Cloud Monday - Cloudpunk - Good Game To Stream From PlayStation Plus But Unclear Saves Are An Issue

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Cloudpunk. I streamed this game, developed by Ion Lands, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service on my launch model Japanese PS4.

In part 1, https://youtu.be/o3KbvReYduI, i had a great experience streaming the game from PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service. there were the occasional hiccups throughout my time with the game but nothing that seriously impacted my time and my enjoyment of the game. they were simply noticeable.

For the most part, that continued into this part 2. I felt no lag in the controls and the streaming issues we had didn't get in the way of gameplay nor my enjoyment of it. But there were more noticeable streaming artifacts than in part 1. there were Stream Tears, where grey appears on screen, and it felt like there were bit rates drops, where the video looked like "1080p" but not too detailed. 

A lot of the games design, intentional or not, helps mitigate the issues i had streaming the game from PlayStation. Most, if not all, of the conversations in the game are voiced and also have subtitles, if you don't accidentally hide them,  so if there is macro blocking and the text becomes illegible, then you can listen to what's happening. If the bit rate or resolution drops, you can slow down or stop. most of the game so far is us delivery items in our vehicle but these don't go fast and we don't move fast when walking so i never felt like i was headed to a crash. and i could simply stop and wait for things to get better. So for these reasons, and more, i do recommend this game as something that's streamable from PlayStation Plus and that it's a good game in general.

But...it's unclear when the game saves. And in a game that's being streamed to us on a service that can kick us off with just a 20 second warning, it's a little frustrating. I ended this video not knowing when the last save was, would i have to talk to the Coffee Man again or was the save when i landed. i don't know. The game has some other small issues like a so-so tutorial that i can work my through. But this save issue is big enough to give me pause and it's something i must add when i recommend this game, 'cause i do recommend it.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Halloween Splatfest Tricolor - 15 Battles 8 Wins!

Welcome to Switch Funday.

It's day two of the Splatfest weekend so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon 3. I found that in nearly all games, it was very competitive. some games were more challenging than others, but overall it was a fun Tricolor and a fun Splatfest overall.

But, the online was even worse today than Saturday. the video file for this is over an hour and a half long. It took over 3 minutes for some matches to be found, there were also disconnections in the lobby and in-game, too. there was one game that lasted about 10 seconds! I haven't seen a splatfest with this many bad internet issues since around the launch of the game over a year ago.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - Halloween Splatfest - 15 Battles 7 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "Which Would Be The Best Friend" Splatfest in Splatoon3. Our choices are between Skeleton, Ghost, and Zombie. I chose to join Team Ghost.

This was a fun Splatfest. i would say that it felt like the wait between matches was the longest it's been since the game launched. typically i'd have to wait 10-30 seconds at most but during this Splatfest i had waits two minutes or more. Other than that, it was fun because of how competitive it was. there were some real close games and others that ebbed and flow between the two teams. it was nice to get 2 x10 wins in this Splatfest, i rarely take part in them and even rarer win them. so to win two feels special.

Demo Play Thursday - CRYMACHINA on PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of CRYMACHINA.  This DEMO, from developers FuRyu, is also out on PS5, Switch, and PC.

The reason why i chose to play this demo was because it's game icon on the PlayStation store looked soo cool. i didn't even check out any of the screenshots or videos on the store. i simply saw the icon and downloaded the DEMO.

I didn't finished this DEMO, but i played enough to know that it wasn't specifically built as a DEMO. it's simply the start of the game. But, in a way, this is good as we get to see the back story, the tutorials, and even some world building. In that sense, it's a great DEMO. But, what wasn't made clear at any point is whether or not our save will carry over to the final game. It's possible that it will say so at the end of the DEMO, but i didn't get that far. if you know, let us know in the comments.

The combat in this DEMO is a highlight, and potentially exciting for the full game. the controls felt accurate but also spamable for new comers, the tutorial was clear, if a little basic, and the visual affects were showy and added a cool factor and heft to what was happening on screen. But the DEMO made it clear early on that there's a casual mode which'll make the combat easier if you'd rather focus on the story.

As for the story, as this is only a short look at the game it's understandable that there are a few questions left answered. but the game does a good job of having the main character ask the questions that we, the gamer, would ask. I would say that it works. enough has been revealed to put the game in a world, some things have been explained well enough to explain game design choices, and some things have been teased as to what we're going to be doing in the story. But there's no hint of a twist as yet so it's hard to say whether the game as a simple story to tell or if everything's not quite as it seems.

