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. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the #PlayStationPortable version of #FinalFantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on #UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from #GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have.
Combing all 17 parts into one video was too long for YouTube's current 12 hour video limit. so instead, what i've done is include the start of the game up to the first fight, then it's all the fights up to the final boss, and then it's the ending of the story. So you get the start of the story, the fights, the end of the story.
i didn't include the fights that were pointless. for example, there were a couple of times where i died and had to continue from a previous save file. the fights up to those deaths are not included here.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch on PS4, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
In Part 1, we learned that the game doesn't have manual saves. This is important to know as one of the disadvantages of streaming games from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service is that we're only given a 20 second warning before disconnection. In Part 2, we got new abilities, weapons, and completed an important mission, and still there was no ability to manually save so i'm sure this game doesn't support that function.
If we can't save manually, then F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch needs to have a robust auto save feature. checkpoints are good for a quick restart in game, but to come back to the game we need autosaves. it seems like F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch uses the auto save as a checkpoint. this means that the auto saves are frequent because the checkpoints are.
It seems like the auto saves, and therefore the checkpoints, happen before a fighting section, before a boss section, before a puzzle platforming section, and when you use a terminal. In what i've played across both parts, this means that i'm only going a few minutes in-between saves, typically as i travel between one point of interest to another. Whilst this isn't as good as a manual save, it's decent enough for F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch.
Because of how frequent the auto saves are, i'm am not going to dismiss F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch. it doesn't get my highest recommendation as a game to be played from the Cloud, but it sill gets one as it's a good game to stream. i would say that if you're not looking for a challenge and are in it for the story play on "Easy" as i found "Normal" difficulty to be what i'd expect "Hard" to be.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch on PS4, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
This is a game i've been wanting to try for a while. the artwork of the world looked so good and i've always been curious as to what type of sidescroller it would actually be. But as part of this series, the most important question is going to be how suitable is it as a game being streamed to my #PS4 via the cloud.
The answer so far is that it's not that suitable. that's not a knock against the game for how good it is as a game. this is about how suitable it is and how well adapted it is for the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Platform. The biggest problem F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch has is that there are no manual saves. the biggest issue this platform has is that there is only a 20 second warning before disconnection.
Another potential issue is that the game zooms out quite a lot. the world on screen does look great, there's no issue with the artwork tho the pop-in can be a little distracting. a couple of times in this part the video we're playing gets some macro blocking or stream tears. because the camera is further out and our character on screen is therefore quite small, these disruptions are quite noticeable and do impact gameplay.
As for the game itself, i'm mostly enjoying it. getting around the world is easy and there are a lot of little short cuts and places to check out. the combat is taking a little time to get used to, you'll hear me say more than once that i would like a dodge. as we're early on, i'm still unlocking abilities. as for the story, it's not revealing too much right now but that could be because it feels like we're still in the tutorial first main mission. some things have been teased and i'm looking forward to playing again in 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. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have.
With Part 15 not really offering much to the overall story, in Part 16 i decided to go and do the end game. It starts rough with the magic using White Dragon and like in Part 8, i think, they do a lot of damage even knocking out a couple of my team. getting off the first floor was a relief as the other monsters haven't come close to wiping my team. But we did end up back on the first floor and even end up going deeper. the levels are large and it's easy to get a little lost. thankfully this means we're levelling up nice so when we come to the first boss, we managed to defeat it whilst i was still buffing my team. i ended the video after the second boss which probably means Part 17 has at least 3 more to go!
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures on #PS4 via the #PlayStationPlus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model #PlayStation4.
In Part 1 we discovered that there was no way to do manual saves in the game. As i said back then, this is bad because with PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service you only get a 20 second warning before being disconnected and without manual saves you are relying on the game's auto save. we have seen that the game will save when you buy collectable cards, but other than that it's been somewhat mixed. With this in mind, this Part 2 look at the game let me focus more on the game itself.
Thankfully, the streaming experience this time was much better than in Part 1. this means that the lag in the controls i noticed are likely game based and not a result of the game being streamed to me via the cloud, but i should also admit that being streamed isn't helping. when this is combined with the obvious poor draw distance, on a technical level it really does feel like i'm playing a worse version of the game, tho i don't have a PS5 to compare it to so it could be equally as bad on there as it is on the PS4.
