CardiffGreens

Just turned over to see something approaching an early noughties mashup between "a tribute to Captain Tom Moore" and "GET IN, WE'RE ABOUT TO WATCH THE FOOTBALL".

Not sure who thought that was a good idea.

18 minutes ago, andykeenan said:

Bristol City v v Rotherham 

Wasn't sure where else to put this, so this thread will have to do for now (unless I've missed this news somewhere else on here already, in which case apologies to everyone!)

PlayStation are giving away 10 games as part of their "Play at Home" campaign.  Rachet and Clank is currently available for all PS4 users through the store until the end of the month.

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/03/17/play-at-home-2021-update-10-free-games-to-download-this-spring/

Quote

Hi again! Last month we revealed our new Play at Home program for 2021, which aims to provide the PlayStation community with free games and entertainment offers to make the next few months a little more fun.

The program kicked off earlier this month with access to a free digital copy of the 2016 hit Ratchet & Clank for PS4 — and you can still claim a free digital copy of the game through March 31, 2021 at 8pm PDT* / April 1 at 4am BST / 5am CEST.

Now, let’s talk about the next Play at Home content drop, which hits March 25! This time our focus is a selection of free games from some of our top independent partners, and the previously announced extended trial offer for Funimation (or Wakanim) in the countries where they are available.

From March the 25th until April the 22nd the following games will be available:

Abzû, Enter the Gungeon, Rez Infinite, Subnautica, The Witness

And some VR titles:

Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Moss, Thumper, Paper Beast

Between April the 20th and May the 15th the following will be available:

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition

I don't watch anywhere near enough football to have as firm an opinion on this as I should; but to my casual eye, there isn't much in that squad you can't say "you know what, fair enough" to.  Chance for someone to stick a claim for between the sticks given Pickford's total lack of form over what feels like the last 2 and a half years.  Lingard gets a deserved return given his recent form/fantasy football hauls, delighted for Watkins though I can't imagine he'll get much game time given Southgate's predisposition to wring the last drop out of Harry Kane like he's a 6month old tube of toothpaste.

Will be interesting to see how we line up, expect Phillips will be doing a lot of needless shielding of the back 3 in the first two games given the apparent lack of options there.

All seems fairly apposite that all this talk about jam/cream (and other incorrect ordering options) is going on today.  Following up Monday's cawl fiasco (turns out doing it in the pressure cooker for the same time I'd have cooked it in a slow cooker was not a good idea); I've some shoddy homemade pasties, saffron buns and shop-bought scones ready to go for this evening.  None of which I intend on "improving" with cow juice, I suspect that way madness lies.

Just now, Mark Albrighton said:

I’m anticipating some interesting reviews in this thread over the next few days, gentlemen....

 

Was showing as sold out at 12 when I checked.  £10 for two cans as well by the looks of their store page.

So it's been an entire year since I've been on Zwift; gotta say the number of events and suchlike has certainly helped my performance (even if my weight loss is severely hampered by my jaffa cake addiction).  Certainly felt that I've made some decent fitness improvements (though that hour Alpe ascent is still a long way away!) compared to the spin studio stuff I was doing the gym prior to lockdown.  Plus I've managed to get a bit more "technique" (and confidence that my thru axle is going to stay on the trainer!) so near enough doubled my 1-5 sec power for those all important virtual pixel jerseys that no one else is throwing themselves at

Just for a comparison, I did the same route I took 1 year ago just to see how I compared (would have been nice not to be toast by the hilly KoM, so was way down on my best time there)

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to be sick from the exertion!

22 hours ago, Daweii said:

Also while I'm apparently cosplaying as the bearer of bad news, the Yuffie DLC is not included with FF7 Remake Intergrade and is instead sold separately for a yet undisclosed price.

