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eorzeasntm · 6 years

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ENTM Tumblr Cycle 11

Round 3 Results

Hi everyone! Last week I challenged our models to go out into a dungeon and find a Boss Monster, inspired by one of my favorite card games. While all of the models fought their monsters valiently (or ran away screaming as is the case with our winner), the best shot this week belonged to

Ni’ko Shae

The votes were actually quite close this week but the community tipped it in Ni’ko’s favor. The judges loved the unusual choice of the filter as well as the unconventional pose, since for once “visibly engaged with the monster” was not a battle requirement.

Our guest judge this week was Misia, the new host of ENTM Instagram Cycle 2. If you are interested in auditioning for IG cycle, please hit up our Discord channel and join in the fun! IG Cycle 2 auditions will end on March 24th.

For all the models, we have judges feedback below the fold.

Judge Terrini

Adam: I quite like the framing and elements of this shot. The effects aren't obscuring anything important and the boss' pose definitely looks like it's responding to your blow, so it works well. Your glamor however doesn't pop all that much and while all the elements work well together, I'm not getting a lot of excitement from the shot. A closer zoom would have given more drama here I think.

Bria: WATCH OUT! Haha I love how it looks like you avoided the dragon's breath weapon by jumping on it's nose and the filter giving the pink tinge is actually really cool! You've framed the boss really well and being in full dragoon armor says explicitly that this is your job and it's all in a days work. I have no complaints but only a few nitpicks. While I love the more classic dragoon coloring and you do stand out in some ways, it might be nice to use spotlights to give you a bit more outline.

Haila: The effects of this shot are fantastic! They make this fight look very epic and I love your style and flare for this satisfying image. I do think that the portrait view gives a nice frame of the effects but it does feel a bit cramped horizontally and too tall with empty space at the top of the picture. I know how these things can be hard to capture just right though and how hard it is to get the enemy posed just right with the right animation fram and the right angle. Still great work!

Kota: I love this shot... you have this perfect framing with blocking that darn jester from stepping on you and him being just ever so slightly out of focus but still up close and personal is a really nice effect. The only thing that might be nicer is if your outfit popped a bit mor, particularly the bust area seems a bit lacking in shades of brown and it would be nice to see the light coloring and white continuing there to contrast with your opponent.

Luma: I am a bit underwhelmed by this shot. It's a lovely framing of the boss, but your hair is blending into the background and your framing is weak. You are not in a strong action pose so I'm not getting much of a sense of interaction between the two of you besides that you're a bit wary of this great big ape... and for a scenic shot, being perfectly centered is not getting the most out of the background (I would recommend shifting the camera to the left to monopolize a bit more of that nice sunset peaking behind that cabin and cut out the boss gate barrier).

Ni'ko: Oh wow, I'm quite impressed by this composition and I can draw a lot of emotion from your posing and effects, it's like you're fighting off the demons in your head. I actually really love this shot a lot. My main nitpick is the filter makes the actual boss monster particularly undefined and it's a big risk in a round meant to highlight him, but I think you managed to pull it off with artistic integrity in having it tell a story.

Peaceful: Your skill is really nicely framed and I love the effect of the bright light arcs from the arrows streaking towards the boss. Your pose is dynamic and expressive which is really satisfying as well. The weakest part of the shot, in my opinion is that you've managed to mostly obscure the boss monster in effects, so in a round called "Boss Monster" this is risky as we are expecting to see both of you as features to the shot. It's not an automatic bad thing, sometimes the risk pays off, but since this is a smaller boss at a distance from you and obscured by effects, the result leaves me wanting.

Yojimbo: I'm not completely sure what you are trying to accomplish with this shot. The limb darkening and ability both blur and obscure most of the interesting features of the background so it's not much of a scenic, and what we can see clearly is rather uninspiring and empty. The action of the shot is also pretty tame and even as a glamour shot you're also rather out of focus. Being up close does make you really stand out overall and I actually quite love your glamour, the red in the clothes matching the stripe on your face is an awesome combo and I think the pose is great.

Yomu: This is a very strong shot, like an exchange of blows and waiting to see who came out on top. I like the theme of being a dark knight versus the angelic statue, and the high contrasts of the angel's darkened bone white, reds of abilities, blacks on you and with the blues and greens in the the background is an interesting effect. I know quite well the trouble of framing, but I would have like to perhaps have been a bit more up close on you, looking up from a little below and getting more of a sense of the angel looming above you.

Judge Wulf (Kusuh)

ADAM I have some serious stressful memories from this dungeon, so it’s pretty satisfying to see Siren being taken down a few pegs, honestly. My favorite part of this is the red line created by the DRK skill, it creates a nice line to follow, crossing through Siren and passing the tip of your sword. The way you’ve captured siren leaning back also adds an amazing sense of action to the shot as well! My note for you this week has to do with zoom and framing. It’s small, but I think this shot would do well to be just a bit more zoomed in. There is quite a bit of empty space behind you and behind Siren, and I feel like that is what makes everything seem smaller, and therefore less impactful. I feel like just raising up the camera a tad and zooming in juuuust a little bit would alleviate this problem! With all that said though, I am very much loving this shot, keep it up!

HAILA This is 100% my favorite Machinist skill! I’ve always wanted to get a a good shot with it, and I’m glad you were able to make the opportunity! Going vertical for this shot was really a stand-out unique choice for this shot, and it’s not an unwelcome one. The way the lights are flashing out from the monster really creates a sense of impact and the roaring makes it seem like the hit hurt! A note for this picture, and it’s a small one: The way you’re angled plus the direction you’re looking really hides your face and from what I can tell, you’re eyes are open and staring downward. I feel like the image could be made a but stronger with you looking directly at the boss’s face/neck area. Keep in mind, though, that’s just a small suggestion, this is a wonderful shot overall!

YOMU Please allow me to get a little bit silliness out the way really quick, The frown on the boss is an absolute MOOD and I would use it for reaction images forever. With that out of the way, I’m gonna come right out and say that this is easily one of my favorite shots this week! One of my favorite things is to follow the lines that effects create in battle shots, and you’ve made excellent use of the DRK effects to make my eye follow across you and right through the boss. The way that line cuts through the center of the picture is an excellent use of framing as well! It gives a very nice “split screen” effect that divides you and the boss, therefore creating conflict. If I had to give a note for this week (and I always try to!), I’d say that if you moved the camera up just a smidgen, then the boss’s head wouldn’t be caught off just at the tip. That’s it though! Amazing job on this shot.

KOTA The first thing that sticks out to me about this shot is how I can feel the impact of the foot crashing down onto the shield, and the very nice sense of action this creates. There’s a lot of discussion in the ENTM community when it comes to the use of a dutch angle, but I think it works for this type of shot. Also, I enjoy how your outfit fits together with your weapon choice as well as with how it contrasts with the boss’s dark coloration! Here’s my note for you this week: I feel like some of the impact is lost with the boss being blurry due to the DoF effect. Try messing around with the DoF settings, or try a similar shot with it off all together, I think having the boss in full focus would have a greater impact. I can’t wait to see what you have next week, and every shot has shown excellent improvement!

Judge Ona

Adam: While I am personally partial to Siren, I am a little disappointed that this image doesn’t let me see her face and that magnificent hair of hers. The image is not as strong as others you have submitted in this cycle to date. Your face is hidden in the shadows and obscured by your hair. The main light source is directed onto Siren’s chest and not the action below. You are not looking at the enemy, however it could be the follow through to the massive sword swipe. The colors in the image are also very similar and tend to blend across elements.

I do love the angle of the image. The Dutch angle you used here is a great way to draw the eye upward to the enemy. I love the background as well. It is a beautiful space and backdrop for this fight scene. The colors, although tending to cause elements to blend together, are fitting to this scene. I also love the elements from the bottoms of the pillars casting a hint of light upward.

Don’t forget about you light source next week Adam, and take notice to let the viewer see your face, and more of Garuda’s as well.

Luma: While you have definitely added a light source to this image, I think you over-implemented it. You can definitely see the ape’s face and your glamour, this strong of a direct light source now casts a shadow too hard on the rest of the image. Ape-man’s arm has now become the mountainside.

I think this is an interesting location for this image, the background of tropical huts adds a jungle flair, and the banana tree is perfect for a battle with a giant ape. The use of the pencil filter creates a unique texture to the buildings. The unfortunate thing with pencil, is that when it is applied to overly pixelized graphics it can create a more noticeable distortion to them. I also want to point out that the sky in this image is gorgeous. Those colors are beautiful!

I love how you are engaged in this battle with the ape, but I can’t see your face. Change the angle of the camera and essentially reverse the image so that your face shows and the viewer can see your expression. I can see the boss’ expression, but not yours, and no offense, I am sure your Cat-boi face is prettier than that hair ape. I am looking forward to seeing your image next week!

Peaceful: I love your expression! You find pure joy in destroying that monster and landing the final blow! It is without question that no one wants to find themselves on the other side of your bow! I love the juxtaposition of you to the monster, causing you to be the largest thing in the image, without overtaking all the elements. The battle effect is interesting in this filter.

I struggled to see which boss or enemy this is on first look, needing to really zoom in the see the Gobby feet and armor. I also wish you could have somehow angled him, or had placement of him that obscured the purple battle zone line. It is interesting that it remained so bright of a purple with the rest of the elements of the image all becoming a sepia type tone. Try to capture enemies with less of a battle effect so that they are more identifiable in future rounds.

Your glamour is a perfect fit for fighting an armor encased enemy. Steam punk outfit and bow work well in this arena too, I just wish I could see your entire foot at the bottom tip of the bow. The lighting along the walls fills the room and leaves little dead space for the eye to find. I look forward to seeing what future images you bring to the table!

Yojimbo: Red ninja mask, rhinoceros enemy, green oozy glow… Please tell me this was a TMNT cosplay! If not, it is definitely something you can just pretend you tried to do!

I love the red in your glamour! The mask and the red on your arms is enough to make you stand out without distracting from the entire image. With the green glow throughout the image, the red draws the eye to your character and makes you the focus of the image. The slight blur to the image slightly causes the image to lose some clarity, but I would assume that the intent was that this would be like looking through the smoky haze. It is initially difficult to discern the enemy upon first glance, however, because of that same blur. I do like the intent here, however, and applaud you for your creativity in using this effect.

I like how the background is non-descript allowing for the focus to be on the battle, and it may have done some benefit to the image if you were slightly closer to the rhino. Another suggestion may have been to throw a small light source to the right of the rhino, putting some definition on it, without taking away from the overall feel of the image. I look forward to next week’s submission!

Kota: This shot feels very neon. Very vivid, while still being void of being bright. The color palette reads heavy and aggressive, but is still attractive to the eye. I love the edges and how they seem to glow throughout the image.

I would have liked to see a different hairstyle on you so that your face was not obscured by it. The angle of your body position in the image seems a bit out of proportion as well. From this angle your foot looks to be the same size as the boss. Obviously this is not the case, however, it is something you should keep in mind when having such extreme angles.

I absolutely love how the boss is slightly blurred, and you are the main focus of the image. You utilized the rule of three here perfectly, and balanced the image out well to include minimal dead space in the background. Your glamour definitely suits your tank in this image as well! Don’t forget to add a small light source to your face in your images as well. Even with the hair across your face, a small light may have helped to highlight and provide definition to your expression. I really enjoyed this image from you!

Judge Nadede

Bria: I do have to say that this week’s image from you is your strongest one so far. With that said, it was not easy trying to spot you in this shot because you blend in with the surrounding colors. It might have helped you if you had zoomed in on yourself a bit more so than having the dragon in its entirety being seen. YOU should be the main focal point, not the dragon. Other things that might have helped would be getting lights on you a bit more and maybe wearing something that had colors that are complementary to what is around you. In your case, something along the lines of yellows and oranges (complimentary colors are opposite of each other on the color wheel). I also feel that you should be facing the dragon instead of away, especially with the spear end of your lance is pointing downward as if meaning to attack. I will say that this boss does present a challenge when working with lighting and finding ways to stand out. I say that as I used him during a theme we had last cycle. Keep on improving and can’t wait to see what you come up with for the next round.

Haila: Not too bad of a shot this week. It is somewhat growing on me after seeing it zoomed out to see the whole image at once instead of scrolling up and down (that is on the site hosting the images, not you). With that, it still feels like there is still a bit of space above and below you and the Zu. I wonder if either having the shot horizontal or even zoomed in more would have given your shot even more tension than what is already there. You also blend in a little bit with the background of your image. Some back lighting and lighting on your face would have helped that as well as maybe wearing something that has colors complimentary to the background (like the orange seen through the ceiling windows). Keep up the good work and can’t wait to see what you bring to the next round

Ni’ko: First off, thank you for the laugh. It was really needed *hugs* It is one of those “What do I do, what do I do??!” moments when seeing all those mobs coming right after you. The diagonals radiating from the main boss helps move the viewers eyes from the center of the shot outwards and back again. All the angles that are being used within your image (including the direction the eyes and faces of everyone is facing) gives the scene a much sense of action being taken place. The only thing that I’m finding distracting is the color filter you used within the image. I appreciate the old comic book feel your image has (dunno if that is what you were going for) but I wonder how the image would have turned out using a different filter. Overall good job this week, and again, thank you for the laugh.

Yojimbo: Yojimbo, sadly this is my least favorite of the images you have taken so far. Your mount one from last week is my favorite so far. One thing that I have noticed amongst all of your images thus far is needing to work on your lighting. You have some interesting ideas in your shots that would be further enhanced. Play around with the light settings from up close to far away along with playing with the light intensities and color sliders. I would even urge you to ask for advice from Katarh or other former models/judges with your images as a second set of eyes never hurts. I know you can do an awesome job and waiting to see what you will bring to the table next week.

Judge Misia

Peaceful Ursa: I just love the sepia tone you picked for this shot, especially with all the lights you have that frame the picture. It’s easy to pick you out and know what is going on. Your Roe is the star and you are kicking major booty from afar! Only thing I would say is careful with the coloring. My eyes were drawn to the purple behind the enemy. Make sure if you have a color tone to keep it throughout the picture. Also the boss is very hard to make out so either you dismembered him or he just never existed. Otherwise, beautiful job!

Luma Lee: Your picture is a beautiful shot, and the colors pop out very well. I feel there were a lot of miss opportunities here though. My only thing with this picture though is there doesn’t seem to have very much going on within the picture. The gorilla seems to be the star and you are the co-star to the role without much of a face. This also might be a personal preference, but the purple dungeon blockage also takes away from the beautiful colors you have in the picture.

Yomu Kazul: I am so in love with this shot, it brings me back to the trailers for Shadowbringers! What I love about this shot is that I feel I am watching a battle scene, going toe to toe with an enemy twice your size (And you are already a huge character!) The effects don’t drown you out and the colors pop in so many ways, I want more and more from it .If I have to nitpick something, maybe nudge the camera up a bit to get rid of dead space and see more of the boss but that is me trying to find something. Keep it up! You did an amazing job!

Bria Rirsa: An epic battle against a dragon! How can you pull that off? You surely did! What I love is that you created a scene that shows us exactly what is going on. It even looks like you landed on his head, ready to give the next strike! Watch out dragon! One thing I would work on would be to be careful with colors. You almost blend in with all the purple and light blues. If you are a small part of a picture, make sure you are standing out more so you don’t get lost in all the action. Great job though!

Adam Evershot: A battle with the harpy herself and it looks like you got the upper hand here! I do like how you were going with this shot, especially when it looks like your knocking the snot of of her with your sword. I was a bit disappointed though that I couldn’t see you face very well and your glamour choice didn’t seem to fit the theme very well with what you were going with. You almost blend into the background and the villian seems to really steal more the spotlight. Try something more of a glam that contrasts from the brown so that you shine brighter as the star! Good job though!

Haila Wetyios: Interesting approach on this theme, I love how you are in the battle with the boss and obviously giving it more then it can handle. I feel there was many miss opportunities here. Though you picked portrait for your picture, I feel it cut off a lot of the action and created more dead space in your picture. I love the action and effects but they drown out the boss and your character in general. If you are creating a fight scene, bring more of that action by maybe zooming out from the fight, or showing more of the boss in the picture. In the end, you are the star, so don’t blind yourself out from the fight. Good job otherwise though!

Ni’ko Shae: Great job this week! This picture reminds me of my first time in dungeons when I had no idea what to expect! The face expressions were priceless and the monsters were so easy to make out. I will say that the filter threw me off though with how blended the colors were but they make sense in a almost comical scene you have here. Only thing Ill point out is the line you have going straight through your character. I believe that is one of the filters but it didn’t fit well with the theme you did. Beautiful job though!

Kota Tumet: Man! I would have you protect me any day for you are just a shining warrior in battle with a foe that might just kill us all. I love how you created something that shows what is exactly going on. The boss has thrown a mighty blow and you have blocked it with ease. Your face shows how in the moment you are and I feel I’m right there with you. One thing I will point out that I feel would have made this picture so much better is that you blurred half the boss. If you are in battle, make sure to fully commit to what you are fighting, you are the star, but make sure your co star isn't almost blended into the background. Otherwise, you did wonderful!

Yojimbo Kasai: This boss better watch out cause there is a ninja in town! I will be honest though, this picture was very hard to look at. The edges blurred out so much that not only were you captured in that blur but the boss as well. The dark edges were also not needed because it adds so much darkness to a already dark picture. I would next time take advantage of the environment and let the fog create the ambiance for you, no need to add to an already beautiful backdrop to an epic picture. You want to stand out and not blend in with your effects for they have stolen the show. You have so much potential, keep it up!!

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #entm #entm tumblr cycle 11 #eorzea's neo talent management

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tech-specialist98 · 3 years

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Samsung Galaxy A31 Review

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Making sense of Samsung's Galaxy A and M series models is getting harder by the month, as new models are brought in with minor refreshes, but don't always line up in a logical order. For example, the very recent Galaxy M21 (Review) was basically a Galaxy M30s (Review) with a different selfie camera, but going by the model names, it's impossible to make that connection.

While some models in the A and M series have slight overlaps in pricing, there's still a relatively clear distinction between the series themselves. Generally speaking, most models in the A series tend to have better finishes and fancier features such as in-display fingerprint sensors, while the M series prioritises low prices.

Today, we'll be testing Samsung's new Galaxy A31, which, on paper, should succeed the Galaxy A30s. Compared to the latter, the new model offers a fourth rear camera, a bigger battery, a higher-resolution display, full support for Samsung Pay, and of course a higher price tag. Available in just a single configuration with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for Rs. 21,999, does the Galaxy A31 deserve a spot in our coveted list of top phones under Rs. 25,000?. Let's have a look

Samsung Galaxy A31 Design: Been there, seen that

Even though the design of the Galaxy A31 isn't exactly fresh for a budget Samsung device, I do like the fact that it's slim and light. The all-polycarbonate body feels quite sturdy but it does pick up fingerprints easily. The phone has a noticeably thick chin below the screen, and an Infinity-U cutout at the top for the selfie camera.

There's a huge SIM tray on the left, for two SIM cards and a microSD card. The headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and a speaker are at the bottom. The back features Samsung's Prism Crush pattern, of which we have the blue variant. This phone is also available in back and white trims. The quad-camera cluster at the back is a rectangular module and doesn't bulge outward much.

Overall, the Galaxy A31 was comfortable to use on a daily basis during this review. It's a little wide, and reaching the top of the display isn't the easiest, but One UI has gestures to help with this. After seeing many phones in the series with the same pattern on the back, the design has started to feel a little boring at this point. The box contents are pretty standard too: there's a silicone case, a charger, a USB cable, and a headset.

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Samsung Galaxy A31 Display: AMOLED never disappoints

The Galaxy A31 has a sharp 6.4-inch full-HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) Super AMOLED display. I found it to be more than adequate in terms of brightness, even in the daytime. Colours were a bit too rich for my taste in the default ‘Vivid' mode, but this can be toned down in the settings. The display is flat, without any curves on the sides, but there are no sharp edges either so performing gestures isn't a problem.

There's an in-display fingerprint sensor, which isn't very quick but works well as long as you give it a firm press. The time taken to wake the screen, along with the fingerprint animations, make this whole process feel a bit laggy. I usually relied on face recognition, which I found to be quicker. The always-on display has basic customisations such as the ability to show what song is playing, and a choice of different clock styles.

Samsung Galaxy A31 Performance: Quite disappointing

Despite its decent build quality and good display, its performance is a big issue. Samsung has used the MediaTek Helio P65 octa-core SoC, and I would have no problem with it on a phone that costs Rs. 10,000, but I certainly don't expect it on something that costs above Rs. 20,000. Compared to even the Galaxy M21, which uses the Exynos 9611 and costs a lot less, the Galaxy A31 is slower in most of the popular benchmarks.

Samsung's One UI v2.1, based on Android 10, also feels a bit sluggish overall. There's a persistent hint of stutter in the animations, and lag when I was switching between apps. It didn't hamper usage too much but having to wait that extra second or two for things to happen is not an experience I expect at this price point. One UI itself is fairly feature-rich with lots of shortcuts, themes, and gestures to play around with. There's also Dolby Atmos, but only for wired and wireless headphones.

