Backlog Conquering - Tearaway: Unfolded On PS4 - Part 1 - A Good First Impression

This new Backlog Conquering game is being played on PlayStation 4 but it'll cover the PlayStation Vita version as well. on PSV, the game was released as Tearaway back in 2013 and i do have that version. Like this PS4 version, i haven't finished it either so this is my chance to tackle Tearaway twice! ( i know there are differences in the controls and how you interact with the games, but you know what i mean.)

The start caught me by surprise as the game starts it's narrating before it's even revealed all the developer logos. It's a bit long, but it's uniqueness works for me and it gets to the point where the narrators interact with "you" and thus begins the events at the start of the game.

another thing the game does well is it's tutorial. it's impressive how it manages to balance telling us how to something whilst giving us the chance to use it with some imagination. One of the better features is the "Squirrel" as this guide will pop up if it thinks you're struggling to offer advice. so many games don't offer help after the tutorial and just leave it up to the player so it's nice that this game will try and help. It doesn't make Tearaway: Unfolded feel too easy either, but it's nice to have regardless.

It takes time, when playing the game, to get used to not having a jump button. i could see places i wanted to reach and for most of this video my first reaction is to press X for jump. as i played, what i learned is that there are ways to get anywhere if you're meant to get there. this often takes shape as ramps, flowers, and spring jumps. part of the puzzle is seeing somewhere you want to go, maybe there's a collectable present you want to get, and working out how the environment is set up for you to get there.

I really enjoyed what i've played so far so i will do a few more parts at least. i'm curious if the game does anything fun when you come back to the game. i'm also wondering if there'll be any more fun interactions with the controller. i know that we're able to backtrack with our current abilities so i may give that a try in part 2 as in this part i already found a white mystery and later in this part i was given a tool to deal with it.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 11

Hello and welcome to Part 11 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.

A lot happened in this part. Part 10, https://youtu.be/vfva7DWmvVo, saw us getting a lot of information which we dealt with in this part. much of this part goes how i expected it to. for a few parts now i had been making some assumptions and most are revealed here. But things take a dramatic turn around the half way mark and just keeps on going. Whilst the change of pace is welcomed, it does feel like a lot happened much quicker in this part than any previous part. but it has reenergized the story and i'm maybe even more excited to continue the 5th, and final, Chapter of this game.

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 - Marvel's Midnight Suns - Part 1 - A Good First Impression, Auto And Manual Saves Too

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the #PS4 version of Marvel's Midnight Suns via the #PlayStationPlus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

This game, from developers Firaxis Games, is one that was seemingly well received from reviewers but not necessarily the public at large. I've heard quite a lot of non specific praise about playing it but also reports on how poorly it sold, either in general or when compared to expectations. Thankfully, the point of this series is to talk about how suitable the game is as a game being played in the cloud. And i can say that it makes a great first impression.

Much like the previous game i played, The Wild At Heart https://youtu.be/Cg0q3nv-E58, this game starts with a choice on how you want to play it. i went with a focus on story, but there's also normal mode. If you've played one of these before, streaming the other from the cloud is a great option to have as this game is a fairly sizeable download around 32GB. I also chose to do the tutorial mission. 

I couldn't say where the tutorial mission ended and the game started. they did a great job incorporating the tutorial into the story. admittedly, playing a strong super heroes and being limited because of the tutorial could've been delt with better, like with a side comment that these are just henchmen so don't go all out just yet as someone stronger may come later. But after it, i did feel mostly confident that i understood the systems taught to me.

As well as the tutorial and options, the game's story also makes a great first impression. it's always made clear who is talking and when someone new is introduced there's a quick little banner to say who they are. about half way into the video i explore the save system and it's clear that at this early point in the game the auto save system has been working quite frequently and not overwriting one auto save. there are 4 auto saves the game makes and we can do manual saves, too. this sense of security means i can focus on the game instead of worrying about when or if i can save next.

In this part, the connection to the cloud was mostly fine. early on there were a couple of moments of macro blocking, where instead of fine details there are larger squares of color. but this was never an issue with gameplay. a lot of the text, characters, and pictures are quite big so were still legible. Later on there were more incidents of Stream Tearing, where there's grey on screen, and these do get in the way of gameplay. thankfully, there were no audio issues nor controller issues so i was still able to continue and understand what was happening. 

I'm looking forward to part 2. it'll be interesting to see how the game holds up on the PS4, especially when there are more effects and more enemies on screen in the first mission of the game. the card battle system we've played so far is slow enough that i always felt in control, again a good fit for being played in the cloud. But there were some hints that the PS4 was being pushed hard by this game.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Getting May's Salmon Run Item

This month's Splatoon 3 Salmon Run item is the Knockout Boots. The goal for this video was to get 1,00 points. that way i get the item twice and have a go at defeating a King Salmonoid. 

