Cliff Hanger

Finished the "Unleashed" story. The final act really wanted to bring some genuine emotion, but really did not earn it. I'm also annoyed that only the men's story unlocks the unique Wrestlemania set--the women's final boss fight just happens at WM39. Oh well, at least I got a few neat costume pieces and the fictional indy arenas from last year. Game goes on the shelf for a while now, I'm a little wrestlinged out.

Chelsea also has the very best part of the very goofy women's story mode in this year's WWE game, in a side story where

The first 2 matches are full of crazy astonishing shit, Roxy/Lyra isn't a great match but was emotionally satisfying, Trick v Melo was better than Roxy/Lyra and also emotionally satisfying. Skip the trios and Ilja v Tony D.

Has anyone played that Atom Eve game? I snagged it when it was free on Epic because it was free and I love Invincible, but it came out of nowhere

It's impossible to miss, but locker code WRESTLEMANIAXL gets you Cody and Bayley cards and a pack of skill boosters. A big step down from last year's offering, which had 2 packs of the Wrestlemania cards. The entire life of MyFaction has been 2k Games saying "well, we gave them too much good shit for free and so they spent less money." In 22, every DLC character got an Evolution card, which meant you could grind them out over time and not feel tempted to spend real money. Last year, they were cut back to non-grindable cards but were mostly good enough to get you thru all the content for the first 6 months. This year, all the options, both RMT and earned currency, are way more expensive, the free cards are lower tier, and for the first time it's entirely possible to save earned points for 2 weeks, buy a limited edition booster, and not get any of the limited edition characters. I really want Shield Rollins and Toy Hogan, but I feel more and more like I'm gonna tap out before those things are winnable. Fucking around in Universe continues, and I noticed something that isn't huge in the grand scheme but is the right kind of dumb to piss me off: i booked a match between Fallon Henley and Ivy Nile, and both of them brought their tag teams with them (the roster having been finalized before Briggs and Brooks broke up.) In both cases, the trio came out as though it was a tag match--the men's music and chyron, Alicia announcing the men, the women doing their "manager" entrances instead of their "combatant" ones.

That was a fun show even though, aside from the tag title match it was pretty predictable. I had a tiny twinge in the back of my mind when I saw the Wolf Dogs had merch that they might retain, but I was still shocked. But the match was everything I wanted it to be. I knew he wasn't gonna, but I wanted Dijak to win the NA title. I cannot believe they did the office chair spot, that was stupid as hell but it looked great. Trios match was fine. I think all 3 members of the face team are gonna be huge if they're properly cultivated, but I'm never sure they will be. Waaaay too many long breaks. If you're gonna sell ad space on the barricades, why is this the only PPV that doesn't have LED monitors in the barricades? Women's match was probably the best Valkyria has looked. I think it's absurd that Perez wasn't called up in last year's draft and won't be again this year, but if they're gonna keep her on NXT another year then making her a messy-ass heel is the right way to do it. Dragunov/Di Angelo was good, but never really blew me away or took me out of the Intellectual "well, if Tony wins then Ilja's getting drafted." Main was pretty much what I expected; a good match elevated by the emotion.

Having a blast with Theatrhythm and, while I had planned to finally make a run at DQ11 after Infinite Wealth and Spidey 2, I'm leaning toward an FF instead now since most of the modern ones are on PS+ and I have 7 Remake PS5 but never got far into it. Also, I have finally opened the copy of Dissidia NT that I bought like 6 years ago on Prime Day and never took out of the wrapper.

Y'know, it's none of my business whether celebrity couples want kids or not, but if Charlotte does she should probably take note of her husband showing up to pull a deadbeat dad's ass out of the fire instead of spending time with his poor injured wife on her birthday! On a more serious note, this wasn't a super compelling go-home IMO. The bits with KO and Orton making fools of Logan and A-Town Down Under were cute, the tag match was pretty good, but a lot of it didn't really hold my interest. Lastly, why does Jey's gear have fake back pockets? Is he wearing women's pants?