The Galaxy A31 supports Google's Widevine L1 certification, which means video streaming apps can play content at the display's native resolution. The single speaker gets fairly loud but the audio quality is strictly average. Simple games run well, but heavier titles such as Asphalt 9: Legends or even PUBG Mobile ran at reduced graphics settings. Gameplay was tolerable but they didn't look as good as they should have. I also noticed a bit of heating when playing games for longer durations.

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Samsung Galaxy A31 Cameras: The disappointment continues

Okay, so far the Galaxy A31 isn't looking too appealing, but perhaps it can redeem itself with its camera performance. The four cameras on the back include a primary 48-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel sensor with a wide-angle lens, a 5-megapixel depth camera, and a 5-megapixel macro camera. The apertures of all the cameras aren't particularly impressive, with even the one on the main camera being just f/2.0. The front camera uses a 20-megapixel sensor.

The camera app should be familiar to most Samsung users, though I did find a few missing features which ought to have been there. Keeping in mind the price of the phone and its positioning in the series, it's a little odd to not have 4K video recording as an option, and even a Night mode for low-light stills. Pro mode is crippled, with no option to adjust the shutter speed. Autofocus speed is decent, but this phone tends to hunt for focus in low light.

You do get Samsung's ‘Scene optimiser' AI engine, and the ability to save stills and video in the HEIF and HEVC formats. Under good light, the main sensor captures decent-looking photos. Images are captured as 12-megapixel shots by default but you can shoot at the full 48-megapixel resolution if needed. In low light, noise is suppressed well but details are lacking, which is noticeable when you zoom in to photos a bit. Close-ups shot under good light fare better, with good details and colours, but due to shutter lag, even slight movements can cause blurring.

The wide-angle camera captures comparatively weaker details, and HDR isn't as effective as on the main camera. In low light, details are much worse and there's no Night mode to help salvage shots.

Live Focus works decently well, and the amount of background blur can be adjusted for portrait shots. The macro camera does a fair job with extreme close-ups but I didn't find image quality to be much better than what I've seen from phones with 2-megapixel sensors.

Videos are limited to 1080p resolution, but quality is decent given ample light when shooting with the primary camera. The Galaxy A31 doesn't offer even electronic stabilisation, so movements with the camera look jerky. You can't switch to the wide-angle camera while recording but you can switch to it before you begin. As expected, video quality is just about acceptable under good light but very poor in low light. There's no stabilisation here either.

The selfie camera captures 12-megapixel stills by default (8 megapixels if you choose a tighter crop). However, you can shoot at the native resolution too. Selfies are generally usable when shooting outdoors, in daylight. Skin tones tend to look a little too warm and HDR can be a hit or miss, but it's not too bad. The camera struggles to reproduce good details in low light, often leaving you with soft textures and weak details.

Overall, the cameras on the Galaxy A31 are very underwhelming and lack many features that you'd find in many phones that cost a lot less.

Samsung Galaxy A31 Battery: Pretty good

If there is one redeeming quality about the Galaxy A31, then it would be battery life. The 5,000mAh battery lasted for 18 hours and 11 minutes in our HD video loop test, which is very good. Even with regular usage, I was easily able to go well beyond a day on a single charge. There is 15W fast charging, so you can charge the battery up to 50 percent in an hour, but filling it completely takes well over two hours

Verdict: Who is the Samsung Galaxy A31 for?

I'm struggling to find a good reason for the Galaxy A31 to exist, and I honestly cannot think of one. It seems as though Samsung has launched it simply to fill the price gap between the Galaxy A50s₹ 22,990 (Review) and the Galaxy A51₹ 23,990 (Review) — either of which would be a much better pick than the Galaxy A31. Battery life is the main standout feature here, along with the decent build quality and display.

However, the middling SoC performance and underwhelming cameras are faults that are too glaring to ignore when you're paying more than Rs. 20,000. Even if the price were to drop, there are plenty of more powerful and feature-rich options in the market such as Samsung's own Galaxy A50s and Galaxy M31, or phones from Realme and Xiaomi.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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15 SNES Games That Deserve a Sequel

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The SNES isn’t just the greatest Nintendo console of all-time: it’s the home of a truly impressive collection of classic games, underrated gems, and, for our purposes today, a shocking number of games that never got the sequel they deserved.

While you can usually list the business reasons why certain games don’t get sequels, that does little to diminish fans’ desires for more of a particular experience or even a second chance to get things right. In the case of some of these games, fans have been holding their breath for quite a long time.

Before we dive into this look at SNES games begging for a sequel, please note that while we will mostly focus on games that never got a sequel, a few of these titles did get underwhelming sequels that missed the mark or otherwise haven’t been revisited in over 20 years.

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15. The Adventures of Batman and Robin

While I actually slightly prefer the Genesis version of this game, this underrated SNES gem was still a Konami beat-em-up made at the peak of that studio’s efforts in that genre. Even better, it was based on arguably the best Batman adaptation of all time: Batman: The Animated Series.

So why did this never get a sequel? It certainly wasn’t perfect, and Konami may have struggled to retain the rights, but given how much the company’s TMNT games improved over time, it’s hard not to wonder what Konami could have done if they had been allowed to expand upon this brilliant marriage of an expertly adapted world and nearly airtight gameplay.

14. Saturday Night Slam Masters

This game did technically get a sequel, but that title never officially made it out of Japan and also made some drastic changes that made the series more of a 2D fighting game. It was actually quite good, but it didn’t reach the heights of the original.

After all, Saturday Night Slam Masters balanced a fascinating mixture of fighting games and wrestling games that was compelling enough at the time but may bring a generation raised on increasingly stale WWE games to tears. This is quite simply one of the most entertaining wrestling games ever made.

13. Super Star Wars Trilogy

This entry is a bit of a cheat since it not only combines three games in one entry but arguably ignores the fact that we’ve obviously gotten quite a few Star Wars games since these were released. Still, what I really want is a new trilogy of games that mimics the gameplay and style of these brutally difficult classics.

Whether they’re based on the prequel trilogy, sequel trilogy, or tell entirely original stories, I’d love for a modern developer (probably someone in the Devolver Digital family) to make a modern Super Star Wars game that leaves you wanting to throw your controller through the window and enjoying every minute of it.

12. Mario Paint

While Nintendo has made other strange games that emphasized player’s creative input (Mario Maker is probably the most notable recent example), they’ve never really properly revisited this Super Mario spin-off that showed Nintendo fans everywhere there was an artist inside of them.

Mario Paint may be simple by today’s standards, but that’s all the more reason for Nintendo to upgrade what was essentially an educational game that mastered the “gamify” concept long before that really became a talking point in the industry.

11. U.N. Squadron

The SNES wasn’t exactly lacking in worthwhile shooters, but there was always something special about U.N. Squadron. Granted, it was tough as nails, but the game’s upgrade system, visuals, and incredible level design typically made it easy to put up with the frustrations.

Capcom is always talking about revisiting and reviving its back catalog, so why not release an “indie-style” sequel to this cult classic that’s always deserved another look?

10. Skyblazer

This largely forgotten gem from the SNES era shows just how spoiled we were at that time for these kinds of experiences.

After all, Skyblazer was a game that combined great visuals, a killer soundtrack, puzzle-solving, platforming, and intense side-scrolling action, and few people ever actually played it. A simple re-release of this underrated classic would be more than I could hope for, but truth be told, my heart cries out for an admittedly unlikely sequel.

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9. Sunset Riders

Long before Red Dead Redemption offered arguably the definitive Western gaming experience, one of the most enjoyable ways to take a trip to that era was this run-and-gun side-scroller shooter that failed to really make a name for itself despite having so much going for it.

Sunset Riders‘ old west setting carries a lot of this game’s weight, but it’s really this shooter’s gameplay (which feels like a combination of Contra and a light gun shooter) that makes you wonder how it spent so many years in relative obscurity. A sequel would go a long way towards helping to ensure this game gets the love it deserves.

8. Weaponlord

It felt like every developer was trying to make the next great fighting game in the ‘90s. While most of those efforts fell well short of being the next Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, the decade’s onslaught of subpar efforts meant that a few fighting games never got the chance they deserved.

Weaponlord was one of those games. Sometimes referred to as the spiritual predecessor to Soul Edge/Soul Calibur, this weapon-based fighting game complemented its shockingly deep gameplay with a unique art style that stands out to this day. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s so easy to imagine how a sequel could have fixed nearly all of this game’s flaws.

7. Uniracers

A racing game about unicycles is strange enough, but what really sets this game apart is its surprising speed and wacky courses that emphasize almost “stunt-like” racing and tricks. I even kind of love this game’s weird ‘90s attitude.

There was just so much more that could have been done with this concept had Uniracers gotten the sequel it deserved. Since its developer DMA Design (now known as Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar North) clearly isn’t doing anything these days, I don’t see why they wouldn’t revisit this one.

6. Secret of Evermore

It’s easy to get this game confused with Secret of Mana and some of the other titles of this era, but Secret of Evermore truly was a special piece of action RPG design that has been tragically overlooked over the years for reasons that have little to do with the game’s quality.

At a time when many fans were looking for a Secret of Mana sequel, Secret of Evermore offered a somewhat similar but distinctly different gaming experience that was a little slower, a little stranger, and a little more complicated, but arguably never got the chance it deserved to really carve its own identity and find an audience. I think modern gamers would be more receptive to this title’s ideas, though it would be a lot easier to confirm that theory if we got a sequel.

5. Kirby’s Dream Course

Kirby’s Dream Course is one of those games that I feel was both hurt and helped by its license. While this project’s association with Kirby probably inspired more people to play what essentially amounts to a combination of golf and puzzle games (think Marble Madness), a lot of young gamers who took a chance on this thinking it was closer to a traditional Kirby game were left throwing their hands up in the air.

Years later, though, it’s easier than ever to appreciate what Dream Course is going for. This almost zen-like experience challenges you to use your brain to solve its most fiendish puzzles but keeps things light enough to encourage you to progress even when you hit a wall. Even if an eventual sequel was nothing more than a mobile game, Dream Course is more than worthy of another look.

4. Illusion of Gaia

Illusion of Gaia was one of those SNES games that not everybody owned, but those who did own it typically wouldn’t shut up about it. To be fair to those sometimes persistent gamers, it’s kind of hard to forget about Illusion of Gaia once you’ve given it a chance.

Though perhaps best described as an ARPG, Illusion of Gaia is actually sometimes closer to a more complicated take on a classic Legend of Zelda game. Its incredible world, surprising plot, fun action, and unique action/adventure concepts made it easy to love, hard to forget, and surprisingly difficult to play. While part of an unofficial trilogy of games, this one has always deserved a proper sequel.

3. Super Mario RPG

While the Paper Mario series and some of the Mario & Luigi games eventually carried on Super Mario RPG’s legacy, you’ve got to forgive fans who still cry out for a “proper” Super Mario RPG sequel to this day. Maybe that’s because there’s really not another game quite like Super Mario RPG.

Developed by SquareSoft during their 16-bit peak, Super Mario RPG combined the better elements of a Final Fantasy game with the more lighthearted nature of a Mario title. The result was an RPG that was much more “accessible” than other notable RPGs of this era but never left you feeling like you were playing a lesser game. At the very least, a Super Mario RPG sequel may be the only way that we get more Geno adventures.

2. Demon’s Crest

There’s a loose rumor that Demon’s Crest‘s sales were so bad that it actually registered negative sales at one point due to an excessive number of returns. It may be little more than an urban legend, but it kind of goes to show you just how poorly this game performed when it was released.

To this day, I’m not sure why Demon’s Crest wasn’t an instant hit. It was a bit short and some of its design elements were somewhat confusing, but this lovely gothic action title combined Castlevania and Mega Man in a way that is so easy to fall in love with. It’s the kind of game that practically begged for a sequel that it just never got.

1. Chrono Trigger

While I’m actually a fan of 1999’s Chrono Cross, I understand why many fans don’t like it. I believe Kotaku once called it a great game and a bad sequel, which really kind of sums up some of the ways that game distinguished itself while seemingly ignoring so many of the ways the classic original made a name for itself as one of the best RPGs ever.

So yes, count me among the many who still wants a “proper” Chrono Trigger sequel to this day. While there are plenty of reasons to doubt that a modern Chrono Trigger game could replicate the ways that this game’s “dream team” of developers made it arguably the best JRPG of the golden era of JRPGs, it’s almost impossible to walk away from this one and not be left wishing for more.

The post 15 SNES Games That Deserve a Sequel appeared first on Den of Geek.

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doomonfilm · 4 years

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Ranking : M. Night Shyamalan (1970 - present)

Like most people, I was introduced to Philadelphia-native M. Night Shyamalan through the massive success of his debut film The Sixth Sense. I vividly remember him being labelled “the new Hitchcock” right out the gate, which even then I felt was a lofty title to appoint to a director who hadn’t even given us a follow-up film, which can usually be taken as an indication of how much potential range one will have over their career. His skill behind the camera was evident, and his first five years of output hammered home the fact that he had a knack for writing twist endings that in itself took on a meme-worthy life of its own. Nobody is perfect, however, but unlike most directors that are suddenly met with criticism after a span as wunderkind and critical darling, Shyamalan took things in stride and did not fold, and as a result, his career has seemingly lost little to no momentum twenty years in.

Ranking the films of Shyamalan is, at heart, an exercise rich in folly, as his ambition and diversity almost calls for the films to be previously grouped into sub-genres prior to being ranked. In my opinion, however, there is enough stylistic definition and clear-cut writing panache that makes his films definitively Shyamalan, so I hope that you’ll join me as we enjoy our ride on this fool’s errand.

11. After Earth (2013) They say always shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars. With After Earth, M. Night Shyamalan showed that sometimes you can shoot for the moon, miss it and the stars, and land somewhere in the void. Lots of post-apocalyptic flourish and setup is used for what basically equates as a side-scrolling quest, and the choices made for the characterizations are so distracting in their oddness that it’s hard to invest yourself in the movie in any capacity other than a surface level dissection of the accent and dialogue. Shyamalan does have a knack for building lore in his films, but he does way more telling than showing in After Earth. If not for the ties to Will and Jaden Smith, this film could’ve sunk the Shyamalan ship.

10. Lady in the Water (2006) I’m sure that M. Night Shyamalan had good intentions when he decided to turn a story he created for the enjoyment of his children into a feature-length film, but not every idea needs to be seen through into fruition. Many of the same issues that plague After Earth popped up in Lady in the Water, from the infinitely deep lore being smashed into exposition down to the extremely odd choices for characterizations, but unlike After Earth, at least there are recognizable aspects of the film that one can hang on to. There are a handful of surprisingly strong performances, given the ridiculousness of the content, but ultimately all other elements are shadowed by the sheer absurdity of the root narrative. I try not to pick on actors, but Bryce Dallas Howard just doesn’t do it for me in this flick.

9. Signs (2002) This is probably going to be the one that causes the most feedback in terms of position. According to the masses, this film is the true masterpiece in the M. Night Shyamalan canon, but as an aficionado of alien invasion films, Shyamalan seems to zig at every point he should have zagged. Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix is an interesting coupling on paper, but if there is chemistry between the two of them as the film’s leads, it didn’t translate on screen. And for God’s sake, don’t even get me started on having aliens who are harmed by water choosing to come to a planet that, from space, is CLEARLY MOSTLY WATER.

8. The Happening (2008) While M. Night Shyamalan had presented “dumb” twists prior to The Happening (we’ll get back to that shortly), the sheer vastness of the revealed enemy creates a sort of inverse danger arc in regards to the journey we were presented… while there does seem to be destruction, and a sense of danger about what will happen next (and to whom) is built up, it pales in comparison when one realizes that nature is the enemy, and if this premise were true, the events seen more than likely would not have been so random in their scale, location and severity. Maybe I’m dumping a lot of speculation into this one, but when our male lead is doing what he does in most every film, and your female lead is given an uncharacteristically underwhelming performance, you get time to think about these kinds of things.

7. Glass (2019) All of the potential in the world was there for Glass to be a mind-melter. What felt like the biggest, most elaborate twist in the entire M. Night Shyamalan universe had been revealed in the form of a secret trilogy that took nearly two decades to present itself, but sadly the landing was not stuck. All of the grandness of the world built in Unbreakable and Split suddenly felt much smaller and less elaborate when our characters essentially found themselves grounded, and while we were sold the idea that all of what happened was some sort of elaborate group hallucination, the feats pulled off by Crumb are still sold to us as reality, leaving the lines blurred much more than what was likely intended. We are even teased with a storyline that feels like mockery of what could have been, but in the end, Glass was the tragic landing that undercuts the brilliance that preceded it.

6. The Sixth Sense (1999) This film is a tough one to place, because in terms of its technical prowess and execution, it is not only a brilliant film, but a stunningly impressive debut. The problem with this film, however, is the same that tends to plague even the best magic tricks… it’s amazing until the trick is revealed. In the case of The Sixth Sense, the first watch blows you away. The second watch, as a result, feels like a completely new movie, and is even more rewarding as it resolves itself once again. Any viewing after the second one, however, is plagued by a lack of surprise, intrigue or anticipation, and what we are left with is a good movie with no wow. Perhaps the best way to watch this film, at this point, is with someone who has never seen it and has somehow managed to avoid any spoilers, as it would be the closest one can get to experiencing this film with an uninformed eye.

5. The Last Airbender (2010) With a black cloud hanging over this film due to overwhelmingly negative backlash from fans of the Avatar animated series, I stayed away from it like one stays away from rotten garbage. Interestingly enough, I had no dog in the fight, as I had never seen any of the source material, and only had a layman’s understanding of it as a result, with no emotional ties to anything about it. I say that to say this… I can certainly understand how an adapted work can be met with brutal skepticism and aggressive analysis, and if even one stone of fan service is left unturned then the whole thing must be cast aside, but if taken on its own merits, this is a surprisingly strong film. It hits the bullseye in terms of being an epic kid’s tale in all the ways that Lady in the Water did not, and it has the big budget feel that was missing in Glass. Who knows... my thoughts on the film may change as I finally dive into the animated series, but as it currently stands, this film should be considered as a win in the Shyamalan collection.

4. The Visit (2015) What a truly bonkers movie. Watching M. Night Shyamalan’s take on the found footage film is surprisingly kinetic, and thanks to some of the best casting found in any of his films, we are given characters that evoke emotion and make us either care about them or fear them. There are probably even some who would claim that they “saw the twist coming”, and maybe I’m just a sucker, but when the curtain is pulled back on what’s really going on it feels like every loose string representing a question is suddenly pulled tight enough to choke. There are just enough games present in the writing that, while we question the crazier things we see, we can also shrug them off with “acceptable” answers. If you’ve managed to go this far without anyone spoiling the ending for The Visit for you, I highly recommend checking this one out immediately, as it is that vintage Shyamalan that many people are seeking out.

3. Split (2017) If this one were just a one-off, it would probably still sit extremely high on the list of Shyamalan films. Anya Taylor-Joy is good in most everything she does, and James McAvoy is putting on a clinic in terms of range and character variety. The film gets about as broad as it can without going over the top, and that size is translated in the tension that emerges from the captivity that Kevin Wendell Crumb puts the girls in, forcing them to his live wire and ever changing personality. With much of the film boiling down to a few locations, and a freight train of a premise that is seemingly headed in one direction, it is natural to anticipate a Shyamalan swerve, but it’s the button at the end of the film that makes you realize the sheer existence of Split in itself is the twist. For that feat alone, this film must be applauded.

2. The Village (2004) Remember when I brought up “dumb twists” earlier? I’ll be honest with you… this was the film I had in mind, despite it being my favorite (albeit it not my top ranked). Up until the moment of truth, everything presented in this film works : as a period film it is well-executed, the use of reds and yellows is iconic, the lore presented is actually shown and not left solely to exposition dumps, and Adrian Brody brings a performance level to his character that far exceeded what was necessary. I also tend to be hard on Bryce Dallas Howard, but she steps up to the plate when the story is shifted completely to her shoulders. The twist isn’t even actually all that bad, other than the fact that it may have been the most obvious premise for a twist, but I think that even a slight tweak in regards to the overarching location or the person who discovers Howard’s character would have greatly improved the execution of the twist moment. Even though M. Night Shyamalan had already made a great movie (which is coming up in just a moment), this was the one that brought me off the fence and into the camp that supports Shyamalan.

1. Unbreakable (2000) It’s quite rare in the grand scheme of things to see a director make light year jumps in his second film, especially when their first film reaches phenomenon status. Somehow and someway, however, M. Night Shyamalan did the impossible by topping a film on the Mount Rushmore of debuts with the film that feels like the most ambitious and well executed of his career. A cursory search of the Bruce Willis filmography will show that outside of the first Sin City film and Looper, M. Night Shyamalan got the last of good acting he was giving directors. The visual interpretation of the comic book world framing is so nuanced and subtle that, upon learning the context and intention of the film, each repeat viewing brings new attention to these very layered visual details. The presentation of Elijah Price was so phenomenal that it ultimately caused expectations that crushed Glass upon arrival. Even if the Eastrail 177 Trilogy didn’t quite live up to expectations, there is no denying that Unbreakable was a pitch perfect table-setter, and an impressive film to boot.

