Demo Play Thursday - CRYMACHINA on PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of CRYMACHINA.  This DEMO, from developers FuRyu, is also out on PS5, Switch, and PC.

The reason why i chose to play this demo was because it's game icon on the PlayStation store looked soo cool. i didn't even check out any of the screenshots or videos on the store. i simply saw the icon and downloaded the DEMO.

I didn't finished this DEMO, but i played enough to know that it wasn't specifically built as a DEMO. it's simply the start of the game. But, in a way, this is good as we get to see the back story, the tutorials, and even some world building. In that sense, it's a great DEMO. But, what wasn't made clear at any point is whether or not our save will carry over to the final game. It's possible that it will say so at the end of the DEMO, but i didn't get that far. if you know, let us know in the comments.

The combat in this DEMO is a highlight, and potentially exciting for the full game. the controls felt accurate but also spamable for new comers, the tutorial was clear, if a little basic, and the visual affects were showy and added a cool factor and heft to what was happening on screen. But the DEMO made it clear early on that there's a casual mode which'll make the combat easier if you'd rather focus on the story.

As for the story, as this is only a short look at the game it's understandable that there are a few questions left answered. but the game does a good job of having the main character ask the questions that we, the gamer, would ask. I would say that it works. enough has been revealed to put the game in a world, some things have been explained well enough to explain game design choices, and some things have been teased as to what we're going to be doing in the story. But there's no hint of a twist as yet so it's hard to say whether the game as a simple story to tell or if everything's not quite as it seems.

Graphically, it feels like this DEMO is taken from a near end or final build of the game. it looks great and i was surprised how much i liked the architecture style. The main character designs may be a little busy, but they are distinct from the bad characters in the DEMO. everything considered, i would say this succeeds as a DEMO even if it's not really designed as one. so perhaps it's best to say that the first hour of this game is approachable for casual and hardcore gamers, and after playing it i am much more interested in it than i was before. so i recommend people play the DEMO, one way or another it's a good one.

Backlog Conquering - Abzû On PS4 - The First Two Shrines

The next game from my backlog that i'm going to play is the PlayStation 4 version of Abzu, a game developed by Giant Squid and published by 505 Games  .

I'm sure this is a game i got from PlayStation Plus, downloaded, but never actually played. Even when i changed the HDD in my PS4, i downloaded this game again because i wanted to play it. thankfully, this series has given me the push i needed to finally start Abzû, and after just this first part i'm glad i did.

Abzû is a beautiful game, even on my Japanese launch model PS4. it starts well, instead of just telling us to press a button it puts on screen the controller and also shows us which button to press. that immediately makes the game more accessible for people unfamiliar with the DualShock 4. What some people may not enjoy is how the game doesn't explicitly tell us what to do, but in it's own way it does give some hints in the first few areas as to what you'll be doing.

In this video, i did the first two shrines in the game. i don't yet fully understand the significance of the shrines, but like the rest of the game they are visually impressive. along the way, there are hints as to a story as there are seemingly structures, or ruins of ones, as well as surprisingly advanced robotic doors. There's also the enigma of the character we play as, as initially i thought it was humanoid. but as we were able to spend as much time as we wanted under water i'm starting to think that maybe we're not human. there are robots in the game, so maybe we're more advanced robots or even androids. in this video i wondered if this is a post apocalyptic world and our job is to help bring life to the oceans.

There will be a part 2, i'm very interested in this game. if you've watched the Rime videos  from earlier in this series, you'll know that i liked that game because i was playing and learning the story. the puzzles didn't really add much to that game. thankfully here there don't seem to be puzzles, other than the story itself.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Halloween Cup 1 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 Halloween Cup 1 Revival! ( 2023/10/23 9:00～2023/10/30 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the Halloween Cup 1 Revival. i have played this cup before, https://youtu.be/ij3CCf2-zlA. Much like this video, back then i found the gimmick easy to understand and back then it was one of my shorter videos. but also, like today, i didn't play against many other players.