It's the equivalent of the NWO pack from 22 and Ruthless Aggression pack from 23, they just didn't have it ready at launch day to make it obvious, for some dumbass reason. At least it's all alt versions and not actual new people like the packs in the season pass.

I've been bouncing between Perlstein's NIXONLAND (which i probably can't talk about without getting the mods' hackles up) and David Craddock's LONG LIVE MORTAL KOMBAT (which is fucking awesome. He got interviews not only with most of the MK1-4 staff but a lot of the martial artists too.) I've been stuck for a bit on the chapter about Dan Pesina's history with the franchise and his seemingly-ahistorical claims, though. Once I finish one or both, my next nonfiction is Michael Molcher's I AM THE LAW, about the relationship between Judge Dredd and RL law enforcement issues. (Vast oversimplification, obviously.) Fiction-wise, I'm getting ready to finally start A JUST DETERMINATION, the first in John Hemry's space-opera JAG legal thrillers, which I have been meaning to read for 9 years now.

One thing I'm interested in is who (outside the main events) gets the big crazy entrances. Who's gonna get a major band to play them out this year? Who's gonna get the other super-extra treatment like Bianca with the dance troupe or Seth with the LA Orchestra conductor to conduct the crowd's sing-along? I have a soft spot for this stuff in part because WM17 was the only time I got to see Motorhead live, and in part because I'm a theater kid at heart despite not having ever gotten to do theater.

I totally get that, but with a full-engine overhaul they couldn't just give everything away and the old one was getting kind of rickety. I ended up buying the subscription for year 1, and just re-purchssing tables as they went on heavy discount. May update is going to be a big UI overhaul and a lot of bug fixes. New tables are Universal Television (Knight Rider, Vena and Battlestar Galactica) and a "teaser" for another Legendary table that is quite obviously Godzilla x Kong.

Zen announced a Pinball Bites for tomorrow, so we're getting new PinballFX and PinballM tables soon.

2k24 patched today. A few bug fixes, some QOL stuff like being able to pick a ring announcer other than the default, and they added the wrestlers from the 40 Years DLC (the arena isn't coming til after the show, obviously). They also have a community survey running, and I told them that (a) the more aggressive monetization has really turned me off of Faction and (b) I am not kidding when I say I want the choice of not getting the Supercharger token installed if I buy the Deluxe Edition. I grabbed the 40 year pack but I haven't done anything with them.

Speaking of...they posted another segment right after I linked the first one. (Not sure if they're doing 2 matches every week or if this was a double-length premiere) and it's Bronson Reed vs Cedric Alexander. https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1775561500125446476?s=19

They're doing an 8 week tournament to crown the champion (how is it not called the King of Speed title?) and after that...what? Just a title defense every week? A women's tourney? The contract is for 2 years of weekly episodes, but at least so far there's no room to DO anything beyond "put on the best 3m spot fest you can"

WWE Speed episode 1

Gonna go out on a limb and predict that the women's and tag titles will change hands and both the men's singles champs will successfully defend. The Wolf Dogs are almost certainly losing so Bron can go on tour full time, and I don't really get why they turned Roxanne heel unless they want to see whether she can get the fans to take her seriously when she's not a plucky underdog. The only way Ilja loses is if he's being called up before Battleground. North Am title, hell I don't know. I'd like to see Dijak get some gold but for some reason I think Oba retains.

Thank CHRIST Axiom and Nathan won. I think that's gonna be a huge sleeper hit for the weekend, and hopefully get more people invested in the new champs. Supernova Sessions is always fun and I have no idea who's winning Sat. I don't hate Joe Gacy as a performer, he's had a few very good matches, but man do they work hard to make him too viscerally unpleasant to work as a face or a heel. "Cult leader who uses therapy language to manipulate his disciples" was absolutely not working, but it was better than Cockroach Joe. ...wait, Tony said they were going to the Civic Hall, but this looks more like a warehouse full of goons half-assedly doing repairs! The 6-woman tag will be interesting; this is Izzi's first PLE match if I'm not mistaken, and Kelani's second or third. The other 4 have shown they can acquit themselves just fine outside the super enthusiasts that go every Tuesday. Either this or the North Am title match will be the least of the day, probably, but they'll both still be watchable.