#ChiefDoomsday #DOOMonFILM #MNightShyamalan #TheSixthSense #Unbreakable #Signs #TheVillage #LadyInTheWater #TheHappening #TheLastAirbender #Devil #AfterEarth #TheVisit #Split #Glass

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lanx-reads · 7 years

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The Blood Diamond Review

Final Rating: ***/***** or 5/10

You’re a Vampire Hunter. Killing Vamps is what you do. No exceptions. Ever... right?

Antoinette Drake never chose her role in life to be that of a Vampire Hunter, yet now her main mission is to quell the misdemeanors of the NYC vampiric underworld. But when a new nightclub is opened by the handsome and notorious vampire Henri Sinclair, she finds herself taking on more than she bargained for.

The last thing Antoinette wants to do is get wrapped up in Henri’s cryptic games, but if she wants to unveil his plans and save her sister’s life at the same time, she might just have to get closer to a vampire than she ever has before...

Even tho @authorrjcity is my friend and fellow mutual and writer, I did indeed promise her a 100% brutally honest review of her book. As it stands, I am of course reviewing this as a critique and judging her as an author and nothing else. I also wanna note I am reading somewhat outside my preferred genres to a degree! So that also affects my rating.

Since I am still wading my way through how to write these reviews, I’m gonna try a new tactic that kinda combines my previous review styles. I will be breaking my review into numerous sections: Characters, Plot, World Building, Writing, What I Liked, and lastly, What I Disliked.

There will be minor spoilers in this review, so just a heads up if you want to read The Blood Diamond spoiler-free!

Writing:

I want to note that I am not the biggest fan of first person. I find it kinda stiff to both write and read and incredibly limiting. Likewise, I personally think that this book could’ve benefited from a pure third person style rather than sticking with first person. Furthermore, The Blood Diamond did have transitional scenes written in third person due to the fact that information had to be given to the reader and Toni couldn’t be around to narrate it. Personally, I didn’t really much agree with this artistic choice, as it would’ve been much smoother if the entire book stayed in first person, but merely bounced around different heads as needed.

Minus the issues I had with the POV the writing was decent. I do feel like Toni had too many stock sentences in her narration at times, like “Well, yeah” and “Hmm...” and such that were distracting and could’ve been cut out without changing the story at all. Sometimes Toni had thoughts as if she were talking to the reader, which was also a little distracting at times.

Another artistic/style choice I didn’t like was the fact that Toni’s direct thoughts weren’t italicized. Instead of being written like [This is a thought, Toni thought.] it was written instead like [This is a thought, Toni thought.] which sometimes made reading her direct thoughts a bit confusing as they ran into the narration.

The author also uses a lot of epithets and describes eyes as “orbs” a couple of times, which are pet peeves of mine. Nothing inherently wrong with either, but they did ruffle me a little. Another pet peeve of mine that popped up was dropping a Twilight reference. Considering how long ago Twilight was published, I feel it was a bit awkward. I think this sentence could’ve easily just been cut out and replaced with the general “Have you been reading vampire romance novels or something?” as then the sentence would be funny in the sense that its pure irony (though I also have a huge weakness for irony as a plot device so...).

Lastly, though the book was pretty clean from typos and mistakes in the beginning and the middle, but near the end I counted a lot of mistakes popping up. I only caught one actual misspelled word, but mistakes such as writing an instead of a and using a dash rather than a hyphen did find its way into this book. A couple of other mistakes were some capitalization errors (The Order vs the Order vs the order in describing a political group).

Now, everything I have stated so far is mainly just. Little pet peeves of mine and things that can be overlooked more or less. However, the one negative aspect of the writing that stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the fact that setting descriptions were rarely, if ever, used. The most description the author used was saying what type of room someone is in, or a club, or a mansion or apartment, or whatever. However, these places weren’t actually ever really described, which sometimes made it hard to visualize certain scenes. The lack of setting descriptions also made certain scenes in the book pass by too quickly. In some places this worked, however in others, I feel the lack of a slowed down pacing did a real disservice to building up tension in some places.

Characters

There are quite a few characters in this book! I will be talking about the side characters as a whole group to keep it simple, but talk about the main characters individually.

Toni:

Toni is easily a main character you will either really enjoy or dislike. She tends to be sarcastic, though not always witty. There are at times inconsistencies with her character, such as the fact that she has destroyed some pretty powerful vampires, but doesn’t seem to be very good at planning ahead and rushes into things at times, which although is a interesting and good flaw for this sort of book, doesn’t match with what we’re told of her being an infamous hunter among vampires. That being said, Toni is overall a really fun character. She has a couple of pretty popular tropes included with her character (such as parents dying via a vampire and such...) but those things didn’t really bother me as I like those tropes well enough.

Henri:

Henri is a character I can honestly say without a doubt that will become a fan favorite. Broody, though not above mockery, secretive, and dangerous, he employs numerous popular vampire tropes, yet there are scenes in which he inverts them to a degree. He isn’t a good person at all. He’s killed people and is a clear vampire, which is always fun and refreshing to see. Though he is a powerful vampire, he’s also not the most powerful vampire to ever exist or anything. Another part of him I liked is that though he acted like he knew everything and was in control of things, he really wasn’t, and that arrogance in many ways lead to many downfalls for him. He’s a fun character I would love to see more development of.

Gavin:

Gavin is Henri’s twin brother and in many ways is the polar opposite. He’s narcissistic, psychopathic, outgoing, and overtly sexual. He’s a genuine asshole and though there are points where he feels a bit like an archetype, overall Gavin, like Henri, will most likely become a fan favorite as well. He has a certain villainous charm to him where every time he pops up, you know some exciting shit is gonna go down, and you’re sitting on the edge of your seat.

Robert:

Warning: Major Spoilers

Robert seems to be the Big Bad of this series, but as a big bad, I have to say he is a little underwhelming. His backstory was monologued to us in the climax, which was a little uninteresting. If instead Toni had to slowly uncover the identity of who he was over the course of the book, I feel the plot twist relating to him would’ve been a lot more powerful. He’s described as a pretty stereotypical vampire and besides being evil we really don’t know much about him. He seems to be younger than Gavin or Henri, which makes me wonder as to why he’s a master vampire and their master in the first place.

Not much of his personality was given, and his motivations seem a little flimsy. Hopefully, the sequel will shed more light on him and flesh him out as a villain more because as of right now, he’s a little bit forgettable.

Liz:

Liz is Toni’s younger sister and though she is told to us to be a major part of Toni’s life and her only family left, we really don’t get to see much of her. We get to see her a little bit near the end of the book, and she starts forming a more interesting personality then, but overall we’re left with too little too late due to the plot twist. I do wish she was given more of a chance to breathe and grow, as I feel that fleshing out her character would’ve made the plot twist at the end a lot more weighty and emotional.

Ethan:

Ethan is Toni’s best friend and fills the roll pretty well for the most part. Though he pops up quite often, he has a pretty general personality and isn’t the most memorable of characters.

Micah:

Micah is a side character, but is one of the more interesting ones. Though I do wish to learn more about him as some secrets of his are both exposed and kept under wraps, his personality is a little hard to place. The sort of character roll he fills doesn’t quite match the personality he is given. Though I do wanna learn more about him, as a character he is a little bland besides the roll he is given in the plot.

The rest of the side characters:

The rest of the side characters such as Giselle, Melissa, Stephan Church, Hannah, Clary, and the like are a bit of a mixed bag. They have a lot more clear personalities than some of the main or more important cast of side characters and have clear quirks in the way they talk and such. That being said, we really don’t learn much about them, and a couple of these characters do fall into archetypes I am not a huge fan of (such as two of the female characters just kinda being jealous bitches to Toni...) Some of the other side hunter characters, such as Hannah and Clary, are used very sparingly. Hannah, who is a faerie, only really pops up in the beginning and end of the book while Clary is mentioned briefly in the beginning, then finally gets a little screen time at the end.

Considering how big this cast of characters is, I do hope that all these side characters are given more development in the sequels to come.

Overall, the characters weren’t too bad! A little bit of a mixed bag- some were quite interesting while others less so. The only real issue I had was some of the names of the characters being a little out of place. Such as an age-old vampire being named Andrew, for instance, and I personally wouldn’t have called the Big Bad Robert of all things (unless that’s purposely done to be a bit comical, tho Toni never finds his name a little funny...) Despite the little inconsistencies in character naming, and in some characters in general, they overall worked well for this sort of book and plot and were fun to read about overall!

Plot

The plot is a little difficult to describe, if I am being honest, as the plot drifts quite a bit in this book. Sometimes, it’s really focused and other times, not so much. I would say its a mystery, but there is little foreshadowing and the mysteries themselves aren’t touched upon and after a while, become quite vague, leaving you a bit confused.

Overall, the story is about Toni trying to bust The Blood Diamond and the vampires within it for illegally turning humans while also trying to figure out who the master vampire is, who is the one pulling all the strings and causing the violence in the first place. Unfortunately, this plot is dropped pretty quickly and instead, the subplot of Toni and Henri’s relationship and him Marking her takes over for a good chunk of the book.

I think one of the biggest weaknesses of the plot is its reliance on the readers to understand the world building and how this system of vampire hunters work. However, this system isn’t given a lot of screen time and at times, the plot (and world building itself) gets muddied. There are many places where I feel like if the world building had been fleshed out a bit more, it would’ve helped the plot a lot. Such as why doesn’t Toni, and by extension everyone else, know who the master vampire is? Why are certain vampires not archived in the system? Though the latter is brought up at one point, it’s not really touched upon, and I personally felt that it could’ve been part of the overarching story and a puzzle piece of the mystery this book was trying to build.

At times, the overarching plot of the book felt a little everywhere, and thus when the climax at the end happened, it wasn’t quite as powerful as it could’ve been.

Furthermore, the pacing was a little odd. The book was a fast read for sure, but in places it needed to slow down, it didn’t, which led to it not being as emotional as it could’ve been.

There are also a couple of scenes I feel could’ve been cut out.

I also want to note that this book does not end with a clear stop. Not everything is wrapped up whatsoever, and thus, this book by itself is an incomplete story. This isn’t a negative point or a bad thing at all! It’s just how this book is written and set up. A lot is built up for the sequel.

Though this book never felt “plot-less” by any means, the plot never felt like the focus of the book either, and instead felt muddied and a bit vague. However, I think this is less the plot’s fault, and more of the fact that the book could’ve been a bit longer to accommodate some changes and that the world building could’ve been fleshed out more to give definition to the plot elements present.

World building

Out of everything in The Blood Diamond, I think the world building is its weakest aspect. Though these is no infodumping, which is always a good thing, the author also doesn’t really give us a chance to learn about the world. Since Toni already knows about the world more or less, she doesn’t explain much, so you’re basically thrown in and hope you can hang onto the information that’s thrown at you.

Furthermore, there are points in The Blood Diamond where I think not everything was thought through. How does the Agency keep vampires and other supernatural creatures hidden? Vampires themselves aren’t discreet and there are numerous times where there are “supernaturals only” places around. It’s never explained if they are hidden or if normal humans are compelled to not enter via magic. Furthermore, if the Agency has to tell family of the victims of vampires of the supernatural world, how has the truth not gotten out yet? And also especially with all this taken place in the modern world and a densely packed city, how have vampires, or other supernaturals, avoided being caught on tape or anything?

The Agency seems a bit small for the setting as well and at times, a bit unprofessional. The entire system of this government isn’t explained the best either. The Agency is what I suppose are like cops while The Order is closer to something akin to the FBI I am guessing, but it isn’t exactly clear. The Agency also seems to work as the judge, jury, and the police, which gets even more confusing and doesn’t fit in with how America is run as a country either.

Vampires and their powers are also not that well explained. Other supernatural creatures, such as werewolves and witches, are mentioned but not touched upon at all or fleshed out, making them feel more like an afterthought.

There is also a scene midway into The Blood Diamond with some mermaids in the NYC rivers. Though there were a lot of cool ideas in this scene, the scene itself felt completely and utterly pointless to the rest of the book and felt more like something in there for a sequel or to try and world build a bit more. However, the world building should’ve been tied into the plot. If less of the plot had been on Henri Marking Toni and more focused on fleshing out the plot, the world building could’ve gone along with that, and overall both world building and the plot could’ve been a lot stronger.

What I Liked

I know that it sounded like I didn’t like this book with how much negativity is in this review! But trust me, there is plenty I enjoyed about this book as well, and I will list out everything I did enjoy in this section below!

I enjoyed Toni’s narration and her character.

Henri and Toni’s romance was interesting.

I really enjoyed the powers we did see from the vampires. Some of them were very unique.

Hannah. Just. Hannah was adorable I enjoyed her a lot!

A lot of the names in this book I liked too. Such as The Blood Diamond and La Luna and such!

A fast-paced and quick read overall, which is pretty good!

Toni staking vampires was always a fun treat to read about.

Giselle. She was great. Like I said, there are a lot of side characters to enjoy here.

Woman friendship between Toni and Clary at the end was fun. Though it stuck out a little, I did like that the author confirmed that Toni was bi/pan and that Clary is at least, not straight either.

The plot twist, though it had its problems, was good in theory.

I enjoyed the idea behind Marking as well as compulsion.

Actual forensic science was used in a scene near the end, which was a pleasant surprise in a book such as this.

Though I did mention a couple of pointless scenes, the pointless scenes themselves were at least interesting to read even though they went nowhere. There weren’t any slow paced, snore-fest parts, which is good.

The print itself in the book was pretty big, which was easy on the eyes for me.

I think this book, if just read as a piece of light entertainment with vampires and mystery, is great.

Honestly, I really did enjoy reading another vampire book again. I haven’t in a while, so it was fun to go back to reading vampire fiction.

Near the end had some showing of Toni working with some other hunters on what seemed to be pretty standard run-of-the-mill cases, and that was really fun to read about.

What I Disliked

The stuff listed here are further nitpicks that personally made me cock my head to the side. Nothing major enough to discuss in the above sections, however.

Too many teenagers in things like clubs. Unless you’re counting 18 year olds as teenagers, then I guess it fits, but I found it a little distracting.

It seemed like only women were the victims of vampire attacks all through this book. It kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

At times, Henri and Toni’s romance squicked me out, especially there is a point where he feeds on her without her consent and the fact he does assault her. That being said, he does apologize for the feeding from her and admits he it was wrong and though its a little vague, it’s explained he was being controlled by the Mark, just like Toni was. The assault, though it does rub me the wrong way, makes sense as he was defending himself against her.

Some of the descriptors at times felt a little cliche, such as “raven-black hair.”

Toni’s supposed infamy for being a badass vampire hunter usually didn’t match up to her as she actually acted in the field.

Near the end of the book, Toni was knocked unconscious about three times, including once during an action scene. I was a little annoyed at this.

There was no explanation how any sort of “clean up” was done after vampire attacks. There didn’t seem to be a protocol, which mixed me up.

A lot of the timing of events felt off to me.

Dream/nightmare sequences were used to tell us Toni’s backstory. I feel like this could’ve been woven into the actual story and narration, as the way the nightmares were written didn’t feel natural or convincing.

I wish there was more of a focus on the supernatural creatures and how they work cases.

The slang for vampires at times seemed a bit childish and random. In one sentence, Toni will think of them as purely “vampires” and the next, they’d be call “vamps” or “blood suckers.”

Final verdict

The Blood Diamond is pretty middle of the road for me and sits at a 3/5 stars, which basically means “good” to me. The rating of 5/10 also matches this. The Blood Diamond has its problems, but if you can look past those, and are looking for a fun and light piece of entertainment, it may fit what you’re looking for.

What really knocked off those two stars were the world building issues, the muddy plot (that romance took over), and some of the writing issues I had stated above.

That being said, a lot is promised in the sequel, and I do hope the sequel gives us readers world building, a better crafted mystery, a more focused plot, and details our established characters a bit more. I would definitely rec this book to people who enjoy vampire books and miss reading them and those a fan of YA and tired of the dystopian genre currently being passed around.

***/***** or 5/10

#book review #The Blood Diamond #my book reviews #RJ City #bookblr #Vampires #inkitt book #wattpad book

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charger-batteries · 4 years

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ZTE Blade A3 Prime Review

Times are tough and budgets are tight. You might be wondering whether to keep an aging phone for another year or replace it with something relatively inexpensive. Decent smartphones priced under $100 are rare, but Visible's ZTE Blade A3 Prime ($99) is one of the better ones in that bracket. It handles basic tasks with relative ease and has solid connectivity with surprisingly good call quality. You'll notice a bit of lag when you're using it, and battery life could definitely be better, but it's a fine option for the price. However, if you're willing to spend just a little more and shop around for discounts, you can probably find much better phones for $130 to $180.

Design: Blast From the Past

Remember "candy bar" budget phones from a few years back? The Blade A3 Prime feels just like one. It's a rectangle with a plastic back and a relatively small display. It measures 5.8 by 2.8 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.7 ounces, making it nicely balanced and easy to hold in one hand.

On the front of the Blade A3 Prime you'll find a 5.45-inch LCD with thick bezels. That's a little smaller than the 6.2-inch display you'll find on the slightly more expensive Motorola Moto e ($149.99). The screen has a resolution of 1,440 by 720 pixels for a density of 291ppi. Despite its low resolution, the display is pretty crisp. Color accuracy skews cool; in direct sunlight, seeing the display becomes a challenge.

The top is home to a headphone jack. The USB-C charging port is on the bottom. The left side is bare; a volume rocker and textured power button are on the right. The buttons are easy to identify and reach, though there is a bit of lag in response when pressing the buttons.

The back is a textured gray plastic shell that can be removed to swap out the battery—a rarity in today's phones—and insert SIM and microSD cards. There's a small camera stack in the upper left-hand corner and a grille for the speaker on the bottom right side. A fingerprint sensor sits top center; it's easy to reach with small hands and unlocks the phone quickly.

With the exception of the Motorola Moto e's strengthened glass display and water-resistant body, durability for just about any entry-level phone is a pain point. The Blade A3 Prime is no exception. If you drop it on its back, the back might fly off and let the battery pop out, which isn't a big deal. But the display appears to be made out of traditional glass. Drop it face down and you'll likely be shopping for a new phone. The phone also has no water protection whatsoever and its removable back makes it very easy for water to seep in from a spill. If you plan to use this phone daily, you'll want to get a sturdy case.

Clear Calls, Adequate Connectivity

The Blade A3 Prime is a Visible exclusive and has limited LTE band support. The phone supports LTE bands 2/4/5/12/13, which effectively locks it to Visible and Verizon's networks. Band 66, a superset of band 4 that Verizon uses to improve coverage in highly populated areas, is noticeably absent.

We tested the Blade A3 Prime on Visible's network in downtown Chicago and recorded poor speeds. Average download speeds came in at 15.8Mbps, and uploads averaged 6.3Mbps. Those speeds are fine for streaming and just about everything else but fail to compare to speeds we've recorded on other phones on the same network. We are pretty confident the reduced speeds are due to the phone's aging modem more than the network.

Call quality is excellent. We made several calls on the phone and the connection was perfect each time. Peak earpiece volume comes in at 78dB, which should be loud enough to hear the other party in most situations.

Dual-band Wi-Fi is onboard, as is Bluetooth 4.2. There's no NFC, which should come as no surprise for an entry-level phone.

The bottom-firing speaker has a maximum volume of 92dB. Audio quality is acceptable, though timbre is aggressive, with overly bright mids and not a hint of bass to be found. Overall, the speaker is fine for video calls or scrolling through your TikTok feed, but you'll want to take advantage of the headphone jack or a decent pair of Bluetooth headphones for Spotify or Netflix binges.

Entry-Level Cameras

The Blade A3 Prime sports a very basic camera setup and performs as well as you'd expect for an entry-level phone. It has an 8MP rear-facing camera with an f/2.0 aperture and a 5MP front-facing camera with an f/2.4 aperture.

In good light, the front camera does an adequate job. Our test shots appeared a little flat and there was noticeable loss of fine detail.

Low-light performance, on the other hand, is an absolute mess. Nearly all our test shots were flat, muddy, and filled with edge noise.

The 5MP camera on the front of the phone is fine for a quick selfie in good light. Most of our test shots lacked depth of field, but color accuracy was spot on. In low light, however, our selfies were completely blurred, with noise throughout the image.

Though we're not impressed by the cameras on the Blade A3 Prime, we think they're acceptable for the price. Smartphone manufacturers often cut corners with hardware in order to keep prices low, and camera sensors tend to be one of the first concessions made.

If image quality is important to you, your cheapest bet is the Moto G Power ($249)—though it's more than double the price of the Blade A3 Prime, unless you find a discount deal. The Google Pixel 4a takes flagship-worthy shots but also has a $349 price tag.

