Cloud Monday - Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization - Part 2 - Not Cloud Streaming Recommended

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1 I was surprised that there didn’t seem to be any way to manually save in this game. There are Auto Saves, but they don’t seem to be as smart as I would like for a game being streamed from the cloud. We’d get an auto save when moving from area to area in a town but out in the wild they were less frequent and rarely after a lengthy conversation. 

So to me, it wasn’t surprising that when I was given the 20 second countdown, before being disconnected from the service, I was unable to leave a conversation and therefore unable to trigger an auto save. 

So whilst I’m not going to recommend people stream this from the cloud, I am also not saying Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is a bad game. It has a few quirks and I’m certain the sound issues weren’t from streaming it. The combat is solid and I do like how the story lets us learn more about the past, which is useful for those like me who hasn’t played any of these games before, or carry on like we know everything already. 

Cloud Monday - Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization - Part 1 - Lengthy Cutscenes And No Manual Saves

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I know of but have never played nor watched anything Sword Art Online. But i do know that the main concept is that it's meant to fake an MMO. so i was curious if that would extend to how it saves. MMO's will keep track of your character, what they're doing, where they are, and their stats their end but would this fake one? If it did, it would mean i would never have to worry about the 20 second warning before being disconnected.

But after this first hour it seems clear that there are only auto saves in Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization and, unless it was somewhere i couldn't find or i haven't unlocked it yet, no manual saves. for some parts of this game, like moving around the main town Aincrad, you trigger the auto save when you exit one area and enter another. this might be doable when a 20 second warning appears. but other than that, it wasn't too clear how and when it auto saves nor what would trigger it.

As is somewhat expected for a game of this type, this first part is full of cutscenes, character introductions, and expositions. this means there are minutes where we aren't able to do anything other than continue the conversation or, by using the L1 and R1 buttons, try and skip through it. skipping isn't ideal as for me, someone not familiar with this series, i'd want to watch them and learn about the past and the present. The auto saves are clear in the top right, but if you're going to get a 20 second warning during one of these cutscenes you're going to either miss out on story tell, assuming it'll autosave when it's done, or have to go back and sit through the same story piece again.

From this first hour, the save system and lengthy cutscenes do make Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization somewhat unsuitable for being streamed from the cloud. We'll see in Part 2 if things improve in regard to this. other than that, and the games odd camera delay, there are positives in regards to it's design and it's suitability. the graphics are simple, big, and colorful, which meant when we had some hiccups with the stream it never got in the way of gameplay. the controls feel responsive and i felt no lag there with the stream either.

Cloud Monday - Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings - Part 2 - It Has Bugs And Issues, But I Recommend It

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

Across both parts, it's become clear that Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings isn't the best game ever made. I'm not sure whether this is unique to this emulated version of the game or if the original also has it's own problems. but these aren't game breaking bugs and are minor frustrations at most. but they are noticeable.

There's also no denying that the game design is well suited for playing the game from the cloud. But, as we've also seen across both parts, there are moments when it doesn't work quite as well. Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings plays like a movie and there are often cinematic moments. but when there are moments of stream tearing, it does kinda take us out of these cinematic moments. it's because of this, i would also recommend downloading the game to try and preserve the cinematic mood.

personally, i'm going to continue playing Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings from the cloud. i'm satisfied with the performance of it being streamed from the cloud. i have enjoyed my time playing it and i genuinely want to see where the story goes. it's not the best but that doesn't stop my enjoyment of it.

Cloud Monday - Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings - Small Levels And Good Auto Save Help Streaming

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I'll be honest and say i didn't know that this game came out on PS2, let alone was out and part of the PS2 emulated games on PS4 and PS5. it was a late PS2 game and Wii game, but i have never played it before so i was curious if the controls would hold up. i knew graphically it might be a little rough, but other than some poor faces, i thought this did alright for how old it is.

as it's part of the PS2 games emulated on PS4 and PS5, we're able to save when ever we want by pressing options. but it also seemed like Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings has it's own robust auto save feature. we're unable to manually pause and save, but the game seems to save after every set piece your progress in the story and it saves when you pick up a collectable. this means, if you forget to save via the options button, you're only a few minutes away from your previous save.

