GarethRDR

My hot take is I genuinely wouldn't care if they had a year where they saved themselves time and didn't touch the gameplay engine itself at all, just updated the superficial stuff (kits etc.) and instead devoted that resource to improving (...fixing) game modes.

Prefer Spirit Of Eden, personally.

Caught the play he wrote a couple years back when it came to London (The End Of Longing). It was largely just alright, but his character had a monologue about their alcohism that was harrowingly brilliant. His turn on Sorkin's underrated Studio 60 was similarly terrific.

Go Can-Cans! Best value for money "hospitality" ticket I ever bought was at Mosset Park. £30 for a open bar for an hour before kick-off (and nice local stuff from the taps, too, not just the cheap bottled shite), a dodgy microwaved pre-game pie and a plate of bourbon biscuits in the "Chairman's Lounge" at halftime. The game was absolutely awful, of course.

Of the 3 venues on that list I've been to: The Bullingdon's a bit naff. Key Club is alright but there's better, similar sized venues in Leeds. That said, its proximity to both Jumbo Records and a comprehensively stocked chilli/hot sauce shop are definitely in its favour. Cluny I only went to the first time this year and I loved it, great vibe albeit a bit of a squeeze, and it's a bit of a pain to get to from the city centre.

In mild defence of the Jack White/Alicia Keys one (very mild, I acknowledge it's largely the thinnest of gruels), I apply almost the same logic as Live And Let Die; the opening guitar riff into the staccato hits is top stuff and it's a goddamn crime that everything outside of that quickly falls apart. I definitely tend towards those Bond themes that have those instantly recognisable quickfire gut punches over the ballads and crooning ones (the Chris Cornell one does nothing for me, for example).

Pah, why bother with so called "Best Ofs" when you can just release a ~£1300 57 x LP collection of everything you've ever shat out? Oh Omar, you mad bastard. Well at least it's still better value for money than most Tool merch.

Ace Of Base's rejected Goldeneye theme, anyone? No? Fair enough. I've not heard the most recent ones but surely nothing is worse than Madonna's "effort". And Live And Let Die is mostly boring but **** me, that big orchestral stab riff is something else.

Just ran into my second game-breaking bug, am now locked out of progressing both the main questline and the one remaining faction questline I had to do. None of the troubleshooting online that has worked for some people seems to be working for me. This game is ass and I would be livid if I'd paid full whack for it.

I would presume (or at least hope) that there's some boilerplate clauses around player loans that if the player, for whatever reason, brings themselves into disrepute through actions of entirely their own doing, then any early termination of the loan on our part would not incur any otherwise associated financial ramifications.

Subscription payment models for everything, and the locking of features behind them. Microtransactions. FPTP.

The second season is what convinced me John Cho actually is a terrific actor*, and that I was just used to seeing him in nonsense stuff up to that point. *The live action Cowboy Bebop would later disabuse me of that notion, though to be fair that whole show was a mess from top to bottom.

Now that I did pop to the flicks for, and very much enjoyed it. Okay, so it's nothing massively groundbreaking, but a solid showing and I haven't been quite so taken with the visual identity of a fresh sci-fi flick since District 9.

Friedkin called it (I imagine if he had lived to see it, we'd be getting a takedown more savage than him body-checking Refn mid-interview). Does warm my heart a bit that Burstyn saw the shit for what it was and had the wherewithal to milk the studio for a bumper payout. Curiosity got the better of me, but thankfully not so far as parting with physical currency to watch Believer, as I'd have been livid. Hell, even with Exorcist II at least you could laugh at parts of it. Nope, just another Exorcist film made by people who seemingly have no idea what actually makes The Exorcist a great film. Cynical, tired and utterly devoid of value. I'd personally throw the TV adaptation in there as well. Very well done, particularly the second season. And a shout out to The Entity as a completely separate but absolutely worthwhile watch.

The sole addition to Career Mode - the hiring of developmental coaches - is currently broken beyond actual use; once you've hired a coach, they cannot be released without hard-locking the game and forcing a complete restart. Best bet until (if) it's patched is to wait until 5* star coaches that you won't ever want to replace pop up for hire.

Yes, a fair bit of it, situated primarily around my midriff.

I believe I've actually found a FKW loophole; I wear the correct colour shorts and socks to match whatever shirt I'm wearing for weekly kickabouts, but on closer inspection they are generic no-brand/club variant shorts and socks, thus allowing me to maintain sartorial and chromatic accuracy whilst negating the full effect of FKW-ness. Granted, the player names on the backs of the shirts still don't help.

Calls for Puma are making me sweaty, it's an absolute crapshoot whether you're getting something nice or something absolutely horrific. Those shirts from two seasons back with just the club name blazoned across the chest.... shudder.

You can't post that without including this jem:

Spitting straight facts.

My geekiest geek-out moment came as a result of the WipeOut soundtrack. Some years back, round the in-laws' and an episode of QI was on in the background. They'd just gotten to the bit where "...and so-and-so's buzzer goes like [sound]" and... you know when you know a song really well? To the very minutiae, you've actually trained your ears into some sort of Pavlovian response? I swear to all mighty Zeus, one of the buzzer sounds was the same vocal sample used for Cold Storage's Messij, and I literally DiCaprio-pointed at the telly and screamed "Holy shit, that was Cold Storage!" to the complete bemusement of the assembled throng (bemusement that only increased as I verbal-diarrhea-d the reasons for my excitement). My brain nearly imploded from hearing said sample outside of the concept of pixelated anti-grav racing. There's a lightning-striking-twice on that one for me personally; on the Wip3out soundtrack you had the likes of Sasha (Xpander, no less, which I'd personally hold up as one of, if not the best trance song ever written) and Paul van Dyk, but the then Psygnosis sound guy Gary McKill wrote this absolute behemoth for the soundtrack. Heavy rotation for me, ever since:

*dies* That black top is going to look amazing under my Feisar flight jacket.

Tickets on sale now, Steve Coogan the main cast announcement so far. Currently in the throes of buying a couple for the last Friday in October next year (25th).

The only way you'd be getting a sponsor-less one is if/when match-issued shirts pop up for sale from specialist vendors (classicfootballshirts, eBay etc.) once the season's over, they won't ever be mass--produced.