Ironic Indie Lad

Add me to the list of people hating their job at the moment. My company is one of many who have basically gone "AI will save us money. Lets move ahead with this and worry about it later!". They seem to have binned a bunch of roles off on the assumption that AI will be able to do their jobs, which has failed. Its meant that other people (such as me) have had to absorb more duties into their already very, very stretched working day. Everyone in my entire department is very behind and extremely stressed. It has led directly to some people leaving and some others going off sick. This has a further domino effect as other people (me again!) need to pick up work in progress for those who have left or are absent. Every single day I have much, much more work to do than I can possibly complete. I was briefly logging in early and doing extra work just to try reduce my stress by getting more on top of things. I've since come to my senses and made it clear that this isn't my problem and I wont continue to do this. I've given management plenty of data on how much I am doing every day and how it is completely unmanageable and cannot continue. I've asked them to suggest how to move forward and the answer is basically "we don't have anyone else who can do the work". I've gotten far better at logging off at 5 sharp and not letting it bother me until 9am comes but I can still feel the stress creeping in. There are plenty of times where I wake up in the middle of the night and my thoughts are about calls I really need to make, emails I need to respond to etc. It's not good.

For anyone who just needs even more of it, Warhammer Survivors is coming out in November. Its on everything including iOS and Android.

I feel completely out of the loop as I somehow did not even know a new Gears of War game was coming out. I've always enjoyed the series. I actually bought a 360 based entirely on the strength of the original game. I was horrified to realise this was TWENTY YEARS AGO now. I have to say, as much as I have enjoyed the series of the years, I could not really give two shits about the story. I probably couldnt even summarise it beyond "its some really muscular soldiers who are at war with humanoid locusts". That is about all the backdrop I really need though, I just find them very satisfying games to play and they are usually some of the better looking games around. With this in mind, I downloaded Gears of War: E-Day on Game Pass last night and played the first hour or so. It looks great and its the familiar cover / shoot gameplay you will be aware of if you have played any of the games. As the name suggests, this is a prequel which tells the story of 'emergence day'. I can tell they are going for a weighty, emotional story thats been all the rage in AAA games for a while now (The Last of Us, God of War etc.) . I've not played enough to tell if the story / writing are any good. I will say that one of the very first area's is a police station and the design of this station and the horror feel is almost too similar to Resident Evil 2. It may as well have flashed up WE HAVE BEEN HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY RESI 2 on the screen. I half expected to see some decorations welcoming Leon Kennedy to his first day on the job.

I will say that I did sigh a bit at the healing flasks and all enemies regenerating when you save. Not everything has to be Dark Souls.

Speaking of Castlevania... A demo of the upcoming Belmonts Curse is out now on all platforms. I played through it last night in one go. Its very brief, probably only about 30-40 mins or so. It's enough for you you to get a feel of the movement, combat etc. and a boss fight. I really enjoyed it. I was always going to be getting it (2D Castlevania among my favourite series of games ever) but I am more excited now. Presentation is lovely and it just feels very good to play.

Just arrest Pep at this point.

There isn't much I can add really. An incredibly moving show that somehow managed to be uplifting under awful circumstances. Everyone involved did amazing.

I am struggling to get properly into anything post Ghost of Yotei. I finally played Donkey Kong Bananza which was very well received as I understand. I thought it was fun but nothing special. I actually got bored of it quite quickly. I dont think its anywhere near as good as Mario Odyssey (which is going to be a ten year old game before we know it btw) I got a good deal on Game Pass so reinstated that and started Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Series X. It looks, sounds and feels unbelievably authentic but sadly I just found the gameplay to be very dull. I moved onto Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 which is another one on Game Pass. I know absolutely NOTHING about Warhammer other than the fact its a game using miniature models. I do know that this looks and feels like a Gears of War game and thats quite alright with me. I have no idea what the story is and the writing and voice acting seems to be taking itself far too seriously. All that said, I am enjoying this just for some mindless shooting / hack and slash fun. It looks stunning and all feels very weighty. I feel like I am plodding along just waiting on CastleVania Belmonts Curse or Zelda Ocarina of Time remake to grab me. Having said that, I am in the mood for losing myself in something substantial (ooooh matron etc) and have considered giving Crimson Desert a go. Only problem is that it looks completely overwhelming so I am worried I would bounce right off it.

The more I think about it, the more I think they should award the trophies to the runners up. It wont mean much to the players etc. but its amazing material for the fans. In the end thats all that really matters.

Quite an embarrassing statement from Pep. May as well have just said he is a bald fraud and his butt stinks and he likes to kiss his own butt.

As always, we are disproportionately exposed to a loud and vocal minority on social media. in one of my old jobs, there was a lot of old school City fans. People who would never dream of posting on Twitter all day, creating YouTube content etc. I remember one guy had a framed picture of Maine Road in his office. He still went home and away but he did used to acknowledge that it’s not ‘his’ city and felt weird playing Real Madrid etc. Not sure exactly what my point is here. I guess that there are probably thousands of older fans that would probably welcome the ownership fucking off and starting again from the bottom.

