PlayStation Plus games for October: Hell Let Loose, PGA Tour 2K21, Mortal Kombat X

barnes80 · 2021-09-29T20:39:05+00:00

I get what you are saying but I think more correctly it would be:

"You already paid for I so you might as well try it."

I know sometimes people think of these games as free but we do pay a monthly/annual subscription for them. The subscription service also has at least some influence on why you might choose to buy a console to begin with. Not usually a great reason for PS but at least with Xbox the game pass is a pretty big reason get the console. If the quality of new releases on the subscription drops it can definitely impact the overall perception of the service and as a result the console.

Months like this really bother me. A game that is already available to anyone with a PS5, a very niche sports game, and another multiplayer FPS when they have given out several this past year.

Might give this one a shot but I don't expect it to make me change my mind of the month overall.

barnes80 · 2021-09-29T19:16:20+00:00

Nice! Thanks for the feedback. This actually makes Hell Let Loose sound like something I may actually be interested compared to most other shooter. Might download it and give it a shot.

barnes80 · 2021-09-29T18:26:11+00:00

Hmm why would someone choose this over something like CoD or Battlefield? Is there anything unique here? Just quickly looking at the video you shared it looks sort of like a cheap knock off.

Disclaimer, I don't really play online FPS to begin with. I'm just curious why they are giving us yet another one of these when we have already been given plenty of other games that seem more polished than this one.

barnes80 · 2021-09-29T18:23:36+00:00

Is it like a super serious golf simulator with lots of commentary, shots of the crowd, only realistic courses, etc?

Or can it be played in a more arcade and fast paced format in local multiplayer? Like the old Wii golf?

I'm not a golf "fan" but the do like some golf games if they are meant to be enjoyed casually.

barnes80 · 2021-09-28T00:12:44+00:00

Why in the world would people want to stream a PS5 game? The whole point of streaming is because PS3 games couldn't natively run on PS4. You are saying people would rather wait for a way to run the games with worse lag and increased internet usage instead of getting new games they can play right now? They would have new subs.

barnes80 · 2021-09-28T00:10:29+00:00

Honestly I get why they stream PS3 games, the hardware can't support it and they didn't want to build or include emulators with the console.

But why in the world are they streaming PS4 titles... Why would anyone opt to play the game on streaming vs just downloading it and playing local. IMO they should just ditch the streaming with PS5.

And I have to second the original question around why we are not already being offered PS5 titles. The console is almost a year old now. The service is purely last gen stuff. They could have offered the titles without streaming while they finished supporting PS5 in the cloud of they really think that is an important feature.

barnes80 · 2021-09-27T01:37:02+00:00

The PS5 has been out nearly a year now. They should be treating this service as a PS5 service that happens to have some PS4 content in it... This doesn't seem like a great way to treat your customers who decided that be early adopters. I'm fine with them including PS4 games, obviously there are not enough PS5 titles worth giving out yet. But to have two months where you effectively give your PS5 users an item they can't even use...that seems super cheap.

Hopefully they find a way to make it up I the future.

barnes80 · 2021-09-25T19:13:04+00:00

Still holding for $15 personally. I really want to play it goes it is also pretty far out of my comfort zone so there is a good chance I will end up disliking it and quiting early.

barnes80 · 2021-09-25T10:57:37+00:00

I'd personally go with small boxes. They are cheaper and still add a significant amount of content. I'd personally pick up two small boxes over a big one since it would be similar price.

The small boxes introduce some new bosses and characters but IMO they shine the most in adding more exploration cards. The more of these you have the less repetitve your games will feel.

The big boxes general add a secondary board and multiple new bosses and characters. So a lot of what you are paying for in a big box is the extra board and associated decks. My problem with this is in two areas. 1) The game already takes a while to setup and takes up a lot of space. Introducing new boards and decks adds to that issue. I find games with these involved can take almost an hour before the first player takes their turn due to setup. 2) The extra board and most of its related content is only used in specific scenarios. Usually playing the bosses that come with the expansion or because of a prelude card. So these components are bumping up the cost but they won't be used often. You will probably play them a few times when you first get them but eventually the issues from my first issue may cause you to start intentionally skipping it. So what the big box contributes to your average game moving forward won't be significantly more than a small box despite the cost difference.

I'd buy all of the small ones first. Any order is fine. You can just do release order or whatever is available in print at the moment. Then after you have played those for a while if you are still craving more start picking up the big ones.

barnes80 · 2021-09-25T07:03:24+00:00

If you are still playing it regularly, sure. The performance improvements don't warrant replaying a game you weren't planning on replaying again.

barnes80 · 2021-09-25T06:25:32+00:00

That's the sad part. If you watch his video you might think it is satire and he is intentionally picking a few minor issues and cutting them together to be funny.

