Online Saturday - The First Descendant - A Great First Hour!

For Online Saturday i tried out The First Descendant on #PS4. i had heard some good first impressions of  The First Descendant from Nexon , and i was keen on playing an online game similar to Destiny. but i knew next to nothing about The First Descendant so i was hoping for a good tutorial.

I can say that the tutorial in The First Descendant was fantastic. it smartly used gameplay and instructions to teach me the controls. for the more simple stuff, it was a text box on screen. but for more difficult stuff they'd stop gameplay and put up a bigger box with a video showing what you need to do. but with the gameplay stopped, i didn't feel a rush to read everything and could take the time to slowly read it and try to understand. for the most part, the tutorial was smartly implemented throughout this video whenever something new would happen either in-game or in menus. only once did it get in the way when it tried to teach me how to equip better items in the middle of a shootout and i had to dismiss it was gameplay didn't stop as this was during the online section.

I didn't know when the online section was going to come. in the beginning, the game was focused on telling it's story and world building. and then, we were online with everyone! after the story, we were dropped into a hub world full of other players. it wasn't clear which region i'm playing in. i didn't see anyone with Japanese or Asian names and the game didn't ask me what region i wanted to play in.

Whilst this section took me by surprise, the game was much more explicit when it came to the next mission. it used a quick tutorial to talk about public or private play, tho it i must've missed in the tutorial where that selection was. so for the second half, it's all online. the open world elements had enemies randomly attacking and i could engage with them with others in the world. then there were story sections where i could choose to play said section publicly or privately. i chose public each time and each time i either joined someone else playing or someone joined my game. each time was seamless with a simple addition of a player name to my screen.

the first thing i noticed about the gameplay was when i pressed L2 and zoomed into the enemy. it felt much quicker than i expected and there wasn't any lock-on to the enemy either. this isn't a bad thing, it's just one way shooters differentiate themselves. what i found odd was how my character was a big bulky guy and yet moved like someone much nimbler. i may not have fully got used to it during this video, but i was overall satisfied with my progress and the shooter in general.

i had a great time with The First Descendant. it does very well introducing the world, the story, the characters, and the gameplay mechanics. as a free to play game, it's easy to recommend to anyone looking for a shooter in a similar vain to Anthem and Destiny. I'm looking forward to playing more of this game in the future.

Mobile Friday - Dadish 3D - Controls And Adverts Get In The Way Of This Charming Game

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Dadish 3D, The latest Dadish game from Cat Cup Games  and Thomas K. Young. i hadn't played any of the other Dadish games, but it was a series i had heard about. i played this on my iPhone 14 Pro.

from the app store page, this game was overflowing with nostalgic charm so i was excited to play it. but after trying out the mobile version, i don't think i can recommend it. i'd imagine the PC version would be a better experience than what i played.

For me, what was the most frustrating thing were the adverts. i think i had 15 adverts in less than a hour. it was shocking and abrupt the first time it happened and every now and then i'd be blasted by adverts with their volume so high. it looks like the game is using Unity and Lunar and i'm concerned that these are going to eat through your mobile data. i played the game on Wi-fi, but imagine you're commuting 5 days a week, an hour to and from work. that's 150 adverts each week just playing the game. by cutting the adverts from this video, i cut out around 4 minutes. that's like 40 minutes a week of adverts.

Unfortunately, adverts weren't Dadish 3D's only problem. whether it was using the touch screen or Bluetooth controllers, i couldn't trust the controls. with the Bluetooth #Xbox controller the lag was so great that it got me killed. i show in the video it felt like nearly half a second between pressing the button and it happening in-game. the controller doesn't work with the adverts either so you'll need to pick up and play on your phone anyway. but i never really trusted the touch screen controls. there were many instances where it was like my character had momentum when landing and walked off an edge or into something. there were other times when it felt like we barely made a jump.

That's one of the weirdest things about playing this game, i found it really difficult to navigate the 3D environment. sure, my character had a shadow so i could see where i was, but it was really difficult to judge where in a 3D space everything else was. sometimes i would have to move the camera side-on to make it a 2D experience to judge it. other times i'd hope. and sometimes i'd just repeatedly fail until somehow i didn't.

I had other issues with Dadish 3D that got in the way of my enjoyment. mostly they're question i had whilst playing it. the game has one good tutorial moment and then stops it. so when i found a star and it had little to no fanfare, i had no idea what was happening. or when other foods appeared, i didn't know if they were out to get me, if i could defeat them, or what. i had no idea how many stages were in each area or how many kids i was to get. for some reason the game never sent me to the overworld menu screen. there, i got some of my answers. but i only discovered that screen right at the end. the game never communicated it to me.