One issue these emulated games could have is how they control. i thought Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings controlled fine. the camera may want to fight us a little, but if you leave it alone it's ok. one kinda quirk with the controls which i'm assuming is the game itself rather than a result of it being streamed from the cloud is that the Indy character is a little slow. he's slow to stand up and get down, he can be a little slow moving and dodging. it's something that takes time to get used to, another famous example would be how slow and "heavy" the characters in Killzone 2 and 3 felt on PS3 in comparison to other shooters out at the time.

there were brief moments of stream tearing, when grey appeared on the screen, and it was very noticeable. but it was less frequent than the games apparent own bugs. there were times when a line would appear across the screen for a very brief moment. this happened more than anything i noticed from the stream so it's possible that Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings could be patched by the time i do Part 2.

Cloud Monday - Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion - Not Recommend To Stream From The Cloud

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

Part 1, https://youtu.be/rUNzRtmKoQk, ended with the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service terminating my connection so in this part we got to see when the last save was. thankfully, it wasn't as bad as i feared. it looks like there is an auto save feature so i probably lost 5-10 minutes of the mission i was currently on rather than 20 minutes or more it would've cost me if the game relied on my manual save instead.

there's more than one reason reason why i've come out and said i do not recommend streaming this game from the cloud. the save system is one of those but there's other things. a bizarre one i don't think i've seen before was when the poor connection logo appeared but it covered up the game's controls right a moment when i needed to guard. i hadn't used guard up to this point, but i was facing off against a boss level character and had to try and dodge whilst i waited for the logo to disappear so i could finally read how to guard. 

another little thing that i noticed more in this part than the first part is how it affected the music in the game. i'm a big fan of the Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII soundtrack so i found it very distracting when there were, admittedly rare, audio issues. The overarching issue that became more apparent in this part was how it interfered with how cinematic the game was trying to be.

The game is full of cutscenes and they look much better than the rest of the game. but when there's an issue with the stream, because these videos are of such a high quality it becomes quite noticeable and distracting and ultimately detracts from the cinematic presentation of this game. this also occurs when you're racing to get to an auto save or a manual save. as you can skip these videos, you're choosing to skip either some cool cinematics or important story stuff.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion does have some useful game design that makes it good to stream from the cloud, but they're only small aspects when compared to grand overall game itself. personally, i don't recommend this game as something you should stream from the cloud and instead you should download it and play it that way,

Cloud Monday - Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion - Couldn't Save Before Being Disconnected

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

The title is the real headline here. unlike the PS2, PS1, and PSP games that have been released on PS4 and PS5 via emulation and can therefore save at any point by pressing the options button, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion is not one of these so i am reliant on the game's save system. in this video, you'll see that i'm stuck in the middle of a mission with no save point in sight. this game uses specific save points instead of manual saves via the pause menu or options menu. so when the 20 second warning came up, there was nothing i could do. i do have a save, but that was from before the mission i was doing.

In some respects, this version of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is worse than the original because the PSP version could be put to sleep and continued at a later date or the game could be paused and the screen turned off. because those features were PSP hardware features and not software, there's nothing equivalent to them when you stream a game from the cloud.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion isn't a 1080p game, but the quality of the stream meant that the videos looked great regardless. from what i remember, the main game is basically an HD skin over the PSP version and in places it didn't look as high quality. playing the game, i noticed character movement was stiffer than expected and the faces often looked poor. But that's the game itself and not from the streaming from the cloud.

Another example of this was in combat. the character animation has priority, so i had to wait for one animation to finish before i could do another move. you can see in this video i was often pressing buttons to attack other enemies as i was expecting it to be more fluid. i didn't notice any delay due to this being streamed to me and a key example of this was the rumble, it always felt accurate to what was happening on screen and of course the original version of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII didn't have rumble as the PSP didn't have the hardware for it.

So streaming the game from the cloud felt great, until the disconnection happened. thankfully the last save point was only before the mission so it's better than Sonic Frontiers which took nearly an hour before i could manual save or other RPGs like Scarlet Nexus which also had fixed points i could save at but it's save points were more than 30 minutes apart. we'll see in Part 2 next week if save points become more frequent as we go but in an age of cloud streaming and when other Final Fantasy games have made it easier to save, it's a little disappointing that Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion wasn't updated.

