Switch Funday - R.C. Pro-Am - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

For today's game i wanted to try out the NES game R.C. Pro-Am from Rare. This was a recent addition to the service and a game i've heard many people talk about for a long time now. I was quite eager to give it a go, but i didn't really know how it will play. I've got experience playing top down racers like Micro Machines and behind the car racers like Moncao GP, both games on the SEGA Mega Drive. But this was a side on isometric game with graphics that surprised me.

R.C. Pro-Am is a fairly early NES game so i was surprised by how good it looked. sure, there are few cars on track and not all the screen is used, but what is on screen is very clear. The only issue i had was that i felt like the controls weren't as tight enough for how narrow the tracks were.

On real highlight was the soundtrack to the game, all the music i heard was fantastic and i really enjoyed listening to it. I was caught of guard by the game going straight into racing. i imagine the game's manual would've explained things a bit more as i had to learn whilst playing. Early on, i didn't know that i had weapons, but once i learned there are weapons i fully enjoyed using the rockets.

I hope the sequel, R.C. Pro-Am II, comes to the service as i imagine it's a more refined and impressive game than this was. But R.C. Pro-Am is well worth trying, there are a lot of positives and using the #Switch save state feature means you don't have to worry about starting from the beginning. Tho i kept doing that as i felt like i was learning each time i tried again.

Online Saturday - Tetris 99 - 39th Maximus Cup - Princess Peach: Showtime!

This weekend there is the 39th maximus cup in Tetris 99. the prize this cup is a Princess Peach: Showtime! theme. It has been a while since the last Maximus Cup but as the game was updated recently to 2.4.0 i suspected that Princess Peach might be coming, my guess is that the 40th cup will be Paper Mario. 

As it has been a long time, the first game was over quickly. i really felt rusty. but the second game went much better, it was actually my best game today! My worst was the final game where i was the first one knocked out! it seemed like there was a mistake in every game. sometimes i could recover, but other times it would be coupled with being attacked by many others i would lose really quickly.

How did it go for you? let me know in the comments. If you got the win, Congratulations! My best this week was 10th.

Mobile Friday - ASTRA: Knights of Veda - Game Of The Year Contender, With An Extra 5.7GB Install!

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out the newly released ASTRA: Knights of Veda, from developers Flint and publishers HYBE IM. I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android and Steam.

ASTRA: Knights of Veda came out this week and shot straight to the top spot in the Action Genre charts and got some impressive ratings. I hadn't heard of this game prior to seeing it top the charts so i was eager to try the game and see what the fuss was all about.

But let's talk about the single biggest issue about this release. The game is already a 3.58GB download and after you create an account to play the game you're forced to download a further 5.7GB of data. When games have an additional download they often give us a video to watch or pictures to look at or even tips and minor story stuff to read. With ASTRA: Knights of Veda there's the same picture and looping music. it took about 13 minutes to download and install all that data. I firmly believe that any mobile game should download all it's data at the initial install and there should be no further downloads. Game updates should be used to add additional data to a game. By having such a massive additional download, the game is essentially unplayable without Wi-fi. i dinged Honkai Star Rail, https://youtu.be/g5wTksigHyU, for this last year. i didn't think that game was Game of the Year material so it only got a mention. But ASTRA: Knights of Veda has the potential to be 2024's Mobile Free to Play Game of The Year and with how my rankings currently work, the 5.7 GB additional download makes it illegible. 

The additional data download is probably the only bad thing worth mentioning as the rest of the game is fantastic. the music is very good and a soundtrack i'd be happy to own for sure. the graphical art style looks familiar to Vanillaware games whilst also feeling entirely unique. I was very impressed how ASTRA: Knights of Veda incorporates the game mechanics into the story itself, something that's rare to see and one of the reason's last years Free to Play Mobile Game of the Year winner was Fortress Saga: AFK RPG, https://youtu.be/YzOEz4T_PkE.

I was hooked right from the beginning and there are long periods where i'm so focused on the story and gameplay that i forgot to commentate. The story is very well told with amazing cutscenes and in-game cutscenes. when we played in game, the controls were smooth, responsive, and well taught to us via tutorials. Game Pad controls need some tweaking as the icons get a bit too small on my phone screen and my TV and there were a couple of occasions where i couldn't find the correct button to press but this wasn't a big issue as i could touch the screen to switch it to touch controls and manually do what i needed.

ASTRA: Knights of Veda call's itself a "Beautiful yet Brutal 2D RPG" and this first hour has the body count to back that up. there are large numbers of enemy soldiers to fight and large numbers of your own fighters strewn about the battlefield. It may look like medieval world but the story quickly turns into fantasy with a mad king, undead, a goddess, magic, and more. and yet, it never feels out of place nor over the top. everything is explained, history is told, and the game carries on as if this is how the world is with such confidence that there's no doubting it. 

I highly recommend ASTRA: Knights of Veda, it's a must download. BUT you must start the game on wi-fi. Other than that, it's faults are few and far apart. 

Version 1.0.0 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Pepper Grinder On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Pepper Grinder, developed by Ahr Ech and published by Devolver Digital.

This game had gotten some positive attention and i had heard many people talking about it on podcasts i listen to. So i came into this quite positive and it makes a great first impression with big music and an evocative image of a skull and a drill. But as i played this demo, the first impressions that this game gives didn't really match with the gameplay. In the video i call it lo-fi beats to play games to, whereas the music at the intro screen is anything but lo-fi.