There are some other small issues, but ultimately they all combine into a gaming experience that i cut short of my usual hour play time because i stopped having fun and was more frustrated than anything else. So i can't recommend the mobile version of Dadish 3D. i don't know how it plays on #Switch or PC, but after this experience i'm not that keen to find out.

Version 1.02 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess On PS4

This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.

This is one of the better demo's i've played this year. the video starts with it saying this isn't the final game, some things may not work, and there's no support. it's making it clear this is a demo. after some options, we're greeted with the main menu and it also says it's a demo. what's great is that there's an option to go to it's PSN store page. Capcom have made it clear that it's a demo and made it easy to pre-order the game. 

At the end of this video, there is the first ending to this demo and once again Capcom have given us a link to pre-order the game. the only way the end could've been better was if Capcom added screenshots and/or a trailer for the game. It knows it's a demo, we know it's a demo, so we can focus on the game itself.

i assume this is from the start of the game, maybe with the opening cutscene and story cut from the demo. the tutorial and initial stages are very well done and work well together. i never felt overwhelmed nor did i feel that things we too easy. there were a mix of tutorial methods, ranging from the basic box of text on screen, to a check list to help you try out different attacks. later in the video, we'll get access to new moves and a little gif plays showing what it does. overall, i was surprised how accessible the game is for new players.

My time with Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess was so positive it made me wishlist the game after playing. if you're unsure, playing this demo will be great for you. but i do think that Capcom has a good game here and for some they should simply pre-order. i would've liked more of the story, more of the why, but in terms of gameplay its good.

Backlog Conquering - Tearaway: Unfolded On PS4 - Part 9 – A Second False End

For the second time, i thought i had finished Tearaway Unfolded. i didn't play the PSV version of it so i don't know if it's the same on there, but this PS4 version has tricked me twice now. the first time it wasn't too bad as i felt that they worked it into the narrative of the story very well. but this time, it feels cheap.

After beating the scraps, we ended up between stories in a section that looked cool but didn't offer much different in gameplay mechanics. but visually it was very different. the same is true when we reached the desert looking area. there were some cool visual and audio moments, but this feels like the first video we've done where nothing special was added to the gameplay.

This helps add to the thought that this third story feels a little unearned and cheap and that perhaps i would've been more satisfied with the game ending than what i have played so far.

Stories on Tuesday - Star Trek: Resurgence - Act 1 Part 1 to Part 4

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence.

In this video i play through Change of Station, The Lower Decks, All Hands, and Storm Surge in Act 1.

Cloud Monday - The Sly Collection - Part 1 - Better Controls Than PS2 Version But No Rewind

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

The previous game i checked out for Cloud Monday was the recently released PS2 version of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus on PS4, it's also out on PS5. That version of the game is running in an emulator. So the positives after Part 1, https://youtu.be/tphGJ4lCw88, and Part 2, https://youtu.be/gg_RuiDKR5c, were that you're able to save anywhere which is great when you only have 20 seconds before the service kicks you off, and that you're able to rewind gameplay and retry. But i wondered if the PlayStation 3 HD Rerelease would be better.

So as well as the usual goals of seeing how the game plays as it's streamed to me, i was checking out a personal question of is this PS3 version than the emulated PS2 version. 

The first thing i noticed was that it was a 16:9 screen, tho the resolution wasn't 1080p, it was maybe 900p. then i noticed the camera controls were much more modern. and then i was able to get into the police building, something which took too long in Part 1 as i took time to adjust to the jump in the game. So immediately i felt more comfortable with the game. 

But then came the first instance where i would've liked to have had the rewind controls. i was hit by a missile and the respawn point was right at the start of the level. Thankfully this section is very short, but it was a tad frustrating.

Overall, i found this version much easier to play. with no rewind, i also found myself going a little slower too. but i know this section having played it previously so it will be interesting if i'm able to get to the boss fight or even a new area in part 2.

This part ended earlier than i wanted as i was kicked off the service. thankfully, not only is it easy to save in this game but it's also fast so i was able to save before the 20 second count down. when i checked my internet stats at the speed test it was clear to see why i was kicked off, these speeds were very abnormal for me and other games i've played.

Switch Funday - Tetris 99 - 41st Maximus Cup - F-ZERO 99

There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 41st Maximus Cup is for the Switch game F-ZERO 99. By getting 100 points, you can unlock a F-ZERO 99 theme which includes sounds and a background.

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. in the first couple of games i managed to get into the top 20, with the first game being especially difficult. but other than that, i wasn't able to score too highly.