Thought I’d share our story -
My wife and I got married in 2022 and after a year we decided to start trying for a family.
We found out we were pregnant for the first time in December 23 and we were delighted. We paid for an early scan privately and were over the moon to see a wee heart beating away.
Despite a family member having a miscarriage a short time earlier, (selfishly and naively) i never once considered this would happen to us. But at the start of February 2024, my wife began to know something wasn’t right. We went for another private scan. I was watching the screen, expecting to see the heart beat more vividly than previously but I knew straight away that there was nothing there. The nurse unfortunately gave us the dreaded news that there was no heartbeat. She was able to tell us that it had stopped growing a week or so before. Strangely - at the time I remember thinking - I feel sorry for this woman having to deliver this bad news to us.
Going from so high to so low, so quickly… it was very difficult for my wife and very difficult for me to see my wife like that. In the coming days, I found myself upset, distant, falling into day dreams, angry (at others who were pregnant and talking about it - which I feel guilty about now).
As time moved on slightly - I thought there is no way that my wife will want to try this again but after a bit of time, we were both in the right headspace to at least try again. And for me, at the minute it’s the hope that is getting me through the hard days.
I will say - communication between partners is very important. I feel like I wouldn’t be in the position I am in now if my wife didn’t force me to talk about it. She’s been my rock through this all.
Due to the taboo around miscarriages, I have made it my mission to talk about it with people. I am in a place now where I can talk about it with people and I think it’s important for us men to talk. Understandably, Sometimes us men can be overlooked in these circumstances because of the trauma which the mother is going through.
We've witnessed a handful of Elden Ring speedruns already, with Elden Ring Runes folks doing things like winning the game with no loss in any second in Lands Between, among other challenging runs. One person who's set records in the world for finishing FromSoftware's latest Souls-like with the fastest speed possible is back with a new high score.
YouTuber and noted Souls speedrunner Distortion2 shared a video of their record-crushing completion time of 18 minutes and 57 seconds. It's insane! In this latest run, Distortion2 used an exploit that's game-breaking, dubbed "The Zip,"" which allows you to move your Tarnished around the map, letting you bypass entire segments in the gameplay. Based on various posts from the community, from Reddit to YouTube it's a challenge to nail The Zip's timing. For The Zip, you're supposed to keep your eyes on and advance at specific times, making it tough to pull off with any sort of regularity. There are apparently auto hot keys you can use to make The Zip a bit simpler, but they seem to be only for PC users.
In addition to making frequent use of The Zip exploit--like employing it to move from the game's first Site of Grace to Stormhill's Stormgate in roughly two to three seconds, the remainder of Distortion2's run is pretty familiar to anyone who's either been playing Elden Ring or seen one of the numerous insane speedruns. Distortion2 was able to zip from to the Stormgate Site of Grace, in which Melina offers you Torrent which takes you to Liurnia of the Lakes to obtain a few items like an Icerind Hatchet for the nerfed Hoarfrost Stomp weapon skill while disregarding almost every enemy they came in contact with, and sparingly using either and the Wrong Warp and Zip glitches to navigate in the Lands Between. Distortion2 also utilized the flying Torrent exploit to speedily reach the Academy of Raya Lucaria, which is usually regarded as a shortcut for the Volcano Manor.
The previous world record they held was for a sub-30 minute race, which took 29 minutes and 49 seconds, published on the 14th of March. That run was their fifth consecutive world record for an "Any percentage" Elden Ring speedrun.
The Leaderboards on Elden Ring on Speedrun.com have unlocked, and though Distortion2's speed isn't listed however, their sub-20 minute run is easily the fastest in any class. This is also true for the Dark Souls-dedicated speedrunning website SpeedSouls.com, with Distortion2's time beats all other competitors. Distortion2 was so determined to this run of less than 20 minutes, they've even mentioned in the description of the video through Twitter that they "changed an airline and conducted fifteen hours of running" just to grind out and then publish the insane time.
I am fascinated by watching people perform extraordinary gaming feats. It's one of the reasons I love Esports. However, the Elden Ring speedruns are becoming too to Elden Ring Runes buy much. I can't keep up! I'm hoping that someone will be able to glitch from the start in the Limgrave region until the final boss, and then finish the game in about I don't know what 60 minutes.