Demo Play Thursday - ANTONBLAST On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of ANTONBLAST, developed by Summitsphere.

When i saw the trailer for this game, my first thought was that speed was going to be what made this difficult. i've played too many games over the years that have used speed as a difficulty, where levels aren't designed for flow from start to finish but rather they're obstacles you have to dodge whilst going fast. I was glad that ANTONBLAST had a demo as i would be able to try it and see just how tough of a game it might be.

I'm happy to say that ANTONBLAST isn't that kind of game. as i say in the video, the nostalgia is strong with this one but in a good way. it reminded me of the Sega Mega Drive era. But for me, more importantly, the two levels i played taught me to trust the game. it has speed, it has platforming, but neither of those two levels felt designed in such a way that there were things deliberately put in our way.

What was also good were the controls. when our character was moving quick, i felt in control and the character was immediately responsive. again, this took a little time to adjust to as there were moments where i was ready to readjust the controls as i'm not used to games like this feeling this good.

I liked how the demo, and i assume the game, wasn't afraid to lean into silliness. there were signs clearly saying what to do or showing where to go. narratively these don't make sense, but visually they worked as the game doesn't take itself too serious. What i was missing, and perhaps this is explained in the final game, was context for part 2 of playing through a level. in part 1, you're making your way from left to right. but in part 2, there's a countdown and a sense of urgency as you have to make your way back to the start as fast as you can. i enjoyed playing this mode, but i have no context what it's all about. 

This time trialling a level reminded me of when i played Rayman Legends on Wii U, i really enjoyed the two online modes that game had. in one your goal is to beat a set level as fast as you can. in the other, your goal is to get as far as you can. i hope that the team behind ANTONBLAST is able to put in leaderboards for this second part of a level as it would be fun to race against friends. Kind of what happened with Astro's Playroom on PS5.

this demo for ANTONBLAST is good so i would recommend it to anyone looking for some nostalgia or platforming or both. but i had such a great time with the game i would say it's well worth buying. i even enjoyed the music. from what i played it felt like a complete package, it has taken great inspirations from the past but created it's own game. so it feels familiar but also fresh and maybe, like me, you have to learn to trust the game and it's design as it's not out to get you.

Backlog Conquering - Tearaway: Unfolded On #PS4 - Part 3 - Learning To Roll

Tearaway: Unfolded put me back a little further away than i expected after part 2, https://youtu.be/SHFIJexGFVA, and i'm not sure if that's because i misjudged where the auto save was or what. it didn't take long to get back and ahead of the last video, but it was weird. 

The video is titled Learning To Roll because, like last video, it changes the gameplay in fun ways. not only is it a way to get from A to B, the game also uses it to introduce small holes we can enter, either as secrets or as ways to continue making progress. but where it seemed to work best was with the enemies. there's a new one that has legs that can kick you away like a football but all we need to do is roll to it's back and then attack. the other enemies are also more easily dealt with as they are now easily stunned when hit so we can pick them up and throw them to defeat them. 

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 13

Hello and welcome to Part 13, the final part, 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.

This is the final part, the conclusion to the story we've told whilst we play this game. We managed to complete this part with only one more death. but it was the "True Evil" ending which means we never found out who killed our Grandfather, the reason why we came all the way from Japan to New York. The point of this series isn't to get the perfect ending, it's to tell the story we get from the game. so whilst i'm a little sad that we didn't solve this final mystery, i'm happy to have got a story.

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 - Far: Changing Tides - Part 1 - Interesting Positives And Negatives Streaming It

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Far: Changing Tides via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

One of the reasons i wanted to play Far: Changing Tides was because of the art in the icon. i really like it. i also have a memory of people talking about this game when it came out positively. as a game being streamed from the cloud, one aspect i wanted to look at was if the water, and possible water spray and particles, would degrade the video much like how confetti can hammer the bitrate of a YouTube Video.

This part didn't go as expected. right from the beginning i had some issues with the game being streamed to me. Part 2 will be interesting to see if this is a common issue with this game or just a one off due to my internet itself. we had all the issues; Stream Tearing, when there's grey on screen as the video frame lacks information, Macro Blocking, where instead of fine detail we get larger squares of color, Zebra Striping, where there's black and white lines appearing, Color Banding, where there are noticeable bands of color as it changes shade, and the stability warning on the right side of the screen.

But because of the game's design, many of these weren't anything more than noticeable and didn't get in the way of gameplay. for example, when there was macro blocking or zebra striping i was able to adjust the camera down in the water or zoom it in and out. this changed the background and the issues went away. There's no text so macro blocking didn't get in the way. the backgrounds are large and distinct so they were always clear. so whilst these were distracting, they didn't stop progression in the game.

I was nervous tho as we quickly learned that this game doesn't have a manual save. there didn't seem to be anything in-game i could do to trigger a manual save. we were relying on the auto save. it does tell us when the last auto save was, but it seemed that the auto save only triggers when reaching set pieces and kinda like at checkpoints whilst solving the set piece puzzles. The problem is, there's travelling to these set pieces. so when the 20 second countdown starts to when we're kicked off the service, you're most likely stuck with  what ever the last auto save was.

