Sports Personality of the Year 2014 odds - Telegraph

[Sports] - BBC Sports Personality of the Year best bets: the winner (and losers) identified | Telegraph

[Sports] - BBC Sports Personality of the Year best bets: the winner (and losers) identified | Telegraph submitted by AutoNewspaperAdmin to AutoNewspaper [link] [comments]

Transfer Deadline Day Discussion Thread

Haven’t seen one and there’s about 14 hours to go so (window closes at 11pm UK time) - saves people creating new posts to vent, as I have a feeling the rest of the day will see a progressive rise in anger.
I don’t know about you lot, but personally looking forward to Aouar and Partey both joining later.
I will look to update this summary where possible, but if I am resting my fingers momentarily from the trauma that is the F5 key, Arseblog are doing a rather good live update feed.
Summary so far (this is the main feed - find Partey Watch below):
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Partey Watch (Tier 100 rumours will be posted here, didn't want it clogging the main feed above)
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#GEXIV [South Yorkshire] The Importance of Football in Our Region

The Importance of Football in Our Region

It isn't called the beautiful game for no reason. It's a chance to gather at the weekends, during the week, to congregate for a common cause. In places, a little like religion, it's devoted to endlessly and provides laughter and tears at the greatest, and the worst of times. A win might shift the town into a rapturous glee which is characterised by the pleasantries extended at the stadium. The hub of excitement at times, memories to be treasured, and moments that will last a lifetime held within the four corners of our historic grounds.
In South Yorkshire, there are a multitude of teams sporting the Yorkshire heritage - the three Sheffield teams (United, Wednesday, FC) as well as the many professional clubs in our Football League; Doncaster Rovers; Rotherham United; Barnsley for instance. What unites them all, is their undoubted passion for their club. It's memories they will forge and will be unique whichever path the clubs take.
Sheffield Wednesday were handed a 12-point deduction the other day, as an independent disciplinary commission (commissioned under EFL regulations) ruled that the club had breached the League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules, with the sanction being applied to next season's total.
With credit to https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-wednesday/sheffield-wednesday-legal-battle-explained-timeline-owls-fight-efl-over-sale-hillsborough-1345247 for the following material:
July 2018: Although not public knowledge at the time, Sheffield Wednesday failed to hand over their accounts for the 2017/18 year to the EFL on time.
June 18th 2019: It wasn’t until mid-June that it was confirmed they were operating under an EFL-enforced ‘soft transfer embargo’, restricting their financial powers in the transfer market.
July 11th: EFL regulations stipulate a club can post a loss of no more than £39m over a three-year cycle and Wednesday’s didn’t, technically speaking, thanks to the sale of Hillsborough for £60m to a separate company set up and owned by a Mr Dejphon Chansiri.
The accounts showed a pre-tax profit of £2.6m in 2017/18, including the £60m sale of Hillsborough – £38m of which was accounted as profit.
July 26th: All seemed well when the soft transfer embargo imposed on Wednesday by the EFL was lifted a fortnight after their accounts were submitted.
It was made clear to The Star that there were still issues to be ‘ironed out’ between the two parties.
September 4th: Reports in the national media claimed the EFL had ordered independent stadium valuations of Wednesday, Derby County and Reading’s grounds after alleged misconduct.
November 14th: Sheffield Wednesday were officially charged by the EFL over the sale of Hillsborough.
Following a formal investigation into financial information provided by Sheffield Wednesday in relation to the Club’s 2017/18 Profitability and Sustainability (P&S) submission, the EFL has today issued a number of charges relating to alleged breaches of EFL Rules.
EFL Statement / https://www.efl.com/news/2019/novembeefl-statement-sheffield-wednesday-charged/
November 21st: Monk maintained his players would not be distracted by the speculation and that the club had told him they were ‘very confident’ the issue would be resolved.
December 4th:
A public club statement said that it ‘reserved all of its rights against the EFL and will take all such actions as are necessary to protect its rights and integrity, and those of its current and former officers, including in relation to inaccurate reporting.’
Club statement / https://www.swfc.co.uk/news/2019/decembeclub-statement/
December 5th: In another strongly-worded public statement, the EFL reaffirmed it position the following day, claiming they had ‘sufficient evidence to charge Sheffield Wednesday with misconduct over the sale of Hillsborough stadium.’
The statement claimed that new evidence had come to light, prompting their misconduct charge.
It said: ‘following the review of a large number of documents provided by the club – some of those seen for the first time – evidence came to light to justify multiple charges of misconduct.’
EFL Statement / https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/12/05/football-league-claims-has-enough-evidence-charge-sheffield/
December 18th: A statement repeated the accusation that the EFL had acted unlawfully and said:
“The Club will continue to take such steps as it considers necessary to protect and enforce its rights against the EFL and to protect it from unlawful action by the EFL affecting the Club and the performance of its team.”
Club statement / https://www.swfc.co.uk/news/2019/decembeclub-statement2/
June 23rd: Proceedings started. The Championship club were initially expected to appear in front of the three-man panel in July but it is understood proceedings will now begin on Tuesday, with the complexity of the case ensuring it is likely to last for the rest of the week.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/06/22/sheffield-wednesdays-legal-fight-english-football-league-start/
31st July: EFL confirms the decision made by the independent disciplinary commission, who has deducted twelve points with effect from next season.
You see the sheer incompetence of the English Football League, with debacles at Derby County and Wigan Athletic as well. Wigan, this evening, lost their own appeal for a 12-point deduction due to administration, their relegation confirmed as a result. A club, with dedicated and passionate fans, and a rich history once in the top flight, condemned to the third tier of football because of a "bet" made by a former owner, who for the record, had passed the EFL's Owners and Directors test. Whereas Newcastle, who last week called our for clarity of their 'indefinitely stalled' takeover, want answers for the league taking inaction, it is instead the actions of the organising body for 72 of our professional clubs, who unrightfully go unharmed for their haphazard decisions.
In Wednesday's case, it was such an avoidable case. Chansiri (the owner) concealed the sale of the stadium, Hillsborough, via the 2017/18 season accounts when the transaction took place during the 2018/19 season. The fans are suffering because of the actions of an owner, who to be honest, lies in poor faith amongst certain sections of the Owls' faithful. This is a failure on the EFL's part, in light of their fit and proper person's test (owners and directors, as aforementioned) to allow a man who has proven himself incapable of running a football club sustainably, docking up points deductions which will only serve the team negatively. This could be the catalyst for a relegation campaign, which really was easily, easily preventable.
Chansiri must go, and there must be solid reform of the EFL (and the Premier League)'s owners and directors test: not only should there be a legal distinction between state and individuals - the test was designed for individuals, not states in Newcastle's case - there must be greater scrutiny on the owners that, without consequence, take charge of our football clubs. I could name a list: Charlton (East Street Investments), Bury (Steve Dale), Derby (Mel Morris, they're under a similar investigation for allegedly overvaluing their stadium at £80m to circumvent FFP, which is another problem I can address at a later date), Wigan (I mentioned them earlier, Stanley Choi and then the Next Leader Fund). It isn't always possible to detect trouble at the testing stage, and it is up to the owners how they handle their clubs, but some responsibility would be greatly appreciated avoiding our clubs being expelled, following Bury and (had the potential to be) Bolton from last year.
This isn't on, and it is a pledge I make that there should be greater control over the application of the owners and directors test in professional football. Our clubs are at risk here.
We’ll follow Germany’s example - they have cheap football tickets, and the fans feel more involved in the game. How have they done this? Because every fan of a club gets a say in it - we’ll roll out the 50+1 rule that ensures that no commercial investor can hold more than 50% of the club, involving the fans in the process rather than treating them as consumers of the sport.
For that matter, we will roll out the 50+1 form of ownership. Clubs, and by extension, the fans - would hold a majority of their own voting rights, just like in the Bundesliga. It was worked successfully there (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoPRAAqaA04 here's a video on RB Leipzig's situation, it's a good listen!) and it can work successfully here. With that, I leave you in peace for the day!
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The “Fairytale” So Far - An Overview Of Current COVID-19 Statistical Understandings

Fairytales were arguably first created to terrify and traumatise children into conformity and submission to ‘fiat’ authority. Whether it‘s under the pretext of viruses, terrorism, evil empires or ‘racism’, the intent and effect are the same. Fear is the mind-virus, and truth is the vaccination, self-administered.
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
“The only means to fight the plague is honesty.” (Albert Camus, 1947)

Overview

  1. According to the latest immunological and serological studies, the overall lethality of Covid-19 (IFR) is about 0.1% and thus in the range of a strong seasonal influenza (flu).
  2. In countries like the US, the UK, and also Sweden (without a lockdown), overall mortality since the beginning of the year is in the range of a strong influenza season; in countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland, overall mortality is in the range of a mild influenza season.
  3. Even in global “hotspots”, the risk of death for the general population of school and working age is typically in the range of a daily car ride to work. The risk was initially overestimated because many people with only mild or no symptoms were not taken into account.
  4. Up to 80% of all test-positive persons remain symptom-free. Even among 70-79 year olds, about 60% remain symptom-free. Over 95% of all persons develop at most moderate symptoms.
  5. Up to 60% of all persons may already have a certain cellular background immunity30610-3) to Covid-19 due to contact with previous coronaviruses (i.e. common cold viruses). The initial assumption that there was no immunity against Covid-19 was not correct.
  6. The median age of the deceased in most countries (including Italy) is over 80 years (e.g. 86 years in Sweden) and only about 4% of the deceased had no serious preconditions. The age and risk profile of deaths thus essentially corresponds to normal mortality.
  7. In many countries, up to two thirds of all extra deaths occurred in nursing homes, which do not benefit from a general lockdown. Moreover, in many cases it is not clear whether these people really died from Covid19 or from weeks of extreme stress and isolation.
  8. Up to 30% of all additional deaths may have been caused not by Covid19, but by the effects of the lockdown, panic and fear. For example, the treatment of heart attacks and strokes decreased by up to 60% because many patients no longer dared to go to hospital.
  9. Even in so-called “Covid19 deaths” it is often not clear whether they died from or with coronavirus (i.e. from underlying diseases) or if they were counted as “presumed cases” and not tested at all. However, official figures usually do not reflect this distinction.
  10. Many media reports of young and healthy people dying from Covid19 turned out to be false: many of these young people either did not die from Covid19, they had already been seriously ill(e.g. from undiagnosed leukaemia), or they were in fact 109 instead of 9 years old. The claimed increase in Kawasaki disease in children also turned out to be false.
  11. Strong increases in regional mortality can occur if there is a collapse in the care of the elderly and sick as a result of infection or panic, or if there are additional risk factors such as severe air pollution. Questionable regulations for dealing with the deceased sometimes led to additional bottlenecks in funeral or cremation services.
  12. In countries such as Italy and Spain, and to some extent the UK and the US, hospital overloads due to strong flu waves are not unusual. Moreover, this year up to 15% of health care workers were put into quarantine, even if they developed no symptoms.
  13. The often shown exponential curves of “corona cases” are misleading, as the number of tests also increased exponentially. In most countries, the ratio of positive tests to tests overall (i.e. the positive rate) remained constant at 5% to 25% or increased only slightly. In many countries, the peak of the spread was already reached well before the lockdown.
  14. Countries without curfews and contact bans, such as Japan, South Korea, Belarus or Sweden, have not experienced a more negative course of events than other countries. Sweden was even praised by the WHO and now benefits from higher immunity compared to lockdown countries.
  15. The fear of a shortage of ventilators was unjustified. According to lung specialists, the invasive ventilation (intubation) of Covid19 patients, which is partly done out of fear of spreading the virus, is in fact often counterproductive and damaging to the lungs.
  16. Contrary to original assumptions, various studies have shown that there is no evidence of the virus spreading through aerosols (i.e. tiny particles floating in the air) or through smear infections(e.g. on door handles or smartphones). The main modes of transmission are direct contact and droplets produced when coughing or sneezing.
  17. There is also no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of face masks in healthy or asymptomaticindividuals. On the contrary, experts warn that such masks interfere with normal breathing and may become “germ carriers”. Leading doctors called them a “media hype” and “ridiculous”.
  18. Many clinics in Europe and the US remained strongly underutilized or almost empty during the Covid19 peak and in some cases had to send staff home. Millions of surgeries and therapies were cancelled, including many cancer screenings and organ transplants.
  19. Several media were caught trying to dramatize the situation in hospitals, sometimes even with manipulative images and videos. In general, the unprofessional reporting of many media maximized fear and panic in the population.
  20. The virus test kits used internationally are prone to errors and can produce false positive and false negative results. Moreover, the official virus test was not clinically validated due to time pressure and may sometimes react positive to other coronaviruses.
  21. Numerous internationally renowned experts in the fields of virology, immunology and epidemiology consider the measures taken to be counterproductive and recommend rapid natural immunisation of the general population and protection of risk groups.
  22. At no time was there a medical reason30095-X/fulltext) for the closure of schools, as the risk of disease and transmission in children is extremely low. There is also no medical reason for small classes, masks or ‘social distancing’ rules in schools.
  23. The claim that only (severe) Covid-19 but not influenza may cause venous thrombosis and pulmonary (lung) embolism is not true, as it has been known for 50 years that severe influenza greatly increases the risk of thrombosis and embolism, too.
  24. Several medical experts described express coronavirus vaccines as unnecessary or even dangerous. Indeed, the vaccine against the so-called swine flu of 2009, for example, led to sometimes severe neurological damage and lawsuits in the millions. In the testing of new coronavirus vaccines, too, serious complications and failures have already occurred.
  25. A global influenza or corona pandemic can indeed extend over several seasons, but many studies of a “second wave” are based on very unrealistic assumptions, such as a constant risk of illness and death across all age groups.
  26. Several nurses, e.g. in New York City, described an oftentimes fatal medical mis­manage­ment of Covid patients due to questionable financial incentives or inappropriate medical protocols.
  27. The number of people suffering from unemployment, depressions and domestic violence as a result of the measures has reached historic record values. Several experts predict that the measures will claim far more lives than the virus itself. According to the UN 1.6 billion peoplearound the world are at immediate risk of losing their livelihood.
  28. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden warned that the “corona crisis” will be used for the permanent expansion of global surveillance. Renowned virologist Pablo Goldschmidt spoke of a “global media terror” and “totalitarian measures”. Leading British virologist Professor John Oxford spoke of a “media epidemic”.
  29. More than 600 scientists have warned of an “unprecedented surveillance of society” through problematic apps for “contact tracing”. In some countries, such “contact tracing” is already carried out directly by the secret service. In several parts of the world, the population is already being monitored by drones and facing serious police overreach.
  30. A 2019 WHO study on public health measures against pandemic influenza found that from a medical perspective, “contact tracing” is “not recommended in any circumstances”. Nevertheless, contact tracing apps have already become partially mandatory in several countries.
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[The Athletic] Rebooted: When Murdoch tried to buy Manchester United

