There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 40th Maximus Cup is for the Switch game Endless Ocean Luminous. By getting 100 points, you can unlock a Endless Ocean Luminous theme which includes sounds, a background, and unique looking Tetromino.
The side quest, as ever, is to try and win. unfortunately, i didn't manage to make it to the top 10 at all during this cup. I thought that it was very tough just to get into the top 50. often, it felt like i was defending more than actually trying to attack. It did feel satisfying tho so i'm not too dissatisfied with the result.
For this week's Online Saturday video i'm back on the Switch with Splatoon 3 as it's an Eggstra Work Event on the Jammin' Salmon Junction Map.
Like my #SalmonRun videos, the goal is to get 1,000 points. but because it's an Eggstra Work Event, the main goal is to get the highest score possible within that time. So far, i don't have a great record getting a prize winning score in these events and i don't think i'll get one today. Out of the 8 matches i played, my none of the teams i worked with could beat all 5 waves. we only managed to get to the 4th wave twice. the 3rd wave was surprisingly difficult. one issue was the first couple of waves were so easy that we were doing too good. this meant the game would raise the difficulty of the next stage. so by the time we got to the third stage, the difficulty had often risen twice to more than double what it started at.
Even tho we didn't finish, i did have a good time. this was the right balance of difficulty because we put ourselves into this position whereas it often feels tough because it's designed that way. the weapon selection was ok, but i had the same weapon for 7 of the 8 games.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The WereCleaner from developer Charlie Heatherly. I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The premise of this game, a cleaner who's a werewolf doing the night shift, was all i needed to give this a try. It's very new, this might be the launch week, and it's not a game i had heard about, but the screenshots on it's app store page combined with the little bits of information about the game were enough. i was very curious and just had to play it.
You start The WereCleaner during your day shift so you're human. this acts as the games story introduction but i feel it could've or should've given us the option for a tutorial. it might've been difficult, but i feel it's possible the developer could've used our interactions with Daryl as a way for our character to talk about their job, thus being the tutorial, and Daryl replying with something about keeping his current one. The game does provide text on screen between stages but i worry that this might be easily missed as this isn't something i've seen much in other games. Those text boxes are done up very nice and do provide most of the information needed, with our imagination on how we can use it filling the gaps.
As a Clean 'em up, your goal in The WereCleaner is simple, clean up all messes within the 5 minute window. the problem is that as we're a werewolf, we will kill anyone who spots us in the same location as us. killing them, and then eating them, and then cleaning up that mess uses up time which is were the stealth element of the game comes in. the other characters have a timer above their heads and when it reaches 0 they move. we need to avoid them whilst also making our way across the stage or cleaning. it's a difficult balance that i didn't quite master. i felt like this challenge was well managed at the start, but by the 6th level i was on the difficulty had spiked.
We are given tools to help us clean and the info card before the level also talks about how we can use it against the other people. but it's one thing to read it and another to do it and it's this using the tools that didn't quite work how i expected. one tool is throwing a ball of trash. the other humans will pick it up and put it in the bin, clearing a path for you. but what i didn't anticipate was them putting it in a bin near us. Another item is the Knap, a bag we can use to pick up critters or a bag we can put over the heads of humans. But nearly every time i tried to use it it failed because i would instinctively kill the person i was trying to knap.
Another example where things are a little rough is in the controls. more than once i noticed and commented on how the on screen buttons didn't match what cleaning item i was using. i had heard the game make the noise that i had changed my tool, but on screen the buttons for that tool hadn't changed. so for a while it was a little frustrating not knowing what tool was equipped. by the end of the video i was getting used to it, but it's not ideal.
So whilst The WereCleaner does have some small issues and a few bugs, the core idea and presentation is still really good. so much so that it's already in my Free to Play Mobile Game of the Year List and i'd happily recommend it to anyone looking for something interesting to play. It's a shame there aren't pocketable portables from Sony or Nintendo as this is something i would've enjoyed on those platforms. On phone it does work well, but i can't help but feel that the controls would be better with buttons than touch screen.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Korean Rail Driving Tour: LRT Uijeongbu, published by 14Dimension.
I have never played a train simulator game before and when i saw this demo come out on Switch i thought i should give it a go. starting the demo gives no hints that you're actually playing a demo. it looks and feels like the full game.
There is no tutorial either. for me it was very frustrating as not only did i not know what buttons to use, i had to use my intuition and the on screen speed prompts as to what i need to do. so needless to say i only manage to get the train from A to B three times and neither time was perfect.
