Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 11

Hello and welcome to Part 11 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

A lot happened in this part. Part 10, https://youtu.be/vfva7DWmvVo, saw us getting a lot of information which we dealt with in this part. much of this part goes how i expected it to. for a few parts now i had been making some assumptions and most are revealed here. But things take a dramatic turn around the half way mark and just keeps on going. Whilst the change of pace is welcomed, it does feel like a lot happened much quicker in this part than any previous part. but it has reenergized the story and i'm maybe even more excited to continue the 5th, and final, Chapter of this game.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 10

Hello and welcome to Part 10 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In this part we continue looking at our Grandfathers daily activities and try to put together his final moments on the day he died. We ended Part 9, https://youtu.be/8RUeZNVCapo, realizing one of his coats was missing so that was the main goal at the start of this video. But as we ended up at the site of his murder we ended up finding something far more shocking that had reverberations between several of the people we had met since we came to New York. We headed back to Silver Snow to follow this new lead and what we uncovered points to certain individuals and possible danger ahead.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 9

Hello and welcome to Part 9 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In this part we wrap up our time in Silver Snow, tho i do wonder if we'll be back, by correctly working out who is a murderer. The game's story seems to come across like everything is finished now and things can return to normal in Silver Snow, but Deadalus themself moved out a while ago and is still at large. We return back to New York with Chapter 4 and it starts with us retracing the final steps of our Grandfather to try and work out what he was working on, seemingly in secret.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 8

Hello and welcome to Part 8 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

We continue in Silver Snow trying to find out what our Grandfather was looking for. In Part 7, https://youtu.be/QHY2p-Tb9jo, it was made clear that someone didn't want us looking around. We didn't have any more threats in this part, but it was clear that people didn't want to talk about it. A big possibility is that we may have a suspect in the old "Daedalus" case but it's unclear if this person is also a suspect in what happened to our Grandfather.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 7

Hello and welcome to Part 7 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In part 6, https://youtu.be/Fo3rUd-CEoU, we learned more about our Grandfathers friends and past. one of them was suspected as being the person who killed him. during our investigations of him, he told us about a town and Daedalus. So in this part, the start of Chapter 3, we set out to this town and began our investigations. this lead us to uncovering events that happened 20 years ago and we quickly learnt that there are those in the town who want us gone.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 6

Hello and welcome to Part 6 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In part 5, https://youtu.be/NwYjqhS59SY, we were introduced to the people maybe closest to our Grandfather and one who was a suspect. In this part, we focused on that suspect and learnt about their life and current situation. In Part 6, we finished Chapter 2 of the story by deciding whether or not this friend of our Grandfather is a suspect.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 5

Hello and welcome to Part 5 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In this part, i continued near the end of Part 4, https://youtu.be/P6wRke544uk, just before i was killed. i was a little surprised i continued so close to when i died. it showed that out of the three choices, i probably picked the one that resulted in my death. I picked a different conversation path and was fine from that point onwards. there wasn't much story before our characters finished reminiscing and we were back to the "present" in this game. with the flashback to an earlier game finished, the game ended Chapter 1 and began Chapter 2.

Chapter 2 introduces the police characters and fleshes out our grandfathers life. we learn about his favorite places to visit, to eat, to drink, and we meet some of his friends along the way. i was taken aback by a little bit of racism which reminded me that this is a serious story being told. I''m still eager to continue playing and to see how things shake out with the suspect that was introduced near the end of this part.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 4

Hello and welcome to Part 4 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In this part, i died! I'm as surprised as you are. the sequence that lead up to it was obviously quite perilous and i thought i was making some smart choices. But when my in-game character failed to do what i expected them to do, i genuinely didn't know what was the correct choice . This is probably the worst outcome of the game as it's the first time you can die and i died. But i will continue as this is just a flashback and in the game i'm still alive. But once we get back to the "real world", maybe i won't continue if i die! If that's where my story ends, then so be it.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 3

Hello and welcome to Part 3 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In Part 2, https://youtu.be/MO_1BiBcDq8, our characters reminisced about the past and we began to play as them when they first met. This is actually the story from an earlier game in the franchise. This continues in this Part 3. But it's starting to get a bit tedious with a couple of characters coming across as annoying and pathetic. i do complain a little how the game seems to be sending us around in circles whilst adding nothing to the mystery or story. it all felt like padding and this whole sequence could've been "edited" better with the adult versions talking in the restaurant and skipping the unnecessary sequences.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 2