[ Removed by reddit in response to a copyright notice. ]
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Climbing Mount Readmore: Reading Our Top Fantasy Novels Part 17 - 65-60

Welcome to a fairly successful attempt to not do any actual work at my job because dammit, there's reading to do! Each month I will be reading 5 books from our Top Novels of 2018 list until I have read the starting book from each series. When we last checked in, I started the 70s tier. Now we finish the 70s begin the 65s:
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65. Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks, Book 1 of the Culture series (58 on the 2019 list)
Horza is a Changer, a shapeshifting spy, working for the Idiran Empire in its war against the Culture, the hivemind of humanity that rules most of the known galaxy. When a mission extraction goes awry, Horza is captured by pirates and must take over the identity of their inept leader to find his way back to his comrades so that together, they can recover the lost computer that contains vital information relevant to the war.
Iain Banks is a legend that I've never actually read before and judging by this book, that's a tragedy that needs correcting. I was struck immediately by the decision to make the main character non-human and to have him fighting against humanity in the central conflict of the novel. Humans are explicitly portrayed as being in the wrong and needing to be stopped by force from the very beginning. That's...a rarity in sci fi where we still largely appreciate having a human perspective or at least pro human viewpoints delivered through the protagonist and even if there is an anti human message, it's usually delivered from the lens of a more moral human who wants society to fix its ways. Horza himself is a rather interesting character and he has the difficult role of both being protagonist and providing the reader with a lot of the worldbuilding. Most of what we learn of the Culture comes through Horza's eyes which, despite sometimes being expository, is a fascinating way to do it because it bakes a singular bias into the revelations which makes the reveals of the world far more interesting than simple explanations would be. For instance, one could have written "The Culture was a communist paradise" to explain the Culture's dominant political system but instead Horza complains about the fact that the rulers of the Culture already have their communist paradise but they still can't stand not meddling in the affairs of others. This may seem like a subtle distinction but it twists the information from simple exposition to also be an expression of character; you learn about Horza's motivations and his problems with the Culture in the same sentence you learn about how the Culture governs itself. It's an economical way of storytelling that makes sure information is almost always being conveyed on multiple levels.
One surprising weakness I found in this novel was that for a war story, the action was the least interesting part. Banks is usually quite skilled at blending characterization in with the rest of his writing but that skill stumbled in the action category where it feels like it could happen to almost any character. It's still technically well written action that's clear and theoretically exciting on its own but it often felt like the plot and characters were are put on pause for an action scene to interrupt. I guess the best way to put it is that for such an otherwise inventive and interesting novel, I would have expected the action to be a little more imaginative and less boilerplate. The frequency of the action also throws off the pacing of the book which could have been a much tighter 300 or so page book if the majority of the action scenes were either cut or curtailed. There is also an extended an rather pointless scene where Horza gets captures by cannibals and an extended sequence where he watches them devour someone alive that maybe some people will find horrific but I was mainly bored by because it was so disconnected from the rest of the story. Luckily it only lasted for one chapter before Horza returned to his main quest. But, those weaknesses aside, it's still a good book that I enjoyed quite a bit.
63. Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone, Book 1 of the Craft Sequence (72 on the 2019 list)
The newly graduated necromancer, Tara Abernathy, has been recruited to a renowned firm as a junior associate. It's everything a woman with her magical talent could hope to achieve but there's one small problem: her first assignment is to somehow resurrect a god, a feat that should be beyond the abilities of even a team of the most skilled necromancers even if she didn't already have to fend off attacks from whoever killed this god.
Do you like heroic necromancers? Do you like a blend of fantasy and legal work? Do you like emotional rocks? Then boy is Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead the novel for you. Boasting some fast pacing, quirky characters, and a unique tone, this book is fairly different from many fantasy novels. The worldbuilding is one of the more unique ones I've seen in that it resembles the modern world heavily but it has clearly gotten to that stage solely through magical means. Where urban fantasy is the real world with magic grafted on, this could almost be described in the opposite way: a magical world with the modern world grafted on. The decision to focus on unusual protagonists like necromancers and doing a job analogous to legal work was a bold one that I'm not totally sure the novel pulls off but I certainly can't fault Gladstone's ambition deciding to write within these constraints. The characters are also all likable and intelligent, always making reasonable or even clever moves in pursuing the plot.
Unfortunately, I found it a bit dull with the main issue is that the investigation angle of the story didn't quite work for me. The investigation pulls double duty in the narrative as it allows the characters to give exposition about the world in a natural way without it feeling forced and it also lays the groundwork for the plot but part of the fun of a mystery in most books is that you can presumably put the pieces together yourself to figure out what happened if you're observant enough. That can't really be the case in a fantasy story though, through no fault of the author's, because it's close to impossible to get all the necessary worldbuilding and magical theory underpinning the murder put together until very late in the book. Sometimes it can't even all get in there before the reveal as is the case with this book where you will be incredibly lucky to untangle the complicated web of stock bundling analgoues that goes into forming the underlying mystery of this book. The other problem though is that even though you can't really put the solution together as to what happened on a first read, it is damn easy to guess who the villain is and that he did it even if you don't know how while the characters still run about wondering aloud who could have committed such a crime. It is odd to have the mystery be complicated while the bad guy is so transparently obvious because it undercuts tension from both ends. I lost interest in the mystery and became frustrated with the characters for not catching on to the obvious villain until late in the book. These are far from damning problems but they did dampen my enjoyment of an otherwise enjoyable read.
It was a good book, I think, but one that I didn't quite enjoy as much as I think I was supposed to. It's certainly fun and interesting but I can't help thinking it just needed a tighter plot and I always have trouble overcoming the hurdle of investigation plot lines, which are just never my thing. A decent read, well worth a shot, maybe I'll try a later book and see if things improve for me.
63. Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay, Book 1 of the Sarantine Mosaic (70 on the 2019 list)
Caius Crispus (Crispin) is a talented mosaicist who receives the opportunity of a lifetime when the emperor of Sarantium commissions his work. Setting out with a mechanical bird named Linon that was ensouled by an alchemist as his companion, Crispin begins the long journey from Rhodias to the city of Sarantium.
Jesus, GGK, how do you keep writing this well? The Sarantine Mosaic is arguably only a mid tier Kay book (it's not as epic as Tigana, as beloved as Lions of al-Rassan, nor as beautiful as Under Heaven, and I think I've even seen Song for Arbonne recommended more than it) yet it may be his most poetic work both in terms of the lyrical nature of the prose and how directly the story works to elaborate on the themes of a famous poem by William Butler Yeats Sailing to Byzantium. Those themes are largely: how things change, passing from youth to old age, exploration of the world, and also an interrogation of how political and religious powers intersect. Of these themes, I'd say change is probably the best explored one as the title is both a literal description of the events of the book (the main character is traveling to Sarantium, of course) but within the book the phrase "sailing to Sarantium" is also an expression characters use repeatedly to mean a time of great change and upheaval. So "sailing to Sarantium" is effectively synonymous with "taking a daring risk." This is underscored by just about every character in the book who are all about to jump into larger conflicts they don't understand from Crispin who is unprepared for the Sarantine court's political intrigues, to the emperor's plans to reconquer Rhodias, to the kindly alchemist who must confront the place where he learned his strange powers by the end of the book. Naturally being in such a position makes almost all of the characters varying degrees of wistful and introspective which is where the book derives most of its poetic power as the reveries the characters fall into are some of the best written sections of the book and get the reader to reflect on the temporary nature of things without forcing the reader to come to any singular conclusion.
From a more technical perspective, Kay has always described his works as "history with a quarter turn to fantasy" and so it's probably no surprise here that the name similarity between Sarantium and Byzantium is not a coincidence. The Sarantine Empire is a pretty exact recreation of the Byzantine Empire under the rule of Emperor Justinian right down to the importance of sports team fandoms in determining the course of politics (yes, really). It was especially interesting to read this work in particular because this is the first time I've actually had some familiarity with the era Kay has drawn on for inspiration and I had great fun sussing out which characters were analogues to the historical figures I could remember from this era. The world is also one of the most magical Kay has written so far, with strange creatures that are beyond mortal comprehension and alchemical powers that can create ensouled beings lending much intrigue to the world. The characters are also well drawn and varied though I was occasionally frustrated that though there are many interesting characters in the book, only Crispin's story is examined consistently. Other characters, even ones who are his important traveling companions on fascinating journeys of their own, tend to drop out of the narrative's focus even though they are still present. I know there is a second book but Crispin has had a full character arc while characters like Kasia only have a quarter of a journey and so they can feel frustratingly incomplete by the end.
One not quite weakness but definitely something I can tell will lose a lot of people is that this novel throws you in the deep end with the names and locations and concepts right away in a way Kay's other works I've read haven't done. Even for someone like me who more or less knows the era being written about, it was shockingly complicated to get a handle on the first chapter. I'd put it on par with the opening chapters of Malazan in terms of difficulty finding your initial bearings. Another flaw is that Crispin can also be a little too competent at times. Obviously he knows a great deal about mosaics (his specialty) but in the course of the novel he also proves to be a master schemer, incredibly socially adroit (to the point that he can stumble in to the Sarantine court and easily impress everyone there), a shrewd business person, a mechanical expert, a capable fighter, an irresistible ladies man, and can easily solve difficult puzzles involving things he's only seen once before without difficulty. It did strain credibility by the end even if I thought it didn't quite stray into Gary Stu territory. But despite those flaws, I truly loved this book and can't wait to read the next one.
62. The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, Book 1 of the Night Angel trilogy (70 on the 2019 list)
The orphan Azoth is taken in by Durzo Blint (editorial note: barely controlled laughter at this name) the most famous of the highest level of magical assassins known only as wetboys (editorial note: raging, uncontrollably laughter at this name). Renamed as Kylar Stern, he begins training to follow in Durzo's footsteps and become a professional assassin. There are only two things that stand in Kylar's way: he lacks the ability to use his magical talent in any way and an unknown enemy is plotting to overthrow the kingdom he lives in, Cenaria.
I'm not a fan of this book. Largely it's because I find Weeks' writing is lacking in most of the areas I really care about - areas like character and narrative cohesion. This is probably most notable in how Weeks employs timeskips throughout his writing and they, almost without fail, come at points that skip over conflicts or time periods that seemed like they were most likely to be interesting. A good example: Kylar is tasked with befriending Logan Gyre, a possible heir to the throne, because Logan might be a useful unknowing source for him in the future and he succeeds. I found myself really intrigued what would happen next. How is our assassin hero going to hide his purpose from the honorable heir while still maintaining a successful friendship? There's a serious conflict of interest there, whole narratives have been built out of characters who are torn between two loyalties trying to figure out how to remain faithful to both parties. Well I'll tell you how he does it: a sudden timeskip to several years later where they've just easily stayed friends without any tension and Logan never finds out Kylar's true role in this book. That is a disappointing approach to storytelling. This is matched with pretty flat characterization throughout. Most characters are one-dimensional, Kylar and Durzo manage to be two-dimensional but they're still pretty flat and don't really have emotional arcs that would help them stand out as characters. Well, Kylar does arguably have something of an emotional arc in the beginning when he first learns to kill which is why I think he edges into the "most developed character" position but past that he limps into a rather uninteresting arc of "I want to be a really good assassin" (no prizes for guessing how that arc resolves) and never really wrestles with any emotional turmoil again.
It's easy to see areas where this book has potential (there are a good number of cool ideas in it and the action is reliably solid) but the questionable approach to storytelling and extremely lame fantasy names make this book pretty groan-inducing. I don't know why Weeks thought the best name for a super magic assassin was "wetboy." I get that it comes from "wetwork" but did he never read it aloud? Did no agent or editor ever tell him that "wetboy" sounds more like an insult a 2nd grader might come up with than a serious name for something? And that's without even getting into whatever bad ideas made "Durzo Blint" happen. This character manages to have 19 (19!) named aliases and while I don't imagine "Pips McClawski" or "Zak Eurthkin" would have been great names to go with either, they somehow all manage to be slightly better than "Durzo Blint."
When the action finally gets going in the final third, it is well done and if more of the book had been closer in tone and execution to the climax (particularly in the tension created when Kylar is forced to face down Durzo as an enemy, I think I wouldn't be so negative about this book. However, a major twist wherein Kylar becomes immortal and gains an incredible level of magical power that enables him to easily overpower his own mentor in seconds seriously took all of the remaining tension out of the rest of the book and makes me wonder how any future book can stay interesting. To me, this book reads like a collection of ideas the author thought were really cool rather than a real story and while some of the ideas are indeed cool (though some are very much trying to hard and fall flat), I'm not sure cool ideas can make up for what I see as pretty serious failings in prose, plot, and characterization. People tell me that Brent Weeks didn't come into his own as an author until the Lightbringer series and I certainly hope that's the case because I would hate to read another book that's on the same level as Way of Shadows.
60. Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher, Book 1 of Codex Alera (60 on the 2019 list)
On the world of Alera, humans having only survived for as long as they have because of their bond with elemental beings called furies. Tavi, a young farmboy, has no fury and believes he will never receive one since he is well past the age of being able to receive one. His perceived failure leads him to act out to impress others leading to a situation that imperils his uncle when scouts from an invading army wound his uncle. It is up to Tavi, with the help of an imperial courier named Amara to alert the country to the impending invasion and save Alera.
The book that was famously written on a dare that Butcher couldn't make a good story out of two bad ideas. The two ideas he was given to work with were 1) the lost Roman legion and 2) Pokemon. Honestly, I think whoever made this bet with Butcher could have come up with worse ideas. "You want some bad ideas? Well I've got some bad ideas. How about you take this millennia old mystery that has fascinated countless writers throughout history and combine it with one of the most marketable and successful multimedia franchises of the past 30 years? Good luck succeeding with those ideas, Jim." But even if the ideas are not as terrible as the unknown bettor believed, the resulting mix still works far better than it had any right to be. The characters are all likable, the pacing is solid, and the plot is interesting. That's not to say this is the greatest book ever, I think it's basically just a solid read, but for a popcorn novel you can do a lot worse. There are some clever twists in there and the bad guys especially prove to be fairly interesting in how competent and human they are which does elevate the book somewhat. This book isn't as good as anything I've read in the Dresden Files, the easiest thing to compare it to since its Butcher's other major series, but I still enjoyed it.
If there are weaknesses in this book, I'd say the major one is that some of the twists are telegraphed a little too clearly. By the fourth time Aldrick mentions that no one but Araris Valerian could beat him with a sword, you really should have put it together that Valerian will definitely appear in this book. By the tenth time he says it, you should have asked yourself "okay which of the characters that I've already met is Valerian?" at least a few times. I also read that Butcher worked hard to make Tavi completely different from his other big protagonist, Harry Dresden, but I'm not sure he really succeeded there because Tavi is still a clever wiseass with an authority problem who is easily distracted by women. I don't think it's a flaw that Tavi has a few major similarities with Dresden but if it was Butcher's intent for him to be the opposite of Dresden, I don't think he he made them quite as different as he thinks.
So it's a decent read with a few rocky patches. I certainly found it easy to read many chapters in a single sitting even if I wound up having a lot less to say about the book overall. Soft recommend if you know you like the Dresden Files and want to see its author tackle a more traditional fantasy world.
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And that's it for this month! Be sure to check back same time next month. As always, feel free to comment with your thoughts on any of these books and their respective series. Contrary opinions are especially welcome as I'd like to know what people saw in these series that I didn't.
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Raiolacoaster - The Pogba Saga Timeline Before We Signed Him

