Michael*

It feels like the hype machine has kicked into gear quite early, although that might just be because Rogue One is still so fresh in the memory. Regardless, I'm properly amped for this. On the evidence of what we've seen so far, the dynamic between Luke and Rey is a lot less Yoda-esque than I'd expected. Should be fascinating to find out one way or the other.

You can almost feel the collective desperation this morning of a thousand football agents who wish they hadn't deleted Harry Redknapp's number.

It's written on my 'to do' list in very big letters.

Yeah, it seems to me that a lot of people online hold Bioware to a much higher standard, sometimes even actively seeking out reasons to dislike their stuff. Some of the complaints are understandable, but at the same time, I really don’t think it was worse than the now-notorious PC port of Arkham Knight, like many have claimed. In general though, it does seem like the earlier you buy a game, the higher the price will be and the lower the quality will be, at least until patches start appearing. One could level similar accusations at things like Destiny and Watch Dogs, which were both missing quite a lot of the features that were promised initially. Then again, I suppose if everyone bought games six months after release, developers probably wouldn't make them anymore. I personally don’t make it a habit to buy games at launch because prices tend to drop at such an alarming rate, I only make the odd exception for real favourites like this one. If I'm honest, if and when an Andromeda sequel appears, I’ll probably end up buying that too.

Some new character breakdowns have surfaced for JJ S2. If the current speculation is on the mark, the last breakdown might be the most interesting, as it's theorised that Ingrid could perhaps be Typhoid Mary.

Proof (as if any more were needed) that UEFA would struggle to organise a piss-up in a brewery. A cracking game broke out in the second half, though. The lad Pulisic has a fantastic future ahead of him, looks as if he could become a real star. Hats off as well to the Dortmund supporters' initiative to put up Monaco fans for the night. Amidst trying circumstances, a story of human kindness. Compare and contrast that with the all-too familiar scenes in Madrid and, well, you know.

It would seem that some progress has been made behind the scenes towards creating a third season of TD, with McConaughey reportedly offering to reprise his role. Honestly, I don't know if seeing the further adventures of Rust would appeal to me that much, but it should be interesting to see what their preferred direction is.

What with April Fools Day being almost a fortnight ago, I'm guessing it's safe to assume that this isn't some elaborate ruse by Granada and that Nigel Reo-Coker is in fact still playing. All the more bewildering is that he's somehow still only 32. Honestly, that in itself is as much of a story as anything I've heard all season.

I've been playing Andromeda too, albeit fairly sporadically. As much as I wanted to love it, the thrill of rejoining the ME universe is tempered by disappointment that the experience feels so underdeveloped in so many departments. Any game that requires such a significant investment of time (depending on how much of a completist you are) to play through needs to come out swinging. This kind of strings you along with promises of getting good soon, but never quite takes you there. I'd also echo the sentiments about the dialogue being really substandard in parts. It's a minority viewpoint I'd imagine, but I always liked the fact that not all of Bioware's writing landed. There were plenty of moments in the original trilogy that wouldn't quite impact in the way they were perhaps meant to, but that rings true in many ways because it gives you a sense of the real world, where people can be awkward and not every line is a zinger. This one doesn't make me feel that way, though. There isn't that sense of taking the rough with the smooth because all the interactions seem similarly stodgy and flat.

It's interesting too that the reviewers who never saw the original anime seem to have found the movie somewhat better than those with a longstanding attachment to the franchise. So more of the built-in audience would perhaps have given the story a pass with an Asian actress as the lead, while others would probably have given Scarjo's Major a pass if they'd found the adaptation decent.

Looking at the La Liga table, Granada are seven points adrift in the relegation zone with seven games left, two of which are against Real Madrid and Sevilla. So you'd have to say it appears to be mission impossible for Adams, although perhaps that was part of the appeal for him. Survive and it's a miracle, go down and he walks away relatively blameless. Surely though, standing on the touchline in that suit should help bag them a few extra points. A sneaky breakaway or two while the opposition are staring at him in utter disbelief.

How odd. Thanks guys for letting me know, I'll report it back to the boss.

When you find a photo or video on Instagram and click on the post to expand it, you should see three small circles in the bottom right hand corner. Click on them, then select the option to 'embed' and copy the code that appears. Before pasting the code into your BZ post, click 'source' (just to the right of your small avatar image) to switch out of the 'normal' mode editor, and then paste it. When you click 'source' again to switch back to the normal editing mode, your code should turn into this...

Congrats on becoming a thousandaire!

So it would seem that blagging job interviews in Spanish is a hidden talent of Tony Adams. Who knew?

Marvel have released the first trailer for Ragnarok. Asgardians of the Galaxy, anyone?

Testing.

Absolutely. Colour like the clappers everyone, that's what it's there for.

@gotportugal @peroxideblonde Netflix have just confirmed via this new teaser that we’ve only got four months to wait.

Yeah, most of the visual style of GitS '95 feels like it's been superceded now by so many other things, although there's a lot that could have been updated to the modern age while still retaining the original flavour. Some of the underlying themes of technological singularity, which the original sort of dances around a bit, still feel quite exotic today. Instead, it sounds like they've focussed on a rather cliched revenge plot and skipped the AI issue altogether.

I suppose every now and then, a big budget movie anchored by a famous actor will fail catastrophically. The right lead in the right franchise is golden, but it's hard to say for certain that anybody is a dependable box office draw any more. In this case, I'd imagine they'll still be okay to turn a profit, since two of its largest markets have yet to open. Unfortunately, the casting of Johansson highlighted the filmmakers' disregard for the source material at a very early point. It was as if they hung a sign above the film saying "we don’t really get why people like this thing”, and that seemed to echo through all the decisions they made afterwards. Of course the worst part is that at ground level there were probably people who were incredibly passionate about making a GitS movie, and fought really hard to get it off the ground.

Eva Green [5] Margot Robbie [9]

The PS1 generation was quite notorious for that. Probably the biggest leap in recent years is one that hasn't changed the nature of gameplay as such, but affects the way you interact with your surroundings, which in turn makes the games feel more alive and dynamic. I'd love to see a Ghost in the Shell game that takes inspiration from something like Gravity Rush.

The debate surrounding Scarjo was the clearest manifestation of the negative buzz, but I think a lot of that was borne out of frustration at a perceived unwillingness from the studio to fully understand the appeal of the source material. Whitewashing is the most egregious by-product of that problem, but it's often a sign that there are going to be other problems too. That being said, it's entirely possible that the critics were primed and ready to kick it apart regardless. The knives were seemingly out for Iron Fist recently for similar reasons, although the circumstances were slightly different of course.

@Cult Icon Just stumbled upon this walkthrough for a Ghost in the Shell video game that I had no idea existed, was wondering if you'd heard of it. It must have been released while I was in video game retirement. Looks a fairly solid and fast-paced action game, though undoubtedly a product of its time.