I only played against 1 other human player, even tho i played the same day as last week when there were many other people. i did find the gimmick easy to understand, but trying to do it with a controller is difficult as it feels slow. i was only able to beat the boss a couple of times but regularly got to it. the A.I didn't provide much competition , but the human player in the last couple of rounds did and it was fun to see it decided via the end of game bonuses

This week i played against:

HIROKUN - Rank 76

Cloud Monday - Cloudpunk - Unclear Checkpoints And Auto-Saves Bring Unwanted Anxiety

This week's Cloud Monday video is is on Cloudpunk. I streamed this game, developed by Ion Lands, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service on my launch model Japanese PS4.

Going in to this game, i didn't know much about it. over the years i had heard this and that about it so i knew that it was something like a taxi/delivery game with lots of talking. but the specifics were unclear. But one of the reasons for choosing a "Cyberpunk" style game is whether or not the aesthetics of it would hold up being streamed to my PlayStation 4.

For the most part, streaming the game from the cloud doesn't affect the aesthetics of the game. the biggest issue the game has in this regard is with the PS4. the draw distance isn't too far so there is a lot of pop-in. it's hard to get a sense of scale, the fully grasp the whole world, when it's popping in as you drive along. But what you do get to see is some amazing voxel art and some huge buildings.

As the game uses varying sizes of voxels, i never really had an issue with how it looked or with things not being clear due to issues with the streaming. in the video, there was some macro blocking, some stream tears, some small hiccups, but in all these instances i still could understand the world. thankfully, these all happened in the car so it's possible out on foot it could be a little bit more of a distraction. the only issue i had with the cloud stream was an instance where macro-blocking made reading what a character was saying difficult.

Once again, it was the game itself that provided the biggest issue. In this video, i was unable to save my game, nor was i able to workout if the game is auto saving or checkpointing. I'll find out when i start Part 2 next week, but it genuinely adds a bit of anxiety to the experience because if there is an issue with streaming a game from PlayStation Plus, there's only a 20 second warning. I have no idea when the last save was, so i have no idea how much progress is about to be lost. The game's pace is slow and that works well with it being streamed, but that works against it if a lot of progress is about to be lost.

As a streaming experience, i do recommend it. But that comes with a huge asterix over the saving and checkpointing that i won't know the answer to until the second part of this series.

Switch Funday - Monster Hunter: Rise - Sunbreak - My First Hour Into The Game

For Switch Funday, i finally started Monster Hunter: Rise - Sunbreak, a game and DLC pack that i was gifted by my family for Christmas that i hadn't got around to playing.  I don't have much experience with any Monster Hunter game as i did get the Monster Hunter Wii U limited edition but never really played much and i don't really have any memories of it.

It starts with a character creator with some very in-depth options for customisation, but honestly i'm not into that so i hurriedly created someone, the same with my Palamute and Palicoe. the only addition i might've liked is the ability for the game to randomly suggest names. but other than that i feel that everything was clearly explained and liked how the game would highlight the part(s) of your character that you were about to edit.

Then the game begins and immediately it's a great looking game. looking around, there are some things around that are lower resolution or lower detail, but as a whole it really works. Capcom have been smart in their use of art to build a world that as a whole mostly works. i do find that the faces of some characters look more porcelain than others and there are some very low resolution shadows that stick out, but in the grand scheme of things those are fairly small complaints. i'd say that throughout the music is also great, but maybe they could've done what Zelda did and add some small pieces/handful of notes when you're out adventuring.

This is essentially my first Monster Hunter game so i'm relying on it's tutorial to guide me and i'm a little disappointed in that it's gone the text box route. especially when there's a character teaching us, it doesn't make sense to me that that character isn't demoing what the text box is telling us. the game already puts controls on screen, why couldn't it combine that with our trainer so we could see how things work. Whilst it hasn't happened in this video, i'm a little concerned that we'll have to dive into menus to learn/remember things and that there won't be reminders on screen.