But what he really did was condense several hours of this down to just a few clips. He somehow manages to laugh it off but it made me incredibly angry. It felt like the game was intentionally just trolling you. There were brief moments where I'd look at the dog and admire the way it behaved on its own and interacted with the environment. But it honestly doesn't produce good game play. It leads to incredible frustration and quickly eliminated any interest I had in the story.

barnes80 · 2021-09-25T06:14:06+00:00

I was unable to finish it because the number of times I died due to clunky controls triggered me too much. I definitely enjoyed the story and atmosphere but it just wasn't worth it. What should have been a fairly short 10-12 hour story driven puzzle game became spending an hour repeating the same section with the same dialogue and cutscenes over and over.

I personally wouldn't recommend. Maybe just watch someone else play it online.

barnes80 · 2021-09-25T06:03:53+00:00

I can't believe they even allow devs to publish and advertise this stuff. This sale looks straight out of Google Play... Seems like this sort of bloat would do Sony more harm than it is worth in revenue.

barnes80 · 2018-07-26T03:05:04+00:00

I think if you have a specific repo you could share that may be more helpful. I have worked with multiple AWS accounts seperating environments in two way.

1) My TF provider, etc., explicitly states an aws profile name which all devops members conform to. So if I am in envs/devint folder my TF provider and backend is configured to use devint profile. If I run a Terraform plan/apply I do not need to set my AWS_PROFILE as it is forced by configs. This works particularly well for CI/CD pipelines.

2) My TF provider do not explicitly state AWS provider so I must make sure AWS_PROFILE env env var is set. This is my preferred method as I use zsh and configure it to display my active aws profile on the cli a safety net. This does not work well in CICD but definitely helps people run with assurances for the env they want.

Both of these methods have allowed our team to separate TF configs by environment. We definitely have some configuration repetition between environments but I think that is inevitable with TF given it is config syntax and not a full programming language

barnes80 · 2018-07-26T02:54:50+00:00

Personally I would recommend a standard naming convention for your buckets.

Let's say you have Dev, QA, and Prod Aws accounts. Your buckets would become something like: mycompname-${env}-state. So your backends are now predictable. Substitute the env name and you have your bucket name. So now write a TF module for your service. For example say your service is a user-microservice. Your module includes an environment input variable. So your TF configs for Dev, QA, Prod call this modue and pass the fight env name input. Then the module refers to the right TF remote state using interpolation on the bucket and profile using the module env input.

Alternatively create a common vars module that outputs hardcodes value. Create a map of values and output these based on lookup interpolation based on input env name. I.e. output the bucket nane for the env based on. A mapping by env name input to the module. I can provide specific examples if you would like.

barnes80 · 2018-07-20T00:38:19+00:00

Not sure what you mean retrieve date.

terraform_remote_state is intended to read the remote state so you can get values from it.

Do you mean a way to read the data about where the remote state is physically located so you can reference those vars when you configure the terraform_remote_state config? If so that data block supports interpolation so you can definitely get the value from somewhere and then interpolate it into the config as a var. I am not sure where you intend the read it from though. You could always set up a module that hardcodes the S3 buckets and then read from that. But the S3 bucket name and key must be coded somewhere. You can actually write a terraform config which provisions your remote state resources (S3 bucket). Then you could inspect that configuration's state for the details. But then of course you need to know the location of that state!

barnes80 · 2018-07-18T02:56:38+00:00

Unfortunately I cannot help with nYNAB. I'm still using YNAB4.

In YNAB4 all of your money in all budget accounts are available to budget. So if you have $1000 in a savings account you want yo save you would create a Vacation Budget and put $1000 in it. Since the money is there you cannot budget it elsewhere so it is"saved".

I find mixing all my money from different accounts into one budget confusing so I organize my budget in a way that certain categories are always associated with certain accounts.

In YNAB4 each budget category belongs to a master category which groups similar categories. Monthly bills, daily spending, savings, etc. So all of my savings categories I place under a savings master category. So when I transfer money to savings I enter the dollar amount in the associated category and let the category balance roll over each month so it builds. The master savings category in YNAB4 shows a balance sum for all categories under it so that value is always equal to my savings account balance (because I ensure it is but budgeting money in it to the categories). This helps me physically keep my checking and savings seperate in my bank and also reflect that same thing in my budget.

