Sonic X Shadow Generations - Part 2 - Playing It In The Cloud Is Fine For Some - Cloud Monday

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Sonic X Shadow Generations via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1 i focused on the original Sonic Generation levels, something that i was familiar with. In this part i tried the new Shadow levels. we start with Shadow's story, something i was only vaguely familiar with as i haven't played a Sonic game where Shadow is a major character but i seemed to have picked up his story over time. This is told via a slideshow style cinematic. this feels very cheap with no effort to tie it into the game, like they could've had a chao watching it or something. 

When you start Shadow's game we have another cinematic that tries to tie it into the story we saw from the Sonic Generations group. it's fine but it really does feel like DLC. Shadow plays quite differently from the other two hedgehogs we tried in Part 1. as i progressed through the video i was unlocking new powers that could not only defeat enemies in new ways but also unlock new level traversal mechanics.

As i'm unfamiliar with Shadow, i didn't know the levels we were unlocking, some of the enemies, or the music. the music was great to listen to, i wonder how much was changed from the originals. But the levels were a bit hit and miss. i'm not used to Sonic levels taking nearly 10 minutes and there were additions to the level that hadn't been introduced and even after playing i'm not sure i can describe how they really worked. So out of the 4 i played, one was long, one was short, one introduced new mechanics in a way i didn't grasp, and i don't really remember the other. fair to say they're a mix bag and as i haven't played the game they're from they hold no nostalgia for me.

There are positives and negatives when it comes to whether you should stream this game from the cloud or not. for me, someone who's familiar and finished the Sonic Generations part of the game, streaming the Shadow stuff saves space. if your internet is great and very reliable, then streaming it would be good. But if you have a little trouble with your connection, the visual artifacts it would create could make navigating really difficult or the delay it adds to the controls could make playing is frustrating. 

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/8nnq2mPHlI8

Sonic X Shadow Generations - Part 1 - Re-Released Nostalgia - Cloud Monday

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Sonic X Shadow Generations via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I played Sonic Generations on PS3 and finished it, so this is game i could've been familiar with. but as this is Sonic X Shadow Generations, i thought that this might've been more of a director's cut or remaster. from this part, it feels like they just re-released the PS3 game and attached a Shadow section.

In this part i focused on the Sonic Generations part. unfortunately, it's not 1080p on PS4 but it does look better and more crisp than i remember the PlayStation 3 version looking. It does feel dated. it talks about aspects of gameplay and then never tells us how to do it or where to go, or if it does it's late. the game's difficulty spike at Sky Sanctuary is still here, too. so i'm just disappointed this is it, but what's here is fine.

Sonic X Shadow Generations allows you to manually save in the home area, but whilst you're doing a stage there isn't an option to save. so if you get the 20 second disconnection warning, you can save in the hub area or quit the level and save.

I didn't have this issue much in this part, but there's a high chance that any video issues could impact my gameplay. visually, when things are going fast there doesn't seem to be an issue keeping track of what's happening. but i can imagine that things might be tough if there's macro blocking. the camera zooms out with Classic Sonic making the character smaller on screen which could also be an issue if the video quality degrades. We'll have to see what happens in Part 2 if i come across some issues.

Demo Play Thursday - Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds from SEGA and Sonic Team.

I really enjoyed playing this DEMO. the game itself is already out now, i'm a bit behind with the demos after catching Covid, and it's been getting a lot of positive comments and praise so i was quite keen to try the demo and see what the fuss was about. 

On Switch, this demo looks great. loading wasn't too bad and the transition from world to world during the race was fine. there is a sense of speed as you race. i initially liked how the tutorial explained how the game is played but soon realized in the race that the tutorial failed to go over the buttons in the game. thankfully it doesn't take long to try them out, but in a race you're up against some strong competition.

In kart racing games, it's tough to make the opposition feel strong and fair. in the past, a criticism of Mario Kart games has been the "Rubber Banding" effect that would bring the other racers back closer to you. here in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds i didn't feel like the other racers were cheating. i could see them doing the tricks, aiming for speed boosts, and attacking other players. it felt like i was racing against some decent opposition. 

