Post by Scott on Jan 2, 2008 17:11:09 GMT
Happy New Year RoM!
The RoM awards were held earlier this week and I would like to thank all of you who submitted your votes and came to the forum for the big occasion!
MoxDevil was voted Funniest Member, MissUnited was voted Most Helpful, RedYank was voted Most Popular, RobNob was voted Most Rowdy, Redom was given the award for the Best Signature, RaisNHell was viewed having the Best Avatar, Kokka was voted Best Newcomer, your truly was Most Positive, Tatty was voted Most Realistic, MrsRepublik was deemed the Most Improved, Kokka was voted Most Active and yours truly was seen to have the Most Football Knowledge. Redom was given the Outstanding Contribution award from the staff.
Click here to pass on your congratulations if you haven't already.
Our shop, MancuniaMerchandise.com, is still up and running and going well. In the US Shop, which ships to USA, Canada, UK, Mexico, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, China, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Japan, we're offering 20.08% off all products until January 14th.
Now let us begin:
Member of the Month
This month's winner has only been on the forum for a few months, but has made an impression with his top quality posts. He's been more active over the past month, so join me in congratulating StretfordEndling as December’s Member of the Month.
Interview
Time for the member interview. I have kindly opened the window in to my soul and divulged all for the paper...
Where are you from: South Manchester. Lived in several places around town but settled now.
Who is your biggest inspiration: I suppose cheesy questions demand cheesy answers? My mam probably. She was always my inspiration not to be such a cock head, and sometimes, I managed not to be.
What would you like to be better at: Not losing my temper.
What is your all time favourite film? Tough one. Die Hard, Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, Seven, Corrina Corrina. One of those.
Favourite Quote? "All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not." – Fight Club
If you won the lottery, how would you spend it? Buy one of those flats just down the road from Old Trafford so I could have a late night boozing in the Blaize, then roll out of bed for the match the next day ;D Buy a nice house over here and in the States. Treat the missus. Give a lot away to family, friends and charity.
One job in the world, what would it be? I’d love to make my entire living from writing about United. It’d be wicked to get a job as a journo and write articles as biased in favour of United as most articles are biased against us ;D Can you imagine picking up The Guardian and reading about how Gerrard dives, what a cunt John Terry is, and how Rooney is God incarnate?
Your dream girl/boy? My girlfriend not included (Nice save ;D ), at the moment it has to be Gemma Atkinson. Hubba hubba. She’s got the hottest body and I bet she’d be well dirty in bed. And she’s a Manchester lass ;D Heaven. What the fuck was Ronnie thinking dicking her about?!
What’s your biggest ambition in life? To be successful, raise my kids right, be a good husband, shit like that.
What’s your greatest ever achievement? This is the part where we find out how much of a loser people are? Getting my qualifications I guess was pretty important, although it never really felt like an achievement. Settling down I suppose, because I struggled to ever see myself growing up.
What’s your biggest regret? I’ve had quite a few the morning after the night before in my time. Eesh. I’ve been pretty horrible to girls in the past. I wish I hadn’t been such a cock to some of them.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? Still in Manchester, with Jen, couple of kids, earning nice money, happy.
Who do you hate most: City/Liverpool/Leeds/Arsenal/Other: Liverpool. I hate them. Sometimes it feels a rather unnaturally strong hatred. It can consume me at times, especially after a few bevies.
How did you celebrate us winning the title? Got absolutely shit faced. It was just brilliant being in the local celebrating with all the people I’d been grumbling with over the past few years. Felt great.
Which new signing are you most excited about? I was most exciting about Tevez, but I think I’ve changed my mind, and Anderson is now the man. I think he looks incredible. He’s been up against the two other best midfields in the league, but has totally pulled his weight and come out looking better. Credit to him.
Whats the best game you've ever been too? In terms of entertainment, it has to be the 4-3 against Real Madrid. That was just superb. If we had a match like that to watch everytime we got knocked out of Europe, I’d be happy enough! I absolutely loved being at the 1-0 against Chelsea when Fletcher scored. The crowd were incredible that day and it felt, dare I say it, rather emotional being there, surrounded by people who thought we were going to get our arse kicked, but still singing louder than ever to help the lads on. It felt as though that was a real test for our fans, and we passed. It’s too hard to pick just one. I’ll go in to a full blown article if I start listing any more lol. Love being there when we beat Liverpool.
Who's your favourite member on the forum? I hate you all Obviously now my missus is a more regular member, I have to pick her. Who knew that an American former cheerleader could learn to love United so much ;D Sil, Jorge and Adam have been immense in helping me with this forum. Nathan (Supatrice) is a good friend of mine and someone I have a lot of time for. I enjoy reading MoxDevil’s and Carlito’s Way’s posts. But generally, I get along fine with pretty much everyone on here.
Anything else you want to tell us?
Cheers for a great 2007 you lot.
Match of the Month
In a month where we beat the Dippers at Anfield, there can only be one match worthy of this accolade.
Read on for MissUnited’s write up.