Fine for Basic Tasks, But Gaming Is a No-Go

A MediaTek Helio A22 chipset and 2GB of RAM provide moderate power for the Blade A3 Prime. It has 32GB of storage, of which a little over 19GB is available out of the box. You can add up to an additional 2TB of storage with a microSD card.

The Helio A22 is an entry level smartphone chipset that can most closely be compared with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 429 processor. Both are 12nm process semiconductors, and both have 4 CPU cores. The Helio A22 is technically a little faster than its Qualcomm competition, running at 2GHz per core versus 1.95GHz. The Helio A22's 1,600Mz RAM is also an improvement over the 933MHz RAM supported on the Snapdragon 429 but, to be perfectly honest, you're not going to see much difference in performance between the two chipsets.

It's hard to compare the Blade A3 Prime to other similarly spec'd smartphones simply because there aren't a lot of phones sold in the US with the Helio A22 or Snapdragon 429 chipsets. For the most part, these processors are shipped on budget phones sold in China and in emerging markets like Africa and India.

For the price, performance is adequate. The Blade A3 Prime does well with basic tasks like web browsing and checking emails, but stutters when given more difficult tasks. There's a noticeable lag when opening apps or searching for apps, but it's not unbearable.

The Blade A3 Prime is not a phone for gamers—end of story. Basic games such as Candy Crush work fine, but anything that requires more resources is a no go. We attempted to load Asphalt 9: Legends and the app continuously crashed.

The 2,660mAh capacity battery is underwhelming. While using the phone, we noticed the battery drained quickly; over an eight-hour idle period, the battery depleted by nearly 20%. In our battery drain test, which streams HD video over Wi-Fi, the Blade A3 Prime eked out just 6 hours and 3 minutes before dying. That's a far cry from the Motorola Moto e's battery life of 10 hours and 2 minutes. If you're planning to use this phone for a full day, you'll want to pick up a spare battery or power bank.

The phone comes with a 10W charger and a USB-A–to–USB-C charging cable. Wireless charging is missing—which isn't unexpected for a phone at this price—and there's no fast charging option either. It takes about two and a half hours to recharge the phone from empty to full.

Stock Android 10, Missing Security Patches

The stock version of Android 10 that ships with the Blade A3 Prime is blissfully free of bloatware, usually a given on budget phones. Visible is one of the few carriers that doesn't add preloaded software on any of its phones.

Neither ZTE nor Visible has announced plans for software updates, and we don't believe the phone will get an Android 11 update. It also looks like the phone will not get frequent security patches, since the last update on our phone was from April 2020.

Good for Ultra-Tight Budgets

If you're on a tight budget, the ZTE A3 Prime is a decent choice. For $99, you get a phone that handles simple tasks well, offers good call quality, and gets a reliable, albeit slow, network connection. That said, mediocre battery life and infrequent Android security patch updates are significant concessions to make in the name of saving money.

The Motorola Moto e, though slightly more expensive, addresses both of these pain points and is a better value for your money. If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive phone that will last several years, the Google Pixel 4a is your best bet.

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robinswky490 · 4 years

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Farm Expert 17 PC what's new in the latest installment of the game

As a baby, made anyone forever dream of growing up up to become a farmer, waste your morning charging about the support yard with your own toy tractor with trying to see sheep in a regional field to bring back home with you? No, right me? Very never mind, even if it live the childhood ambition, Farm Expert 2017 provides the chance to own and go your very own farm! The experience is nicely varied, with you having to fully prepare fields before plants can be swelled, to ensuring you sell livestock or they grow very former with fail, that competition will undoubtedly increase the organisational skills.

Farm Expert 17's been hidden, grew and brought in by Silden and sold on the local produce market by PlayWay S.A.,FE17 certainly gain many initial appeal if you have a good simulation game. The game boasts some rather beneficial look as far as the weather is concerned, a suit soundtrack each time you fly in to your tractor with enough to do to hold people tiling away for hours on end.

However, these features are permitted behind with some unfortunate and persistent bugs, along with some rather horrendous restrictions and physics for the automobiles. And although it is very varied, it goes through from a lack of depth which could give you a little underwhelmed. There is and a multiplayer element for the sport, while getting this to actually production remains more akin to dark magic than computer games.

With no account to bring let's get right because of the nitty-gritty of what you can do from the entertainment. Because there is a good bit. Immediately before I properly start, I do first want to come orderly and point out that this became my head ever real farming sim game (unless I could count Stardew Valley?) so I want to move in advance with declare sorry for any really noob-like comments. Run about…

Setting up is very cool, after pack in you're satisfied with a menu asking to make a report which is only a theme of establishing a choose then leaving by near. FE17 bear a handful of means you can pick by including Free Roam and Multiplayer (I'll talk more about the multiplayer in a minute). For me, however, the first go-to area survived the Course. There's a bit of a language screen with approximately incorrect stretch and grammar, but when you move past that that all pretty simple. That worked out, but, show us almost ten minutes to understand how to help slow since I stupidly believed it was a simple WASD setup rather than having to press Z first in order to change direction. But behind these hiccups, I did find myself enjoying the game. There's something strangely satisfying about having to go through the motions of reversing up to a piece of equipment, problem this up, folding this left and then merrily tootling along to help your own ground designed for a being work.

After I had mastered the basics of truly pushing and farming, I jump right into work my own fully-fledged farm. You get several options to choose from, basically ranging from Easy to Hard. Naturally, as a whole amateur, I took the Cool solution. Thanks to our decision I started out with a great the lot of money and a serious healthy sum of procedures already in my possession, so I could push on with buying the main field, gathering a few crops and addressing work. I found myself rather enjoying our generation as a player, finally getting the objective of appeal a tractor.

Though, I slowly began to notice some issues. For beginners, the naming of the procedures is simply farmsimulator.eu/farming-simulator-2013-download/ not up to scratch, especially on the roads that you'd think will be even but for many ungodly reason affect your vehicles to push along constantly. The game and makes seem to factor in the improved weight of features which you hitch against your tractor, allowing you to increase by a lot the same rate as you usually would. After a while, I learned that the physics from the competition might result in some very horrendous cock-ups.

And later on, I too found out that the ground really got no impact on the swiftness of the vehicle, allowing you to charge full speed up high pile and go on your own mini-adventure…

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So agreed, the real physics in the sport put great to be desired. But the actual gameplay is pretty varied. So if you don't want to just take in seed and gathering crops all the time, then no worries! You can begin animal husbandry with a few different choices for which animals to hold and ensuring and keep them fed as well as offering them for meat before they crash of childhood time. Or you may grow orchards to make your delicious fruit, having to fertilize and collect the crop yourself, and even have to lug the container to your truck! But maybe you do want to remain with fine old-fashioned crop farming, in which case you have to take your crops depending on the season, carefully cultivate fields properly and then make sure not to rush them over before more they'll be overcome!

There's also vehicle preservation and concentration to take in thought, so you have to soak up your tractor with gasoline to keep this getting, make sure that polite with innocent (as apparently, that is key for tractors?) as well as repair or strengthen that immediately with again to make life easier.

Pretty varied, just? Right. Unfortunately, this variety does not turn to power or order. So of course, you can increase the crops, care for creatures and grow fruit orchards. But there's no mixture in value in the looks, so there's no need to look around for better believe or trade value because every shop will give the same results. This lack of economy frankly lets down the entire treat. Your pets do have to food, but not any run or time away from their pens. You never also need to feed them yourself because something you buy gets automatically moved to the pencils with the pets somehow get admission for the food themselves. And with orchards, after vegetable and fertilizing them there's nobody else you really need to do until they're prepared to be choose. That lack of depth turns the game into new of your calendar watching experience.

You can hire a workforce to help you out, watching them start the production is vaguely interesting at first, but shortly loses its novelty. Other NPCs in the competition don't provide any relationship and basically, show to now look at and give the world a semblance of soul. Without success, I must tell.

There is too supposed to be a multiplayer side for the game, but lord only gets how we could in fact meet people. I've trawled many forums with further having related problems with no resolution forthcoming. Multiplayer is great that is added last minute, so perhaps it will be improved in the future?

The first thing I'd involvement is how the game does not really boast the most outstanding images, with some of the textures looking very awkward and a significant few popping issues going on. But I'd believe the vehicles looked very decent generally, and the weather effects were reasonably well done. There's something oddly fascinating about watching puddles found with a field while it's raining.

It also includes several terra-forming effects as well, so when you're making the take some of the machines you use actually kind trenches and other alterations in the earth, that changes how your car may need over them, that is pretty clever. And by what I understand from complete a little of delivering, anything which doesn't take place now Farming Simulator activity or different competitors. Character types are attractive plain and forgettable, but in addition to the useless NPCs, there's not really enough characters around to take much notice.

I myself acquired the soundtrack really enjoyable. There was something mildly entertaining about the music starting up each time you flew into the tractor. The fact the firm of your own engine changes counting at whether your inside or outside the car was quite neat too. However, once you detected the cycling sound cause, that begins to become a bit annoying. And, when you got out of the tractor the figure would for some reason believe they were start also brand the right sound. As well as that a handful of the vehicles which allowed absolutely no doors still played the door closing sound each time you got off. A complaint for me, but still a bug.

Due to our lack of exposure to previous farming sim games, I found myself enjoying Farm Expert 17 at first, but the moment I had partaken to all the changed tasks I found myself getting bored really fast. And eventually a number of the mistake may confirm to be quite frustrating. If that contest was a bit more cleaned and contained about extent added to that, i would surely charge this higher. The multiplayer certainly feels tacked going on with the full experience only becomes somewhat of a drag eventually.

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junker-town · 4 years

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Here’s where the AFC East race stands after Tom Brady’s exit

Josh Allen and the Bills will be trying to leap over the Patriots in the AFC East.

Is 2020 the year the Bills — or someone else — dethrone the Patriots?

The Bills are going for it. Months after wrapping their most successful season of the millennium, Buffalo has cashed in its assets to build a championship-caliber roster. Head coach Sean McDermott has a stellar defense, a budding offense, and a heady blend of veterans and prospects capable of doing what no team has done since 2008: dethrone the Patriots atop the AFC East.

While it’s entirely too early to bury Bill Belichick, a busy start to the 2020 offseason has set up the most compelling race the division’s seen in more than a decade. New England stands at the precipice of a new era now that Tom Brady signed with the Buccaneers.

The Bills are first in line when it comes to beneficiaries from any Patriots downturn, but they aren’t alone. The Dolphins built off last year’s better-than-expected campaign with a handful of splashy moves. The Jets added talent as well, though whether or not Adam Gase can do anything with it remains to be seen.

So what does the AFC East look like following a burst of free agent activity but before the 2020 NFL Draft? The Patriots get the benefit of the doubt in the division’s top spot — but the teams that were once firmly in their rear view now threaten to pull up alongside them.

1. New England Patriots

Key additions: Beau Allen, Damiere Byrd, Adrian Phillips, Brandon Copeland

Notable losses: Tom Brady, Kyle Van Noy, Jamie Collins, Danny Shelton, Duron Harmon, Ted Karras, Nate Ebner, Stephen Gostkowski

The Pats are the favorites until proven otherwise, but New England may have just gone from the division’s best quarterback situation to its worst. Brady’s move to Tampa leaves the team’s current QB depth chart in some order of Jarrett Stidham, Cody Kessler, and, once again, Brian Hoyer.

Brady struggled with an underwhelming cast of targets last season. So far, head coach and general manager Bill Belichick has done little to fix that, with Byrd as the only new face. His 32 catches last season with the Cardinals were a career high by a mile.

Whomever takes the reins at quarterback will have to hope 2019 additions N’Keal Harry and Mohamed Sanu improve. With limited spending room thanks to the $13.5 million in dead cap Brady left behind, any major upgrades will likely have to come in the draft — where the Patriots have four of the top 100 picks, but no second-rounder due to last year’s Sanu trade.

Furthermore, several stars from 2019’s top-ranked defense have departed. Van Noy, Collins, and Shelton all rebounded from bad situations elsewhere to become key contributors in Foxborough. Now they’ve cashed in that vested stock for raises, leaving gaps in a sturdy-but-aging defense. Low-recognition signees like Allen, Phillips, and Copeland will try to boost their reputations in these openings, but none are a surefire bet.

Still, the Patriots have most of the parts of a championship defense under contract — like Devin McCourty, Dont’a Hightower, and reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore. Last year proved they could win 12 games (albeit against a relatively soft schedule) with a quarterback who ranked 18th among qualified starters in passer rating. All Belichick may need to win the AFC East for the 13th season in a row is a competent QB — even if the rest of the division is gunning for him harder than ever.

2. Buffalo Bills

Key additions: Stefon Diggs, Mario Addison, Vernon Butler, A.J. Klein, Daryl Williams, Quinton Jefferson, Tyler Matakevich, Josh Norman

Notable losses: Jordan Phillips, Shaq Lawson, Kevin Johnson

The Bills took full advantage of New England’s weakened grasp on the division by acquiring a wide receiver capable of speeding Josh Allen’s development. Diggs wasn’t a cheap addition; Buffalo shipped first-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-round picks for the Pro Bowl wideout and a seventh-rounder. But he’s coming off the best season of his career, is 26 years old, and is under contract for the next four seasons as a reasonable average salary of just under $12 million. He fills an immediate need and will assume the essential role of “guy who chases down Allen’s sorta-accurate bombs.”

Buffalo also did a good job filling the roles vacated by its two biggest free agent departures. Phillips had a breakthrough 2019, but his 9.5-sack season — he had 5.5 the previous four years — was likely unsustainable. Rather than pay big to retain him, the Bills will replace his impact with a combination of 2019 first-round pick Ed Oliver and free agent signees Butler and Jefferson.

The same goes for Lawson, whose edge-rushing duties will fall, in part, to veteran addition Addison. Those free agents will bring immediate production to the NFL’s sixth-most efficient defense, per Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric.

Former Carolina tackle Daryl Williams provides the experience necessary to let Cody Ford develop at his own pace at guard, or move inside should Ford be ready to hold down the right tackle spot. A deep well of draft talent should allow the club to pick up another pocket protector despite its lack of a first-round pick as well.

Whether or not the Bills can roll that momentum into a division title may hinge on whether Allen can continue his growth as a quarterback. This is still shaping up to be the best team Buffalo’s had since Jim Kelly was taking snaps.

3. Miami Dolphins

Key additions: Byron Jones, Kyle Van Noy, Shaq Lawson, Emmanuel Ogbah, Ereck Flowers, Ted Karras, Jordan Howard, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Clayton Fejedelem

Notable losses: none, so far

The Dolphins spent 2019 shipping out talent; 2020 has been all about reloading. Miami has handed out more than $233 million in contracts to lure other team’s free agents to Florida, rebuilding a defense that ranked dead last in efficiency last fall (by a large margin!) in the process.

Head coach Brian Flores is following the same blueprint his former employers did in New England by making his secondary the strength of his defense. Jones didn’t come cheaply at five years and $82.5 million, but he’ll team with Xavien Howard to give the Dolphins arguably the league’s top one-two punch at CB. Things aren’t as stable at safety, but signing Van Noy, Lawson, and Ogbah (18.5 sacks, 44 QB hits between them in 2019) will bring added pressure.

Miami’s offense remains a writhing ball of questions, starting at quarterback. Ryan Fitzpatrick rode his typical roller coaster between under- and overachievement last season, but he’ll give way to whichever rookie quarterback the team drafts this spring — whether that’s in Week 1, Week 8, or even in 2021. They’ll have a lineup of young skill players to target as well: DeVante Parker (recently extended in the midst of a 1,200-yard season), Mike Gesicki, Albert Wilson, and Howard are all under contract for 2020.

The Dolphins are still likely a year away from contention, but it’s not difficult to see the improvements they have made. We haven’t even gotten to the draft, where they will have three first-round picks, five of the first 56 selections, and 14 picks total. Miami still has plenty of room to add playmakers and the salary cap space to flip one or more of those picks for veteran help.

4. New York Jets

Key additions: George Fant, Connor McGovern, Greg Van Roten, Patrick Onwuasor, Pierre Desir, Breshad Perriman

Notable losses: Robby Anderson, Brandon Shell, Maurice Canady, Brandon Copeland, Brett Qvale, Tom Compton

Make no mistake: this offseason is all about giving Sam Darnold the tools to make the leap. After focusing on big-name defensive talent last spring, New York has moved its 2020 chess pieces to provide a clean path of attack. Fant, Van Roten, and McGovern will help overhaul a line that allowed the blossoming QB to be sacked 33 times in 13 games last season.

Perriman will be counted on to replace the mercurial Anderson as a deep threat. That will help reinforce the Jets’ existing playmaking infrastructure, which includes Le’Veon Bell (who averaged a career-low 3.2 yards per carry in 2019), Jamison Crowder, and ... huh, I guess that’s about it. That can be addressed with the No. 11 pick in the draft, which is stacked with stellar wideouts.

New York’s current lineup of free agent help are all useful, if unspectacular additions. There’s nothing here that suggests it will be enough to spark a turnaround. The Jets were worse than their 7-9 record would lead you to believe, losing games to then-winless teams in the Dolphins and Bengals in 2019. Head coach Adam Gase has done nothing to earn the team’s trust, especially after his former charges in Miami have often soared after escaping his influence (Parker, Jarvis Landry, Kenyan Drake, and, most of all, Ryan Tannehill).

New York has the talent to make a run. Unfortunately, a good chunk of the Gase experience so far has been creating a product that’s less than the sum of its parts.

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montgomerylvbe010-blog · 5 years

Text

I'm talking about the racing game Farm Expert 2017 Free

As a child, did you actually dream of extending up to become a farmer, spending the period charging near your rear yard with the toy tractor and trying to capture sheep in the nearby field to bring home with you? No, right us? Anyway never mind, even when that became the childhood ambition, Farm Expert 17 provides the opportunity to held also process the very own farm! The sport is nicely varied, with you having to fully prepare fields before plants can be extended, to ensuring you go livestock or they receive too older and fail, this activity will undoubtedly boost your organisational skills.

Farm Expert 2017's been buried, cultivated and produced by Silden and sold on the local produce market with PlayWay S.A.,FE17 definitely gives a few initial appeal for those who have a good simulation game. The game boasts some fairly clear impression as far as the weather is concerned, a right soundtrack when you hop in your tractor and plenty of to do and keep you tiling away for hours on end.

However, all these pieces are allowed overcome next to certain unfortunate and chronic bugs, together with some fairly horrendous curb and physics for the automobiles. And it is very varied, it goes through from the lack of depth which could leave a little underwhelmed. There is besides a multiplayer side to the game, though moving this to run remains much more akin to brown magic than computer games.

With no tale to talk about let's walk right into the nitty-gritty of what you can do from the entertainment. Since there is quite a bit. Now earlier I right start, I first want to come clean up then influence that was the primary ever really farming sim game (unless I could count Stardew Valley?) so I just want to step early then articulate sorry for any really noob-like comments. Push with…

Setting up is rather cool, after pack in you're satisfied with a menu asking to produce a report which is just a material of making a brand then go away from there. FE17 control a couple of modes you can choose from entering Free Journey and Multiplayer (I'll speak more about the multiplayer in a time). For me, however, the first go-to space lived the Article. There's somewhat of the language screen with some incorrect period and grammar, but after you move history to that all pretty straightforward. It worked out, still, carry everyone almost twenty seconds to figure out the way to help repeal since I stupidly thought it was a clean WASD setup rather than having to press Z first in order to change course. But following these hiccups, I did get myself enjoying the game. There's something strangely satisfying about having to undergo the motions of reversing up to a piece of equipment, hitching it in place, folding this left and then merrily tootling together toward the subject for a day's work.

After I had learned the basics of really turn and farming, I jumped even in work my own fully-fledged farm. You get several options to take from, basically ranging from Easy to Hard. Naturally, as a great amateur, I indicated the Simple option. Thanks to our choice I started off with a great total of currency and a good healthy sum of procedures already in my possession, so I could push right on with believe our former field, gathering a few plants and dealing with work. I found myself rather having my time as a farmer, finally achieving the target of determination a tractor.

Yet, I slowly started to notice a few mechanisms. For starters, the naming of the devices is just not up to scratch, specifically on the route that you'd think will be even but for some ungodly reason cause your vehicles to bump along constantly. The game and makes seem to factor in the swollen weight of things which you hitch upon your tractor, allowing you to accelerate in much the same time as you normally would. After a while, I discovered that the physics from the entertainment might produce some pretty horrendous cock-ups.

And later on, I too discovered that the farmsimulator.eu/farming-simulator-2013-titanium-edition-download/ ground actually took no influence on the swiftness of your car, allowing you to charge full speed up high mountains then carry on your own mini-adventure…

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So of course, the true physics of the competition give something to be needed. But the real gameplay is beautiful varied. So if you don't want to really need in yard and collecting crops all the time, then no worries! You can go into animal husbandry having a couple of different options that animals to keep and ensuring that to hold them fed as well as selling them for meat just before they die of other age. Before you may grow orchards to make your delicious fruit, having to fertilize and obtain the products yourself, and even have to carry the pack to the trailer! But you do want to remain with clear old-fashioned crop farming, in which case you have to take your crops depending on the season, carefully cultivate fields properly and then make sure not to help process them over or otherwise they'll be destroyed!