Just had my square marketing spam through, it's not quite that straightforward (plus they've embedded the small print in an image so I'll grab it into here later) I think it goes like this:

If you buy ff7:ri on the ps5, that comes with Yuffie's materia madness

If you upgrade the PS4 version of ff7:r to ri, that needs an additional payment to unlock Yuffie's materia mayhem episode

Edit: T&Cs from that email:

That awful wording is also echoed in this press release: https://press.na.square-enix.com/FINAL-FANTASY-VII-REMAKE-INTERGRADE-ANNOUNCED-FOR-PLAYSTATION5-CONSOLE (emphasis mine)

Quote

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE also includes a brand-new episode featuring Yuffie as the main character. In this new adventure, play as ninja Yuffie Kisaragi as she infiltrates the shadowy Shinra Corporation to steal a powerful materia and restore glory to her homeland. Play alongside new characters and enjoy an expanded gameplay experience featuring multiple new combat and gameplay additions, bringing a new perspective to the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE story that cannot be missed.
 
Players, who purchased FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE on PS4™ and upgrade to PS5 can purchase the new episode featuring Yuffie as a standalone download from the PlayStation®Store. Owners of the disc version of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE on PS4 will require a PS5 console with disc drive in order to take advantage of this digital upgrade.

11 minutes ago, hogso said:

Before Crisis

Finally, only like 15 years later but we might finally get to play that thing!  I assumed that "Zack section" you saw at the end was the start of Crisis Core.  At least with a year to go before that comes out I've got a little more time to dig the PSP out and get CC finished as well! 

I'll give the intergrade trailer another watch this evening - at the time I wasn't sure if I was just giving myself MASSIVE SPOILERS for the remake, so ended up faffing about and not watching.

In other not-new-games-news; I discovered last night that all the additional content I got as part of the deluxe version for remake was sat there available in a stuffed-away menu option this whole time (having assumed I'd need to reach some point in the storyline to unlock it or something).  Bah.

2 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

And its June 10th! Damn yanks and their stupid dates 

Phew, gives me a few months to a) save my pennies for a ps5 and b) actually sit on my arse and get around to getting remake played (just past airbuster this evening >.< fcol)

At this point I'm not sure which of those two is the more likely to happen first...

"Well, just as well we've got JB coming in to redeem himself" I type in preparation for the inevitable wicket... For crying out loud.

26 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

I think the answer is to give each team 3 VAR reviews each per game that they decide when to use. 

Not to specifically pick on you, as this sort of suggestion seems to crop up fairly regularly.  But I can't see how this improves matter.  There's an average of about 3 goals per game, so even with two challenges per team you'll still be in a place where any goal is challenged anyway.  And limiting chances to apply VAR isn't going to make any material difference, the issues we've had are down to the (in) application of the laws.

It's worth also noting that NFL moved to a system a few years ago where any goal scoring play (or turnover, but that has nothing equivalent in association) was automatically reviewed in addition to the available challenges coaches had.

31 minutes ago, limpid said:

I pay for Youtube and get no ads on music or videos. I don't know whether they have a free music storage service.

I don't pay for YT premium; they do have a free storage service for uploaded music (think it's 50000 songs). Edit, though the removal of music manager to sync between a desktop pc and up to your online library is a PITA, along with the crappy metadata editor available in YTM for uploads (by which I mean by "no metadata editor").

Thankfully in the last month they've added in functionality to allow Google assistant/home to play that music on your smart speakers/displays via voice commands (casting from mobile has eventually been improved to allow it to all devices and songs, there was a time where some stuff would work and others not, but such is the foibles of online services) , so it's pretty much reached feature parity in terms of smart home integration compared to Google play music. (Should mention these improvements were in regards to free YTM users, all this was working for premium members).

Should also mention the GPM dev team were largely moved into similar roles in YTM, so thankfully it was a case where the YTM product was severely lacking at the time of transfer and they've worked hard to sort it out.

7 minutes ago, It's Your Round said:

I will watch it to find out, convincing the Mrs that I want to watch it will take some doing though. 

You'll get a very good idea of the sort of humour you're in for within about 2 minutes of the sepia-tinged introduction to be honest.  So you can always say you stuck it on "by accident"

I viewed the Paddington films with about as much cynical suspicion as probably possible.  I can't recall exactly how I ended up watching it (possibly as a sop to stop the 3 year old having another meltdown #topparenting), but it resulted in 90 mins of me sat there grinning like an idiot.  Joyous, brilliant stuff.

18 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

My exercise bike should be arriving today. Went for the XeroSport Bluetooth bike. Should be decent enough for what I’ll do. 
Thinking will join up to Zwift, anyone use it? 
Any other spin classes should look out for?

