Cloud Monday - Far: Changing Tides - Part 2 - It Needs Manual Saves As A Cloud Based Game

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Far: Changing Tides via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1, https://youtu.be/fELEYPvIhEc, i talked about how some aspects of the game's design work well as a game being streamed from the cloud and other aspects didn't work well. that holds true after Part 2, but what has solidified for me is that the lack of a Manual Save feature in Far: Changing Tides is too much of a hinderance to the point where i wouldn't recommend streaming this from the cloud.

I do think that Far: Changing Tides has some other gameplay issues, namely the platforming, but it's the save system that holds it back. it does have an auto save feature and we saw in this video that it puts you right back where it saved. The only issue is, i didn't fully know what was about to happen. so when it started and we're heading straight for a wall and i was carrying something, i kinda had to just let it happen. i don't know why there couldn't have been an auto save as the boat game to a standstill or not something in the boat itself that could do a manual save, like a hammock. 

It's hard to trust the auto save when i see it saving in the middle of the ocean for no apparent reason and then not saving when we reach once populated areas.  we're only given a 20 second count down before we're kicked off the service if there's an issue. and in a game where not much happens for long stretches of time, or there are periods of non story related busy work, i feel that we're going to end up having to do a lot of it again because of the auto save.

I'm not saying that Far: Changing Tides is a bad game. the music is good and atmospheric. i'm enjoying the art design and watching the world pass by. but actually playing it can feel a bit of a chore sometimes when all i want is the story, and it's not been great at telling it either. it's left it up to interpretation via environmental story telling and i'm not sure i've understood it fully. 

if you want to play Far: Changing Tides, i'd recommend downloading it as it's only 2.12GB. i feel that loss of HDD space is better than the possible loss of progress due to the auto save.

Cloud Monday - Far: Changing Tides - Part 1 - Interesting Positives And Negatives Streaming It

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Far: Changing Tides via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

One of the reasons i wanted to play Far: Changing Tides was because of the art in the icon. i really like it. i also have a memory of people talking about this game when it came out positively. as a game being streamed from the cloud, one aspect i wanted to look at was if the water, and possible water spray and particles, would degrade the video much like how confetti can hammer the bitrate of a YouTube Video.

This part didn't go as expected. right from the beginning i had some issues with the game being streamed to me. Part 2 will be interesting to see if this is a common issue with this game or just a one off due to my internet itself. we had all the issues; Stream Tearing, when there's grey on screen as the video frame lacks information, Macro Blocking, where instead of fine detail we get larger squares of color, Zebra Striping, where there's black and white lines appearing, Color Banding, where there are noticeable bands of color as it changes shade, and the stability warning on the right side of the screen.

But because of the game's design, many of these weren't anything more than noticeable and didn't get in the way of gameplay. for example, when there was macro blocking or zebra striping i was able to adjust the camera down in the water or zoom it in and out. this changed the background and the issues went away. There's no text so macro blocking didn't get in the way. the backgrounds are large and distinct so they were always clear. so whilst these were distracting, they didn't stop progression in the game.

I was nervous tho as we quickly learned that this game doesn't have a manual save. there didn't seem to be anything in-game i could do to trigger a manual save. we were relying on the auto save. it does tell us when the last auto save was, but it seemed that the auto save only triggers when reaching set pieces and kinda like at checkpoints whilst solving the set piece puzzles. The problem is, there's travelling to these set pieces. so when the 20 second countdown starts to when we're kicked off the service, you're most likely stuck with  what ever the last auto save was.

Or, like me, you're stuck waiting for an autosave so you can quit the game. that's one reason why this video is a long as it is. i was waiting for an autosave but at the end of the video i was seemingly travelling to a set piece. there's also no quit game/exit option.

So that's why the title of this video is that there are positive and negatives. on one hand, the game's design meant that whilst there were streaming issues, they never got in the way of progression. the music sounded great, the controls were fine tho platforming could've been better but i think that's more down to the game rather than streaming issues, and i could use things like the zoom and camera to remove some of the visual issues. and yet on the other hand how this game saves just isn't suitable when there's only a 20 second warning before being disconnected. if there was a quick save option, this would be easy to recommend. but as it is, it's starting to look like Far: Changing Tides would be better downloaded than played from the cloud.