So with all this De Ligt shit going on and I don't have to spend time revising for my exam I might as well look into how the Pogba saga unfolded to see just how much crap was spewed.
The most common theme was Di Marzio and Italian media were pretty prominent throughout the entire saga, everyone else? Not so much. The only British media involved from the start of the transfer window were Castles, Taylor and Ducker. Stone did not get involved until the 9th of July.
I'm going to link the respective Reddit threads because some of the links are dead and it's oh so fun reading our comments from 3 years back.
March
Paul Pogba ready to sign new Juventus contract, says agent Mino Raiola
May
4th
Marotta Juventus CEO : " Manchester City wanted Pogba but he's not for sale"
19th
First person to break the Pogba story was... Castles
22nd
Sky Italia: Paul Pogba will stay at Juventus this summer
29th
(Duncan Castles)Jose targets Pogba to stiffen United’s spine.
June
8th
Daniel Taylor Manchester United free to pursue Paul Pogba after City’s interest fades | Football
Ogden:Paul Pogba to Manchester United: Jose Mourinho in pole position to sign Juventus midfielder | Transfers | Sport
9th:
-DiMarzio Real Madrid serious over Pogba, while Manchester United could also step in
Di Marzio: Raiola met with Real Madrid in Monaco to discuss the Pogba transfer, Madrid proposed a five-year contract and approximately 9.8 million per season, Raiola asked for 12-13m
Juventus CEO Marotta : "Pogba leaving? Not Happening, we'll keep him."Unverified account
14th:
[ABC] Madrid are close to signing Pogba for €95 million, with a salary of 8.5 million a year for 6 years.
Di Marzio: There is no Pogba deal in place, Juve will meet with Madrid tomorrow to talk about Morata, Pogba and Kovacic
15th -
Barca fan collated odds, Pogba was favourite to Join Madrid
19th:
Mino Raiola interview to MARCA: Pogba admires Zidane and Real Madrid
20th
Mino Raiola: Real Madrid and Juventus in "preliminary phase of negotiations" over deal for Paul Pogba.
25th - This is where the floodgates broke
Ducker: Mourinho in talks to sign Paul Pogba - but MUFC must break record fee
AS: AS reporting Real has hit a wall with Pogba transfer
DiMarzio: Raiola will meet with Juventus on Monday for Pogba. Manchester United a possibility
Di Marzio Manchester United set to sign Mkhitaryan (for 38M) and Ibrahimovic, talks with Raiola also for Pogba (di marzio).
26th
Dybala via Di Marzio: Dybala:"Juventus is a great team. Pogba? I spoke to him, I'm certain he's staying"
27th
Di Marzio: Juve will inform Raiola that they do not intend to sell Pogba
Delaney lol : Man Utd have a "50-50" chance of signing the Pogba this summer
La Gazzetta dello Sport: "Manchester United ready to pay Juventus world record £100m for Paul Pogba. Wages would be £192,000 a week"
28th
AS - Pogba agent already in talks with Mourinho's Manchester United
July - The fun begins
3rd
Richard Keys on Twitter: "Hearing that Utd think they've got Pogba. He wanted Barca. Real can't afford him
4th
Jamie Jackson - [Guardian] Paul Pogba will join Manchester United only if his first choice of Real Madrid proves impossible.
7th
Ballbag - Real Madrid willing to sell Alvaro Morata to fund Paul Pogba deal, says Guillem Balague
Ballbag again - Paul Pogba favours Real Madrid over Manchester United but Real fear being priced out, says Guillem Balague
Pogba to Evra after a match - "We're in the final so we can get an extra week of holiday before returning to Torino"Unverified account
Kaveh Solhekol on Twitter: "Zinedine Zidane and Florentino Perez believe Paul Pogba wants to sign for Real Madrid #MUFC"
[James Ducker] Jose Mourinho wants early conclusion to Paul Pogba pursuit (Behind Paywall, would appreciate if someone got a hold of it)
8th
L'Equipe: Pogba wants to "Complete the Circle by Returning to Manchester United" He has informed some Teammates and friends
9th
Simon Stone - BBC Sport has been told a transfer is "not even out of the starting blocks". It is thought United have not had any discussions with Juventus. Furthermore Pogba does not want anything to distract his preparations for Sunday's final against Portugal.
Gianluca Di Marzio: Paul Pogba won't push to leave #Juventus , it's agent Mino Raiola who wants #MUFC move for 20% of the fee.
10th
Gianluca Di Marzio on Twitter: What I've been saying for days, United have agreed terms with Pogba and his agent, yet to agree with Juventus
Marca - Real Madrid have ended their interest in Paul Pogba
11th
Raiola: "Pogba not in a hurry to leave and Juventus wants to renew his contract" [Italian]
12th
Raiola - "Pogba doesn't want to leave Juventus."
13th
Muppet tier - Zlatan's Chef on Instagram: Pogba MUTD Bound!
19th
Raiola: 'It's all bulls**t' - Raiola rubbishes Pogba to Man Utd meeting
Di Marzio - says United have officially made an offer of €101m for Pogba. Juve refused and asks for €120m.
[Paul Hirst] Woodward skips flight to China as he tries to seal £100m deal for Pogba
17th
Allegri: “This is not a selling club that just lets its players go. Pogba belongs to Juve and at the end of the day he too will want to win another Scudetto and hopefully the Champions League".
20th
Marotta Juve Ceo - "No Man Utd Talks for Pogba" - Giusseppe Marotta... aka the Juve director..
Marca : "Man United are only signing Paul Pogba because Real Madrid are letting them."
L'Equipe confirm Pogba deal to Manchester United has been completed.
DI Marzio - Now on #calciomercato to @SkySport the @realmadrid Player @juventusfc called for @paulpogba but he promised himself to @ManUtd
[Di Marzio] Negotiations With United are in an advanced stage but Real are offering Pogba €8-9 million Annual Salary
21st
Mino Raiola on Twitter: There is no deal done regarding Paul Pogba, lots of bla bla bla.
24th
Di Marzio - Pogba could end up staying at Juve if United doesn't agree to Juve's terms. Lemina, Pereyra & Zaza sale can fund Higuain signing
Romano - Situation: #Pogba-ManUtd contract agremeent reached; Juve-MUFC talks ongoing (asked more than €110M); MUFC-Raiola need agremeent on his %Verified account
Di Marzio: Pogba deal is not off, woodward met with Juventus on Monday and now they are communicating through phone calls and emails.
27th
Zidane: "I do not know if Pogba will come or not. We are here working until 31 everything could happen."
Romano - Manchester United expect to seal £100m Paul Pogba deal within 48 hours
Pilib De Brun - Mourinho getting fed up with Pogba saga, believes Madrid have thrown their hat in.
28th
Onda Cero - [Onda Cero] Madrid had a last minute effort to sign Pogba last night but concede defeat. He's all but officially signed to United.
Tier Norwood -Craig Norwood now following pogba on Twitter
29th
Richard Amofa (who) - Pogba to "Have Medical in Los Angeles Today." (Telegraph)
30th
Troll Pogba on Instagram: "Pogba undergoes medical visit in Universal Studios amusement park California "
August - Just wanted to add Simon Stones involvement
5th August >Jose: "Pogba is Juve player until he isn’t, officially," so doesn't want to talk about him but wants 1 more player "a very good midfielder."
7th August 3.14pm
Simon Stone: Pogba to have @ManUtd medical in coming days. No personal terms agreed as yet.
7th August 4.42pm
Simon Stone: Initial Pogba transfer fee believed to be 105m Euros (£89m)
8th
Pogba was official on the 8th of August
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‘They are us’ – an urgent, uncomfortable call to action

"By Morgan Godfery | Contributing writer March 13, 2020
A proper reckoning with March 15 2019 demands that we take up a generations-long struggle to destroy all the exclusions that make up our society and produce the conditions we know as racism. An essay by Morgan Godfery.
This work is made possible by Spinoff Members.