I deleted twitter along time ago as I felt like it was absolute poison to my brain. I downloaded it again as soon as the news broke on Friday (will 100% be deleting again soon as its much, much worse than ever) I've noticed it was initially denial among the fans. That seems to have moved on now to acknowledging they "cheated" but its the rules that are wrong and they had no choice other than to cheat etc. Considering its only Wednesday, interesting to see where their heads are at by the weekend.

I think the punishment needs to cover the period they have been confirmed as cheats. I also think the punishment needs to acknowledge that the foundations for the current success were built on lies. They would not be at the level they are no without the cheating. All joking aside I would strip the titles, enormous points deduction / OR direct expulsion (whatever is possible within the rules) and a transfer ban. I also think Man City need to be forced to release a statement acknowledging their guilt and an apology to all other teams. As far as redistributing trophies, I wouldn't bother. The history should just say "no title awarded" for future generations to look back on and understand premier league football for a very long period was a sham.

Micah Banned and we call it quits on the rest lads. At least City fans can hold their heads held high and be proud of the fact they stopped cheating just as soon as they were hacked.

I truly don't understand how they can say they have "diligently respected due process" when a large percentage of the charges are for failure to provide information, documentation etc. No fucking idea how its possible for the evidence to be irrefutable. If it was really that simple and really that cast iron, we wouldn't be here. I've been anonymously told that the punishment is that Micah Richards is being banned from punditry work.

Its remarkable how many City fans are still not accepting this but saying things like "...if this turns out to be true" I don't think there is a chance in hell that the Premier League releases a statement that strong if there is any chance; of an appeal going well or any chance of a light or even moderate punishment.

Please put a trigger warning and spoiler tags if you post Goldbridge

He also said he heard Pep is staying shortly before he left. They're fucked.

The idea of Hatebreed playing at like 5pm to a mostly empty Wembley is so surreal to me.

This is exactly why the punishment needs to be nuclear. If its not that bad, the message is that you can cheat your way to the top table if you can absorb the costs. I don't want to see any pundits dance around this either. I know its a grey area everyone is dancing around at the moment because Ornstein has posted about it and Khaldoon has responded. As soon as the premier league confirms it then the way everyone talks about City has to change dramatically. I don't want to see any reverence for their fake treble, their fake 4 in a row, their fake 100 point season. I certainly don't want to see any claims that Guardiola's premier league legacy is above Alex Ferguson.

They absolutely need to get the book thrown at them. They have forced their way to the very top of football. They have cheated to put themselves in a position to be able to do that. The punishment has to be bad enough that a) it was not worth it and b) nobody else does similar. The amount of illogical / delusional nonsense I have seen from City fans has absolutely boiled my brain. "You cant take our memories away, we know what we saw!!!" being a popular one. Another common one is that this is all board room stuff not important, the games were won fair and square on the pitch. Somehow this is all United, Liverpool and Arsenals fault though.

Shocking and very sad. I first saw PAC on the undercard of a 1PW show in 2006. I dont think I had ever heard of him at the time. A few minutes into the match, my brother and I discussed that he was really reminding us of the Dynamite Kid. Obviously thats a huge shout for any British Wrestler. But with his compact / very muscular build, his intensity etc. it felt like an obvious comparison. I remember he really broke out not long after that and there was a particular match vs El Generico that had people going absolutely crazy over his potential. Dragon Gate was a great move for him at the time. He was working a heavier schedule with an insanely talented roster. Easy to mention names like Shingo, Cima, Tozawa etc. but even the guys who didn't become bigger names elsewhere such as Yamato, BxB Hulk, Susumo Yokosuka etc. were incredible workers. He developed so much during this time. I saw PAC (Neville at the time) v Generico (Sami Zayn by then) wrestle on a WWE house show many years after all of the above. I wasn't really following at the time but got a freebie for the show. One of those nice moments where you are glad certain guys have made it.

I've been posting and lurking on and off on here for long enough to remember NORTON WANTS YOUR BIG SIG

I am not talking about as your starting centre forward. That's what Sesko was signed for. The problem is that when he isn't fit (which he isn't), there's a massive drop off. I don't expect them to go and spunk the current insane market value for a top class proven striker as; there either isn't any money there or there isn't a willingness to spend that money. My point is that I would rather have an experienced striker in the squad without breaking the bank. It takes the burden off of Sesko, it gives you someone to play in early rounds of cups and Europe and it avoids having to play others out of position.

When you look through current squad, there's a lot of players there who might be good but are clearly not good enough and should have been upgraded. For many of them there's good reasons for this - its clear the club don't want them (so other clubs expect a bargain), injuries, wage issues etc. It's left United with way too many players that would have been moved on in an ideal world. Dalot has been there for so long now and is wildly inconsistent. Shaw is great on his day but is getting up in age and has a terrible injury record. Zirkzee and Ugarte have never shown anything to suggest they can excel in the premier league. Mount has been there several seasons and has never played regularly as he cannot stay fit. On paper I would say Rashford, Cunha, Sesko, Mbuemo and Amad is an attack with a lot of goals. Problem is that Sesko cant play a full 90, when he isnt playing then Cunha or Mbuemo play centrally which isn't their best position. It almost seems like they learned nothing from Hojlund. You cant just have one senior centre forward (especially one relatively unproven). In recent seasons, they should have tried to get a proven but cost effective option like Calvert Lewin, Mateta, Welbeck etc