This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
In part 1, https://youtu.be/ckR9cha291o, it was clear that playing Oblivion via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service is a good way to play the PlayStation 3 version of the game. the ability to manually save quickly and that the game clearly shows when it does auto saves are big positives as the service only gives you a 20 second warning when it's going to disconnect you.
For today, whilst i was playing the question that was one my mind moved from whether this is a good game to play in the cloud to is this a good version of Oblivion to play. Something i repeat throughout this video is how there's a disconnection between what i feel as the player and what happens in the game due to the game not supporting rumble (DualShock3). Oblivion came out when Sony was focusing on Sixaxis, that and they didn't want to pay for DualShock tech licensing, and unfortunately the game, or this version of the game that's available in the cloud, was never patched by Bethesda to support it, or trophies.
By the end of the video i was getting the feeling that if this was the only version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion you had access to, then you'll have a good time. But if you can get it, or have it, on another platform like Xbox then it's highly likely that'll be the better version of this game to play.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. This game, from developers Ubisoft, is out now across various platforms.
This demo came out on the eShop page a little too late to be last week's video. but it was a demo i was keen to play. I've been a fan of the Prince of Persia series since the PS2 and i'm always happy to try out a new one. In terms of style, i've always enjoyed the PS3/Xbox 360 2008 game Prince of Persia.
This isn't the most intuitive demo. there's the first home screen. then there's a couple of settings, and then there's a page for Ubisoft Connect. but the confusing thing is, this page makes no mention of the demo and refers to the game. So it's really now clear if there's any benefit connecting the demo to Ubisoft. Finally, there's a second home screen. but this one is much more customed for a demo, offering links to the eShop. But it does feel more complicated than it needed to be jus to get to this point. There are more settings and it's good to see we can visually see how the game changes with most of them.
When you finally get to starting the demo, there's a splash screen revealing that this is a custom area. we have been given some things so we can enjoy playing and we're not going to get any story spoilers. some area's are sealed off. This is great, but it never says when the demo ends. this'll be a problem later as the demo doesn't seem to stop, nor does it say that we've explored the demo or finished everything. i feel like there needed to be a better way to tell the player that there's nothing left to see in the demo.
Playing it was a lot of fun. the tutorial is basic but mostly gets things across. But what was immediately noticeable on Switch was how good the game looked. At no point in playing the game did i feel like i was having a lesser experience than someone playing it on a PS5. But the one part of the game i never got the hang off was the parry system. i don't know if the tutorial was missing information or what, but i never really got it. you'll see me die a few times because i try to parry and fail. combat is satisfying, but you do need to do more than just spam the attack button as the enemies felt like they had decent Ai and different types posed different challenges. In the main game this is something that can be patched, but here in the demo i don't expect things to change.
Thankfully, even tho i died a few times the loading to a previous check point was very fast. Loading in general was very fast or there wasn't any. it often felt like a seamless experience. exploring was fun and this game introduces a new mechanic where if you find something you can't currently access, you're able to take a screenshot in game and attach it to your map. so in the future you can backtrack, explore, and solve things you previously saw.
The gameplay in this demo was great. the hassle getting into playing it didn't play a part in my feelings of the game. but my inability to grasp the parry system really does weigh on me as it feels like combat is just as important as exploration. one felt great and the other didn't. after playing the demo i am interested in the game, but i think i would play it on the easiest setting so that combat doesn't become a chore and i can focus on the better story telling and exploration.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I have tried to start The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion a few times across Xbox 360 and PS3, but i have never finished the game. during this video i find out that i had tried it when the service was PlayStation Now and still had no memory of it. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a game i do want to play and explore and i picked it as part of Cloud Monday as i was curious if it's game design would allow for it.
It came out in a time where RPG's had a mix of fixed location saves and in-world saves. i couldn't remember which one this game had. I did remember the game had auto saves, but only in a negative way because on PlayStation 3 Bethesda games had an issue where if you played the game for hours and hours, the auto save file gets huge and then breaks. but i don't remember the details on that, just that i remember being told back around this time to manually save and to close the game after a few hours.
