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! 

Switch Funday - Sin and Punishment - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

I'm back trying out a N64 game on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service. Today, it's Sin and Punishment. It's a game i have heard off but never played.

i went in only knowing that it would be on rails. i didn't even know the state of the translation. only that it didn't get a western release on N64. so i was surprised that the in-game text was all in Japanese but the voice acting and menus were in English. 

I had a good time. this video is longer than i expected and ultimately i had to stop playing as i kept wanting to play a little more. it controls better than GoldenEye 007 did with the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, but it still wasn't perfect. there were many moments where i would go for the wrong button and in a game this fast it did cost me a few times. thankfully there was a training mode and i did that first. i didn't expect the training mode to have a boss tho!

it felt a little rough in places, like it being unclear how to avoid certain attacks almost as if we were expected not to. but it also felt like one of the biggest battlefields i had ever fought in on the N64. the epic battle against the battleships was a pleasant surprise. i had no idea the N64 could be capable of such a spectacle. But of course this is the Switch, there's every chance that on the N64 the performance wasn't quite there. but what would be the same is the looks. soo many things look different from each other. it was clear who was who and what enemy was what, whilst also looking very impressive.

It's a hard game that does feel it's age in places. but it really is worth trying. it won't be for everyone, but it's something worth experiencing.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - March's Salmon Run

Welcome to Online Saturday

This Saturday i'm back with Splatoon 3. The goal for this video is simple, get this month's Salmon Run Gear. 

Last week was a Big Run event, you can watch it at https://youtu.be/ZnWSin5k7N8, and it included this month's Salmon Run gear as well as it's own item. so in a way i have already got the Astro Wear. but i did it whilst playing on a different level, rather than a Salmon Run level. i also found the Big Run event to be really difficult and not as fun as Salmon Run, so i decided to get the Astro Wear again. and like all my Salmon Run videos, get it twice and keep the best one.

You can see from the length of this video, it didn't go as well as i'd hope. there were many wins, but the losses were just as big too!

Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade - Cooking Mama: Cuisine! - The First 45 Minutes

This fourteenth video in the new Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series is on Cooking Mama: Cuisine! I Played this as part of my Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series, i think this game is exclusive to the service.

I have never played a game from the Cooking Mama series before so i thought this would be the best opportunity to do so. i kinda knew what to expect going in as i've reported on games in this series before, like Cooking Mama 3. but Cooking Mama: Cuisine! still managed to surprise me.

Unlike the recent Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade games Simon's Cat: Story Time, https://youtu.be/SJtlwaqB-KI, and SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit, https://youtu.be/WXm7dhyASyg, where it's the player who determines how long they play the game for as both are full of content, Cooking Mama: Cuisine! has a daily limit. it's an interesting way to get players coming back for more, as each day has a different number of food items you can cook with. There is also an event happening right now, too.

this video is around 45 minutes but that wasn't because of the daily limit. i think i only did around a third of the daily content available. I don't know how that'll change when you start to repeat recipes. as it's my first time playing the game, everything was new and undiscovered. the only reason to redo recipes you had already done seems to be to get a "perfect" 3 star score. there are some cosmetic things you can buy so that's also another reason to do recipes again.

The artwork for the game is familiar. i recognise the main character, and her in-game model looks really good. but other than that, grapically this game looks inconsistent. there are times when flowers look really good, but they're just decorations and the food you've cooked looks ... well ... not like the description, putting it kindly. there are one or two food items that look good, i think the cucumber was an unlikely highlight.

Another inconsistent thing about the game was the controller support. i would suggest it's better to play the game using touch controls than a controller. there are some weird button choices, for example you press "B" to go to the back button but have to then press "A" to go back. a bigger problem i had was the analogue stick sensitivity. it felt like it went from 0 to 100 too fast. i could move the stick and nothing would happen, then i'd try to move it a little more and it had gone all the way. this meant that there were a couple of cooking mini games that were difficult, and one i nearly failed at.

For fans of the series, it's a good way to play the game a little each day and have it be a little different. but it's not a game that shows off the power of Apple Arcade or things like multiplayer. it is being supported and there seem to be themed events so it could be a good game to keep on a  phone and play now and then. but i think it'd be a bit of a  rough time to play the game on anything else, especially if there's no touch screen.

Backlog Conquering - Pyre - Part 15 - The Final Part

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 15, of playing Pyre on PlayStation 4.

With all the games i play in Backlog Conquering, i don't set out to finish them. the goal is simply to play them. there were moments whilst playing through this game where i thought about putting it down and moving on. but ultimately, there was a certain something that kept me going. 

For this video, we continue on from Part 14, https://youtu.be/kWi1d_O_Ruk, about to start our sixth Liberation Rites. It went really well, it was maybe my best win since the first time we did it. through that i was able to send Tae back to the Commonwealth. But it was clear that there would only be one more Liberation Rite left.

I liked how the game, through the characters, tried to reduce the pressure on me. But the twist as to who we'd be up against was a little obvious. that final rite was perhaps the best i performed. i tried as hard as i could with who was left in my team. But the twists weren't over! when the rite was finished, the game changed the Liberation Rite rules and did it in a believable way that felt natural to the game we played. this meant, tho, that i wasn't able to send back to the Commonwealth who i had originally selected.

And the story tells the end. throughout the game there's some amazing art and beautiful visuals, and yet it told the end via text. the story of the end that i got was good, but it lacked the fanfare that some cool art would bring to it. we do get to read what happened with every character in the game. but again, the game kinda fumbles as the most disappointing story we're told is that of our character.  the credit sequence is cool and has a nice song.

In the end, it's strange that whilst the game is able to tell such an interesting story with such unique characters, that it should continuously stumble when it came to the story of the main character does hurt it. the main character, the character you control, becomes the weakest part of the game and as the rest of the story is so strong, it really does stick out. that's kinda the review of the game. it's a game with some high points, but it's low points stick out so much in contrast. But i am glad i played it.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Okuninushi Cup - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Okuninushi Cup! (2023/3/6 9:00～2023/3/13 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This was a difficult week. what was strange was that it wasn't just difficult for me, but it was difficult for many of the other human opponents too! I had one game against the computer and i won it. but when i played against others, i came top 3 a few times but i also came a lot lower. But so did the other players, too. 

It's frustrating to have a bad week, where no matter how hard i tried i never seemed to grasp what i was meant to do. but it's heartening to see that i wasn't the only one. near the end you'll see that i work out what i need to do, i need to make a cross of one color. well, i probably needed to do more, but it seemed to help at the very least. 

It would be great to have some comments as to what i did wrong because i don't really seem to know.

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.