This Salmon Run might be the worst one i've ever done. it took 11 jobs to reach my goal of 1,000 points and it wasn't until the 12th, and final, job that my team mates and i actually completed all 3 waves! I admit i made a couple of mistakes, but it was tough anyway with such a poor selection of weapons,  in my opinion, in which i only enjoyed using the Aerospray. In the final job we did go up against a Megalodontia and got it to about half health. What's also annoying about all this effort is that both of the items i got were only two pins!

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Normal And Hard Squad Missions

For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it. 

For this video i wanted to try out the online Squad Missions. These take place on specific maps and have a team of 4 players work together to defeat 10 waves of enemies. i tried out the Sunny Funny Factory, Rap Wrap Scrapyard, and Bath Vegas Marina Bay maps in Normal difficulty and i also tried out the Lucky Funky Street, twice, in Hard difficulty.

when you finish your attempt, you're awarded points towards the current season, i went up from 3 to 6 during this video, your own personal level, i went from 19 to 21, and Miracle Dust. This dust is important as you use it to level up your stats, that are used by any character you play with. I didn't realise this so my first attempt at Hard Difficulty didn't go well. but that's also down to the stats of my team mates. to upgrade your stats, head to the "Upgrade Energy Core" section, to the right of Squad Mission, and chose which stats you want to upgrade. during this video i put everything up to Lvl 1 and then a few others up to Lvl 2.

Mobile Friday - Cat Garden - Food Party Tycoon - A Fine Idle Game With Nice Art And New Ideas

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Cat Garden - Food Party Tycoon from developers Daerisoft . I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro.

The art for this game caught my attention, like it has with other similar games, but what i was most curious about was whether or not it could stand out from the other idle games with nice art or if it would have the same grind issues that Cats & Soup, https://youtu.be/B5_zo0ov4IM, Cat Snack Bar, https://youtu.be/hhqyaTmhXw4, or if it had some interesting ideas to beat the grind like Animal Restaurant, https://youtu.be/DZhTicMX4Bo, had.

in Cat Garden - Food Party Tycoon,  the grind does come fairly soon. the pacing isn't bad but it's not quite right either. i could feel the grind a little before the next thing would unlock. It does have some interesting ideas to help break up the grind, but they don't feel finished. for example, there's a whole fishing aspect to the game that has no tutorial and seemingly little to no impact on the game. It sticks out the most because the tutorial, whilst a little forceful, is mostly great. i don't appreciate it wanting me to share a photo tho.

Another plus for Cat Garden - Food Party Tycoon is that there are no intrusive adverts. it's our choice if we want to watch an advert and we get in-game rewards for doing so. that's amazing and somewhat rare in idle games. this is a game good for commuters as i played it with one hand throughout and your "turn" can be finished in just a handful of minutes, then you put it down and come back to it later. adverts can be frustrating as they break up that flow but also use up data. for example, i would chose not to watch adverts whilst out and about but at home i wouldn't mind watching an advert via my wi-fi for some in-game benefits.

The nice artwork in Cat Garden - Food Party Tycoon isn't enough to make this a great game. it needs it's other ideas to be fleshed out more and the game to get a little bit more balancing. What is here now is fine and very playable and could be enough for idle restaurant fans. but if the developers can continue to improve and add to it, it could become a much better game.

Version 1.0.5 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog from developers Space Colony Studios.

This was an example of me seeing cool icon art and deciding to download because of it rather than me reading what i was about to play. so i was taken aback when this turned out to be a visual novel. But i wasn't deterred from playing it because it's a visual novel.

I'm going to be upfront and say that i stopped playing the demo because it broke. i reached a point where the demo would not progress and nothing i did would fix it. you can hear me talking through the button presses i was trying. Unfortunately, whilst this was a demo breaking issue it wasn't the only one i came across. right near the beginning i found navigating the option menu nearly impossible due to the lag in the controls. you can hear me say when i've pressed a button and a second or more later see it replicated on screen. The menu area and parts of the game also had an issue where pressing a direction on the controller once could mean it's done twice in game or not at all. safe to say this demo is a buggy mess to the point where i can't recommend it on PlayStation 4.

That's not to say there was nothing good about this. far from it. the music is fantastic and the artwork was amazing. when it came to setting the scene and story telling, i was hooked. i would've liked the option for bigger text and for the game to offer to automatically progress the story, but this is a demo and i haven't tried the final version. It's a shame their website doesn't list a way to buy the soundtrack because after playing the demo i'd like to get it.

As a demo it's not good because not only does it have issues but it also broke to the point where i couldn't continue. But this also makes me concerned that the game itself might have issues when it's released. there are hints of a cool story that i was really getting into, but i don't even know if my save from the demo will carry over or not. there was a real lack of communication in the demo. so overall i can't recommend the demo nor the game. but i would say it's one to watch out for. if reviewers say it's fixed then it could be something cool to try out.