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