+1 for zwift here; though without going all tech support on you, do you have a link to that bike - couldn't happen to find anything on it with a quick google and I'd be curious to see if it's compatible or if it's locked into its own proprietary system.

There are a few other online/subscription services out there - Trainerroad, Fullgaz, RGT, Rouvy, Sufferfest, Tacx to name a few (I've only used the old Tacx system, with its videos that move at the same pace you're going - plus a really basic zwift style virtual world; and Sufferfest -before it went subscription only- which added a certain sarcastic humour and UCI footage to spin classes).

11 hours ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Have you researched low FODMAP diets? My wife had surgery on her stomach years ago and has to follow the guidance on this. Onions and garlic for instance are bad. It's a nuisance, but you find ways to adjust - most Indians and Chinese can do food without onions and there is a spice called asafoetida that is garlic like or you can use garlic infused olive oils.

All well worth researching if you're struggling.

Just to add some more on this point; I was luck enough to get a referral to a local dietician a couple of years ago after suffering with  similar issues (turns out onions and mangos are my issues).  Seems some of the Australian Universities are leading a lot of the research into FODMAPs.  (I had to go through 4 months of no fodmap-containing food, then adding 1 type of foodstuff back in for half a week, seeing if I had any complaints and then removing it and moving onto the next one).  I'll see if I can dig out my old booklets as there were about ~10 groups or so of sugars that could cause issues.

You should be able to infuse your own oils with garlic/onion (since FODMAPs are only dissolvable into water, not oil); so you'll be able to get the taste of whatever you infused without worrying about the after effects (though you'll have to deal with picking all the bits out of the oil afterwards).

4 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

 just get eddit howe in now, give him a few months with the players and he's in a better position to assess what they need in the summer.

Think they have something like 12 players out of contract in the summer as well as Roy.  Seems a bit lacking in the planning department if they're going to wait until the summer, just chuck it all into the air and hope everything comes up sixes.

38 minutes ago, andykeenan said:

Sunday 

...

Super Sunday 

10 minutes ago, GarethRDR said:

I think Arrested Development wants a quiet word.

Nah, the third season wasn't that bad, even if it was a bit rushed to tie everything up before it was cancelled...

What's that? Oh? Oh.

Just now, rjw63 said:

can't remember anything decent since Tom Petty

Some interesting stats on Google's match report:

First league double over Arsenal since 92-93

First time we've won three in a row in the league against Arsenal without conceding since 1920-22

Best points haul after 21 games (35) since the 36 in the 09-10 season. And as we know, it's also the same total as all of last season.

On 04/02/2021 at 16:48, dubbs said:

I've not seen that before, is it the first time they've done it? I've had a PlayStation for years. 

Was about last year, though I had turned off "additional data" collection ( [Settings] > [Device Data/Health & Safety] > [Device Data] ) so all the hours I had ploughed into Burly Men at Sea was lost into the ether and didn't show up in my report (last year's was basically "here are the 3 trophies you finally got from wipEoutHD on the PS3", rather than the hours of PS4 games I was expecting).

Been moving back towards slightly firmed grounds in terms of "drinks that taste of other things" over the past couple of weeks/month.  Slightly.

Kopparberg Spiced Apple

A nice blend of warming spices; it doesn't hit the heights of Cornish Orchard's Wassail variety (which to be brief, can be best described as "the effing business").  It also has this really weird overpowering smell that Campari has, thankfully it doesn't impact the taste.

Nice enough to buy another one for a rainy day / 10

Kopparberg  Cider with Rhubarb

Not the worst rhubarb flavoured cider I've had (looking at you Brothers...); but yeah, sickly sweet, and pretty much liquid-rhubarb-and-custard-sweets-without-the-custard.  I should have known better.

Died a little inside when I saw another one I'd mistakenly ordered in the fridge / 10

Tiny Rebel Funk Sour Cola

It's sour, it tastes of cola, not a hint of any booze or beer, I've no frame of reference as to what this should actually taste like.  Its sourness is almost too much, like the worlds sourest lemon ball, or that 7th bag of tangfastics you decided to crack open.

Have managed three quarters of it without considering throwing it down the sink, I'd call that a small win / 10