Graphically, it feels like this DEMO is taken from a near end or final build of the game. it looks great and i was surprised how much i liked the architecture style. The main character designs may be a little busy, but they are distinct from the bad characters in the DEMO. everything considered, i would say this succeeds as a DEMO even if it's not really designed as one. so perhaps it's best to say that the first hour of this game is approachable for casual and hardcore gamers, and after playing it i am much more interested in it than i was before. so i recommend people play the DEMO, one way or another it's a good one.

Backlog Conquering - Abzû On PS4 - The First Two Shrines

The next game from my backlog that i'm going to play is the PlayStation 4 version of Abzu, a game developed by Giant Squid and published by 505 Games  .

I'm sure this is a game i got from PlayStation Plus, downloaded, but never actually played. Even when i changed the HDD in my PS4, i downloaded this game again because i wanted to play it. thankfully, this series has given me the push i needed to finally start Abzû, and after just this first part i'm glad i did.

Abzû is a beautiful game, even on my Japanese launch model PS4. it starts well, instead of just telling us to press a button it puts on screen the controller and also shows us which button to press. that immediately makes the game more accessible for people unfamiliar with the DualShock 4. What some people may not enjoy is how the game doesn't explicitly tell us what to do, but in it's own way it does give some hints in the first few areas as to what you'll be doing.

In this video, i did the first two shrines in the game. i don't yet fully understand the significance of the shrines, but like the rest of the game they are visually impressive. along the way, there are hints as to a story as there are seemingly structures, or ruins of ones, as well as surprisingly advanced robotic doors. There's also the enigma of the character we play as, as initially i thought it was humanoid. but as we were able to spend as much time as we wanted under water i'm starting to think that maybe we're not human. there are robots in the game, so maybe we're more advanced robots or even androids. in this video i wondered if this is a post apocalyptic world and our job is to help bring life to the oceans.

There will be a part 2, i'm very interested in this game. if you've watched the Rime videos  from earlier in this series, you'll know that i liked that game because i was playing and learning the story. the puzzles didn't really add much to that game. thankfully here there don't seem to be puzzles, other than the story itself.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Halloween Cup 1 Revival - 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 Halloween Cup 1 Revival! ( 2023/10/23 9:00～2023/10/30 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the Halloween Cup 1 Revival. i have played this cup before, https://youtu.be/ij3CCf2-zlA. Much like this video, back then i found the gimmick easy to understand and back then it was one of my shorter videos. but also, like today, i didn't play against many other players.

I only played against 1 other human player, even tho i played the same day as last week when there were many other people. i did find the gimmick easy to understand, but trying to do it with a controller is difficult as it feels slow. i was only able to beat the boss a couple of times but regularly got to it. the A.I didn't provide much competition , but the human player in the last couple of rounds did and it was fun to see it decided via the end of game bonuses

This week i played against:

HIROKUN - Rank 76

Cloud Monday - Cloudpunk - Unclear Checkpoints And Auto-Saves Bring Unwanted Anxiety

This week's Cloud Monday video is is on Cloudpunk. I streamed this game, developed by Ion Lands, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service on my launch model Japanese PS4.

Going in to this game, i didn't know much about it. over the years i had heard this and that about it so i knew that it was something like a taxi/delivery game with lots of talking. but the specifics were unclear. But one of the reasons for choosing a "Cyberpunk" style game is whether or not the aesthetics of it would hold up being streamed to my PlayStation 4.

For the most part, streaming the game from the cloud doesn't affect the aesthetics of the game. the biggest issue the game has in this regard is with the PS4. the draw distance isn't too far so there is a lot of pop-in. it's hard to get a sense of scale, the fully grasp the whole world, when it's popping in as you drive along. But what you do get to see is some amazing voxel art and some huge buildings.

As the game uses varying sizes of voxels, i never really had an issue with how it looked or with things not being clear due to issues with the streaming. in the video, there was some macro blocking, some stream tears, some small hiccups, but in all these instances i still could understand the world. thankfully, these all happened in the car so it's possible out on foot it could be a little bit more of a distraction. the only issue i had with the cloud stream was an instance where macro-blocking made reading what a character was saying difficult.

Once again, it was the game itself that provided the biggest issue. In this video, i was unable to save my game, nor was i able to workout if the game is auto saving or checkpointing. I'll find out when i start Part 2 next week, but it genuinely adds a bit of anxiety to the experience because if there is an issue with streaming a game from PlayStation Plus, there's only a 20 second warning. I have no idea when the last save was, so i have no idea how much progress is about to be lost. The game's pace is slow and that works well with it being streamed, but that works against it if a lot of progress is about to be lost.

As a streaming experience, i do recommend it. But that comes with a huge asterix over the saving and checkpointing that i won't know the answer to until the second part of this series.