If people have a read of one of the older version of the paper, from March of this year, they find that the choice of that month’s Match was a narrow, and arguably undeserved. 1-0 win against Liverpool. I’ve been told it was a rather dull match (although I was too excited at the time to notice) where Scholes got sent off and O’shea scored in stoppage time, giving Scott a nice new addition for the shop. There weren’t a lot of great matches to pick from that month, although we’d had a couple of matches where we’d scored a few goals, but the other goals scored that month put together still didn’t feel as good as that one that went in the back of the Scousers’ net at Anfield.
Nine months later, Carlos Tevez gave the club he’d only joined a few months before an early Christmas present. I was watching the match with a friend of mine, and I told him before it started how worried I was, and that I was concerned about Tevez as I was yet to be convinced he was able to give it his all for us in the bigger matches. (Of course everyone who knows me, knows exactly how nervous I get before every match, some obviously making me more so than others) The boy from Argentina proved me wrong, as after nearly fourty five minutes of sitting in my living room chanting and singing to myself (and to my neighbour’s great amusement) I was silenced by a perfectly placed Tevez who got the ball from an unmarked Wayne Rooney, who himself had gotten the ball from a accurate Giggs corner (who for once did not go to the first defender.) I wasn’t the only person who went quiet, as for the second season in a row the Kop was silenced by the ball hitting the back of their net, pretty much in the same place as John O’shea’s had done the season before.
The match didn’t bring much excitement after the goal, although Liverpool might have been closer to a goal ahead of our boys grabbing the lead. This was perhaps down to our goalkeeper seemingly misunderstanding the chants of Feed the Scousers, as he was attempting to gift them a goal on a couple of occasions. Liverpool seemed to have lost what heart they had when returning to the field for the second half. Torres, who seems to be the man everyone have feared this season was doing what he does best (and this is proven by statistics), missing chances. In fact, our rivals from Mersey have the dubious honour of having the star signing who misses more chances than anyone else in the premiership. Although spending the second half as I did the first, with a Stella in my hand and alternating between sitting at the edge of my seat and standing right outside the door with my eyes glues to the TV whilst getting a supposed stress relieving intake of nicotine, the football itself didn’t bring much excitement. What it did however was show a hard working Manchester United team who wanted to win. Perhaps not playing at their best, our boys worked hard and (most) fought to keep the lead to ensure us the three points. With Rooney missing a sitter, I was worried it might come back to haunt us as we failed to claim a 2 goal lead, but as lady luck stayed on our side for the remaining minutes we managed to grind out all the points of a tough match, in true Championship winning style. We have scored 14 goals in six matches this far in December, but like in March, to me, those other thirteen goals don’t add up to the feeling of getting another narrow win at Anfield. All together now;
Feeeeeeeeeeed Theeeeeeeeee Scooooooooooooousers….
Liverpool: Reina; Arbeloa, Hyypiä, Carragher, Riise (Aurelio, 80.); Benayoun, Gerrard, Mascherano, Kewell (Babel, 66.); Kuyt (Crouch, 73.), Torres
Unused subs: Itandje, Lucas
Manchester United: Van Der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Rnaldo, Hargreaves, Anderson (O’Shea 92’), Giggs, Rooney, Tevez (Carrick 83’)
Unused subs: Kuszczak, Fletcher, Saha
Referee: Mark Halsey
Attendance: 44,459
Player of the Month
BusbyBoy has given us his take on our best player this month.
Before I get started, I want to say Anderson has deserved an award for his performances thus far this season. He has surprised everybody and has to be the outstanding signing in the Premier League regardless of the price paid for him, in a few years time he will be THE best all round midfielder in Europe.
Yet again though my player of the month is out of two players though.
The runner up. Seven goals in six appearances in the month of December, yet he ended it like a villain.
A winning brace against Fulham, a cherry on top of the cake against Derby, another winning double against Everton, a stunning free kick against Keano's Sunderland and a goal against West Ham.
A player with EIGHTEEN goals in twenty-one appearances. A player who in my opinion is the World's best and will go on to prove that yet again this season, nevertheless Cristiano Ronaldo is not the player of the month again.
My player of the month goes to the man who has gone a long way over the past eighteen months in proving he is the next Manchester United captain.
Leading from the back, solid as a rock and the value of the man is evident when he is out of the United XI.
He is a man, Fabio Capello, the new England manager, if in his right mind should give the England captaincy and build his team around.
His performance against Liverpool summed up the player. Classy, technically gifted, strong, a natural born winner and most of all a player who regardless of all the attacking brilliance we have would be one of the first player's on any United team sheet.
Rio Ferdinand is awarded with my player of the month award.
His performance against Liverpool was heroic, Torres in his back pocket and he even had time to give some to the Kop. His celebrations at the end were something that shown how much the victory meant to him and regardless of all the stereotypes that in my opinion are unfairly thrown at him, he loves playing for Manchester United and he loves making this club a success.