There's also vehicle preservation with attention to take into consideration, so that you have to cram up your own tractor with fuel and keep that working, make sure it's good and fresh (as apparently, that is chief for tractors?) as well as repair or increase that right away also over again to make life easier.

Pretty varied, just? Right. Unfortunately, that class does not translate to power or order. So sure, you can strengthen the plants, care for being and multiply fruit orchards. But there's no form in charge in the looks, so there's no need to research for improved accept or trade rates like every shop will give the same results. That lack of economy frankly lets down the main practice. Your dogs do need food, but not any run or time away from their pens. You don't still have to feed them yourself so something you buy gets automatically transferred to the pencils plus the beast somehow gain admission to the food themselves. And with orchards, after place and fertilizing them there's nobody more you really need to do until they're ready to be gathered. That lack of depth turns the game into more of an calendar watching experience.

You can hire a staff to help you out, watching them go about the job is vaguely interesting at first, but soon loses the novelty. Other NPCs in the sport don't provide any connection and generally, action to truly hear and give the world a resemblance of lifetime. Without success, I must tell.

There is too supposed to be a multiplayer element to the activity, but lord only gets how we may actually meet people. I've trawled many forums with news say similar problems with no resolution forthcoming. Multiplayer is there a little that is created last minute, so perhaps it will be improved in the future?

The first thing I'd state is how the game does not really have the most impressive image, with some of the textures looking pretty bitter and a significant few popping issues going on. But I'd consider the vehicles looked quite decent generally, and the weather effects were fairly well done. There's something oddly fascinating about watching puddles form with a subject while that raining.

It also gain several terra-forming effects as well, so when you're making the take some of the machines you use actually kind trenches and other alterations from the ground, which changes how the vehicle can operate over them, that is pretty nice. And also since what I understand by making a bit of examining, something that doesn't take place now Farming Simulator activity or different competitors. Character styles are fairly bland and forgettable, but aside from the unnecessary NPCs, there's not really enough characters around to take much notice.

I personally achieved the soundtrack really enjoyable. There was something a little entertaining about the music starting up when you shot in your own tractor. The fact that the thud of the engine changes counting at whether the within or outside of the vehicle was sweet cool too. However, once you noticed the cycling positive make, that begin as a bit annoying. And, when you got out of the tractor your individual would for some reason believe they were leap and reach the appropriate sound. As well as this a handful of the vehicles which got no doors still played the door shut sound each time you got off. A problem for me, but still a virus.

Due to the lack of exposure to previous farming sim games, I found myself enjoying Farm Expert 17 at first, but after I had partaken to all the varied tasks I found myself getting bored fairly swiftly. With eventually a number of the germ can attest to be significantly frustrating. If that match survived a little more developed then obtained selected degree put into it, i would indeed rate it higher. The multiplayer certainly feels tacked upon then the main experience just becomes somewhat of a drag eventually.

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magzoso-tech · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/coolpad-cool-5-review/

Coolpad Cool 5 Review

Coolpad launched a pretty interesting budget smartphone called the Cool 5 a couple of months ago. The company’s most recent budget offering came in just before Xiaomi launched the Redmi 8 in India, and it offers similar features and specifications at a tempting price. The Coolpad Cool 5 boasts of a decently big battery, a USB Type-C port, and dual rear cameras, all of which should appeal to buyers with tight budgets.

With a current market price of Rs. 7,499, should this be your next budget pick? Let’s find out.

Coolpad Cool 5 design

On similar lines as the Coolpad Cool 3 Plus (Review), which we tested back in August, the Coolpad Cool 5 doesn’t have the best aesthetics. The marketing pictures on the company’s website makes this phone look like it has super-slim bezels around the display and no chin whatsoever, but reality cannot be Photoshopped. Instead, the Cool 5 has visibly thick borders around the display, a prominent notch, and a fat chin at the bottom. It’s quite chunky at 8.2mm in thickness, but not very heavy at just 145g. The glossy plastic body attracts a lot of fingerprints and smudges very easily.

There’s a hybrid dual-SIM tray on the left, which can accommodate two Nano-SIMs or a single SIM and a microSD card for expanding storage. You get a headphone jack on the top and a USB Type-C port at the bottom. The volume and power buttons are placed on the right, and have good feedback. Overall, the phone is comfortable to hold, and despite the glossy sides, we didn’t find it to be very slippery. We had the Gradient Blue version, but it is available in other trims too.

The Coolpad Cool 5 doesn’t have the best aesthetics or a premium feel

The dual camera module protrudes only slightly at the back, which is nice to see. The capacitive fingerprint sensor works well, but this phone is a little slow at waking up after you are successfully authenticated. The Cool 5 also supports face recognition, which worked well for us in good ambient lighting, but also isn’t the quickest.

The Coolpad Cool 5 has a 6.22-inch HD+ display. Colours aren’t very vivid but viewing angles are decent. We found the display to be adequately bright when using it outdoors.

In the box, the Coolpad Cool 5 ships with a silicone case, a SIM eject tool, a Type-C cable, a screen guard, and a wall charger. Overall, the phone has decent enough build quality, and we’re happy to see a Type-C port on such a low-cost phone.

Coolpad Cool 5 specifications and software

The Coolpad Cool 5 uses the MediaTek Helio P22 octa-core SoC, which is an entry-level chip seen in phones such as the Realme C2 (Review). The Cool 5 is only sold in one configuration in India — with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, dual 4G VoLTE, USB-OTG, and GPS. There’s an accelerometer and a Hall sensor, but sadly the Cool 5 is missing something as basic as a compass, which means that Google Maps won’t show you the direction you’re facing. It’s also missing a gyroscope.

The Coolpad Cool 5 runs on a custom version of Android 9 Pie

Coolpad uses a custom version of Android 9 Pie, which hasn’t changed much since we reviewed the Cool 3 Plus a few months ago. The device also had the dated July 2019 Android security patch. The single-layered UI has elements of stock Android along with some customisations such as a Themes app. You get a few preinstalled third-party apps too but these can be uninstalled.

Even though it’s fairly easy to navigate the OS, we’re not big fans of a few design choices. For instance, uninstalling any app is a multi-step process involving a long-press of the icon, going into ‘App Info’, and then tapping the ‘uninstall’ button.

Coolpad Cool 5 performance and battery life

With general usage, the Coolpad Cool 5 held up quite well for a low-cost phone. Navigating Android was a relatively smooth affair, and multitasking was generally responsive. Due to the weak SoC though, apps still took a little long to load and heavier games struggled to deliver smooth framerates. Even in PUBG Mobile Lite, gameplay wasn’t the smoothest. This was reflected in benchmarks too. In AnTuTu, the Cool 5 returned 83,681 points while the GFXbench T-Rex test managed 25fps. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 in the Redmi 8 (Review) returned slightly better numbers such as 35fps in the latter test, for comparison.

The Cool 5 does an average job with multimedia playback. The speaker sounded tinny and one-sided, and the lack of punchiness in the display’s colours made for a somewhat underwhelming experience when watching videos. The phone can also be a little sluggish when it comes to adjusting the screen’s brightness based on changing ambient light.

The Coolpad Cool 5 is one of the few phones under Rs. 10,000 to sport a USB Type-C port

The Cool 5 packs in a 4,000mAh battery, which offers enough runtime to get you through one day, but not much else. With medium to heavy use, which typically involved a bit of gaming, social media and camera usage, we still had to charge the phone before we went to bed. In our HD video battery loop test, the Cool 5 ran for a little over 12 hours.

Charging wasn’t very quick either due to the lack of fast charging support. We were able to get the battery up from zero to 27 percent in half an hour, and up to 53 percent in an hour. To fully charge it, it took nearly three hours.

Coolpad Cool 5 cameras

The Cool 5 has a 13-megapixel primary rear camera with a 2-megapixel depth camera, and a 16-megapixel camera on the front. The main sensor has a very narrow f/2.8 aperture, which is not good at all for low-light photography. The camera app has a decent set of features, including all the basic shooting modes, and even a Pro mode. The Face Cute mode lets you add AR stickers to your face (when using the selfie camera), or any other person you’re taking photos of.

The camera takes a while to focus, and in low-light it takes a few tries before locking focus successfully. There’s also no indication of HDR kicking in, or even a manual toggle to force it, due to which most backlit scenes had overexposed areas.

Even under good light, the main rear camera produced poor results. Details were weak, colours looked completely off, and the dynamic range was poor. Close-up shots did come out slightly better but we really had to be patient while the camera focused and shots were saved. Portrait mode lets you adjust the level of blur, but image quality itself was very weak. We found the edge detection to be quite inaccurate too, and many objects which should have been blurred often weren’t.

Tap to see full-sized camera Coolpad Cool 5 camera samples

In low light, details were even weaker. There was lots of visible noise in photos, the focusing speed dipped greatly, and images just looked plain bad. Video recording tops out at 1080p, but even under good light, video quality was well below average. Continuous autofocus was also slow. Selfies shot with the Cool 5 weren’t very pleasing either. Even under good light, skin tones were off, colours looked unnatural, and Portrait mode was more of a miss than a hit.

Overall, the cameras on the Cool 5 are very disappointing and you wouldn’t want to use this phone even for basic social media posts.

Verdict

The Coolpad Cool 5 looked like a good contender on paper, but in reality, it was quite disappointing. At around this same price, the Redmi 8 (Review) or even the Realme 3i (Review) would be better options to buy. The Type-C port and compact size are probably this phone’s only redeeming points, but it falls short in pretty much every other area. Battery life is just average, the cameras are very disappointing, and the overall performance of the Helio P22 is not great.

We’d suggest giving the Coolpad Cool 5 a miss in favour of the Realme 3i or the Redmi 8.

#Miscellaneous

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level99games · 7 years

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Character of the Week: Hikaru

Welcome to the Character of the Week! Every Monday, we'll be giving you insights on a specific character. Think of this is a primer for everything about a character from one of our games. From lore to game-play, you'll find most of what you need to know here! For this week, our Character of the Week is Hikaru Sorayama!

Lore

"Motion, Power, Clarity, Purpose--to fight is to experience the thrill of living!"

“When you strike with the fire style, you just want to barely touch the target with the tips of your fingers. With your hand as a wedge, you inject the flame forcefully into the target’. Fire doesn’t need the help of your strength to be destructive, just the guidance of your will to find its destination.”

-Hikaru Sorayama

Background

Hikaru is a free-spirited seeker of adventure who travels the world in search of new challenges and experiences. Treasure and fame hold no value for him. Instead, he searches for sights unseen and to test the limits of his own skills. He is good-natured and with a strong sense of personal justice, though he sometimes lacks patience and often lacks due caution. He throws himself body and spirit into whatever the task at hand is, without looking back or hesitating.

As student of geomancy--the magic of elements--who has some elemental heritage of his own, Hikaru is a fighter who utilizes the power of the world around him to aid his strength in battle. After graduating from university, Hikaru traveled around Indines and undertook many different self-directed adventures in his quest to discover his own limits and perfect an original martial arts style.

During the Plot of BattleCON: War

During the timeline of BattleCON: War, Hikaru joins his friend Khadath on a mission to find Cherri Seneca, a girl who could be the key to unleashing an alien invasion upon Indines if she is not saved in time. While Khadath is mainly interested in the mission itself, Hikaru sees the adventure as an opportunity to travel and fight alongside friends.

In order to help stand against the many threats that face Indines, and to hopefully do a little good, Hikaru teams up with a newly met friend, Rukyuk Amberdeen, and sets up the Champions of Indines Mercenary company. The Champions are dedicated to fighting powerful monsters and diffusing international threats, and are one of the few mercenary companies in Indines that do not engage in international conflicts.

Later Adventures

After the events in War and his adventures with the Champions, Hikaru decides that he does not wish to involve himself in the international war that might be coming to Indines. Instead, he joins up with an explorer's company, the Sun Chaser's Guild and embarks on a high-seas adventure that eventually leads him to the unknown continent across the great eastern sea. What adventures he finds on that voyage and on his return home are yet to be revealed.

10 Facts About Hikaru

He studied Geomancy at Argent University. While his academics are mediocre, his practical skills were rated exceptionally.

He is a half-elemental (Light elemental, on his father’s side). He has a younger half-sister, Sami Rekar (they have the same mother) who attends Argent as well.

He is developing his own martial arts style, the Way of the Four Fists, based on the four elements. Each element focuses on a different style of striking.

He is good friends with Pendros Schalla, an upperclassman who left Argent in Hikaru’s second year. Pendros's travels across Indines were an inspiration for Hikaru to become an adventurer as well.

He has a strong sense of personal justice, and can’t stand by while evil is being done.

Because of his light-elemental heritage, he wakes promptly and energetically at sunrise, and becomes tired very quickly after dusk. His training can help to suppress this fatigue.

He almost joined a mercenary company, the Lost Sons of Relecour, but adventuring with Khadath got in the way of that career.

After his adventures in BattleCON: War, he helps Rukyuk to found the Champions of Indines Mercenary Company.

He does not get along well with his stepfather, Karlton Rekar, so he avoids returning home whenever possible.

He met Khadath during his first year at Argent, and the two have been close friends ever since.

Game-play

Hikaru's a jack-of-all-trades character with powerful offensive capabilities. Using his Elemental Tokens, he is able to supercharge one of his stats to the point where he out-does some specialists! Sticking to his opponents and careful Token management are vital to Hikaru's success.

Friends Close. Enemies Closer.

Key to playing a good Hikaru is acknowledging the fact that his range options are limited. Without his Water Token, nearly every attack Hikaru plays will only have Range 1. This gives you a huge incentive to get up in your opponent's face and stay on the offensive. Once in melee, Hikaru's aggressive arsenal allows him to lay the beat-down on his opponents.

It is, therefore, important that you attempt to move forward as you attack, anticipating that many opponents will want to retreat from your onslaught. Smart use of Advancing Drive and Sweeping Palmstrike will allow you to pin-down opponents. However, should your opponent find some way to distance themselves from you, do not be afraid to use your Dodge base to get back into melee.

Power Spikes

While Hikaru might do well by damaging opponents with fast attacks, he also has access to powerful blows that can hit for upwards of 7 damage! As a Hikaru player, it is important to identify key moments to use these huge power spikes as they tend to be the attacks that win Hikaru games. Hence, should your opponent's defensive options be down, don't hesitate to blast them into next week with a full-powered Geomantic Shot. This is especially powerful because Geomantic's Start of Beat effect allows you to add another Token to your attack after seeing your opponent's attack pair, letting you pick the right effect to counter their plays.

Making opponents fear your powerful Token-fueled pairs offers you more space to breathe while your opponents are on the defensive. During this, it may be wise to recover some of your power as, without Tokens, Hikaru is quite an underwhelming fighter.

Reuse and Recycle

Many of Hikaru's most powerful plays come from anteing his Elemental Tokens. Given that his Unique Ability prevents him from recovering the same Token that he antes in a given beat, he has a built-in recovery period to his poweful attacks. Hikaru's Fire Token, which gives Power +3, tends to be his most powerful Token and with good reason. Not only does it make his hits massive, it also meshes well with his fast attacks, possibly allowing him to stun targets that he would not have otherwise.

It is, therefore, key that Hikaru attempt to cycle and recover his Tokens as much as possible. However, this does not mean that he has put a stop to his offense. Focused and Palmstrike only recover Tokens if Hikaru hits and damages his foes, meaning that you'll have to recover your Tokens in the heat of combat! And, while Trance recovers him Tokens even without hitting anyone, using it in conjunction with Strike can often yield positive results.

Summary and Discards

Strengths

Great offensive kit with ample advance effects.

Access to Geomantic Shot, one of the game's most powerful attacks.

Weaknesses

Relies on Elemental Tokens to be effective.

Ranged capabilities leave much to be desired.

Discards

Special Grasp

Trance Strike

Video Guide

CLICK HERE if you want to watch Hikaru's BattleGUIDES video!

Credits

Lore Section - Brad Talton Jr. Game-play Section - Marco De Santos

#Hikaru #Sorayama #Character #Character of the Week

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fan-of-mulligan · 6 years

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FOM BLOG: GILLINGHAM SUPPORTERS REPORT (PART TWO)

At the start of the season, and after Fifteen League Games Of The Season, I asked Gillingham Supporters for there thoughts and opinions on Gillingham’s Player Recruitment, Where Do Gillingham Need To Strengthen The Squad In The January Transfer Window, And Questions About Gillingham’s Home Form, If you want to check out those blogs in full, then here are a few links to those respective blogs - http://fan-of-mulligan.tumblr.com/post/176599990077/fom-blog-gillingham-supporters-season-preview-for AND http://fan-of-mulligan.tumblr.com/post/179698794922/fom-blog-gillingham-supporters-report-part-one

This blog is a follow up blog to the two previous blogs that Several Gillingham Supporters have participated in, the first blog was a question and answer session before the start of the season, and the second blog saw Gillingham Supporters answer questions after Fifteen League Games, After this third blog for The 2018 / 2019 Season, there will be one more Gillingham Supporters Blog for the end of The 2018 / 2019 Season, Answering these questions are the following Gillingham Supporters,,,, Richard, Luke, Emlyn, ForzaGills, We_Need_Eaves, Dave, BQGillsFan, Mac, Colin, Rob, Smithy, Marc, Stocky, Loonpotter, Louis, Matthew, Gills Debate, and Lewis.

I want to thank every Gillingham Supporter for contributing to the blog, not only the supporters who participated in the first blog, but also the newcomers who have given there thoughts and opinion’s on the first fifteen league games of The 2018 / 2019 Season For The Gills, Now on to the questions and answers.

1, AFTER THIRTY LEAGUE GAMES, GILLINGHAM ARE NINETEENTH IN THE LEAGUE ONE TABLE WITH THIRTY THREE POINTS, HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP GILLINGHAM’S PERFORMANCE IN LEAGUE ONE SO FAR THIS SEASON, AND WHAT DO YOU THINK GILLINGHAM WILL NEED TO DO IF GILLINGHAM ARE TO START CLIMBING THE TABLE AND HEAD IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ???

Richard - Inconsistent. Yes the home form is a concern but I'm more concerned by the number of pathetic goals we concede. Don't mind being beaten by a stunner but 9 of 10 we concede is due to poor defending.

Luke - My feelings haven't changed an awful lot since the last round of these questions after Bradford. Still average to poor in the league. Having an FA Cup run however has been bit of a nice change and the scenes when Elliott List scored against Cardiff I will remember for a long time. A lot of inconsistencies need to be ironed out but the new signings will hopefully add some fresh impetus into the team.

Emlyn - It’s disappointing to be in the position we are in at the moment, to climb out of it Im not too sure, maybe a different formation like the one used in the last few games, stick with this one for a while and see how the results go, we were unlucky against Accrington(wasn’t at Coventry), we were creating chances and looked more dangerous going forward, so I’d prob give that a go for the foreseeable.

ForzaGills - I think our current league position is lower than most would've hoped, but about right in terms of what we'd have realistically expected at the start of the season. With little opportunity to invest in the squad Steve Lovell’s done an ok job of getting a young squad together capable of competing at this level, but we’re a long way off a playoff push or even mid-table at this stage. If we’re going to start climbing the table, we need to stop conceding so many soft goals, particularly at home.

We_Need_Eaves - one dimensional. Have a plan b for when plan a doesn’t work IE: use wingers.

Dave - There have been some positive results so far for the gills. However, inconsistency has been our biggest issue again. We haven’t had a run of results where we have won 4 or 5 games with a couple of draws in a row. If we can do that we should be fine since we are essentially 6 wins away from the magic 50.

BQGillsFan - Gillingham's season is getting more and more infuriating as it goes on. We have a team capable of putting in big performances but we don't do it in the games we need to. Dropping too many points in winnable games and not showing any consistency on a week to week basis. At this point I'm not sure what Gills can do, it's going to be a nervy end to the season.

Mac - It’s been pretty poor so far but I think we could climb the league if we carry on playing wingers.

Colin - The squad lacks creativity in midfield. We have too many agricultural players. The defensive unit of Fuller, Ehmer, Zakuani and Ogilvie can't deal with pace. Maybe the new loan players can give us a better blend. The upside is that Eaves and Hanlan look likely to get more goals.

Rob - I think Gillingham have been poor this season. We're just above the relegation zone for another season and results continue to be unimpressive. However, that is not particularly unexpected as this level of performance was predicted by many before the season began. To improve results and move up the table, Gillingham had to do two things in the winter: keep Eaves and sign more players. We have done both.

Smithy - Looking at the stats and how we've been on the pitch, it's plain to see it's been a mixed bag so far. Performance-wise I don't think we've seen the best from this squad this season. It seems to be very stop-start. At the start of this campaign I was really hopeful that we could do well. However not to be. I feel slightly let down to be honest, we have the ability to be doing so much better than we are, and it's such a shame.

