Cloud Monday - Humankind - Part 1 - Auto Saves Every Turn Make It A Good Choice For Cloud Streaming

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Humankind on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I don't have too much experience with games of this genre in recent years. So a part of me went into this video expecting things to be slow but also hoping for a great tutorial. i found the tutorial to be disappointing throughout this video but thankfully it wasn't slow. Humankind not only plays at a decent speed it also is very quick in between turns. It's just that it doesn't give out information, and when it does it was often a turn behind or even getting in the way of what it was trying to show. thankfully for Humankind, the focus of this series is checking out how suitable a game is for being streamed from the cloud.

it was hugely surprising that the game never showed us or told us how the auto save system works. Soul Hackers 2, the previous game in this series, made it clear what the auto save was, when it worked, and proudly displayed it on screen when it did. With Humankind, i didn't discover that it was auto saving until i went hunting for the manual saves. thankfully, the manual saves were clearly labelled so it was easy to work out that the game is saving at every turn. that is fantastic news, as we the player are only ever given a 20 second warning before we're disconnected from the game. this means, if our turn is just starting we can wait out the countdown. if we're finishing or have finished our turn we can press square to end our turn and the game will auto save for us, and of course there are manual saves.

Whilst this aspect of the game was great, playing it was rougher than i would like. it didn't come across as very welcoming to new players to the genre. it also wasn't very accessible in some respects because i was unable to increase the size of anything. i don't sit close to my TV and it's not that big, so there were times when i couldn't work out what buttons it was showing via pictures.

Going into Part 2, what i will be interested in is if the time between turns grows larger and larger. at the moment, saving and ending turns seems very quick and under 20 seconds. but if it grows too large, maybe even the auto save won't be great.

Demo Play Thursday - Rally Arcade Classics On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Rally Arcade Classics.

In the PS1 and Game Boy Color era, when it came to rally games i was far more interested in the arcade style games. i remember playing V-Rally, tho i don't remember which ones, and enjoying the rally style but arcade feel. for me, i was really interested in Rally Arcade Classics as it wasn't clear from the eShop how arcadey or how realistic it would be.

When you start this demo you're greeted by a screen that details what's included in the demo. this is fantastic and something that is rarely seen. what they fail to mention is that online leaderboards for every race in this demo are also available! the only downside to the start of this demo is that it assumes you'll go to the options and check the control section. at no point does the game tutorialize the controls. this isn't a big issue in this game because of how short the races are and how quick the game is able to restart, but it feels like a bit of an oversight when so much else about this demo comes across as bespoke and having had time put into it.

There was one more thing that i thought the game was lacking whilst i was playing it and that was the ability to play against the ghosts of other players. as this was a demo, it could be that it's not in the demo. But this was a fully featured demo so i suspect this is the case in the full game. it's a shame as we can clearly see where we stand against other racers in the standings. but at least we have that and we're able to race against our own ghost in the attempt to better our times.

after playing this demo for Rally Arcade Classics i can say that this is the arcade rally game i've been looking out for. it has time limits that some more arcade style games have but the cars have a feel more akin to more serious rally games. you can't just "cheese it" and win, there has to be some element of skill. but because it's arcade style, there's some forgiveness about it and it's less serious. each of the 4 cars i raced in felt different, looked distinct, sounded different, and for me i enjoyed racing the Alpine more than the others.

If you're looking for an arcade style rally game similar to those released on the PS1 and PS2, but not so much those released in arcades, then Rally Arcade Classics from Net2K Games is well worth checking out. the graphics were fine with this Switch version but i wouldn't say great. however the nigh racing worked very well and for the most part the graphics around the car were good enough. the short tracks mean draw distance isn't important, but when it was when i was racing down Monaco hills i could see the other cars ahead on track further down. the only complaint i have with this part of the game is the main music. it repeated far too much. but, the music isn't a critical aspect of the game so turning it down to focus on our co-pilots advice would make sense anyway.

Backlog Conquering - Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition On PS4 - Part 2

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.

after some initial stumbling as i tried to remember the controls, playing Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition was a lot of fun. it was nice to finish the area we were in, explore a new city, work through a whole new area with a water riding section, and finish exploring another new city. i didn't expect the final city to be so interesting, i only started exploring because i could so i was surprised to learn a new move that was really useful. i'm having a lot of fun so i will return with Part 3!

You can watch other parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/y20ZZ5IllmY

Stories on Tuesday - Arcade Spirits - Part 7 - A Troubled Launch

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Arcade Spirits from Fiction Factory Games. this is the disc version of the game, published by PQube.

This is Part 7 of my Arcade Spirits story and at no point was i able to predict what was going to happen. this was one of the better written chapters, it felt as chaotic as an actual launch but with the added pressure of a reviewer I, the player, felt pressure my self to try and have the best launch possible. but things started going wrong and before long things spiraled out of control to the point where our character nearly got a Game Over!

You can check out the previous parts of this playthrough:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/iPaMcNIB-pI

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/BBr3lviaf2s

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/n2QOLAQm--M

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/S0aaJtoLQz4

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/KeyDE9FhxBE

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/TYxIMh05j-Q

Cloud Monday - Soul Hackers 2 - Part 2 - I Would Recommend Streaming This From The Cloud!

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Soul Hackers 2 on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

It's a bold title but one i stand behind, i do recommend streaming Soul Hackers 2 from the Cloud to your PS4/PS5. it's not like a 10/10 rating as that initial wait for manual saves to unlock is far too long and there is soo much talking across both these parts that if we did get the countdown we'd be loosing out on story so we could save manually. But once it's unlocked, i was able to save even with an enemy rushing to attack me.

