forameus

Finished my maiden Weekend League attempt last night, managing to play all 30 games...and I'm still fucking seething. Had the day off on Friday so knocked through a little under half the games then. Encountered what was a very new verison of lag where the game would essentially pause, then speed up to catch up to "now", during which time my players would do nothing, then react to whatever button presses I had once it caught up. So lots of punting the ball out, or dribbling uselessly into defenders. Got burned by that a few times in the early games and was just about ready to quit, but managed to nick a few games, finding that the players weren't quite as good as I expected. Met a few teams that absolutely pumped me, but nowhere near as many as expected. Got to last night sitting at 8 wins, 7 games to go. Just wanted to get to Silver 1, just needed the 3 wins. That would get me immediate qualification back to the next one and a decent player pick (apparently). Lost the first one, but nicked a win in the 2nd. Another defeat after, but then a James Forrest inspired extra-time performance took me to within 1 win of the target with three games to go. Surely...surely. Next game I'm absolutely battering a guy, raced into a 2-0 lead, but he got it back to 2-2 against the run of play. Ball loops up in his box, open goal, and I'm about to head it in when he disconnects. Had it been 2 seconds later I'd have got the win, but instead it cancels the game. Next one I lost 6-5 after extra-time having been 4-3 up in the 92nd minute (of 92 mins) and then 5-5 with 2 mins of extra-time to go. Lost the penultimate game 3-2, leaving me sitting at 11pm with one game left to get that one win. Lost 5-2, with him shushing after every goal. If I find that guy that disconnected, I'm going to make him eat his fucking router. EDIT: I mean I think 10 wins is alright for a Div 6 guy who's largely shite at the game, but with all the narrow defeats and disconnects, it should've been better.

I might be fucking mental, but I think I'm actually going to redeem my Weekend League misery pass this weekend. Didn't realise that it opens on Friday, so given I'm off tomorrow I'll be able to get through a decent number of games this weekend after all. No reward for 0 wins either. Fuckers.

Heard that all progress in the Online before it goes properly live will be wiped, which has delighted me as it gives me an excuse to fire back into single player until next week.

I was almost that guy! Riding away and taking out several guys with head-shots, turned the camera to catch the last few. Didn't see the one that stopped right in front of me, sending me and the horse flying. Given the character has all the strength of a wet fart, he lay on the ground helplessly looking at his assailant. Eventually someone came back for me, we shot our way out and made our escape. Actually quite beautiful in a way.

Thought I'd give online a go after noticing it went live. Created my character and got as far as reaching the first camp. Done one story mission, bit annoyed to see it force you to group up. I know it makes perfect sense in the mission that you need 4, but as someone who rarely plays online games in a group, I imagine you'll get the same frustrations you did in GTA Online with the lack of teamwork etc. Also a bit annoying that they've gone down the route of the mute character too. Came across an NPC and you can't talk to them, just "emote". Which he ignored. Would it have killed them to record 4 or 5 voice variations after all the money they'd spent on the game. Still, very impressed with what I've seen so far. Apart from not being allowed to call my horse Thunderb*****d. Bunderthastard it is.

Yeah, to be honest I'm finding it a lot more bearable too, after starting to really hate it before. My Serie A side is absolutely lightning going forward, but I still absolutely cannot defend in any way. Managed to make it to the second tier in Rivals this week though after getting quite a few games out of the way. Got a Weekend League entry but I'll save that for a while until I know I can play a few. Then play 1, get pumped, and decide that I didn't even want to play anyway. On that Serie A side, Suso IF is absolutely brilliant in the RF position. Wasn't too impressed with Mertens' 88 though, he's been traded in for Immobile to try and get a bit more strength up there.

Bit annoyed that online is coming to be honest from a selfish perspective. I've not had near enough time to play this, so still under 40% complete. Really want to finish the single player all the way through before I go onto Online, but I know if I leave it, I'll end up a level 1 jobber amongst level 40 geeks who've spent every hour of the day on it. GTA Online was bad enough for that. Will probably start it off tonight (I think I'm eligible for that) just to get going, see how it is, then go back to single player until it's done.

I found one, but he was very much not perfect by the time I realised the flies around the horse were coming from its rotting carcass.

My Lovely Horse has tried to die several times. Keep bringing the fucker back though. Not getting away that easy.

I must say, even early on in the game I'm surprised just by the shift from the first (second, I guess) to the next area by the lake. You explore what seems like miles and miles, then you move by the lake and suddenly there's vastly different areas you're working through, while still being an easy travelling distance to the stuff you've already done. Have to say that so far it's abundantly clear just how much love and thought has gone into the world-building. Isn't always the case.

At least Bannigan looks like he's having a fucking brilliant time. Quitongo not so much.

****. I found him and he said he'd reward me. He didn't, tried to run away, so I tied him up and threw him off a cliff. Maybe it doesn't pay to be a sociopathic monster

I used the coins I had to build the best possible Bundesliga side I could (with Modric and Kroos put in to link up) but got bored of it incredibly quickly. Sold a few days later (no doubt making a loss thanks to Black Friday) but after packing Pogba for a second time, I ended up with about 950k to spend. So it's back to Serie A, and hoping that a lot of the players I'm picking up will rise in price should I hit the seethe again and rage sell. Dzeko, Fabian, Skriniar and SMS were all present from the previous regime. Wanted the Insigne IF to play up-front, but weren't enough good LW/LF options, and despite him being about 4 foot nothing I love having NIF Insigne out there. Suso is surprisingly good, and Mertens gonna Mertens. Only played a couple of games last night with the team, won one lost one, but the second was a 4-3 purely down to Skriniar getting sent off early. Hence Koulibaly coming in (whose value has plummeted over the weekend. Still had about 300k left over after that, so I've picked up Sane IF as a super sub and a potential sell in a few days once his value comes back up.

