I hope you're enjoying it, that first blind playthrough is quite magical. First half of DS1 is just a masterclass in level design. No other game has made me so excited to find a shortcut.

I know it's not going to happen, but a Witcher 4 where you're playing as Letho out in the eastern lands is my absolute dream. He's a great character with strong main character energy, and he's also CDPR original content so doing it that way lets them play looser with story and characters without having to trample over the lore.

I remember the good old days of being super excited every time a new PCGamer magazine arrived in the mailbox and you'd get a fresh CD with it stuffed full of the hottest demos to try. Good times.

I mean, I'm already not on any social media apart from Lemmy. I cultivate my subscriptions here carefully and typically avoid the /all feed. I try to limit my exposure to current events, but you can only bury your head in the sand so much. And even then, it's not like the issues of the world go away just because I'm not looking at them. And consequently the anxiety doesn't go away either. It's possible to push out with temporary distractions, but that's not really possible to maintain 24/7.

It's pick your poison I suppose. I would personally have an easier time dealing with a lower quality of life than I do with constant oppressive existential dread and ceaseless hopelessness and anxiety, but Imagine it's different for everyone.

I don't think I share a single ounce of your optimism about anything really but I wish I did. I find living in this age fucking exhausting. I'm glad I'm unlikely to have kids at this point because I wouldn't want to put more human beings into the misery that is existence right now.

But even then I'm glad there are some people out there capable of maintaining a positive outlook in the face of well... everything.

Impeccable taste, DS1 Great Scythe has such a fantastic moveset. Is it your first time playing?

You said it perfectly. While politically unfortunate given how it will be used, it's incredible as a photo for all the reasons you mentioned. Great presence of mind to be able to capture a shot this good in the midst of the chaos unfolding.

Finals are often tense affairs so you're probably right, it's rare to get something like Argentina - France. At least Spain has been playing well so far, which gives me a bit of hope. Though I imagine England will try their best to underwhelm.

I was moreso upset at the outdated pearl clutching of the olympic committee and the complete lack of engagement with actual esports, instead trying to... find mobile games tangentially related to existing olympic sports...?

I didn't know it existed so I had to read up on it real quick. Honestly makes my blood boil a little bit, especially stuff like blanket excluding FPS games because they're "too violent". Are we still in the nineties?

Empathy I think it is, about René:

"This is a man with a lot of past, very little present and almost no future".