Or, like me, you're stuck waiting for an autosave so you can quit the game. that's one reason why this video is a long as it is. i was waiting for an autosave but at the end of the video i was seemingly travelling to a set piece. there's also no quit game/exit option.

So that's why the title of this video is that there are positive and negatives. on one hand, the game's design meant that whilst there were streaming issues, they never got in the way of progression. the music sounded great, the controls were fine tho platforming could've been better but i think that's more down to the game rather than streaming issues, and i could use things like the zoom and camera to remove some of the visual issues. and yet on the other hand how this game saves just isn't suitable when there's only a 20 second warning before being disconnected. if there was a quick save option, this would be easy to recommend. but as it is, it's starting to look like Far: Changing Tides would be better downloaded than played from the cloud.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - May's Weekend Splatfest Tricolor - 15 Battles 7 Wins!

Welcome to Switch Funday.

It's day two of May's Splatfest weekend so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon 3. 

The goal of Tricolor is for all three teams to play in the same match. Often this isn't that successful. when Splatoon 3 is unable to make such a match, it'll default to 3 teams of the same team. So in this Splatfest, that's Same Ol' and Same Ol' Vs. Same Ol'. What i'm shocked to say is that this only happened once! i can't think of another Splatfest where we played soo many matches with all three teams.

As ever i played 5 games each with 3 different weapons. i bought some new ones after yesterday's video so this Splatfest was the first time using them. First up was the Forge Splattershot Pro. i enjoyed the extra power and inking potential, but it didn't seem to damage the enemy as much as i'd hope and used a lot of ink. and for some reason my aim with it was terrible. Next was the Nautilus 79. I had a great time with this weapon. it inked, it hit, and it didn't use a lot of ink. i had a 5 game winning streak with this weapon! Finally was the Ballpoint Splatling. This was much more difficult as it switched from close up to long range. it was fine, but the results weren't great and i'll need more practice with it in the future.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - May’s Weekend #Splatfest – 15 Battles 7 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "What would you do at the world's end?" Splatfest in Splatoon 3. I chose to join Same Ol'.

This weekend's Splatfest started poorly as i tried to use the Luna Blaster for the first 5 games, but it just wasn't working out that great for me. it might've been my first time really using it and it just didn't have the range or inking ability that i needed. i tried to be more attacking, but the opposition were often able to deal with me as their weapons often fired quicker. so the first 5 games weren't great for me, but they were bad for my teammates too as we lost the first 5 games.

i switched to an old favourite of mine for the next 5, the N-Zap '89. this time we got more wins, but the 4th game, 9th overall, saw my teammates and I win by 0.1%! i can't remember the last time i've had a game that close before. it was nice using a weapon i enjoy and we got 3 wins out of the 5.

The final weapon i used was the Foil Flingza Roller. i had noticed that many of my teams weren't doing a great job at inking our areas and after being attacking for 10 games, i decided to be more of an inker for the final 5. These games ended up being the most successful as we got 4 wins out of 5. this means i got 7 wins out of 15 today.

Mobile Friday - Solo Leveling:Arise - One Of The Best Action RPG's Of 2024

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Solo Leveling:Arise, from developer Netmarble. I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro.

This game is based on the South Korean Web novel 나 혼자만 레벨업, Solo Leveling in English. unfortunately, i've not read this web novel nor have i seen any of the anime episodes. so i can't say how closely this sticks to the story or how much of the story is being told. But this does mean i'm relying on the game to tell it's story and it does a fantastic job of introducing us to the world.

the first 50 or so minutes of this game is the tutorial. it may sound like a long time but i was grateful for it. i felt well prepared for the different gameplay styles. it's not just us playing as the main character of the game. there's a gameplay mode where we play as the support characters. this plays differently as we can switch between them and combo attacks together during the switch. there's a gate mode that's separate from the story where we're clearing out specific areas of monsters. then we can send people to farm those cleared out areas for resources. and that's just what i got to experience as there are more things to unlock as we level up.

The story is told in a couple of different ways. there's animation, that i don't think is from the anime, but it suffers from compression and whilst it's effective it's not that impressive. there's a comic book panel style and there's also a version of that that has moving pictures. and then there's the traditional character models talking on screen. 

But for me one of the highlights has to be the soundtrack to the game. i thoroughly enjoyed it and felt that it's more rock style worked well with the story and gameplay.

The biggest downside to Solo Leveling:Arise is that it's another mobile game that requires an additional download before you can play. this time it's 1.6GB, so it's not the biggest. but it's still too large to download via a mobile network so you must start the game on wifi. It's possible it could stop Solo Leveling:Arise reaching the number 1 game of 2024, but it doesn't stop me recommending the game. i had a lot of fun playing it and it's well worth checking out.

Version 1.1.1 Played.