Michael*

There's no doubting the technical merits of this as they've been very clearly on display since day one. However, it does seemingly incorporate two of my least favourite things to play through in games, first person stealth and first person melee combat. So I suppose what I'm trying to say is, I'm in two minds but willing to be won over.

There seems to be a bit of a pattern emerging with Pixar nowadays where, whenever they release two different films in the same year, one massively outperforms the other, both at the box office and in terms of critical reception. This would appear to be getting a much bigger promotional push than Onward, and looks considerably better.

If we must have games played in empty stadiums, at least give it a bit of authenticity by allowing one old bloke to stand by the touchline with his dog.

I'd like to think so too. Chapter eight was probably the best example so far of how good the show could be, so here's hoping S2 continues on that path. On balance, I would say the pacing of S1 was rather slack given the short episode order, while some of the writing was simplistic to a fault, a little bland even. That being said, it does a decent job of setting the scene and with tighter plotting, I see no reason why it couldn't still evolve into more character-driven stuff. For what it's worth, I'm rooting for them to get it right.

Turns out Clark Kent has been over doing it this whole time. All he needed was a toothpick and blue jeans.

Thinking back to S1 as a whole now, I'm really surprised at just how inconsequential a lot of it felt. The potential was certainly there for it to deliver a deeper dramatic experience than the bigger Wars stories, but what little plot there was seemed like a secondary consideration. I'll probably still try to catch S2 when it arrives, though. Hope springs eternal and all that.

As much as it goes without saying that your spouse, in-laws, or your in-laws' in-laws don't necessarily define you, it's inevitable that anyone so desperately trying to have it all ways is going to end up making themselves look rather silly in the process.

For starters, with Sam Raimi now in the director's chair for Strange 2, they'll be needing Bruce Campbell. It probably goes without saying but What If seems like a bit of a wild card. My biggest memory of the books is that they had a lot of morbid moments and some fairly dark outcomes, so based on that premise, the crazier they go with their ideas for the series, the better.

By the time this is released, it may have inadvertently become a documentary. The audience will be the monsters from the movie, who watch it after we're all long gone.

It's a piece of casting that the fans will have fun debating, for sure. What with the multiverse thing presumably being the main focus, the further thought occurs that Peters and Taylor-Johnson could both appear in some kind of sideways look at other realities.

It might have been amplified by my whipping through all three seasons in fairly quick order, but I couldn't help sensing all the retro pop culture references becoming more and more of a crutch as it went on. We're pretty inundated with nostalgia these days and it felt at times like the show was coasting on that, perhaps even actively trying to avoid marking its own territory. Credit where credit's due though, the energy was still there and they really stuck the landing of S3, despite following on from a couple of slightly ponderous episodes beforehand.

In probably the first really intriguing piece of casting for Marvel's Disney shows, WandaVision is thought to have added Evan Peters, who of course played Quicksilver in some of Fox's X-Men films.

Pity, but I suppose the odds were against an REM reunion happening any time soon either way.

Not that there are any good options for a restart, only a choice of least bad I suppose, but when faced with financial catastrophe unless the league continues, resuming with empty stadia and safety measures in place does seem like the best option available. I don't think it's just the absence of crowds that's important though, it's the disturbance of the narrative and the lack of hype and noise surrounding the game that will make things completely different. Let it be sterile and strange if it has to be, the greater the attempts at manufacturing some sort of artificial normality, the weirder things will undoubtedly get. Perhaps needless to say, one wonders why Hargreaves even bothers. He doesn't appear to get any particular enjoyment out of it and goodness knows he's not bringing much to the table.

From what I understand, there's been a rather bitter division between League One clubs over whether to resume. The current expectation seems to be that they'll end up having to vote on a series of options, including whether to play on, deciding promotion and relegation on a statistical basis, potentially void relegations or, possibly, stage some kind of play-offs.

Finally, some good news.

Curious to see it move away from the narrative established in the first three chapters and towards wheel-spinning standalone episodes. Chapter six was at least entertaining wheel-spinning though, and did a decent job of introducing a lot of different characters quickly and efficiently. Four and five were pure padding and feel like a blur already. Ultimately, the show is small in scale with modest ambitions. Not to say it's bad really, it just doesn't aim very high.

That's true, although playing as different characters modifies the experience quite a bit, which I do like. It allows you to really lean into their respective strengths and it's pretty effective in upping the game's replay value. The weak point is undoubtedly the story, but I suppose it could be argued, same as with the original games, that they were only ever meant to bear a passing resemblance to low-rent action movies.

Two theories, one sensible and one silly. The whole thing plays out the same backwards as it does forwards, and the story ends where it begins. Not that I'd begin to hazard a guess as to how that could be made to work, but there's no doubt in my mind that Nolan would try it. Or, this is Nolan's fourth Batman film, with Caine playing Alfred and Pattinson debuting as Batman (not necessarily Bruce Wayne).

Mercifully, chapter three was a massive step up from the previous two. They should have started with it as the second part of the first chapter, and skipped the pointless second one altogether. I think the success of the show, and admittedly this is just based on what little I've seen so far, is ultimately going to depend on who they pair Mando up with. On his own he's inscrutable and not that interesting.

On balance I would say S3 got off to a decent start, but peaked somewhere around the third episode and after that, became a bit of a snooze. The build-up to the finale was very lethargic, with mostly clichéd writing. Moving the primary locale hurt the season too, I thought. The dark sci-fi metropolis felt a bit old hat and didn't have as much charm as the park.

Thinking back to S2, where the best episodes were probably the ones that mostly ignored the overall narrative, and to S3, where said narrative was fairly linear and really didn't amount to all that much, I wouldn't be too put out now if we got a fourth season made up of one-off stories set in different parks in different timelines.

I believe so, and I take full responsibility. There's a silver lining though of course, because when the inevitable happens and it turns out to be equally lacklustre or perhaps even worse, people might finally shut up about it.

So, the near-mythical Snyder Cut is actually happening and I blame myself. Justice League came on my TV the other week and I didn't switch channels, which I'm assuming pushed the data from 'mediocre' into 'maybe we could repackage this for our new streaming platform'.