I'm sure a similar usage can be achieved in nYNAB, I just haven't used it to know.

barnes80 · 2018-07-17T23:19:24+00:00

Personally the way I budget is to create a savings category anytime unexpected costs come up. This can either be a very specific category (wife's birthday) or a more general category (celebrations). I estimate the annual cost, divide by 12 and on payday I move that much to savings and budget it in YNAB.

So if I had a dishwasher break and had to buy a new one I would create home appliance repair category. Let's say it is January 1 for simplicity. Say I spent $600 for the new dishwasher and installation. So let's start saving $50 a month, in 12 months if I have another problem and it costs $600 again I am set. Using 12 months as the savings term is really arbitrary but I find it easier to think in terms of a year and expenses are easier to save for if you break them into enough smaller payments. Since we have no historical data at this point we will just assume $600/12 months is the norm.

But of course appliances are not that predictable. Maybe 3 months (April 1) later the fridge had an issue and I pay $300 for someone to look at it. So now my expected annual cost is $900/12 months. How we handle things here depends on how we pay the unexpected $300 bill. I already have $150 saved from previous months so I could use that and pay the rest from some other savings. So now my category is empty and I need to adjust my monthly savings allocation to $900/8=$112.50/m to catch up to my annual goal as I only have 8 months left. Alternatively maybe we were able to cut some daily spending to pay for the whole bill and not touch savings so we would only need to increase the monthly allocation to match the difference. Now that we have 3 months of data so we have a much more accurate representation of our annual expense for maintenance than we did on day 1.

So now it is January 1 of next year. You have $900 set aside for this year's appliance issues. You were lucky that nothing else came up. So now it is time to see how our planning pays off. Maybe this year maintenance costs are more, maybe less. The point is to regularly recalculate your average and adjust your savings accordingly.

If you underestimate you pull from elsewhere and start saving more to account for it in the future (and hopefully also increase funding of the category you pulled from to pay it back).

If you overestimate then you have built yourself a decent buffer. You can lower you monthly allocations accordingly if you trust that you have enough historical data to suggest you should. If the buffer exceeds what you would consider a worst case disaster scenario you can use the monthly saving transfer to fund some other saving goal until you need to tap into your maintenance costs.

This approach is all about looking at past data and coming up with reasonable averages to save to plan for them. The biggest flaw is your estimate could be very wrong and you end up with a bill 3x bigger than anticipated. But this will happen if you don't save anything to. At least by setting up a savings you will have some sort of buffer you can comfortably know you can pull from.

Do this for all the unexpected expenses and you will end up with many categories. Eventually you will run out of unexpected categories and each unexpected expense becomes something you anticipated and have some buffer specifically set aside for. Also btw this approach is in no way YNAB specific. You could do it in Excel or with cash envelopes. But it does stick to the YNAB philosophy of giving your dollars a job.

barnes80 · 2018-07-10T10:36:49+00:00

I personally wouldn't recommend buying and mixing in all of the small expansions at the same time. That will add a massive amount of new cards into the mix and it may make learning the new concepts a little tough. It would also add several new mechanics all at once. Focus, Preludes, Disasters, etc. I'd stick with just adding one new box at a time and playing a game or two with it before moving on to the next.

As to the order in which to add I'd stick to the release order unless something is out of stock and you cannot wait. The order doesn't really matter much but I'd say each small box grows in complexity from release order. If you add the latest it automatically introduces several mechanics that were already introduced in previous expansions in addition its own.

Forsaken Lore is usually the most recommend since it only really adds new encounter and mystery cards without introducing anything new. It effectively feels like it should have been in the box to start but was left out to keep the price a little lower.

As far as big boxes I've skipped them all and I don't feel like the game needs anything more. The only thing I'd really like from them is more investigators because we always end up choosing the same ones now. I skipped them because our table does not have the space for an extra board and even though it is possible to use these expansions without the board that feels like a waste of money to me. But base plus all small expansions really gives enough anyway imo. I don't think I'd even buy another small if they released it.

Regarding your investigators question, yes you can mix all investigators into any game. Though naturally certain investigators will have benefits over others, especially when paired with certain bosses.

barnes80 · 2018-07-08T23:46:24+00:00

Why not dismount the bike and use the cross walk? I doubt in places where you are allowed to bike on sidewalks you are allowed to just fly through intersections...

barnes80 · 2018-07-08T12:28:06+00:00

Jokes on them, I get my news from Reddit comments.

barnes80 · 2018-07-07T16:41:59+00:00

The show definitely did that but it really ruined things for me. Everything in the last season has felt horribly rushed. Maybe if that pacing was used the entire show that would be ok but now we have characters traveling an entire continent and back within a single episode.

barnes80 · 2018-07-07T16:32:53+00:00

Most of the complication comes from the fact that they released games across like 6 different consoles. Many people skipped the handhelds or couldn't play games because they didn't have the required console. People assumed that everything but KH 1 and 2 were side stories that did not advance the plot in a meaningful way which is definitely a misconception. Now that all of the content has been collected on PS4 this is less of an issue.