But it's not just the technical issues that make playing Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures a bit of a chore. i learnt between parts 1 and 2 that the movie voice cast didn't return for this game so my thought that the voices were a little off was correct. there are gameplay elements that make the game frustrating, too. combat shouldn't be a grind like it is. i have a powerful move that seemingly does little to the enemies, all whom can attack me quicker than i can use that move. the character also gets stuck in animations as they seem to have priority or take a fraction to long. i unlocked the high jump move and when i initialise it i jump up straight vertical, but in order to actually move forward to the ledge i have to wait for the jump animation to finish and then transform into a bat to get some forward momentum. the timing for such a move is tighter than it needs to be.
The premise of the game is good but the execution falls far to short to make it a fun experience. it's also not designed for being streamed from the cloud. not only do i not recommend streaming this from the cloud, i don't really recommend playing this version, at least, of the game. maybe you can try downloading the PS5 version of the game. but as it stands, on PS4 i can't recommend Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures.
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. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have.
By the end of Part 14 we were ready to take on the final boss(es) of the game, but the guide i'm using suggested going shopping for magic i might've missed. So that was the first thing i did. the guide also suggested taking on the Soul of Chaos dungeons. the one closest to the Chaos Shrine was the first one that unlocked, The Earthgift Shrine. i didn't look at the guide to see what to expect, but ultimately i wasn't too impressed with the dungeon and it's rewards. maybe if i had tried to defeat it earlier in the game it would be satisfying. but in this part, it ended up being a bit of a waste of time. so i left the dungeon and i'm back at the Chaos Shrine ready to take on the end game.
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. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have.
In Part 13 we made our way to the Flying Fortress and this Part focuses on the journey through it to beating Tiamat and getting the final crystal. it was also nice to get to look out of the window at the world below. to finish i got the sword Excalibur so i'm looking forward to trying it out in the next Part. one highlight from this part was discovering that my Master didn't need weapons equipped and now he's soo much more stronger than he had been up to this point.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I haven't done many games aimed at a younger audience as part of this series but when i saw there was a game from the Hotel Transylvania universe i thought this would be a good one to try as i've seen the first 3 Hotel Transylvania movies and enjoyed them.
None of the actors from the movies return to voice their characters in this game and for the most part it was fine. the only character that was really noticeable was Dracula. he's voiced by Adam Sandler in the movies, but here i felt that his character in the game sounded the most off but that could also be because he does the most talking in the game.
Much like the previous game i tried out for this series, Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures doesn't have a manual save system. there is an auto save system but it's difficult to trigger. what's really unclear is whether or not there is a checkpoint system and if it's tied into the auto save. i did perish and when i respawned it wasn't at the start of the level but rather somewhat close to where i failed. But there's nothing shown on screen to indicate that there's a checkpoint and i don't remember spotting the auto save whilst traversing a level. So that does mean, even just from Part 1, that i wouldn't recommend playing Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures from the cloud.
The game itself is a little rough. i did find myself fighting the camera a little but some of that could also be down to a little stick drift in my controller. the camera had some lag which could be down to the game being streamed but i suspect that it's an trait of the game as this is something that very rarely comes up in this series. There was some extreme pop-in as well, which is down to the game and not that it was being streamed. you can see fairly close to the camera that objects, shadows, and background elements would appear when directly in front of the camera and disappear when i moved the camera.
After just 1 Part, Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures doesn't feel well designed for being streamed from the cloud but itself has some issues as well.
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. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have.
I was lost at the start of this Part. i knew that i had to head for Lufenia but the guide i was using wasn't as accurate as i would've liked. but i got a hint in Gaia and eventually found it. The Mirage Tower was easier to find and easier to navigate than i expected. But with no Inn this part, i still have to be careful and i made sure to heal my team up at the end as i'm looking forward to exploring the Flying Fortress in the next part.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
In Part 1 I was surprised that there didn’t seem to be any way to manually save in this game. There are Auto Saves, but they don’t seem to be as smart as I would like for a game being streamed from the cloud. We’d get an auto save when moving from area to area in a town but out in the wild they were less frequent and rarely after a lengthy conversation.
