I am in a touch of a mood so I am not going to talk about politics.
Got the tree cleaned up, and now have to have an expert come look at it and tell me if the whole thing needs to come down or not. And to clarify, when I say the tree is cleaned up, I mean the power company cut it off the lines and it is now unceremoniously dumped on front lawn until I can get someone with a saw to cut it into manageable pieces. As many of you know, I do not own ANY power tools with blades for obvious reasons.
I need a new video game. Any suggestions?
War for Ukraine Day 869: Russia’s Wetwork Program
weasel
I am having a blast with Star Control Origins. It might even still be on sale on Steam, checking…nuts! Still, is over 5 years old so only $30
xephyr
I’d grab my chainsaw and come over if WV was a little closer, but I’m in MI alas…
cmorenc
I too am taking a short sabbatical from politics for my own sanity and ability to be helpful once this mess gets sorted out either way. With joe assuming he stays or with kamala if he doesn’t, but i have no control and just have to resolve to deal in a week or two with whatever and support it 100% either way. Biden resolves to stay in, but the long knives grow rather than shrink within the party, regardless of the firm support joe has within this almost 10k blog.
Eyes on the prize – cannot let the orange shitgibbon win.
Hilbertsubspace
I miss Joust. The old cabinet arcade game. Oh, wait, you said new.
buck2202
any interest in survival/crafters? Valheim is the only one that has ever grabbed me (few hundred hours over the last couple years), and it just had a big update recently
Poe Larity
Am not a gamer due to understanding my addictive traits.
I have many acres to clear after August and was annoyed to discover all the chainsaw courses ended in April.
No One of Consequence
Evening John, you may want to consider a folding tree saw as a general have. It’s a handsaw kind of thing, but very sharp and would make short work of a felled tree (depending upon how big diameter branches we are talking). I was able to take down all but the final trunk of about 10 feet with my manual polesaw. It was sharp (a Fiskars one I think), and good exercise. The blade part was like a treesaw, but a folding blade one, not the bowsaw kind.
If that helps. Peace,
-NOoC
It was a standing tree that I felled. A maple that had a bad spot right opposite where prevailing winds blow, a eventual fail point that would send it crashing into my house. Not a big maple, but probably 15 years old. (Edited to add the p.s.)
Ripley
West Virginia Chainsaw Mangling
It’s an FPS (First Person Saw) game, the graphics suck, and you don’t actually gain any points. It takes 3 levels to start the chainsaw, but you get to curse and make a lot of new online friends.
I am not a gamer. Nor a chainsawer. Chain-sawer?
Poe Larity
@Ripley: Is that like the Japanese anime with the guy with the chainsaw head? Youts say it’s good.
Noskilz
People seem to enjoy Peglin – kind of a roguelike adventure pachinko game.
If you like Vampire Survivor-alikes , Holocure – Save The Fans is a completely free, fully-featured game with a large roster of characters
dmsilev
@buck2202: For whatever reason, I couldn’t get into Valheim. Put several hours into it, but it didn’t really grab me.
Recently, my gaming has been Satisfactory (kind of like Factorio, but in a 3d hand-crafted world, not 2d procedural) and Cities Skylines II now that it’s been through a few rounds of bug fixes and updates.
schrodingers_cat
I don’t play video games.
No One of Consequence
Oh, and Team Fortress 2 for the win. I have something ridiculous, my son tells me, hours on that. More than 2000 hours or so. Or Dwarf Fortress for the interesting places one can stretch math to.
(One might notice the ‘fortress’ trend here, but the author can attest to that being mere coincidence.)
-NOoC
strange visitor (from another planet)
i’m playing the elden ring dlc. i’d also recommend armored core 6. great single player campaign, best since maybe titanfall 2.
counterfactual
@Ripley: Pedantry: chainsawyer
buck2202
@dmsilev: I also have few hundred hours in satisfactory over the last couple years. got surprisingly sucked into it, but at some point it got too big for me to feel like I was accomplishing anything in manageable sessions. definitely looking forward to starting fresh after 1.0 drops!
valheim is a lot more customizable than it used to be–combat, resource rates, etc are all adjustable now without needing mods. doesn’t sound like you can point to one particular thing, but if it’s been a while, the ease of entry has improved a lot in the last year or so. I play in spurts, but it’s a special one for me
kindness
I bought a chain saw to cut down a tree. Have used it 3 more times since that first one. Sure a whole lot easier than chopping it down or hand sawing.
