The Gaffer

The Finnish entry appears to be what happens when you're conceived to the Ding Dong Song. 

Jesus...we might win. 

30 minutes ago, Donald J Trump said:

We're really going to miss shit like that when it gone. We're already getting stories about people going for a workout then having a sleep on their bus. Give me a load of horseshit about somebody not being able to "draw money up north" anyday. 

Going for a workout and sleep on the bus sounds lovely. 

Wrestling's brilliant nowadays and a lot of the big stars in it seem like really nice people. I'll take that any day over the ye olde tales of psychologically repressed, drug addicted man babies.

Not only is the industry better off - still shit, but better off - but if you really do miss it there's quite literally an entire boring supplementary industry out there where you can listen to any number of these old farts talk about that funny time they knocked back a half litre of Jack and trashed the rental car. 

Alright fine I'll try it again. 

6 hours ago, N dot Brixton said:

again with these references from the dead sea scrolls

Pay no notice. People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people.

20 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

You can't catch lightning in a bottle twice.

As it has been for every contest this decade since Rotterdam (the once that happened).

Ah okay, didn't know that!

I'm not implying it was intentional choice to get such a sponser in this year to make a political point, just for clarity, more suggesting that the presence of such a sponser could influence certain decisions. 

Anyway, I'll be tuning in as per annual weird tradition with my mum and sis! 

Bambie Thug - Ireland's first real shot at getting a high placing in years - has caused a bit of a minor Satanic Panic with our far-right gobshite freedom fighters who mentally project themselves onto Cú Chulainn over here. It's been immensely satisfying watching the exact people who bemoan offence culture throwing a strop because somebody with spooky makeup is doing the Eurovision for us this year. 

So I mean yeah, in musical terms it's totally My First Marilyn Manson, but in Eurovision terms? Ireland are sending a non-binary witch from the back arse of Cork and I'm here for it. 

Just a shame it's happening against the backdrop of the Israel controversy. I get that this is the daftest thing ever and it should be taken apolitically, but that's not really how it goes, is it? The competition's frequently had political undercurrents. The competition this year is sponsored by an Israeli company. I wonder how that could play into the votes. I tend to take it on good faith that the hardcore audience for this thing just go for the most ambitious/quirky tunes but I'm sure some people will vote based on sentiment on the conflict. In the bookies odds we're just ahead of Israel as probably the most overwhelmingly pro-Palestine country in the EU so there's some intrigue there. 

This is a killer riff:

It's peak Rockstar "We make movies". Absolute slog of a game. Can totally see why people would have it as one of their favourites ever but it wasn't for me. 

3 hours ago, Supremo said:

LOL at the highest gate announcement getting a Stone Cold pop. “Whooo! We got massively ripped off, paying over the odds for a glorified house show!” Something for the Clash at the Castle crowd to look forward to. How much money did you make the company?

Man, this is some sore thumb cynicism. They wanted to go, paid to go, and appeared to have a lovely time. 

My dad WhatsApped me "Ipswitch in the prem now with their Pro Evo unlicensed team crest". 

Unhinged crowds, excess swearing, overbooked main events and the evangelicals are on the gas. 

The boom is back. 

People's watches in the arena received a warning about prolonged exposure to the volume in the building. Beautiful. 

I noticed Generic Crowd Cheer #1 is indeed accented, also. It's a bit of a yeUAHa! 

Always had a soft spot for Bingham so I'm in for him. Just seems like a lovely fella and a consumate pro who has always played at a high level like a fan of the game. No controversies. 

Been a poor tournament so far, mind. Maybe it's just me. There's just not been a whole lot of outstanding play or many developing little stories. 

I'm also gonna write a letter to WST and ask for the plush red carpets back. Everyone should have learned from 99 WCW that pale elephant grey everywhere looks sickly and cheap. 

3 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

the deep voices of male, middle aged wrestling fans who might want to talk for hours about kayfabe, Khan and star ratings

Can we add this to the forum's header logo? 

I miss old, shitty Fallout 76. I tried to start a new character a year or so ago but found it was way too generous with keeping you alive. So like a lot of other MMOs, but those MMOs at least usually have decent content attached. 

It was barren and pointless when it first game out, but it was at least hard as nails in the first few hours. It kind of worked well as an eerie survival role play. I remember feeling genuinely elated finding bottles of purified water when ransacking gafs. 

1 hour ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Once again I find it hilarious that the focus is completely on what he said rather than the overall picture. 
 

Pearl clutching twats who have said little to fuck all about the lawsuit getting angry because he brought it up. Sums up both wrestling journalists and fans (especially the most tribal).
 

I’m  not saying I agree with him saying it, I’d rather he said nothing about them, but he ain’t wrong. I’ve seen a lot of “well achtually they fired Vince and so Tony is wrong to say that”, forgetting that 1) the lawsuit has both Vince and WWE as defendants and 2) we already know who some of the redacted individuals are that are named in the lawsuit.
 

When the outrage is more about what Tony said than what Vince and WWE is accused of, you know the balance is wrong. He’s a twat, but there are bigger twats in wrestling.

In other unrelated news wrestlings other famous Khan, Nick, put all of his TKO shares up for sale yesterday.

Yes my tribal chief. 

Look in my eyes!

What do you see. 

False equivalencies and honestly

Fuck this whole industry   

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.