Today's video is the long awaited playthrough of Papo & Yo on PlayStation 3 from start to finish. I played this game back in 2023 and completed it across 5 parts, which you can watch below. One reason i didn't combine all the parts back then was because this playthrough wasn't seamless. there are many times where i look around, make mistakes, and then understand what i need to do. At the time, i didn't think that would be satisfying to watch. I'm more content with how this playthrough went nowadays than back then but when i combined these parts i did cut 2 or 3 longer diversions where i was making a lot of mistakes and unfortunately those cuts are easy to spot. But please do enjoy watching the game and the story it's trying to tell. The music is fantastic, too, so maybe sit back and enjoy the soundtrack as i play. Or you can check out the credits at the end of the video.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS3 version of Black Knight Sword via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
From Part 1, https://youtu.be/xdaueEIkV_M, we learned that this is actually the whole game and not just a DEMO like the store page says. we also learned the the Normal difficulty level is surprisingly hard, and the biggest thing we learned is that the game has a weird save system.
The fact that the game only saves at checkpoints continues to be it's biggest issue. I played Part 2 on easy and found it a much more normal pleasant playing experience. The amount of enemies and how much is needed to kill them feels right, like either this was the default normal difficulty and they decided to make the game harder or they did an amazing job rebalancing the game for an easier difficulty. I was able to progress through the levels quicker and it almost made up for the checkpoint only saves. But when i did die, it wasn't as much fun having to redo what i've already done as it was going forward and making progress. so whilst it is better, it's still not ideal.
The biggest surprise i stumbled upon is that there is a story, of sorts. it's just that you have to leave the game on the home screen for a little bit for the game to show it. So that's why i included it at the start of this video as i imagine many people, like me, might've not known about it nor even seen it.
But the story and better gameplay can't make up for how this game saves. It looks good and has some interesting ideas. but Black Knight Sword's save system is a fundamental issue so bad that it mostly negates all it's good points, as a game being streamed from the Cloud. This makes it hard to recommend, especially for those interested in the challenge that hard mode brings. Black Knight Sword isn't easy to play legitimately outside of the Cloud so that is a positive reason to give it a go. it's short length does work in it's favor. But the first time you're disconnected from the service and find you have to play through several minutes of enemies, platforms, and traps is probably when you should put it down and move on.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Black Knight Sword via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I have know Black Knight Sword was on the Cloud Streaming Service and even when it was #PSNow. But it's always been listed as a DEMO, and if this is true for you too please mention it in the comments, so i've never tried it. I didn't know anything about it either, other than that i've always liked the artwork in the icon. So this video, and part 2, is me being curious if it really is a DEMO or if it's the full game.
I can say that yes, it is the full game. in this part i earn a couple of trophies, something you can't earn in a DEMO. so the listing is wrong, out of date at best, and probably a hang over from the PS3 PS Now days.
it's hard to say what Black Knight Sword is as there's no story to guide us. it bleakly starts and hints that maybe we're dead, but doesn't answer were our suit of armor comes from nor what's happening in the world around us. It all looks good but at times i want the screen to zoon in a bit more. The screen is surrounded by theatre style curtains and the game comes across as some sort of performance. But again, there's no context for any of it, the game just wants us to play.
Black Knight Sword is quite fun to play. i started on normal but i think i would change that to Easy and would recommend people to start there. on normal, whilst the combat is fun and easy, the enemies do seem to be sponges and seem to take more hits than you would think to be defeated. A nice aspect of the game is how wide the levels are. it feels like there is often more than one way to get across a level, and with collectables to find it does feel like it's designed to be played through a couple of times.
As a game being streamed to me, i had no issues with the controls. i felt no lag and they felt very responsive. there were no graphical issues either. like many PS3 games, streaming Black Knight Sword was a pleasant experience. But, and it's a big asterisk, there are no manual saves nor are there specific save points. It's all tied into the games checkpoint system and there doesn't seem to be any visual cues as to where or when it happens. So in the event of the service giving us a 20 second warning before disconnection, there's nothing we can do but hope that the last save wasn't too far from where we currently were.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS3 version of Brink via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4. I have previously uploaded the PlayStation 3 XMB game Previews for the Beta to Brink, version 1.00 https://youtube.com/shorts/uWjRVuGWWZ0 and version 1.01 https://youtu.be/AQGrYqGH7Bg, but it was so long ago i don't really remember much about the game.
