (since we're getting Midgar as the first part) it'd be nice if part two consisted of "everything else". But that's being far too hopeful! If it's going to be 3 parts, I'd like the split to be after the first Northern Crater visit as I think it'll mirror the end of part one in terms of narrative arcs - with part one ending with the discovery that Shinra isn't the big bad and shifting the story's focus into chasing down Seph; part two would then end with the shift to the third act (in terms of the narrative in a traditional three-act structure*, rather than just in the literal sense of the third game starting from here) with the story becoming bigger than the protagonists struggles in act two (what with Meteor and all). Though I like the idea of somehow shifting "disc one's end event" into the third part, if only because attempting to manically grind someone's level 4 limit feels a bit weird before you've even unlocked every other character. One silly suggestion I enjoyed reading was to make part one end after an unwinnable encounter with the Midgar Zolem (fade to black); Part two then kicks off with everyone waking up in the Chocobo ranch with the unfortunate news that all their XP, Gil and Materia has been lost in the marsh! *I blame Chindie for posting a video about Beauty and the Beast in the film thread for introducing me to Lindsay Ellis' youtube videos about film studies - on the plus point I'm now totally clued up with Feminist film theory in Michael Bay's Transformers films...

OT, but you might have missed this then. Also, it might be worth re-highlighting this was the same FA that banned the Women's game at their member clubs' grounds for 50 years.

I've just noticed that there is a digital deluxe edition available on the PlayStation store for £74.99, comes with a digital art book, mini soundtrack and all three DLC summons. There is also PS4 dynamic theme included. Edit: Think this should link directly to the in store page Edit 2:. Here's one of a couple of videos of the dynamic theme

Yeah, I doth protest too much. I'll be buying the lot whatever they decide (though with my addiction to plastic tat and fomo in regards to Carbuncle, I'd rather not be sticking a grand on my credit card to do it). Replayability might not be too much of an issue for me if there's a year between releases, I don't tend to buy many games these days and just wring what I can out of each one as the series progresses.

Thankfully Square Enix haven't ever had grand designs of an all-encompassing series of games tied together through a single mythos, told from various viewpoints to build a complete world, only for it all to get delayed to hell and for SE to get cold feet with it at the end.... Though, I'me waaay overplaying my concerns with the remake (I'm ill and far too tired for balanced thinking) - I enjoyed most of what I saw yesterday, it's just the uncertainty of how much they're going to string this out that's really bugging me.

I'm secretly hoping they do the remaster spectacularly well, but then accidentally ship it with Steam's orginal midi soundtrack...

https://store.eu.square-enix-games.com/en_GB/product/564495/final-fantasy-vii-remake-1st-class-edition-ps4 £260 for the collector's edition Edit: SE's presentation - it's the first half an hour or so. Still a little concerning that it's only being listed as the "first game in the project" with no definitive idea at this stage of how many they're going to try and milk us for. Though there's some "in depth" looks at the hack 'n' slash plus "tactical" gameplay here - though if the Guard Scorpion boss is anything like they've shown, it's no wonder they've managed to pad out Midgar to a "standalone" game as you slowly whittle down its health of a period of a few weeks. Whilst I like the idea of fleshing out the city (spending more time with the gang in the slums will certainly mean you'll feel it a bit more when the Turks do their thing), I hope it's not just a case of making things like the 15 mins to Reactor 5 turn into 3 hours of plodding around town, waiting for trains to arrive and slowly inching your way closer through endless random encounters. And "building depth to the world and characters" better not be some euphemism for "yeah, we've stuck in quest hubs with 40000 fetch quests for you to get on with. The story changes that they've shown also intrigue me; because if KH has shown me anything, SE still seem to think that "adding endless layers of incomprehensible complexity" equals "doing it better and more in depth". Hopefully they won't bollocks this up too much.

Release date of 3rd of march next year. But given how little we saw in the new trailer that dropped at the symphony last night, theyre sticking to an episodic release or the whole game is going to be based in Midgar Edit, trailer:

Short answer, yeah been watching as much as I can. Kept as much of a eye on the Lionesses as I can ever since I caught a couple of games at London 2012. As for the somewhat variable level of quality, that'll just get a shrug from me, it's nice just to be able to stick a month of football on without even a hint of annoyance from the other half! (Besides, I grew up watching division three football, so it's got a fairly low bar to clear to keep me entertained)

https://store.google.com/gb/product/stadia_founders_edition Preorder with a bunch of stuff (Chromecast ultra and a 3 month "premium" subscription for you and a buddy) for £119, £9 a month for all the premium features (4k gfx, 5.1sound, free games thrown in "regularly"). Due out in November. It's an interesting idea (though I remember reading about OnLive many years ago*), though with only a 14Mb net connection (and the fact that my steam link struggles as it is across my powerline network connections) I'll be keeping half an eye on it but my wallet in my pocket. Plus there's the whole google deciding to pull the plug on it all in 4 years time factor that really perturbs me**. *Interestingly I didn't realise that OnLive had been swallowed up by Sony, who apparently now have their PlayStationNow service running off the infrastructure of one of OnLive's rivals. **Yes, I realise that it's technically no different to Valve deciding to scatter y Steam library into the ether, but Google do have form here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_European_Qualifiers_broadcasting_rights

Not a friendly though, it's a highly prestigious UEFA tournament, with a trophy and anthem and everything! (And more importantly as @BOF mentioned earlier, an opportunity UEFA to sell off the TV rights to it for yet more filthy filthy lucre)

Sky have all the UK rights, thought I'd chance it and see if they'd be generous enough to put it on Sky Sports Mix, but instead I get to watch England's Women hammer the West Indies in the cricket.

Anyone catch Michael Owen (yes I know) on the pre-match buildup: "Yeah, Moura did a hattrick in the semi final, but it's Haaaarrry Kaaannnnnneeeee!" It's easy from the comfort of the sofa to say (especially with the benefit of hindsight given how off the pace he was), but whilst bringing Kane into the team was a very easy decision, it was easily a very wrong one. It's really odd to be honest, we saw with Atletico M a few years back that starting with a palpably unfit striker doesn't work out if they have to go off and your game plan goes up in smoke after 15 minutes (or for that matter, if all you're gonna do in 90 minutes is two intercepted crosses). Though, after typing all that I can't say that Spurs winning or losing really came down to Kane - there were so many players out there yesterday who looked below their best (but that's not half as fun or glib to write)

Good of Spurs to give Harry Kane a 90min run out to get him fit for the nation's league as well at least!