I need to do a ticket too, I'm in the same boat. I'm envying the shit out of your Waller and Davenport cards; I know I mentioned it before, but green Tyler Bate has only a 52 technical submission rating and you have to get 5 tapouts to get him to blue. Even using the Gordian Knot boost to his skills, I have only gotten 2 and that was by playing against Silence the mime and using the Move Thief Payback to do his LeBell Lock (and you'd better beat on him for a WHILE since you only get one shot.) Right now my main cards are Land of the Giants (boss faction) Undertaker, Showcase Steamboat, Hollywood Batista (picked up from the women's story) and Next Gen (boss Faction) Cody for the men, and Showcase Charlotte, Bianca and Asuka with Controlled Bliss (boss faction) Iyo to round it out. Speaking of the women's story, it is very silly but mostly fun. After the "welcome to the big leagues" stuff, you are given FULL CREATIVE CONTROL and get 3 single chapter stories: you can help Liv out by taking her booking on a thinly-disguised Hot Ones goof involving smelly cheese in hopes of raising your Hollywood profile, learn the path of cruelty and terror from Rhea, or unleash supernatural evil with Alexa's help. All 3 have the same number of side quests, and follow the same pattern--get an introduction from your mentor, surpass them, do a couple of side stories and then come back to them for a blow-off, after which a Face of Foley offers you a one-chance bonus match. I have done the first 2, am about halfway thru the Alexa chapter, and I think after this it's gonna ask me which persona I want to take into the final chapter. So far my favorite parts have been in the Hollywood path: toward the end, you get so exhausted juggling wrestling and outside gigs that Chelsea Green successfully Like I said, dumb as hell but with kind of a goofy charm. After i finish this, I'm probably going back to Infinite Wealth before doing the men's story, but I will probably continue to do my Universe (went with the classic mode and decided to wait a bit on doing a superstar mode game) and Faction matches some.

I played that at a sleepover when it was brand new. It was basically incomprehensible to me, and I had never heard of Bam Bam or Honky, and DiBiase I had only heard of when the wrestling kids talked about it, I had no idea what he looked like. I was upset that we had rented that but I don't remember what I asked for and lost out on.

RIP to Joe Flaherty, best known for SCTV (where his recurring roles included station owner Guy Caballero, newscaster and kids' horror host "Count" Floyd Robertson, and Vic Hedges) and as Mr. Weir on Freaks and Geeks.

Aside from 3-4 months of intense FF14 play early in Covid, I haven't really played an FF since 10. But I love music games and Theatrhythm is half off on PSN (for the regular and premium versions; the middle-of-the-road one is still $80, making it effectively an IQ test) so let's fuckin' go.

I never got that far, but the tutorial stages are all the same quest ("do X Y times and then win") but the dialogue between them is entirely different; it's all about putting over the Junior division as unique and dynamic. Champion Road Beyond, meanwhile, is completely differenr--it was written by Suda51 as a sequel to the infamous Fire Pro 3 story where Ric Fl...I mean Dick Slender kills your tag partner and your hero commits suicide after winning the belt. It doesn't have the stat management, etc that the NJPW modes do, just a straight shot thru a series of matches with a story that isn't even Suda-level crazy.

Sunday is the last chance to use the YOURSTORY2K24 code to get the toy version of Cena in all modes and a couple card packs in Faction, or to unlock Cody's "ugly" mask for CAWs (by winning the Live Event tag match with Dusty and Toy Cody.) So far those are the only two time-limited Faction things that unlock anything anywhere else in the game, though we know there will be more "Oddities" cards coming later in the season--pieces of signature gear like that which unlock the item for CAW and, when you complete the set, grant a card--but not when or how.