4th of July Eve Open Thread

Back from my California trip which included San Francisco, Napa and Sonoma.  Had some great meals, especially at Press in Napa, which is now a One Star Micheline restaurant, that was a fantastic experience and one I cannot recommend enough.  So no real Warhammer content (although the US does seem to be slowly morphing into the Empire – xenophobic, fractured between the rich and poor, the almost religious worship of political entities), but I am working on a series about the Orcs for future Monday Open Threads.

Instead, I wanted to talk about the time and money suck of the Steam Summer Sale.  Personally I only bought Lego Star Wars, Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, and Forever Skies.  I did get some DLC for a few games such as Frostpunk, Stellaris, and Vampire Survivors.  I kinda focused on games that would work really well on the Steam Deck as I wanted some more games to be able to play while on the road.  The Steam Deck really saved what was left of my sanity on the trip back as there was a horrible parent in front of us whose child will one day become a serial killer because someone told them no.  Little bastard screamed NO continuously during the over 4 hours of the flight whenever his mother would quietly ask him to do something, including to be be quiet or calm down.  Say what you will, but my mom bitch slapping me when I acted badly (which rarely happened) caused me to immediately behave (and is also the reason I have the ability to sob silently).  I know that this is one of the worst ways to discipline a child, but the immediate resolution would be welcome by a totally full 737.

Little off track, but playing Vampire Survivors really allowed me to work off some anger and also distract me.  Since each game is only 30 minutes, I only needed to play 8 of them to get through the flight with a minimum of rage and as a bonus, no assault charges.  I both love and loath the Steam Summer Sale as I buy stuff that is cheaply priced and are actually good games, but loathe because I may not ever play.  I mean I have 300 games on Steam, some I have not ever played and will probably never play.  They even may be great games, but right now I do not have the time nor patience to play.  So far my hope is to retire while I am still able to play these games, both the mental acuity and the physical ability.

Back to the games, everyone loves Lego and I have always loved the Lego games and they work well with the deck.  Tiny Tina’s to me has always sounded interesting and gives me something action packed to play occasionally.  Forever Skies is an exploration and base building game (although your base is a dirigible).

So what games have you picked up?  Or not picked up?

To make up for the sparseness of this post, just get ready for the Orky boys – Nobz, Painboiz, gretchen, weirdboyz, squigs, and so much other strangeness.

 

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ArmedandHammered
Mid 50's geek/nerd, avid reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy, manga, Chinese Web novels, and British mysteries, cult movies are my thing (have you seen Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter?)
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Dunstan

My friends until recently: “Oh, it’s cool that you’re single. We get it. You seem pretty happy.”

My friends recently: “OMG you have a girlfriend! Now you won’t die lonely and miserable like you have been until now! BTW, we have been Google stalking her since you mentioned the barest details.”

Me: “This is why I never tell you people anything.”

WCS

Dunstan: /logs onto random dick joke website and tells random strangers

yeah right

That’s why we’re here.

Dunstan

Exactly. I can trust you people to just ask questions like, well, I’m not going to give you ideas.

Gumbygirl

Here are the important questions.
1. Are you getting laid?
2. Is she reasonably sane, and not a bunny boiler?

Good enough!

Dunstan

This is why you’re my favorite.

Gumbygirl

And you are mine. Don’t tell the others.

Gumbygirl

I object! I’m not random, like some fucking rando, I am IMAGINARY!!
( you may not have noticed, but I have had several glasses of wine. Okay, two big glasses. And a little weed. )

Gumbygirl

I am having a Vietnam flashback from these fucking fireworks. Imma call in an airstrike on the Cong!

yeah right

We’ve got shit going off but only a small amount of gun fire.

Which is good!

TheRevanchist

Are you Charles Bronson?

WCS

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Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds as John Rambo

yeah right

We got Charlie Fucking Bronson over here?!

Gumbygirl

Look you, my mustache is barely noticeable!

yeah right

Alright I’m going on record. The Bear is not just my favorite thing streaming right now, it’s closing in on one of the greatest shows ever.

Granted, I am biased with the food centric element but fuck!

This season is incredible.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

The Bear is one of those shows that I can recognize as obviously good, but it’s just not for me. Can’t explain why.

yeah right

It’s the food and the stress and the focus.

That’s why it speaks to me so loud.

Gumbygirl

The Journal of the American Medical Association just released a study that said alcohol has no health benefits whatsoever, in any amount. In honor of this, I’m having a great big glass of Pinot. Fuck you, JAMA, you’re not the boss of me!

