Katsuya

So, quick update. There's now five religions on the table, but Buddhism has the biggest spread. Finally found everyone, and France and Rome are *still* at war with each other. Rome is the holy city of Christianity but it's teetering on the verge of Buddhism and there's a Great Prophet landing there in about 2-3 turns time who will hopefully push it over the edge, just in time for the World Congress where I'm trying to get Buddhism as the World Religion I'm now the only one in the Industrial Era, while the others have just about managed to make it to the Renaissance. My plan is to get to Flight as soon as I can and then try and wipe Carthage off the map in a quick attack, thereby more or less taking Islam out of the game in the process.

Playing my first proper BNW solo game, with Boudicca. Instantly went for faith, but it became apparent very early on that I was on an island by myself with just two city states as company. Kept pressing for faith though and my religion is pretty much the most established in the world, though there are two others lying around which is going to cause some problems I imagine later on. Still, I tried to incorporate it as quickly as possible in to my game strategy and starting pumping out both research and culture as quickly as I could. I've got a whole load of wonders in Edinburgh and even my second city Cardiff has got in on the action, while I sent a Great Admiral out when I finally picked up Navigation so he could go explore. Turns out Brazil, Rome, France and Carthage are on one island together, which means there's another continent somewhere that has the others. France and Rome are at war (doesn't seem like they've been doing much, to be fair), whilst I've already managed to spread Buddhism throughout Brazil and in to Rome itself now. I'm the only one in the Renaissance too, which is pretty handy. I spent barely any time developing an army too so I have so much Faith stored up to buy units when I need to. The only thing I'm not developing a load of each turn is Gold, and I still have like 1,500 Gold in the bank anyway.

Unfortunately it looks more likely that Red-Green is just a one shot. I can but hope that it's enough of a hit that they make a full season though. In other news, the mysterious game at the end of the retrospective video they put out at the Tokyo Game Show seems to be hinting to be for "Pokénn Fighters". I have a weird feeling we're getting a standalone Pokémon beat-em-up, which could be awesome.

A load of people started talking about it in school, then I came home one day and the Flame Pokémon-athon anime episode was on. I thought it looked cool and then I got my first ever pack of cards (where I got holo Venusaur, hence why Bulbasaur remains my favourite Pokémon of all time) and then Red shortly afterwards.

Papers, Please. Fuck yes.

They're literally doing all the evolutions they ever should have. Mega Kangaskhan is a wonderful one.

Doesn't sound like every Pokemon is going to have one. It also sounds like the Mega Stone is the hold item that makes them change in battle. Realistically, it's just making more Pokemon have abilities like Meloetta/Deoxys/Darmanitan and I don't have a problem with it. Especially when it leads to this: http://t.co/xVTDSwFshz EDIT: They just released a trailer. Sweet lord Mega Blaziken looks fucking incredible in-game. EDIT2: And they've made effort values viewable and much easier to train. <3 this so much.

More online battle shenanigans: 6-on-6, all Lv. 100 battle with my friend. Mainly thanks to him using Accelgor + 2x Double Team + Baton Pass over to his Hydreigon, he managed to sweep Starmie, Scizor, Venomoth, Haxorus and Cloyster with ease (the joys of forgetting to put a Focus Sash on anyone). That left Mienshao in a 6-on-1 scenario...and Mienshao proceeded to take out his Hydreigon, Archeops (that got in an Aerial Ace), Accelgor, Armaldo and Bastiodon, before eventually succumbing to his Scrafty in the final 1-on-1. Still. I fucking love Mienshao.

Coro Coro leaked. There's an item called the Blazikenite, which will come with an event Torchic that can "evolve" in to Mega Blaziken ultimately. I have a feeling it's a hold item and works akin to Zen Mode Darmanitan, where they'll "evolve" at the start of a battle.

Co-Optitude is wonderful.

MEGA POKEMON. More specifically: MEGA ABSOL. MEGA. FUCKING. ABSOL. EDIT: Mawile is Steel/Fairy now too and has Mega Mawile as an evo. Mega Ampharos is ELECTRIC/DRAGON.

If Bernie wants it, it will happen. Was it New Delhi or Korea where it wasn't even finished until like two weeks before they were meant to arrive?

You're Gonna Pay was an incredible theme. Also, is it me or do the character models still not look all that great? Taker's hair, to memory, looked nothing like that during ABA either.