Another Scott
@Ripley:
[ WHOMP!! ]
OMG, the memories that suddenly came flying back!
The dad of my best friend in high school had (literally) about 8 chain saws on his farm. He seemed to buy a new one whenever he couldn’t get the closest one at hand to start or run for more than 10 seconds.
[ bript, bript, bript, BRR rrr BRRR, plut. … bript, bript, bript …]
“Why in my day, we didn’t have Electric chain saws. We had to refine our own 2-cycle gas and developed forearms like Popeye from trying to start the damn things! Kids these days are too soft!!11 …”
Good luck, John. Pace yourself.
Cheers,
Scott.
debit
If you played Suikoden 1 and 2 back in the day, and liked them, Eiyuden Chronicles is the spiritual successor to the franchise. Turn based combat. On Steam.
Strategy RPG: Valkria Chronicles 1 and 4 are on Steam (2 and 3 were PSP only). It has tanks.
Or there’s Balder’s Gate 3, unless you’ve already played it.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
@weasel: What? There’s a new(ish) Star Con? Wow. I am not a gamer at all but I loved Star Con II SO MUCH! (Star Con 3 was missing a lot of what made II so good).
I may have to find that and play it.
cain
John highly recommend Balders Gate 3. On my second play through.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Hook a chain to it, drag it out into a field, get stuck and leave the car there? Bring mustard! No suggestions on games, I like to play my existing catalog and nothing has caught my eye lately.
Brought in the mud harvest and it’s looking good! One variety of our strawberries grow these huge 2″x2″x2″ berries that are just beautiful and tasty. We’ve been getting about a pint and a half of raspberries every night for the last couple of weeks now. Shortbread, shakes and drizzle on vanilla ice cream with chocolate.
Almost illegal it’s that good. Weather has been mild since our 107 degree day about a week ago. I like mild and sunny!
debit
@cain: Tav or Durge?
piratedan
if you’re feeling anti-social, just a desktop version of CIV 4 should do the trick
dmsilev
@piratedan: It’s probably still a ways off in the future, but Civ VII was recently announced….
VFX Lurker
I’d like to recommend Hades by Supergiant Games. It has everything:
Love, love, love that game!
Lacuna-Synecdoche
I’m still messing around with Baldur’s Gate 3, which you’ve probably finished already. Almost a thousand hours in and I still haven’t gotten past Act 1, because I keep trying new builds and new mods.
Sigh.
I think I’m going to take a break from it and wait for patch 7 to come out in couple months, since there are rumored to be a lot of changes in the works. Which I guess means I ‘m looking for recs in the meantime too.
Sister Golden Bear
@No One of Consequence: After the naked mopping accident I think Cole is wise to stay away from sharp objects, powered or unpowered.
Odie Hugh Manatee:
I like the way you think.
Fair Economist
I don’t really have any game suggestions. I try other games from time to time, but I always come back to Civilization and Minecraft. I mod Minecraft too, and I find when I play other things I don’t get that done. I did take a month off modding to play Old World recently; that’s the closest I can come to a recommendation.
mrmoshpotato
I am in a stealing of this phrase.
BlueDWarrior
My suggestion may or may not be applicable, but I’ve been getting my feet wet again in Final Fantasy 14 since the Dawntrail expansion opened up. Got the two new classes (Viper [snake themed assassin flavored DPS] and Pictomancer [based off Relm from FF6, caster DPS that attacks with literal art]) up to L90 of the newly raised L100 cap.
Also while I’m upset that politics are gonna politics and people are going to continue to be too clever by half, I will just have to bear it until everything is finalized in Chicago, one way or another.
Eolirin
Hard to suggest games without knowing what you’re into.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@No One of Consequence:
I haven’t played TF2 in some time, should get back into it. I have a fully decked out Demoman and our TF2 servers (we run three of them) have Halloween mode on all of the time.