1

I was cleaning out the garage the other day and found an old Crusaders jersey. If I remember right it’s their team kit from 2005, the white knight sewn into the chest and the old Ford logo printed in the centre. The jersey itself is still as fresh as new paint, a novelty purchase from when we were passing through Christchurch on our way to Christmas in Oamaru. I was a year 9 in school and a Super 12 jersey was the kind of item you had, just so you could say you had one. This is about the same time it was still acceptable to whisper things like how the white players in the Crusaders were responsible for their team’s championship success, playing their footy with brains, and the problem with mid-table finishers like the Blues were too many brown boys who only knew how to throw their weight around.
I’m not quite white-passing, but my upper middle-class accent, generally preppy affect, and not-quite-pasty-not-quite-brown skin makes me ethnically ambiguous enough that people are happy to share their thoughts about big Polynesian units, Asian immigrants, Muslim terrorists, and the Jews. The first time I remember running into entirely casual racism was in Christchurch, on the way back from that Christmas in Oamaru, when a retail worker caught up with me on the street apologising for short-changing me in store. I didn’t realise or particularly care, but years later I thought about his apology. “Sorry, I just Jew-ed you”.
At the time it was nothing to me. In high school and later in my flat at Victoria that was just what people said. “Jewing” someone was a verb for ripping them off, taking an advantage, or just a way to give someone a bit of stick. In my experience it was especially popular with the Christ’s College boys, which probably has something to do with the city’s private schools inheriting their culture from Britain’s public schools. “A Jewish boy at a public school almost invariably had a bad time,” wrote Orwell in 1945. Things probably aren’t that much better in 2020. The other day I read an old mate – a private schooler too – on Facebook joking about how Jews are useless at sport.
I suspect for good liberals this is probably shocking. This isn’t language that ever sneaks through our circles. But outside of our cosy hermetic world words like coconut, boonga, fob, wog, gook, curry muncher, towelhead, the hundred variations on the N word, and “Jew” as more than a noun are common currency. The stains from that vocabulary seep into every part of the culture and society, and nothing much has ever been done to wash it out. The first time I remember encountering deliberate, menacing racism is on the rugby paddock when a white coach was yelling at my mate on the wing “run you BLACK bastard”. I thought about that moment when spectators in Christchurch were caught vilifying Fijian player Sake Aca in 2015, screaming from the stands “black cunt”.
Fandoms like to imagine their sports, multicultural rugby especially, as pure and independent realms (“a level playing field”) absent race, politics, or any disadvantage other than skill. It’s a seductive argument, I’ll concede that much, but it’s so self-evidently false it still surprises me every time someone insists on it earnestly. Sport? Not racist? In 2012 talkback callers and trolls went after then Blues coach Pat Lam and his family for the great crime of simply being Polynesian. In 2010 former All Black Andy Haden was put through the wringer for telling media the Crusaders only recruit a maximum three “darkies”, presumably to preserve the team’s famous brain-brawn balance.
Even in the laudatory histories New Zealand rugby was, and probably remains, a notorious nexus for down home conservatives, know-nothing administrators, and out and out racists. In 1960 the rugby union sent the All Blacks on tour to Apartheid South Africa, waving the team off without any Māori players or officials in a remarkable sop to the country’s colour bar. In 1976 the national team were sent back, this time defying international calls to cut sporting ties with the racist state. In protest at the tour more than twenty African countries led a boycott at that year’s Olympics, a moral stand that should perpetually shame New Zealand Rugby. Not racist? As if.
In an ideal world the Canterbury Crusaders would study this history, carefully considering whether their decision to retain the team name is another brick in rugby’s wall of shame. The managers might consider how “deus vult”, meaning God wills it, a battle cry from the first Crusade, and “Acre 1189”, a reference to a siege in the third Crusade, are URL shorthands and postscripts for white supremacist users constructing a historiography for their neo-fascist movement. The managers might also reflect on how real-life white supremacists in countries like Brazil, Norway, and Australia are adopting the Knights Templar, the Christian warrior monks who made up the crusading hordes, and the literal white knight that was formerly the Canterbury team’s logo, as their saints.
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CRUSADERS MASCOTS AT AMI STADIUM IN CHRISTCHURCH IN 2019. PHOTO: DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES. FEATURE IMAGE: FRIDAY PRAYERS AT AL NOOR MOSQUE ON MARCH 22, 2019. PHOTO BY SANKA VIDANAGAMA/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
As it happens the team’s managers, after kicking the issue to a “market research” firm shortly after March 15, made the call to save the name. It’s an unconscionable decision, for obvious reasons, but the team bosses seem cognitively incapable of reasoning through the issue and its implications beyond mere “branding”. In a statement announcing the name-stay the team’s PR people wrote “for us, the Crusaders name is a reflection of the crusading spirit of this community,” as if it’s possible to just reframe the holy war using a press release. It’s a cretinous thing to do when not even a year earlier an alleged shooter undertook a massacre at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques as part of his own “crusade”.
A28-year-old man is before the High Court facing 52 murder charges relating to the events of March 15. What we know about his life is little, save the things he was curating about himself online, which in this essay I treat with caution and scepticism. But it seems clear enough the Australian citizen was an obsessive for the Crusades, scribbling references to the religious war for the Holy Land across the weapon police accuse the man of using to carry out the massacre. Investigative reports note in his pilgrimage to Europe the 28-year-old – who pleaded not guilty to all charges – made particular visits to Christian-Muslim battlegrounds in the former Ottoman Empire, apparently as a tribute to the crusading warmongers he was so keen to match.
To outsiders the obsession with this particular historical episode is probably bizarre, if not creepy. But in the nether world this man and his neo-fascist comrades inhabit they imagine they’re acting out the thesis and title in Samuel P Huntington’s The Clash of Civilisations. In his 1993 essay the American political scientist argues that in the immediate past global conflicts were between warring ideological factions – capitalism and communism – but post-Cold War conflict will centre between clashing civilisations. The West vs the rest. Christianity vs Islam. The Crusades II.
In Huntington’s telling, and in the alleged shooter’s head, the West and the Islamic world are fated to compete. Yet that competition won’t centre over economic issues like stable oil supply lines, or even political issues like the territorial integrity of Western allies in the Middle East, instead the clash is meant to happen over Islam’s apparently regressive values and the West’s progressive tradition. It’s a striking thesis, especially for the generals and politicians who were hunting for cover for their military adventures in the Middle East and East Africa in the late 80s and early 90s. But it was always a notion that was impossible to apply, reducing the Islamic world to a series of stereotypes (it never had its enlightenment) and setting it against an equally reductive West (it did have its enlightenment).
The late Edward Said, the Palestinian scholar, cut right to the heart of Huntington’s argument in identifying it wasn’t an argument at all – rather, he was “a partisan, an advocate of one so-called civilisation over all others” who maps billions of people into “vague” and “manipulable” abstractions and then presents it as a true account of the world. “Thus to build a conceptual framework around the notion of us-versus-them is in effect to pretend that the principal consideration is epistemological and natural – our civilisation is now and accepted, theirs is different and strange – whereas in fact the framework separating us from them is belligerent, constructed, and situational.”
In other words, the thing separating the Christian us from the Islamic them, to the extent a clean separation is possible at all, is history – of colonialism, of Cold War power politics – and not immutable categories like “the West” or “the East”. That the categories exist at all are a function of history and political convenience, not a universal law stipulating conflict as the only end. Yet for the neo-fascists like the alleged shooter every thought they cherish orbits this particular rock: that the entire Islamic world is one dirty blob of terrorism, rape, and invasion, and that all its more than one billion members act with a single purpose and co-ordination unknown in the entire history of humanity.
But why commit to a dichotomy so obviously stupid at all? The 28-year-old grew up in Grafton, a waterway town in northern New South Wales, and in his time on the Eastern seaboard it seems unlikely he ever actually met many Muslim people at all. In his own family’s account they were just ordinary Aussies. It’s impossible to interrogate the claim – every family thinks itself the norm and we can’t penetrate their private lives to investigate how true it is – yet the family were probably ordinary in one sense. They were unremarkable. Just another white family. The alleged shooter’s parents were in traditional jobs. Mum a teacher. Dad a rubbish man.
The people who were closest to him – cousins, old school mates – pinpoint his OE to Europe as “the moment”. As RNZ reports in his manifesto the alleged shooter recounts his trip through North Korea and Pakistan, paying tribute to the locals’ kindness and hospitality (noticing the contradiction he explains he doesn’t hate the yellows and blacks who stay in their own “homelands”). Eventually he lands in Europe, road tripping France. In one passage he despairs that he can’t seem to find an all-white town or city. In another passage his travels take him, quite conveniently, to a cemetery for the European dead of the world wars. “I broke into tears, sobbing alone in the car,” he writes, mourning the apparent Islamification of Europe. “Why were we allowing these soldiers deaths to be in vain?”
He didn’t realise that the dead he mourned died trying to kill people like him.
In 2018 I wrote (presciently, without claiming too much credit for an insight this awful) that “white nationalism is, for the basement dwelling 4chaners, mouth breathing Redditors, and Youtube philosopher kings, nothing more than a desperate search for an alternative fatherland”. That search is what drove the alleged shooter from his Australian home. “The origin of my language is European, my culture is European, my political beliefs are European… most importantly, my blood is European”. To the alleged shooter his actual home was irredeemable. “What is an Australian but a drunk European?”
In each claim is a desperate narcissism, reaching for an imaginary identity when your existing accomplishments don’t match your personal ambitions. It’s tempting to extend that psychoanalysis. The alleged shooter’s fetish for imaginary “whites” is a cover for the trauma of being a nothing, disembodied. Or maybe the urge to order and rank the world into competing civilisations is a neurosis, like stacking your knives and forks in a row. Perhaps the pleasure he takes in trolling is jouissance, a momentary transgression in the service of briefly feeling. Yet those readings are weightless if they stand alone. The alleged shooter’s interior life is relevant, certainly so for a conviction on murder, but studying the actually existing politics that shaped his positions and actions seems more important than base speculation.
In The Invention of Tradition the historians Terence Ranger and Eric Hobsbawm argue that traditions, far from the ancient wisdoms of old, are often nothing more than recent beliefs that help foster a common identity when – to borrow from Said – “organic solidarities” like the family or village break down. The inventions are easy to spot in the courts and parliament where British ritual connects the two institutions to a pedigree and past that their move half away across the world broke. In the neo-fascist movement the inventions are slightly more subtle, taking actual historical happenings like the Crusades and pick-and-mixing the symbols (Knights Templar), battles (Acre 1189), and language (deus vult) that they can contort around the various anti-Muslim bigotries.
The idea that traditions are a kind of stand-in where old connections break down seems especially apt in settler colonies where the relationship to the past and a present community often amounts to nothing more than a shopping list of shared habits and references. Gumboots as culture. I appreciate that description could come across as banal, or even malicious, but it gets close to the impulses apparently guiding the alleged shooter: the search for meaningful political connections and political community. As he saw it Australia had no identity to offer. Instead he found his connection in an “imagined community” – in violent European nationalisms – and online.
“I am a racist”, the man writes in his manifesto. His neo-fascists comrades were too.

2

One of the first inspirations he cites is Luca Traini, a 28-year-old Italian neo-Nazi who, with a 9mm glock, went on a drive-by shooting injuring six African migrants in Macarata in 2018. The racist rampage lit a fuse under that year’s Italian general election. The left went after Matteo Salvini, the League Party leader, the same party in which Traini stood as a mayoral list candidate, for inspiring his violent work. In an ordinary election a political leader would make an immediate climb down, condemning Traini and his crimes. But Salvini, best known in the English-speaking world for closing harbours to refugees crossing the Med, was surprisingly consistent. He said the left had “blood on its hands” for packing the country with “illegal migrants”. The unspoken implication: Traini was doing his patriotic duty.
The alleged shooter, watching on from another hemisphere, found a brother in arms. The two men had built their identities around all the same hatreds and had clothed their boogeymen in all the same threads. One stitch for migrant “invaders”. Two stiches for liberals and Marxists, and a needle for the “race traitors” among them. But where the twin gunmen’s hatred really met, transforming from online big noting to a real-life passion, was in protecting “their” women. Traini undertook his crime as an apparent act of revenge against the three Nigerian refugees in court for killing 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro.
In his manifesto the alleged shooter offers a similar provocation, taking 11-year-old Ebba Akerlund’s death as his red pill. In his self-mythologising, the Stockholm truck attack, a deadly terrorist attack that took Akerlund’s and four other lives, was his waking moment. “It was another terror attack in the seemingly never-ending attacks that had been occurring on a regular basis throughout my adult life,” he wrote. “But for some reason this was different”. What was that difference? Akerlund. An innocent. It’s a vile misuse – he doesn’t care for anyone or anything beyond himself – but the narrative demands an affect, the shooter turning in his coward’s rags for a knight’s armour.
For neo-fascists it’s essential to tell their origin stories through the opposite sex. For aspiring movement leaders like the alleged shooter it’s the fight to protect the “virtue” of “our women” against “Muslim rapists” that forces their hand. For lurkers, shitposters, and like-avores it’s the feminists and “Staceys” who never recognise the genius and vigour of their own race (plain meaning: “women don’t want me”) who lead them into fascism. Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger, a martyr for beta males, undertook his crimes and suicide as an apparent act of “retribution” against women for denying him the sex and love he thought of as his by right.
This, not the customary declarations of love for the race, or even the thrill of sharing the same enemies, is usually the heart of online fascism – it’s a reaction against women.
In Male Fantasies the German sociologist Klaus Theweleit argues the fascist men who fought against the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1933, and who went on to prominent positions and a political home in the Nazi regime, were in their heads and hearts afraid of women. For the “Freikorps” there were two womanly classes: White Women, “the nurses” representing order and servitude to men and country; and Red Women, “the communists” representing disorder, whoring, and the end of patriotic men. The latter were the women the paramilitary movement were under an obligation to kill. In one speech a general complains that when “a few old girls get blown up the whole world starts screaming about bloodthirsty soldiers”.
“As if women were always innocent,” he said.
This is why every fascist movement purges women first – metaphorically and actually. In Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema the American historian describes how films under the Duce’s regime “remove the Italian woman from the colonial space”, portraying the colonies as where men might find purpose through trans-national thuggery, and attacking women’s emancipation at home as a “corrupting” force and a check on the people’s success. The alleged shooter undertook his killings with similar illusions. That he could forge a new identity in gun fire and blood, and that liberated women (and Jews) were responsible for his personal and racial decline. In his manifesto the opening line is “it’s the birth rates”, repeated three times.
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THE WELLINGTON 15/3 VIGIL HELD AT THE BASIN RESERVE (PHOTO BY ELIAS RODRIGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES)
It’s easy to diagnose the same pathologies in his comrades. Game developers Zoë Quinn, Brianna Wu and media critic Anita Sarkeesian – the victims in 2014’s Gamergate troll – were made targets for harassment for no other reason than they were women crossing the border between a man’s stuff (the spacies) and a woman’s role (sex and housework). In New Zealand the death threats against Golriz Ghahraman, our first MP who arrived in New Zealand as a refugee, are so frequent Parliamentary Services ensures special protection for the Green MP. The critics go after Ghahraman for everything from fakery (her “CV” is a lie, she isn’t a “real refugee”) to acting as part of a globalist conspiracy to wipe out the white race. It’s impressively stupid, of course, but the point isn’t the truth in the charges. It’s that an Iranian-born woman sits in our parliament.
The same trolls go for the prime minister on Twitter’s #TurnArdern hashtag too, condemning Jacinda as a lazy woman (#parttimePM) who coasts along on nothing more than her femininity (“she’s a pretty communist”). That’s hardly out of the ordinary, of course. In the 2000s print commentators were comfortable enough to throw equally chauvinist slurs at Helen Clark, using “Helengrad” for Clark as the controlling woman and “political dominatrix” for ball-breaking the men around her. The difference is today’s trolls serve their sexism with Islamophobia on top. Last year activist Rangi Kemara found a telling correlation between tweeters of Turn Ardern and tweeters of Islamophobia. The Christchurch man selling MAGA hats – “Make Ardern Go Away” – on TradeMe once wrote he would destroy “mosque after mosque till I am taken out”.
Give me the misogynist, to corrupt an old saying, and I’ll show you the Islamophobe.
Simone Weil, the French philosopher, would recognise in the turn to Europe – and the turn against women – a classic “uprooting”. In almost every country material comfort and security often rely on cutting the cord between a person, the past, and a present community: removing Indigenous people from their land; separating citizens from their homes and families in one place for work in another; and reducing people to their supposedly “innate” categories (race, gender, etc). These uprootings, in Weil’s words, are a “sickness of the soul” that leave men especially vulnerable to demagoguery. In their search for past and present connections they turn to “false conceptions” like patriotism and national greatness, and at the core of each in 2020: hatred for and fear of women.

