Cloud Monday - Humanity - Part 1 - Some Issues Streaming This New Game From PlayStation Plus Premium

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing Humanity on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service.

This is a new game from Tha and Enhance Experience that is out across PS4 and PS5. this is the newest game i've tried out on PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service and i chose to play it because i wondered how well having soo many people on screen at the same time would hold up, whether the stream would suffer from macroblocking or other issues.

The game itself isn't as sharp or bold and colorful when compared to some of the recent games we've played on this list. graphically, it has it's own issues on PS4. the one that annoyed me the most was the seeming lack of a shadow of my character. this meant that it was really hard to judge where it was in a 3D space. you'll see in this video that i jump off stuff a fair bit. other things i noticed include how low resolution and low framerate the shadows were.

There might've been a few other things, but it's hard to tell because the game also suffered from streaming issues. for example, the game is a bit murky and not sharp so it's difficult to know if there were resolution drops. my fear about macroblocking came true and it appeared more than once. it was so strong a couple of times that there was even zebra striping. near the end, the warning about the stream came up, too. stream tears weren't that common and even tho there was macroblocking it never really got in the way. unlike recent games who rely on sharp high resolution art and suffered because many issues were soo distracting, with the art style and limitations of the PS4, these issues didn't get in the way of Humanity.

Cloud Monday - Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom - Part 1 - A Few Issues Throughout

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing the PS4 game Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

This is a game that i've been interested in for a long time. it's art style has always interested me and now it's on the PlayStation Plus Premium service i took this opportunity to play it. i also thought that it's bright bold clear art style would highlight the highs and lows of streaming the game. and it did.

First things first, i'm fairly sure we saw a new issue in this video, Zebra Striping! i don't know the technical name for it, but this seems the most apt. there were a few occasions where instead of the bright colorful art, it was replaced with stripes of black and white (or maybe a greyish color). it kinda felt a bit like stream tearing so maybe the information was just missing. it didn't happen often,  but as the title hints at, but that was the case with many other things in this video.

There wasn't just one issue in this video. each of the usual suspects, macroblocking, stream tearing, resolution dips, etc, cropped up at some point. it was often just one thing at a time and not for very long. it's like the video is peppered with occasional blips of issues but no one big thing. the issue is, even tho it didn't get in the way of gameplay it was very noticeable because of the games bright clear art style. each time it happened, even if it was brief, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

So on one hand it was fine to play, on the other it was distracting and took me out of the experience of playing the game. i'll do part 2 next week at a different time and day so we can see if it's something that persists.

Cloud Monday - Dragon Quest Heroes - Part 1 - 45 Minutes Blighted By Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing the PS4 game Dragon Quest Heroes on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

I wanted to try out a "musou" style game as part of Cloud Monday as i thought it would be an interesting challenge for a streaming service. often these games have many enemies on the screen at once with many FX and particles, basically many things that can make it difficult even for YouTube.

However, what i got in the 45 minutes and even a bit before i started recording was far worse than i expected. it has been many weeks since i had a PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming experience as bad as this, it was Assassin’s Creed: Origins last year, part 1 https://youtu.be/X5e1b-JPh70 and part 2 https://youtu.be/ZCjvWJLaZ-Q. there wasn't one specific issue, this video has all the issues. Stream tearing, macroblocking, resolution dips, to the point that a couple of times i got the warning message.

But, even tho there were streaming issues, playing the game wasn't too bad. the game's art style is simple, clear, and colorful which meant even when things got bad it was still mostly possible to work out what was happening. plus, the control scheme for this game means you can smash the buttons and often attack something. the streaming issues were a negative.

But, in this series we always play each game twice so come back for part two and we'll see if it's just as bad the second time. it'll be on a different day at a different time. for Assassin’s Creed: Origins, it didn't help. but for the other games i've played, it usually does help.

Cloud Monday - Zack Zero - Part 2 - An Hour With No Cloud Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing the PS3 game Zack Zero on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

Last week's Part 1, https://youtu.be/mhPphtnB2To, was over an hour where i experienced maybe a 5 minute period of poor streaming quality over the PlayStation Plus Premium service. in today's video, i had no issues streaming the game. 

The playing experience did have some rough moments, but they were from the game itself rather than from streaming the game from the cloud. the most common issue i experienced was screen tearing. this mostly happened at the, or near the, top of the screen. there were some stutters and what felt like framerate dips. a couple of times the game's own mechanics got in the way, namely that the game has control over the camera but twice i got ahead of it and it caused me to lose some health.

Aside from the game's own issues, it's not a bad experience. if you're looking for something to play on PlayStation Plus Premium, it does offer something unique. i can't think of many games that are sidescrollers that play quite like this. most games tend to follow a Mega-Man style. but this game has a more dynamic camera and plays with perspective more. it can be difficult in places and in this video i felt things weren't as clear as they should, but it should be fine content wise for younger people to play.

