FLips

The Final Fantasy games should all really be held on their own merit. Everyone has their own favourites and least favourites for one reason or another, though obviously there's a select few that are deemed classics by nearly everyone. If by "the first one" you mean Final Fantasy I then you're probably not going to fall in love with the series or get a full representation off the back of it. Like all of them it has it's merits, but it's the first attempt at a game they didn't think would even become a series. It's maybe good for the time but it's never going to live up to the ones that came later down the line. All the mainline games are individual stories as well, so there's no reason to start from 1 and do them chronologically. If you want a better representation of the series then there is probably no better place to start than Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy X as they're both (in my opinion) two of the most accessible and also two of the better ones in the series. If you want to stick with the pixel graphics then IV or VI are the best ones to go for.

I don’t want to be too harsh on it because at least it’s something different, but I felt absolutely nothing as a fan watching that. It certainly wasn’t ever going to be Austin and Vince but it wasn’t even Dixie and Bubba Ray.

I wouldn’t say it annoys me or that I want to “shithouse it”. Just the concept of it baffles me. Like, what is it for? Is it to impress someone? Is it trying to start a trend?

I don’t know if they’re new neighbours or if they just have a newfound patriotism but those across the way erected a giant flagpole a month or so ago that is getting way out of hand. It started with the England flag but has since then evolved into two flags at any one time and despite it starting in March they’re all poppy/rememberance day themed. LEST WE FORGET most of them say. They must have a shed full of flags, I’ve seen at least into double digits of unique designs. Two at a time at all times and they change them every single day. When it’s windy all you can hear is the flapping and metal clanging as it gets battered. Who erects flags in their back garden? Are they ok?

Even though they deliberately put “scon or scone” I still read it as “scon or scon”.

It's car boot sale season! Hope the weather perks up though.

I realised the other day I've never seen the Beverly Hills Cop films so with them all being on Netflix I gave them a whirl. Beverly Hills Cop Brilliant, loved it. Good action, really funny and the cast are all spot on. Ronny Cox shows up which is always a bonus, and Eddie Murphy is on top form. Steven Berkoff is a great bad guy and being backed up by Jonathan Banks is a good combo. Love the dynamic of the main cast, everyone stands out. Obviously the theme song is a banger and they do really well interlacing different versions of it through the film. Enjoyed it so much I've watched it three times in a week while I've been working from home. Beverly Hills Cop 2 Not as good but still decent. The plot is a bit overcomplicated for it's own good, too many moving parts. The first one worked well because it was clear who the bad guy was from the start and Foley just went after him relentlessly. This one tries twists and turns and loses a lot of the charm and humour along the way. As Inspector Todd says "Don't think, Axel. It makes my dick itch". Beverly Hills Cop 3 This one apparently got panned but I'd say it's as good if not slightly better than 2. It's got some of that humour back and the theme park setting makes a nice change. On the whole I would say they were all good, the first one especially. 2 and 3 don't live up to that quality but they both have a few bits going for them in their own rights. Easy films to just put on and not think too much about.

He was shite from start to finish. Highlight was snake charming Santino's cobra, lowlight was his backne and world title run. Good riddance.

Mr Five by Five.

I think that may be a common thing as I've also been raised with the belief that Robins are lost loved ones. My Granddad used to love birds (and nature in general) so after he died my Mum's way of greiving was to start feeding the birds in the garden, something she never did while I was growing up. Her garden is awash with some stunning birds including a constant swarm of goldfinches and the occasional woodpecker. My wife and I moved in to a house a few streets over from where my Nana and Granddad used to live. Same sized and layout house and garden, which now 17 years after they both passed has somewhat filled a hole in my own grief as I always wanted to keep their house after they passed, but at 17 I was too young so sadly we lost it. During covid when we first started sorting the garden out, a robin would come and sit on the fence next to us and like yourself it was comforting. Like him and my Mum, I also make sure to keep the bird feeder full so our garden is always full of birds. Nothing too spectacular yet other than a family of crows which are lovely, sparrows and a family of blackbirds that live in our loft. We get some gorgeous doves come and go every year and big fat wood pigeons. We also get Magpies which are stunning birds visually but they're shitheads and our dog hates them (and only them) so any time they land in the garden he's on them like flies on shit.

40 minutes is absolutely too long to build an action film. It’d be like Commando if it was 40 minutes of Arnie eating ice cream and petting deers with his kid.