3

What’s notable about this neo-fascist movement isn’t necessarily its reach but its mode. Online, yes, but more importantly: politically free. Other than finance, the alleged shooter had no political or bureaucratic restraints. He could post all the tell-tale things he apparently did, and it seemed neither the police nor the spy agencies would ever flag it. He could acquire the semi-automatic weapon the Crown charge him with using with nothing more than a gun licence – and the seller was under no obligation to log the purchase. And he could move between Australia and New Zealand’s practically open borders with only a passport and a straight face for the eGate.
I hope you register the irony in this. Borders were the very thing the alleged shooter was desperate to enforce against the Muslim hordes. After moving to New Zealand, ostensibly to plan an attack back home, the 28-year-old found instead that “the invaders were in all of our lands”. Even at the bottom of the world in formerly lily-white Christchurch. “Nowhere was safe”, he wrote. The alleged shooter, in a bonfire of pomposity and self-regard, actually did think himself at the centre of a civilisational struggle between the out-bred West and Islam. In the mind of the manifesto writer, massacring Muslims would enforce the borders the supposed sell outs in government wouldn’t.
But in allegedly killing the innocent people he did he wasn’t taking on a powerful soon-to-be majority. Rather, on one side is the 28-year-old with all his political and social freedoms, and on the other are the shooting’s victims who were living their lives under significant political and social restraints. The spy agencies were dedicating their resources to “Islamic terrorism”, not the alleged shooter’s terrorism. Police commit more resources to “street gangs” – that is, Māori – and barely even bother with the alleged shooter’s brothers and sisters in white power. The immigration department, as any anecdote can confirm, focuses disproportionate attention on non-white entries, and the only people who move freely between borders are people like the 28-year-old.
In short: non-white people live their lives under scrutiny and surveillance.
The government’s official response to the Christchurch shooting is to extend that scrutiny and surveillance to, well, white people. Jacinda Ardern is leading reforms to gun laws and the rules governing how online users share violent, racist, and other objectionable material. Last month the country’s top spies told a parliamentary select committee that they’re keeping watch on dozens of suspect characters. Police, even a year on, are still making home visits to destroy illegal weapons and otherwise interview lurkers and posters. The changes, taken together, rightly remove the freedom and options the alleged shooter had, and make it almost impossible for his comrades to organise.
Yet as good and necessary as those changes are some of the structural conditions that produce the racial distinctions the alleged shooter holds so dear are left intact.
In organised debating one of the famous moots is the “balloon debate”. In it each speaker, usually arguing on behalf of someone famous, proposes why the others shouldn’t toss him or her over the side of a hot air balloon in order to save the others. It’s a riveting hypothetical, placing six people in disaster’s mouth and exercising the collective choice to doom one and rescue the others. But for anyone who understands how it feels to have their apparent merits and demerits subject to “debate”, with someone else drawing up a balance sheet in red and black, it’s horrendous. The idea is we’re born equal, but after that all bets are off. This is what women, takatāpui, Māori, Muslims, and other deviations from the “norm” deal with most days.
Are we worthy?
It’s the same principle that organises immigration to New Zealand: who’s worthy? In our system the government literally attaches “points” to the world’s hopeful according to their potential for improving the lives of the hosts. Good English? Points. A tertiary qualification? Add to the tally. Assets? You’re basically in. The system’s political champions admire this approach for its rationality. Unlike the US where immigration sometimes relies on a lottery – eg the American Diversity Immigrant Visa – or just keen racism – i.e. the Muslim travel ban – New Zealand immigration is hassle-free and non-discriminatory.
It’s a self-serving argument, of course, because an immigration system where the purpose and function is defining inclusions and exclusions (who’s in and who’s out) is never neutral. When Winston Peters calls for tighter English language requirements, for example, that’s really an argument for conferring an advantage on applicants from the Anglosphere over people with equivalent skills or greater need from other parts of the world. This isn’t explicitly discriminatory, at least in the sense the exclusionary threshold doesn’t depend on a person’s race, but the impact is racist in that one group of people (mostly white) enjoy an advantage over another group (mostly non-white) thanks to nothing more than the great good fortune of being born an English speaker.
It’s a perversity. Yet this is what border systems, including our points system, do: they force you to think about inners and outers. The threshold between the worthy and the unworthy. This is one reason the refugee-led campaign to end the “family link policy” was so important. In removing the rule barring African and Middle Eastern refugees from settling in New Zealand (unless their family were already here) the campaigners saw to one of the worst racial exclusions our border system made. If you’re an optimist you might hope the other racist exclusions in our border laws – like The Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act, the legislation stripping Samoans of their Privy Council-confirmed New Zealand citizenship – are but a campaign away from abolition.
I’m a pessimist.
I suspect most people imagine borders as objects, a line in the ground demarcating our country from theirs. Yet the American southern border, as one example, is notable more for “the Wall’s” absence than its presence. The northern border is even less dramatic, a largely wide-open space with fences here and there to pen in the farm animals. In New Zealand airlines usually enforce the country’s borders thousands of kilometres from our actual line on the map. Under the Advance Passenger Screening programme carriers only board passengers with the appropriate documentation.
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A POLICE OFFICER DEMONSTRATES ILLEGAL GUN MODIFICATIONS. (PHOTO: RNZ / ANA TOVEY)
It’s another marvellous technocratic achievement, appointing airline staff as de facto border patrol agents. But like the points system the screening programme’s impacts can end up perverse and racial making it almost impossible for refugees and asylum seekers from “non-visa waiver countries” (i.e. the developing world) from ever making it far enough to lodge a claim for protection in New Zealand. The programme, more than anything else, exposes borders for what they really are – a list of biased inclusions and exclusions – and the structural violence borders perform are in whom they include (the English-speaking, the educated, the wealthy) and who they exclude (the desperate, the poor, the mostly brown and black).
The alleged shooter and the neo-fascist movement understand a struggle is happening over the nature and function of borders. This man recognised new borders – the “balkanisation of the US” – as the only way to guarantee “the future of the White race on the North American continent”. His comrades, like the neo-Nazi who went on a stabbing riot on a train in Oregon, claim their end goal is smashing the US into competing ethno-states. For them – and their king in President Trump – reconfiguring the borders, whether as policy changes to the inclusions and exclusions or new border lines entirely, is the best way to guarantee their political supremacy this century.
Are borders by their very nature racist?

4

I took my last trip to Christchurch a month and a half after March 15. I had a speaking engagement with Network Waitangi Otautahi, the local tauiwi Treaty group. I thought about putting it off. Post-March 15 the only conversations that seem urgent and necessary are about March 15. Taking up space felt wrong, and even stepping off the plane felt intrusive. The city was grieving. Even the affect was off. People were unusually quiet in public spaces. In private one person I spoke to was literally in tears. We weren’t talking about March 15 at all but she was thinking about it every day. Even that felt like I was taking up space. Am I here to grieve too? I thought about Sam Neill breaking down in a taxi when the news broke, openly weeping, and how he took comfort from his Muslim driver.
Hmmm.
I spoke, in the end. Not entirely comfortably, but an intervention of one kind or another felt right after the racism debate went from “individual hate” to “firearms access” to “the internet”. Each is its own valid connection, sure, but it felt as if all the most important connections were missing. In the English-speaking world it’s fashionable to name private, individual acts as “racist”. The intolerant, unfair, or simply racial things that fall out of people’s mouths. Like “cheeky darkies” on the 7pm telly. But it’s unfashionable, of course, to name racist systems. Instead bureaucrats and opinion-makers opt for euphemisms like “unconscious bias”, reducing racism to a state of mind and not a systemic design.
This is why I thought it important to issue a reminder, in the very small way that I could: racism is a social relation. It’s the principle governing the relationship between coloniser – the people who took this land and built the institutions to control and profit from it – and colonised, the people from whom the land was taken and the institutions built to protect and exploit the founding theft. The same principle shapes the relationship between citizens – people who enjoy all the rights the state confers – and non-citizens, outsiders who must prove their worth through their contribution to citizens.
📷
These are the systemic conditions that produce racism – unequal power relations – and it’s what makes it so easy to condemn the Māoris or the immigrants or whoever else. When one people are up and the other are down, and the scales are apparently resistant to any remedial attempts to balance them with Treaty settlements or an increase in the refugee and asylum seeker quota, it makes it seem as if their disadvantage is a state of nature and not a centuries-long project to exclude certain people from prosperity. To the alleged shooter his victims were by their very nature irredeemable, abusing the West’s generosity, and he understood himself as enacting the same permanent exclusions his ancestors made, from the Crusades to the war on terror.
In this sense, the alleged shooter was an individual racist. Of course he was. But in another sense he was taking our exclusionary systems to their logical end.
Is there any response to savagery like this? The government’s reforms are one. I entirely support them. And yet they fall so short. People will still define their identity in different nationalisms, just like the alleged shooter did, so long as there are racist border system to enforce them. Neo-fascists will still define their identities against women as long as there is an unequal “domestic sphere”, an unequal workplace, and a society where one group – men – accumulate and exercise disproportionate power over another – women, trans people, non-binary people. That makes the struggle against the alleged shooter’s politics longer than his trial, his probable conviction, and his probable imprisonment. It’s a generations-long struggle to destroy all the exclusions that make up our society and produce the conditions we know as racism.
On my read Simone Weil’s original, vital insight is that as people and communities we find our identities in the obligations we owe – and in the obligations owed to us. In those reciprocal relationships we find meaning and purpose. In the give and take, in its delights and frustrations, and in the everyday work of making a home in these islands. This is where we find our roots, connecting to each other in different ways – whether as Māori or women or Muslims – but never excluding. “They are us” is an inclusion. They are us is an affirmation. They are us is also an urgent and uncomfortable call to action. As New Zealanders, it’s our responsibility to take on every exclusionary system, whether it’s racist borders or enduring gender roles. The memory of those who lost their lives on March 15 demands no less."
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Dead Cells - Review Thread

Game Information

Game Title: Dead Cells
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02G3GUt6Nzo
Developers: Motion Twin
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 89

