JasonM

Nice for K-Mags I guess, but it's not really the start anyone was waiting for.

It's really weird how Alonso's injury has played out, it went from being a minor thing, to something that is keeping him out of the running for quite a while.

They say it's a ''simple'' concussion, but it feels like it's actually much more grave.

So I should just give up hope huh?

You could...

Or you could start training in Boxing, Kickboxing, Judo, Wrestling, BJJ and Muay Thai and beat her yourself.

Ok at between 30 and 45 minutes per day how long will this take me? I am in for the long haul here! You're mine Rousey!!

You also need a crazed judo mom who wakes you up by slapping on an armbar.

Just out of interest, does anyone know of any stats websites that show what fights each referee has covered? I know that fightmetric doesn't.

Curious to see if Jarin Valel has a history of being a bit shit at stopping technical submissions. Mark Munoz and Koscheck should've been stopped sooner imo.

It's very hard to find such things, because aside from big UFC events and the like, they really officiate a metric fuck-tonne of fights ranging from unknown companies to the big ones.

Refs aren't bound to companies, they are chosen by the athletic comission beforehand, and since there are hundreds of matches in a single state every month, it's impossible to track every match they have called.

If you wanna have sound of the match...

http://d4fchlzcgs3jh.cloudfront.net/video/d8442e80bfcf11e4b77ae7cf9c113aad.webm

Goldberg hadn't even gotten time to finish his bug light ad before the fight was called.

That armbar though, damn Rousey is getting more ridiculous with every fight she has. Her last three fights have been a total of 1:36. Right now the only one who might beat her is Cyborg, but even with her I doubt Rousey will lose...

She flying through challengers fast, so it's going to be interesting how Dana will react to it, knowing that any rematch won't even register due to the severe domination the last time around... I guess if it's not gonna be Cyborg, it's probably going to be Miesha on the reasoning that she almost went three whole rounds... (in a 5 round fight)

I guess it's time for her to either fight men, or to just give her gauntlet matches... To make it somewhat interesting.

thanks for the suggestions, will certainly check them out.

Oft-asked question.

After devouring the current releases of Hawkeye vol.4 (can't wait for the finale, and the new Hawkeye serial) and loving every page of it, I'm jumping into Widow vol. 5

Since I love me some Marvel, what are some more good serials or volumes with fun-to-read heroes. Preferably underpowered (Widow isn't really that, but at least she's somewhat humanized next to her shenanigans) ''ordinary'' heroes, ala Hawkeye.

Really love the down-to-earth approach Hawkeye vol. 4 did, and I want to read more in that style. Preferably from the last few years.

The Alan Parsons Project Project

I haven't played OOTP in a while, but one thing I truly love about the game is the randomness of potential and the vagueness of scouting figures.

Scout says a guy is a scrub, yet his skills says that he has a killer fastball... Three years of minor league play, and suddenly he's primed at being a #3 pitcher...

On the flipside, you draft a guy high thinking he's a bonafide star... Blows out his elbow after a few seasons and you're left with a lame duck.

OOTP is wonderfully open in terms of which players become good, which becomes bad, and which become average. And every game feels inherently different in that regard.

It's the only big-name management game that has that feeling to it, in FM it's too easy to find stars and there are too little odds of them becoming a bust.

Nets picked up Thomas Robinson on a ten day deal. I'm excited to have a young promising PF but he's been on like 6 teams in 6 years so there is probably a good reason he hasn't stuck around anywhere. Still though, holding out some hope he'll show a spark in Brooklyn. We need it.

For what it's worth, Brandan Wright had the same path before the Mavs made him good... But then again, Brooklyn isn't Dallas and lacks a track record of getting the best out of the rest.

Mo is good.

Too many second chance points. Maxiell is awful.

I watched the Mavs game, god dammit that airball free throw was cringe worthy... The Dallas homecrowd even winced at that.

You pocket free parking under the guise that it's a smart business move.

Also, EWB Monopoly, someone make it happen!