In Part 1, https://youtu.be/M9xZ-ufWVl0, it became clear that the game isn't designed around being played in the cloud. whilst it has some ideas that feel modern, there are a few aspects of the game stuck in PlayStation 3 past. But actually playing in in the cloud was fine. i didn't notice any lag, nor were there any video issues. across both days, it was a great experience playing Brink in the Cloud.
Whilst it's not designed for it and it will be frustrating if you're kicked off the service whilst playing it, i would still say it's worth trying out. There's an aspect of preservation about being able to play Brink on PS3, an experience worth having whilst the game is still on the service. It has it's quirks, but i'd also argue there's some good worth playing too.
If you enjoy it, then you can get it for free on Steam and join in the the community on there. But outside of that, it's difficult to recommend.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Brink via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4. I have previously uploaded the PlayStation 3 XMB game Previews for the Beta to Brink, version 1.00 https://youtube.com/shorts/uWjRVuGWWZ0 and version 1.01 https://youtu.be/AQGrYqGH7Bg, but it was so long ago i don't really remember much about the game. i know that it didn't do as great as they expected and i remember there being some complaints at the time, but i don't remember what specifically the main issues with the game were.
It starts well with an interesting intro video detailing the story of the game. it tries to provide both the point of view of both sides as when it finishes it asks you to pick a side to play as. Whilst the following character customisation section was easy to navigate, i wasn't a fan of the character design. i didn't like how at this point, it asks you to customise and at first glance it looks like there are lot's of options, but in reality a lot are locked behind progress. i would've preferred the lock stuff to be separated.
Brink has an interesting approach to the tutorial in that it's a video, longer than i expected. it's very detailed and seems to go over everything. There's bonus XP for watching it. i was just surprised that there was no where to go and practice it. the video is a lot to take in and i honestly forgot a few things as i played.
The online servers for Brink are offline, but it does have a single player mode. i was really interested to see how this would work not just in this game but also as something that's being played in the cloud. some of the best designed games are those with lots of auto saves and manual saves. It soon became apparent that the single player part of the game is built inside the multiplayer. It was never made clear if your progress was being tracked with an auto save, so if Sony does disconnect you from the service you could hop back into where you were, or not. personally, i think that there is no auto save/check pointing and if you're disconnected you'll have to start again from the beginning.
As the single player mission are timed, the compromise is that you won't loose too much progress other than the mission you're currently playing. But the fact it's being played inside a multiplayer shell also means how it works is kinda interesting. What took me a little time to realise is that i can respawn. i kept on expecting my team mates to heal me but when i understood the respawn mechanic other aspects started to make sense. i had noticed that the enemy was relentless but so where my team mates. but i also noticed that players on both sides were getting killed. now i understood that both sides have a respawn mechanic. A bonus to dying is that you're able to respawn and change your job to suit what's happening. I only tried out the medic, but by the end of the video it was clear that the medics job in this mode isn't that beneficial as the Ai players die so quickly.
I wouldn't say the Ai players are that smart either. it wasn't too frustrating playing with them, but it certainly was unpredictable. Ultimately, it's great that we're able to still play this game. it looks good, the cinematics were great, but i still don't like the character art styles. aspects of the game feel very modern, so it's possible the game was ahead of it's time, but there are certainly aspects of it's design that feel very much of the PS3 generation. Having the ability to play it on PlayStation Plus in the cloud is a bonus, but it's clear that the game isn't designed well enough for it. Part 2 of playing Brink is will probably be more about experiencing this past game.
I'm currently playing the PlayStation 3 version of Aaru's Awakening, from developers Lumenox, as part of Backlog Conquering. the first part, https://youtu.be/MbJ6A1BeL7U, revealed the game as being a platformer that has puzzle elements and enemies to deal with. But we didn't get much of a story and i felt a disconnect from the beautiful world we're playing in and the creature we're playing as. I hoped that in Part 2 something would be introduced that helped deal with that disconnect.