Reviews

Areajugones - Urko Miguel - Spanish - 9 / 10.0
Dead Cells brings us a challenging adventure, full of action, which also merges several different genres. In the end, It provides a playable conflation as attractive as it is addictive.
Attack of the Fanboy - William Schwartz - 4.5 / 5 stars
Dead Cells takes some of the very best ideas from Rouge-lite and Metroidvania titles to make an action packed platformer that smartly allows the player to unravel the game's secrets.
Boomstick Gaming - Deadite AGK - 9 / 10.0
COGconnected - Paul Sullivan - 91 / 100
If tight, challenging combat, and infinite replayability in a charmingly depressing setting is your cup of tea, Dead Cells is the game for you.
Critical Hit - Darryn Bonthuys - 9 / 10.0
A chimera of genres, Dead Cells succeeds in forging its own path with incredibly polished combat, retrotastic art design and drawing the right amount of influence from the past.
Destructoid - Chris Carter - 9 / 10.0
Then it's time to repeat the process again, experimenting with a wild newfound power that's unlocked after completion and items I've never used before. I'll probably be doing that for longer than any roguelike in recent memory.
Digital Chumps - Eric Layman - 10 / 10.0
Dead Cells is a cultured, clever, and collected fusion of roguelike canon and metroidvania doctrine. Discovering its wealth of secrets drives the player's curiosity while a proficient performance, derived from countless combinations of weapons and options, rewards their personal dexterity. Dead Cells, from any imaginable approach, thrives in a powerful cycle of surprise and satisfaction.
Easy Allies - Michael Huber - 4 / 5 stars
Dead Cells pushes players to the limit for a challenging and rewarding adventure.
EGM - Evan Slead - 9.5 / 10.0
At first glance, Dead Cells might seem like another overhyped Metroidvania-style platformer trying to break into the stuffed platformer genre, but it's actually worthy of all its praise. Motion Twin's impeccable implementation of roguelike elements into a classic 2D exploration game is the key ingredient that makes it all work, and the impressive controls don't hurt either. The enemy variety and story might not be groundbreaking, but the positives eclipse any of the game's small negative aspects. Dead Cells is a standout in the genre.
Expansive - Ray Willmott - 9.5 / 10.0
Without doubt, Dead Cells is one of the best games in its genre but also one of the best this year. Considering it just released on every major format, there’s absolutely no reason not to pick it up. Dead Cells is essential.
FingerGuns - Greg Hicks - 9 / 10
Balletic combat, beautiful visuals, a grim sense of humour to it, and the progressive upgrade system that encourages completion makes this a brilliant addition to a sub-genre that continues to grow from strength to strength. Highly recommend.
Game Debate - Jon Sutton - 9 / 10.0
Dead Cells is fast-paced, slick, action-packed and pitched just right in terms of difficulty. This is paired with a ridiculously addictive upgrade loop and drool-worthy animations, combining to deliver a roguelike which can stand tall alongside greats like Spelunky.
Game Informer - Andrew Reiner - 9 / 10.0
The reward loops are addictive and continually open up new things for the player to explore
Gameblog - Thomas Pillon - French - 8 / 10
Being in development for such a long time, Dead Cells avoids the trap and lives up to its expectations. Nevertheless, only those brave enough to face its strong difficulty will be able to discover a deep and generous adventure. Despite a certain level of repetitiveness, even though the randomly generated levels stilla re hand-driven, Dead Cells' offers a brilliant artistic direction and a great but discreet soundtrack.
GameCrate - Nicholas Scibetta - 8.5 / 10.0
Dead Cells takes the best gameplay elements from Metroidvania and rogue-lite games and combines them into something that sinks its hooks into you and won't let go.
GameGrin - Simon Brown - 9 / 10.0
A beautiful, challenging game that is supremely polished in every area. A fantastic blend of tactical combat mixed with metroidvania style progression. Combined with an interesting and very quirky setting makes it a compelling package overall.
GamePitt - Rob Pitt - 9.5 / 10.0
Dead Cells is one of the best roguelike games you can pick up on consoles to date. Not only does it look and run great, but it’s also incredibly addictive and impossible to put down and stop playing. Sure, the first few playthroughs will leave you frustrated and annoyed as the permadeath kicks in and you lose all of your hard work harvesting the cells, but over time you’ll “Git Gud” and breezy through the first few areas. I seriously can’t think of anything negative or bad to say about the game – you’ll easily pour many hours of your life into Dead Cells as you try and reach the end and even more if you’re aiming for the platinum.
Gamerheadquarters - Jason Stettner - 9 / 10.0
Dead Cells is one incredible rogue-lite title providing glorious visuals that are filled to the brim with depth and a fresh take on a crowded genre.
GamesBeat - Jeff Grubb - 98 / 100
Go out and get it for your Switch, PC, or whatever, and just play it.
GameSpace - Damien Gula - 10 / 10.0
If you want to play a worthy successor to the long line of Metroidvania classics and are willing to experience rogue-like difficulty to get it, Dead Cells is an experience worth having over and over again.
GameSpot - Daniel Starkey - 9 / 10
Dead Cells is an incredibly satisfying mishmash of genres that's more than the sum of its parts.
GamingBolt - John Cantees - 7 / 10.0
Without reinventing much, Dead Cells combines the best aspects of multiple genres seamlessly and effectively.
GamingTrend - Codi Spence - 90 / 100
Dead Cells is an amazing rogue-like 2D action platformer. Fast, fluid combat is enjoyable, especially with the different weapons and tools you can find.
GaminGuardian - Leonardo Jiménez Pernía - Spanish - 8.8 / 10.0
Dead Cells is one of the best roguelites of recent years. Moves between genres fluently and defines the subgenre "RogueVania" for the first time.
God is a Geek - Mick Fraser - 9.5 / 10.0
An impeccably crafted rogue-like adventure that feels genuinely unique in a crowded genre
Handsome Phantom - Dustin Furman - 8 / 10.0
Drawing from numerous inspirations, Dead Cells presents refreshing and new ideas from mixing established genres. Though these ideas on their own can be unique and interesting, they don’t always mix together well and are set back by a huge difficulty spike.
Hu3br - Lucas Moura - Portuguese - 4.5 / 5 stars
Dead Cells meshes two genres without either feeling tacked-on or lacking complexity. A must-have for roguelike fans.
IGN Italy - Stefano Castelli - Italian - 9 / 10.0
An excellent bidimensional action game with exquisite artwork and very good control system. It could suck hours and hours of your time if you give it a chance (and you should).
IGN Spain - Juan García - Spanish - 9 / 10.0
An excellent action platformer with a nice roguelike touch. A mix of Castlevania and Rogue Legacy that controls superb, entertains a lot and is as beautiful as deep on its gameplay side.
Just Push Start - Grant E. Gaines - 8 / 10.0
If you’re looking for an easy version of Enter the Gungeon or a game where you have to plan every encounter, you’ll love Dead Cells. However, if you want an experience where you absolutely have to make the most of what RNG gives you, it might not be for you.
Kotaku - Kirk Hamilton - No Verdict
When a game is as finely tuned as Dead Cells, that tuning is all it needs. I've found its punishing, live-die-repeat rhythm plenty engrossing without a narrative wrapper, to the point that more of a story might just be a distraction.
Nindie Spotlight - Justin Nation - 10 / 10.0
Bottom line, Dead Cells is absolutely the new gold standard of how to make an amazing roguelike that’s brutally tough but also generally fair. Slowly but surely persistence and success will unlock new items and enhancements that will then lead to deeper and generally more rewarding runs. Rarely is the game solely to blame for your deaths, you always need to make smart use of the choices your given, even if they may not suit your ideal style. Explore, exploit your traps to their fullest, always know where you’ll be able to safely escape to when things go south, and be prepared with the right gear for fighting bosses and you will make progress. If you’ve been looking for that game that always feels good to play that you can look forward to returning to and will always deliver a challenge and excitement Dead Cells absolutely fits that bill.
Nintendo Insider - Darren Palma - 10 / 10
This isn’t just a Roguevania with Dark Souls elements clasping it together. Dead Cells is a modern-day classic that absorbs the knowledge and spirit of the games that originally coined the terminologies in the first place.
Nintendo Life - Mitch Vogel - 9 / 10
Dead Cells is a masterclass in excellent roguelike design, mixing together nonstop intense action sequences, gorgeous vistas, and an addictive loop of unlocks and rewards into a beautiful experience that no Switch owner will want to go without.
NintendoWorldReport - Neal Ronaghan - 9.5 / 10.0
Not since Spelunky have I been so completely taken by the play and craftsmanship of this style of game. Every run is engrossing and fun and when I die, the only thought rushing through my brain is to start over and try again, pushing as far past my previous run as I can. This is a tremendous newcomer to the Switch indie scene and as long as you're up for a challenge, Dead Cells is spectacular.
NoobFeed - Adam Siddiqui - 85 / 100
Dead Cells is a punishingly hard roguelike adventure that encourages agility, exactness and learning from your mistakes. You'll die, a lot, but that's the point. To keep trying and attempting to push further into the adventure with each failure. This is definitely not an adventure for those who hate dying. Dead Cells expects you to die, get better, and die again.
PC Gamer - Chris Thursten - 90 / 100
A stellar action platformer with gorgeous presentation and excellent combat. Punishing but worth it.
PC Invasion - Raymond Porreca - 9 / 10
Dead Cells is an excellent, challenging "roguevania" that encourages player experimentation and exploration across its beautiful levels.
PlayStation LifeStyle - Jeremy Winslow - 7 / 10.0
Dead Cells may not shift the genre's trajectory or implement roguelike mechanics in any new or inventive way, but it remains a consistently exciting and thrilling experience, even when you've seen that rapier for the fourth or fifth time. It's one of those games that's a joy to play, but even more importantly, a joy to watch because it teaches you the fundamental truth about roguelikes (and maybe life as a whole): let go. Once you learn to let go—or in Dead Cells's case, once you learn to let go of life—you'll find that it's about the experience of the moment, about that run right now. It's kind of like Bukowski's epitaph: If you don't try as hard, you'll enjoy Dead Cells much more. Because its in this nonchalance that the game's systems, however trite, slowly mend together in what can only be described as the perfect run. Before you forgot to dodge.
PlayStation Universe - John-Paul Jones - 9.5 / 10.0
The best roguelike of this generation and a bonafide Game of the Year contender, Dead Cells is simply beyond peer and utterly, utterly essential for anyone that owns a black plastic box stuffed with silicon that has 'PS4' scrawled upon it.
Polygon - Ben Kuchera - No Verdict
Perhaps my favorite part of the experience is how mastering the different systems let you slip into a state of flow. The game is never relaxing, but like driving in the real world you'll often find yourself zoning out with your thoughts as you use a variety of skills that begin to feel like second nature.
PSX Brasil - Bruno Henrique Vinhadel - Portuguese - 83 / 100
Dead Cells bets on dazzling pixelart, aggressive and challenging combat and also on the excellent use of the metroidvania platform style. It has a poor progress and the way the roguelite is used isn't good, making it a more repetitive than rewarding experience at first sight. After all, it is a fun game and it can hold the player for hours and hours.
Push Square - Liam Croft - 9 / 10
Dead Cells has raised the bar for the rogue-lite genre going forward.
SA Gamer - Charles Small - 8 / 10.0
Dead Cells is a brutally hard game to play, not because of its combat or mechanics but rather because of the steep penalty for failure. It still feels fun and rewarding to play though, so it is worth checking it out.
Saudi Gamer - عصام الشهوان - Arabic - 8 / 10
A skillfully constructed game that successfully mixes different existing ideas to create something new. The minimalist plot and roguelike elements might not be to everyone's liking, but for those looking for a unique challenge, this is an excellent choice.
Saving Content - Scott Ellison II - 5 / 5 stars
Dead Cells is equal parts roguelike and Metroidvania, and plays in a beautiful symphony with one another, never feeling unfair or too gated.
Slant Magazine - Aaron Riccio - 4.5 / 5 stars
Motion Twin's Dead Cells is a game designed for those who don't particularly like roguelikes.
Spaziogames - Gianluca Arena - Italian - 8 / 10.0
No need to reinvent the wheel when you have a fast combat system, a good algorithm and a lovely artistica design: this is why Dead Cells has become one of the best habits of this summer. Don't miss it it you loved any Castlevania game ever made.
SwitchWatch - Jordan Humphries - 100%
Overall, Dead Cells is a fantastic game. Some great visuals, smooth controls and satisfying gameplay that I’m sure most people will enjoy. It’s not for the faint hearted though and the difficulty may be a bit much for some so be warned of that. But it never feels impossible and the constant, drip fed progression is rewarding enough to keep playing and unlocking things. Dead Cells is great and if you’ve sampled the plethora of excellent Switch indie games like Hollow Knight, Iconoclasts and Salt & Sanctuary, then you will feel very much home with this release too. It stands shoulder to shoulder with indie game giants thanks to its visuals and fantastic, addictive gameplay. For me it’s an essential purchase whether from the eShop, the standard physical edition or the Signature Edition, I think any fans of action platformers owe themselves to play this excellent game. Buy it.
TechRaptor - Himpe Kenny - 9.5 / 10.0
Motion Twin maximized Dead Cells' potential early on and has polished the game ever since. This is a splendid roguelite that everyone should play.
Telegraph - Tom Hoggins - 4 / 5 stars
No, the timbre of that title is not an accident.
The Outerhaven Productions - Keith Mitchell - 4.5 / 5 stars
Dead Cells is one of the harder games I’ve played in a while and that’s not a bad thing. Hand holding? Nope, you’ll find none of this here. One run might be the perfect run, where you spawn with the best weapon in the game and there’s not an enemy that can take you down. The next run, on the other hand, could end up being the run from hell. You spawn with the weakest weapon, you fail to find an upgrade on your way through the world and it seems like every enemy has your number. Well, that’s the point of the game. It’s not supposed to easy and while it may not be for everyone. Yet, for those who enjoy this sort of game type, you’ll be grinning from ear to ear.
TheSixthAxis - Jason Coles - 10 / 10
With incredibly satisfying gameplay, a constant stream of unlocks, and a world that challenge every cell of your being, Dead Cells is a must own for anyone who likes even one aspect of what has been mentioned here. Every success will fill you with endorphins, every failure will inspire you to get better. When you finally take out the final boss you will be elated. It is here that Dead Cells lets you know that it is just the begining, there are a few more go around yet, and each one gets harder and harder. This is the kind of game that can last you forever, you just have to let it beat you in the head a few times.
TrueGaming - حسين الموسى - Arabic - 9.5 / 10.0
Dead Cells is a wonderful experience, action games can't really become much better than this. every single element is very well done: amazing combat with tons of weapons and elements, great levels and game design despite being a rogue-lite, and awesome music.
TrustedReviews - Jake Tucker - 5 / 5 stars
Dead Cells could be the most surprising success of the year. Coming into the crowded Metroidvania genre was a bold move, but one that seems to have paid off as Dead Cells has delivered the best example of the genre in years. The game is deep and rewards exploration, with exceptional combat and so much content it's honestly a little intimidating.
USgamer - Mike Williams - 4.5 / 5 stars
The field of indie roguelike Metroidvanias is littered with competition, but Dead Cells stands out by focusing on movement and combat. None of its peers feel as good in their moment-to-moment play.
Video Chums - Tyler Hall - 9.1 / 10.0
Dead Cells is undoubtedly one of the best games I've played all year.
VideoGamer - Joshua Wise - 8 / 10
Dead Cells is, at times, constrained by the genres it so heavily draws from, but its vibrant pixel art, furious combat, and rigorous execution make for a winning formula all its own.
Wccftech - Kai Powell - 9 / 10.0
Dead Cells sets a high bar for what can be accomplished within the framework of a Metroidvania. Each randomly generated encounter feels like it was handcrafted for the player and are as challenging as they are rewarding.
We Got This Covered - Eric Hall - 5 / 5 stars
Boasting an excellent progression system, top-notch gameplay, and gorgeous art design, Dead Cells is a remarkable achievement. If you consider yourself a fan of platformers in any shape or form, you owe it to yourself to grab Motion Twin's masterpiece.
Xbox Achievements - Richard Walker - 78%
Unapologetically tough, brilliantly slick and well put together, Dead Cells is a roguelike platformer that will put you to the test. And you'll probably end up enjoying (almost) every minute of it.
Xbox Sector - Jordan Smith - 9 / 10.0
I'd highly recommend Dead Cells, regardless if you're a fan of "roguelike-metroidvania" style games. It's a real treat to get your hands on and well worth the asking price. It offers tones of replay-ability due to the emphasis on exploration and how the game reacts to each and every single death.
submitted by diogenesl to Games [link] [comments]

Wendi Deng Murdoch Connected Silicon Valley to Russia

Wendi Deng keeps popping up through the Trump-Russia scandal, so how did she end up in the middle of it all?
Wendi Deng united Silicone Valley with Russia, birthing Cambridge Analytica
Oleg Deripaska associate Roman Abramovich brought Russia to London, Wendi Deng brought Silicon Valley, and Ron Lauder brought the Trumps in an unholy marriage that is Cambridge Analytica.
Rupert Murdoch introduces Wendi Deng to Russia
Starting as an intern at Murdoch-owned Star TV in Hong Kong which Murdoch bought from son of Hong Kongs billionaire, Li Ka-shing in 1993 (39), Deng quickly rose to an executive position which landed her in the lap of Rupert Murdoch. Two years later, they married (3). Rupert Murdoch opened the world of Silicone Valley and Russian oligarchs to Wendi Deng.
When Deng and Murdoch married in 1999, Murdoch already had unsavory Russian connections. Through the tumultuous 90‘s, Murdoch partnered with Boris Berezovsky in Russia’s Nashe Radio (4), which he eventually sold to Vitaly Bogdanov in 2010 (5). Boris Berezovsky, known for criticizing Putin as Putin reached the helm of the Russian presidency in 2000, and then dying a mysterious death in 2013 (6), was also tied to the Russian mafia when he befriended Roman Abramovich (7).
Berezovsky met Roman Abramovich in 1993 on a yacht with mutual friend Pytor Aven of Alfa-Bank. Berezovsky would eventually introduce Abramovich to “the family,” close associates of then-president Boris Yeltsin (10). It was through Berezovsky’s creation of Sibneft that Abramovich entered the Russian aluminum industry at the height of the Aluminum wars. Abramovich would pay Berezovsky over a billion dollars across 6 years for “kryshna,” or mafia protection, in order to maintain any semblance of security at a time during the Aluminum Wars that a person was murdered every three days (10).
Roman Abramovich- the oligarch at the center of Trump-Russia
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/241425
(For more information on how Ron Lauder connects Trump to Russia, go here:)
https://www.reddit.com/RussiaLago/comments/834t1i/ronald_s_lauder_enmeshed_in_trumprussia/
(For more on how Alfa-Bank is connected to Trump-Russia, go here:)
https://www.reddit.com/politics/comments/7zogr0/rick_gates_trump_campaign_aide_to_plead_guilty_in/duq3t61/
Wendi Deng pushes her way into Murdoch's social networking venture
MySpace was a hot commodity when, in February 2005, MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe held talks with Zuckerberg about an eventually failed bid to buy Facebook. Instead, in July of that same year Murdoch’s News Corp purchased MySpace (19). In 2006 Deng headed to China to open a MySpace office and, in 2007, was promoted to chief of strategy of MySpace China(23). In Murdoch’s fast launch of MySpace China through a consortium of investors put together by Deng (24), Murdoch quickly acquiesced to China’s demands for heavy internet censorship, the environment in which Deng gained her experience in her foray into social media.
Rumors swirled at the time that Wendi Deng had an affair with MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe (25).
Wendi Deng would eventual become friends with Mark Zuckerberg- introducing him to Rupert Murdoch (27)- and Facebook board member, Peter Thiel- entering a business partnership, Artsy.net, with him (29).
Russia and Silicone Valley converge in Hong Kong while Wendi Deng is at MySpace China
Yuri Milner had been in the internet industry since 2000, founding NetBridge with an old colleague from scandal-ridden Menatap and later founded Digital Sky Technologies (DST) in 2005.
Suspiciously, in 2006 Steve Bannon headed to Hong Kong to work for Internet Gaming Entertainment where he persuaded Goldman Sachs, to which he was an alum, to invest in IGE (41). If you recall, DST’s employees are a good proportion Goldman Sach alums (42), and Milner played matchmaker in Goldman Sachs’ heavy investment into Facebook (43). Both Goldman Sachs and DST ended up being the big winners in Facebook’s botched IPO (44). Goldman Sachs also happens to be a resident of Li Ka-Shing's building Cheung Kong Center, where Li Ka-Shing is also a tenet (50) and Goldman Sachs has done business with Li Ka-Shing (51).
Also suspiciously in September 2006, around the time Wendi Deng joined MySpace China, Pavel Durov of St. Petersburg State University began beta-testing what would become Russia’s most popular social networking site, VKontakte (30). If St. Petersburg State University sounds familiar, it’s where Cambridge University lecturer and suspected Russian spy Alexander Kogan shared the technique he used for scraping Facebook data from non-participating memebers in the Cambridge Analytica scandal (31).
At that time Erik Prince had already founded Frontier Services Group in Hong Kong, way back in 1988 at the young age of 19 (53)(54). Frontier Services Group is majority owned by CITIC (54), which was run by Li Ka-Shing at the time (55). In 1988, CITIC teamed up with Li Ka-Shing's Hutchison Wampoa to launch China's first commercial satellite that led directly to Li Ka-Shing's son, Richard Li, to found STARTV, later sold to Rupert Murdoch (56).
In Nov 2007 Li Ka-Shing's Horizon Ventures invested $60 million into Facebook. In March 2008 Horizon Ventures invested another $60 million(57).
In September 2008, Abramovich’s old buddy, Alisher Usmanov, took a controlling stake in DST (32). Three months later, in November of 2008, Milner sat at a Starbucks in Palo Alto with Mark Zuckerberg discussing raising a billion dollars in 60 days (34).
It must be made clear at this point that Wendi Deng has a close relationship to Li Ka-Shing and tipped Ka-Shing to invest in other companies, including the TrimIt app, which News International, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, also invested in (52).
On Jan 1, 2009, DST Global was registered in Hong Kong, of all places (35). In May, 2009, Milner’s DST invested $200 million into Facebook at an inflated valuation of $10 billion dollars without a seat on the board, financed by Kremlin-owned Gazprombank, as revealed by the Paradise Papers. Just so you know, shady Alisher Usmanov was General Director of Gazprom Investment Holdings at the time (36)(37)(38)(33).
2009 is also the year Medvedev appointed Yuri Milner to the Presidential Innovation Commission, where he served until 2011 (46).
By 2010, Milner had invested in Russia’s Facebook competitor, Vktonkate, as well (32).
On June 23, 2010, Dmitry Medvedev, visited Silicon Valley (47).
Then on October 1, 2012, Zuckerberg met Medvedev in Moscow (48).
One month later, Trump would register Make America Great Again (49).
Wendi Deng, Yuri Milner, and Facebook board member Peter Thiel
Wendi Deng would go on to found Artsy.net with Peter Thiel and Dasha Zhukova. Josh Kushner’s Thrive would invest into Artsy.net.
Yuri Milner also invested in Cadre owned by Josh Kushner, Jared Kushner, and Ryan Willaims (1) that's now mired in controversy (2).
For more connections on Peter Thiel and Yuri Milner, go here:
https://www.reddit.com/RussiaLago/comments/87vo61/peter_thiel_deeply_embedded_in_trumprussia/
For more info on Peter Thiel’s Facebook and Palantir in Cambridge Analytica, go here:
https://www.reddit.com/RussiaLago/comments/87ax7e/cambridge_analytica_prime
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submitted by Puffin_Fitness to RussiaLago [link] [comments]