Mr. Ayo

I hate the Dirt HOX so very very much.

Mr. Ayo

Okay, subtract one “very” from that assessment.

2Pack

The cherry tomatoes are ripe as is the basil. Combine chopped in a bowl with olive oil and salt. Just those 4 simple things. Now what are you waiting for… Go toast some crusty Italian bread.

Gumbygirl

I’ll be right over.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

My tomatoes aren’t quite there yet. But I’m gonna have a lot of them this year.

yeah right

Will trade bread for tomatoes.

Gumbygirl

I watered my SIL’s garden today. Her tomatoes are tiny, but her mint is spectacular.

yeah right

You gotta do some lamb.

Gumbygirl

That would be great. I have some double loin chops in my freezer at home, I’ll pick some mint before I leave this weekend. I bought myself a nice steak for tomorrow that I’m going to grill. Mebbe I’ll have a mojito or two!

yeah right

Can never go wrong with pork.

My regime is completely out of whack with the working today off tomorrow thing.

It’s Tuesday first and I’m probably going to have my vegan soup.

The effort is spent on the weekend.

Or maybe Del Taco is open. Haven’t decided.

Gumbygirl

Del Taco should be open tomorrow.

yeah right

Did I ever tell you that I lived next door to Del Taco #1?

Could have run a line from my kitchen to their drive through.

I also shared a wall with the one and only…
/ drum roll

Del Fried Chicken!

I shit you not!

Last edited 9 months ago by yeah right
Gumbygirl

Wait, Del Fried Chicken?!??‽

yeah right

Their fried chicken was the everloving BALLS!

They had one primary dish.

They nailed it every time.

Did gizzards and chicken livers too.

Simple sides. Mashed potatoes and chicken gravy. Slaw, potato salad.
And store bought rolls.

Hell yes.

Had chicken grease in my walls.

Last edited 9 months ago by yeah right
yeah right

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yeah right

Well that didn’t work.

Gumbygirl

Weird that they gave it up.

yeah right

Perfeito.

This guy gets it.

BugEyedBoo

Some chunks of mozzarella cheese works with those tomatoes and basil as well. Plus some balsamic vinegar (I think – my wife cooks and I do dishes).

yeah right

Nice arrangement.

Gumbygirl

No kidding. I cook AND do the dishes. I told Gumby that before I come home, he should pretend his parents have gone on vacay, and he needs to clean the house before they get home, so they will forgive the debauchery. I’m not holding my breath.

2Pack

I’ll sprinkle some Parmigiano on top most of the time.

Horatio Cornblower

Just got back from some fireworks. The son of one of the guys we were with almost lost an ear by staying too long trying to light his rocket after his father got his on the first try.

JPP would have been proud.

2Pack

Unsafe!

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BugEyedBoo

I’m watching fireworks on TV, which is a waste of time TBH. If the choreographer says something like, “And at 2215 we will play ‘Proud To Be An American’,” they should be fired on the spot.

WCS

Somewhere, the leftovers of JPP’s digits miss the festivities.

TheRevanchist

“We’re number… uh… one-third!”

BugEyedBoo

And I should get Tiny Tina’s. but I never finished Borderlands 3. I know it doesn’t matter, but still…

WCS

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BugEyedBoo

Lately I’ve been playing Diablo IV. It’s better than D3, but would be a better game if they hadn’t used scaled difficulty (Adaptive Difficulty). I kind of liked it where areas would go from Instant Death to Kind of Hard to Trivially Easy. Everyone you fight in D4 is Kind of Easy, all the time. You do get to take on the Acts in whatever order you want.

Aside from that, I haven’t really gotten deep into anything since Railway Empires (trains!). I’ve bought a few things, played maybe a dozen hours, then got bored.

ballsofsteelandfury

Anyone for Strip Uno?

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SonOfSpam

“Draw Two. AGAIN.”

-D. Favre

ballsofsteelandfury

Balls’ Rules for Strip Uno:

Requires a bottle of booze plus a can of beer plus 1 shot glass per player. Preferable to play with two guys and two girls (for your standard heterosexual players) seated B, G, B, G. Seating doesn’t matter for anyone else.

