Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 7 - The Final Part

Part 7 of playing Gunstar Heroes on PS3 is the final part of my playthrough of the game. in part 6, https://youtu.be/RKKnRQQN82A, i ended that video with a try at the final boss rush. in this video i completed that boss rush as well as the final boss battle.

i don't want to go into story spoilers here, you can choose whether or not to watch how the video ends. but what i will say is that i found the boss rush to be easier than some of the other parts of this play through. i was surprised that i managed to beat it, i think, on my third try. i was a little lucky that the game continued from the final boss and that it didn't send me back to the start of the boss rush.

at the end of the game, once it's all finished, i'm kinda left speechless. it's one of the hardest games i've ever completed. it's hard to say why i kept on going, i imagine there's a level of stubbornness behind it. Gunstar Heroes does have some good points, and from a technological standpoint it does some cool things. but it's difficulty is brutal and unbalanced. i can only recommend that if you're going to play Gunstar Heroes as part of the SEGA Vintage Collection on PlayStation 3 then set the difficult to the easiest.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 6 - Completing The Empire's Space Craft

Part 6 of playing Gunstar Heroes on PS3 was interesting as it introduced a new gameplay mechanic. the first part of this video takes place in space. i'm in my space ship and the game is a side scrolling shoot-'em-up. for the most part it's not too bad nor too difficult. but it has one very weird control method. my ship always faces forward, so to change the direction of the guns i have to move the ship in the direction i want the guns to shoot and then fire the guns. i didn't really master it, instead i changed tactics to avoid incoming fire more than destroy them. 

the second part of the video takes place on the ship. it looks like it has crash landed so the action is similar to the previous parts. it's a short sequence before i had to fight 3 new bosses! each one, technologically speaking, looked great and interesting, but they all had their own frustrations. especially the first boss who had an annoying attack where it swept across the bottom of the screen, getting faster and faster, whilst machines attacked from above.

Defeating the 3 bosses is the end of the Space Craft section. so, to end this video i had a quick go at what looks like the final level of the game. it's a boss rush mode with some tricky platforming between each boss. it looks tough!

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 5 - Finally Saving Yellow

Part 5 of playing Gunstar Heroes on PS3 went as well as i thought it would. In part 4, https://youtu.be/OxdokqLjspU, i had already spent around 30 minutes trying to save Yellow, but couldn't. So this videos continues on from that.

From part 4 i have have two save files, one near the boss with low health and one a little bit into the stage with most of my health. i play both of them before settling into trying to complete the stage with more health to make the boss fight easier. The problem with the boss fight is that whilst i had learned the moves he uses, he was unpredictable and there wasn't a pattern to learn. it felt like a combination of luck and unfairness. But at the end, i did defeat him and save Yellow.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 4 - Completing The Strange Fortress

Part 4 of playing Gunstar Heroes on #PS3 went much longer than i anticipated. in the other 3 videos, each one has shown my attempts at completing it. I finished The Strange Fortress and thought it was the end of the video, but as i was getting the story about the plot twist, the game started the next stage!

So this video is two halves, the first half is the journey to complete The Strange Fortress, and the second half is my attempt at rescuing Yellow. I do not get to Yellow, so the second half will be continued in Part 5!

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 3 - Completing The Flying Battleship

Part 3 of playing Gunstar Heroes on #PS3 went better than part 2, https://youtu.be/Fjbreik3bTU, but it was still difficult. In part 2, it was a boss rush and in part 1, https://youtu.be/dfgBhdeJriE, the bosses were spaced out across the whole level. In this video, The Flying Battleship, it's a combination of both!

So the start wasn't too bad. going up and then across was fine. the first boss was easy, too. then there's a little more platforming before the next two bosses, one after each other. the first of these two bosses wasn't too bad and i managed to defeat him after a couple of tries. But the final boss was much more difficult. He does much more damage, has many more attacks, and can navigate the small stage the battle takes place on faster than i can. So for this video, it took nearly 20 minutes to finally beat him!

There will be a part 4 as i'm interested in what the fourth stage will be like and whether or not it's the final level in the game.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 2 - Completing The Underground Mine

Part 2 of playing Gunstar Heroes on #PS3 saw me struggle to complete The Underground Mine. It was very hard to complete what was a small boss rush mode. there were no health pick-ups after each boss either. So this video is mostly me failing again and again but ultimately i did stick at it and beat the stage. Whilst i don't have a rewind feature, i was able to use the save feature to my advantage.