This meant that i failed to win all of the races i took part in. i typically won around 2 of the 4 races in the cup available in the demo. But as it is competitive and as the other racers are trying hard, the top positions would change race to race. i was racing against a rival and even tho i didn't win all of them, neither did they so i was always able to beat the rival.

The DEMO had some of the racers, some of the cars, and some of the customisation options. it was enough to mix and match and get a feel for how that works, it might be familiar to those who have played the older Sonic Racing games. there was also a Time Trial option which was also useful for practicing the tracks. it felt like there was about an hours worth of content and some replay-ability. i think this is a good demo for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and after playing it i do get a sense of why the game is getting more popular and i do want to play the game now.

Cloud Monday - Sonic Frontiers - Part 2 - It's Fine To Play In The Cloud But ...

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

Part 2 was a little rougher than Part 1 in terms of the streaming quality. When we checked the internet speed test at the end of the video it was better than Part 1. It was mostly Stream Tearing, when instead of a video we get grey instead. there were also instances of audio breaking up. it's not something i've noticed too much in past Cloud Monday videos so i'm not too sure if it was a result of the streaming or something the game was doing, like loading for example.

None of these were a big issue when it came to playing the game. with the wide open spaces sparsely populated by enemies, we're not likely to come across something if there's an issue. standing still and waiting for it to pass also won't be an issue as nothing hunts us down unless we get close to them. so the games deficiencies make it suitable for streaming, but it'll be up to you whether or not that's actually a good thing or just making the best of a bad situation.

QTE Gamers official rating is that Sonic Frontiers is FINE to stream from the Cloud but beware that you won't be able to do a manual save for nearly the first hour. the platforming is difficult regardless of the quality of the stream, and i kept stumbling upon springs and such. the lock on camera is rough and often requires manually readjusting. i have other issues with the game, but as it is some of it's negatives can work with being streamed from the cloud whilst others are already bad and would get worse.

Cloud Monday - Sonic Frontiers - Part 1 - Too Long Before Manual Save Unlocked, Empty World a Plus!

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

It's nice to bring back Cloud Monday. the main difference with the return is that in Part 2, i'll make my opinion clear and "badge" the game if i recommend playing it via the cloud, if i don't, or "user beware". feel free to check out the rest of the playlist, i think i've made the video titles mostly clear as to what my thoughts were.

For Sonic Frontiers, my main concern was how clear the world would be if Sonic was moving fast. unfortunately, it never really was an issue in this first part of trying out Sonic Frontiers. the open world segments don't really open up enough to go full speed and the more traditional stages i've done so far are short. in terms of gameplay, it's probably a negative but with how empty the open world has been it's actually a good thing for a game being played in the cloud. if the bitrate of the video stream decreases, or the resolution drops, or if there's lag in the controls, having an open world full of enemies would be really tricky. but here i'm not concerned about it.

In this Part, the stream held up well. i noticed no lag in the controls nor did i notice any drops in the video stream. i am concerned with the controls as even with how good things were i was having some issues controlling Sonic. there was a situation where i was trying to make a jump but my character's shadow wasn't below me indicating where i would be landing. there were also a couple of instances where the camera wasn't helping and pointing in the direction i needed to go. i was trying to make some jumps or trying to reach jump pads and i was unable to lock on or work out where to go. if i'm having this much trouble when things are going well, i imagine this would be a big negative playing Sonic Frontiers in worse conditions.

This biggest issue i had was with the game's save system. there is an auto save, but it never seemed as frequent as i would like. there is a manual save system but the game never told me about it and when i found it was seemingly unable to manual save for nearly the whole of this video. with the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming service, there's a 20 second warning before disconnection and after this first part i would not feel good trusting Sonic Frontiers' save system. the game does make it clear when it won't allow manual saves, but that didn't seem to match a lot of my first hour with the game. i couldn't work out why it didn't work.