Delphouneso

So who fights our corner in PL meetings and such now? Heck? Unai? Nas?

Maybe we shouldn't have sent Dendoncker's son to scout him.

Platinum done. Brilliant game. The setting, the story, the characters, the exploration, all brilliant. I also like that they tried something different with the combat and it definitely makes the game feel more cinematic but I just wish it was a little less one dimensional. The bosses especially often end up becoming a case of just repeating the same sequences over and over and punishing their one punishable attack. If anything it does the opposite of what they set out to achieve and the bosses end up feeling less alive when they're boiled down to a series of inputs you have to remember. I can certainly see why it gets compared to rhythm games. Also enfeebling might be the most annoying status effect in any game ever.

Ginny playing like a captain today.

Came here to post this. Guy is doing my **** nut in.

Doubt there's VAR at an U17 game, it was given and (karmically) missed.

If anything it's a foul on the Croatia player.

Probably not the relevant thread but the England player doing their best Harry Kane to win that penalty is a somewhat damning indictment for the future of the game.

Long old trip from Luton to Ibrox.

Ref did his best to get Spurs back in that game. **** bent the lot of 'em.

Semi final of an FA cup you're 3-0 up and it's like a **** library in Wembley. **** Man City.

Mings is really switched on tactically, I'd imagine most managers love him because he's great at understanding what they want from the team and is able to relay that to the rest of the team during a game - I think Smith commented on this a couple of times. That's a problem for Southgate because he doesn't have any tactics.

Really tough to call the end of the season. I think Spurs are the team to catch right now, they've got a tough run in and they look awful. Liverpool are a danger, two games in hand, favourable fixtures and a team that could quite easily find some form. With injuries to Rashford, Varane and Martinez Manure could well get dragged into it but I think they might just have enough points on the board and enough winnable games to be out of reach for us. We really need to take some points from Spurs, Liverpool and Brighton. Whatever happens though it's been an incredible turnaround and if we end up falling short it needs to be remembered that it's the fault of a certain gobby scouser and not the players or the current manager.

Demon of Hatred is like they learned nothing from previous games.

Finally picked this up. I was expecting a bit of a learning curve but man is it a difficult transition trying to undo years of Soulsborne muscle memory. I think half of my deaths are from just sprinting off cliffs because I've pressed the wrong button to jump. Combat feels kinda awful right now but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I can't get out of the habit of trying to dodge everything, I keep pressing R2 to 'heavy attack', and when I see the red kanji I can never remember the jump button in time before I get hit. I keep forgetting that I can block because blocking with a sword feels weird - and I've ever been a shield guy in the Souls games anyway so blocking in general just feels weird - and I'm having a hard time retraining my brain to recognise that basically everything is parryable because so many attacks look like they wouldn't be in a Souls game. I'm also kinda just struggling with the flow of the combat, I'm having a hard time figuring out when it's 'my turn' to attack with a lot of enemies. That being said both bosses I've beaten so far (Lady Butterfly and the horse guy) have been pretty easy, it's mostly the mini-bosses I've struggled with (I gave up on that purple ninja guy in the Hirata Estate and just grabbed the item behind him and ran). Everything else about the game I kinda love. Although one thing that caught me by surprise is the verticality. Fromsoft games have taught me to explore every nook and cranny of the map and with the addition of the grappling hook and the jump I find myself spending half my time peering over cliff edges looking for secret paths or trying to parkour up walls and over buildings, it's kind of exhausting honestly. Which makes me a tad concerned for when I finally get round to playing Elden Ring and there's an entire open world to explore.

Written off already seemingly.

That's not addressing the problem though is it? Fans complaints are they're paying for 90 mins of football and getting (on average) 55 mins, the solution to that isn't to just make the game 60 mins long and say there you go. That's like going into McDonalds and ordering and paying £4 for a double cheeseburger and getting a single cheeseburger, and upon complaining you get told that rather than getting the double cheeseburger you ordered they're just going to change the price of a single to £4. (FWIW I haven't been in a Maccies in 20 years so I have no idea how much one costs).

It would also make every game 30-45 minutes longer as well which creates it's own problem for broadcasters, fans in the stadium etc. Like @villa4europe said surely it's easier to just get refs to enforce the rules we already have. It's like the whole surrounding the ref thing, I've never understood why refs don't just start dishing cards out. A few weeks of players getting sent off for it and they'd soon stop doing it, and the refs then no longer have to deal with it. Surely it's in their own interest?

Kalvin Phillips has played 56 mins of PL football all season, he could be the best player in the world there's still no **** way he's match fit.

Following McGinn's comments in the week Cash has now also subtley suggested the fans need to stfu when we're building out from the back and get behind the team.

Reading between the lines Ginny seems to be suggesting the players struggle in front of our home crowd. He doesn't say it explicitly but does mention the players always want to score early to take the pressure off - presumably before fans start getting restless - and also that our play is less measured and controlled at home. I think this is especially noticeable when we're playing out, our fans very quickly get impatient when the players are clearly under instruction from Emery to play out from the back which must be pretty difficult to block out and is only likely to lead to more mistakes. Full interview here: https://video.avfc.co.uk/video/dm9kJTdDMF9odTN4ZnNvMCU3QyUyRnNlY3Rpb24lM0ZzbHVnJTNEaG9tZSU3Q2hvbWUlMkZoZXJvX2Nhcm91c2Vs?lang=en

Aaaand that's all of them. That wasn't too bad. I feared the worst with the covenant farming but I don't think it's much worse than DS2, there's more of it but it's also more streamlined and the DS3 community still seems pretty active too so I got summoned/invaded a fair bit which sped things up. Planned on playing Sekiro next but I don't fancy paying full price for a four year old game so I might wait a while for a sale.

Aston Villa: Inside Emi Martinez’s bid to be world’s best goalkeeper. Article on the Beeb this morning, mostly an interview with Cutler.

Fulham will probably drop off, pretty sure they've got the highest xGA in the league as well as facing the most shots, so either Leno is having a blinder or they're getting lucky. Things like Forest losing both CBs within 5 mins would suggest the latter.

Yeah that kinda sums it up, it made the devs input feel more present in my playthrough. Found a tiermaker to do the job for me (link for anyone who wants a go) : I'd be intrigued to hear how and why other peoples' lists would differ from mine, I know these games and their bosses can be polarising. I got a bit bored by the time I got to 'Average' and below (man did DS2 have a whole load of forgettable bosses), they're all a much of a muchness from there down so some of them could probably shuffle around a bit but I couldn't be bothered to consider the difference in quality between the likes of Demon Firesage and Demon of Song. I also didn't intentionally skip Lud and Zallen, didn't realise they existed and once I'd looked them up I decided there was no way I was going back into DS2 just for that.