So to me, it wasn’t surprising that when I was given the 20 second countdown, before being disconnected from the service, I was unable to leave a conversation and therefore unable to trigger an auto save.
So whilst I’m not going to recommend people stream this from the cloud, I am also not saying Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is a bad game. It has a few quirks and I’m certain the sound issues weren’t from streaming it. The combat is solid and I do like how the story lets us learn more about the past, which is useful for those like me who hasn’t played any of these games before, or carry on like we know everything already.
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. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have.
Most of Part 12 took place in the The Sunken Shrines. i initially took most of the right turns and ended up at the boss before half way. the dungeon itself didn't turn out to be too dangerous but the boss was the toughest boss we've come across so far. as i took the correct way to the boss, and the water crystal, i went back in to try out the other way and was reward with more loot, exp, and money.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I know of but have never played nor watched anything Sword Art Online. But i do know that the main concept is that it's meant to fake an MMO. so i was curious if that would extend to how it saves. MMO's will keep track of your character, what they're doing, where they are, and their stats their end but would this fake one? If it did, it would mean i would never have to worry about the 20 second warning before being disconnected.
But after this first hour it seems clear that there are only auto saves in Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization and, unless it was somewhere i couldn't find or i haven't unlocked it yet, no manual saves. for some parts of this game, like moving around the main town Aincrad, you trigger the auto save when you exit one area and enter another. this might be doable when a 20 second warning appears. but other than that, it wasn't too clear how and when it auto saves nor what would trigger it.
As is somewhat expected for a game of this type, this first part is full of cutscenes, character introductions, and expositions. this means there are minutes where we aren't able to do anything other than continue the conversation or, by using the L1 and R1 buttons, try and skip through it. skipping isn't ideal as for me, someone not familiar with this series, i'd want to watch them and learn about the past and the present. The auto saves are clear in the top right, but if you're going to get a 20 second warning during one of these cutscenes you're going to either miss out on story tell, assuming it'll autosave when it's done, or have to go back and sit through the same story piece again.
From this first hour, the save system and lengthy cutscenes do make Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization somewhat unsuitable for being streamed from the cloud. We'll see in Part 2 if things improve in regard to this. other than that, and the games odd camera delay, there are positives in regards to it's design and it's suitability. the graphics are simple, big, and colorful, which meant when we had some hiccups with the stream it never got in the way of gameplay. the controls feel responsive and i felt no lag there with the stream either.
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. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the #PlayStationPortable version of #FinalFantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on #UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from #GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have.
In Part 11 i did a lot of little tasks that didn't seem to be a part of the main story line. In Part 10, i did the Citadel of Trials and got a reward. Here, i was able to take that reward and got a buff to my character classes. one thing that was made clear to me in this part was that the guide i'm using is skipping some of the story telling. twice i went off to different places in this video to get a fairy and a warp cube. from my playing, there were no story reasons for this. but in Onrac i talked to everyone and found people who would've given me the story for finding the fairy. i'd been curious if i had been missing some of the story telling and now it's clear to me that i have. i can understand why the guide skips some of it as it's streamlining the experience. but for me i think i would've liked to have got the story and then used the guide to find out where to go next. i don't think i'm going to change things in the future videos as i've already used it as much as i have.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Hotshot Racing on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
In Part 2, my goal was to try out the online features and see if there would be any lag or any issues playing it via the Cloud. i wasn't expecting there to be issues as i've played online modes before in this series. unfortunately, there wasn't anyone else playing online. Initially tho i didn't think this was going to be an issue as it populated the race screen with Ai racers. but under that screen in small text it actually said we would need either 2 or 4 human players to start a race. seeing those Ai racers did get my hopes up. There was another section of the online that had labeled a section Servers. but as it wasn't populating i didn't know if this meant this section was going to show available races to join, available servers to join (as in a named server,) or available servers (as in regional servers.)