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In Part 1, https://youtu.be/-TKTpBnYw5c, i played through Chapter 0 which acted like a tutorial in a game sense but also a prologue for the story itself. it was very well done. In this Part, we start playing through Chapter 1. we start off in New York meeting up with some old friends, catching up over a meal, and then whilst reminiscing we seemingly start playing through the story of one of the older games, if not the first game, of this game series. This video ends with Chapter 1 not finished.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Cloud Monday - Tales of Arise - Part 2 - A Good RPG To Stream From The Cloud

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

In Part 1,https://youtu.be/9O7-F5v3kF0, we quickly learned about the auto save and how quickly we were able to manual save. 2 important pluses for a service that can give you a 20 second warning before it disconnects you. In Part 2, we learn at the beginning that the game keeps 2 autosaves! This is a big win for people using the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming platform as it provides comfort as if you're unable to save before you're disconnected, there's a high chance the game has saved itself.

Playing the game itself also continued to be fun. i do enjoy how the game uses different methods to tell it's story. after this part, i felt i liked the comic book style method more than in Part 1. A nice little touch was that the game makes it clear when you have or haven't talked to someone. Plus, you're able to stack side quests. so you can chat with everyone in a village, collect all their sidequests, and set out and do them all. This also works for a cloud game. For example, if you're playing during a stable period you can collect all the sidequests and talk with everyone, save, and now it doesn't matter as much if you're disconnected when compared with tackling each quest at a time.

Like Part 1, there were very brief moments of Stream Tearing, where grey appears on screen most likely due to a frame of video arriving incomplete. the controls also felt sharp and i couldn't feel any lag from them. If anything was holding the game back it's the fact this is the PS4 version of the game. there was texture pop-in, loading, and the world and characters just lacked the finer detail.

Tales of Arise is not only an RPG i would recommend people play via PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service, it's also just a good game to play. it does look great on PS4 and the loading doesn't feel too bad. So i imagine it'll be better on PS4 Pro or PS5. Whilst playing it, i noted how it reminded me of Final Fantasy X in a positive way. I'm personally curious about the story and the rest of the game so i may continue it in my own time.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 1

Hello and welcome to the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In this first part, i play until Chapter 0 is finished. Going in, i didn't know anything about the game or that it's actually part of a series. The voices are in Japanese and the text is in English. This was not something i could change.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, i take no offense. from Wednesday February 28th i'll introduce a new tier on my Ko-Fi page. this will have Part 1 as well as Part 2. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Cloud Monday - Tales of Arise - Part 1 - Manual And Auto Saves Are A Great For A Cloud Based Game

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

I had previously looked at another BANDAI NAMCO RPG to see how it worked as a game played in the cloud, but across Part 1 https://youtu.be/z4pOFUlwWsg and Part 2 https://youtu.be/japHcD6uFlA it was clear that Scarlet Nexus wasn't designed with the cloud in mind. the biggest issue that game had was that you could only save at specific points, there were no auto saves and no manual saves. it worked out that there was about 20-30 minutes between the save points in the first couple of hours of the game.

Tales of Arise is a newer game and i was really curious if it was designed with the cloud in mind or if it followed the formula in Scarlet Nexus as that game seemed to have been a success. Tales of Arise is a game i had heard a lot of good things about across videos and Podcasts, but i couldn't remember anyone talking specifically about it's suitability as a game being played in the cloud.

i can say that yes, there are auto saves and there are manual saves. it takes a few minutes before we get access to the menu and manual saves, but the auto save seems to be fairly regular. Saving itself is also really quick. the only issue that i can see playing this game in the cloud is the large amount of cutscenes, whether that's the anime style ones or the comic books ones. there is a lot of story and the game tells it fairly quickly and often in Part 1. If i were to get the dreaded 20 second warning before i was disconnected, there's a good chance i would have to skip a cutscene or two and therefore some of the game's story.

I had a good time in Part 1. it's refreshing how successfully Tales of Arise incorporated anime style animation from the beginning so when it's used later it's not jarring. the comic book style tho uses in-game graphics and it doesn't look that great. i think i understand why they did it as it's typically used when characters are just standing and talking to each other. it's a different way to show a conversation between characters. The only criticism i have with the anime style is that it's perhaps a little too different to the art style used in the game. The #PS5 version could be a bit closer, but i doubt it as characters look a little too different.

Graphically, i don't think the game runs at 1080p but it looks like it does. it does lack the finer details but often it's not an issue because the art and design of the game make up for it. the coloring throughout is impressive. The PS4 does let it down a little with textures sometimes taking longer to load. there were a couple of instances where the game had finished with a story beat, given us control, and then finished loading in the textures.