For Honor - Review Thread

Game Information

Game Title: For Honor
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Media: E3 2015 Premiere Trailer
E3 2016 Story Campaign Cinematic
Gamescom 2016 Factions Trailer
'The Warlord Apollyon'
'The Thin Red Path'
What is the Faction War?
Season Pass and Post-Launch Info
'In The Battle' 360° Trailer
Progression and Customization
Gameplay Launch Trailer
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Info
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: February 14, 2017
More Info: /ForHonor | Wikipedia Page
Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 77 [Cross-Platform]
MetaCritic - 78 [PS4]
MetaCritic - 81 [XB1]
MetaCritic - 76 [PC]

Reviews

Areajugones - David Cruz García - Spanish - 9 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor is one of the best multiplayer experiences of the recent years, offering a well-balanced combat system and stunning graphics that reflect the potential of the current generation.
Attack of the Fanboy - Kyle Hanson - 4.5 / 5 stars (XB1)
For Honor offers up one of the most visceral multiplayer experiences in video games. The single player campaign is a nice diversion, but won't satisfy those seeking a full experience. Once you hit multiplayer though, you'll be hooked and finding time for other video games will be the real problem.
Azralynn - Azralynn - 77 / 100 | Written (PC)
I’m sure some people will be turned off by lack of dedicated servers, and presence of microtransactions in a fully priced game, and I can understand the concerns. However, for those who can look past the somewhat greedy business model, For Honor has an extremely well designed and fun combat system to experience. If you’re a fan of skilled combat with intense swordplay encounters, then you’re likely to enjoy For Honor.
Brash Games - Matthew Smail - 8 / 10 (PS4)
Thinking about it, For Honor probably is the game I've been dreaming of since I was about twelve, because it does such a good job of covering all the critical aspects that I associate with medieval warfare that I really have no serious cause for complaint, and if you're in the market for this kind of game, then neither should you!
Cerealkillerz - Gabriel Bogdan - German - 7.8 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor developed from a promising concept to a sloppy execution in the final version. The Story misses some depth and it's still questionable if the game offers some long-term motivation in the Multiplayer-Part.
Cheat Code Central - Jenni Lada - 4 / 5 (PS4)
The campaign offers an interesting enough solo experience that lets people gradually face greater challenges. The multiplayer is extraordinary, when it's working properly. It's just that Ubisoft has once again not anticipated the needs of a game such as this. I feel like peer-to-peer wasn't the right system for such a game, and that it would have been better for everyone if this had been a client-server game.
Do You Even Game Bro? - Kieran Stockton - 7.5 / 10 (PS4)
Although the campaign falls well shy of the mark, the innovative Art of Battle system makes for a great multiplayer brawler
Game Revolution - James Kozanitis - 4 / 5 stars (PC)
Against all my better instincts, I have to sit down and Ubisoft's dinner table and eat however many crows they put in front of me. Everything but the beak and feat. For Honor is a damn fine experience, and while it's held back by a few technical issues and an underdeveloped campaign, learning and mastering its every complexity is rewarding enough to balance those out and then some.
GameCrate - Angelo D'Argenio - 7.8 / 10 (PC)
For Honor is a fantastically innovative game that deserves to be played by everyone at least once, but whether or not it ends up being a multiplayer classic is still yet to be seen.
GameSkinny - Synzer - 8 / 10 stars
For Honor is a brilliant new hybrid fighting game that's only issue is connecting to servers.
GameSpace - Robert Lashley - 7.8 / 10 (PC)
For Honor is a gorgeous game filled with brutal combat. At times your armor will become red soaked in the blood of your enemies. PvP is fun and can be fast paced but at times you’ll be best served to slow it down and be more strategic. As an arena sword fighter For Honor does an admirable job but it falls short in supporting an epic campaign. Hopefully the eternal war meta game can keep the players satisfied for the long haul. It’s easy to see the novelty wearing off for a lot of players before the end of the first season.
GamingBolt - Pramath - 7 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor is, most of all, a fun game, and it is a game that has some real depth and soul to it.
GuyLogicGaming - Dragan Elijas - Unscored
Kotaku - Ethan Gach - Unscored (PS4)
Even the most clumsy and gnarled duel will achieve moments of greatness. And when two experienced players operating on the same wave-length begin stringing together slashes, parries and counter-attacks in an unbroken chain, the resulting exchange feels as much like a choreographed ballet as a fight to the death…if ballets ended with severed heads flying into the orchestra.
Life is Xbox - Dae Jim - 90% (XB1)
Yes, Ubisoft did it again. Another brand new IP that is good enough to hopefully find a big enough audience. You have to respect the publisher for bringing so many brand new experiences, something that other big publishers fail to do. For Honor redefines the hack and slash genre with a tactical combat system and addictive online play.
PC Gamer - Andy Kelly - 74 / 100 (PC)
A tense, tactical medieval brawler that will reward anyone with the patience and will to master it.
PCMag - Gabriel Zamora - Unscored (PS4)
Boasting several action-packed game modes, realistic weapons-based fighting, and appropriately rugged graphics, sword-fighting game For Honor is poised to become the next big PlayStation 4 multiplayer title.
PlayStation LifeStyle - Tyler Treese - 7 / 10 (PS4)
Judging by how Ubisoft has handled support for past multiplayer games (like Rainbow Six Siege), I’m confident that some of For Honor‘s issues will get rectified down the line. Gameplay can be tweaked, matchmaking enhanced, and better modes can all be added over time. However, as the game stands right now it’s more of a proof of concept than a fully realized idea. There’s a great base to build upon mechanically, but it’s too rough around the edges to shine as bright as it should.
Rectify Gaming - Mike Boccher - 9.2 / 10 (XB1)
For Honor is an incredibly competitive multiplayer game and one of the best action titles in years.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Brendan Caldwell - Unscored (PC)
Overall, I don't know exactly how I feel about For Honor. It sometimes feels like a Ubisoft hired a bunch of scientists in white coats to observe Dark Souls PvP from behind reinforced perspex and experiment on it with Dota DNA in a mad attempt to recreate a tame monster in a safe environment for their own nefarious ends (profit). What they've made is an interesting chimera, something that is both more accessible but sometimes just as unforgiving.
Stevivor - Steve Wright - 9 / 10 (XB1)
After the utter mess that was For Honor’s networking in closed — and open — betas, we were cautious of online capabilities in this final release. Thankfully, the issues we encountered in both — frequent dropouts, half-populated matches and the like — haven’t shown themselves in the final release. After two solid days of play, across various modes and basically on the hour, we’re confident that Ubisoft has bolstered its backend to ensure For Honor will be a delight to play, not only in mechanics, but over the internet too. For Honor is a refreshing new take on combat, and one that everyone should experience.
TrustedReviews - Tom Orry - 4 / 5 stars (PS4)
For Honor is a real surprise. In terms of gameplay mechanics it’s top-notch, visually it’s excellent, and there’s a decent if fairly formulaic campaign to play through. It’s in For Honor’s multifaceted multiplayer, however, where Ubisoft has has struck gold. Testing your combat knowledge against real players, either in one-on-one duels or in large conquest-style battles, is both thrilling and unique in the action genre.
Fighting-game fans looking for something new to become fanatical about will find enough depth here to foster a new obsession, while players who usually stick to thrill-a-minute action will appreciate the extreme tension of battle and rewarding gameplay mechanics. Ubisoft should have another online-focused hit on its hands.
TheSixthAxis - Jim Hargreaves - 8 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor joins Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, and Destiny, as a game that is destined to grow over time. Right now it offers a strong core experience, but will ultimately be defined by months of rebalancing and a steady flow of new content. Having such a long tail will make For Honor even more enticing further down the line as it continues to snowball. That said, it’s refreshing and addictive enough at present to lure in anyone looking for a multiplayer game that defies the norm.
GameMAG - ACE - Russian - 6 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor feels like a Free-to-play title that deliberately was turned into a retail product, but kept the elements of a Pay-to-win system. Unfortunately, except for graphics and animations, the single-player mode cannot offer pleasant revelations and the multiplayer mode, instead of beautiful battles, reminds only white trash street fights. The problem with an imbalance of characters in duels makes the situation even worse, but we hope that most errors will be fixed with future updates. If this happens, you can give the game a chance, but for now we recommend postponing the purchase or waiting for discounts to devote time to other more worthy projects.
Twinfinite - Hayes Madsen - 4 / 5 (PS4)
For Honor tries something new, and ultimately succeeds much more than it fails. With its surprisingly fun campaign, intense and challenging gameplay, and varied multiplayer, there’s plenty to keep you busy. There are balancing issues I sincerely hope get worked on, but for now, For Honor is a unique experience well worth your time, and could be the start of a daring new franchise.
Eurogamer - Edwin Evans-Thirlwell - Recommended (PS4)
For Honor is a terrific, brutal mix of Ubisoft-brand third-person game design and proven fighting game principles.
COGconnected - Anthony Gomez - 85 / 100 (PS4)
Microtransactions aside, For Honor is a special game. Ubisoft took a huge risk on an intellectual property that offered no guarantees on its financial return; that alone is worthy of applause. But get this, they actually pull it off. They somehow made a medieval fighting game that is intense, smart, rewarding, and demands something of its player. It asks for your patience, yet the glory you’ll receive in return is well worth the trade.
CGMagazine - Cole Watson - 8.5 / 10
For Honor is a great example that Western developers can make some great innovative twists on a primarily Japanese-built genre. It’s so safe for AAA titles to resort to going action, open-world, or FPS, but this is a real risk that Ubisoft is taking on a brand new IP and I hope it pays off for them. This is the best combat system I’ve had the pleasure to experience since the death of character action games. I hope to see you on the battlefield, even if you fight for Valhalla or the Emperor.
Generación Xbox - Gonzalo Sánchez - Spanish - 4 / 5 (XB1)
For Honor is a remarkable game with a deep combat system. The campaign has a cooperative mode for two players and the multiplayer mode will give you tons of hours of fun. For Honor is a safe bet to have fun alone and even more with your friends.
PlayStation Universe - John-Paul Jones - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)
A small handful of flaws aren’t quite enough to dull the appeal of For Honor’s peerless combat and deceptive depth. For Honor looks like it’ll be my go-to multiplayer game for quite some time and if you give it a go, chances are it’ll be yours, too. For anyone with even the slightest love of melee combat, For Honor is a must-have.
The Jimquisition - Laura Kate - 7 / 10 (PC)
Ultimately, For Honor doesn’t focus on making sense or being historically accurate, it just puts cool stuff in a field and tells it to go out and fight. Everything outside of playing online sucks, like microtransactions, customization options and single-player. Hell, the multiplayer itself sometimes sucks when it pairs you with a badly selected host player.
However, when the game is working and you’re murdering a single human player while screaming “FOOOOOOOOOOOR HOOOOOOOOOOOONOOOOOOOOOOOR” at their corpse, it’s pretty damn rewarding.
Cubed3 - Ofisil - 7 / 10 (PC)
There are lots of bad things that can be said for Ubisoft's newest idea, with the most annoying one being its poor single-player portion. For those looking for the best medieval-themed PvP melee fighting game, however, it just can't get any better than this. For Honor is not flawless, but it's the current King of the Hill.
Gadgets 360 - Akhil Arora - 7 / 10 (PC)
For Honor is a truly engaging experience when you're out on the battlefield, and playing mind-games with your opponents. It goes beyond its contemporaries by adding depth to combat in a way that feels true to reality. But all of its niceties threaten to be overshadowed by the poor taste of the non-playable elements, which seem to be becoming a bit of norm with top-tier video games.
Shacknews - Jason Faulkner - 8 / 10 (PC)
For Honor will inevitably be a favorite of mine. It combines easy to pick up, complicated to master fighting and action-style gameplay with compelling gameplay types and there's nothing quite like it. However, if you were looking for a single-player game, you might not want to purchase this title. The heart and soul of For Honor are its multiplayer modes, and unfortunately, at this time, there are enough issues with matchmaking and peer-to-peer connections that you may want to wait until Ubisoft has some time to fix those problems. However, once For Honor has a solid networking backbone I can say it'll be one of my go to multiplayer titles for the next few years to come.
Game Informer - Jeff Cork - 8.3 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor is as close as most of us will get to our sword-and-shield fantasies, and it is amazing when it all works. Unfortunately, networking and interface issues are a chink in its armor
Digital Trends - Phil Hornshaw - 3 / 5 stars
'For Honor's dueling is focused and fun, but the best stuff is overshadowed by many smaller problems.
We Got This Covered - Jordan Hurst - 3 / 5 stars (PC)
For Honor's tactical, forceful swordplay is extremely well-executed, especially for a first attempt. It's just a shame it's attached to so many distractions, including a bewildering story mode.
GameSpot - Matt Espineli - 8 / 10 (PS4, XB1, PC)
After slaying countless foes, it’s clear the impact For Honor's combat has had; its fundamental tenets of discipline and restraint are bestowed upon you permanently, forever changing the way you perceive a melee-combat encounter in a game. In its highest moments, For Honor is difficult to put down. Its slow combat pace and narrative shortcomings might turn off those unwilling to take the time to dive deep into what it has to offer. However, make no mistake--those who do will be rewarded with some of the most satisfying multiplayer melee fighting conceived in recent years.
IGN - Brandin Tyrrel - 8 / 10 (PS4, XB1, PC)
For Honor has some dents in its shiny armor, such as the mediocre campaign, the frugal economy, and the snowballing victories in team modes. But it’s hard to be mad too long when I consider that the melee combat system is second to none and a joy to learn, take your licks, and then learn some more. I could feel myself becoming a better warrior with this deep, flexible, and complete fighting system. The more I play For Honor, the more I want to play For Honor. I hope Ubisoft doubles-down on support, because it’s something truly special.
Super Bunnyhop - George Weidman - Unscored (PC)
