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.

Pokémon Violet - The Ninth Part - My First Victory Against Team Star and Exploring Cascarrafa City

This ninth part is a more focused and shorter video than some recent ones. My main goal was to defeat my first Team Star Base. Everything else would be a bonus.

I had tried to do Team Star before in my sixth video, https://youtu.be/BeMvjwAMzjg, but found i was under levelled for the grunt outside it so i didn't try doing it. So, going into this one i wasn't exactly sure how it would work. It didn't go too smoothly, i felt like the "lock on" aspect of telling your Pokemon to attack didn't work that well. but i was impressed by the huge space inside. it's just, it seemed like a waste. when it was over and i could explore, it was mostly empty inside with little to find and nothing to catch. i won't pass judgement on it yet until i've done another one or two, but whilst it's a nice part of the story in terms of gameplay it kinda felt somewhat hollow.

The next city up the road is Cascarrafa City and no one made any mention to the Team Star shenanigans that were happening or that they were even defeated. i did get to see some new Pokémon and when i made a quick dash into the desert i was surprised to see a Larvesta and quickly caught it. As for the city, it's certainly big and looks great but like the others there's little to do inside. At least the gym leader running away as i approached was a fun little twist to the story. at least i know what i'll be doing in Part 10!

Pokémon Violet - The Eighth Part - Getting to and Defeating the Wind Titan Bombirdier

In today's Pokémon Violet video, the task was simple. Get to the Titan. But because of how i play the game, it took a lot longer than i expected. 

Some of the extra time was because i thought i was being clever by trying to avoid the falling boulders, i thought that by going round the back it would be a shortcut to the top. Nope.

But fighting the Titan wasn't an issue. Even tho it was a Pokémon i hadn't seen before and knew nothing about, my leading Pokémon Wattrel was more than enough to deal with it.

There weren't too many other surprises along the way. I'd say the level 50 Jolteon was maybe the biggest. Thankfully i was able to run away from that battle. The other big surprise was finding a Tera Lokix. it was a Pokémon that i hadn't seen yet, tho i do have a Nymble and have been levelling it up, so to see it shining gold was a surprise.

Online Saturday: Pokémon Violet - 20 Online Tera Raid Battles!

Online Saturday is back!

it took around an hour and 10 minutes, but i went and did 20 online Tera Raid Battles. the online connection was mostly fine, but i did cut out 1 disconnect and 4 instances where a random online Tera Raid Battle couldn't be found.

It was a fun thing to do. i saw many Pokémon i hadn't seen as yet in the game and caught several i'm eager to try out.

*LOST VIDEO* Pokémon Violet - The Seventh Part - Exploring South Province Area 2 and Bug Badge

Yes, the title is true. The gameplay video for this part never saved and i lost it. So this video has my audio, but the video will be the start screen.

After discovering that i was under levelled in the previous video, https://youtu.be/BeMvjwAMzjg, i changed my plans and headed to the west side of the map. This didn't go as planned. the pokemon here were lower levelled than i expected. it feels like this is the area you should do first, rather than heading east towards the grass gym.

i caught several Pokémon, including a female Combee as Vespiquen is one of my favourite Pokémon, and did a few raids. i encountered my first in game trade, a Flabebe for a Snom. but mostly this video was mostly me exploring this whole new area. as it was lower levelled, i moved around my squad and sent out many other pokemon to battle and level up.

Pokémon Violet - The Sixth Part - Where I Discover I'm Under Levelled

This is the part where my progress in the game came to a halt. I didn't see it coming, but in reality, i should've noticed it was happening. I was under levelled and had to change my plans.

The video starts with a Black Tauros sweeping my team! My luck doesn't get much better. i head to the Team Star Base nearby and barely beat the grunt outside! I try to level up around that area, but everything is just a bit too high ... so i end the video by changing my plans.

I'm not frustrated by this. i think Sword and Shield were easy Pokémon games and i've been treating this game the same way. So it having a somewhat higher than expected difficulty level is a nice surprise. it's also good that the game world and story are big enough so i can change my plans, so i can go and do something else. This set's up Part 7 as possibly something really quite interesting.

I do get a couple of Pokémon Evolutions, the most surprising being Clodsire. i suspect i got it because it levelled up in rain, but i haven't checked it out to see if i'm right. i also gave some raids a go and surprise trade.

Pokémon Violet - The Fifth Part - Defeating the Titan Klawf and Beating The Grass Gym

No Backlog Conquering this week, but check out it's playlist at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyEBkNKW1vyoTrDgaJFdhyVqABtfrXasU, maybe there’s a video you’ve not seen. 

At the end of the previous video, https://youtu.be/SIGX32Pq2u8, we were ready to face the Titan Klawf. So, at the start of this video, we face off against it and start Arven's story arc.

At the end of the video, we get our first gym badge. but it wasn't as easy as defeating the Titan Klawf. i got lucky when my final Pokémon saved me!

In-between is full of me exploring the world, getting lost, "cheating" and not getting away with it, and of course catching new Pokémon. It's not the smoothest ride and there is a point where i get frustrated with the world design and mechanics, but overall I'm still enjoying myself and the story.