This isn't an issue with streaming the game from the cloud. the only issue i noticed was screen tearing. this is when grey appears on the screen. often it appears for less than a second, but because it's grey it sticks out soo much and is very noticeable. I didn't notice any lag controlling the game and it managed the transitions from gameplay to animation without any issues. So combing these positives and the great saving features, Tales of Arise looks to be one of the better RPGS to play in the cloud.

Backlog Conquering - Titan Attacks! - Part 2 – I Couldn’t Save The Moon

This is part 2 of playing the PlayStation 4 version of Titan Attacks!, from developers Puppygames, as part of Backlog Conquering. But it will also be the final video on this game.

The goal of Backlog Conquering isn't to finish a game, it's to play a game. Unfortunately, i've now played Titan Attacks! and i didn't end up enjoying it. There are some neat ideas, the music is great, and for the most part i do like the presentation of the game. it's just playing it that's the issue.

I found Part 1, https://youtu.be/i50TzJrbBcI, to be much more difficult than i expected for the first level of a game. and in that video i tried out the Moon stage and the jump in difficulty was surprising to say the least. What this part showed me is how the levels are more difficult. it's not just more enemies that need stronger weapons or more hits to destroy. there are asteroids, enemies dropping bombs, enemy vessels crashing, enemy drones crashing, enemies shooting down, aliens to capture or shoot down, and one of the more annoying additions were the bombs that let out a blast wave. Combined, these all felt like they were all randomly set rather than being crafted to work together or in tandem. this meant there were no patterns to learn and where you were or next to you were the targets for the enemies. Several times i found myself trapped, forced to take a hit, and when there were many enemies on screen i simply had to take many hits.

That randomness just didn't feel like fun, it felt like i needed luck more than skill. The game tries to even things out with an upgrade system, but it felt broken. i could never seem to earn enough money to get the required upgrades. it was luck whether or not the UFO that flies across the screen dropped money or something else.

I couldn't defeat the Moon boss and by the end of the video i had no interest in continuing. Titan Attacks! is an old game and this PlayStation 4 port feels old with old ways of doing difficulty. by the time of the console ports, it really should've been a "DX" style upgrade that would modernise the game's mechanics whilst keeping the art style, direction, and music that i enjoyed from my time with the game.

Next week's Backlog Conquering video will feature a "new" game.

Backlog Conquering -Titan Attacks! - Part 1 - More Than Just Space Invaders

I've started a new game from my backlog, now i'm playing the PlayStation 4 version of Titan Attacks!, from developers Puppygames, as part of Backlog Conquering.

Looking at my trophies, i have already got one for getting the max multiplier. but it looks like i never cleared Earth. And i did it many years ago. So i went and deleted that save file so i could go in to it fresh. I was surprised that when i started the game, i was straight into it. thankfully, i guessed what to do as there is no tutorial. the music is great, the graphics are cool, and it starts like Space Invaders. but it quickly changes that old formula and adds it's own twists and ideas.

because there's no head's up about what's coming, no tutorials explaining any of the systems, the first part of this video is more frustrating than fun. i can imagine that this game wasn't very approachable to a lot of people. if i didn't make progress, i would've ended this game with just one video. but thankfully, i managed to get past the first stage Earth.

Then it gets crazier on the Moon. immediately, as well as the aliens i also had to face off against Asteroid looking asteroids impacting the moon. But not long after the aliens also leveled up and starting dropping bombs. this was more difficult because of how busy the screen is. it's hard to pay attention to what's coming down whilst you're looking up to try and hit the aliens. during this stage, that's the thing i complain the most about and whilst i started to adapt in this video, i've got a way to go. 

Thankfully, i'm able to upgrade my own craft. but it's soo slow. plus, i'm spending most of my money trying to restock my shields. like i said above, i'm being hit and not knowing why and it's eating into my shields. it feels more unfair than just being hard with the game struggling to telegraph enemy attacks and what's happening in general.

I will do a second part. the goal will be to try and beat the Moon stage. But if it continues to feel unfair rather than hard, then maybe i'll leave it at two videos. i do enjoy the music and the look and feel. but it's the gameplay that's lacking and perhaps not living up to potential.

Cloud Monday - LEGO City: Undercover - Part 2 - Not Recommend To Stream From The Cloud

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Tt Fusion's LEGO City: Undercover via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

It wasn't a great day trying to stream this game from the cloud. The video is from the third attempt to play the game. the previous two attempts failed in less than a minute getting to the game's start screen with PlayStation kicking me off due to my internet connection. i tried restarting my PS4 but it didn't solve the problem as it would repeatedly fail to launch. Thankfully, the game finally did launch and that's when this video was started.