With nothing happening online i went back to Grand Prix and even tho the "enemy" tried their best to take me out i did manage to get gold. i only ever played on Normal difficulty level and i found the Ai of the computer racers to be really tough, in terms of their racing ability and their attempts at taking me out. i mentioned in the video that if often felt like i did bad because of them rather than because of my own skill. a comparison i tried to highlight was when they hit me and i would loose control and end up pointing in the wrong direction but when i hit them they had a moment of instability before straightening up like nothing ever happened. simply put, the Ai in Hotshot Racing didn't feel fair.
With their being no saves between races in Grand Prix and no online modes to speak of, the only thing worth doing in Hotshot Racing via the cloud would be either time trial or single races. because of this i can say it's only FINE at best when it comes to it's performance being streamed from the cloud. a game this small is better off being installed locally.
War Robots: Frontiers is a free to play game that recently came out on the PSN. i downloaded it to my PS4 when it came out and since then the game has been regularly updated, tho my PS4's update section for the game says it's 1.01 even tho the game is now 1.10. So coming into the game i was confident that i would get a decent gameplay experience. for me, what i was really interested in seeing was how the game would tackle the tutorial as this has been a huge let down across nearly all of the free to play games i've tried out.
Unfortunately, even tho War Robots: Frontiers does have a tutorial it's quite bad. one of the first examples is when you start the first tutorial. it'll explain the game mode you're playing and the requirements to win it, then it'll let you play without explaining the loadout of your mech and what each of the buttons do. the tutorial is against bots and already pauses the action so i really don't understand why it can't do it again to explain my mech's loadout and how to use it. even after the live stream, there's at least one attack on each mech i don't fully understand.
It doesn't get any better on the home screen. this is often the biggest challenge for free to play games as they often fill it with icons and adverts and such, but then don't explain most of it or any of it. Mobile games have the best approach to home screens, usually greying out modes and options we don't need right now, haven't unlocked as yet, or it hasn't explained. War Robots: Frontiers has a busy home screen and there are times it tries to explain stuff but the first couple of times i missed it because it highlights a section ever so slightly and it times out really quick. War Robots: Frontiers really needs to ask the player if they want a tutorial. if they don't, fine let us play. but it we do it needs to take things one step at a time, slowly, and with examples.
And just as importantly, the tutorial needs to be smart and restrictive enough that we can't fail it. i found out near the end of the live stream that i made a mistake in a much earlier tutorial to the point where it had a negative impact on my gameplay as i should've had 4 mechs and not the 3 i used. a smart tutorial would've also been helpful cause the game would've noticed i've not used L2 since it started and it could've told me that i should use it as i felt really stupid when i accidently pressed the button and saw that it zoomed in and was really useful.
War Robots: Frontiers is lucky that the basic gameplay is solid. even tho here in Yokohama Japan i was mostly playing against bots, their ai was sufficient for me to have some really fun games. it's entirely possible that there are more players on other servers, but i don't know because the game never shows that information. it was very frustrating that i wasn't able to pick what game mode i wanted to play or, like Foam Stars, tell the game which modes that it offers i wanted to play. there's only a Play button and we get what we're given.
So with War Robots: Frontiers' poor and frustrating tutorial, so-so UI and home screen experience, and lack of match information and choice, i agree with my chat that War Robots: Frontiers is fine at best but not really something i want to keep playing regularly. if they overhaul what surrounds the good gameplay and improve the user experience and make it accessible to new players then i'd be happy to stream it again. but as it is, War Robots: Frontiers is more frustrating than it should be and more than what it's gameplay can overcome.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land.
Atelier from Gust is a series i've been aware of for a long time and i even have the PS3 version of Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland, tho i've not really played much if any of it. i've always been curious but never given the series the time it deserves, so when the DEMO for Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land came out i was keen to give it a go and i'm glad i did.
This PS4 version of the game didn't feel like a downgraded version of the game. it looked fantastic, sounded great, and the controls felt responsive. the loading times were perhaps the only thing that felt a tad long but they weren't too frequent. going in and out of battles was seamless and when i got to the second part of the demo, the open world had no loading as i moved from place to place.