Cloud Monday - Zack Zero - Over an Hour of Gameplay!

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing the PS3 game Zack Zero on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

This wasn't the game i had planned to play. i had planned to play LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean. it was a game i couldn't get to work when the service was PlayStation Now. but this video, https://youtu.be/2jHnCIfBhDw, shows that i couldn't get it to work. Zack Zero was chosen because it was a game i could quickly get to to test to see if it worked or not.

And it did work! and i played it for over an hour, too! it was totally unexpected so i really went in knowing nothing about the game or what it was. a lot of the game pleasantly surprised me. it was a little rough in places and somewhat repetitive with, annoyingly, respawning enemies. but i kept on playing as i was, for the most part, enjoying playing it. 

Whilst the game had it's own issues, streaming it was mostly fine. i would guess that there was maybe a 5 minute window where there were some streaming issues. they were noticeable, but they never got in the way of playing the game itself. there were some stream tearing and some macro blocking, but i'd argue that the game's own issues were far more of a distraction than the comparatively brief period of streaming issues.

Cloud Monday - Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 - A Rougher Second 50 Minutes

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

In the first video last week, https://youtu.be/Sjp-f2uR8r8, there were no issues with streaming the game. any graphical issues i saw were from the game itself. but in this series we now play each game twice to get a better idea of what streaming it is like and today's experience was different. 

For the first 30 minutes or so it actually goes really well. once again the issues i have with playing the game are issues with the game itself. But near the end as i explore around the hub world we come across issues. they appear mostly as stream tearing, where a frame fails to fill the screen but as it's being streamed instead of a small line appearing we get bigger squares. at one point the stream resolution dropped and the possible disconnection warning appeared.

These are big and very noticeable events that detract from the game. if this had happened in a fight, i wonder if it would've had a big impact because i'm new at the game. if i was experienced then maybe it wouldn't be that much of an issue. once again, controlling the game felt great and i didn't notice any lag between pressing a button and an action taking place on the screen.

So overall, it's a great streaming experience. i'd say one of if not the best experience with PlayStation Plus Premium i've had so far. But it's not perfect. One extra thing worth mentioning is that this was the first time since the service switched from PlayStation Now to PlayStation Plus Premium that i didn't have to go into the account settings on PS4 and restore licences! 

Cloud Monday - Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 - The First 50 Minutes

Today's Cloud Monday is back to me trying out different genres of games on the PlayStation Plus Premium Service. for these next two videos, i wanted to try out a fighting game. the only problem is that i'm not good at the typical Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive style of fighters. So i went with a game in the vein of Naruto Shippuden Ninja Storm Games, a style that i'm familiar with and tend to do better with.

Unfortunately, i didn't get to do much of the game. not because of the online streaming service, it ran mostly fine. but the game's own design stops you from doing anything other than creating your own character for like the first 20 minutes. then you're thrusted into a world, tasked with finding the old Kai, and given the run around. the people give you hints and tell you where to go, but they suggest i should use my map to find specific places and none of the buildings are labelled on my map. the only way i knew where to go was because of a different mark showing quest locations. this could be an annoying thing later if i have multiple quests on the go.

The game does introduce the rules for the hub world in an amazing way by using cinematics to show what you can't do. but when they try to go into the tutorial stuff, they're not as elegant and you're forced to do specific things before the tutorial will continue. instead  of many small tutorials, it felt more like one very long tutorial with a fight at the end that i seemed to have won through little effort on my part.

So whilst the game is a little rougher than i would like, streaming it was fine. it wasn't perfect as i still had to go into PS4 account management and restore my licenses, which i always do before recording, and when i went searching for the game the PlayStation Plus "App" on PS4 crashed once. but streaming the game itself was great. i didn't notice any issues from streaming it, nor did i notice any sort of lag with the controls. the game has some rough spots with pop-in, but that's an issue with the game rather than the streaming service. 

Cloud Monday - Grip - Part 1 - A Lot of Racing With Some Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 with a new game. I'm starting these next two parts with Grip on PS4.

I was somewhat familiar with what to expect from the game as i had played Rollcage in the past and the PlayStation Plus Premium page had a trailer and screenshots showing off the game. what did surprise me was how much racing i was able to do in under an hour. the game does have a tutorial, but it's done in a race. it's somewhat unique in that when it has something new to teach, it slows down time long enough for the player to read it and the racing restarts enabling you to try it out straight away, usually the game gives you what you need too.