It's not just the manual save either. at the start of this part we got a basic breakdown as to what happened previously, when i played for Part 1. so a re-cap is very much welcomed. There's another bonus, one i only spoke about today for the first time in a video but for those who have caught the Live Streams it's something i've mentioned before. Unity typically runs poorly on these launch model PS4s so being able to stream the game was great as it enabled me to play the game at a better quality than if i had played it locally on my own PS4. 

I went into the options early on this part and changed the camera sensitivity and it instantly made the camera movements much better. it was just a slight change and one i would recommend. 

Soul Hackers becomes one of very few RPG's that i would recommend streaming from the cloud. if you are curious about this game, streaming it would be not only a safe way to try it out but a way to carry on playing it if you enjoy it. i'm playing it with a focus on story and for me i'm enjoying that balance but i can see how the combat and demon capturing/training mechanics would be more important and perhaps more interesting at higher difficulty levels.

Mobile Friday - Puzzle & Dragons 0 - Two Ways To Play, Nice Graphics, Good Tutorial, But Some Bugs

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Puzzle & Dragons 0 from developers GungHo Online Entertainment,  @PuzzleandDragons  , on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

As a casual fan of Puzzle & Dragons, i'm always interested in checking out their new games. for a company who have been making the same game for such a long time, there's also a degree of expectation placed upon them that the latest version of Puzzle & Dragons will have learned from all the previous ones and therefore should be better. so going into playing Puzzle & Dragons 0 for the first time i was really curious how things were going to go.

From the app store page it's not really made clear what the point of Puzzle & Dragons 0 is. the original game is still played by many people and it's still getting content updates. so it was a little disappointing that from the app store i didn't know what i was getting myself in for with this new game. but the app store does show the two different ways to place. the first way is vertical and the screen is laid out similar to how i took the Switch version and made it into YouTube Shorts, with the gems big at the bottom and the action smaller on top. This keeps information at the top of the screen like the time, phone battery, etc. the second way to play is more similar to the Switch version with gems on one side and the action on the other. what's disappointing is that making this mode right or left handed was in a completely different part of the options. i was also disappointed that the color blind feature didn't actually show what it would do. many games nowadays will put the items on screen and show how the feature works. the approach here in Puzzle & Dragons 0 felt a little old and a little lazy because of it.

The start of Puzzle & Dragons 0 is well designed. it begins with a tutorial that takes things nice and slow. we don't even see the home menu for a while as we're introduced to the games mechanics first, then the characters on our team, how to use them, the enemies, and so on. what is a little disappointing is that the game never reminds us that we can go into the options to check out what we've learned. like so many mobile games i've checked out, the tutorial is great until it abruptly stops. there are things about this game i didn't know because the tutorial stopped before showing me. the currency, terms like RCV, things and terminology that are used in the game were completely ignored by the tutorial. it didn't even show us where the options where or how to change the screen layout, even tho when we initially chose it the game said we could change it but never showed us how.

Thankfully, for Puzzle & Dragons 0 the core gameplay is solid and exactly what i expected from a Puzzle & Dragons game. the graphics do look nice, the music feels like an upgrade over the Switch version, and i do like how they use the phones rumble for the big attacks. But the game is still buggy. i noticed a few times i was getting combo's but my gems were still on screen. this was perhaps the biggest bug i came across. The game has hints and tips during loading screens, but on my phone the loads are so short i can't read them all quick enough. whilst not a bug, it does feel like an oversight by the developers. The "new" feature in Puzzle & Dragons 0, for me at least tho it's possible it's in other games, is how we get new monsters. i don't feel like it's explained as good as it could have been and i don't think how it's shown in the app is as clear as it needs to be. much like how the game has slowly introduced us to features, i feel this aspect should've been simplified for the tutorial and the first times we used it and then at Rank 5, it should be fully expanded into what it is. i didn't fully understand how to use this feature. the side menu stuff was never explained so i didn't know to go there to switch from red to other colors. the whole rank system was never explained so i didn't know that was happening until it told me i was Rank 5. this whole system feels like it's been tact on to the game rather than fully incorporated into it.

for Puzzle & Dragons fans, Puzzle & Dragons 0 is fine. it seems to be more of the same. for newcomers to the franchise, the tutorial will be a great start. but the bugs and abrupt cut off of the tutorial means the experience as a whole is disappointingly average from such franchise.

Version 1.0.4 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Captain Blood On #PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Captain Blood from developer SeaWolf Studio and publisher SNEG.

The history behind this game is fascinating and well worth checking out. it started life as an Xbox game, before delays and studio changes meant it was going to come out on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. there would be further delays, lawsuits, but eventually the discs were pressed and Captain Blood was set to come out until it didn't due to legal issues and it was forgotten.

This version of Captain Blood is built upon the original version but enhanced and tweaked for release across the PS4, PS5, Series, Switch, PC, and Mac. looking at it, it felt like the HD versions of Final Fantasy X and XII, which would make sense considering when the game started development, whilst gameplay reminded me of God of War. so for me, as someone who played a lot of games during that era, the was something nostalgic about the game.

Nostalgic doesn't mean good and there were some elements of Captain Blood that felt old. the settings were bare bones, the tutorial was text on a screen, and the check points were all over the place. what i noticed really quickly was how hard it was, too. it certainly didn't feel like a normal difficulty. not only were the enemies sponges when it came to my attacks, they were ferocious in their attacks and the long range attackers especially seemed to never miss.

It was a mostly solid demo, the only reason why it took an hour was because i died a couple of times and tried exploring when i could. I enjoyed my time with it but honestly it's not a great game. there are a lot of things "fine" about it and if i were to continue playing i'd drop the difficulty to casual as at normal the enemies and boss fights were starting to not be too enjoyable. i didn't mind the story on show but the demo failed to capitalise on it as there were no screenshots, trailers, artwork, or descriptions about what was to come in the game's story.