Damned fun game to play. Cartoon characters fighting pointless battles. I usually run Engie, Heavy or Demo.
dp
Pong?
scav
Team playing with saws here, and I do so love the dangerous manual ones. Silkys. Granted, I do only attempt basic pruning and emergency cleanup (ground level) and often happily leave knuckle blood on things. Not firewood management either (beyond brute hauling). Video games? Can’t even find Minesweep anymore . .
Juju
I like Bird Sort and Water Match, and sometimes Royal Match, but I don’t think that’s what you mean.
No One of Consequence
@sistergoldenbear – I forgot, I am chastened. I never did think to have Cole check the back seat of the car that was field-abandoned for the mustard. Did anyone ever suggest that?
@OdeeHughManatee – I played the original Team Fortress (not 2) with office mates in late 90’s. When TF2 came out, that gang had moved on, but I got it immediately and set about having my ass handed to me for a decade or so. Then I became a dad and played a whole lot less, but to this day, and many video games since and hence, TF2 is some of the most ACTUAL FUN that can be had in any video game and other than the original PONG, I was around (and most likely played) them all arcade-wise through the early 90’s or so. (Console experience limited however during that time period.)
Do I want to look at or watch Joe’s speech? Or even open that thread? Seems like what I thought was settled has been unsettled by a TV doc. Pacing myself.
Peace,
-NOoC
sixthdoctor
Balatro.
Incredibly replayable/addictive…
M31
just started the game Stray, about a cat and a little robot friend that go exploring in an abandoned city
just finished a re-run through the original Portal game, and it’s still the best ever for story, cool puzzle gameplay, and ‘wtf’ moments
Mousebumples
Stardew Valley was the last favorite of mine. But I’m not sure if we Iike the same kind of games, John.
Sending good thoughts your way!
NotMax
(Dating myself.)
Normally eschew shooty games, but admit Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 were a kick to run through.
laura
If you find you must remove your busted tree- and if it’s amenable to your growth zone- I highly recommend a red maple. Grows at a not too fast pace. Stunning Autumn display, drops it’s leafs and is done. Nice for shade and creatures. We love ours.
It got up to 111° today- hotter than polyester pants.
Bostondreams
I’ve been craving XCom style games, so gotten a great deal of fun from Warhammer Chaos Gate, as well as Battletech. And a great RPG is Warhammer: Rogue Trader, from Owlcat. Same folks that did the two Pathfinder games.
Origuy
I have decided to upgrade my laptop. Currently I have an HP Envy x360 with AMD Radeon graphics card. It has an annoying habit of blue screening, but only when plugged in. So I charge it up and run it as long as I can. It also doesn’t have quite enough oomph to run Baldur’s Gate 3. I’ve had HP laptops for years because I was an employee and can still get employee prices. But I am giving up on them; I replaced my HP printer with an Epson a few months ago.
I’m not a huge gamer so I don’t want to go with something top of the line like Alienware. I have my eye on a Dell G15 with the Nvidia GeForce 4060. But I haven’t made any decisions. Suggestions are welcome.
MisterForkbeard
@Bostondreams: Rogue Trader is fantastic, gotta agree.
I have a couple of JRPGs I play, and one of my favorite series just released a new game. Super happy but haven’t had a chance to dig into it yet: Legend of Heroes, Trails through Daybreak
Too many good games out there
Kelly
You need a Silky Saw. Yes, a hand pruning saw. Japanese. I discovered them doing volunteer trail work for the Forest Service. Amazingly faster and easier than than less expensive saws. Less maintenance than a chainsaw. I wouldn’t use it to cut a cord of firewood but perfect for pruning and cleanup.
https://silkysaws.com/arbor/
NotMax
@Origuy
Depending on your price range, have heard good scuttlebutt about Asus laptops. Also some complimentary chatter about Acer and Lenovo.
Will note that Amazon Prime Days are July 16 & 17 and will probably include price drops worth checking into on mid-range devices.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … VOANews.com:
Good, good. Biden’s administration is still doing the work, and doing it well. Competence matters – a lot – and cracking down on giant tax cheats is a huge win for sensible public policy and voters like it!