As for the streaming issues, only once did it get in the way. there was some macroblocking, there were instances of screen tearing where white/grey was shown for a frame or two and it was this that caused the only issue as it happened at a bad time. Grip is a game which is very fast, so macroblocking isn't that much of an issue as the square disappear quickly or are motion blurred. but when grey/white tears appear for a frame or two it can not only be distracting but potentially hide something coming up. this wasn't a constant issue, but it wasn't a one off either. we'll see what happens in part 2 next week.

Cloud Monday - Assassin’s Creed: Origins - Part 2 - A Second Hour of Streaming Issues

Cloud Monday sees a return to Assassin's Creed: Origins this week. last week's video, https://youtu.be/X5e1b-JPh70, was full of streaming issues. so i said i'd give it another go on another day and at a different time. unfortunately, things haven't improved much.

We didn't get as many "Grey Outs" this week, and in some respects i might even say it was a better streaming experience this week. But there were issues. the most common one seemed to be a drop is resolution, to the point in some places that it was difficult to read the on screen text.

So, can i recommend this game be played via PlayStation Plus Premium? No, i can't. it has worked as an excellent demo. but other than that, the experience of playing the game was marred by the streaming issues.

Cloud Monday - Assassin’s Creed: Origins - Part 1 - An Hour with Numerous Streaming Issues

Cloud Monday is back and this week i'm trying out a somewhat bigger release than anything i've played so far. I really enjoy history, so this was more of a personal choice than playing it for any specific reason.

But the video title says "Part 1" for a reason and that is because the hour i played was full of streaming issues. more than once the connection warning appeared in the top right. So, like the Lost Planet video, i'll do a second video on a different day and time to see if the problems persist. for Lost Planet, the second video was much better than the first.

And it wasn't just the connection warning. there were instances of grey screen, faded low resolution colours, and some big quality drops. in other games in this series, when the quality has dropped it's often felt like 1080p drops down to 720p and whilst noticeable it was rarely a big deal. in this game, there were many instances where the drop was big, harsh, and ultimately, they broke the immersion of the game and world.

Backlog Conquering - The Legend of Kay: Anniversary - Part 4 - The Part That Broke Me

This is the fourth and quite possibly the final part of me playing The Legend of Kay: Anniversary. Yesterday's part 3 was difficult and frustrating and whilst there were some better moments today, the video ends with me having to battle with the camera in a platforming section that seems to have no save point anywhere. 

The game does have some good points, but not nearly enough of them for me to continue to struggle with poor camera controls, poor fighting mechanics, and a story that really isn't doing it for me. If i had this on PC, it's possible some of these issues might've been cleared up. the same with playing it on newer consoles. but as it is, i think i'm done with it. This makes it the first game in the series which i don't finish. But, i have started it and that in itself is a positive step to making progress through my backlog.

Backlog Conquering - The Legend of Kay: Anniversary - Part 3 - A Frustrating Hour!

This third hour of gameplay turned out to be the most frustrating so far. More than once i got stuck in a situation where the game's controls or mechanics were not working as i had been taught. This really hampered progress which meant in this video I only found the other two dragon statues and rebuilt the bridge.

If this continues, this maybe the first game in this series that i don't finish. I'm fine with some jank, i know it's an older game with older mechanics. But if it's just going to be "unfair", i'll find a game that doesn't waste my time. There will be a part 4 tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes.

Backlog Conquering - The Legend of Kay: Anniversary - The Second Hour

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 2 of playing The Legend of Kay: Anniversary on PS3.

In yesterday's video, we played through the first hour which was mostly just the game introducing the backstory and tutorial area. In today's video we continue on from where we left off yesterday. Not too much extra story stuff is revealed in this time, but we do get more action scenes and a little more tutorial.

It was a bit rough in places. a combination of my old PS3 controller suffering from stick drift and the fact that this was a PS2 game made a few moments more stressful than i'd like. there were also some unclear moments in the gameplay. But i'm still interested so there will be a part 3 next week.

Backlog Conquering - The Legend of Kay: Anniversary - The First Hour

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

We have a new game in the Backlog Conquering Series. I have started The Legend of Kay: Anniversary on PS3. this is the first video, and it shows the first hour of the game.

Going in, i knew little to noting about the game. i'm sure i only have it via a PlayStation Plus get many years ago. but it's always been a game i was curious about and this series is the perfect chance for me to give it a go. 

My thoughts of it being a PS2 game were right, and some gameplay mechanics feel a little dated by modern standards. but for the most part, the first hour was good and i'm looking forward to at least another part. It's too early to say whether i'll play it through to it's end, but i don't regret giving it a go.

Cloud Monday - Lost Planet - Part 2 - An Improved Streaming Experience

In today's Cloud Monday, I'm back playing the PS3 version of Lost Planet. In last week's video, we saw how the gaming experience was affected by poor internet. So the reason for giving the game a part 2 was to see if it really was poor internet or was it just how the game streamed.