Just had the best online battle I think I've ever had. Possibly one of the best battles I've had in a Pokemon game full stop. On a whim, I decided to compete in the last Black 2/White 2 online tournament (the reward for playing 5 matches is you get to be in the first X & Y tournament, which seemed a fun idea). I'm pretty much just using three Pokemon: Venomoth, Starmie & Haxorus and following a simple game plan. Venomoth opens with Sleep Powder; if it misses, I'm in pretty bad straights, which is an issue. Venomoth then switches out to Haxorus, who uses Dragon Dance then tries to sweep with Outrage (he has a berry to cure Confusion if it sets in). If Haxorus goes down, then switch back to Venomoth, who'll try and Sleep Powder again, then Quiver Dance and Baton Pass out to Starmie, who uses Life Orb Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt to try and sweep. Mostly the issue is that I'm playing against people who exclusively are using legendary Pokemon, which means I'm at a stat disadvantage almost from the off. I've had some close battles, but this last one saw my team against a Conkeldurr, Bisharp + Deoxys team. Venomoth hit Conkeldurr with Sleep Powder, but it woke up when Haxorus switched in and KO'd him with Rock Slide & Low Kick. At this point I'm thinking I'm in trouble, but I got lucky second time and Quiver Dance > Baton Pass to Starmie came off with it only managing to Rock Slide once, so Starmie's health was still good. Surf OHKO'd both Conkeldurr and Bisharp then, but Deoxys survived with about 10% health left. It then used Psychic...and Starmie, even after three Life Orb attacks, managed to survive with 11HP. One more Surf and Deoxys was down. Rather damn pleased. Only thing I might swap next time would be to put a Focus Sash on Haxorus, since it would probably guarantee being able to KO one with Dragon Dance Outrage.

Pretty much anyone not named Jules Bianchi who joined F1 this year has been utter shit (even Bottas, who really only got lucky in Canada before falling way back down). Gutierrez may be worst of all though.

I know we had a Glee thread but fuck trying to find that. They've announced the plans for Finn's exit:

FF7 flash sale. Fuuuuuuuck.

Orange is the New Black is pretty wonderful. Some surprisingly good characters in it and some great performances (I'm looking at you, Kate Mulgrew). Jason Biggs is all kinds of redundant though.

I'm getting Monaco Berober. Convince TEOL/Ticklez/Ellis.

Yeah, I don't subscribe to the "Simpsons has been terrible for ages" school. The standard since the movie has shot back up again. There's still a few clunky guest star episodes (that crap fest of a GaGa episode) but the quality is back up again. Family Guy is just painful though now. I'd rather they did an American Dad/Simpsons crossover since I care about both shows then ETA: I suppose objectively I'd say the quality of them goes American Dad > Simpsons > FG at the moment.

Red Bull have announced that Ricciardo will drive for them at the young driver test too. Williams continue to look kind of sleazy by dumping their Spygate-responsible technical director (Mike Coughlan) with a Crashgate-responsible technical director (Pat Symonds). EDIT: Also, massive disappoint that it's not Takuma Sato testing the Sauber

Damnit I want Monaco for cheap! And we tried Terraria again a few weeks ago. It was not fun anymore.

Well by the sounds of it, it'll be Hulkenburg who moves on since he's probably going to Ferrari or Lotus. I imagine they still have some money coming in from Mexico for Gutierrez and therefore they'll probably be trying to keep him on. On the face of it, it's annoying that this guy is being skyrocketed in to a seat way too early on in his career because of money, but Sauber have a knack of hiring someone who seems massively under-prepared and making it work (Kimi, Massa etc.) so who knows. Does seem like a lot of the driver market is up in the air though. McLaren & Mercedes will keep their drivers the same, Ferrari have a choice between Massa, Bianchi and Hulkenburg, Red Bull have it down to Kimi or Ricciardo, Lotus have Grosjean/Valsecchi/Vergne/Hulkenburg...going to be a big shift next year you feel.

So a month or so after Veronica Campbell-Brown tested positive for diuretics, now Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson have all tested positive for various banned substances. Usual excuses coming out (though Gay's just said he's "been let down" by somebody), but you have to wonder if the net is starting to close in on other big names - namely, Usain Bolt. Really does make a mockery of track and field in particular though, with the World Championships just around the corner. They've all pulled out of them, of course, but it's just silly really.