#if it doesn't work I'll watch a playthrough and the game will still look sick on my shelf

[pantherpilz]

I will attempt to get tron 2.0 running on my laptop

[kaija-rayne-author]

I finished Baldur's Gate 3 and immediately started another playthrough. Modded this time.

My polyam mod is definitely working and I'm apparently incapable of disappointing Karlach. So I guess I have a 5 way vs a 4. I was gonna Romance just the chaotic and evil leaning characters this go round.

Why do I have a feeling she's gonna end up hating this durge character of mine cause they're non-resistant? So, uh, probably gonna get my heart broken.

I've also been lovingly blessed with the flu because some selfish assholes seem to think giving immunocompromised people viruses is a great gift. /s (There are millions of immunocompromised people since covid, and even depression or anxiety makes you immunocompromised. I'm not a rare bird in that sense. If you're old or pregnant you're also immunocompromised. Surprise!)

I've been morbidly sick for 9 days and while it's slowly easing off, it's average that it takes me 6 weeks to fully kick influenza.

And our vaccinations were scheduled for this week. Because only older folks could get them before then.

I've watched Vox Machina during the days I could basically just stare at something, and gods, I really love it. Looking forward to the next season.

Hollyweird is finally figuring out D&D! It only took them, what, 30 plus years and gods know how many awful attempts at shows and movies?

Anyone know of anything else like it? I've seen the d&d movie, uh, 3x, and loved that too. (Yes, I'm aware of what critical role is, I have absolutely zero interest in watching them. Books, games, movies/shows, those I can enjoy, but watching someone else I don't know play a game I could be playing doesn't work for me.)

Anyway, sorry for the radio silence. I was sewing like a fiend for eldest's costume for Halloween. Partner has had both a major back surgery and a major mouth surgery just before getting sick. Then the kids and I got sick. The coughing is totally doing a great thing for partner's staples.

Yes, we asked the doc for tamiflu. No she didn't give it to us. And her secretary was a snarky ass about it. As if I ask for very much from them at all. Not impressed tbh. If I ask for something from my doc it's because I've researched it and feel it's actually necessary. I was pre-med ffs, and have medical adjacent degrees. I'm far from the regular person when it comes to things like that.

Uuuugh. Why can't people do others the simple gods damned courtesy of masking?

During the year most everyone was masking, everyone was healthier. Flu numbers were lower than they ever had been, cold viruses were low too. Why the fuck would anyone want to not mask after that example?

I'm historically sensitive to influenza for some reason. It takes me down hard and keeps me down for weeks. But even I didn't get the flu that year.

Why is knowingly getting others ill with your germs even remotely socially acceptable? Why?

Oh, right, 'muh feelings'. I have a panic attack every time I mask, and I still mask religiously every time I leave the house. I'm still always freaking sick because of other people's selfishness.

As a historian, I'll just say that this period of history will be judged incredibly harshly.

[klysanderelias]

I've come back to Elden Ring (because I'm weak, partially) and I have to say, after coming to terms with the sad reality that Fromsoft peaked with Bloodborne, Elden Ring is... fine. 6.5/10.

I think partially my opinion on it improved because I ended up watching some lore videos and being impressed with some of the Act 3 reveals - I can't give them too much credit, because if I'm 70 hours into a game and quit because I'm sick of it, whatever comes at hour 100 doesn't matter. Still, I think it raises my estimation of the game.

I'm still salty as fuck about what in the hell a Tarnished actually is, and how the whole dark souls -esque system is supposed to operate here, but I've seen at least some explanation given, again something I had to watch lore videos to see, but assuming there's any basis given in the game and it's not just wild assumptions or external interviews/materials, it's... well, it's better than nothing.

I guess basically what I'm saying is, I lowered my expectations. I stopped trying to understand things and I just started going no thoughts head empty. I began worrying more about my build and my runes than I did about what was happening in the story. And that sucks? It's depressing, to a certain extent, because the whole things dark souls games are famous for is something I just can't afford to engage with, because this game is so fucking long and expansive that I can go ten hours without seeing anything important.

And I guess once again I'm gonna complain about Melina, because once again I'm looking at my in-game time and trying to think about how many conversations I've had with her, and/or how many times I've even seen her show up, and it's like... I'm twenty hours into this character. I think I've seen Melina five times? Not counting the cutscene in the starting area?

It doesn't matter, at the end of the day, I guess. I shouldn't get so worked up about it. It just bothers me because there's usually a comfort NPC who you genuinely feel affection for, whether that's someone like the Doll in Bloodborne or Siegward in DS3, or even Gavlan in DS2, and I just don't think there's anyone like that in Elden Ring. I found Fia to be underwhelming and suspicious (especially after I progressed her questline far enough mostly by accident), and too many of the others just don't show up enough or with enough fanfare to actually draw a reaction. Blaidd is maybe the closest? But even he isn't the kind of character to make me go 'oh fuck yes it's Blaidd', I'm just like 'oh hey.' I went to go look up the list of NPCs and I had completely forgotten about Iron Jar Alexander, who is a fucking bro but so far across three playthroughs, about 150 hours, I've found him in three places? And the one I've found him the most at is just where he stands at a door and goes 'oh man the radahn festival sounds cool'.

Anyway the point is, I'll die mad about Melina, partially because there's so many cool things they COULD have done with her character and they completely whiffed, but also because the Frenzied Flame stuff is possibly the most fascinating of all the Elden Ring lore to me, and Melina is tied into that ending, and it's all really underwhelming.

I dunno man, Dark Souls games have always had kind of lackluster endings, and there's a part of me that's really been warring between 'just because they don't provide easy answers doesn't mean that there isn't a whole host of interesting information to draw upon in the visuals and implications given' and 'sufficient good faith will excuse the holes in the worst writing, and at some point you need to draw a line of what you're willing to accept.'

Like, when we talk about Neon Genesis Evangelion, there's a lot of truly fascinating imagery and symbolism in the anime, especially drawing on Christian iconography and mythology, and the creators have explicitly said that they put it in because it looked cool. They didn't have a plan, they didn't have any intention to pay it off. That doesn't mean that there's no value in analysing and extrapolating based off that imagery! But it also means that you're allowed to dismiss it as stupid and incoherent as well!

And I guess where I've fallen is like, Elden Ring is a new IP with a whole new lore created for it and I'm probably going to spend years of my life thinking about it! But I'm not going to be thinking about it the way that I spent years of my life thinking about Dark Souls 2 or Bloodborne, where I could gush about how much I loved the things that they did and how excited I was to think about the questions and holes left in the storytelling.

I could spend a lot of time being negative about it, and I've written and deleted a lot of words doing just that. It was sixty bucks, and I've gotten 150 hours out of it, and will probably get another 50-100. It's a good value for your money. The gameplay is good and engaging. I think it's fine.

I just don't think it's anything special any more.