Sunday, November 19, 2023

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - November's Splatfest Tricolor - 15 Battles 11 Wins!


Welcome to Switch Funday.
It's day two of the Splatfest weekend so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon3. the connection issues and long waiting times for matches continued from yesterday, but on the plus side teamhandshake did much better today in Tricolor than in yesterday's Splatfest Battle.

Even tho my teams and i won 11 battles today, they weren't all big wins. some of them were very close, many came because the opposing teams forgot the golden rule with Splatoon 3, and that is inking. most of the teams i was on focused on inking as well as attacking or defending. this meant i was mostly confident that we had always achieved one goal. this is clear when watching the percentage at the top of the screen.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - November's Splatfest - 15 Battles 5 Wins!


Welcome to Online Saturday.
It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "What's your go-to greeting?" Splatfest in Splatoon 3. Our choices are between Handshake, fist bump, or hug. I chose to join team handshake.

This wasn't as fun as i had hoped. it was yet another Splatfest blighted by connection issues. it took minutes for nearly all games to be found, and twice games were abandoned due to disconnections. there were also a couple of times when games would continue even tho we'd be down a teammate due to a disconnection. it wasn't great after the last Splatfest, but the game has been patched since then and for things to be still bad is disappointing. As for how this Splatfest went, simply it didn't go great. i would often top the score sheets for my team, but as a team we simply weren't doing enough to ink or work together. so that also adds to the feeling that this wasn't a great Splatfest.

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Mobile Friday - Fortress Saga: AFK RPG - One of This Year’s Best Idle Games


For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Fortress Saga: AFK RPG on my iPhone 14 Pro. This game from CookAppsGames  is also out on #Android. 

Fortress Saga: AFK RPG has risen to the top of the gaming charts on #iOS so i was keen to see what it was about the game that was so popular. i cam away from this hour with the game very impressed with it. the team at  CookAppsGames  have created a highly accessible game, one with a great soundtrack, and even managed to combine the tutorial into building how the world works. Fortress Saga: AFK RPG also makes smart use of the phone's screen, making sure to not only avoid the dynamic island but also the curves at each of the four edges.

(Version 1.3.02 Played)

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Demo Play Thursday - Howl on Switch


For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Howl. This game, from developers Mi'pu'mi Games, is out now.

I was curious about this game. it's visuals are unique and interesting but the trailer made the game look like it was really difficult, not just in terms of difficulty but also in gameplay. So i went into this demo hoping that it would give some answers. 

This demo doesn't appear to be bespoke, it appears to be from the start of the game. on one hand it's good because we get the back story and tutorials, but on the other hand the tutorials aren't great and there's not much added to the story during this demo.

Frequent viewers will know i don't like the use of tutorial cards. this game does add a picture to the cards and tries to show the cards one at a time rather than all at once. but i don't think it works as the cards, when they come, feel out of place and not as useful as they would've been if they were shown earlier. i can't help but feel the game missed out on using the story to do the tutorial, or at least a large part of it. for example, instead of saying in the story that we were trained, why not let us play that. more backstory could be added, more character stuff and world building would help us care more. and once the tutorial finished, the game would start where it does in the demo.

In the video i complain that the tutorial cards are also underutilized. the biggest one was when a card told us how to turn on assist mode. it never said what that mode does, on the card, and just gave instructions on where to find it instead of giving us the option to turn it on from that tutorial card.

All this helped answer the question i had about this game in that it doesn't tell you enough and expects you to work it out for yourself. so it's not very accessible to new or less experienced gamers. So, as a demo, it does work as i now know this isn't the game for me.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Backlog Conquering - Abzû On PS4 - From Start to Finish


This is a video of my playthrough of Abzû on my #PlayStation4. I have edited together all 3 parts into one long video. the cut between each video is a little rough but i don't think it gets in the way of enjoying this playthrough. there is no commentary either.

You can watch each part at:

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Pixel Zuoh Cup 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 Pixel Zuoh Cup Revival! ( 2023/11/13 9:00~2023/11/20 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the  Pixel Zuoh Cup Revival. i have played this cup before, https://youtu.be/eREeSANOKVg. I think i did better in that cup than in this one!

It wasn't a great cup this week. i only played against two other players in two games. the rest of the games were up against the computer. i found it fairly difficult to make the needed matches for this cup quickly. it meant that whilst i got to the final boss a few times, i just didn't have enough time to defeat them. Without making the needed combos to get the big points, i wouldn't attack the enemies hard enough. so throughout this cup there are times when it looks like i'm about to make a big attack but i don't because i haven't triggered the attack bonus.

This week i played against:
ルーチヤ - Rank 67
お※ - Rank 65

Monday, November 13, 2023

Cloud Monday - Elite Dangerous - Part 2 - A Game Well Designed For Being Played Via The Cloud


This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Elite: Dangerous. I streamed this game, developed by Frontier Developments, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my launch model PS4. 

Part 1, https://youtu.be/0tB-9Q96zZgl, went really well and surprised me with how accurate and responsive the motion controls were. This video carries on where part 1 finished. the goal, in game, was to do as the game suggested, take on some trials. This section continued on with the game not really giving enough information on how best to do things. there were a lot of labels so it wasn't too bad, but these small accessibility issues do add up.

Something worthy of praise is how the game has automated certain things. As this is somewhat accurate, the distances between planets and solar systems is vast. so to help with navigation, the game has a system where it locks-on to the planet, takes control of our ship, and gets us there. this has been used to help us dock at stations, too. Having such an accessible feature also becomes useful if the internet connection isn't good. if we lose it, we know what we were doing. if the connection stabilises, then we've probably arrived at our destination.

Whilst the game itself may not be fore everyone, it is well designed to be streamed from PlayStation Plus to us. So much so that i would recommend it.