This fear of being overwhelmed is highlighted in this video once all the free DLC has been added to the game via it's mail system. i do have complaints with this system, which probably could've been better worded at the very least, but this did mean that when i opened up my inventory the screen was filled with icons and stuff and no tutorial to help deal with it. 

I'm a little concerned about the tutorial and whether or not it'll be able to guide me through the game. i ended the video wondering where was the amiibo section as i do have the Palamute one. i can only assume, for now, that i've not unlocked that feature or found where it is. the game has already shown that it's going it's own pace and it could very well be that the questions i have will be answered in the next hour. i don't mind if a game has a long, slow, opening to it so i'll reserve judgement somewhat and say that i have concerns but i'm looking forward to the game proving me wrong.

Online Saturday - Redout 2 - It Feels Incomplete, Has A Bad Tutorial, And The Online Is Tacked On

Welcome to Online Saturday.

For today's video i'm trying the PS4 version of Redout 2 from 34BigThings. I have the original Redout game, also on PlayStation 4, but i haven't played that in many years. But i have pleasant memories from playing it. Redout 2 has recently come to PlayStation Plus so i was keen to try it as i'm still enjoying racing games at the moment. 

I'll be upfront about my feelings after playing this game, i do not recommend it. frankly, it feels like an unfinished early access game with modes tacked on. Even as a free PlayStation Plus download, it borders on a waste of time when there are far more games out there to play.

It starts with a cinematic that looks a little weird, like it's a lower resolution that the rest of the game. i wonder if the disc version of the game has a higher resolution cinematic than this. It tells some story before panning the camera behind our vehicle, then there's a lurch, maybe for a frame or two, as the graphics ramp up and we're into the tutorial. It does work well and it is exciting, but this tutorial is at full speed and adds a level of anxiety as it feels like there's not enough time to read the prompt and do it as the vehicle is still racing on the track. as we race there's an unprompted speed boost that slams us into the wall and then another prompt for strafing that also puts us into the wall as we try it.

The tutorials don't get any better. there's even an instance near the end of the video where a prompt appears just as the track loses a side wall. so in the process of reading the prompt on our screen we race straight off the track. as for the rest of the tutorials, they are more like telling us how to do something without explaining what the expected result or next step is. one that frustrated me was the rewind feature as it told us how to enter it, then gave no further explanations for all the buttons that appeared on the screen. 

A weird thing about the tutorials is that you don't need to finish them to unlock unranked multiplayer. i found it frustrating that i had to go into multiplayer to find out i can't do multiplayer, but at least it said what the requirement was to unlock unranked mode. so that's what i did, and then in multiplayer i had situations where prompts came up on the screen that i didn't fully understand. it wasn't until i went back to finish the tutorial that they were explained. I understand why multiplayer was locked, but i don't understand why it was unlocked before the tutorial we finished. that one decision made gave me negative impressions of both modes.

At best i can call the multiplayer tacked on. there is just 1 mode. Ranked mode, like a couple of other modes, is "Coming Soon". but it's almost unbelievably basic. all i can do is select unranked and wait. there's no lobby, no region, no course select, nothing. all i can do is wait and join when it's found a match. and over about half an hour to forty minutes, i only found 1 match. and even then the other racer DNF'd. after the race the messaging is unclear, as there's no tutorial or prompts or text boxes, and you're dumped back to the home screen when you leave multiplayer. i didn't want to leave it, i wanted to race again.

This whole "Coming Soon" debacle is why this game feels incomplete, almost like it's in early access. it's not just the ranked multiplayer, but even on the home screen there are two other modes with "Coming Soon" on them, "Season Challenge" and "Community". it's hard to believe that DLC came out for this game before these modes did. there's no date on them when they're coming, no information as to what they are either. Why even use up space on the home screen advertising some features that are coming later. that should be off to the side, with information about what they are and when they're coming. it's not even clear if they're DLC or a patch. The three "Coming Soon" features and not really there multiplayer really do make this game feel incomplete. i could even say that with a tutorial this bad, that also adds to it.