The story is mostly introduced at the end of each section. so for most of this video i'm trying to solve the platforming puzzles or working out how to deal with enemies. At times it does become a little frustrating as i feel like i'm doing the same thing but i'm not getting the same response in game. it could have something to do with the stick drift i'm having with my DualSense 3 controller or it could be that the game lacks a little bit of polish.
But what truly became clear as i tried to make my way through this section is that there are times when you have to die in order to learn how to progress. I say in the video that i'm not a big fan of this method of story telling and by the end of this video i've certainly become resigned to such gameplay mechanics. Like in part 1, this is also true with the final boss fight at the end of the section. at every phase of the fight, you die when something new happens or the action takes place in a different location. thankfully, the game does seem to be designed around such a mechanic as it very quickly takes you back to the last check point. even more gratefully, each phase of the boss fight is a checkpoint, so even tho i died a lot it did feel like i was chipping away at it.
What made this part feel good was the story. it doesn't fully address the issues i have, but it did make me realise that having those feelings was the point as it's revealed my character is starting to have them. it reveals that it's a not so subtle way of saying you shouldn't blindly follow orders. This was enough to feel satisfied at the end of this part and for me to want to play more so there will be a part 3.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
In part 1, https://youtu.be/ckR9cha291o, it was clear that playing Oblivion via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service is a good way to play the PlayStation 3 version of the game. the ability to manually save quickly and that the game clearly shows when it does auto saves are big positives as the service only gives you a 20 second warning when it's going to disconnect you.
For today, whilst i was playing the question that was one my mind moved from whether this is a good game to play in the cloud to is this a good version of Oblivion to play. Something i repeat throughout this video is how there's a disconnection between what i feel as the player and what happens in the game due to the game not supporting rumble (DualShock3). Oblivion came out when Sony was focusing on Sixaxis, that and they didn't want to pay for DualShock tech licensing, and unfortunately the game, or this version of the game that's available in the cloud, was never patched by Bethesda to support it, or trophies.
By the end of the video i was getting the feeling that if this was the only version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion you had access to, then you'll have a good time. But if you can get it, or have it, on another platform like Xbox then it's highly likely that'll be the better version of this game to play.
The new game for Backlog Conquering is the PlayStation 3 version of Aaru's Awakening from Lumenox. This game grabbed my attention because of it's PS3 XMB Game Preview, https://youtu.be/zarm7HwyTrQ. It's a long beautiful preview that's visually stunning. and yet i had no memory of this game. i don't remember getting news about it, when QTE Gamers was a news focused site, nor do i remember people talking about it when it came out. So i've been curious about this game for a long time and decided to play it for Backlog Conquering.
In-game, the beautiful backgrounds, the intricate world design, the clear monsters and hazards are all visually great but they also reminded me quickly of a previous Backlog Conquering game i tried called Outland, here's part 1 https://youtu.be/eCNE0cQbRZk. the more i played Aaru's Awakening, the more i started to compare the two negatively.
in this part, i did the first tutorial section and the second section. in doing so i got glimpses of the story, but the world and the story didn't seem to tie together. my concern going forward is that the game will be a game and tell a story that is set in the game world without tying the two together and will focus on the platforming and enemies rather than the story. Already it feels like the gameplay mechanics game first and the story came second and the game wants you to focus on the mechanics. There'll be a part 2 so things could change.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I have tried to start The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion a few times across Xbox 360 and PS3, but i have never finished the game. during this video i find out that i had tried it when the service was PlayStation Now and still had no memory of it. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a game i do want to play and explore and i picked it as part of Cloud Monday as i was curious if it's game design would allow for it.
It came out in a time where RPG's had a mix of fixed location saves and in-world saves. i couldn't remember which one this game had. I did remember the game had auto saves, but only in a negative way because on PlayStation 3 Bethesda games had an issue where if you played the game for hours and hours, the auto save file gets huge and then breaks. but i don't remember the details on that, just that i remember being told back around this time to manually save and to close the game after a few hours.
Even tho i had this negative memory of Bethesda on PS3, i still went in hopeful and even tho is this part 1 i still had a good time. The game makes it clear when it auto saves, and whilst i'd prefer it to be more frequent, loading the save was quick. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion also makes use of manual saves, so when you're free you can pause the game and save. this is an amazing feature for a game being played in the Cloud as Sony's Cloud Streaming Service only gives a 20 second warning. this means we can hit pause and save, quickly get through a conversation to either get an auto save or manual save, or hope that we did it fairly recently.
