spikexmrspatula

@therealturk: Totally. There was an article on the BBC News website about the best performing players at the World Cup, and took me a solid 5 minutes to realise there's been one set of matches for each team. There's always got to be some fucking narrative, ohhhh Germany are in trouble! Russia are a good team suddenly! Spain are in trouble because they lost their manager and drew their first game! It's been one whole game for everyone, cool your fucking jets.

Don't know if there's any AJPW followers here, but the Champion's Carnival is ongoing right now. First time ever it's being streamed entirely on their new streaming service. It's basically the same as New Japan World in design. Super stacked line-up this year, with the likes of Naomichi Marufuji from NOAH and Shingo Takagi from Dragon Gate. First few nights have been really good, with Shingo vs Kento Miyahara (who is AJPW's ace and is fucking amazing) being the stand out match so far.

@shindig: Scotland here. For us it's basically CEX and that's about it. If you specifically want a new game and can't/won't go to GAME. Well, you're shit out of luck. Grainger never made their way north of the border to my knowledge.

Is it really that much of a present if you're paying 8 bucks for a 30 year old game?

@nicksmi56: I wasn't a big fan of Ni No Kuni when I beat it years ago, but I could see it being a good steeping stone into JRPGs since it's got a bit of Pokemon in it. Actually that game is so beautiful it might be a bit of a let down going to a different JRPG since JRPGs aren't typically lookers. You might want to take a little break between Persona 4 and 5, since they are very similar types of games, and 5 is quite a bit longer than any other Persona game. Despite Zelda playing very similarly every game had a unique vibe and atmosphere, so it didn't really feel like a slog to get through them. Aside from parts of Twilight Princess, which eh, wasn't really my thing. Ohhhhh, favourite Zelda. Probably BOTW, since it was unlike anything I've ever played before, although A Link To The Past is real close. It reminded me of Chrono Trigger in that it doesn't matter when you play it, it will always hold up, and is truly timeless. I played Chrono Trigger years after original release since I'm European and A Link To The Past really gave me a similar kind of feeling while playing it. Least favourite is Twilight Princess by quite a bit, although parts of Majora's certainly tested my patience.

Good for you though duder, the gym can be quite intimidating to join at first, but I felt so much better about myself when I went. Just remember everyone is there to improve themselves, only assholes are going to judge you. At least you can tell your girlfriend you learned about the secrets of Funky Student this year.

@nicksmi56: I played A Link Between Worlds a while back, which was fucking amazing, (and my first Zelda experience) but I never had the funds to buy a shit ton of Zelda games because Nintendo games are pricey. Until earlier this year and I just blew through a bunch of them back to back, leading into playing BOTW. Zelda was one of my big blind spots despite being a big Nintendo fan; never had the patience for that type of game when I was younger. Powering through those six games in a handful of months might be one my favourite gaming memories and experiences. I heard Link's Awakening is good, and I want to get that done sometime next year, Minish Cap and the Season games would be good as well.

I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and I'm noticing some fairly obvious blind spots and I want to correct that. It could be people like Dan who make a conscious effort to devote themselves to moving out of their comfort zone. I like to see it as an ongoing project of sorts. It's part of a personal improvement thing as well, this year I went to my first concert and I moved out on my own for the first time, and I've been going to the gym this year for the first time. Next year I'm planning to beat the first 4 Dragon Quest games, since I'm a big DQ fan and I haven't gotten around to it. 2018 seems like a good year for the year of Dragon Quest.

The Legend of Zelda: BOTW

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past

Persona 5

Yakuza Kiwami

Kirby's Adventure

Kirby's Nightmare in Dreamland

Kirby: Planet Robotron

Super Mario Odyssey

Ratchet and Clank PS4

Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Golf Story

Steamworld Dig 2

Undertale

17. I think that's it. Lot of Zelda and Kirby this year.

What an idiot. The man's in his mid thirties and has worked in Japan for multiple years. He really should have known better. I wonder if New Japan will even let him work in ROH. There's no way WWE will ever have him back, and with TNA effectively done it doesn't give him a lot of options.

I've only had time to play a few hours so far. My one big takeaway is Maribel sucks.

Motorstorm was fucking amazing. This is a massive shame and is sadly not that surprising given how Drive Club turned out. Also Sony shut down Studio Liverpool and Evolution are in that same kind of mould. Hope everybody lands on their feet.