Thanks to the lock-on camera system and all the animation interpolation going on they've got a pretty decent way to work around the typical issues of playing fighting games online. Because for all my time with it, I never really felt like any perfectly timed parries and blocks weren't registering. But about once a day, I get caught in this loop [gameplay pauses on "Recovering Gameplay state. Synchronizing..." screen during an Elimination multiplayer match]. Once one player leaves, everyone else has to wait a bit for everyone to synchronize. Unfortunately, that sometimes makes the whole game break, which is really and truly probably the only thing I don't enjoy about this game. Everything else is peachy; the journey of learning its tricks was one of the most rewarding and compelling processes of learning something intimidating and using what I learned to great effect, but the big problem I foresee with For Honor is that learning curve. This is a very core game where players aren't really going to be competitive, hell, they're not even gonna be viable if they don't watch a bunch of tutorial videos, go down everyone's movelist one by one, practice on the dummies and duel with the bots for hours before really being able to stack up against real players. And with skill disparities that wide, I can also imagine experienced players getting stuck in a rut where new players are so easy that they're boring to fight against and the good players are so untouchably good, why even bother? But the upside to that is that it least those guys will be having a damn good time, and I think I'm pretty sure I've gotten sucked in. I'm going to try to be right there with them over the coming weeks, because there's nothing more satisfying than seeing all that hard work beautifully payoff.
Hardcore Gamer - Chris Shive - 4 / 5 (PS4)
For Honor can be likened to a third-person medieval Call of Duty: the single player campaign is well produced and tells an interesting story, but the bulk of the replay value comes from becoming involved with the Faction War in multiplayer. The Art of Battle gives combat a unique feel setting For Honor apart from other action games and helps reduce the feeling of repetition. Overall the action packed title is an enjoyable ride, whether it is advancing through the single player campaign filled with cinematic cutscenes or battling against other players online. The Faction War is an interesting concept that gives incentive to remain involved with multiplayer long after the campaign is completed, though how well that holds interest will be revealed in time. While there are some imperfections, such as a constant internet connection required and the large amount of grinding required to unlock everything, For Honor is a solid title and recommended for fans of melee combat action titles who want to try a unique twist on a familiar formula.
The Overpowered Noobs - Adam Wheeler - 8 / 10 (PC)
It’s far from perfect, but it does enough right with a cool concept to make it worth your time and money. We’ll see how things progress, but For Honor may have dug out a cool little space for itself in the multiplayer games market that we didn’t know was there.
Atomix - Emilio Reyes - Spanish - 82 / 100 (PS4)
The Art of Battle combat system works better than we expected, giving us a combat multiplayer game full of possibilities and close matches. Ubisoft tried something new and succeeded with a very deep multiplayer experience full of potential.
Gameplanet - Conrad Reyners - 7 / 10 (PS4)
The campaign's story falls to earth with a thud, and technical problems are currently marring its online component, but For Honor's masterful presentation and combat rescue it from mediocrity. Given a few patches, it'll be a force to be reckoned with.
Critical Hit - Alessandro Barbosa - 6.5 / 10 (PS4)
At its core, For Honor is a stunningly great game with exhilarating combat the likes of which are hardly seen. But it’s crippled by online issues that reduce its core multiplayer to a frustrating mess.
Xbox Achievements - Richard Walker - 83% (XB1)
A fighting game unlike any other, For Honor is an experience that grows increasingly enjoyable and rewarding the more you play. A game in which Knights, Vikings and Samurai do battle, For Honor is exactly as awesome as it should be.
Fortress of Solitude - Deville Louw - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)
I won’t lie, I died a lot in For Honor. But in death, I learned how to become a better player. For Honor‘s battle system rewards those that take the time to learn it’s nuances and punishes those that don’t.
Gaming on PC - David Dominguez - 7.5 / 10 (PC)
For Honor is an excellent multiplayer fighting title held back by poor matchmaking and annoying connection issues. Gamers willing to look past these problems will discover one of the best multiplayer experiences of this generation but less patient players may be discouraged by the title’s technical issues.
Sirus Gaming - David Rix - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)
Overall, For Honor is a unique multiplayer experience that brings the art of intimate combat mixed in with the fan faction of your favorite warriors clashing to the death. Ubisoft has another great title under its belt that has a long life ahead of it, with seasons to see which faction is the victor and looming on the horizon is the Events mode, which is sure to add even more of the competitive spirit among player factions. Although, it isn’t without its faults, that doesn’t deter from the quality you are sure to have with the game and the fun of chopping off a vikings head with a samurai’s blade.
GearNuke - Khurram Imtiaz - 9 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor offers a unique online multiplayer experience with its fights that remains unmatched in the current gaming landscape.
Saudi Gamer - مصطفى جاد - Arabic - 3 / 5 (PS4)
For Honor delivers accurate and unique gameplay, unlimited upgrade options for every character, variety in levels design and a multiplayer mode that depends on cooperation with teammates more than playing solo. However, the game suffers from a weak and disappointing story mode, overpowered abilities that some characters have, limited game modes, pay-to-win microtransactions, and various connection issues.
GamingTrend - Rachel Berry - 95 / 100 (PC)
Whether you prefer, multiplayer or story, Dominion or Duel, viking or knight or samurai, there’s something for every gamer in For Honor. With a compelling story, beautiful customization options, competition, community, this game is both a triumph and a damn good fight.unity, and a damn good fight.
Metro GameCentral - GameCentral - 8 / 10 (PS4)
One of the best new fighting games of the last several years, and all the more exciting because of its originality and accessibility.
M3 - P-A Knutsson - Swedish - 8 / 10 (PS4)
With an outstanding combat system For Honor offers a unique take on medieval action games. The combat truly excels against other players online and it is apparent that the online mode is where your time should be spent. Offline players, however, will not find much to do except hammering around in a repetitive story mode.
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 7.5 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor is enjoyable enough, but it feels more like a proof of concept than anything else. The core combat system is interesting, but everything built around it is awkward. When you're in the middle of a dramatic duel against another foe of the same skill level, the game shines. Anything beyond that, and the seams begin to show. It's a game that demands a high skill level for fun and success, and that can be enough to turn off someone. The game is also pretty light on content for the $60 price tag. If you've played the beta and enjoyed For Honor, you'll have a good time, but others may want to find a way to try it out before committing to a full purchase.
GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 8 / 10 (XB1)
For Honor has quickly become my favourite online multiplayer game, and one that I’m certain will have me honing my skills, and my blade, for months to come.
Reno Gazette-Journal - Jason Hidalgo, Cameron Duren - 3.75 / 5 (XB1, PC)
For Honor is a great new IP that takes the fun parts of competitive online shooters and sprinkles them into medieval-style combat. Add excellent visuals to the tight, polished gameplay and you have the makings of a potential esports contender. Unfortunately, microtransactions and free-to-play inspired unlocks take the sheen out an otherwise enjoyable experience. If you don’t mind that, however, then For Honor is good fun.
NZGamer - Brian McDonald - 7.8 / 10 (PS4)
Held back by its own ambition, For Honor isn’t a masterpiece, but delivers where it counts.
Guardian - Keith Stuart - 4 / 5 stars (PS4)
Ubisoft’s multiplayer-focused fighting game is a single-minded simulation of melee battle, with an emphasis on epic physical confrontations
USgamer - Jaz Rignall - 4 / 5 | Campaign Overlook (XB1)
Mastering For Honor's complex, but brilliant Art of Battle control system takes time and effort, but doing so is very worthwhile. While its campaign is short and rather underwhelming, For Honor's multiplayer really delivers the goods, featuring strategic, involving, and brutal medieval combat that puts you front and center in some truly epic battles. Few games are as gritty and bone-crunching as this.
VideoGamer - Alice Bell - 7 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor's multiplayer is special, but as a whole it's let down by the less good single player, sometimes dodgy matchmaking, and a surfeit of microtransactions. The combat, though, is fantastic — it's gutsy and weighty, and you feel like a badass.
Arcade Sushi - TJ Denzer - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)
It doesn't always dance gracefully with the craft of battle, but For Honor is a game that harnesses some of the most impactful melee combat we've seen.
Polygon - Owen Good - 8 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor is worth the work you have to put into it.
LevelUp - Luis Sánchez - Spanish - 6.5 / 10 (PC)
For Honor has the best, most innovative and rewarding combat system we have seen in years. However, the whole experience is crippled by poorly designed game modes and progression schemes; a broken matchmaking system and online instability. It's best to avoid it for now and wait a few months until the developer can fix its problems.
GameWatcher - Christian Vaz - 7 / 10 (PC)
The combat in the game is fantastic, and though the learning curve may be steep, once you get the hang of it you’ll be playing for hours. The first entry in the For Honor series has started strong, I hope a sequel can fill in everything the game currently lacks.
AusGamers - KostaAndreadis - 8 / 10 (XB1)
Is this side of the experience, well, good? Definitely, but its longevity will come down to well For Honor can retain its audience. The War of Factions stuff sounds great, but feels lacking in its overall presentation. But there are memorable flashes of brilliance when playing the multiplayer modes, and you come up against another player. And through sheer skill and understanding of the combat, you’re able to gain the upper hand in a heated and intense exchange of metal. And then, put the exclamation point on the outcome with a suitably violent execution. Also, sneaking up on someone to quickly take them out before they can react. Or simply, respecting the Warrior Code and watching two other players duel against the backdrop of AI skirmishes, rain, and all manner of dirt, stone, and fire.
ZTGD - Ken McKnown - 7 / 10 (XB1)
For Honor is a unique game with an outstanding combat system. The problems it faces are its release window (I mean look at the games currently out or on the horizon!) and the dedication it requires. Casual players need not apply, as you will be slaughtered endlessly on the battlefield. I feel like For Honor will get a smaller, but highly dedicated fan base as it goes on, but for those looking for an approachable experience will likely fall on their own blade.
God is a Geek - Chris White - 7.5 / 10 (PS4)
If the single-player had been better put together, there would be a lot more to scream and shout about, but the combat and online multiplayer is excellent at times.
Destructoid - Nic Rowen - 5.5 / 10 (PS4)
I hope in six months I'm excited about For Honor again. I hope people will throw this review back at me later and say For Honor just needed a few tweaks to achieve greatness. As it is, this is a game with a disposable single-player campaign, multiplayer matches that crash or disconnect as often as they complete, and a slew of fantastic mechanics that only rise to the surface in a single game mode out of a half-dozen.
If there was ever a game to take a "wait and see" approach to, it's For Honor
Post Arcade (National Post) - Daniel Kaszor - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)
For Honor can be overwhelming, but its deep combat is more welcoming than most shooters
Brash Games - Lewis Dodd - 9 / 10 (PC)
For Honor is a massively entertaining game with a lot of replayability.
SelectButton - Kevin Mitchell - 8 / 10 (PS4)
Although I never considered myself a competitive fighting game enthusiast, I found both the combat mechanics and the flow of engagement in For Honor refreshing. Individual matches don’t overstay their welcome, and it’s a hard game to put down due to the faction metagame. Seeing your faction losing a territory is a strong incentive to place additional war assets, requiring you to play one more match. Not to mention the game has additional legs with a rewarding loot system and customization options.
EGM - Ray Carsillo - 7 / 10 (PS4)
An inventive premise and surprisingly deep combat system sits at the core of what could've been a great game—if so many technical issues didn't surround it and detract so much from the whole of the experience.
The Digital Fix - Andrew Phillips - 7 / 10 (XB1)
For Honor brings us a surprisingly deep and downright fun co-op / multiplayer fighter held back from greatness by an incoherent, mundane single-player campaign and the use of peer to peer networking for online matches.
Telegraph - Tom Hoggins - 4 / 5 stars (PS4)
It is a shame to have to highlight such quibbles, which amount to occasional annoyances rather than game-breakers, but it will be important for Ubisoft and For Honor that they can be resolved. I suspect that this game will follow a similar path to Ubisoft’s equally interesting Rainbow Six Siege, building up a mid-sized, but fervent and dedicated fan-base. And due to For Honor’s ferocious combat system and boldness to do things a little differently, its followers will find a war worth fighting.
Easy Allies - Michael Huber - 4 / 5 stars | Written (PS4)
Fully understanding the nuances of For Honor’s intimate melee combat requires patience and dedication, but players willing to fully commit themselves to mastering the art of battle will be undeniably rewarded. There are still some questions regarding peripheral elements like the Faction War and Ranked Play, and there are some small missteps with the campaign and micro-transactions. However, For Honor brings melee combat to life in a fundamental new way with complex and satisfying mechanics. If you enjoy meaningful victories, For Honor is for you.
New Game Network - Tim Reid - 70 / 100 (PC)
Even though For Honor's core combat is essentially an elaborate quick-time event sequence in disguise, the production values and novelty factor are high enough that there is still a good deal of fun to be had here.
GamesRadar+ - Chris Thursten - 4 / 5 stars (PS4)
A deep and gratifying medieval swordfighting sim that risks putting off newcomers. Persevere and the rewards are well worth it.
TechRaptor - Matthew Arrojas - 7 / 10 (PS4)
The ingredients for a great game are all there in For Honor, and many of those ingredients are put to good use. However, it is by no means a perfect game, and many of its flaws are fatal. There is an audience for For Honor, but it might be more niche than Ubisoft was expecting.
PCMag - Jeffrey L. Wilson - 3.5 / 5 stars (PC)
Packed with tense, weapon-based action, For Honor is a fun combat title that shines in its many multiplayer modes. That said, its online requirement and loot system dim its shine a bit.
Thanks OpenCritic for the review thread formatting help!
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