The Gaffer

I'd definitely skip the first Final Fantasy. In fact - controversial, perhaps - but unless you actively play and enjoy 16-bit/pixel/retro games I'd probably skip the first six entirely and then go back to them later. The progression and battle systems in virtually all the games are so specific as to be marmite - and there's really no way of knowing if you'll dig it or not until you get stuck in - so I'd tend to just go for the aesthetic that takes your fancy the most. FLips is on the money though with VII and X being logical jump in points if you do want to play it safe at all costs. VII is the sprawling, cutesy, archetypal 'best game ever' entry of the series. It's full of downtrodden oddballs cheerily trying to scrape by on a dying planet. VIII hones in more on a human love story. The physical atmosphere is more grounded and military but everything else about it is off the wall. If your favourite entry in most series is the weird, misunderstood, awkward one then here you go! IX is kind of like Abbey Road. It's got all the best bits of the earlier albums all jammed into one and functions as both a best-of and send-off to an era. If you like medieval fantasy go with this one. That's not to sell it short. It's essentially a story about a bunch of completely different people banded together figuring out existential dread and death. I think it's comfortably the best written game in the series. X is post-apocalyptic Home & Away where some of the characters are religious fundamentalists who play water basketball. X-2 is that, but with Charlie's Angels energy. XII I really didn't gel with so can't speak too much to it but it's like...tech high fantasy?...with the gameplay being modelled almost like an offline MMO. XIII is really linear and the battle system almost sort of plays itself. Not that that's a bad thing. They wanted it to be accessible. I have no idea what the fuck it's about, though. I tapped out here.

To be honest I think there's less a chance of it not happening at some point in the next few years. WWE are practically invulnerable financially at the moment and the content can be consumed anywhere, anytime. I don't think the whole fabric of Americana/time zone thing is as sacrosanct an issue as it once was.

Maybe my thinking is too old school and trapped in what other companies have done, but if you've crowned a new top guy they should be the first thing we see or hear about on the show, even if it's to build up their first appearance as champion much later in the night. Swerve strolling out for a TV match in the second segment like any other guy on the roster was a bit deflating. Especially when it became apparent the focus was instead going to be on another inevitable moneybags slide into getting physically involved with on screen angles. But I'm sure some clever fecker on Reddit with a spreadsheet has clocked that him and Fletcher never wrestled before so this was actually pretty great.

I don't buy the leak concerns as a reason for Klopp announcing his departure with months left in the season. It feels like it was to do a big narrative push for commercialisation reasons, which you could handily rationalise as "Well the team will give it their all now." The kind of hubristic optimism that doesn't bother factoring in "If they blow it in any way that invites jeers, this is going to be proper shit." Oh well. North London forever.

Gotta feel for lovely Ding, crashing out again like that. Delighted for Lisowski though, hopefully he has a great run. With that excellent match and Ronnie coming up today too it feels like the tournament finally has a bit of lift off. This marathon of a thing always tends to take a few days.

You won't be Toiletside, Mothafucka until you rhyme 'Doing a poo like Mr. Magoo' with 'Vigo The Carpathian from Ghostbusters II'. Still, it's better than maybe 25% of what goes in the mosher thread.

Bit of hedge-hop. I love finding channels like this. It's a simple thing, I know, but the fact that people just go out and do this with their spare time purely for the heck of it makes me joyful.

Back to snooker.

Well that was a belter of a first day. Gilbert clinches it from Brecel 9-10 and knocks the champ out!

The 'Don't Hinder Jinder' sign that fan brought is the best thing about his career.

Exposed was class! I feared it might have just be an excuse to get Ade on the couch with little else going for it but there was plenty of fun insight and - what I never grow tired of - behind the scenes, bloopers and corpsing. As usual Bottom keeps revealing new deliveries and idiosyncrasies that I always knew were there but now note as being completely hilarious. "Get two." "Two? Wow man!"

He's back and he looks like Phil and Grant's long lost, twice-as-hard-as-fuck brother! A fit, healthy looking Mox should be a lucky rabbit foot in AEW's back pocket. Fully agreed seeing him storm out by himself with a title just feels great. He can keep his BCC membership card in his Bad Motherfucker wallet because honestly I'm not sure what much else there is to get out of the faction. They were always a bit naff, watered down Mox and Danielson, and only really helped the personality challenged Claudio.

I can't imagine the awkward tension Bethesda (hopefully) had in the months and even years leading up to Starfield's release. It's so anachronistic, clunky and dated in so many parts of its design that it's almost like the whole game was baked into code pre this age of neverending memes and YouTube analysis on how dog eared Bethesda's open world game model has become, but it was just too late to go back and change any of it. I realise it'll have made its money back and then some, which is the bottom line for publishers, I don't think a triple A title has ever arrived so cold and antiquated once the initial glossy friends-with-the-publishers reviews were barged pass. And I say that as someone who still loves their open world design. But that game was a complete wet fart.

Choom! Yeah I'm a sucker for it. I'd go so far as to say I'd struggle with thinking it's anything less than simply good - post bug fixes - once all the hype and expectation is removed. I think if it was somehow a sleeper hit, I don't think it'd get the same kind of backlash. I absolutely wish it was deeper, but that's because I think the superficial world they've build is so enticing. Night City does have an extremely strong culture to it - on the surface - it's juts that it's all aesthetic. I'm definitely guilty of tying that into commentaries on the superficiality of the future it depicts admittedly, but I do think it's there. The ceaseless background noise of NPCs and traffic, the constant adverts for legalised amphetamines and clean water, the whole tech jungle feel of it all. It's got some really neat presentation. And the sound design is some of the best in the industry ever, period.

I'd be fine with just Wikipedia and UKFF content creators to be honest! The whole internet/social media thing is another reason the psychological need to get into QAnon and stuff is senseless and just obfuscates actual issues. The truth is more out of control and out to get you than the fiction.