With any Bethesda game on PS3, i'd recommend saving regularly because of how buggy they were known to be. but this behaviour works well for games being played in the cloud and should be encouraged. Part 1 was mostly in confined spaces so saving and loading were quick so in part 2 it'll be interesting to see is saving times increase to the point where a save might be incomplete before we're kicked off the service if there is a streaming issue. But for now, even tho there are parts of the game dated, playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on PS3 in the cloud is a solid option to play the game.
This is a run, from start to finish, of my second attempt to finish CounterSpy. A couple of cuts were made to remove an extra run i did and at the end going to the credits.
CounterSpy is the current Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. It came out across the PS4, PSV, and even mobile in 2014 from developers Dynamighty. This video has no commentary.
I finally did it, barely, but i did it. in my initial run i made the mistake of not continuing and getting game over. and in part 5, the game itself broke. but here, in part 6, i did it. i finished the game. i was surprised that after the ending sequence there were no credits. when i put together the From Start to Finish video, i'll add the credits to the game on.
There's a cut in this video and you'll see that the USA style team on the right suddenly has DEFCON 1. that's because stick drift caught me out and it went right as i was selecting it. but it wasn't a great run and i died once or twice. so i took that out as it's extra to the point of finishing this game.
Oh, and again there's no commentary like part 5. after commentating on the first 4 parts, i had nothing extra i wanted to say. i, stubbornly, just wanted to beat the game.
CounterSpy is the current Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. It came out across the PS4, PSV and even mobile in 2014 from developers Dynamighty. This video has no commentary.
I needed a bit of time off after the disaster that was Part 4, https://youtu.be/4tOIs8tdQFI. loosing all my progress was heart breaking. the upside about having to start over is that whilst i lost progress in the game's story, all the weapons and formulas i had unlocked in my first attempt were still unlocked.
So i sat down with one goal, beat CounterSpy in one sitting. i was making good progress. As i didn't need to commentate as i went, i was able to focus more on what was happening and i felt like i was making good progress. As the levels are randomly generated, there's an element of luck and having some stuff unlocked already certainly helped too. i genuinely thought i could do it, or at the very least make it to the final section of the game like in Part 4.
But the game broke. i don't mean in terms of poor level design. i fell through the floor into a void of white. i cut the video there, but i tried every button and even waited to see if i would die and be put back. but nothing happened. i had to manually quit the game. so that final stage in this video, all the progress i made, it's gone and i'll have to continue in the next, and hopefully final, part of playing through the PlayStation 3 version of CounterSpy.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing #GameRepublic's #Genji Days of the Blade, tho i think i got the name wrong a few times in the video. this was a #PS3 launch title when it came out in 2006.
Coming back to this game for part 2 helped to solidify my thoughts that whilst it's great we're able to play a game from the launch of the #PlayStation3, there's not much more here than that. the game isn't designed for being played in the cloud and i would argue that it has some fundamental issues regarding what feels like no checkpointing. it seems that it relies purely on manual saves, which in this game can only be done at specific points.
I didn't notice any issues with the game because of it being streamed to me in the cloud. i might've had some complaints about the graphics, controls, and framerate but that was because of the game and not because of it being streamed to me.
But, ultimately, i didn't have a great time and fell victim to the lack of a checkpoint a couple of times. i was playing on normal and still felt that it was a bit tough. i don't think i will be coming back to the game, but i am glad that i got to play it, as i said in Part 1 i bought Resistance: Fall of Man and F1 at launch, as i hadn't played it before.
CounterSpy is the current Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. It came out across the PS4, PSV and even mobile in 2014 from developers Dynamighty.
It finally happened, the DEFCON countdown began and more than once i was unable to stop it. today's video was the most difficult i've had to record so far, the increase in difficulty continued to be greater than the money we earn which meant it wasn't possible to keep up with it in a satisfying manor. This isn't something new as this had already started to become apparent in the previous part, but it's still frustrating.
And then, at the end of the video, i made the biggest mistake. instead of hitting continue, i hit Game Over, and all the progress that had been made was erased. So i managed to fail at the game in more than one way!