It's a graphically nice game, but i'm not entirely convinced the racing is that good. the tracks are great, they're interesting and the world around them is also impressive. the vehicles are unique and each one looks different. it's cool how you can parts, too. But the vehicles don't work well on the tracks, or the tracks aren't suited to the vehicles. the tracks don't feel designed well enough for the handling of the vehicles. It could be a speed thing, like maybe the vehicles are too fast.

Overall, i can't recommend Redout 2. even as a free to download game on PlayStation Plus, it's hard to recommend as ultimately it borders as just being a waste of time. I'm even starting to wonder if the first game was actually good or not. it's been soo long since i played it that maybe my memory is wrong.

Mobile Friday - Ninja Must Die - One of The Best Mobile Games I’ve Played!

For Mobile Friday this week i tried out Ninja Must Die on #iPhone14Pro. this game is from Pandada Games and is out on #android, too.

I've had this on my phone for a little while but i noticed it got updated a couple of days ago and it reminded me to play it. the screenshots in the app store did make the game look cool, but i didn't have high expectations going in. 

This game is one of the best mobile games i've ever played. there is soo much to praise with this game. let's start by saying that this is one of the most accessible games i've played. and they haven't done it in a patronising way either. it's very clever how they incorporated the tutorial into the level design. they show us how to jump, they let us jump, then they show how jump can be used in the level, in this example by having a coin trial. this smart use of a tutorial is felt throughout the game. sometimes the tutorial is just a text box, but that's often more than enough and more than what most games have done. 

If you've seen many of my other Mobile Friday videos, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyEBkNKW1vyo4rdco4wtJvv-B3zoxcMUd, how games advertise their own shops is a frequent criticism of mine. initially, i was wrong in my assumption when this game showed it's first advert. i praised that they had a video of the character in action, but wasn't happy that there were items also included that we didn't know about. But when the second advert came up, i tried touching the items and a text box appeared telling us what the item does. that's incredible and something i've never seen before. i'd like a symbol showing that the item can be touched, but the fact that the game shows a video of a character in action and has information about the other items in a bundle, is simply amazing and something i've been wanting games to do. It's OK to advertise to us, but soo often games advertise things we don't know the true value of, like for things we've yet to see in the game.

The game is also stunning. on my screen at a high brightness it's one of the best looking games i've played. there's soo much detail throughout the levels, plus smart uses of depth, shadows, and shading. as i have the iPhone 14 Pro, the video out is only 1080p so i feel like this video can't convey fully how good things look. the music is great, too. it's definitely a game i'd like to have the soundtrack too.

There are only two main buttons and two extra buttons. the main buttons are down, on the left side, and jump/up on the right side. it's another way the game makes itself accessible. the two other buttons relate to weapons and abilities and are on timers, but they are also quite big. the levels are smartly built around these controls in such a way it almost feels like a rhythm game. failing isn't punished and you're quickly put back in the game. it's also possible to replay levels and aim for a higher score or complete daily tasks.

In this video we saw a few other ways the game tries to get players back. one way that we didn't get to see the conclusion of was sending out our summons on patrols. this is how they gain experience and rewards. another way we saw in this video is Race Mode. in this mode it's our character up against the scores from 50 other characters in a map. the higher the score, the better placed you are. as you rank up, you can get better rewards but you'll also be up against stronger opponents. 

This game has a feature i've not seen before in any other mobile game, but one i many other games should copy. Ninja Must Die has something called "Pro Replay." This is a feature in Story Mode where you can watch someone else's level completion video. so if you're ever stuck, you can watch a video how someone else finished it. Or if  you're unsure was to which weapon to equip for the level, you can see what others used and pick that weapon or something else suitable. Be careful as this may use up your mobile data.

I didn't get to see everything in this game, but what i saw blew me away in how polished it was, how accessible it was, and how smartly designed the game in general was. it's clear the people playing the game are not an afterthought. simply put, i recommend this game to not just fans of ninja's or runner type games, but to those who have felt overwhelmed or intimidated by other mobile games as well.