Cloud Monday - For the King - Part 2 - Poor Cloud Streaming Experience Didn’t Ruin Gameplay

*Apologies for my audio quality. i forgot to change mic's from the recording laptop's to my Blue Snowball Ice. it's bad from start to finish*

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing For the King, streamed from PlayStation Plus Premium. This game was developed by IronOak Games and published on PS4 by Curve Digital Publishing. 

Part 1 didn't go well in terms of the game itself. head to https://youtu.be/Uw-QOB-l3Cw to see the many complaints i had about the game. But streaming it from PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service was actually very good. i made several comments about how, whether intentionally or not, the game's graphic design and how frequently it saved works well with the streaming service.

Here in Part 2, that was put to the test. the overall streaming experience from PlayStation Plus wasn't great. there were frequent issues ranging from resolution drops, stream tearing (where grey appears on screen), macro blocking (where fine detail is replaced by squares of color), and what looked line frame time issues or missing frames. Even tho streaming it from the cloud to me wasn't great, the game itself mostly held up ok. the only issue the game has is how it displays texts. it's small and i don't sit close to the TV when i play these games. when the resolution dropped, or when there was macro blocking, the text on screen was an issue. 

For those who have played the game, hard to read text isn't a big deal. but for newer players like myself, it is. But overall, even with the issues, it never got in the way of the gameplay. so if this is a game you enjoy or really want to try, doing so via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service is great option. Plus, as it saves so frequently, i was never anxious about loosing progress as i had trust in the game. admittedly, i didn't have to put that trust to the test.

Switch Funday - F-Zero 99 - F-Zero 25, F-Zero 50, F-Zero 99, Team Battles, And Grand Prix Races

For Switch Funday i played the newly released F-Zero 99, a free game for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. It takes the gameplay of F-Zero and adds the online multiplayer chaos of Nintendo's 99 series. I haven't played an F-ZERO game since the GameCube so i was excited to give this a go.

This was my first time playing the game so we start with the tutorial, and it's a great tutorial too. the game also doesn't drop you straight into racing against 98 other racers. there's a race against 24 others, then a race against 49 others, and finally you're given a race against 98 others. So by the time i raced in F-Zero 99, i felt prepared. the only thing i didn't know were the tracks themselves.

These tracks have been carefully adjusted with a new starting track that funnels all 99 drivers onto the main race track. this is used in the races and the Team Battles, too. The super boost track is mostly fine tho i did have one or two occasions where i triggered it but i wasn't near it so it felt like i was moved weirdly on to it. there were also some occasions where it ended in an awkward place. Much like the Bullet Bill in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, also on Switch, sometimes the boost lasted a long time and others it felt too short.

No adjustments have been made for the battle mode. this mode has all drivers split into two colored teams. points are earned by crossing the start/finish line each lap but you can also earn points for hitting/spinning into other racers and KOing them. But in all modes, there's a lowest position you can be before being eliminated. each lap there's a message, the admittedly could be bigger and clearer, saying what the lowest position you can be to continue. In Grand Prix races, this is what ended my race. i got to the 4th race out of 5 in the Grand Prix mode, but i needed to finish in the top 20 by the end to get to the 5th and final race and i couldn't manage it.

Overall, i had a great time with F-Zero 99. the game has a great tutorial and adds little pressure on you to finish high. if you don't finish high, you still earn points towards your overall level. even tho i didn't finish the Grand Prix, what i earned is still put onto a leaderboard. i would recommend this game to old fans of F-Zero but also to anyone who has F-Zero 99 via a Nintendo Switch Online Subscription. Just be aware that these 99 games typically rely on skill. this game does have a couple of ways it helps keep everyone together, but ultimately those who are better at it will typically always finish up front.

Online Saturday - Gundam Evolution - 4 Matches, 0 Wins!

Gundam Evolutions 6th Season has just started and the game has been recently updated. It's been a while since i last played this game, but here on PS4 in Japan there were still players online and getting into a game didn't take too long. It's not as fast as Splatoon 3, but then again no game is, but at least here the online is healthy enough to get some games.

Unfortunately, all 4 games i played with Gundam Evolution ended with losses. i wouldn't say they were close either. in all 4 games, the opposition seemed to dominate. But i still had some fun. i managed to get some kills and some revives. i also bought a Gundam, Gundam Dynames, but didn't get to use it much as other players also wanted to use it.

Demo Play Thursday - Boxville on PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation4 version of Boxville. This game from developers Triomatica Games was already released on other platforms but recently came to the PS4.

I'm not very good at point and click adventure games, but i'm willing to try them 'cause maybe i'll find one that i enjoy or don't immediately get a guide out for. I wanted to try Boxville because the graphical art style caught my attention. it didn't look like anything i've played before and looked more akin to a stop motion cartoon/movie than a video game.