Cloud Monday - SkyGunner - Part 2 - Gameplay Takes Practice, But It's Great To Play Via The Cloud

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

In Part 1, https://youtu.be/f5OsmwasRy8, it was clear that this was going to be ok to stream from the cloud because we're able to save at any point by pressing the Options button on the PS4 controller. what we learned from Part 2 was that the only way to save via the game itself was to save and exit the game via the pause menu. so playing it as a PS2 game on PS4/PS5 is the best way to play it via the cloud.

In this part we also saw how it would play if there were some streaming issues. things like macroblocking weren't that much of an issue because of how big everything in the game is, we're not loosing the small pieces of detail as there aren't much anyway. but the stream tearing, when grey appears on the screen, was more of an issue because this game is 4:3. when the grey appears, more critical video of the action is missing. thankfully, as we're able to pause the game via the emulation software by pressing options, we can stop the game and either wait for things to improve or save and exit if we have to. it's not an ideal situation, but it's fair compromise as there are some games where we can't save at any point, where we'd have to sacrifice a cutsene to get to a point where we could save.

So for SkyGunner, the more difficult question is is the game worth being streamed from the cloud in the first place. i think it is. one reason is that it's a somewhat rare game that i hadn't heard of that came out somewhat early in the PS2 lifecycle. playing it via the cloud is easy and cheaper than trying to find your own copy of the game. i also enjoyed it's story. i was surprised that in Part 2 we got the story from a different perspective as i picked a different character in Part 2. it may take some time to get used to how it controls as it's not perfect, but i think there's enough here for some fun, even if you only play through the story from one character's perspective 

Cloud Monday - SkyGunner - Part 1 - A PS2 on PS4/PS5 Game Which Means You Can Save At Any Time

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

SkyGunner originally came out on PS2 back in 2001 so this is the PS4/PS5 emulated version of it that is available to download or stream. These emulated classics are great for streaming from the cloud because of the ability to save at any point by pressing the "Option" button on the controller. 

The big question is whether or not the games are worth playing. SkyGunner is a game that looks familiar but not one i really remember. that could be due to the animation studio behind the cutscenes doing the Final Fantasy: Unlimited anime. it's safe to say it's somewhat obscure so having it come out as a PS2 on PS4/PS5 game is good. but after my first hour with it, i didn't enjoy the gameplay that much. 

Cloud Monday - Sonic Frontiers - Part 2 - It's Fine To Play In The Cloud But ...

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

Part 2 was a little rougher than Part 1 in terms of the streaming quality. When we checked the internet speed test at the end of the video it was better than Part 1. It was mostly Stream Tearing, when instead of a video we get grey instead. there were also instances of audio breaking up. it's not something i've noticed too much in past Cloud Monday videos so i'm not too sure if it was a result of the streaming or something the game was doing, like loading for example.

None of these were a big issue when it came to playing the game. with the wide open spaces sparsely populated by enemies, we're not likely to come across something if there's an issue. standing still and waiting for it to pass also won't be an issue as nothing hunts us down unless we get close to them. so the games deficiencies make it suitable for streaming, but it'll be up to you whether or not that's actually a good thing or just making the best of a bad situation.

QTE Gamers official rating is that Sonic Frontiers is FINE to stream from the Cloud but beware that you won't be able to do a manual save for nearly the first hour. the platforming is difficult regardless of the quality of the stream, and i kept stumbling upon springs and such. the lock on camera is rough and often requires manually readjusting. i have other issues with the game, but as it is some of it's negatives can work with being streamed from the cloud whilst others are already bad and would get worse.

Cloud Monday - Sonic Frontiers - Part 1 - Too Long Before Manual Save Unlocked, Empty World a Plus!

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

It's nice to bring back Cloud Monday. the main difference with the return is that in Part 2, i'll make my opinion clear and "badge" the game if i recommend playing it via the cloud, if i don't, or "user beware". feel free to check out the rest of the playlist, i think i've made the video titles mostly clear as to what my thoughts were.