Even tho i had this negative memory of Bethesda on PS3, i still went in hopeful and even tho is this part 1 i still had a good time. The game makes it clear when it auto saves, and whilst i'd prefer it to be more frequent, loading the save was quick. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion also makes use of manual saves, so when you're free you can pause the game and save. this is an amazing feature for a game being played in the Cloud as Sony's Cloud Streaming Service only gives a 20 second warning. this means we can hit pause and save, quickly get through a conversation to either get an auto save or manual save, or hope that we did it fairly recently.
With any Bethesda game on PS3, i'd recommend saving regularly because of how buggy they were known to be. but this behaviour works well for games being played in the cloud and should be encouraged. Part 1 was mostly in confined spaces so saving and loading were quick so in part 2 it'll be interesting to see is saving times increase to the point where a save might be incomplete before we're kicked off the service if there is a streaming issue. But for now, even tho there are parts of the game dated, playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on PS3 in the cloud is a solid option to play the game.
For Switch Funday, i decided to play a game i now regret to have not played earlier. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is a game i've had in my Switch back catalogue for a long time now and i don't really know why i've not played it.
Going in, i had a rough idea as what to expect. when this game came out back in 2017, it was all over podcasts, websites, and most video game places i visited. thankfully i have either forgotten discussions about the story or i managed to avoid it because i had no idea how they'd bring these two worlds together.
the introduction movie tells the story of how our world, the Rabbids world, and the Mushroom Kingdom collide with someone inventing a merging device here, the Rabbids visiting and taking/breaking it, before their washing machine vehicle gets hit creating a wormhole of sorts to the Mushroom Kingdom where further damage is done by out of control merged Rabbids leaving it up to Mario and a couple of hero Rabbids to save the day. it's ridiculous but in a fun way and the cinematic looks great!
the game starts introducing battle mechanics and teaches us across a few battles very well. but it's not perfect, i didn't fully understand the jump mechanic or the need for it nor does it mention that i can't slide afterwards. the tutorial also didn't mention anything about character health so when i lost Mario, i really didn't know what was going to happen. the next battle he was back with 10 health, but i had to find that out for myself. another thing the game doesn't tell you about are the items in the mystery boxes i found. it wasn't until i got to Peach's castle that things were explained. but this was quite a while into the play session.
Other than that, for the first hour i don't really have any other complaints. i had a great time with it, better than i imagined i would have. it looks fantastic and during it i remember saying how dense the world looks. the battles are fun, if a little lacking with no recovery options so far, and the Rabbids haven't worn out their welcome so far. i do worry that there'll be a time when they do, but for a first hour it's a really good one. I've seen that this game can be over 20 hours long so i do worry if the story and game mechanics can support something that long. let me know in the comments if it does.
For today's Online Saturday video, i played the new-ish Trackmania on my launch model PS4.
Lets start with the title, i do not recommend this game for people who haven't played any of the previous Trackmania games. In the video i go so far as to say that i consider this game to be somewhat rude and maybe even insulting to first time players. If it was a new studios first try, i'd maybe be a little les harsh, but when it's Ubisoft and new game in a long running series it's hard to think of any excuse as to why a game from both working together could be soo inaccessible for new players, and in some respects downright lie to them.
This version of Trackmania is a free to play game. i knew that going in. so everything i saw i expected to be all that was available to me. for example, i didn't see any track building stuff so i wasn't expecting it. but the truth is that it wasn't all for me. but the game doesn't tell you this right until your ready to click go. i do not appreciate this, the game is simply lying to me, teasing me.
This lack of information runs throughout the game. for most of this video, i had no idea what i was doing or why. i simply had to learn as i went cause the game spent no time trying to educate me. there wasn't even a tutorial! the game does have training but, as i show in the video, all it says is drive. it doesn't tell you the best times, there is no ghost data as an example, nor does it even explain why you're doing this challenge in the first place. what added to the frustration was that you can't restart either. you had to complete training for a chance to do it it again better. And you'd want to do it again as there are medals to win, tho at not point does the game ever say why you want them.
Game modes are equally uninformative, they're just names. you won't know what any of them do until you click on them. so i learnt that Royal mode was the game's Fall Guys equivalent. the big differences being you're in teams and you have no idea what challenges await ahead of you as your dumped onto a track and have to go. Even when you're playing this mode the game lies to you. when your teammate completes a section you can press O to with them to the next. Pressing ∆ restarts you to your last checkpoint. that is until it doesn't and it jumps you ahead without warning.