I'll be honest, this felt unfair. Whilst it was interesting to go up against different bosses who act and look differently, it felt like it was designed in such a way that i was meant to fail. Gunstar Heroes was an #arcade game first, so it's designed to take money. In some respects, a modern equivalent would be a Souls Like style game. in those games you learn by failing, as did i in this video.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 1 - Completing The Ancient Ruins

Gunstar Heroes is the new Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. it was a downloadable game that was developed by Backbone Entertainment as part of SEGA's Vintage Collection.

All the other SEGA Mega Drive games i have on PS3 i have either played on the Mega Drive or i played on PS3 when i bought them. Except this one. i don't know why, but i bought but never actually played Gunstar Heroes. I knew the game is highly regarded, but i didn't remember what the story was or what was going to happen when i started the game.

I was greeted by a screen where i could select my character's color and shooting style. the color is easy to understand but, after playing the game, i'm not sure i fully understood what the differences were between them. i chose the one that sounded like i could move and shoot. Then there's a stage select screen, again something i wasn't expecting, where i could chose between 4 stages. i didn't know if there's a "perfect" order to do them in so i just went with the first stage. I was not expecting to be dropped into a gun fight! the action starts fast and hard and it caught me off guard.

The game is fast, the action is frenetic, and the music fits. it was a lot to take in. the game then surprised me by having more than one boss in a stage! the boss battles seem to also act like a checkpoint. i found that out as health is scarce and i died often. thankfully, there doesn't seem to be a limit of continues. But i can't seem to pick up health easily. i have no idea why, but it's something that game hasn't mentioned how to do. in the menus, there are some tips but nothing that acts like a tutorial. the game does throw you in  and it was a tad intimidating. But the experience as a whole has been pleasant enough that i'll do a second video for this game and hopefully more.

Cloud Monday - Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness - More PlayStation Plus Premium Perfect Streaming

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness on my launch Japanese PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service.

In the first video, https://youtu.be/4acBC6x5XXI, as well as enjoying the game i would go so far as to say the streaming experience from PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming was perfect. it had been a while since i played a game with little to no streaming issues so at the time there was a sense of relief, too.

This second video continues that trend. once again i noticed no issues streaming the game and, in both videos, there were moments when i forgot that i was playing this PS3 game on a PS4 as i was so engrossed in playing it. 

It's a hard game, but if it's a style of RPG or if you're a fan of the series, there is a way to play the game just like you had the disc. unfortunately in this video i forgot to do the speed test, but over both days playing the game i'm comfortable in saying that it's one of the highlights i've had streaming games from PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Service.

Cloud Monday - Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness - Story, Tutorials, And Perfect Cloud Streaming

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service.

the only Disgaea game i've played is Disgaea 3 and that was on PlayStation Vita a long time ago. But i still remember roughly what it was about and the style of gameplay. for me, going into Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness i had an idea what it could be whilst also having no clue. thankfully, the game has an amazing tutorial that slowly and assuredly reintroduced me into the world of Disgaea.

I'm not positive where on the Disgaea timeline this game sits, but it felt like it took place after Disgaea 3. the characters and story seemed to match what i remembered of that game. here, the story did feel a little much. Like, they needed to quickly tell the story of what came as well as begin the story of this game. so really, in the 50 minutes i played, i didn't learn much about the story of this game. thankfully, there's a part 2 next week where i'm sure the game will move on from the world's past and focus more on it's own story.

And streaming it from PlayStation Plus Premium went perfectly. it's a very rare thing, more so when you compare the quality of this stream with previous videos. things had been rough recently but then there's this game and it's perfect. All i can think of is that maybe because it's a PS3 game, it requires less bandwidth than some of the PS4 games i've been playing. the speed check seemed normal and comparable to the previous videos so i don't think that has anything to do with it.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - From Start to Finish

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video the whole game of Malicious. this uses my previous Backlog Conquering videos to create a mostly seamless edit of the game from start to finish. it's my first time doing this and the beginning is a little rough. what was cut were the move tutorials and my many game overs!

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - The Final Part - Beating The Game

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 7, and the final part, of playing Malicious on PS3.

I DID IT! I FINALLY DID IT!!!!

this was quickly becoming the final video i was going to do with this game as i finally reached my limit. if i was ever going to complete it, it would've been in my own time and maybe released as a QT30E video. But with less than 5 minutes to spare, i did it. i beat that boss. it was close to failure at so many points i can't really believe i won.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 6 - Unable to Beat The Malicious

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 6 of playing Malicious on PS3.

i'm at the final boss of the game, i'm up against Malicious. but this video shows that it's not an easy boss fight. the boss battle is broken up into two parts, neither of which are easy nor are they straight forward. as well as the boss attacking you, with one attack being a one hit K.O if you don't block, there are also a number of flying enemies on the stage, too.