For Sonic Frontiers, my main concern was how clear the world would be if Sonic was moving fast. unfortunately, it never really was an issue in this first part of trying out Sonic Frontiers. the open world segments don't really open up enough to go full speed and the more traditional stages i've done so far are short. in terms of gameplay, it's probably a negative but with how empty the open world has been it's actually a good thing for a game being played in the cloud. if the bitrate of the video stream decreases, or the resolution drops, or if there's lag in the controls, having an open world full of enemies would be really tricky. but here i'm not concerned about it.

In this Part, the stream held up well. i noticed no lag in the controls nor did i notice any drops in the video stream. i am concerned with the controls as even with how good things were i was having some issues controlling Sonic. there was a situation where i was trying to make a jump but my character's shadow wasn't below me indicating where i would be landing. there were also a couple of instances where the camera wasn't helping and pointing in the direction i needed to go. i was trying to make some jumps or trying to reach jump pads and i was unable to lock on or work out where to go. if i'm having this much trouble when things are going well, i imagine this would be a big negative playing Sonic Frontiers in worse conditions.

This biggest issue i had was with the game's save system. there is an auto save, but it never seemed as frequent as i would like. there is a manual save system but the game never told me about it and when i found it was seemingly unable to manual save for nearly the whole of this video. with the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming service, there's a 20 second warning before disconnection and after this first part i would not feel good trusting Sonic Frontiers' save system. the game does make it clear when it won't allow manual saves, but that didn't seem to match a lot of my first hour with the game. i couldn't work out why it didn't work.

Cloud Monday - Resistance: Retribution - Part 2 - The Streaming Experience Is Better Than The Game

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

I have this game on #PlayStationPortable but it's been a very long time since i last played it. Playing Part 1, https://youtu.be/jEs97ouESk8, felt nostalgic but it was a different experience for me as i played it on the PSP rather than on TV using the Dual Shock 3 on PSP option. The only way to make that work well was to adjust the controller speed and overall it felt more difficult and intense than you would've expected for the start of the game.

Knowing that, i did think that part 2 was easier. not just that i had adjusted the controls to make it easier to play, but also it felt like the level design got a little easier. Still, it continued to be an intense experience with game design that made me wonder if this was a PS2 game that got switched to the PS3 because of how much of a console experience it felt like not just in levels design but also with how infrequent the auto save is and how long some sequences are.

Streaming it tho continued to be a great experience. If this was just the PSP game, i wouldn't recommend it. but because it's been ported to the PS4 and got manual saves and rewinds, it's something i can recommend. in this video there was a moment where the stream quality dipped and i got the connection warning but i didn't panic as i could use the manual save and quickly did so. 

So this still comes to down the game itself. like last week, streaming it from the cloud to us is great but is the game itself worth playing. across both parts there have been more technological issues with the game than streaming issues. with the controls being as bad as they are, this basic port makes a bad first impression and i wonder if they could've done more like automatically setting the control options faster. If you're a fan of Resistance, then this is the best way and easiest way to play this game. in that case it's easy to recommend. but i wouldn't recommend this game for people if this is their first Resistance game. I probably wouldn't recommend this to causal shooter fans either. But, personally, i am glad this does exist on PS4 and hope that it'll be further fixed and improved.

Cloud Monday - Resistance: Retribution - Part 1 - Adjust Controller Speeds To Make It More Playable

This week's Cloud Monday video is part1 of playing the PS4 version of the PSP game Resistance: Retribution  via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I have this game on PlayStation Portable but it's been a very long time since i last played it. I don't remember much of it on PSP so i was eager to play it again. But i was also curious if this game, being designed around the portable nature and limited battery life of a handheld, would also share game design qualities that would make it a good game to stream from the cloud. 

It does and it doesn't is the simple answer. As a PSP game, it doesn't work well being streamed from the cloud for many reasons. the cutscenes are very long and numerous, the auto save is very infrequent, and there appear to be no manual saves. these don't work well on a service that can kick you off with just a 20 second warning.