MCW is a decent player, but he's a spray-shooter on a spray-shooting team. They need someone that's more of a conventional guard rather than a 6ft6 faux-forward who'se shooting numbers were bad in his rookie season, and have only gone down this season... He's 38% on the floor, that's not 3 points, that's from the floor... Simply too inefficient shooting wise, and even though they have team options, they probably felt safer trading him now than in the future.

And the reason Knight is leaving Milwaukee is very much him being in the final year of his contract, and no doubt aiming to strike big on free agency. Because as far as basketball is concerned, Milwaukee is a black hole.

MCW to the Bucks.

One thing I know that it's almost always better to craft your armour than to loot it off the ground. Except for possibly the quest equipment you can get.

One problem with crafting though is that you'll have to put in a lot of work getting plans and crafting items, especially for the higher end stuff.

If you've already unlocked val royeaux, go there and buy the good recipes for you and your main party. And then just craft the best possible shields, swords and armor to kit out your main group.

The grey/white items are useless always, they hardly ever have good buffs/debuffs attached to them, and they're only useful to make a small bit of money off of. Go to your inventory, and toggle them all as ''valuables'', that way you auto-sell them when you ''sell loot/trash''.

I personally am not very far into the game myself, but I'm generally sticking to the more fancy stuff and making sure my guys get the buffs that they need... Con/Str for cassandra, cunning for the rogues, magic for the mages etc.

The thing I have the most issue with are the items that improve a single ability, I got no idea which way to go with those.

My problem with Gotham is just like everyone else's. They have shot their load on big name characters too quickly, and it has only hurt the progression of the show going into the future, because they will have to tip-toe around the fact they can't just get rid of the established names because fans expect, no they demand that those names are in the series and aren't just killed off...

They would've benefited a lot more in terms of story telling if they had decided on creating a lot more original characters (like Fish) to act as foil to Gordon and the rest of the protagonists.

The best way the show would work is to make it AU where you can diverge from the path. Who knows, maybe this is a universe where Wayne never become The Batman. I mean I don't feel any connection to the Wayne character in Gotham, and the only thing I look forward to is Sean Pertwee's awesome Alfred character.

The problems reared their ugly head with the big ''Gordon killed Penguin'' arc. They wrote themselves into a corner with Major Crimes going after Gordon and arresting him, before giving the big shocker of "Penguin is still alive''. And from then on it just became one huge clusterfuck of suspect writing that made no sense.

Oh Penguin is actually undercover for Falcone, and Penguin knew for a certain that Gordon would not have killed him... Wut? And doesn't news spread fast in the most corrupt PD ever, wouldn't Maroni find out that Penguin is somehow linked with Gordon, who among the bad guys is a Falcone guy...

Oh, and we can't kill Penguin because he's a major plot character, so we're just gonna act like nothing happened and this whole fucking plot about ''Gordon trying to keep him being alive a secret'' useless.

Let's also forget the whole arc where Falcone sics Zsasz after Gordon and shoots up the entire GCPD...

It's writing like that that really turned me off a lot and put the show on a backburner for me rather than a must watch.

The producers have written themselves into such huge corners for the majority of the characters, there is little way for them to go other than ''bad guy of the week'' plots... Or of course they debut another major plot character to make it even harder to write a thrilling plot that doesn't go from cop-out to cop-out...

If they had done it smarter, they'd have started the series with only a handful of ''names'' like Falcone, Gordon, and perhaps Cobblepot thrown in there. And the rest would have to wait for future seasons. The holes you fill up with original characters which give writers a lot of leeway in characterisation and also plot development. And slowly but surely you add in a few names every once in a while.

But eh, their fixation to rather throw in every big name of the Batman franchise will be their undoing in the end. Because they will reach a point (if they haven't reached it already) where they have so many established names they won't be able to write any coherent plot without having to cop-out everytime.

NOT POUNCE!

House Whiskers must live on!

John Oliver had a piece about the tobacco industry on Last Week Tonight, yesterday. And it was both boggling and mind blowing at the same time.