The Demo starts with a message from the developers saying we're not playing the start as they don't want to ruin the story. that's fine, i have no objections about that. But then they just drop us into a level with no tutorial. you'll hear me complain that if they can add a screen to tell us about not playing the start, then why can't they give us a screen telling us what buttons do what. if we're not playing the tutorial at the start of the game, why can't they put a simple message or diagram showing what buttons do what. they could've put effort to make it accessible.

The video then is mostly me trying out different buttons and being confused. as there's not story context for what we're doing other than go down the city, this didn't feel like a demo for the game. it felt like an escape room. a great looking one for sure. i feel that the demo could've made some allowances to help. like the cursor didn't seem to interact with anything but perhaps it could've pulsed to signal something we can interact with. again, as i didn't know the controls, i was unfamiliar with the items being kept above and it really slowed my progress until i worked that game mechanic out.

The point and click gameplay was mostly logical but it did feel like a couple of times it wanted me to do things a little unexpected but that were perhaps introduced earlier in the game. so at times things went fast and other times things went slow, so slow that it became a tad frustrating.

I'm not sure if it's in the final game, but i had a couple of technical issues where the demo seemed to freeze on me. but the most annoying thing was that the cursor would stay when we moved screens. this often meant it was no where near where i wanted it to be. it would've been soo much better if when the screen changed, the cursor reset it's position to where i was at the very least.

Ultimately, i don't think it's a great demo. it does show off the graphics, but it's not as accessible as it should be and the tech issues and some design choices make the game feel not finished even tho it was released last year on other platforms. Playing this demo does not make me want to play the final game, but i will say that's also in part because i'm not great at point and click adventure games and i didn't really enjoy this one.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 3 - Completing The Flying Battleship

Part 3 of playing Gunstar Heroes on #PS3 went better than part 2, https://youtu.be/Fjbreik3bTU, but it was still difficult. In part 2, it was a boss rush and in part 1, https://youtu.be/dfgBhdeJriE, the bosses were spaced out across the whole level. In this video, The Flying Battleship, it's a combination of both!

So the start wasn't too bad. going up and then across was fine. the first boss was easy, too. then there's a little more platforming before the next two bosses, one after each other. the first of these two bosses wasn't too bad and i managed to defeat him after a couple of tries. But the final boss was much more difficult. He does much more damage, has many more attacks, and can navigate the small stage the battle takes place on faster than i can. So for this video, it took nearly 20 minutes to finally beat him!

There will be a part 4 as i'm interested in what the fourth stage will be like and whether or not it's the final level in the game.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Pixel Kali Cup Revival - Achievement Run

#PADSwitch #パズドラ #パズドラSwitch #ドットカーリー杯開催  #ドット・カーリー杯開催 #switch #puzzleanddragons 

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 Pixel Kali Revival! (2023/9/11 9:00～2023/9/18 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the Pixel Kali Revival Cup. i have played this cup before, https://youtu.be/O755kjT9oWU, but that was very bad for me. it took nearly 3x as long as this video! even tho it went better the second time, i didn't really understand the gimmick or couldn't seem to activate as much as i wanted. i simply tried to make as many combos as possible whilst also making the longest connections. There were more players this week, nearly everyone i played against got a win! i also got a win but i couldn't beat the boss. it looked like most players i was playing against could beat it either.

This week i played against:

イフ (イつ?) - Rank 74

ふんた - Rank 52

タクマ - Rank 73

はるひさ - Rank 68

キグナス - Rank 67

しゅうさ - Rank 63

ふたば - Rank 72

カズちゃん - Rank 69

YUKI - Rank 87

Cloud Monday - For the King - Part 1 - Great Design For Cloud Streaming, Bad For First Time Players

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing For the King, streamed from PlayStation Plus Premium. This game was developed by IronOak Games and published on PS4 by Curve Digital Publishing. I wanted to try this game as the screenshots made it look very interesting and cool looking.

But, i had such a difficult time playing it. It's a shame, too, as this game is designed in such a way that it works well as a game being streamed from the cloud. It say's it saves after every turn, tho it doesn't define what it means by turn so i'm left to assume it saves after every character is finished with their turn. It's art style is unique and distinct but critically it doesn't rely on small intricate details, so if there is any macro blocking or resolution drops the impact on how things look would be lesser than other games. Plus it's slow pace and turn based system are less impacted by a poor connection.

So on paper it's a great game to be streamed from the PlayStation Plus Cloud, but in reality it's almost impenetrable for newcomers. And even when there is a tutorial it's either late, out of place, or tells the player to look it up. I would go so far as to say i found the tutorial to be so bad it's borderline rude. I have NEVER played a Table Top RPG before and after my experience with this game i'm not particularly keen on trying one in the future.

I had such a negative first impression from this game that i'm debating whether to do my regular Part 2 or not.