Reminder that no GQPer voted for the IRA.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@M31: stray is an amazing concept. i hope more creators follow in those footsteps.
Splitting Image
I rewatched the Jennifer Ehle Pride and Prejudice, because watching a smart woman tell arrogant guys where to get off is awesome.
MisterForkbeard
@Origuy: What’s your price range at? I recently bought a Minisforum V3 gaming windows tablet for ~$1100, and it’s remarkably fast for the price range. Not sure about BG3, but it can run Witcher 3 1080p Ultra settings at ~30 fps.
ASUS gaming laptops are generally pretty good. You can get a ASUS Rog Zephyrus G14 for $1300 from Best Buy right now – that’s got a 4060 and will run really damn well.
But really: Wait like 5 days for Prime Day, and then look for deals on Amazon.
@strange visitor (from another planet): I get some similar (but more silly) vibes from Little Kitty Big City that just came out a few months ago. It’s more of a playground than a story, though.
Harrison Wesley
I have nothing useful to add from my own mind, but figured I might toss a music video or two.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVEgDSOx_5w&list=RDMM&index=10
Harrison Wesley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paeNnR33i5Q
Odie Hugh Manatee
@M31:
I have Stray and made it into the city before dropping out for life. Should get back to it. It’s a cute game with the way the cat acts and such. Our daughter is after me to try Portal Revolution as it’s a great mod.
You have to use time travel to solve the puzzles along with the usual Portal stuff.
Jackie
@Another Scott: You need to repost this tomorrow! (Or later today -depending on Time Zone 😂) Great news 👍🏻
Harrison Wesley
They were here last year and I missed them. I’ve been sending them fan letters asking to come back. Won’t miss them again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_WNMFti60
NotMax
Anyone sampled any of the games on Netflix?
MisterForkbeard
@NotMax: I hhaven’t tried them on Netflix, but several are well known good games: Oxenfree, Infernax, and the Reigns games are well regarded.
If you can get it, Into the Breach is an excellent cross between a roguelite and a turn-based strategy game. Kentucky Route Zero is a really entrancing old-school point and click adventure game.
Origuy
Thanks for the replies, keep them coming. I am definitely waiting for Prime Days. Hoping to get something under $1500.
Harrison Wesley
I guess it’s late at night enough for me to drop this without being accused of being a bad-faith lefty who only brings up GAZA to destroy Joe Biden. Very cool album, in my opinion, and made over 20 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TfYsqmz934
wjca
Or you might try Age of Empires. My late MIL gave it to me . . . wow, it’s decades ago now. Still keeps me amused.
NotMax
@MisterForkbeard
Much more up my particular alley.
Moving right along on the gaming spectrum, have you played the remastered Alan Wake by any chance?
In live action milieus, enjoyed The Shapeshifting Detective and Late Shift.
AnnaN
When politics gets to be too much I spend time just bouncing around in Astroneer. Its easy to get lost in and pick up months later.
NotMax
Stopped 2/3 of the way though Life Is Strange 2.. Like the game so much I don’t want it to end.
NotMax
Italics fail in #62 but I’m sure y’all can be forgiving.
;)
Villago Delenda Est
New video game? Anything Sid Meier. Anything.
Origuy
@wjca: I’ve played Age of Empires quite a bit. The one game that I’ve play more than any other is Age of Mythology. It’s an oldie but a goodie.
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Scott: I’m afraid I will not be fully satisfied until Peter Thiel and Elno Muskrat are both begging in the streets of San Francisco for nickles and dimes to buy them a bottle of wine.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev: Not until sometime next year, I fear. It’s been a long time since Civ VI came out.
Splitting Image
@Fair Economist:
I have a Civ2 game set in the dinosaur scenario that needs to be finished at some point. An army of Brachiosauri and Tyrannosauri for the win.
MisterForkbeard
@NotMax: I haven’t played Alan Wake (the remaster or the new one) – just never really got into it. But I did really like Control – same dev, technically same universe.
That said: If you like old-school adventure games, go pick up Unavowed. It’s a really fantastic game, runs about $15 and it has a small amount of replayability. It’s loosely tied in with a bunch of other similar games, if you end up liking it
@Villago Delenda Est: I still go back and play Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri every year or two.