Unfortunately, that's not the end of the trouble i had with this game today. one reason this video is shorter than before is because it crashed #Sony's end, instead of my internet connection being the reason it ended. But i wasn't having a great time anyway so i wasn't keen on trying again.

I still find the game funny. but playing it wasn't as great as i'd expect from a LEGO game. The slower pace was very noticeable. I still found driving to be a chore rather than fun, and the other drivers and pedestrians in the game were brainless. having a game world with a mix of LEGO stuff and real world stuff wasn't great for driving as i was constantly hitting the small rocks trying to avoid the surprisingly large numbers of slow traffic. Once we got the grappling hook, new issues emerged. i got it but couldn't seem to use it even tho there seemed to be places to use it where i got it. it got in the way of combat, and then i was able to use once the story required it.

The final part of the video is the second story mission. this was probably the most familiar LEGO style gameplay level i've played so far. but it felt slow. using the grappling gun was slow, swinging felt slow, and the levels themselves were surprisingly small as we could access portions of it. you can hear in the video how disappointed i was when i realised i needed an extra three costumes/characters to access the other areas of the level. i wasn't excited to have to go back to previous levels. i was expecting to explore around the map rather than repeat levels. i could imagine that the gameplay reason for returning might be police forensic stuff, but that's more in hope than what i think is actually going to happen.

Ultimately, once we found out in Part 1 that there are no manual saves and erratic auto saves, the game became one i couldn't recommend to play in the ground. the fact that it crashed Sony's end and how long it took to reconnect when i was kicked off, just adds to my conclusion that LEGO City: Undercover is a game you should download from PlayStation Plus rather than stream it.

Cloud Monday - LEGO City: Undercover - Part 1 - No Manual Saves And Infrequent Auto Saves

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Tt Fusion's LEGO City: Undercover via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I've wanted to play this game since it came out on the Wii U. So when it came out on PlayStation Plus, i was eager to finally give it a go. Sometimes i choose games for specific reasons, to test the limits of the service. but this time it's purely just for me. But i do try to focus on the important details.

Today's stream quality wasn't great, but the Internet Speed Test i did at the end was fine. it's one reason why i play the game twice, on different days, so i can see whether it's indicative of the game's stream or down to issues my end. Nothing truly got in the way of gameplay, but the stream tearing came closet. Some moments of macro blocking I had occurred whilst subtitles were on screen and that made them unreadable. I was unclear if the intro cinematic looked soft because of the stream, like maybe a reduction in bit rate or resolution, or if it's just how it is as it's a port of a Wii U game.

I didn't feel any lag in the controls, but driving does take time to get used to in LEGO City: Undercover. The biggest disappointment has to be that there are no manual saves. the game does have auto saves, but i personally felt that they were not frequent enough. at the end, i'm trying to get an auto save so i know it's safe to end the game. I showed that if you quit, the game quits. there is no save. there isn't a message saying when the last save is either.

So whilst i found the game funny, and i enjoyed playing it for the most part. i can't say that LEGO City: Undercover is a good game to stream from the cloud because of the save issues. when you're playing on a service that gives a 20 second warning before kicking you off, i doubt you'll be able to trigger an auto save and you will loose progress.

Demo Play Thursday - Star Ocean: The Second Story R On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Star Ocean: The Second Story R.  This DEMO, from developers Gemdrops, is also out on PS5, Switch, and PC.

Star Ocean is a series of games that i've never really played. i think i have a couple of the games, but even then i've maybe only played an hour of each. There's something about them that doesn't seem to grab me, but it's been so long since i last played one it's difficult to remember exactly why. But seeing this remake of the second Star Ocean game, especially with it's unique art style, had a DEMO got me interested as it offered a way to try the game without buying it.

As a DEMO, it's great. before the game starts, it clearly says what this DEMO is, what it's limitations are, and where/when it ends. It's most of the start of the game, which means that it also includes the tutorials for the game. So in this DEMO we get the backstory to what i presume is the first game, Star Ocean: First Departure R, first before it moves onto telling this game's story. in the hour i played we also got a lot of world building and some useful, tho not great, tutorials. the last tutorial i got was how to parry but i couldn't get it to work. the game tells us how to do something without showing us. it feels like a waste of screen space that could've been used to show us rather than just telling us.

The standout feature of this DEMO, and the game itself, are the graphics. it's a mix of pixel art, similar to the style introduced by Octopath Traveller, and 3D environments. it mostly works fine, but on PS4 there are moments where it looks like the characters are floating on the world as there's a lack of shadows by their feet. also, near the end of the video i did find navigating the overworld a little tricky as it was a bit difficult to know what our character could and couldn't walk over. One nice addition, that i didn't go into in this DEMO, is the ability to switch the game soundtracks from the original PS1 version to this new one's soundtrack.

