J4MES OX4D

I did a few times simply because of BS moments rather than playing badly. I always love the difficulty that these games bring and I have never been left angry or frustrated by any of them aside from DS2 but Elden Ring has some really annoying occurrences that can screw the player unfairly. There's many instances particularly with big bosses where if they go into a major animation, you can't hit them and the hitbox proximity they have to execute such moves can be ridiculous. For example, one of the earlier bosses in his second phase has a grab attack and if its animation begins just as you are attacking at the same time then your hit(s) wont register and the AI is free to complete its grab move. In previous games, you can break grab moves and inflict poise damage in the process as a reward for tight engagements but in this game, you can't disrupt such moves because it's an animation that has to be completed. I've seen many content creators rage at things like this and the no-hit players are having to model their skill around avoiding the bullshit rather than mastering the movesets.

One of my most anticipated games in recent years but also one that I am very disappointed in. It does many things well but it is significantly mechanically worse than Bloodborne and Sekiro and almost as broken as Dark Souls 2. 60% of the open world is just barren and there are several copy and pasted places which is a shame. I didn't like the chalice dungeons in Bloodborne and this has many catacomb-areas that are all the same to pad out content. There's is also too much boss bloat so this aspect really loses its uniqueness and the main bosses are really poorly designed despite looking spectacular- their hitboxes are broken, scripted poise based on health over dynamic combat chains and their attacks have insane spread/reach which can be very hard to determine. Even forwarding attacks they miss can hurt you when behind and sometimes they go into animation mode which means they cannot be hit. They also have seemingly infinite stamina. It's definitely a beautiful title at times and if you're new to this type of game/series or enjoy open world ones then such issues may not be brutally apparent but for myself and a few others, there's definitely some design choices and fundamental flaws here. I would have preferred a more linear-based title that had near frame-perfect combat like From Soft have done previous but to me it feels like an unbalanced sandbox with many old issues returning. I will look to trade it in for Gran Turismo 7 next week.

Not too far - done Stormveil and have worked my way down south and done a lot of that. Spent last couple of days just exploring but I may ramp it up a bit now although it's still hard to gauge how strong I am.

One week gone and I have played about 20 hours so far. I've definitely enjoyed my time with the game but there are also things I'm disappointed in. It's most certainly a very beautiful and expansive title but I wish it was semi-open world and a bit more linear like we see traditionally from these developers. Large parts of the land are barren and traversing can become exhausting like we see with other saturated games of this nature. There is definitely a greater sense of discovery and surprise and it's nice not to be relentlessly chasing icons but the same bloat we seen in the likes of Ubisoft games is apparent here especially with some copy and pasted caves/dungeons. The combat is very similar to Dark Souls 3 but after playing Bloodborne and Sekiro, it feels somewhat dated and mechanically inferior. There is also some iffiness with hit detection and the camera being erratic particularly with a volume of enemies on screen. This is made worse on main boss fights when animations are being rapidly processed. The first main boss has invisible walls from going over the edge in effect and the second has infinite stamina, ridiculous move-set flexibility and even animation protection in play. That's literally Dark Souls 2 levels of bulshittery there. There is also a lot of mini-boss bloat too and some strange balance between enemy types in certain places. I'm not entirely sure if I'll finish this but I will continue playing as there's still plenty more to see especially with the main areas. I'm pretty burnt out with most open world games now but there's probably just enough here to keep me going but there is certainly some aspects I don't like as a departure from their previous titles.

Funny how the media are only now picking Abramovich apart after sucking him off for nearly two decades. Every football fan with a brain and even some Chelsea ones knew that he was only fishing for a London football club to gain influence in the city and launder money. Chelsea was also his last port of call because he was told to piss off everywhere else and he's merely a big fish in an even bigger pond in the Kensington SW1 area. There very limited space to expand down there and he's essentially gone nowhere in his time there. If he managed to secure Arsenal or Spurs like was a priority, he would have got a far greater foothold in the capital. Despite investing blood money, breaking all the rules going and being the foundation of corruption in the league, the media bigged him up for years as some sort of loyal icon and savior. He's also claimed he'll donate proceeds to Ukraine but we all know he's trying to swerve sanctions with a gesture only to pocket the cash, off-shore it and then do a runner. Foolish media have fallen for it yet again. Sanction him, let Chelsea bleed their pissy income they get and fuck em all.