Omnes Omnibus
Someone with FP rights may want to nuke guachi’s comment a couple of threads down where they doxxed themself.
KRK
You might be able to manage a manual chainsaw without injuring yourself. It’s the only kind I trust myself with. Can be quite a workout as well.
cain
@debit: Tav
cain
@Lacuna-Synecdoche:
Lol on my 2nd pass through! I’ve only called 430 hours .. and you logged a thousand hours
Geoduck
@Hilbertsubspace: You can play Joust for free.
cain
@NotMax:
For me it is Dishonored 2. I have it at 666 hours and it has been stuck there.
Both Dishonored and Dishonored 2 is awesome.
I have a steam deck to play next to my wife. So good !
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
pretty sure he was trying to get somebody else swatted. it’s his style.
BethanyAnne
@MisterForkbeard: I was coming here to recommend Control. It’s a couple of years old now, but it’s so good. Great worldbuilding. It’s interesting like a good book, which is very hard to do in an action-y game.
It’s *much* older, but I got A Tale of Two Wastelands up and running on my PC. It links Fallout 3 and New Vegas into one game. Mostly it uses the New Vegas rule set. That let me explore and play Fallout 3 with rules I already knew. And I so get the love for Fallout 3 now. It can be very intricate.
I also re-installed Dragon Age Inquisition on my machine last weekend. Hyped about the 4th one coming out in a few months.
wjca
Surely the streets of, say, Bakersfield would be a more appropriate location for them to wash up. Climate,** you know.
** Meteorological, but also political.
NotMax
For any who may not know what was meant by live action milieus above, The Shapeshifting Detective and Late Shift teasers.
Jay
@KRK:
Japanese pull saws, period if you don’t want to buy or rent a power tool.
206inKY
I’m so sorry about the tree. Try to find an arborist who won’t benefit from the outcome financially. The first image you shared looks like a strong healthy trunk on the right, with a pretty bad gash on the left. Trees can heal over—my guess is that the standing trunk will be okay when the fallen limb is cleanly severed. Plenty of folks did this after our tornado with major limbs snapped. You can already see them healing over after a couple years, My hesitation is the sheer quantity ripped off up into the center trunk, it would be easier if the fallen branch snapped cleanly. But even that can heal—trees are resilient. The rest looks very healthy based on pictures. (I work with a nonprofit restoring our urban canopy.)
sab
@206inKY: I am not an arborist, but I agree with you. The right half of that tree looks like it can be saved as a normal tree.
ETA Our city does terrible things to the devil’s strip (tree lawn) trees and they survive.
KRK
@Jay:
Sure, for efficiency. But I’m prioritizing the lowest chance of a clumsy or accident-prone person injuring themselves.
West of the Rockies
@Omnes Omnibus:
That was a reckless, stupidly aggressive bit there on his part.
NaijaGal
Posted this to the now dead thread below, so I’ll repost here:
Interesting article with some nuance: ageism is making it impossible to fairly judge Joe Biden.
NotMax
@<a href=”https://balloon-juice.com/2024/07/11/thursday-night-open-thread-48/#comment-9256505″>West of the Rockies</a>
Indubitably.
All that was missing was “I’m the one on the computer in mom’s basement.”
NotMax
re: #88
Wowsers. FYWP playing hob tonight.
Shalimar
Have you tried playing Dave The Diver? interesting game, well-paced to add new elements as you move along, moderately relaxing.
bjacques
@Villago Delenda Est: I’ll be satisfied when Peter Thiel is reduced to selling his plasma. For great poetic justice!
Splitting Image
@bjacques:
I just want him to suffer from a lingering illness for so long that he can no longer afford to be choosy about who he gets his blood transfusions from.
SomeRandomGuy
@Hilbertsubspace: There are a lot of emulators out there – you could get Joust running in your home.
@Ripley: chain sawyer might be what you are looking for.
@Jacqueline Squid Onassis: Star Control 2 also exists as software project, with a different name. It might also be on GOG.com (=”Great Old Games”)
Jay
@KRK:
I have a bunch of Japanese pull saws. Most are highly specialized.