As for the streaming experience, well the title says it all. it was a night and day difference between part 1 and part 2. i recommend you watch part 1 to see how rough it got in places. But for today, it was very playable. the only issues were with the game itself, rather than anything caused by streaming it. 

So, after trying it, i'd recommend this game for people with good solid internet. if your internet is a little rough, then the low definition of the game and long periods of white and particle effects can make it a bit of a mess. if your fine, it's a fun game. i've played 2 hours of it and it felt nostalgic to go back after all these years. I'd really like Capcom to go back and remaster it, bringing in more modern ideas from Titanfall, Monster Hunter, and Killzone.

Cloud Monday - Lost Planet - Part 1 - A Rough Streaming Experience

In today's Cloud Monday, I'm playing the PS3 version of Lost Planet. I play through to the start of the second mission, so for about an hour. I had previously played a lot of the multiplayer on Xbox 360, so some parts of the experience were familiar. But it was soo long ago that for the most part i was relearning about it.

As for the streaming experience, well the title says it all. this was the most demanding game for a streaming service i've played so far. this includes for me personally when it was PlayStation Now. Throughout the video you'll see macro blocking and other similar errors. for the most part it's annoying at worst. but there are times when it impacts the gameplay. But, that could just be due to internet conditions today. so, to give it a fair go, i'll do another mission or two next week and talk about if there are any differences between the two experiences with the game.

Cloud Monday - White Knight Chronicles 2: White Knight Chronicles 1 Remastered Part 3

This is the third and final video of my look at the White Knight Chronicles 1 Remaster that you can play in White Knight Chronicles 2. Like before, i'm streaming the game via the PlayStation Plus Premium streaming tier. The videos in this series aren't designed to show the game being played from start to finish. Instead, my aim is to show how playable the game is via the streaming service. 

In this video i spend over an hour unable to progress from one side of a map to another. As i mention in the video, if i was playing this in my own time i may've given up on the right side and tried the left side. But as i was recording this and it was already a long video, i decided to end it. At the very least, we all now know what awaits us on the left side.

As for the streaming experience, we did get a grey streak across the screen. I don't know for sure but it felt like a missing frame, and it was only there for a second at most. we did get artifacting at various points and only a couple of times did it get noticeable and possibly get in the way of gameplay. And there were instances where it felt like the streaming resolution went down a notch or two. Again, nothing really that got in the way of gamplay. Tho, the game itself kinda got in the way now and then with screen tearing, slowdown, and a boss character i couldn't get past but also wasn't sure if i should be fighting or not.

Cloud Monday - White Knight Chronicles 2: White Knight Chronicles 1 Remastered Part 2

This is the second video of my look at the White Knight Chronicles 1 Remaster that you can play in White Knight Chronicles 2. Like before, i'm streaming the game via the PlayStation Plus Premium streaming tier. The videos in this series aren't designed to show the game being played from start to finish. Instead, my aim is to show how playable the game is via the streaming service. 

This game played great via cloud streaming. However, there is a situation where it becomes unplayable due to the PS3. the game used to have a big online component, but that's no longer online. But the PS3 gets stuck looking for a firmware update. head to the end of the video to see this in action.

Cloud Monday - White Knight Chronicles 2: White Knight Chronicles 1 Remastered

I'm back playing White Knight Chronicles. But this time it's not the same game. I found White Knight Chronicles 2 on the PlayStation Plus Store, that's the start of the video, and decided to try out the remastered version of White Knight Chronicles that comes with it.

Watch the video and join me in commenting about the changes between the two versions of the game we've played and also see the few connection issues i had whilst playing this PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming game.

Cloud Monday - White Knight Chronicles Part 2

Once again, and i imagine this'll be the case going forward, it wasn't straight forward getting the game to load. Simply put, i was unable to launch the game because of an unexpected error. I then restored licenses. This actually attempted to load the game but timed out. i then restarted my PS4 and then the game worked. This video starts from that point. 

But that wasn't the only issue i had. White Knight Chronicles is a game that had a robust online component, I didn't think it was still online but as it was so heavily marketed on the game page i tried it out. The game gets stuck. The PS3 tries to check for an update, but is unable to find one. However, there's no way out of this menu. it's over top of the game's own checks. the game knows it's offline and would let you progress. it's the PS3 that's stopping. and so it stopped me and i called an end to Part 2.

Overall, streaming the game went fine. over two videos, i only came across 1 thing that could've been because of streaming, and that was a simple grey blob that appeared for a frame or two. the game's slow pace and bright colors mean that it plays well. If you were to ask me if i thought the game was good, i'd honestly say i'm probably still a little too early in to score it. but i think it's worth a go if you have the time free. It took 2 videos to get to the opening cut scene and past day 1.