TimLivingston

I'll say it right now: Tactics is only bested by FF9 in my eyes. Absolutely incredible game.

Apatow himself said that going up against The Hobbit forced his marketing hand. Even then, I know the hipster backlash has been furious for all the marketing.

Davey Richards took that last name "Billington" for his WWE name. This is my shocked face. Good stuff tonight, although Kidd definitely isn't the same as he was before. I'm not sure how much longer he's going to be able to go with guys that can what he does so much better. Pitbulls debut was alright. Richards and Viktor fucked up on a back suplex flip spot, with Richards landing on his head. Not exactly the best. They didn't get too much in because they're still protecting The Ascension, but I wouldn't mind seeing them come back if they do more stuff like this. Edwards had a nice Shining Wizard. Paige is ready in the ring, but still needs a gimmick to be main show ready. Main was good. Dallas knows how to lay it in and be serious when he needs to. You can see him getting better each week. One thing I love about NXT is that it's rare to see two guys just get thrown together. Even if they end one story, they somehow get someone else involved. Tonight, the progression to Breeze/Neville is brilliant. Oh, and CESARO/REGAL NEXT WEEK, FUCKERS. MERRY CHRISTMAS INDEED.

I've played 5-10 and 13. Never picked up the -2 games. FFV is underrated. A lot of people don't like the job system, but in that game, they took it to a different level. Pretty great stuff. FFVI was the best overall game in the series. Memorable characters, great story, great villain, Esper system was good. Loved how wide open it got after the dark world switch. FFVII is a major achievement in video games. Yes, it got a bit confusing at times, but it has THE single best twist in a video game story ever and has some of the coolest battles in the series. It's "overrated" because so many people talked about it, when in reality, it's a great game pushed into heavens by super fans. It's touted highly for good reasons, but I'm not an apologist for the things the game does wrong (mostly the character development, easiness of the game after FFVI being so tough). FFVIII was a letdown, but the draw system and the card game were great. None of the characters meant anything in the end, though. Squall was absolutely horrible, but I dug the opening cutscene, at least. FFIX is truly exceptional. It's like the FF mixtape. It took elements from all the FF games before it made them great. Vivi is the best FF character of all time and it isn't even close. Sneaky awesome things in that game, including the Excalibur II play through, and the weapon system for learning new abilities. Card game was fun, but not exactly like FFVIII. X had Auron. WAY too linear. Tidus was a decent front guy, but it didn't really start getting good until the very end. The final battles with Sin were great, though. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks in HD. Some of those cutscenes were fantastic. XIII...ugh. Rushed. All of it. Supposedly there's redemption with XIII-2, but I'm not about to go searching for it.

So it's out. It's good. It's not world-changing. But the last third of the movie. Oh, that last third. Even if you feel like the movie is just grinding to get to the end, the redemption is in that final third. Great stuff.

Davey made his NXT debut tonight and took the name Derrick Billington. Yeah, I would have NEVER guessed him taking the last name of the Dynamite Kid.

If the Celtics make the playoffs, Brad Stevens is Coach of the Year. I know they want to give it to Terry Stotts, but what Stevens has done is nothing short of a fucking miracle.

There really shouldn't even be a posting system.

I actually thought both him and Bo wear them as tribute to Barry Windham.

So with the last couple weeks, I think the slow burn has gotten to me. At this point, I feel that they have dragged it on for way too long and it's now showing the strains of stretching out what could have been a nice half or quarter season arc into the entire damn thing.

God damn it.

Big E. and Mark working like new era Road Warriors was a lot of fun to watch.

It's the year of Justin Tucker.

I can't believe Steen was ever skinny enough to wear Liger's jacket.

And it should be posted again.

Hahn is understanding he needs to get younger and knows that closers can be made as opposed to found in the open market, and easier to find than a top 3B prospect, which has become one of the most barren positions for prospects in baseball at this point. Yes, I know you can move a SS or C there somewhat easily, but Davidson is somebody who could actually turn into the guy the Sox wanted Gordon Hayward to be so bad.

It's funny because we all knew how the Cro Cop fight would end. I don't think we all thought it would be even that quick, though. Cro Cop didn't get any fucks whatsoever and just wanted to get his money already.

Murdoch with two drop down/leapfrogs followed by a right hand is tremendous.

I thought the match itself was fine. Orton really is bland as all hell, though. Cena at least didn't break the handcuffs this time. I liked that the word was Punk winning due to him being pissed off at how he's being booked, so he gets to go over The Shield, who has the supposed Golden Boy. Meanwhile, Bryan rolls over and gets pinned clean as a sheet by the Wyatts. There wasn't even a hint of dissension in The Shield, either, although I guess that's coming tomorrow.

I'm finally getting down to the nitty gritty of Xenoblade Chronicles, 95 (!!!) hours later. I'm getting all the quests out of the way, but holy crap, the story sideswiped me thinking it was near the end when that's actually when things just started getting going. That being said, one of the more fulfilling gaming experience of my life. Absolutely incredible attention to detail.

Dunn isn't the worst hitter to hit 40 homers. Never had an OBP less than .333 in his seasons where he hit 40 and has a .366 career OBP. Low batting average doesn't automatically mean bad hitter. I'm pretty sure its Reynolds, although Tony Batista had a .306 OBP when he hit 40 bombs for the Blue Jays, so he's in the mix.

Imagine people just posted once and then never again? Imagine if both sides keep repeating the same things hoping the other people realize he's right when it's not working. I'm all for arguing your side. But this is getting ridiculous.

Internet message board poster has to be both right and have last word in argument. In other news, the sun rose in the east today. Sources close to the situation expect more of the same tomorrow.

Marufuji was never the guy they wanted to give the belt to during the Kobashi reign. They had to build him up as they got the belt to Akiyama. Having him beat Taue in a singles match at least put him on that level, and once he developed the Perfect Small Package Hold, he had a somewhat credible way to hold his own against a heavyweight. Then he didn't do well like Rikio did, and that's where Misawa decided to put the belt on himself for a year while they rebuilt Morishima. Then we all know what happened from there, sadly. The problem was that they went with Rikio instead of Morishima due to age, where Morishima might have had a better impact in the same spot. With Rikio, they only had the moment he won the belt. That decision ended up setting them back years. As far as the 1/4 show goes, the vote is definitely due to Naito as opposed to Okada. I think the big question now is whether they do let Tanahashi win the belt and then push towards some type of unification match. Nak has really done a good job with that belt, though, and I would love to see what a guy like Tanahashi could do as a secondary champion for a while. The problem there, however, is that Okada really doesn't have many challengers left. I can only imagine the backlash if they actually try and put the belt on Naito.

This week's show really wasn't much. Bayley was good in the Divas tag, but the other matches weren't really there. The Ascension really are black holes of suck at this point. They have to figure out a way to get the belts off them pronto. The finish to the Zeyn/Kruger match made it look like Kruger really just took advantage of a mistake, which is the right way to book it, and then they let Sami get some heat back after, but they'll have to get him back into the title picture at some point. 200th show looks interesting, but I want to see what happens with Regal/Cesaro next week to set up the match on the final show of the year. They got two weeks left to put things into motion.