I don't know what i'll do for the next part, whether that's retying and uploading each try or just finishing it and releasing them in one big video.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Game Republic's Genji Tales of the Blade, tho i think i got the name wrong a few times in the video. this was a PS3 launch title when it came out in 2006.
I got a PlayStation 3 at launch, but i went with Resistance: Fall of Man and F1 so i have never played this game before. But as i was playing games at launch, i went in with realistic ideas about what this is. To be honest, after just playing this part, it mostly met my expectations of a HD PS2 game with some fancy effects.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. i actually enjoyed most of what i played. The combat is a little basic and feels a little disjointed, but there was no lag from playing it online from PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Servers. there were no visual issues either outside a frame or two of stream tearing. as a game being streamed to me, it was a near perfect experience.
But as a game being played in the cloud, it has the same critical issue that Scarlet Nexus had in that you can't do manual saves and there's a big gap between saves. When the service is going to kick you off, due to poor internet bandwidth or connection, it only gives you a 20 second warning. unfortunately, in Genji: Days of the Blade in this part i played it was almost 20 minutes between saves.
So as a part of PlayStation history, i of course recommend people at least give it an hour or so. But this does come with a warning that if you're kicked off, it'll probably be frustrating to play the sections again.
CounterSpy is the current Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. It came out across the PS4, PSV and even mobile in 2014 from developers Dynamighty.
I'm definitely feeling the increase of difficulty. In one level i died so much that i triggered the DEFCOM countdown and had to race past the bad guys to stop it with mere seconds in hand! The difficulty is done with a mix of increasing the number of enemy soldiers in a location and giving them helmets so it takes more bullets to headshot them. But this highlights how, in my opinion, the game isn't balanced enough for it. the price of ammo is so high and it's rare to find any in a level. we don't get much money for completing a level and after paying for ammo, it rarely feels like we have enough for the formulas we use to help balance the difficulty better.
The story is still enough to keep me going, but i'm getting to the point where not much else is. gameplay wise i feel like i've seen it all and it's just getting more and more unfair as i play.
There will be a third part to this game. whilst the gameplay is getting difficult, the story is getting interesting.
CounterSpy is the current Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. It came out across the PS4, PSV and even mobile in 2014 from developers Dynamighty.
This part felt more difficult than the first part. CounterSpy is randomly generated and today's video felt like it was suffering with the increase of difficulty. the game is adding more enemies as well as different types of enemies so by the time i got to the end of the level it felt like i had no choice but to shoot them. With ammo being so expensive, up to this point, it felt like the goal was stealth takedowns, but now the game seems to want me to do more shooting. So when it comes to money, a lot is being spent on ammo and not leaving much to unlock new guns or equip new potions.
There will be a third part to this game. whilst the gameplay is getting difficult, the story is getting interesting.
CounterSpy is the new Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation3. It came out across the PS4, PSV and even mobile in 2014 from developers Dynamighty.
When this came out in 2014, i remember a lot of talk about how it looks and sounds. And it does, it's a beautiful game on PS3 and it's soundtrack is great. Another unique, more so at the time, feature of this game was how the levels in each mission are randomly built. So this means the levels you see me take on in this video maybe different to others in other videos.
This is a double edged sword however as i felt that the second mission, the first one after the tutorial, was much harder than i anticipated. I died and quickly learnt that i'd have to be more careful. it highlighted that whist the game is good in highlighting where the enemy soldiers are, the camera in the game actually obstructs our view in comparison to what our character sees. An example of this is how at the start of the missions there's a solider warning, but we can't see said soldier until we're very close so dealing with them can be down to reactions rather than planned or stealthy.
So far, i enjoyed playing the game so will continue into part 2. it's a shame i'm playing this now and not when it came out as the online features have been turned off.
This is my "perfect" playthrough of Gunstar Heroes on PS3, as part of SEGA's Vintage Collection that was released via the PSN. i have taken the videos i recorded from all 7 parts and edited them into 1 video. i have tried to remove all the continues and "save scumming" that i did to complete the game. there maybe a couple of instances where health maybe suddenly jumps up or the music may repeat a little, but for the most part you should be able to sit back and watch the game from start to finish. And as a bonus, there's no commentary! so sit back and enjoy the great soundtrack!