Going forward we need to remain positive, I think the boys need to be more confident and just fight more. Some players need to realise what they're capable of, and show us.

Marc - Underwhelming and inconsistent. I fully expected us to be comfortably in the middle of the table and pushing for the top half. The home form needs to improve drastically as we’ve already seen this season that our away form isn’t as good as last season. Get the home form right and we’ll be pushing up the table.

Stocky - I think we are consistently inconsistent. We Go on a run and look as if we have no relegation worries then we go through a bad patch and are sucked right in it again. I think the home form is a massive area of concern; it used to be a fortress and now we make it easy for teams to pick up points.

Loonpotter - The problem for me is the inconsistency so if we just performed we probably wouldn't be in this position.

Louis - It’s been massively inconsistent really, one step forward, 2 steps back. We need to start winning games and being better defensively.

Matthew - I think after thirty league games we are not doing very well but now with the new signings we can now improve. I think we need to sort out the defending side of our game tho.

Gills Debate - Frustratingly inconsistent for me. This group of players have shown that they can put in good performances and pick up good results at this level, but in order to properly climb up the table we need to put together a good run of results over a decent number of games, which unfortunately we haven’t really been able to do. At the end of October/beginning of November we beat Bradford 4-0 and Fleetwood 3-0, but then lost the next 3 in the league. At the beginning of January, we got back to back wins against Cardiff and Burton (albeit the Burton one was a bit fortuitous), but then in the next game we put in a really disappointing performance against Walsall. The inconsistency in results is frustrating, but Southend in 12th are only 5 points ahead of us, so if we can get a good run together then we should pull away from those places just above the bottom 4.

Lewis - I think the best word to describe it is inconsistency. We started well, then we fell flat, like, really flat, then we picked up again, and ever since it’s been up and down. We have a good squad, one that shouldn’t be in this situation, and it’s obvious home form needs to change to help us progress. We need to defend better, but it’s all about results now.

2. WHO DO YOU THINK HAS BEEN GILLINGHAM’S MOST IMPROVED PLAYER THIS SEASON ???

Richard - Elliott List. Wasn't convinced when we signed him to a 2 year deal, thought 1 would be appropriate, but he goes to show the difference some game time and confidence can make.

Luke - My answer also still remains Elliott List. 7 goals this season is more than double his best tally so far in a Gills shirt and he's now starting to show the confidence to run at people, keep going and creating things. He's not looked quite as effective in the last couple of games playing wide left for me, but Lovell has confidence in him and hopefully that will help spur Listy on. Also shout-out to DJ Oldaker who looks a lot more of a complete midfielder this season but I think he's still got a lot further to go before he's at his best.

Emlyn - Ogilvie has improved a lot on last season, Rees looks to now be showing what he is capable off, the last 4 games he has deserved his place!, Oldaker obviously and Eaves has almost beaten his goal tally of last year already, There are improvements to more than just one player!

ForzaGills - Elliott List for me. You could argue that his progression started at the back end of last season but it’s the last few months in which he’s really kicked on. When the team looks flat and void of ideas and creativity, as has often been the case this season, he seems to be the one player than constantly looks to get on the ball, run and people, and try and make things happen.

We_Need_Eaves - Until recently I’d of said Ogilvie however now it’s List.

Dave - For me it has been Connor Ogilvie. He was obviously a much better player defensively last season than he was going forward. This season he seems to have grown in confidence going forward and it has shown at times. His defensive performances have also been improved at times with a standout being Cardiff. Hopefully we can continue to see this and we can get him on a permanent at the end of the season.

BQGillsFan - Easily Elliott List. He's gone from a few bench appearances to being arguably our most important player other than Eaves.

Mac - Elliot List.

Colin - Barry Fuller has surprised me given where he was when he left us for Wimbledon.

Rob - The most improved player this season is either List or Oldaker. List has had a regular run in the side for a number of months, both scoring and creating chances. However, he still drifts out of the game too often for my liking and now has some serious competition on the wings. Oldaker has also massively improved. He barely featured last season but I'm glad he was offered a deal. This season has been a break through for him – he's both playing in rotation and has contributed on the field, especially his fantastic FA Cup goal. However, he still needs to perform consistently to play regularly and there are still questions about his attitude in training.

Smithy - Personally for me I think I have to say List. He's been around a while now and ever since that goal down at Bristol at the end of last season I think something clicked and he's moved on this season. He's one of the names we almost expect to see start now and I've no doubt there's much more to come from him.

Marc - Elliot List for me. Showed glimpses last season of what he could do and he’s taken his chance this season and scored some good goals. He’s forced his way into the starting 11 this time round and is impressing.

Stocky - Based on my expectation, I am going to go with List and Fuller. I wasn't sure of List being offered a new deal but he's proved me wrong and has grabbed the bull by the horns. Fuller I expected to be a squad player only but is now out first choice right back and his effort is outstanding.

Loonpotter - I’m not sure anyone has really improved on last season.

Louis - Elliott List for me.

Matthew - Elliot List has definitely been our most improved and some time important with his work rate.

Gills Debate - During the course of the season, I think I’d possibly go with Josh Rees. I think it’s taken him a while to adapt to playing at a higher level, but over the last month or so I think he’s improved a lot. The big thing for me is that I think he looks a lot more confident as a player, and that’s probably been helped by the goals that he’s scored against Burton Albion and Swansea City. If he can score goals on a consistent basis, then he’ll be a big asset to the side. In comparison to last season, I think I’d go with Elliott List. For me he’s often looked like a player with potential, but he’s been able to turn that potential into performances this season.

Lewis - For me there’s no doubt it’s Elliott List. There was huge relief when he got his goal against Bristol Rovers, and this season he’s really kicked on from that. He can play out wide or through the middle, and he’s scoring goals. Let’s not forget he’s only 21 as well. We’ve got a very solid League One player on our hands, one that I think could go further.

3. AND WHO DO YOU THINK HAS BEEN GILLINGHAM’S MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER THIS SEASON ???

Richard - Tomas Holy. Particularly since the "announcement" he wouldn't be signing.

Luke - Could choose anyone of the three players that left us in January. Wilkinson had a real opportunity to nail a first team place down this season but didn't. Parker has looked less interested and lazier to me this season although I do appreciate he has been played out of position for a number of games, his goal stats however don't look anywhere near as good as last season. Finally poor old Navid Nasseri. Probably didn't get enough of a chance this season especially when we've been chasing games but Loves saw him day in and day out so if he wasn't the right option, perhaps his future is best elsewhere.

Emlyn - Don’t Know.

ForzaGills - Luke O’Neil. Started well with a great free kick against Burton but was dislodged by Barry Fuller pretty early on and has struggled to get back into the squad on a regular basis. When he has played recently, I think he’s been poor more often than not. Maybe I’ve come to expect too much from him after last season, but I personally thought he’d be more important to us than he has been.

We_Need_Eaves - Bradley Garmston.

Dave - N/A

BQGillsFan - It's hard to look beyond Mark Bryne as being a complete let down this season. I've sung this guys praises for so long and he was my player of the year last season, but this campaign has been one bad performance after another and I'm shocked he's still starting every week.

Mac - Bradley Garmston.

Colin - Luke O'Neill has really suffered a big drop in confidence and form. As a result we are playing Ogilvie as a Left Back. Byrne is also a shadow of what he was.

Rob - The most disappointing player is, for me, a choice between either Parker, O'Neill, or Reilly. Josh Parker scored 12 goals last season and I was expecting a similar return this year. This has not happened. He was sent home by Lovell during the winter and, although he returned to play, hasn't been the same player this year. A continuing legal battle with his former employers in Serbia cannot be helping. I was surprised to see him leave for Charlton in the transfer window but perhaps this a good move for all parties.

Luke O'Neill has not hit the height of last season – that is not to say he has been playing bad this term. However, he has often lost his place to the ancient Barry Fuller and has not been quite as effective in his deliveries from the wing back position. One of our most creative players in the 2017-18 season, a bit of consistency and improved performance would definitely increase our attacking output.

Callum Reilly is perhaps a harsh choice here. He looked fantastic on loan last season and I fully expected him to continue with that level this year. Unfortunately, this seems not to have happened. He's often been paired with Byrne and this creates a midfield full of effort and endeavour but little creativity.

Smithy - The most disappointing player for me was a hard one. There are a couple of players who in my opinion haven't shown the same ability, If I have to pick one, it's Callum Reilly. I liked him when we had him on loan, very much. I thought he had something about him. I spoke to him at the end of last season and asked his thoughts on a permanent move and he seemed like that would be a good move. It was the name I wanted to hear we'd signed in the summer and I was delighted when we did. I think he's got talent, I like him a lot and I would love to see him excel however I just don't feel he's been at it more often than he's not sadly.

Marc - Sadly I’d say Luke O’Neil. Last season he was my favourite player in the squad but he’s struggled this time round and has only shown glimpses of what he can do. It’s not all his fault though. Barry Fuller has come in and has been better than expected which has meant Luke’s been in and out of the side and when he has played its often been out of position. I think he can certainly turn it around and I’d offer him a new deal it it was down to me.

Stocky - For me it has to be Parrett. He undoubtedly has quality but it hasn't been seen often enough partly.due to injury. For me it's similar to when we had Wagstaff; a good name on paper but not on the pitch often enough.

Loonpotter - Most disappointing possibly Josh Parker.

Louis - Mark Byrne for me, just don’t feel he’s hit the heights and has played the best he can like we saw last season.

Matthew - I think Parker has been very disappointing but now he has left it gives others a chance.

Gills Debate - I had been a bit disappointed with Parker’s performances this season. I often thought that he was a quite a clever player with a decent ‘football brain’, and 12 goals in all competitions last season was a decent return for a side that finished in the bottom half of the table, but I don’t think he had been as good this season – Perhaps the ongoing case with Red Star Belgrade has had a part to play with that. That being said, I was still slightly disappointed to see that he had left for Charlton, because when he’s played well, he’s been an important part of the side in my opinion.

Lewis - I’ll chose 2 - Luke O’Neill & Tomas Holy. Both were absolutely brilliant last year, and I think both have struggled quite a lot this season. It’s got to the point where Holy is making a mistake most games now (whether it leads to a goal or not), and I think he’d be lucky to get that Championship offer at this point. As for Luke O’Neill, he’s been dropped a few times this season for Mr 100% Barry Fuller, who I think was only supposed to be a back up when he was bought back. We could really do with both O’Neill and Holy picking up their form from last season.

4. TRANSFER WINDOW QUESTION NUMBER ONE: GILLINGHAM HAVE EXTENDED CONNOR OGILVIE’S LOAN SPELL UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON, AND GILLINGHAM HAVE SIGNED BILLY KING, RICKY HOLMES, GRAHAM BURKE, TAHVON CAMPBELL AND LEONARDO DA SILVA LOPEZ ON LOAN UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON, HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP GILLINGHAM’S TRANSFER BUSINESS IN THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW ???

Richard - Promising. Some greater strength in depth. The Holmes one is entirely dependent on his fitness. Could be a season changed, could be a waste. Time will tell.

Luke - Well it looked pretty dire until the last two days of the window but what a thrilling deadline day we had. Very pleased with the players we have brought in and actually gives us more options to vary the shape with Holmes, King & Campbell all able to play out wide. Very happy with the caliber we have brought in also as they have either played at a higher level or on the International stage. Ogilvie can be hit and miss but we have had much worse. I for am very excited to see Ricky Holmes in a Gills shirt (when he is fit of course).

Emlyn - Pleased with Ogilvie he’s played very well at times this season, and personally preferred it if he stayed!, The new signings should definitely add something different to the team in a positive way, really looking forward to watching Holmes though, He’s always been brilliant when I’ve seen him play against us, If him alone was the only signing in January I would have been happy with just that!

With the other additions it looks to have been a really good window - Time will tell of course.

ForzaGills - The January window was brilliant, deadline day especially. Of course, we can’t judge these new lads until we see them play, they could all turn out to be a disaster, but they all look promising and like they have something to offer the squad. New faces will no doubt shake up the squad and add a bit of life to the dressing room. I’m particularly excited by Leonardo Da Silva Lopez and Ricky Holmes.

We_Need_Eaves - Very active to remedy the issue of not having a plan B.

Dave - I am overall very happy with the club’s transfer business. They brought in a couple of players with some evident league one pedigree in Da Silva Lopez and Holmes and they will be great additions. I am also happy with the others and I believe they will make a positive impact. On first glance at Graham Burke, I think he offers something different to what we had. On Saturday he looked comfortable on the ball and tried to make things happen. Maybe should have scored, but some very positive signs.

BQGillsFan - In the context of the remainder of the season, it's a cracking set of signings to get in to the team. Ogilvie has massively stepped up from 17/18 season and glad to see him back. Holmes is a top drawer signing for League One as well. My fear is that they are all loan deals and if they play well enough to keep us up, they will be gone come summer time and we're straight back to square one.

Mac - Very good.

Colin - So many loanees looks like panic and an admission that the squad was way off the mark despite all the "we have cover in every position" hogwash. Hopefully a couple of them can get in the starting eleven and make a difference.

Rob - Our transfer window business has been very surprising. Extending Ogilvie's loan was a no-brainer and hardly surprising - I would also be surprised if we do not sign him permanently in the summer. However, our deadline day spending spree was unprecedented and a delight for fans. We needed players in and we have signed some! A deluge of wingers should hopefully end Lovell's "we don't play with wingers" though process and allow us to have good wing play to fully utilise Eaves's aerial ability. Burke looked promising on his debut, finding pockets of space and willing to have the ball. If I'm being super critical he may have spent a little too much time dwelling in possession but that will surely be rectified with training sessions with his new teammates. The additions of King and Holmes (when fit) will also add width and quality on the ball and this can only be a good thing. Campbell is a surprising signing given he's on loan from a team in a league below us, but I am intrigued to see how he does. Leo Da Silva Lopes is a name that I have heard many good things about and Wigan were willing to spend big money on him. Peterborough fans seems less enthused about his performances at the club, but he is still young and could add some real quality to our midfield.

Smithy - Generally I think we done quite well from the January transfer window. Although all the deals are loans I still think it's good business as on paper strengthened in areas where we may have been a bit weak. I'm very hopeful of at least 2-3 of them being very useful indeed between now and May.

Marc - I’d say it’s been positive. Ogilvie for me has improved this season. He’s a decent defender but lacks a bit going forward. I think he gets a lot of unfair stick from our fans who think that because he’s come from Spurs he should be a superstar. We had to wait a while for most of our business but in Ricky Holmes and Graham Burke I think we’ve got a couple of quality players. I’m interested to see how Lopes gets on too. Was highly rated at Peterborough and hasn’t played much at Wigan. Campbell and king are low risk moves but could both prove to be good business.

Stocky - I think it's been good, we haven't seen a deadline day like that! I haven't seen any negativity about any of the signings despite some coming from the lower leagues so hopefully that indicates some potential. The signing of 2 wingers is interesting and hints at either a plan to change the formation or a plan b.

Loonpotter - Done some good business.. if fit, Ricky Holmes is probably one of the best players in this division.

Louis - Very good. We have signed wingers and positions we needed and have brought in some real talent.

Matthew - I think it has been very positive. All the new signings will be useful. I am not a big fan of Ogilvie and I feel he is the week link at the moment.

Gills Debate - I thought that extending Ogilvie’s loan was a sensible piece of business, and it was good to see that Lovell was backed to add players to the squad, and I’m excited to see what the new additions can offer the team. Burke obviously got to play the full 90 minutes on his debut for the club last Saturday, and I thought that there were some good signs – He looked like he had a good touch and I thought that he was confident when he was on the ball. There were perhaps a couple of occasions where he shot when maybe passing the ball on would have been a better option, but on the flip side that does show that he is confident. The only real disappointment for me was that we weren’t able to add an ‘enforcer’ style midfielder to the squad, as I do feel that we lack that kind of player in the middle of the park.

Lewis - It was brilliant, wasn’t it? We needed wingers, we got wingers, and that’s the main thing. Ricky Holmes will be a brilliant signing if he can get fit - we know all about him from his time tormenting us at Charlton. Graham Burke looks very good on the ball, and early signs of Lopes & King are positive too. It would’ve been nice if we’d have got some permanent ones in, but this is risk free, which is another positive.

5. TRANSFER WINDOW QUESTION NUMBER TWO: JOSH PARKER, NAVID NASSERI, LEROY HLABI AND CONOR WILKINSON HAVE ALL LEFT GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB DURING THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ON THESE FOUR PLAYERS MOVING ON ??? AND WHICH PLAYER FROM THESE FOUR LISTED ARE YOU MOST SURPRISED ABOUT LEAVING GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB ???

Richard - Surprised by Parker but not disappointed. Yes he contributed some goals but never rated his passing or creativity, personal opinion. Otherwise no major players left. Think we have, again potentially, strengthened what's left.

Luke - Mainly covered this in question 3 tbf. I was surprised to see Parker get a move to Charlton as they're meant to be a side chasing promotion and he's perhaps not the 15-20 goal a season striker they've lost in Karlan Grant. Hope they all do well in their careers, unless they're coming up against us of course.

Emlyn - I have no problems with any of them leaving, obviously more surprised with Parker going!

ForzaGills - I was shocked that Josh Parker left, that seemed to come out of nowhere. Although not always consistent he was certainly versatile and scored some important goals. Conor Wilkinson was destined to leave, bar the goal at Fratton Park last season he’s been pretty dreadful. Navid Nasseri left for personal reasons so wish him well, I would’ve liked to see him get more game time. Never seen Leroy Hlabi play so couldn’t comment on him.

We_Need_Eaves - Great business by the club as 3 of them didn’t play for us and Parker was a real shock, didn’t see it coming. What about Nash? No surprise though as he had no future with us.

Dave - I am disappointed that it didn’t work out for the four that did leave. You always want players to succeed and it is a shame. Wilkinson showed glimpses of brilliance at times and will be remembered for his beauty at Pompey. However, he seems settled at Dagenham and I am happy he is scoring goals. I am most surprised about Josh Parker, was something I didn’t see coming at all.

BQGillsFan - I'm surprised that Parker left but I'm not going to say I'm disappointed. This season he's barely played and when he has, he's quite simply been awful. Centrally he's been outshone by List and even O'Neill has done better as a winger than Parker. The other three I'm not so surprised by and getting them off the wage bill can only help the feint dream of some investment in other players down the line.

Mac - It’s good because it frees up wages and they weren’t starting 11 players. I’m most surprised by Parker.

Colin - No surprise. It will be interesting to see whether Bowyer can make something of Parker.

Rob - As stated earlier, I was surprised to see Josh Parker leave. While he has been less effective this year than last, he was still getting regular games in the side. However, a move to Charlton may rejuvenate the Antiguan and boost his career further. Not a great loss considering our replacements, and a good move for all concerned. I fully expected Connor Wilkinson to depart having been loaned to Dagenham days after being sent home by the manager. Navid Nasseri is a player that barely featured last season or this. While he looked good on his goal-scoring debut, he also was very lightweight in the hustle-and-bustle of a League 1 relegation battle. A player that is better suited to a more technical game, I wonder if his career would be better suited to somewhere like Scandinavia. I don't think I've ever seen Hlabi play and his contract was simply because he missed a good chunk of this third year as a scholar. I expect to see him ply his trade across the Ryman League for years to come.

Smithy - Without doubt I was most surprised to see Josh Parker leave us in this window. I didn't see that coming to be honest. He's not been his best this season, that's not to say I didn't like him. He was great last year, chipping in with the goals, however if he feels this is the right move for him then I wish him all the best.

Navid I liked, I think he's got potential. He's only young so hopefully he'll find his feet and progress somewhere that he's happy. Having not been in/around the squad for some time I wasn't particularly surprised to hear he'd left, Mr Wilkinson, what can I say. He's got talent, when he wants to apply it. I wish him the best of luck but I'm sorry I'm not overly sad to see him go, As for Leroy Hlabi, whatever suits the lad for his future. I hope he does well but I can't comment on him personally as I've never seen him play.

Marc - Josh Parker I was most surprised about. Surprised but not gutted. He’s done a job for us over the last 2 years, alright not been as consistent this season as last but he’s been involved in most match day squads and he probably suffered from Elliot List’s development. Connor Wilkinson moving on was probably best for all concerned. Rarely got a run of games and when he did some fans slated him because maybe they expected him to be another Tom Eaves. He’s gone down to the national league now and maybe if he hits a bit of good form he’ll get back in the league. Good luck to him. Nasseri seemed to be treated as just another number in this squad. An unused sub for the first months of the season but was soon cast off when the likes of Oldaker got his chance. I don’t know why this didn’t happen sooner. It wasn’t doing him any good not playing and he now has a bit of time to get himself fixed up for next season. Hlabi was a no risk move. Sadly it didn’t work out for him but good luck to him.

Stocky - Most surprised is Josh Parker, I don't think anyone saw that one coming. I felt frustrated for Nasseri as he looked a good player in the brief times he played but didn't get enough game time.