Another example of the game doing it's own thing was in Arcade Mode. i assumed this was simple arcade racing. But no, i was put into a team and our team was up against 3 other racers in their own team. That's easy to adjust to, but when the level started it was a warm-up. it gave no extra information so i had to assume it was to allow us drivers to give the lap a go before we raced. However, the warmup just stopped before i got to the end and i have no idea why. Why would the game let us practice if it wasn't going to let us practice?
The racing itself isn't that great either. the cars are skittish which means they're not satisfying to drive. there's not a huge sense of speed either. the connection of the car to the track is fairly non-existent, and graphically the whole thing felt too simple, under populated, and rather bland.
So even as a racing game, it's really hard to recommend. there are other issues shown in this video, like my initial inability to find the garage or workout to choose a skin for my car there. So what does this game have going for it. well, it's Trackmania. the wacky track designs that you can race on is Trackmania. whilst they're there, and other prominent games don't have them, it's the sole reason i can think of for anyone to play this game. but other than that one reason, i just can't recommend this game. i deleted it after recording this video.
Today's video is part 3 of playing Outland on PS3.
This is a longer video as the difficult ramped up. the difficulty increase was a combination of more difficult platforming and more difficult game mechanics. the gameplay "gimmick" of this game revolves around colored energy. it has mostly taken shape in that you have to be the opposite color to an enemy to attack it and the same color as the energy balls to not be damaged by them.
But even by the second video, https://youtu.be/hovQECR-WGs, some of this was getting repetitive. with the enemies it's been mostly fair, just hit them more or watch out for when they attack. but the colored energy balls has been getting more difficult and frustrating. you can see, especially in this video, that dealing with it really slowed down the pace of the game and by the end i was becoming frustrated with the controls combined with the platforming and timing that i rather took the hit than deal with it.
After three parts with the game, there was little driving me forward. there still was little to no story, and now with the difficulty increase i lost my drive to progress in the game. There's no denying that the game looks great. but there's also little else pushing me forward in it. after 3 parts, the mechanics and gimmicks were getting repetitive and in a couple of cases i'd go so far as to say they were unfair. the second boss is an example where the game requires a lot of platforming, but there's an argument that the game's platforming is one of it's weakest parts, which means the boss felt a little unfair as it wasn't just my skill letting me down but the game's own platforming too.
Today's video is the first video with a new PS3 game. for the video i played through the first 45 minutes, or so, of Outland. It's a game from Ubisoft and Housemarque.
I've had this game for a long time. i speculated early in the video that i probably got it as a PlayStation Plus game. i didn't really think about it until i used it in my PS3 XMB Game Preview Series, https://youtu.be/WIh3ZkDSCLY. Going in, i didn't really know anything about it other than it's a Housemarque game.
This was an interesting first 45 minutes. the first thing i noticed was how gorgeous it looked. My capture device said it was 720p, but it looked so crisp, vibrant, and detailed that it could easily have been 1080p. technologically speaking, it's also run really smooth and i haven't noticed any issues with it, unlike Papo & Yo which i just finished as that game had all sorts of issues like screen tearing and framerate dips.
But it's story hasn't grabbed me. so much else of this game has, but the story we've had so far is very brief. there's not really been a great answer to "Why?" and the world we're playing in sure looks great, but again there's no reason why it looks the way it does. there'll be a part two and i look forward to seeing where it goes.
This fourth video in the new Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series is on Rayman Mini. This is an exclusive game on Apple Arcade from Ubisoft and Pastagames.
When searching for games to play on Apple Arcade, Rayman Mini wasn't one that had turned up when looking through the charts nor had it been recommended to me before. So when i found it i was genuinely surprised as i hadn't heard about this game before.
this meant i came into this video a little excited and definitely intrigued. thankfully, this game doesn't get bogged down with a tutorial as it incorporates it into the adventure mode. it is a little light, it just says where to touch and what it does. there's no letting the player try it out before the level starts. i wouldn't say the levels are easy, but the first couple have no hazards that can kill Rayman. Plus, restarting a level is really quick so it's a useful way to acclimatise to the controls.
But it's not an easy game. you're tasked with collecting all the Lums in a level as doing so unlocks a new version of the main characters. but i only managed to do this in a couple of levels. Rayman Mini is a runner, so it's very difficult to go back if you miss something and some levels simply block off the past areas of a level. Which means, Rayman Mini is a puzzle runner.