There's no doubting the visuals of this game. throughout it looks amazing with not only high quality pixel art but also high quality animations. the life in the world is moving and there's energy to it. And yet, the music feels much slower. this is in contrast to the drill we use as that can drag us quite quickly, but the levels that we played in this demo seemed built around a slower pace. Even tho this demo is 3 levels, this mix was confusing and noticeable playing it.

For me, the overwhelming feeling i got from this demo was that the game's quite shallow. the gameplay didn't match the visuals, the level design didn't match the controls, and who knows what we're actually doing and why 'cause there's no story whatsoever. each level is packed with many new ideas on how to use the drill that it feels like the game's being front loaded, leaving me feeling overwhelmed trying to use a drill that controls however it feels in all new scenarios and wondering if by the end are the levels going to be too packed with everything the devs thought of or just repetitive and boring as it's all be shown so far.

In this demo, and i imagine the game too, i wanted shorter levels that dealt with each new mechanic one or two at a time. so i could get used to how the drill controls, so i could get used to the level design, or simply so the game could've spent a little time on story and tutorial. As it is, i came away from this demo frustrated and i didn't enjoy my time with it. Oh, this demo ends very abruptly, so much so that i called it out for being rude.

It's not a great demo, to the point where i wonder if it's actually negative to the game, whether its a fair representation of said game or not. Pepper Grinder isn't for me and not only do i not recommend the demo but i don't really recommend the game either.

Backlog Conquering - Kamiko On Switch - Part 2 - The Next Two Stages And Final Boss

This is part 2, the final part, of playing the Nintendo Switch version of Kamiko, from developers SKIPMORE, as part of Backlog Conquering. 

I was a bit surprised that i finished the game in this part. I was enjoying going to each of the different locations and fighting against their unique enemies and boss. But, by the end of this video i was getting a bit frustrated with the respawning enemies. I talked about it in the first part, https://youtu.be/4bmi0nwJzzo, and i do understand why they respawn, the blue orbs they release are currency for a special attack and opening stuff, but it doesn't stop it being frustrating.

The option is there to try to beat the game with two other characters. each plays differently and my guess is in doing so we would unlock the special menu labeled ?????. But for me, playing through the game once is enough. i did enjoy the art, music, and designs. but i don't want to play again with the respawning enemies and the feeling that luck is needed rather than skill.

But with this game taking less then 2 hours, i think it's a good length. i had frustrations, but i wasn't ready to stop playing. i think if it was longer, then maybe things would've added up and i might've stopped playing. but at 4 locations and a final boss, it's a great length. So i would recommend Kamiko as there's plenty to enjoy. just know that it can get frustrating. but it's ok to put it down and come back later as you're likely to finish the game.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 6

Hello and welcome to Part 6 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.

In part 5, https://youtu.be/NwYjqhS59SY, we were introduced to the people maybe closest to our Grandfather and one who was a suspect. In this part, we focused on that suspect and learnt about their life and current situation. In Part 6, we finished Chapter 2 of the story by deciding whether or not this friend of our Grandfather is a suspect.

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.

Cloud Monday - Death Stranding - Part 2 - Cinematics And Save Limitations Make It Hard To Recommend

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Death Stranding via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In part 1, https://youtu.be/4-ih2i8MSrY, i was surprised how, at first glance, Death Stranding looked like it was going to be a good fit as a game to stream from the cloud. But after playing more in Part 2, it became harder to recommend it.

The first surprise last week were the manual saves. But in this part, 2 things came up which kinda ruined it. the first was that when you can save manually, there are limitations on when you can. In this video i was up against BT's and i thought i would save before dealing with the situation. But the game wouldn't let me save. I showed that the game doesn't tell me when the last Auto Save was or where it would load me back if i were to load another save. I had to trust the game that if i died, it was fine. Then later there was another limitation in our apartment when the control scheme of the game changed. before, i could just press the "Options" button and access the save menu from System. But in our apartment, that didn't work. the first time there i didn't know what to do and continued playing, it's a big reason why this video is much longer. When we were back in there  the second time i had an idea about looking for a console and whether that was replacing it. I found one and yes, that's where you save. But the game never told us this and now i don't know if there'll be more changes and limitations further into the game.

In Part 1, it was evident that the game was going to use long cinematic cutscenes and cinematic effects during gameplay, in both parts this can be seen when music starts playing. Personally, i don't mind these and was enjoying the story being told to me. the problem that arose more in this part is how the break-up of the video being streamed to us from the cloud can detract somewhat from the cinematic effect. Whilst these didn't happen often and were very short, they are easily seen. they story being told isn't affected and i heard everything. but it's how it affects the presentation of the story that's the issue, it's a large part of this game.

It's not all negative about playing Death Stranding in the cloud. For those who have played the game before and know the story, playing it in the cloud is a great fit. For those, like me, using the first version of the PS4, streaming the game in the cloud is a great experience because the PS4 fans are very quiet. a game that pushes the hardware hard like Death Stranding can really ramp up the fans and detract from the audible experience of playing the game. But during both parts, my fans were quiet and i got into the atmosphere of the game from the sounds and soundtrack.

But not everyone has played it and not everyone listens to the music and sounds when playing. so, all together, it's more difficult to recommend Death Stranding as a game to be played in the cloud. for most, downloading it onto the PS4/Pro and PS5 would be a better solution. But i would argue that streaming it is a good way to try it out first and then you could decide to download it or not.