Man on Fire We watched the first two Equalizers on Netflix and thought they were pretty enjoyable so moved on to another Denzel film as Equalizer 3 isn’t on Netflix yet. I can only speak for the first 40 minutes as we turned it off after absolutely fuck all happened for the full 40. An action/thriller with no action for nearly the first full hour. Yawn. The editing is headache inducing as well. Constant quick cuts and filters and rubbish camera angles. It’s like watching Raw at it’s worst but with awful early 2000s greeny brown filters over everything. Maybe it gets good but I’m not investing that much time into it to find out.

I had the non-energy drink version of the Watermelon one yesterday oddly enough. It’s like a Panda Pop. Quite sickly but I did like the taste.

My mate went to some big retro shop in Leeds and picked me up a copy of Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest while he was there. The Castlevania trilogy on the NES is a bit of a nightmare to be honest, at least the English versions. Castlevania 1 is fantastic and once you learn the bells and whistles a really fun game to bash through in one sitting. Castlevania 3 is supposed to be one of the best games on the console but currently people are selling it for £300+ so it can fuck off tbh. That leaves you with Castlevania 2 which has everything going for it, it's got great music, the sluggish but competent movement of 1 and then it adds in an open world with multiple paths and light RPG mechanics. The issue stems from the fact that the English translations got butchered so every NPC in the game gives you bad information or in some cases outright lies to you. The way the map connects makes no sense either. You need a guide to play the game or you will never finish it. It almost feels like a FromSoftware game the way it's so vague and characters are just out to fuck you over. It's a damn shame because with a tiny bit of tweaking to the dialogue and maybe a map system (or better connected map in general) it would be fantastic,

Not sure if either of these count, but they both came to mind. Sound and Vision by David Bowie. I prefer the original version over the stripped down 2013 version but they're both fantastic in their own right. Credit to both of them as well for having almost the entire videos as "Most replayed" on Youtube as one long segment. Another one would be Jocko Homo by DEVO . The original version of Jocko Homo which had a much slower tempo and for lack of a better phrase, absolutely fucked music video. Then the album version which is much faster paced and the version they ran with for the rest of the careers, which is fair enough because it's much better.

Very likely then! It was a teal colour thing plugged into the back ports of the PS1. I believe later models of the PS1 removed the ports entirely so people couldn’t use them anymore. Similarly to others in here I had a disc version on PS2 that I used to cheat my way through Final Fantasy X.

I had one on the PS1 at my Dad’s because he refused to get it chipped for I suppose legally moral reasons and this was a workaround. Don’t think I ever used it for cheats though, but I just didn’t know what it was at the time. I’d go mad with it now as some of the cheats you can exclusively get on them are mad. Someone else might know more but is it to do with the genie altering code for the game or something?

Went for covers by artists I really like. Just think they’re neat.

Fallout (full season spoilers)

He’s got triples of the HBK, triples of the Road Warriors and triples of The Mountie. He’s rich and he doesn’t live in a hotel.

I was wondering what you’d do when you’d finally finished posting in every thread on the board! Between me only posting about my shit old telly and you posting topics like this, I think we can agree our chances of going back to back at this years awards are as likely as Loki washing his filthy lugs.

The Apprentice spoilers

It’s hyperbolic in a sense but it’s worrying how quickly attitudes have changed on this company from “I hope X goes to AEW so we can see what they can really do” to “I hope X goes to/back to WWE because this company is dying a death”. WWE hasn’t been this hot for quality, ratings, booking and bunch of whole other stuff in a very very long time and AEW is heading the complete opposite direction. A lot of the AEW roster really should start looking at how they can WWE-ify themselves sooner rather than later because you would think the likes of Ricky Starks, MJF and Cody’s other mates are already one foot out the door, and people like Moxley, Renee, FTR and Malakai Black probably wouldn’t be far behind. It’s reactionary and an unfair comparison but you’ve got to think both rosters will be looking at the shows this Wrestlemania week closely and be either thrilled or gutted at who they’re with.

Not to be all “oooh you’re hard” about it as I understand from a professional workplace point how it’s cost Punk his job, but I do think there’s a lot of overreacting to the severity of the actual fight. By most accounts Punk was verbally antagonised and offered by Perry to fight him, and all he did was shove him and front facelock him. It’s not like anyone was hurt or any real fighting happened. It’s handbags.