*Both my main commentary recording and my back-up failed. i record on my laptop, but it's a Lenovo AMD that blue screens at least twice a day or simply restarts and that's what happened. my back-up recording is done on my MZ-RH10 MiniDisc. that file is just silence. i have no idea what happened, my guess is maybe the microphone wasn't fully plugged in. So this Part has no commentary.*
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the #PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence, from Dramatic Labs.
A lot happened in this part, it was very exciting. Our crew on the Xeldi had some great ideas to solve their issues. Whilst on the USS Resolute, we discovered there was yet another Bioformed Scion onboard. the conclusion to that story was unexpected and both of these stories ended in a location that could be bad news for the rest of the galaxy. but how bad, we'll have to wait for Part 8 next week
It's day two of August's Splatfest weekend so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon 3.
In yesterday's video, https://youtu.be/WRXA1rH6tRY, i never played against any Team Pasta teams so i was unsure what would happen today. So i was very happy at the end of this video that all 15 matches were up against Team Rice and Team Pasta. it also went very well today, my team mates and I managed to win 10 of the 15 games we played.
The weapons i used today were the Bloblobber, Bloblobber Deco, and the Explosher. i didn't enjoy the Deco variant of the Bloblobber but the other two weapon were quite fun.
This weekend is a Splatfest weekend in Splatoon 3 on Switch. the question being asked this Splatfest is "Which would you eat every day? Bread, Rice, or Pasta?"
I picked Team Bread and played 15 matches for them. My team mates and I never played against any Team Pasta, all 15 games were against Team Rice. it was a very competitive Turf War with some close games, but we managed to win 8 of the 15 games against them.
I was in the mood to use Splattershot weapons so today i spent 5 games each with the Tentatek Splattershot, the Splattershot, and the Splattershot Nova.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution, from NimbleBit, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
Playing Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution is more of a personal choice. it wasn't clear when it came out globally, but as someone who has played most of the games NimbleBit have released, i wanted to try it.
Because i'm a fan of NimbleBit games and still play their Trains and Planes games, whilst also thinking about getting back into Tiny Tower, i'm in two minds about Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution. The headline for this review is "More of the Same" which is both a positive and a negative. i know how the games plays, i know the rules and what's expected. but that also means there's no evolution, there's nothing new.
Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution feels like an old game. the tutorial is poor at best, the use of the screen is poor and feels like it was carried over from a different device, and there are some choices here and there that leave me more confused. a quick example of something small is how the button to upgrade your truck is on whilst the truck is driving, but you can't actually go to that screen. so why isn't it off like the City button is when your driving.
I recorded this video earlier in the week and have played it a little on and off since then and there are still aspects of the game that feel unbalanced. i have no idea why so many trucks are available when so few jobs are. i don't understand how the scrap/upgrade system work or how/when you get said items. And i have added the ice tyres to those trucks that can get them, but still don't know if there are negatives to using them on regular roads.
If Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution had come out years ago when the other hits from NimbleBit had, it would've felt like a natural fit. But now, it just feels old and not really in a positive way. games are much clearer now, either through an initial tutorial or additional smaller help boxes or tutorials as and when things unlock. I feel like games have much more animation, an example is how the animals clearly visible on screen don't move. if you're not going to animate them, why show them, why not have some cool crate for them.
As it is, Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution is fine. it does nothing to evolve the genre nor does it really harm it. the gameplay look is as fine as it ever was. For better or for worse, it's more of the same and sometimes that's enough.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Trinity Fusion, from Angry Mob Games .
I didn't know anything about this game going in, after i played the demo i saw that it has already come out on other platforms. so for me, i was looking to the demo as being my introduction to the game.
It starts well by telling the back story of this universe. i thought it was interesting. it ends on a character called Maya who seems to the the main character. But then when the tutorial starts we're a new character called Naira with no explanation as to who we are, where we are, nor what we should be doing. at least on screen there are basic tutorial instructions telling us how to control her.
But this lack of "Why" permeates throughout this demo and is what was the most frustrating part of playing it. When i died, in what was a cool death sequence, we get a brief bit of story before the gameplay starts up again and i'm someone new. again, not this Maya character we've been introduced to and not as Naira as before. the level was also different and you can hear in my commentary that i was very confused by the situation. But it doesn't end there as when i died a second time i was sent back to some sort of hub world, again with no context as to what was happening. it was a little difficult to know what to do here and it was more by accident that i worked out how to continue playing the game. as well as a lack of Why, the tutorial also is surprisingly limited in this demo.
The lack of why and what our purpose is is such a let down because the gameplay itself is really good. combat is varied, the controls are responsive, the levels look great and there's some variety in where and how you navigate them. the music is fantastic and just as impressive where the decent load times, too. there is soo much to like about how it plays, that this demo gives the impression that they came up with the gameplay first and then tried to build a story around it, that's just how separate they fill.
The Switch demo for Trinity Fusion is well worth playing and a lot of people are going to enjoy how it plays. as i say i the video, with it's lack of story it'll be a great podcast game. But it's not for me. It teased a world that i wanted to play in, a story where there seemingly are going to be losses on all sides and no one is the winner. that sounded really interesting. But they gave me none of that here.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN.
I feel that the mission length and difficulty has gone up from the first 3 missions i did in Part 1, https://youtu.be/zBNkDWAqsXc, but that's not entirely the fault of the game. i made mistakes which saw my ship crash into another ship causing my shields, and armor, to fail. this means i died twice in this video and i came close a couple of other times, too. I feel that the story telling isn't happening as great as i'd like it to. there's a lot of chatter over the radio during the game but my focus is on the action so i'm not really taking it in.
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence, from Dramatic Labs.
Part 5, https://youtu.be/QAaTFS_OkwM, ended when i was killed in a firefight. So the start of this Part 6 was me trying once more to get through said firefight. thankfully it wasn't an issue and it looks like i was very close in Part 5 to finishing it.
the choices i had to make in Part 6 were quite difficult. it really does feel like things are serious and that there are no perfect answers. For example, with Diaz how Federation can you be on a non-Federation ship. With Jara Rydek, how much can you stick with your captain when things aren't getting any better. the final parts are going to force upon me some really difficult choices.