Speaking of heart-rending moments in animation.

Look no further than the episode that turned me into an emotional mess.

In this thread things will be spoiled, don't read further if you don't want to have stuff spoiled. You aren't required to spoiler tag anything you post in this thread, so proceed at your own risk.

The topic title says it all really. What are some of the best moments in TV, that have been etched in your mind for various reasons. It can be heartbreaking, depressing, hilarious, or anything in between. As long as it's a moment/scene that left a profound mark on you.

To start it on an extremely lighthearted note, here's probably the most ridiculous chase and death-scenes I have seen in films. I'm not the one to have uncontrollable laughing fits, but this made me burst out in laughter for a good minute.

This is gutting news, with Colbert having left already, and Oliver being on fire on HBO. I don't see who could really make it work in the pure charm of Stewart.

I'm not, but a buddy of mine is. He loves it.

I heard it called ''Kerbal Space Programme for Psychos'', and that is probably the best description for it right now.

Make medieval death machines and solve puzzles, I've seen some constructs that are utterly insane. Like DaVinci on drugs crazy.

I started watching A Touch of Cloth the other day, after a friend recommended it. I'm a pretty big fan of the work of Charlie Brooker, and this show blew away my every expectation and had me in stitches throughout the first series.

It's a Police thriller drama series that parodises all the cliché tropes you find in said series, throwing innumerable (sight) gags and jokes at you leaving you in stitches. It's clear that Brooker got a lot of inspiration from classics like Police Squad!, Airplane, and the Naked Gun, and it shines in the humour department, and it has a smart quick witted comedic brilliance, with the occassional absurd thrown in there.

What makes it even better is that whilst the jokes are flying around at a rapid pace, the plot (albeit silly and dumb) holds up and it's actually a very fun whodunit. And it's not like other ''modern'' parody flicks and series where it's only about quickfire gags without a context, the jokes have been smartly placed into the story to make you snigger or laugh, but not to undermine it's own story. The characters are brilliant, and they stay in character throughout despite the silliness the actors need to do.

I find this a real must-watch if you love quick-witted parody that isn't afraid of taking the piss out of itself and the entire crime genre without being farce. I watched the first episode three times this week, because I showed it to my friends, and I spotted new gags everytime I watched.

Genuinely funny, and since there are only 2 45minute episodes a season, it's very easy to binge watch all three series that are out right now, and the best news is that a fourth is forthcoming!

I'm not someone who'se really into the average comedy stuff, but this is a perfect modern British rendition of the timeless classic that is Police Squad!

11/10, watch it if you haven't yet. You will LOVE it.

Game of thrones episode 2 question

Is there a way to keep the betrothal without forging the letter? Like I don't want to let the Whitehalls walk over me but she also said our love wasn't enough. What do you do then?

I offered her/her father half of the ironwood, and she was all up for that shit completely. I figured that it was better to give the ironwood to an allied house, rather than risk it and not have any ironwood at all. So simply put, the lady wanted to be practical, I became practical because it was obvious that ''true love'' wasn't a strong enough bargaining chip.

Read somewhere (reddit, mb?) that they may fold the Lady Stoneheart stuff into giving Sansa something to do. So rather than zombie Cat going about being a bitch, they'll have Sansa go about murdering people and leading the Brotherhood Without Banners.

Gives her something to do, and gets rid of a character I can't say I really gave a shit about.

Well, with it being pretty much official that the series will end before the final book is written. I'm fully expecting the story to start branching off more and more in the coming few seasons, and I personally like that because it will make waiting on the final books much more bearable knowing that we won't see the full cut in the TV Series.

Nonetheless, I'm very interested in the start of the upcoming season.

Not being a huge Star Wars fan (but having enjoyed the hell out of Dark Forces back in the day), I picked this up today.

If you had to suggest the best one to play first (baring in mind I'm not the kind to get a boner over fidelity to the universe etc), which would it be?

KOTOR1, all day