Was that by any chance early in the game trying to escape Valentine? I got the last mission in chapter 2 last night where you have to do that, and really struggled for a while. Kept trying to get far enough away from them I could mount the horse, but he kept waiting until I got close and grabbed the reins, then pissed off. Eventually found a ladder and just sat up there. A few attempts where I was picking off guy after guy as they kept respawning, then got lucky and managed to sneak away after only killing about 5. Agree though, if you're in a standard situation where they're not going to keep respawning, it is pretty easy to just hold your position. Not sure what the Wild West equivalent of helicopters and tanks would be - if this eventually makes it to PC, I can imagine the modding community will have some interesting ideas.

The belief that we somehow need this permanent captain is anachronistic pish anyway. It serves very little purpose, and I'm not sure any nations outside of the British Isles (or even just outside of us and England) put as much stock in it. Just give it to the person in the starting eleven that seems to fit it best and get on with building a team that isn't looking to one specific player to lift them.

Thing is that, despite the apathy a lot felt, there was potential for this. They already have the name, the reputation, and a fairly decent (although not perfect) game and engine to build on. And they've still fucked it.

There hasn't been a game I've remembered in a while that has disappointed so much and been so universally panned as this one. Nothing like a 47Gb update to say "we fucked this up, didn't we lads?"

I'd concentrate on the main quest, then get the DLC once you finish that. Keeps you focused on the normal game without jumping across questlines. The way each DLC story is written, I think they're better treated as a separate game. Hearts of Stone in particular is probably the best single player DLC I've ever played by a significant distance.

You get all the quests from terminals etc as far as I know, so won't really matter if you turn off PvP or not. Seems no different to the Division - designed to be played in teams of 4 but I very rarely did any part of the game not on my own.

PvE presumably. You're essentially playing a single player while still meeting humans you can (presumably) trade with

It's what I'll need to do. I did try and build how I wanted to play, but that seemed to make things infinitely worse. Think I need to get out of the mindset of playing the 4-3-3 I always did in 18, maybe move back to a 4-4-facking-2 or something. I'll give it a week and get Black Friday in, hope for a crash, then spend 700k getting the best team I can and go back to it.

I'm getting really fucked off with the game. After starting out pretty well, I don't know if an update has completely nerfed the shite way I play, or whether people have just got better, but I'm struggling to even make 5 yard passes to players who are refusing to move, and bunching up like schoolkids. Every opponent seems faster, with their forwards scampering away from my backline while my forwards get chased down before they get a sniff of a chance. Last two days have seen some proper seethe to the point that I just can't be arsed grinding through it anymore. I'll come back, but fucking hell this is brutal. So my entire team went up for sale, sans the untradeables. I'm left with SBC Skriniar, SBC SMS, CL Dzeko and CL Politano. Might move away from Serie A to something more hybrid if I can find a way of fitting everyone in. 700k coins ready to spend once I decide I hate myself enough to start another game up.

Ryback would have a point if Big Dave was calling for her to be fired, but for all the shite he spouts, he's not wrong in what he says. Jax went up too early, and either she got too carried away and didn't mean to do it, or she did. Neither is a good look, and both of them should result in at least her going down to NXT and spending some time out of the spotlight. She's capable of decent matches, but she's not ready for the spot they want her in. She's always been good, but since that raft of female stars came through NXT, through Paige showing that there was something other than models turned wrestlers, through Bayley and Sasha tearing the place up, through them all getting called up (except Becky), through the move from Divas to Women, through "HISTORIC" match after historic match, hell in a cell, extreme rules, etc, I don't think anyone has ever looked as damn good as she has these past few weeks. She can go in the ring, she can go on the mic, and from the looks of Twitter she can go fucking anywhere. They'd be mental not to strap a rocket to her and let her take this women's division even further.

Is her injury that bad though? If they were forced to do it, fair enough, but can't see them keeping her on the shelf that long. It would be a wonderful story though if they were forced down that road. I'm just hoping they're delaying rather than cancelling. Put Becky/Rousey at TLC and put it in the main event. f**k the brand split, there's no-one on either roster that deserves to take the title off either of them, so just have them face each other.

I can only assume that they hotshotted Bryan once they found out about Becky. There seems no other reason to suddenly do this a few days away from Survivor Series than to try and give the fans something they want. Why they decided to do it by turning him heel...well that's WWE for you. Shiter about Becky though. Certainly looked like it must've been Nia Jax that clocked her, so imagine she'll be receiving a bit of heat for that. I wonder if they'll just delay things though - give Charlotte vs Rousey the exhibition feel on Sunday, then have Rousey vs Becky at TLC, even give it the main event. Makes the show that much bigger, and they can properly build to what would be an incredible match. EDIT: Just watched the clip of the Bryan match, looked like he didn't quite like the mixed reaction he got for winning, so decided to really cement it. Still not convinced he's going to get a heel reaction though, particularly on Sunday.