As a DEMO, i felt that it works well. it could've been a bit better here and there as a DEMO, but as a representation of the start of Star Ocean: The Second Story R i feel that i does a good job in highlighting how accessible the game is to new players whilst also slowly introducing us the world without it feeling overwhelming. it's a very accessible DEMO which leads me to suspect that at the very least the start of Star Ocean: The Second Story R is also very accessible and maybe even a decent choice for people new to Star Ocean or new to RPG's in general.

Demo Play Thursday - Sea of Stars on PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Sea of Stars. For clarity, i did back this game on Kickstarter so i have a copy of this game already, as well as it's soundtrack, but i haven't played it as yet. This demo is my first experience playing this game.

I played through the whole of demo. it's a "slice" of the game that tries to not spoil the game's story. so at points, it stops your characters from exploring too much, and some parts of the story are redacted. it's a little weird as it feels less of a public demo and more of a demo for publications to play. Whilst i'm not against such a thing being available for the public, it does mean it's less accessible than people may expect. For example, there's no main tutorial. it meant that there are aspects of the gameplay that i didn't learn about until right at the end. some of the key battle mechanics are in the pause menu in the How to Play section. a simple splash screen of slide show before it began would've done more than than what the game does. Some characters are given dialogue that's just for the demo, one of them could've reminded the player to check out the How to Play section.

The reason why i highlight this is that the battle mechanics especially are deep and fun to play with. the basic battle stuff is fine and easy to understand. it's one reason why i didn't check out the How to Play section first. having played many RPG's in the past, i understood how it basically worked. but as i started to explore it, i grew to understand that it's much deeper than i anticipated. there are combo's,  different ones between pairs of characters, there are power up moves, and the player can reduce damage taken and increase damage delt by pressing O at the right time.

The slice of the game this demo showed had been good. it shows the great pixel art, the beautiful locations, the music, and locations. i was already enjoying playing it. but by the end, once i learned how to take better advantage of the combat mechanics, i was excited to play the main game. ultimately, the demo did it's job. it made me want to play the full game after playing it. it's not the most accessible demo i've played, but it's good and if you're interested in Sea of Stars it's a good place to start. But as it's a couple of sections from early in the game, you can't carry on with the main game with your save.

Demo Play Thursday - Oaken on PS4

This week's Demo is Oaken, by Laki Studios, on PS4. This game came out last yera on PC and this July it was brought to the PlayStation and Microsoft platforms as well as the Switch. i was interested in this game due to it's art style and i wondered how it would play. But after trying it, i don't think this is a great demo nor am i interested in the game any more.

There are positives to take away from the demo. it does look great and it's an art style that cohesive throughout the experience. Some of the gameplay mechanics on the hex grid are also very interesting. But this demo makes it almost bluntly clear that this is not an easy game.

The tutorial section at the start is very good. there are videos showing things, there is a lot of help, and it was very welcoming. Until i started to realise that the tutorial is lacking important information regarding the consequences of your decisions. This became very annoying because of how well the tutorial seemed to be doing. an example of this is when i leveled up i was given a choice of 3 abilities. but then it never explained what they did. when it came to leveling up my "cards", i was shown how to do it but there was no information about what happens when i do. If the tutorial is going to be so hands-on, it needs to commit to it all the way and maybe more as this is a demo for the game. it could offer tips on situations you find yourself in, rather than just warning about hazards and enemies. after playing this demo i came away still not fully understanding a few key things about the game. 

It was near the end of the tutorial when i started to realize this is a hard game as the difficulty ramps up quickly, as do the situtations the level kept putting myself in. once it was finished i was left with a choice, Journey or Relaxed. the game clearly details the Relaxed mode but had no information about Journey other than what we were taught in the tutorial about fatigue. i think i misunderstood Journey as i was expecting a more story focused game mode. The difficult ramps up even quicker and it has permadeath and i had 2 chances before game over.

And that's how this video ends, with a hard Game Over. i'm not sure how or why i kept dyeing. nor could i see a way to win. i came away from the demo feeling like the tutorial wasn't finished, the games difficulty was unbalanced, and so much of the game was left unexplained. i ended the video on the screen with an apparent choice between The Lady, a character i defeated, and Aya, the character i was playing as and assumed to be the main protagonist. i never felt like i understood what The Lady brought to the game, was i meant to play as her, use her, take her abilities? Ultimately, this demo helped me realise that the game isn't for me and that it may have some issues.