1) Drink a shot of beer for every card you have to draw.
2) If you play a Wild Card, you choose the player that takes an item of clothing off.
3) If you play a +4 Card, you choose two people to take items of clothing off.
4) Drink a shot of booze if play is reversed back to you.
5) Drink a shot of booze if play is skipped over to you.
6) If you pull off successive Skip or Reverse moves (play the second of back to back cards) you choose a player to take an item of clothing off.
7) If you fail to say “UNO” when you only have one card left, you must take off two items of clothing AND take a shot of booze.
8) Once a player loses all their cards, a new game is started with the rest of the players drinking a shot of booze and removing an article of clothing.
9) A naked player remains in the game but does not have to take any more clothes off.
10) If a naked player wins the next game, they can put all their clothes back on.
11) When two players lose all their clothes, they are removed from the game.
12) Last player with clothes on wins.

2Pack

Sure.

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ballsofsteelandfury

I can guarantee you Marika plays Uno.

BugEyedBoo

Looking more like ‘due’ from here.

Brick Meathook

I’m not going to post (or take) a pic, but I’m sitting at a bar in Virginia where the total combined weight of four particular customers might be 1200-1500 lbs.

WCS

A lot meat to the hoof, you’re saying?

Brick Meathook

Three are sitting next to each other and I’m calculating the floor loading.

Gumbygirl

Don’t get too far away from them, or they’ll cherrybomb you like you’re on a seesaw.

Brick Meathook

They have to catch me first. I can afford to lose a few pounds but in here I’m a beanpole.

Mr. Ayo

Grab a napkin and pen and do your best DJ Taj impression then.

Doktor Zymm

Grabbed the skyrim anniversary stuff and have enjoyed more than I have since 100 hours in 2012 according to steam. Surprised it’s so little actually, when I remeber spending a lot of time on it and I have 2000+ hours of civ

BugEyedBoo

I fire up Skyrim every few months, get a character to mid-30’s, then get bored and quit. It might be a little too open-world for me; I know it’s got a main storyline, but darned if I know what it is. I kill a lot of bad guys and wander around a lot.

I think I like games that are open-world but not quite as open as Skyrim. Ex: Witcher III and Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve finished both of these, and CP2077 three times I think, just to play a couple of different styles and to see some of the different endings. I think Witcher III is actually the better of the two games, as its story goes.

TheRevanchist

The AE content is so fun.

Also, Pickpocketing is a good time. I want to get that to 100 so I can just steal the clothes right from the guards as they walk around naked.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

We found a fig tree a few streets away and my goodness these things go well on a salad inconjunction with a little feta.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

[is unfamiliar with figs in anything other than newton form] – Eli Manning

Dunstan

“Don’t get me started on fig trees!” — Jesus

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

“And don’t try to tell people about how San Francisco is the fig capital of the world. It’s just not worth the risk of misspeaking.” – Thom Brennaman

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Feta might be the second worse cheese.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I dare you to say that to my Armenian grocer’s face and see what happens.

Gumbygirl

No. No sir. Nosiree. Wrong!

BugEyedBoo

My papaw would eat limburger, I suspect just to see the look on our faces when the smell hit. That shit has to be the worst.

2Pack

They are great and coming into full season now.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

…Tiny Tina’s Wonderland

Is it time for Balls’ AVN preview already? Man, the time sure does fly.

ballsofsteelandfury

The only thing that would make the DFOCon in November better would be if the AVN Awards were that weekend.

blaxabbath

More about Press please.

Senor Weaselo

I need to dual-boot my trusty lappy so I can play most games on it. Also, I should probably re-install Steam and grab back Tadpole Treble.

WCS

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Senor Weaselo

I’ve been calling it that since that sbemail!

King Hippo

This little game called Football Manager 2020. Just might be a keeper!

/is also via Steam

BrettFavresColonoscopy

I’m stupid hungry right now, so roasting some tomatoes and a whole clove of garlic in the oven, to be joined by some Italian sausage before cooking some pasta.

blaxabbath

My wife did that last night. Was in the oven in oil a long time. She made some pasta salad. It was good.

I cooked the wagyu and won though.

Doktor Zymm

You do far better than i do at hungry conjuring

BrettFavresColonoscopy

I just got the ball rolling, lady bfc is taking over now.

WCS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5cIclhEsdg&ab_channel=GTASeriesVideos

I’ve been waiting 15 years for Steam to make Manhunt work, and it still doesn’t.

Dunstan

I picked up Frostpunk (not sure it’s my thing, but it was something like five bucks), Old World, and No Place Like Home. Only played the last one so far, which seems alright — certainly has the addictive qualities of farming/crafting games, the real question will be whether it has staying power or if it gets a little boring/grindy.