As a demo itself, and as the opening to Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, it's very welcoming to new players. the demo, and probably the start of the game, goes step by step introducing how the game is played by modern feeling tutorials. more and more, games are moving away from just text on a screen on how to do something and this game is a great example as it shows videos of what should happen. the level design is also smart enough so that you're able to try out each new thing one after another instead of having to do it all at once. the first part of the demo is also always pushing you forward, with stuff happening to the level meaning you're not able to back track and that you're unlikely to damage yourself going forward.
It wouldn't be until the second half of the demo when it tries to explain the Atelier powers aspect of the game that i feel like the tutorial kept things simple but tried to explain too much in one go. story wise, it made sense, but for us unfamiliar with this aspect of the series it was a lot to take in all at once. i feel like they could've made it simpler or broken it up into more steps over a longer time instead of the lore dump it felt like at the time.
But i said this did fit into the story as our character does come across, more so in the second half of the demo, as someone what excitable and keen to share Atelier Alchemy. as we find out, there are a lot of others less keen on it and her so when two people come along to assist our character it makes sense why we get a lot of it all at once.
I didn't finish the demo in this video, but i did end it just after a story tease by the game. the title of the game, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, has been shown to tie into the game so when the possible tease of more story happened, it wasn't shocking but it did feel appropriate.
There are a few things about this demo for Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land that feel a little stereotypical or tropey, but from what i played it's not in a negative way. i enjoyed the gameplay, the story, and the world this demo introduced. the only thing slightly disappointing about this demo was how it failed to detail what each of the difficulty settings do. even tho it's tutorial was modern, this did feel like an oversight. personally, i like playing for the story so i would keep the difficulty at easy. but after playing this demo and seeing how fun the combat is, if i were to get the game i'd actually play it on normal.
I think this demo for, and most likely the start of, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is great and well worth trying for those who are curious. i tried the PS4 version and it played great, i didn't feel like i was getting a lesser version of the game.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Hotshot Racing
on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I haven't checked out many racing games as part of this Cloud Monday series so when i was looking for one to try Hotshot Racing caught my eye as i felt that it could not only be fun to play but it's arcade racing style and fast gameplay could be an interesting challenge for a game being streamed from the cloud.
Now, the first thing that will become apparent is that my PS4 controller started playing up as i started playing this game. it appears i now have stick drift in my right analogue stick and in Hotshot Racing that stick controls the camera. so i'm unable to use the boost much in this video but after the initial confusion things do seem to become manageable.
This issue i had did highlight a big issue or reveal that Hotshot Racing does not have control customisation. this will mean that the game isn't the most accessible. combined with the fact there was no tutorial, no introduction race, and only the controller layout as a screen, really highlights that perhaps the developers stuck a bit too close to the retro style for the good and bad of the user experience.
Here, there was a thunderstorm outside but for the most part my internet connection remained stable. whilst playing Hotshot Racing, the main issue i noticed with the video stream was some macro blocking. this is when instead of fine detail, colours become larger squares. but in Hotshot Racing, this never became a problem because of the retro graphical style. there's not much fine detail anywhere in the game so when there was macro blocking it really wasn't that noticeable. it wouldn't surprise me if it happened at other moments during gameplay and i just didn't notice it.
I didn't notice any issues streaming the game during this play time. the controls were responsive, there were no drops in bitrate, no lowering of the resolution, no artifacts, and after the beginning of the stream no warnings about the stream.
But playing Hotshot Racing wasn't the true retro arcade experience that i thought it would be. it looks like games from the late Mega Drive to PlayStation 1 era, but the music didn't quite feel right for this type of game. at times, it felt like the music might've been more appropriate for a WipeOut style game. but the thing that i noticed immediately were the other racers. older racing games of this style usually start of with easy opponents and as you progress through the cups the ai of the other racers gets progressively more and more difficult. i did all my racing today on normal difficulty and i thought the other racers were out to wreck me instead of racing against me.
This works against Hotshot Racing and combined with the lack of an intro race or controller customisation really does make Hotshot Racing feel like it's not that accessible for friendly for those who are curious. You'll hear me say that i tried out racing styles and cars similar to Ridge Racer because i have that experience. for those who don't have that experience, i honestly think it could take several attempts to finish the first race, let alone try to win it.
