I prefer AI courtesan

Elden Ring was honestly my first. I avoided Soulslike games because I don't like to play games to feel frustrated. I heard about the crazy bosses, frustrating runs back from bonfires, and obtuse storytelling, so I was not inclined to give them much thought.

I was pushed to play it by a few friends looking for a third for a summons trio, with assurances that I'd have two Souls veterans to help me out with bosses if I got stuck. It took me a bit to get used to, but the nature of the open world and the rather more forgiving placements of graces/stakes to minimize the pain of runbacks made it a bearable game for me. Though the story is still obtuse, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and how (excluding Caelid) surprisingly not dark the world was.

And you know what? I ended up being the friend to help one of them beat Malenia, who I defeated on my own first.

I've been enjoying Nightreign with those same friends lately. More good stuff, boiled down. It's made me get more comfortable with different playstyles just due to the nature of pre-built characters and random drops.

I'm also now playing through the remake of Demon's Souls on a whim, and while I feel better equipped to get through it just from what I know about Elden Ring, I can safely say that I would have completely bounced off of it had it been my first game. I'm definitely glad Elden Ring was my first, and Elden Ring 2 cannot come fast enough.

The Wii U had a very short (relative for a console) lifespan, though. It released at the end of 2012, and the Switch came in early 2017. Really just 4 years and some change. It didn't sell well and Nintendo wanted to move on from it as quickly as possible.

The Switch, by comparison, lasted about twice as long (longer if you factor in how many more game releases it's still likely to see), and I'd anticipate the Switch 2 having a comparable lifespan if it continues to sell well. We're not getting a Switch 3 in 2030, at least.

Most of them are so expensive, though.

No, Philips, I am not spending $50 on a single bulb, that is madness.

That is the exact shape of the lettering in the image shared by OP as well. Guessing they had a single asset for that bit of graffiti and just reused it/recolored it in other places.

Me too!

IIRC there was also a small-time Scooby Doo movie Zaslav killed that was already all but finished. Doubt it would have been good or anything special, but another example of them killing a complete project just to write it off.

Edit: found it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoob!_Holiday_Haunt

They are, specifically monarchs of House Targaryen. I sorta hate that I know this.

Along the line, they are:

• Aenys I Targaryen

• Maegor I Targaryen

• Jaehaerys I Targaryen

• Viserys I Targaryen¹

• Aegon II Targaryen¹

• Rhaenyra Targaryen¹

• Aegon III Targaryen¹

• Daeron I Targaryen

• Baelor I Targaryen

• Aegon IV Targaryen²

• Daeron II Targaryen

• Daemon I Blackfyre³

• Aerys II Targaryen⁴

¹ Appear in the House of the Dragon TV series

² Skipped past Viserys II for some reason

³ A legitimized bastard of House Targaryen who founded his own house

⁴ The last Targaryen monarch, overthrown prior to the events of Game of Thrones. The timeline skips a bunch more names here as well.

At least the article clarified that the painting itself is only 26 years old, not hundreds like one might expect for a building that old.

Reminds me of US politics, too.

1st US president: “The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”

Presidents 2 through 47: join parties

Guns for me but not for thee

That'd be my guess.

I have never once went out of my way to use Gemini, for example, but having it appear in every other Google search with some lying bullshit to spread is probably driving up their engagement numbers.

I really should stop using Google. But can't use DDG either because they just use Bing and their own AI service as well, and so does Kagi.