But it does work because it's a PS4 and PS5 game. the upgrades the game has received isn't just to the graphics, but Resistance: Retribution now gets access to a rewind feature and manual saves. I showed numerous times that there was no issue using the rewind feature, and when the connection got rough and the warning appeared i was able to very quickly do a manual save from the PS4 game rather than from in side the PSP game.

So, if it's a game that's a great choice to play in the cloud the question then becomes is it a game worth playing. That's tough because Resistance: Retribution has a few issues. this PS4 and PS5 version has already received a patch and needs a few more as it's rough in places. what stood out the most was how out of sync the audio seemed. whether it was the voices, sound effects, or even the cutscenes, at times it didn't match what was happening on screen. then there are other technical issues like screen tearing. As a PSP game, it has another issue regarding the controls. it was a game that could be controlled via a Dual Shock 3 (PS3 controller) and that's how it's played on PS4 and PS5. but the controls are very slow and heavy and really need to be adjusted much faster. The in-game tutorials haven't been adjusted for this either so there was some real trial and error learning how to control it.

With all this learnt in Part 1, part 2 will be interesting as i can focus more on the streaming experience and hopefully play around some of the quirks of the game and this port. 

Cloud Monday - Genji: Days of the Blade - Part 2 - Difficult to Recommend But I’m Glad I Played It

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.

Cloud Monday - Genji: Days of the Blade - Part 1 - Large Gaps Between Manual Saves

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.

Cloud Monday - Matterfall - Part 2 - It’s Good To Stream From The Cloud But It’s Not As Fun To Play

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing #Matterfall, a #PS4 game from #Housemarque that came out in 2017. In the first video, https://youtu.be/rj3-onwTwrk, Matterfall did well being streamed from the #PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service. But we always play the games twice so we can get a better idea of the average streaming quality.

So in this part 2, it actually was a little worse being streamed from the cloud than in part 1. there wasn't nothing too serious, but there was some minor macro blocking, what appeared to be some bit-rate drops, and some stream tearing. whilst these were noticeable, none of these got in the way of my gameplay.

The thing that got in the way of the gameplay was the game itself. i stopped playing the game because i stopped having fun with it. there's no denying that the game is good to look at, but i found it not as great to play. It's a shame as the game is good to be streamed from the cloud because of how frequent the checkpoints are and that it doesn't mind if you die. So whilst i can recommend the game as one that's suitable to be played from the cloud, i don't think i can recommend the game as strongly as something that should be played.

Cloud Monday - Matterfall - Part 1 - Cloud Streaming Copes OK With All The Particles On Screen

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Matterfall, a PS4 game from Housemarque that came out in 2017. I wanted to see how this game would hold up being streamed from PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming as it has a lot of particles that, on services like YouTube, can appear to be blocky rather than the fine points of detail they are.

And for the most part, the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service was able to cope with the, at times excessive, amounts of particles on screen at a time. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough that when the quality did drop and things got a bit blocky it wasn't too noticeable and not for very long.

The game has a mechanic that makes it a good choice to be streamed from the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Service. we know, and have seen, that the service will give you a 20 second warning when it'll kick you off. thankfully, Matterfall has, mostly regular, checkpoints. this means that you're either not too far from reaching one or haven't progressed far since your last one. because of this, i wasn't worried about loosing progress and felt relaxed continuing on. 

Whilst streaming it is fine, the game itself has it's own quirks that will take time to get used to. the one that annoyed me throughout the video was the control scheme. i feel like i never truly mastered it. the focus is on the R1 and L1 buttons and using them in combination and it's just something i've not really done in games. the other thing i mention a few times is how our weapon feels so weak right from the beginning. Hopefully i'll get more familiar with it in part 2, but for now this does make it more difficult whether or not to recommend the game 'cause on one hand it's game design means it's a great choice to stream but on the other hand it's gameplay feels lacking.

Cloud Monday - Humanity - Part 2 - “Your streaming game closed”

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing Humanity on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service.