Loonpotter - Quite surprised that Josh left despite performances dropping and was delighted to see Conor Wilkinson leave.

Louis - I’m not too bothered by any of them leaving really, I think Parker going to Charlton surprised me. Didn’t see it coming.

Matthew - Navid Nasseri because I feel he did not get the chance to play that often.

Gills Debate - The only real disappointment for me was perhaps Josh Parker leaving as I mentioned in question 3, and his departure was the only real one that surprised me. We’d spent the final few days of the window wondering if Eaves was going to leave, but I didn’t expect Parker to go anywhere! I think that Wilkinson going was the best decision for all concerned and it sounds like he’s done well at Dagenham & Redbridge, whilst Nasseri showed a bit of promise last season but he hasn’t been able to secure a spot in the 1st team this time around.

Lewis - Before the window I wouldn’t have said any of them got in our ‘best XI’ and I didn’t think any of them had a long term future at Gillingham, so I don’t mind too much. Wilkinson clearly has a few problems so I’ve no sadness about him leaving. Hlabi and Nasseri I liked but I don’t think Leroy was ever going to break through & it seems Nav has some personal problems, which I hope he sorts ASAP. Josh Parker was the one I didn’t see coming, especially to Charlton. He was a frustrating player but on his day he knew where the goal was, and certain aspects of his game, such as his hold up play and passing ability were solid. It seemed like he was in favour so it was a weird one, but I’m not gutted by it.

6. DARREN OLDAKER HAS SIGNED A TWO AND A HALF YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION WITH GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON DARREN OLDAKER SIGNING A NEW CONTRACT EXTENSION, AND ALSO, WHICH PLAYER CURRENTLY IN THE SQUAD WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE GILLINGHAM OFFER A NEW CONTRACT TO ???

Richard - Pleased to see he's committed, he's got a lot of pressure to be Dack 2.0 so mentally he needs to be ready. Eaves will be the one but can't blame him for wanting to try at a bigger club.

Luke - Very excited to see Oldaker progress further with the Gills. I hope he can earn himself a foothold in the side permanently at some point and that he just continues to progress. Eaves would be the obvious choice for a new deal but it's unlikely he will stay so I will go with Barry Fuller. Has been very consistent this season and was only awarded a one year deal last summer and I thoroughly hope he stays onto next year. Keeping hold of O'Neill & Lacey would be good business if they can both stay fit. Bingham for me is a lost cause sadly due to his injuries.

Emlyn - Very happy that Oldaker has signed a new contract, I think he will be an important player for us and sooner rather than later, I rate him highly already!

And obviously we would all love Eaves to sign a new contract!!

ForzaGills - Really pleased that DJ signed a new deal, he’s an exciting player who will only get better. I think he’s one of those players that will either fade away into mediocrity or get snapped up by a bigger club. He’s got all the ability, it’s whether he knows how to use it. Elliott List and Bradley Garmston deserve new deals.

We_Need_Eaves - Oldaker is good business as he has potential. Obvious but it has to be Eaves. If not Eaves then List.

Dave - I am delighted that DJ has signed a new deal. He has shown great promise in the games he has played in and is a fantastic dead ball specialist. He is definitely one for the future and has shown great maturity since getting back into the team. The one player I want to sign a new deal is obviously Tom Eaves.

BQGillsFan - I'm very happy to see Oldaker sign a new deal as I think he should be starting for us. Most of Gills best midfield performances have been with DJ in the starting line up.

Obviously I'd love to see us offer Eaves a new contract but it seems like that won't be happening, so next would be List. I know he signed one recently but I've been hearing a few clubs have got their eye on him so we need to lock him down to a bigger contract in order to either keep him or get more money for him should clubs come in for him.

Mac - I love Oldaker and think it’s a good move and Eaves.

Colin - I hope Oldaker can make the playmaker role his own. There isn't much competition. I would like Eaves to sign another deal but that looks unlikely.

Rob - Darren Oldaker has had a break-through season at the club. From going to an untested but promising youngster, the midfielder has matured enough to deserve a place in the senior squad. Several good performances (including a spectacular FA Cup goal) have seen him maintain his place in the 18 for most games. He adds much needed creativity to the base of midfield and is rapidly learning the discipline required for such a role. If he keeps his head down and works hard – suggestions of attitude issues in training seem to remain - he can become a great and profitable player for the club.

The one player I would like to see sign a new contract: Tom Eaves. Who else?

Smithy - I was very pleased to see Darren Oldaker had signed an extension. I think he genuinely could be a very valuable asset if he keeps working hard and pushing for a spot in the team. Very pleased with this news, There are two players that I would love to see sign new deals, however it's been made public that they probably won’t.(Tom Eaves and Tomas Holy), Regarding a new contract being offered the one for me is Barry Fuller. I'd love to see him stay on past the summer.

Marc - DJ has taken the chance he’s been given this season. He’s finally starting to show his potential and offers us something different in midfield. Could be a cracking piece of business. The obvious one who I’d like us to offer a new contract to us Tom Eaves. Whether he signs or not is another matter but he’s looking good for 20 goals this season and the club should make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Stocky - I think it's a brilliant signing; he's got a bright future in the game and hasn't looked out of place when he's played. It would be good to see him get an extended run in the team. I would offer the biggest contract ever to Mr Eaves but whether he would accept it or not is another matter.

Loonpotter - Darren has a bright future.. so good on his day.

Louis - I think he’s an extremely talent player with bags of potential. One of the best midfielders ability wise at the club. I’d love to see us renew Tom Eaves contract although can see it will be difficult to keep him at Gillingham.

Matthew - I would love Tom Eaves needs to sign because he is our top scorer and a big influence in the striking department.

Gills Debate - I was very pleased to see Oldaker sign a new deal. He’s clearly made an impression on Lovell this season, because he was quite critical of him at the fan’s forum back in the summer, and it’s been good to see him getting some minutes in League 1 games this season. Eaves to me is the obvious one that I’d like to see sign a new deal, but I’m not sure that we’ll be able to keep him beyond the end of this season, and it does sound like we have already been in talks with him for a while. List isn’t out of contract at the end of the season, but I’d perhaps look at offering him an extra year on his current deal, as I think there is a lot of promise there.

Lewis - Oldaker has matured a lot, and he’s still working on that I’m sure, and he’s a player that does a role no one else does as well as him in the team. He gets on the ball and makes us tick, and you can really tell how important he actually is when he’s playing. Its great to get him tied down because he’s vital to the team and, if he gets anywhere near his clear potential in the time period of the contract, we’ll be in the money. In terms of a new deal, obviously I’d say Eaves but it doesn’t look like he’ll stay, so I’ll go with Barry Fuller, who I think deserves another year.

7. GILLINGHAM ONLY WON FIVE LEAGUE GAMES AT HOME LAST SEASON, AND GILLINGHAM HAVE ONLY WON FOUR HOME LEAGUE GAMES THIS SEASON, WHAT DO YOU THINK NEEDS TO CHANGE FOR GILLINGHAM TO MAKE PRIESTFIELD STADIUM A FORTRESS AGAIN ???

Richard - The players mentality. If attendances are dropping the fans can't be on their back that much! We need to play like we did against Burton at the start of the season. Knock it around and take control. Play like the supposed home team rather than try & counter.

Luke - I normally get shot down for answering this one so to avoid getting myself in trouble with the boo boys (who should stay away) I won't delve too much.

Emlyn - I think the new players coming in will bring a change, let’s see what happens with that.

ForzaGills - We seem to have this problem every year now. There’s no wonder the attendances are down when we’ve only won 22 of 72 home games in the last 3 seasons. Scally needs to reduce the ticket prices for a start. £22 for an adult is unreasonable for any League One club, let alone the club with one of the worst home records in the EFL, I don’t blame people for staying away. Drop the ticket prices, get a few thousand more in the door and hopefully it’ll create a better atmosphere for the players to play in.

We_Need_Eaves - If we start on the front foot this will get us singing and chanting from the 1st minute and this creates the atmosphere, The players need to give us something to start with.

Dave - I think the fans just need to stay behind the team and they will feed off that confidence. We saw it against Cardiff everyone was behind them and they got a great result.

BQGillsFan - I think it's the same as I've always said, the responsibility is 50/50. Gills obviously need to deliver on the pitch to get the Priestfield crowd on their feet, but the fans also need to stick with the team when the going gets tough. Too much negativity before the game even gets going sometimes. I understand performances have left with little to cheer for, but it's amazing how much a good atmosphere can change a teams fortunes around.

Mac - More people to come to games.

Colin - Poor home form comes down to our lack of midfield quality. We can't break teams down. Away from home we get more space to play the long ball into.

Rob - I really don't know what can be done to make Priestfield a fortress again. It is almost 10 years since we seemed unbeatable at home and hopeless away under Mark Stimson. Declining attendances - unfortunately a self-fulfilling prophecy – will not help to create an atmosphere. The fans are, understandably, very weary of both a perennial relegation battle and a lack of investment (either internal or external). The club always seems to remain one disaster from sinking and the back-room organisation is, at times, laughable. Be exciting, be successful and people will return.

Smithy - I remember the days of Fortress Priestfield and I would love to see it like that again. I'd love for teams to hate coming here because they know they'd be in for a tough match.

How do we get there, I'm not sure at this moment.. Ticket prices I think are beginning to become a problem for some. I know a lot of people that have stopped going because it's too expensive. Maybe a few clever ticket reductions/deals for certain games would entice people through the door, Higher attendance could have an effect on the players, which in turn makes for a better atmosphere and therefore better for us and harder for the opposition.

Marc - The whole mood around the place is very negative at the moment. The fans know it, the players know it and the staff know it. That changes when you win your home games. Maybe the emphasis is on the fans to encourage rather than criticise the players? At the same time the players need to give the fans a reason to be positive and to cheer them on. Too many times this season at home we’ve sat back and let the opposition go 2 or 3 goals up. We need to start games better and get on the front foot. That would be a start.

Stocky - This is a tough question and a real chicken or the egg situation. The crowd is generally quiet unless we are playing a local team or a 'bigger' club such as Sunderland or Pompey. The action on the pitch isn't enough for the crowd to be 'up for it' the majority of the time but the players could argue that fans could play their part by being vocal. I think if safe standing was an option, that would be productive to get the singer's in one place. As the crowds are dwindling, I think more offers would help raise the attendance. The Coventry fans we spoke to Saturday said they get 11-12k average ly but 28k for the community day shows what a good incentive it could be for our club if planned right. Even tickets for a tenner for one game would be a step in the right direction.

Loonpotter - I can't think of a single reason why being at home should be affecting them... the pitch was the excuse last year ... but this year has been as bad or worse.

Louis - Supporters attitude.

Matthew - I feel we need to start games at home a bit brighter and keep teams out for at least 45 minutes.

Gills Debate - One thing that I think I’d like us to work on is being able to pick up more points when we concede the first goal in games. We’ve gone behind first in 10 games at home in League 1 this season, and have only managed to pick up 5 points from these matches, with 4 of those coming in the 1st month of the season (against Burton Albion and Coventry City). Obviously ideally, we’d want to be the side getting on the scoresheet first, but if we could get more points after falling behind then that would help us. I think we also need to generally concede less goals, as we have the 6th worst record at home in the league in that respect, and if we could keep things tighter at the back, then Priestfield would be more of a fortress.

Lewis - First of all, the pitch is rubbish. We’ve spent around half a million on a new one and it’s not been looked after properly. I know it doesn’t cut up and stuff, but, in regards to the surface, we’re back to square one. The atmosphere is also poor - Lovell said the players felt the pressure against Walsall, and, although I don’t think you can blame the fans, I doubt that helps. We just need to find a way to have some confidence and make teams fear coming to Priestfield.

8. GILLINGHAM MANAGED TO KEEP HOLD OF TOM EAVES ON TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY, GILLINGHAM MADE FIVE VERY GOOD SIGNINGS BEFORE THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW CLOSED ON THURSDAY NIGHT, BUT HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT FOR GILLINGHAM’S SEASON THAT TOM EAVES REMAINED WITH GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB UNTIL THE END OF THE 2018 / 2019 SEASON ???

Richard - Very. Had he wanted to have gone it could have been an awkward few months but he's potentially playing for the right to get a chance to play at a higher team. Top goalscorer will only help his chances of that.

Luke - Very much a Dack moment circa January 2016. I'm sure there will be people moaning that he will go for free in the summer but he is so influential to our side that its very pleasing we didn't take the money from Sunderland and kept the big guy. Real chance for him to get 20+ this season so lets hope he keeps up his pre Christmas form and keeps us moving up the table.

Emlyn - It’s extremely important to keep him this season and beyond that if possible, he has been nothing short of brilliant since he joined, his attitude, work rate etc has been unquestionable!, He will be vital to us trying to stay in this division.

ForzaGills - A couple of months ago, I’d have been torn between taking the money in January and keeping him until the end of the season, but given how we’ve slid down the table and back into the thick of the relegation battle, I’m pretty relieved he’s stayed. He could be the difference between League One and League Two next season.

We_Need_Eaves - Vital. It also motivated the rest of the team as we’ve kept our best player.

Dave - I think keeping hold of Eaves was vital. He’s our top scorer and has won us many games this season. He has the potential to score anytime. His penalty on Saturday was vital in our quest for safety.

BQGillsFan - Whatever money we could have got for Eaves is nothing compared to what his contributions in our bid to stay up are worth. If we had lost Eaves we would be down, no doubt.

Mac - Very important because otherwise I feel like we would struggle to score goals.

Colin - Without Eaves or an adequate replacement we would be heading for League Two.

Rob - Vitally important. I'm certain the club had offers but clearly decided that Eaves was more important than a few hundred thousand pounds. Once it got to deadline day, it was unlikely he was going anyway – we would have had no time to sign a replacement, and I think both Lovell and Scally know how important he is. He's scored the majority of our goals and is a player who occupies defences and can score from anything in the air. With our new wingers hopefully putting balls into the box, he's only going to score more.

Smithy - I tweeted after hearing Paul Scally on Radio Kent saying he'd had two bids come in for Tom Eaves but had turned them down because he wanted to keep the player over cashing in. Some people may well say that's very unlike Scally, and to a point I agree. He's done the right thing, no question. By all accounts Tom wants to stay until the end of season and that's great to hear. He's going to be very important right up until the final whistle up at Blackpool in May. I don't believe in one man teams, but he's certainly a huge part of ours.

Marc - Eaves staying is massive. It’s the difference between us staying up or potentially going down. I hate to think where we would be without his goals this season. Whether he stays or goes in the summer is another story but for the next few months he’s our player and will hopefully score the goals to keep us up.

Stocky - Massively important. As I've previously alluded too, I didn't know too much about some of the signings and that's an instant pressure on them if they were signed and suddenly had to replace Eaves - each game they didn't score, it would just get worse. His goals that will hopefully keep us up are more important than the fee; it was too late to get an adequate replacement and if we went down, I think we would struggle.

Loonpotter - Very important that Eaves stayed... The main player and goalscorer for this team.. probably would have been dead certs for relegation without him.

Louis - Very important, has contributed a lot to our season with scoring many goals.

Matthew - It is massive and we need that big striker to score goals.

Gills Debate - I think that it was very important that we kept hold of Eaves. We have shown in games against the likes of Accrington Stanley (on the opening day of the season), and Portsmouth (in December) that we can win games without Eaves in the side, but there’s no doubt for me that losing him would have been a blow – He’s the club’s top scorer, and also the joint 3rd top scorer in the league, with a better minutes per goal ratio than a lot of the other contenders. I’m delighted that he’s still with us, and the fact that he did stay, made a good deadline day even better!

Lewis - Very, very important. His goals are huge - 16 already this season is top stuff. I know we’ve not seen Campbell yet, but, with Parker gone too, we don’t really have another striker that can hold up the ball, so Eaves is important on that front as well. It shouldn’t have got to the point where we’re going to lose him for free, but I’d rather do that and stay up than cash in and effectively guarantee relegation.

9. WHICH YOUNG PLAYERS (CAN BE MORE THAN ONE) WHO ARE ON THE FRINGES OF GILLINGHAM’S FIRST TEAM OR ARE CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THE YOUTH TEAM, DO YOU THINK CAN BE PUSHING FOR A SPOT IN GILLINGHAM’S FIRST TEAM WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR OR TWO ???

Richard - Potentially Hadler with Holy going and Stevenson. Not really sure who else will be given a chance. There doesn't appear to be any stand outs at the moment.

Luke - All of them if they push themselves. Oldaker is already a lot further ahead with the amount of game time he has had this season with both Simpson, Stevenson & Mbo warming the bench regularly. In terms of some of the younger boys, i think Henry Woods sounds like an exciting attack minded midfield player, Ryan Huckle is a very good height for a Centre Back which gives him every chance of having a future in the game and Charles Noyelle sounds lethal in front of goal. Exciting times ahead if they can push on.

Emlyn - I think Noel Mbo would be my best prediction for someone breaking into the first 11 in the not too distant future!

ForzaGills - Noel Mbo has looked promising the few times he’s made a first team appearance, he really needs to go out on loan to get game time though, given the number of forward players we now have. I’d also love to see Bradley Stevenson and Jack Tucker get some game time in the next year or so. I would’ve also said Liam Nash, but Lovell seems to have made his mind up on him.

We_Need_Eaves - Darren Oldaker.

Dave - I think Roman Campbell is one player for the future alongside Henry Woods. Both have impressed at youth level. Another which is highly rated within the club is Miquel Scarlett.

BQGillsFan - I still hold out hope for Bradley Stevenson but it seems less and less likely he's going to get a chance. Noel Mbo seems to be quite popular amongst Gills fans but I personally don't see much in him. Unfortunately I don't see any of our current youth set up getting into the squad any time soon, but I hope to be proven wrong on that one.

Mac - Oldaker, Stevenson, Campbell and Simpson.

Colin - Oldaker obviously. Other than that maybe Stevenson.

Rob - It's difficult to say as I don't know too much about our youngsters. Obviously Oldaker is the big graduate this season, but Stevenson did play a few games back in the autumn. An attacking midfielder, he looked promising in the few cameo appearances he made and I would be intrigued to see him develop at the club. Aaron Simpson is another youngster who has been on the bench a few times, but this may be due to a lack of other viable left back options. A similar situation has applied to Noel Mbo.

Smithy - I have to admit I don't really follow the youths in terms of individual players, perhaps I should.

Marc - Obviously Oldaker. He’s been in and around for a while now and he’s starting to show how good he can be. Bradley Stevenson has shown glimpses of what he can do and I think he’ll feature more next season. Roman Campbell maybe not next season but the season after could be knocking on the door too. Iv only seen him a couple of times but he’s a handful for defenders and had scored all sorts of goals for the youth team this season.

Stocky - Well Darren Oldaker still comes into that category so it'll be nice to see him push on next season. Other than Darren, I would like to see what Noel can do at professional level and I also thought Stevenson equipped himself well in the first team in the autumn.

Loonpotter - I'd like to have already seen more of Mbo.

Louis - Darren Oldaker can really solidify a place in the first team in the coming years.

Matthew - I think Oldaker is a good player on his day and should be in that midfield but other are just that little bit better.

Gills Debate - Out of the 2nd year pros, I think it’s tricky to say who I think may be able to push on for a spot in the 1st team. Stevenson seemed to do OK when he had a couple of opportunities earlier on this season, but hasn’t been involved in the matchday squads for 3 or 4 months now. I’ve always had hopes that Mbo may be one that will really come into the 1st team picture, due to his impressive scoring record in the youth side, but he is now on trial in Sweden with Helsingborgs. In terms of those who are slightly younger, I’ve often been impressed when I’ve seen Jack Tucker play, and it sounds like Roman Campbell has done well in the youth team and is doing well now while he’s at Sittingbourne, so hopefully those two can perhaps stake their claim in the next year or two.

Lewis - I don’t want to sound biased because he is a friend of mine, but I think Aaron Simpson deserves a chance as left back. He’s been on the bench so often but is yet to play in the league, and, with neither Ogilvie or Garmston excelling, Aaron should get a chance for me. Honourable shoutouts to TJ Bramble and Miquel Scarlett, too.

10. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON STEVE LOVELL AS GILLINGHAM MANAGER ???

Richard - I still think he's a coach rather than a manager. Needs help/assistance on coming up with a plan b or c etc. Becoming too dependent on poor first half > half time rocket > better second half.

Luke - Still has my backing. Still makes frustrating decisions, including making substitutions too late (Accrington at home) but I have faith in the Welsh Wizard. If he can get us to beat a Premier League team, he can't be all bad.

Emlyn - At this moment in time I am happy for Steve Lovell to be the clubs manager.

ForzaGills - I think Steve Lovell’s done ok. There’s not a great deal of quality in the squad and he hasn’t had the chance to spend any money so we can’t be expecting miracles. That said I don’t agree with his public battering of some players earlier in the season, I don’t think that helped the players or himself. I’d be surprised if he’s still here at the end of next season given how volatile the manager market is nowadays.