Because of this, i came away from this game thinking that it was more difficult that i expected it to be. getting into the game and replaying levels is really quick, so replaying isn't an issue. but there is an element of frustration in being unable to solve the puzzle that is the level. there are no check points, at least so far, and they can go by too fast to see it all. there were more than a couple of levels where i couldn't work out how to get all the Lums.
Another issue i had with the game was the controller lag, or what felt like to me a lag between what i wanted Rayman to do and Rayman actually doing it on the screen. i tried both handheld and bluetooth controller and the lag felt like the same using both controller methods. the speed of the game, especially the music level, made timing actions really hard. To the point where it felt like i had to learn the level rather than react to the level.
Rayman Mini is a beautiful game and is one that can show off the power of the platform. it continues the art style that Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends popularized, and arguably revitalised the series, as well as the music stages and challenges. it's worth downloading and trying. but it's not an easy game and one which could be more frustrating than fun. for me, i ultimately found it frustrating and i probably won't be heading back to it.
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 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.
Ubisoft have released a new trailer and screenshots for their upcoming Xbox One launch game Fighter Within. the trailer shows in-game action of two characters fighting, it also shows how you can interact with some parts of a stage.
Ubisoft have released a new trailer for their free to play PC game The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot. this video focuses on customisation, you can change the theme of your castle and also change the appearance of your own character, there's also exclusive Halloween costumes coming. the customisation features will come during the next update to the game which is 22nd October. this update will also bring new gear abilities.
Ubisoft have released a new trailer for Assassin's Creed IV Blag Flag. this trailer introduces several of the main characters in the game whilst also teasing of a big target in the game.
Ubisoft,Obsidian And South Park Digital Studios have announced South Park: The Stick of Truth is set to come out 13th December across PS3 and Xbox 360, the PC release date is set to be announced later. they have released a new trailer and detailed the Grand Wizard Edition. in the UK, the Grand Wizard Edition will be available from Amazon UK and Uplay. The Grand Wizard Edition Includes:
South Park: The Stick of Truth GameThe full
game on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
Grand Wizard Kidrobot®
Cartman Figure Own the Grand Wizard Cartman and his stick of
authority with this six-inch replica figure from Kidrobot®. The
Grand Wizard Cartman figure is not available in stores and can only
be found in the Grand Wizard Edition.
Kingdom of South Park
Map The entire town of South Park has been mapped for the first
time in South Park history.
The Stick of Truth Ultimate
Fellowship Pack Unlock the ultimate fellowship with the one pack
to rule them all! Choose your class and pick your perk with
four exclusive Stick of Truth costumes that come equipped with
special abilities. Suit up as the Necromancer Sorcerer to
increase your fire damage, earn extra gold by equipping the Rogue
Assassin outfit, deal extra weapon damage with the Ranger Elf
costume, or raise your defence with the Holy Defender outfit.
The choice is yours, New Kid.
Ubisoft have released a new trailer for Assassin's Creed IV. this trailer focuses on multiplayer in the game, showing players killing each other in different locations.
Ubisoft have released a behind the scenes look at the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Assassin's Creed IV. this video focuses on showing how the power and capabilities of the next gen console are being used to enhance the world, they use in-game examples to show the tech behind the sea and show how the increase of foliage can be used for better stealthiness.
Ubisoft have announced they are bringing the PS Vita game Assassin's Creed III Liberation out digitally across PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in early 2014. Called Assassin's Creed Liberation HD, this HD release of the game has had a overhaul with improved Graphics, new Missions, remastered Music and new Sound Effects.
Ubisoft have revealed Child of Light, announced its coming out digitally across the Wii U, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4. coming out in 2014, the game stars Aurora who is a small child and yet the Heroine of this JRPG style game. the game is set in a world called Lemuria and she's out to defeat the Black Queen with her sidekick Igniculus. Ubisoft have revealed the dialogue is written in rhyme and the key to attacking is timing. Igniculus can be controlled by a second player, providing support in the adventuring and battles.
Ubisoft have revealed Valiant Hearts: The Great War, currently announced as coming out on PS3 and PS4 next year. the game is being made by the UbiArt Framework team who have made the recent Rayman Games. Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a puzzle adventure game that features 5 characters struggling to survive World War I. the main aim of the game is to reunite a German soldier with his lost love.