The one I use most often is an Irwin, $25 at a box store.
I use the coarse blade for “green wood” up to 18″,
The fine blade, (it’s double sided), I use for dovetails and other fine joinery.
Because it’s a pull, not a push, it’s really hard to hurt yourself, unless, you do naked mopping.
Like Baud,………………………..//
SomeRandomGuy
@Origuy: Really, if you’re not needing *gaming* rigs, then almost any laptop, with a discrete graphics card, will play most of the games you’d be interested in. Look for dedicated graphics memory – I’m not sure if you need more than 1gb, I never have.
One thing to watch for, is, make sure that the laptop you choose has processors of the type you want. Do you want to be able to play games published in 2022? Make sure you have a decent processor from 2022, or later, and the dedicated graphics card, and you’ll probably be fine. You might not be able to play at 240 frames per second at 4k resolution in the latest networked FPS, but you should be able to play the game.
Shalimar
@SomeRandomGuy: Star Control I and II are $3.99 on GOG.
@weasel: Star Control: Origins isn’t on sale at the moment but it goes on sale often for as much as 80% off iirc. Great game, but no reason to pay full price.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@SomeRandomGuy:
One other thing to watch out for is I hear that there’s a problem with some 13th and 14th generation Intel processors having problems crashing when decompressing game assets. What I read may only apply to desktops but I would be keeping an eye out for more information.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Shalimar: And the best version of Star Control II is The Ur-Quan Masters, a legally free port of the 3DO version with full voice acting and better graphics. It’s on Steam under Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters, also for free (the rights reverted to the creators, who released it under the GPL).
NotMax
@Odie Hugh Manatee
AMD Ryzen, baby!
Odie Hugh Manatee
@NotMax:
I have three of those in the house; one 3800X w/Asrock Taichi x570 board and 6800XT, one 3600X w/Asrock Steel Legend x570 board and 6700XT, and my old reliable 2700X w/Asrock Taichi x470 board and 6800XT. All excellent systems and stable as a six legged table.
I do have a couple of laptops, tablets and one HP server that are Intel too. My gaming laptop is an I7 with GTX 1080 (Asus Strix). Old fucker…lol!
NobodySpecial
Very very late to the party, and don’t really have any new new games to recommend. I second the recommendation of HoloCure; it’s truly mind-boggling how much love and effort went into it for no money at all.
Other than that, I’ve picked up Europa Universalis 4 after a five year hiatus and I’m waiting for the new Path of Exile season. I like involved games that don’t need me to be the gamer I was in the 90s.
Don
@dmsilev: Dang, dude, those were going to be my exact suggestions!!! Factorio, first.
Princess
I just saw your original post about your tree. I’m so sorry, John. Losing a loved tree is a terrible thing.
PaulWartenberg
City of Heroes is back on Homecoming!
Look for me (Witty Librarian) on Excelsior server. I need people for a Synapse TF run.
bluefoot
I am also taking a break from politics and media. As a POC, all the privileged white yelling and circular firing squad on the Democratic side is all just so much bullshit, as if the choices aren’t clear. Maybe some people can afford to vent their feelings and act on vibes, but I cannot.
Re power tools and trees: I once had a tree come down leaning on the house and blocking my driveway, thankfully missing my car. A neighbor loaned me a chainsaw, but thankfully reason prevailed and I asked him to cut it so it was no longer leaning on the house. He went whole hog and cut it into pieces for me.
Losing trees sucks. My father passed away a few years ago, and some of the trees we planted when I was a kid have been struck by lightning, disease, or in one instance, an ice storm. I loved those trees and the memories I have with them.
bluefoot
@wjca:
I was in SF recently and someone had spray painted across a road “No Nazi 4 Pres Fuck Trump” I can’t decide if the “s” in “pres” was purposefully painted in the SS style or not….but either way, I smiled and took a photo.
EthylEster
“How about Royal Match, a game everyone is talking about?”
I bet I have been shown a thousand of those stupid ads.
Burrowing Owl
@VFX Lurker: I agree with you about Hades! My kids enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to Hades 2. I just today got the hidden aspect of Varatha to the surface, but was worn down by Redacted.