We_Need_Eaves - Too one dimensional and more often than not he isn’t decisive enough with his substitutions.

Dave - I am a big fan of Steve Lovell. He has great respect from the players and they are willing to play for him, which to me is vey important. He received a lot of criticism at the beginning of the season, but managed to turn things around. I just want him to succeed and be here for a few seasons. This club needs stability at the manager position.

BQGillsFan - I still stand by Lovell. I think he gets a lot of unwarranted abuse from fans, especially online, but he saved us from certain relegation last season and is working witha budget closer to actual peanuts that decent money. I agree there are times I question his starting XI and/or the subs he makes in game, but when he's got a team that hasn't paid for a player since Brennan Dickenson in 2014, it's like trying to sew with one hand behind your back. Not impossible but so much harder than it needs to be.

Mac - I think he’s an average manager and he cares about the club. Won’t get us anywhere in League 1 but will most likely keep us up.

Colin - Lovell has done well with a threadbare squad but has relied on long ball counter attacking. For us to be a team that can win at home he needs to show he can do more with the players technically.

Rob - I like Lovell. Until now, he hasn't has much to work with and I don't think he could have done all that much better with our squad. He still has some problems such as not signing wingers in the summer and making substitutions too late, but that's the reason he's a League 1 manager and not in the Premier League. He's still learning as well. It's very difficult to judge a manager with such a poor squad, but now that he has been backed, there's no real excuse. His comments to the media should always be taken with a pinch of salt; the comments that some fans are after would alienate most of the players.

Smithy - I really like Steve Lovell. As a manager he does frustrate me, however not to the point where I've wanted him gone. I think he's doing well with what he's got.

Marc - I want him to succeed. He comes across as a nice guy who genuinely wants the best for the club. Sometimes we see some naivety with him in regards to the timings of substitutions and some of the things he says in the press. We have to remember that he’s very inexperienced in terms of management. He’s trying and I think he’ll be here next season regardless of what division we’re in. Is he the right man for the job? I’m still not 100% convinced.

Stocky - I like Steve Lovell and think he's doing an ok job in the circumstances. This may seem controversial but I think he's an average manager of an average squad therefore it's a good fit however I personally think we as a club should be aiming higher. Whether it would be different if there was more money to be spent, I don't know, but I personally think a change is needed in the summer as I can't visualise a promotion push. Again, a lot of this also comes down to the chairman. To summarise, I'm not Lovell out but think we could be doing better.

Loonpotter - I must admit I was a massive fan but I'm starting to lose the faith.

Louis - I think there’s better managers out there, makes some interesting decisions. Still question his tactics when chasing a game.

Matthew - I love him as a manager and seems like most fans do. But my only criticism is he needs to not leave it 10 minutes before the end of the game to bring on players.

Gills Debate - I like Lovell, and I think that he did a great job when he took over control of the side last season. We haven’t pushed on like I was hoping that we may do this season, but I still think that he’s doing a fair job, and I think that it would be great to have a long term managerial appointment at the club that would offer some stability. Of course that shouldn’t come at the expense of the team, if Lovell’s not doing a good enough job then Scally should act, but I think that he’s doing OK at the moment.

Lewis - It’s so hard, because he had such an impact when he came in, but our form has dipped massively since the turn of 2018. He does some stuff where I just think ‘what the hell are you doing?’, and I find his press conferences very tedious and confusing at times. His tactics are sometimes stale, but sometimes we are great. It could be worse, but it could be better.

11. GILLINGHAM HAVE SCORED SOME REMARKABLE GOALS THIS SEASON, IF YOU WERE TO SELECT YOUR TOP THREE GILLINGHAM GOALS OF THE 2018 / 2019 SEASON, WHICH GOALS WILL YOU SELECT AND WHY ???

Richard - Eaves v pompey, O'Neill v hartlepool, oldaker v slough

Luke - Best has to be Eaves vs Portsmouth Away, Unbelievable goal and if it was in the Premier League, people would still be going on about it now. 2nd goes to Elliott List at home vs Coventry at home. The tenacity he showed to run the whole half down the wing, beat two players run off the pitch and then back on to score from a ridiculous angle. Very good. 3rd for me is Luke O'Neill at home vs Burton. Lovely free-kick. Enough said.

Emlyn - Both of Eaves’ goals v Bradford/Fleetwood where Oldaker assisted with the two long passes! Two great passes with two brilliant(and difficult) finishes!

Elliott List V Cardiff...because of the occasion, beating premier league opposition and making the 4th round of the cup.

ForzaGills - 3rd Luke O’Neil vs Burton – one the best free kicks I’ve seen at Priestfield for a while.

2nd Elliott List vs Coventry – this goal just sums him up, pace, trickery, battling for everything, and dragging us out of a tough spot when we weren’t playing well.

1st Tom Eaves vs Pompey – you don’t need me to tell you why it’s number 1.

We_Need_Eaves - 1st Eaves vs Pompey away 2nd List Vs Burton away 3rd Fuller vs Doncaster.

Dave - Goals of the season so far for me: Eaves away to Pompey at number one, Barry Fuller away to Doncaster number 2, Elliott Lists solo run away at Burton number 3. Oldaker’s goal away to Slough is also up there.

BQGillsFan - Number One has to be Tom Eaves at Fratton Park. A stunning flick and volley to score a goal Messi or Ronaldo would be proud of. Simply stunning.

Number Two has to go to Elliott List for his winner against Cardiff. I've never seen Priestfield as loud all season and I nearly jumped out my skin as my phone pinged for the goal notification (I was in London and missed the game sadly).

One and two was easy to pick, I'm struggling a bit more for three. In the end I've gone with Barry Fuller's strike at Doncaster. Long way out for a striker to shoot, let alone a 34 year old right back.

Mac - Oldaker vs slough because the technique was unreal and it was an important goal to get us through to the next round, eaves vs Pompey because we hadn’t won in a while and it was a class goal and we went on to win, Fuller vs Doncaster because he never scores and it was a great strike and we went on to get a point away at a class team. Honourable mentions: list vs Burton away, parrett vs Scunthorpe away and list vs Coventry at home.

Colin - Eaves at Pompey is our best by a country mile. Oldaker at Slough and Rees at Swansea also stick in the mind.

Rob - Three best goals have to be: Oldaker in the Cup, Barry Fuller (just for scoring!) and I'm sure Eaves has scored a blinder at some point.

Smithy - This was the one I took the most time over, Without doubt THAT Tom Eaves goal at Portsmouth is my number one. Incredible skill against a team that were flying. Enough said. There have been lots of good goals scored so far for many different reasons. I think my 2nd and 3rd place goals would go to Listy at home to Coventry. The way he handled the ball, took it all that way, nearly lost it, got it back under control and from such a tight angle netted was incredible. Superb one man goal, And perhaps a slightly controversial one, I quite like a poacher and Max Ehmer at Donny is up there for me. Appears at the back, chests it down and hits it. Infact he did the same at Hartlepool in the FA Cup replay so perhaps his trademark!

Marc - Tom Eaves away at Portsmouth - Elliot List away to Coventry - Barry Fuller away to Shrewsbury I think?

Stocky - Luke o Neill free kick, Eaves wonder goal against Pompey and the rarity that is a Barry Fuller goal vs Donny.

Loonpotter - Eaves chip over the head and volley wins it.

Louis - Tom Eaves vs Portsmouth, Darren Oldaker v Slough, Barry Fuller v Doncaster.

Matthew - Elliot List goal against Cardiff because he placed it perfectly. Tom Eaves goal against Portsmouth. To read it from the air was amazing. Oldakers goal in the fa cup against Slough. To score from that far out is amazing.

Gills Debate - The number one pick for me would be Eaves’ strike against Portsmouth back in October. I thought that the technique to control the ball, flick it up and swivel, and then finish powerfully past the goalkeeper was superb. There have been a few other contenders so far this season, but I’ll go with Oldaker’s goal against Slough Town and Fuller’s goal against Doncaster Rovers as my other two to make up the top 3.

Lewis - Tom Eaves’ first at Portsmouth gets number one for sure. What’s the saying? Great feet for a big man? Elliott List takes number two with his incredible solo effort at home to Coventry, and number 3 is Barry Fuller’s screamer at Doncaster, for who it was as well as the strike.

12. IF YOU WERE TO GIVE GILLINGHAM A MARK OUT OF TEN, TEN BEING THE HIGHEST AND ZERO BEING THE LOWEST, WHAT MARK OUT OF TEN WOULD YOU GIVE GILLINGHAM AT THIS STAGE OF THE SEASON ???

Richard - FOUR

Luke - 6 out of 10

Emlyn - I would have to give a 5.5...purely because of our current league position!

ForzaGills - 5/10 – as I’ve said we can’t be expecting playoffs given our budget and squad but there have been some shocking performances this season. On the flipside we’ve played well on occasions and deserved more from some games. We’ve been rather inconsistent though, hence the 5.

We_Need_Eaves - FOUR

Dave - I will give it 6.5. Nothing is perfect so that is one thing. Our league one form needs to be better, we need to climb up the league and stay away from relegation trouble. The FA Cup run helps boost this. The win over Cardiff will live long in the memory, regardless of how the season pans out.

BQGillsFan - Only a 3. We are flirting with relegation again and whilst the Cardiff result was a nice distraction, we look woeful in the league and I genuinely fear we may be dancing with death one too many times and League Two is calling.

Mac - 3.5/10.

Colin - Four out of Ten. Must do better.

Rob - Probably a 6. We're doing as well as expected. Most fans anticipated another season of struggling to stay up and that is what has happened. Perhaps the second half will be more fruitful.

Smithy - Marks out of 10, I think a 6-7 personally. We've done ok, it's not been great in parts but we've had some good results and I think we can start pushing on now.

Marc - 5 - we’re consistently inconsistent. We’ve had chances to pull away from the bottom 4 but seem to fall short a lot of the time, for every good result two or three bad ones seem to follow.

Stocky - I would give it a 6 which is about standard for an inconsistent side. There's times we've looked like a good side yet other times where we've been frustratingly bad.

Loonpotter - 4 out of 10.

Louis - 3/10.

Matthew - I would give is a 3 because we need to start wining more games to get us out of the relegation battle.

Gills Debate - I’ll stick with what I believe I went for last time and go for a 5.5 At the beginning of the season I had hopes that we could have a campaign where we spent the majority of the time in mid table, and not in or around the relegation places, but unfortunately that hasn’t really turned out to be the case. There have certainly been some good performances this season and some enjoyable games, but there have also been too many poor showings.

Lewis - Probably a 3, that sort of area. I had high hopes after the first 3 games (including Millwall), but now we’re in another relegation fight and I can’t help but feel we shouldn’t be, because we have potential to be good - we just haven’t been too often this season. I find myself at another point where I can’t wait for the season to end yet again.

13. AT THE START OF THE SEASON, I ASKED GILLINGHAM SUPPORTERS FOR THERE PREDICTIONS ON WHERE DO YOU THINK GILLINGHAM WILL FINISH IN LEAGUE ONE THIS SEASON, SO AFTER THIRTY LEAGUE GAMES, WHERE DO YOU THINK GILLINGHAM WILL FINISH IN LEAGUE ONE THIS SEASON ???

Richard - Heart says 20th or higher...maybe 19th if we push.

Luke - I shall stick with my prediction earlier in the year and say somewhere in the top 24.

Emlyn - I think we will finish 14th.

ForzaGills - I’d like to think we’ll finish lower mid-table, maybe 15th. At this stage though I’d probably take anything above the dotted line, there are some big teams in and around the relegation zone who have started picking up points and its getting tighter and tighter down there.

We_Need_Eaves - 19th

Dave - I think Gills will avoid relegation and come in the bottom half of mid table. So anything from 14th-18th.

BQGillsFan - I can never bet on the boys going down so I'll say we will finish 20th, just narrowly avoiding the drop.

Mac - 19th.

Colin - I think we will just about survive avoiding the drop by a couple of points. Let's say 18th.

Rob - I think we'll finish in a similar position to where we are now. I would hope that we are safe with a few weeks of the season remaining, but this is Gillingham and we never do it the easy way. I'd love for us to have a good run of 6-7 games and just pull away to mid table, but I can't see it happening unless the new signings all make a big impact.

Smithy - At the start of the campaign I didn't predict a finish, however I did think we could end the season relatively comfortable. I genuinely believe we'll avoid relegation, I think we could pull up a few places. I think an optimistic 15th would be an okay finish to an up and down season.

Marc - I think we’ll finish where we are now. Hopefully I’m wrong and now we have some new players in we can go on a run and pull away from that dotted line.

Stocky - I think we have enough about us to stay up and believe there are 4 teams worse than us. I think it'll be hit and miss throughout the season but we will end up staying up by about 5+ points. I predict an 18th-19th placed finish.

Loonpotter - 20th.

Louis - 17th.

Matthew - Still think mid table hopefully with games in hand.

Gills Debate - My hope is that the new signings will give us something extra that will ensure we don’t spend the final couple of games of the season battling to stay in the division. I’ll go with 15th.

Lewis - These last few weeks is the first time I’ve been seriously worried about relegation this season. We slipped in there against Coventry, but the Eaves penalty bailed us out. I’m not sure if I’m kidding myself because I think we have a lot of talent, but I think we’re too good to go down (touch wood). I think we’ll end up where we are now - 19th.

14. HOW WOULD YOU RATE GILLINGHAM’S PERFORMANCES IN THE DOMESTIC CUP COMPETITIONS THIS SEASON ???

Richard - Let's face it, only really 1 good game out of 4 in FA Cup. Struggled past Hartlepool in 1st round, just past Slough then a great result v Cardiff. A good cup run should hopefully give them confidence though.

Luke - Checkatrade Trophy: Pants but who cares?

Carabao Cup: Unlucky with the penalty shootout with Millwall but it is what it is.

FA Cup: Good effort, nice to get to the 4th Round for the first time in 15 years.

Kent Senior Cup: Still in it at the Semi-Final stage, could we actually win something ???

Emlyn - Pleased with the cups - We drew with a championship side and unfortunately went out on penalties in Carbao cup, that could have gone the other way!, And The FA Cup was great, it was nice to make the 4th round, the best one for quite some time.

ForzaGills - The FA Cup run was great fun and well overdue. The League Cup campaign was over in August and the Checkatrade trophy was non-existent. But we surpassed all expectations in beating Cardiff and getting to the fourth round in the FA Cup, I just hope it can become more of a regular occurrence.

We_Need_Eaves - Poor. Rode our luck vs Cardiff.

Dave - I think in the League Cup and EFL Trophy we were underwhelming because we got knocked out at the first hurdle. However, I think they were competitions that we were not totally fussed about progressing in. As nice as a wembley trip would have been, even if it is the EFL Trophy. The FA Cup as I stated above was a great campaign, we managed to get over two tough hurdles in the opening two rounds, then overcome premier league opposition. We even got to visit a new ground because of it with the Liberty. Hopefully we have something similar next year.

BQGillsFan - The FA Cup run was nice, especially the Cardiff win. The other cups I've genuinely forgotten how they went and can't be bothered to Google it.

Mac - Quality.

Colin - Anything would have been an improvement but to beat Cardiff's reserves was a fantastic achievement. The way we got to round three wasn't much to shout about. We didn't do anything in the other competitions. Maybe we can win the Kent Senior Cup.

Rob - Unexpected. When we were draw to a non-league side (twice!), I fully expected us to have another humiliating cup exit, especially when going to a reply. Luckily, a last minute goal saved us against Hartlepool and an inspirational performance against Cardiff sent us through to the 4th round for the first time in ages. I wasn't overly surprised to see Swansea away was just a step too far.

Smithy - Cup competitions have seemed fairly unimportant in my opinion. Other than the FA Cup.

Caraboa Cup, poor. Simple as. Going out in the first round is never great in any competition.

Checkatrade, the fan favourite! Again it was awful, I don't really have anything to say about it. I'm not for it personally.

As for the FA Cup, yeah I'm happy. I think we did ourselves proud. Going out in the manner we did was unjust in my opinion but we took a lot of support to South Wales, we got behind the boys and we did manage to knock a Premier League side out on the way. I'd have loved nothing more than to see us progress of course, but for a team in our position we focus on the league now.

Marc - Obviously the FA cup run was an enjoyable one but the other two competitions aren’t too memorable. The checkatrade competition needs a major revamp to get fans interested in the competition again.

Stocky - I think it's been good overall. On paper, we wasn't expected to beat millwall and took them to penalties in the league cup. The check a trade is much maligned and although I don't like the club losing any game, it's the least important of the competitions. The fa cup has been the obvious highlight although we made a pigs ear of it drawing to Hartlepool at home, salvaging extra time in the replay and perhaps riding our luck at times against Slough. That home Game against Cardiff however was something else; one of the best atmospheres in a long time. Unfortunately Swansea was a step too far.

Loonpotter - I thought they performed well against Cardiff but no other performances to note, excited me.

Louis - The FA Cup run has been fantastic, I waited all my life for Gillingham to beat a premier league side and it was fantastic to beat Cardiff. Didn’t get the result we wanted against Swansea but was still a class day out.

Matthew - The fa cup run was amazing and to get to the fourth round is great for the club. The game against Cardiff was the best to win the way we did.

Gills Debate - I’m pretty happy with what we’ve done in the domestic cups this season. It was disappointing to go out in the group stage of the Checkatrade Trophy, as while I don’t agree with the changes that have happened to the format of the competition, I’d have preferred for us to get through a few rounds but it’s clearly not that important in the grand scheme of things! It was also disappointing to go out of the Carabao Cup in the 1st round, but the performance at the time was quite encouraging. The big success though has been our run in the FA Cup, to get through to the 4th round via a victory over a Premier League side in the 3rd round was great, even if we didn’t do things the easy way against Hartlepool United and Slough Town!

Lewis - We’ll forget the Checkatrade Trophy - that was awful. The Millwall game in the Carabao Cup was impressive, it was just a shame we couldn’t take the penalties to save our lives. The FA Cup was a bit overrated because, apart from the Cardiff game, I think we were poor. We had to go to a replay against non league Hartlepool, and we scraped past an even lower ranked Slough, after they dominated a lot of the game. The Cardiff game was great, and I had a lot of fun, but at Swansea we were poor again. I enjoyed the run, but it was very up and down emotionally!

15. AND FINALLY, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WISH TO ADD (EXAMPLE: IS THERE SOMETHING I HAVE NOT COVERED IN THE FOURTEEN QUESTIONS ASKED ABOVE YOU WANT TO EXPAND UPON) ???

Richard - Lot of criticism about Scally and he's given the team backing this window. If we do go down, the players, manager and coaches will have to take the blame.

Luke - Paella. If i sit in the Rainham End, I always get the Paella before a game and I have to say, its been a hit and miss this season so up the effort please caterers. It used to be very good so lets get back to those levels. Anyways Up the Gills!

Emlyn - Nothing to add!

ForzaGills - Nothing To Add!

We_Need_Eaves - Really concerned that as our home attendances dwindle due to poor home form how will we finance better signings next season? Have we done enough ‘kid a quid’ offers to boost future potential fans?

Dave - Nothing To Add.

BQGillsFan - The main thing now is going into these final games of the season, I'd urge all Gillingham fans to get behind the team 110%. We need to show all our love for the boys between now and the final game of the season and hopefully will them on to survival.

Mac - Nothing To Add.

Colin - I do think that Mr.Scally after a long and eventful tenure with many highs as well as the more recent lows should pass on the baton to someone who can rebuild trust with the fans.

Rob - Not particularly. I said before the season that I was hoping for stability and no nonsense comments from the Chairman – that was broken within days. His dream of a stadium is continuing and a leaked investment brochure created much excitement and amusement on the forums. I still think that a new stadium that generates revenue 365 days a year is the way to go. Ultimately, I know that our Chairman has neither the resources nor the aptitude to create such a scheme. Accepted planning permission on a site where the land is secure would be a massive boost for any future new owner. We can all dream.

Smithy - Nothing To Add.

Marc - Nothing To Add.

Stocky - I think everything's been covered but all I would say whatever your view on scally/Lovell and whether you want them in or out, let's get behind the team and try to make a difference to their performance to pull us away from trouble.

Loonpotter - Nothing To Add.

Louis - Nothing To Add.

Matthew - Nothing To Add.

Gills Debate - Nothing more to add.

Lewis - The only thing to say is I wish we’d stop letting players’ contracts run down. We’re going to lose our most valuable asset, Tom Eaves, for nothing in the summer, and that shouldn’t happen. Apart from that, thanks to Lee for asking me to participate, and up the Gills!

Once again, thank you to everyone for participating in this blog, and if anyone who is reading this who wishes to participate in the end of season blog, then feel free to send me a message, and your more than welcome to participate in The Gillingham Supporters Blog for the end of The 2018 / 2019 Season, Let’s Hope Gillingham can pick up enough points between now and the end of the season to retain Gillingham’s League One Status and avoid relegation (or potentially achieve something higher then avoid the drop) - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#Gillingham #Supporters #Football #Q&A

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