But there's also the issue of my own controller. one thing you'll see happen quite often is that when i try to use my shield i actually dash first as the stick drift gets in the way. the game has it's own issues. more than once i was inputting commands and nothing was happening on screen. there was also a glitch with the boss where it was preparing to launch an attack but never firing it until i moved.

Ultimately, this boss battle isn't as fun as the others had been in the game. they were difficult but it was easy to see progress in defeating them. with this one, it feels like it's maybe a bit too much for the game's own controls and design. 

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 5 - Beating my Final Boss, But Not Malicious

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 5 of playing Malicious on PS3.

I finally did it, i beat the boss. well, i defeated my final boss. this game uses a Mega Man style where you can fight any of the boss characters in any order you want. the main difference is that in Malicious, not only do you get a new ability but your opponents also get tougher. this can be seen in this video, and the last one, where there were enemies everywhere! 

But i didn't manage to beat the game. the goal of the first part of the game is to defeat the bosses who have kept some of the power for themselves. our character was created/summoned for the sole purpose of beating Malice, but before that we have to defeat 5 bosses. now i have defeated all five, i'm powered up and ready to fight Malice.

The fight against Malice is NUTS! and i couldn't beat it.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 4 - Failing to Beat The Final Boss

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 4 of playing Malicious on PS3.

The title gives it away, this video is me failing over and over again trying to beat the final boss of the game. it's the same boss i failed to beat in the first and second videos, too. what's heartening is that i am making progress. i got closer than ever to beating the boss and i feel like i'm learning more and more. But, as you can imagine, at the time it's incredibly frustrating.

I will do a part 5, i really want to defeat the boss and see the ending, unless there's more of course. i just hope it comes easier and quicker than this video. this is probably the closest i've come to getting proper angry whilst playing a game for QTE Gamers since i restarted things.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 3 - 2 More Bosses Defeated

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 3 of playing Malicious on PS3.

With part 2, https://youtu.be/pps7CfcmAow, being such a success i came into part 3 with some confidence. i didn't try that stage that has bested me across two videos so far, so that meant i would be trying two new stages. and like part 2, i managed to defeat those bosses!

It was interesting facing off against them as they were strangely similar. the first boss could fly and was fairly fast. the second boss could climb and jump and was even faster. and yet, the boss fight was completely different between them. the key difference was the stage itself. one stage was very open, the other was narrow and vertical. this meant it felt like the stages were just as much as part of the boss as the boss was itself.

This means, going into part 4, there is just one boss left. the same boss i've not yet managed to defeat. and whilst i've been getting stronger after each boss and getting new moves and abilities, the game keeps telling me that my opponents have also gotten stronger. so i go into part 4 not completely sure i'll be able to defeat the final boss at my first attempt.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 2 - 2 Bosses Defeated

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 2 of playing Malicious on PS3.

The first part of playing Malicious, https://youtu.be/ButMJkFE_P4, didn't go well. i played for nearly an hour but i was unable to beat the one boss i tried. I began to think that today would be the same, especially as i couldn't remember what some of the controls were, more specifically the power attacks and healing.

But with a bit of luck in randomly pressing buttons to find out what they did, i found i could change weapons. i never discovered this in part 1 and finding this in part 2 changed everything. couple this discovery with myself getting into the groove on how to play this game, part 2 became a lot more fun than part 1.

The game continues to look great and we got to see two new locations. the controls are still a little off, and we ended up needing to use more buttons too! but now there was hope and a drive to go forward. so there will be a part 3 and i will try out some other locations.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 1 - Making Little to No Progress in an Hour!

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 1 of playing Malicious on PS3.

I decided to move on from Outland as i wasn't enjoying it too much. Malicious is a game i've had, i think, since it came out but not really played. i enjoyed leaving it's game preview on the XMB and having it as BGM, and that will be coming to the PS3 XMB Game Preview series at some point in the future.

This is the final patched version of the game and i don't really know what that means. it was a big patch, but it didn't change the XMB game preview nor the main screen, other than changing the year to 2012 i think. so it's possible what you see me playing could be a little different. i wondered if it was updated to the 1080p 60fps or if it got a 3D patch.