And that's the end of the demo! it only allows us to play one section out of 15. i did like how it uses video from a real train doing the same route, it means i got to see somewhere new. the music was also surprisingly epic, and i left it playing at the end. but overall all, it's a poor demo that doesn't even have an option for us to purchase the game from within the demo like many do. I'm glad i tried it as i got to play a genre i've never played before, but it's a bad demo and difficult to recommend for people to try beyond curiosity like i had.
This new Backlog Conquering game is being played on PlayStation 4 but it'll cover the PlayStation Vita version as well. on PSV, the game was released as Tearaway back in 2013 and i do have that version. Like this PS4 version, i haven't finished it either so this is my chance to tackle Tearaway twice! ( i know there are differences in the controls and how you interact with the games, but you know what i mean.)
The start caught me by surprise as the game starts it's narrating before it's even revealed all the developer logos. It's a bit long, but it's uniqueness works for me and it gets to the point where the narrators interact with "you" and thus begins the events at the start of the game.
another thing the game does well is it's tutorial. it's impressive how it manages to balance telling us how to something whilst giving us the chance to use it with some imagination. One of the better features is the "Squirrel" as this guide will pop up if it thinks you're struggling to offer advice. so many games don't offer help after the tutorial and just leave it up to the player so it's nice that this game will try and help. It doesn't make Tearaway: Unfolded feel too easy either, but it's nice to have regardless.
It takes time, when playing the game, to get used to not having a jump button. i could see places i wanted to reach and for most of this video my first reaction is to press X for jump. as i played, what i learned is that there are ways to get anywhere if you're meant to get there. this often takes shape as ramps, flowers, and spring jumps. part of the puzzle is seeing somewhere you want to go, maybe there's a collectable present you want to get, and working out how the environment is set up for you to get there.
I really enjoyed what i've played so far so i will do a few more parts at least. i'm curious if the game does anything fun when you come back to the game. i'm also wondering if there'll be any more fun interactions with the controller. i know that we're able to backtrack with our current abilities so i may give that a try in part 2 as in this part i already found a white mystery and later in this part i was given a tool to deal with it.
Hello and welcome to Part 11 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!
The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.
Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.
A lot happened in this part. Part 10, https://youtu.be/vfva7DWmvVo, saw us getting a lot of information which we dealt with in this part. much of this part goes how i expected it to. for a few parts now i had been making some assumptions and most are revealed here. But things take a dramatic turn around the half way mark and just keeps on going. Whilst the change of pace is welcomed, it does feel like a lot happened much quicker in this part than any previous part. but it has reenergized the story and i'm maybe even more excited to continue the 5th, and final, Chapter of this game.
If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the #PS4 version of Marvel's Midnight Suns via the #PlayStationPlus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
This game, from developers Firaxis Games, is one that was seemingly well received from reviewers but not necessarily the public at large. I've heard quite a lot of non specific praise about playing it but also reports on how poorly it sold, either in general or when compared to expectations. Thankfully, the point of this series is to talk about how suitable the game is as a game being played in the cloud. And i can say that it makes a great first impression.
Much like the previous game i played, The Wild At Heart https://youtu.be/Cg0q3nv-E58, this game starts with a choice on how you want to play it. i went with a focus on story, but there's also normal mode. If you've played one of these before, streaming the other from the cloud is a great option to have as this game is a fairly sizeable download around 32GB. I also chose to do the tutorial mission.
I couldn't say where the tutorial mission ended and the game started. they did a great job incorporating the tutorial into the story. admittedly, playing a strong super heroes and being limited because of the tutorial could've been delt with better, like with a side comment that these are just henchmen so don't go all out just yet as someone stronger may come later. But after it, i did feel mostly confident that i understood the systems taught to me.
As well as the tutorial and options, the game's story also makes a great first impression. it's always made clear who is talking and when someone new is introduced there's a quick little banner to say who they are. about half way into the video i explore the save system and it's clear that at this early point in the game the auto save system has been working quite frequently and not overwriting one auto save. there are 4 auto saves the game makes and we can do manual saves, too. this sense of security means i can focus on the game instead of worrying about when or if i can save next.
In this part, the connection to the cloud was mostly fine. early on there were a couple of moments of macro blocking, where instead of fine details there are larger squares of color. but this was never an issue with gameplay. a lot of the text, characters, and pictures are quite big so were still legible. Later on there were more incidents of Stream Tearing, where there's grey on screen, and these do get in the way of gameplay. thankfully, there were no audio issues nor controller issues so i was still able to continue and understand what was happening.
I'm looking forward to part 2. it'll be interesting to see how the game holds up on the PS4, especially when there are more effects and more enemies on screen in the first mission of the game. the card battle system we've played so far is slow enough that i always felt in control, again a good fit for being played in the cloud. But there were some hints that the PS4 was being pushed hard by this game.