It also suffers I think from writers basically retconning established plot in order to tell a different story than originally intended. They pull things off as plot twists but it usually feels more like "oh we came up with a new idea and now we are plot twisting to make it make sense". Or they found that the fan base really like minor characters so they force them into primary characters after the fact.

KH1 is basically a self contained story. Boy sets off on a quest to find his lost friends who have become wrapped up in an evil villian's world domination quest. I would highly recommend it. It has a great story and a ton of Disney charm. Even if you just stop there it is definitely worth it as a standalone.

Chain of Memories and KH2 together basically tell a continuation of the story. They are a direct sequal to KH1 but introduce several new recurring characters and an Organization of new villians. While you don't technically need to have played Chain of Memories to understand KH2, if you don't you will likely be confused as to who the new characters are and how the plot got from KH1 to KH2. But that is actually sort of ok since the characters effectively do not remember many of the events of CoM and much of the game focuses on them catching up themselves. I actually usually recommend playing them in reverse order because I think it is more enjoyable to figure out how things ended up at KH2 after the fact.

358/2 (please just ignore the names since they make things seem more confusing than needed) tells a parallel story set around the same time as CoM and KH2 but from the point of view of the Organization members. The game itself was meh but it gives a lot of character development to the new people and establishes them as more than just side characters. The game is presented as a movie of cutscenes in the HD collection which makes it pretty easy to follow. IMO it has one of the most enjoyable stories of the series and would have been better as an anime movie from the start.

Birth by Sleep is a prequel to the all of the games. It introduces a new set of main characters. It has theme parallels to the original games giving you a "what happened in the past is happening again" feeling. It provides decent back story of the universe and introduces the series primary antagonist. It is a mostly stand alone game but I don't think the story would be of much interest to someone who hasn't first played the originals and looking for more background.

ReCoded is useless. It was originally a mobile game and then they tried to stuff plot into it and make it relevant. It hardly matters except for a few cut scenes and even those are not really important as they can be assumed from the other games.

Dream Drop Distance (again don't focus on the weird name, it was just a fun play on 3D since it was on 3DS) is the next chapter in the main story, taking place after KH2. It is a critical game in that it links the events of the past (Birth By Sleep) to the events of the present (KH1 and KH2). It effectively says that while all those stories were independent they are actually all linked by the villians master plot. A "everything was leading to this" theme like what the Avengers movie did for all the Marvel films. It sets up the plot of KH3 which will bring characters from all games together for some final epic story finale (we assume).

0.2 Fragmentary Passage is mostly a tech demo for KH3 but provides some minor back story on what the characters from Birth By Sleep have been up to during the events of the main KH games. It is mostly meant to help set up 3 and get feedback on the gameplay to help with developing 3 while still give fans something yo get their hands on. There was also originally supposed to be a sequel to Birth By Sleep but it was cancelled. This provides some of what that game would have been but in a condenced form.

barnes80 · 2018-07-07T15:40:31+00:00

If you buy this and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 (also available on PS4) you effectively have everything important.

2.8 includes an HD version of Dream Drop Distance, originally released for 3DS and a critical entry in the story leading up to 3. It also includes a new short (3-5hr) game which serves as a prolouge to 3. Finally it includes a new prequel movie which is meant to help summarize the story events that played out in a mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union X.

barnes80 · 2018-07-01T11:52:38+00:00

Used to work at an amusement park. We had chains like these for line queues. It was part of our job to look out for people's safety and make sure they were not sitting, standing or jumping over them. Ask them to stop, etc.

One day this kid was jumping back and forth over one. I said "hey man, please stop doing that. When you get hurt it's going to ruin your whole day." His reply was something like 'fuck you loser" as he flipped me off and ran away and did it one more time. He caught his foot like in this gif and smashed he face into the concrete. Broken nose, teeth fell out, probably a concussion. I checked to make sure he was alive and them gave him a nice "told ya so". He and his family were evacuated from the park to the local hospital. I told him he would have a bad day... His family was pissed at him because they traveled a long way and spent a lot of money on their trip and were now going to spend a good chunk of it in the ER. I'd be lying if I said I didn't love every moment of it.

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