He was one of the main reasons we won the league last season and he will be one of the main reasons we're a success again this season, he should be given the arm band in a few years when Neville calls it a day and I cannot wait for the moment to tell people, "I told you so!".
Rio deserves a lot more accolades and praise than he gets, the best defender in the World and I'm so happy to have him in our side.
RIOOOOOOO! RIOOOOOOOO!
Game of the Month
Brought to you by RaisNHell:
I am not a big fan of companies that make the games, but rather a fan of the games themselves. In my entire gaming career the only company that has consistently been able to impress me has been EA Sports, and only with their Need For Speed series. No other company or gaming series has satiated my hunger for gaming perfection...yet. The Halo series came close, but it has a lot to improve upon before it gets into my Superb list. But just like what Bungie Studios[/i] did with Halo for me, BioWare[/i] are doing with their games for me. The game I review today for you, will be their third consecutive game to receive 9 out of 10 stars from me, with their past star players being The Jade Empire and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR)
Set in against the biggest background known to mankind, the all mighty mystifying Universe a.k.a. the space, Mass Effect[/i] is an action packed role-playing game (RPG) that shoves the player into a space adventure just as a mysterious race of killer machines (Star Trek anyone?) are about to invade the galaxy and destroy all life. Your mission is to not only preserve humanity but also all other species and races that call the galaxy their home. And here’s the kicker, humans are considered and look-upon as a newcomer to the galactic community. So mind your attitude kid!
You start off customizing the main character Capitan Shepard to your liking, and have the option of choose the Capitan’s gender. Unlike other RPGs, the dialog between the characters and the way you behave in the game greatly affects your surrounding environment and how the game progresses from there on. We usually skip through the chatter in the other games and get directly into the action. But in Mass Effect your dialog with the characters decides if they are your enemies or your friends. However, BioWare[/i] takes pity at your whiney little soul and allows you to cut the dialogs short and interrupt in-between. But, beware; this can have undesirable effects on the way the game progresses. You may want to be friends with a certain species, but your rudeness may turn them against you. This however keeps the game interesting as even if you play the game over and over again, it can take you onto different roads of adventure and provide thrilling twists and turns in the storyline.
BioWare[/i] also stuns you with their out of the world graphics and their revolutionary facial animation system that ensures effortless and smooth dialog flow by delivering believable expressions and body language as you chat away. And, as you explore the deep galaxy, you come across many species, many of which just might arouse those sexual senses of yours with out-of-combat missions and deliver a heart-pumping satisfaction. And yes, ladies will be satisfied too
Mass Effect does not hold back on the action either, or on the weapons and “super-powers” that you collect and enhance as the game progresses. Two of the most important decisions that you will make in the game will be a) The character and its gender, and b) the character class. The gender choice will have a substantial effect on the delivery of your dialogs and their reception by the opposing character. And the decision on your character class will decide what role you play and how you fight the battles. There are three primary character classes in the game, namely, the biotic user, the engineer and the soldier. Character class hybrids that mix various characteristics of each of the primary classes are also available in the game. Each character class has different special powers, technical skills and weaponry and armor. Each class has a different fighting method too. So choose wisely.
Perhaps my biggest complain with the game however, is the controls. With virtually non-existent training modules you will have to learn how to use the controls and fight yourself, and die a lot! I recommend you save at every level as their auto-save feature sucks ass! The biggest head-ache is your control over your two team mates. You do not have any direct control over them and can only give them commands to do shit, like duck down, hide, etc...oh, and they both follow the same command, i.e. you cannot give them individual directions. I feel BioWare[/i] wanted to create a far more realistic war-zone environment in regards to the team-mates’ actions, but have failed. The game could definitely use some more work in this area.
Knowing myself, if I continue to rant on the areas they could improve, I would probably end up writing pages. So I am going to stop my rant by telling you a very very addictive feature that I absofuckinglutely love...the overkill!! You use this one, and BAM! you are hooked! I am not going to tell you more about it, find it yourself
And before I wrap it up, here is the one thing in the game, and probably one of fewest presented by the other games in the gaming universe, the players’ mortality. Mass effect takes a new angle to the view and challenges you to explore the questions from all points of view. Your mission is to save the bloody galaxy and how you do it is your decision, but you will have to live with the consequences. Good or evil, both can be justified. Like mentioned earlier, humanity is looked upon as a newcomer and you my friend act as their ambassador, and you will never forget that in the game. Make your decisions wisely, for they might not always be as cut and dry as you might want them to be. The game will sometimes hit you right where it hurts your most sacred values and views the most. So be careful.
I will leave the rest for you to explore this oh–so–engrossing game. For me, the game is worth every dame penny I spent on it...may be even more. Play it once, play it twice, play it bloody thrice, and you will play it again, again and yet again. Take note, I ab-so-fucking-lu-tely LOVE IT!
My Rating: 9.7/10
Available for: XBOX 360
Visit their website for amazing pics and videos: masseffect.bioware.com/
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I hope you enjoyed the nineteenth edition of the forum paper. Any comments about it please leave in the comments thread on this board
Editor: Scott