 It finally happened. After 31 videos, hours of playing games that were being streamed to me via PlayStation Plus Premium, a game closed on me. There have been times when the game being streamed to me has looked rough and had issues. More than once, i've had a warning appear on the screen to say the game could close. But this video is the first time where it actually happened.

throughout most of this video you'll see all the usual issues i have with streaming from PlayStation Plus Premium, apart from zebra striping but that is a very rare issue in itself. in some ways it's surprising that the game kept going for as long as it did as there were some very rough times before it did close. Macroblocking was a big issue and this video was the first time that it actually got in the way of gameplay because it made parts of text almost unreadable. 

I was beginning to be done with the game anyway. for me, the prologue was all i needed to play to know that this isn't quite the game for me. the prologue would make an excellent demo and i do recommend people play at least that much of the game. but it was the water stages that showed me i was done. streaming the game also affected things because it reduced the spectacle of the game. whether it was the macroblocking or the resolution drops, or whatever, the key moments when a stage is completed and there are hundreds of people moving around kinda didn't have much of an impact on me. i could tell what they were aiming for, but it fell flat because at times it looked like a PS3 game or even worse.

Cloud Monday - Dragon Quest Heroes - Part 2 - A Much Better 45 Minutes, But Not Perfect

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing the PS4 game Dragon Quest Heroes on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

throughout most of part 1, https://youtu.be/F6vjq33ZTf8, the streaming experience from PlayStation Plus Premium wasn't great. thankfully in this series i do each game twice so we can get a better sense of what to expect. This game is a great example of that because today's video shows how much better it can be streaming the game. to help, i will now include the PS4 Internet Speed Test at the end of the video, taken immediately after the game, so we can see how good or bad my wired connection is.

The title does say, however, that it wasn't a perfect experience and it wasn't. the main thing that happened when playing it the second time was stream tearing. a few times, briefly, grey tears would appear on the screen where there was no data to be displayed. as they were brief and covered a much smaller area of the screen than in part 1, they didn't impact playing the game. Yes, they were a distraction and mostly fairly obvious.

So after two videos, playing Dragon Quest Heroes isn't the smoothest experience. but, the games design, art direction, and game style do help to mitigate the issues in such a way that the game is playable. even when things were bad in part 1, i was mostly able to play it like normal. that's not to say these things are distracting when they happen, they are. but in making the best of what we have, it's certainly more playable that what happened with Assassin's Creed Origins.

Cloud Monday - Grip - Part 2 - A Better Cloud Gaming Experience

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 with Grip. For all Cloud Monday games, they get played twice to get a better idea about the streaming experience. 

In last weeks part 1, https://youtu.be/PdKk6qEhDrI, it was a mostly fine gaming experience. the main issue i saw whilst playing the game was the amount of macroblocking. for the most part it was in the background and not in my immediate view. so noticeable but not too distracting. however there was a moment where it did get in the way of my gaming experience leading to an issue where it was difficult to make out the course.

In today's part 2, i didn't have that issue. as per normal, part 2 is recorded at a different time and i found today's experience be better. there were instances of macroblocking and a couple of screen tears, but this was far less than last week. i'd argue that the game's own limitations were getting in the way more than playing it via PlayStation Plus Premium.

Racing was still fun, if not somewhat weird and unique. but i found the battle mode to be somewhat lacking and across both the racing and battle modes, the games pop in was far more distracting than the macroblocking. I only have a PlayStation 4 so i can't answer whether things improve with a PlayStation 4 Pro or a PlayStation 5. maybe you can let me know in the comments.

PlayStation Cloud Websites Found, Service Expected To Be Announced At PlayStation Meeting

Superannuation have found websites registered to Gaikai called PlayStation Cloud. the logical assumption would be that PlayStation Cloud would be a part of the PlayStation Network. 

Presently, Cloud Save Games exist as a part of PlayStation Plus, separate from anything. i expect PlayStation Cloud to include the Save Game Service but also much more. the fact that Gaikai is the group that registered the websites leads me to think that rumors about game streaming could very well be true. it could well be that PS3 games and PS3 PSN Games will be streamed from your personal Cloud. it is also possible this service will extend to both PS2 and PS1 games but there is no reason why PSP and PS Vita games can't be streamed via the same service. whilst that is possible, i don't expect that to be announced, it would make sense for Sony to save it and implement it later.
 
Source: Superannuation Twitter and NeoGaf