I probably wont get this until I've finished Elden Ring but it's definitely something to look forward to.

I was the other way around - I tuned it after 70 minutes after playing games and with the scores being level, the only question was whether Boro would score in normal time or extra time to win😅

Another trophyless Tottenham season then! Embarrassing performance and some of these players are insufferable to watch. I’m beginning to think Emerson Royale isn’t even a footballer and is just a con job by Barcelona. Spurs have little money to invest and no talent coming through either and with players ageing, it’s not looking too good all round.

Funnily enough I found that last night and the place was an absolute godsend for Smithing Stones! I randomly noticed the entrance from above so I thought I'd take a closer look but had to leg it from a giant crab whilst not trying to alert the dragon at the same time🤣

Elden Ring

Decided to try the Tree Sentinel later and instead ran into Margrit at the castle which was worse😂 I think I need to level up myself and weapons a bit more first..

They played such high risk football under Bielsa that if you don't take your chances, you will concede a bucketload. I think their last few games they sit at 2-17 and their GD has tanked to -31 which could be crucial going into the business end of the season. Need to keep things stable, simple and try to grind out some scrappy wins under someone new and keep clean sheets in the process. Getting that confidence restored is important for starters. Relegation battle is really interesting this year but Brentford are the ones in freefall.

Plunder Panic FREE on Steam to the 28th at 6pm GMT Save 100% on Plunder Panic on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Plunder Panic is a swashbuckling, up to 12-player action-arcade game where two rival crews battle for supremacy on the high seas! With both local and online play, work with your crew to plunder booty, defeat the...

I only clocked a couple of hours yesterday due to being very busy this weekend but I've had a brief roam around the South West of the opening area and it's so good! The great thing is you don't know the enemies and their movesets or abilities so you have to be very cautious. I nearly shit myself when I saw one and then managed to destroy him with a torch in one hit🤣 Gonna have a track at the Tree Sentinel later - been stealthing around him for the time being getting my bearings but this chap is the first big test.

Thank god I got mine on PS5 and it's finally arrived From Software PC ports are generally wank and there has been this lingering security issue for a few weeks now tied to their online framework so screw that version!

Another good review with some great early footage

Good riddance! Always knew they'd come crawling back to Steam but thought it be much sooner. The deal with Microsoft probably accelerated this move and I expect Ubishaft will be next Bethesda is dropping its launcher in favor of a return to Steam | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Don't worry—your games, wallet, and other stuff will all go with you.

47/50 achievements done - still need to survive 30 minutes with Lama who has curse attached and also do a couple of 100+ runs with Yatta and Mortaccio. Not bad so far - 20 hours of gameplay for £2 !

Currently sitting at 97 on Metacritic with 44 reviews. Hopefully there wont be a few late 5/10 ones from journalists who couldn't complete the tutorial but on the whole, this looks absolutely astonishing

Basically Windows will become the new iPhone.

There's also no reason why the new Modern Warfare couldn't last for two years with the right amount of post-launch support. MW2019 still remain strong nearly 3 years later and the two following COD's were substantially worse. Also the Warzone integration of Cold War and Vanguard did not go well compared to the framework that the original MW Warzone had in place. Modern Warfare 2022 and Warzone 2 should easily be good for a couple of years at the very least without us needing Black Ops 6 next year. I didn't get Vanguard either and from what I've read, it had a hefty negative effect on Warzone when compared to Verdansk.

Each game will probably have its own in-game casino knowing 2K..