The title of this video says it all. i played for over an hour but didn't progress the story at all. i did learn a little about how it plays and what moves i have, but i simply couldn't beat the boss i tried. the game's story is explained fairly quickly and it's a little light on details but offers enough. we know we're playing as a vessel, there's an upcoming threat we've been created to destroy. but we're not powerful enough because of those who came before who have not returned the power. so we have to go to them, defeat them, get the power back so we can defeat the incoming Malicious.

That sounds simple enough, but i tried one map twice and couldn't do it. after the first time, i went back and talked to our guide who revealed special moves. it's a shame that the game couldn't find a way to do that in a tutorial or in the real world as it feels like i wasted my time. the levels also have a time limit, too!

the game looks great, it sounds great, and it has some really cool touches like how it loads from the hub world to the world i played in. but it feels like it's a little short on detail and that might've been a choice made to get the game out on PSN quickly. i'll do some research before part 2 and hope that goes better.

Backlog Conquering - Outland - Part 3 - The Second Boss And Maybe The Final Video

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 3 of playing Outland on PS3.

This is a longer video as the difficult ramped up. the difficulty increase was a combination of more difficult platforming and more difficult game mechanics. the gameplay "gimmick" of this game revolves around colored energy. it has mostly taken shape in that you have to be the opposite color to an enemy to attack it and the same color as the energy balls to not be damaged by them.

But even by the second video, https://youtu.be/hovQECR-WGs, some of this was getting repetitive. with the enemies it's been mostly fair, just hit them more or watch out for when they attack. but the colored energy balls has been getting more difficult and frustrating. you can see, especially in this video, that dealing with it really slowed down the pace of the game and by the end i was becoming frustrated with the controls combined with the platforming and timing that i rather took the hit than deal with it.

After three parts with the game, there was little driving me forward. there still was little to no story, and now with the difficulty increase i lost my drive to progress in the game. There's no denying that the game looks great. but there's also little else pushing me forward in it. after 3 parts, the mechanics and gimmicks were getting repetitive and in a couple of cases i'd go so far as to say they were unfair. the second boss is an example where the game requires a lot of platforming, but there's an argument that the game's platforming is one of it's weakest parts, which means the boss felt a little unfair as it wasn't just my skill letting me down but the game's own platforming too.

Backlog Conquering - Outland - Part 2 - A Boss and Another 45 Minutes

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is the first video with a new PS3 game. for the video i played through the first 45 minutes, or so, of Outland. It's a game from Ubisoft and Housemarque. 

I've had this game for a long time. i speculated early in the video that i probably got it as a PlayStation Plus game. i didn't really think about it until i used it in my PS3 XMB Game Preview Series, https://youtu.be/WIh3ZkDSCLY. Going in, i didn't really know anything about it other than it's a Housemarque game.

This was an interesting first 45 minutes. the first thing i noticed was how gorgeous it looked. My capture device said it was 720p, but it looked so crisp, vibrant, and detailed that it could easily have been 1080p. technologically speaking, it's also run really smooth and i haven't noticed any issues with it, unlike Papo & Yo which i just finished as that game had all sorts of issues like screen tearing and framerate dips.

But it's story hasn't grabbed me. so much else of this game has, but the story we've had so far is very brief. there's not really been a great answer to "Why?" and the world we're playing in sure looks great, but again there's no reason why it looks the way it does. there'll be a part two and i look forward to seeing where it goes.

Cloud Monday - Zack Zero - Part 2 - An Hour With No Cloud Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing the PS3 game Zack Zero on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

Last week's Part 1, https://youtu.be/mhPphtnB2To, was over an hour where i experienced maybe a 5 minute period of poor streaming quality over the PlayStation Plus Premium service. in today's video, i had no issues streaming the game. 

The playing experience did have some rough moments, but they were from the game itself rather than from streaming the game from the cloud. the most common issue i experienced was screen tearing. this mostly happened at the, or near the, top of the screen. there were some stutters and what felt like framerate dips. a couple of times the game's own mechanics got in the way, namely that the game has control over the camera but twice i got ahead of it and it caused me to lose some health.

Aside from the game's own issues, it's not a bad experience. if you're looking for something to play on PlayStation Plus Premium, it does offer something unique. i can't think of many games that are sidescrollers that play quite like this. most games tend to follow a Mega-Man style. but this game has a more dynamic camera and plays with perspective more. it can be difficult in places and in this video i felt things weren't as clear as they should, but it should be fine content wise for younger people to play.