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.

Backlog Conquering - Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy HD On PS3 - Part 5

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.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 version of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy from the 2012 The Jak and Daxter Trilogy that remastered the games and brought them into HD. This series is my first time playing any of the games from the initial trilogy, tho i have played the PSP game Daxter.

Check out the other parts of this play through:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fvi6KUY0vD8

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/bf7Obhhh8K4

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/oMqaSd8rB4k

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/OCL0AqLHW-o

Stories on Tuesday - XBlaze Lost: Memories - Part 8

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 version of XBlaze Lost: Memories from Arc System Works and Aksys Games.

This is the eighth part. it ends on a sad note. I thought that this would be the final part but it isn't. there is maybe another part or two to go!

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fPjjATSfhcM

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/sY-nYy_MXxQ

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/w28xapHoB5w

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/_fXKI60OVu8

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/dM2MF4rEMWY

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/3ZWKSu685X0

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/pfw0d4SU9n8

Cloud Monday - Cyberpunk 2077 - PT1 - Many Save Options And Frequent Auto Saves, But It Did Crash!

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 is quite infamous as the game was removed from the PSN because of the state of it at launch. it's 5 years later and the game has received numerous patches since launch and it's now available to play from the cloud. at around 64GB, cloud streaming such a big game is an interesting option so i was curious how it would hold up.

I haven't played this game before, nor do i have anything that can play this game other than the PS4, so for me the version of the game i get from the cloud looked great, apart from people's faces as for the most part the people we met kinda looked ugly. i also enjoyed the soundtrack. there were no audio issues from streaming it and the video quality was solid throughout, even with film grain turned on in the options.

But something that was immediately noticeable from the start was control lag. It's very rare for this to happen and so far only Rouge Legacy 2 had an option to solve it for cloud streaming. In Cyberpunk 2077 it's noticeable in two situations mainly, navigating the UI and gunplay. Cyberpunk 2077 does have extensive options, but there's nothing listed for cloud streaming. the options seem to say that they've been adjust for an optimum console experience, but don't say anything about a cloud streaming experience. it's too early to say if this will be an issue as we might be able to adjust to it over time or we may get upgrades which improve our shooting abilities.

As with any game being streamed, being able to save quickly or having a frequent auto save is very important. if we're going to be disconnected, there's only a 20 second warning before. by pressing options we're greeted with a couple of save options but neither explain what they do. unfortunately, we'll find out in Part 2 how good the auto save feature is as in this part, Cyberpunk 2077 crashes. 

i had just finished the tutorial, and it's a pretty good one showcasing that there are many different ways in dealing with enemies. but in the transition from tutorial back to the game, it seemed like the game hanged. it's a familiar experience to me as this happens on my PS4 when i play many Unity games and can be seen in my Foamstars live streams. but unlike in my experience when things continue like nothing had happened, in Cyberpunk 2077 the screen was very wrong and i couldn't use the options. i had no choice but to quit the game, so tune into Part 2 next week to see whether the auto save triggered after i completed the tutorial or not.

Mobile Friday - Disney Magic Match 3D - A Basic Chill Matchmaking Game With Hints of Disney

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Disney Magic Match 3D from developer Jam City on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I was curious about Disney Magic Match 3D, was it a game aimed at a younger audience or was there something here for everyone. i've got previous experience with such a game called TsumTsum, which to this day i see being played daily here in Japan. after playing it, i don't think Disney Magic Match 3D is aimed at any group in particular.

Disney Magic Match 3D surprised me in a few ways. firstly, and something i mentioned a few times in the video, was how chill it felt. the music felt lo-fi to the extent that i couldn't tell how it was even Disney. The tutorial was also very simple and clear and continued to offer hints throughout this video, but again it lacked that Disney charm. there was no mascot character guiding us. we were matching items from Disney, but not really doing much with them once the level was finished. with a few minor changes, i can't help but feel that Disney Magic Match 3D could just as easily be any other matchmaking game.

This lack of personality doesn't hinder the gameplay aspect. it's fine to play. the stages are simple, they are quick, and if you fail it's made clear that you can spend money to continue trying or loose a life. this simplicity, and with the accessibility of the tutorial, make Disney Magic Match 3D a fine game to play. 

another weird thing was that the game had icons on the bottom of the screen for in-game stuff that's "Coming Soon". these icons weren't greyed out nor did they have a lock on them like other content that we didn't have access to. there was no hint as to what these features were nor a date when they were coming. So why then, are there these buttons on the screen? with Disney Magic Match 3D being so accessible and simple, this seems like a big oversight that detracts from the good they've done so far.

the main reason why this video stops when it does is because the developers have been too generous at the start of the game. Like many, if not all, of these sort of games the start is much easier than the later stages. levels are easy, money is easy to earn, and rewards are easy to get. in Disney Magic Match 3D they are too easy to get and they're automatically earned and applied if needed. this meant i got into a situation where i knew if i completed another stage i would be stuck with infinity health for an hour. it's a nice gift for sure, but i was still using up a previous timed infinity health gift. if i had both, i would've had to keep on playing for hours or just loose it all. Disney Magic Match 3D really needs a way to save these bonus, or like Pokémon Go let us click and obtain them when we're ready. 

Disney Magic Match 3D is a fine game. it's accessible and simple with light puzzle elements, well for the first 27 levels. But it's surprising how chill it feels with it's music and how it's not all Disney all the time. hardcore fans were probably going to try it anyway, but it does feel fine for anyone interested in this matchmaking game.

Version 5.0.3 Played

Demo Play Thursday - Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter from Nihon Falcom and GungHo Online Entertainment.

This is one of the longest videos in the Demo Play Thursday series, if not the longest, and i'm not surprised because all of the "The Legend of Heroes" game demos have been long, but unlike them this time i kept playing because i knew from experience that i should. this video only covers the opening story, a time skip, and the first quest of the game.

The demo starts with a screen that lets you buy the game, something that not all demos do. the option menu is quite extensive and has some nice customisations that typically come to early 2000 games remade in the modern day like speed up settings. the next 9 minutes is an opening set in the game's past before having an intro to the modern day setting of the game.

the story we start with is both main characters needing to head into town as today is their final test. their goal, to become a junior bracer. our characters and the world look great on the original Switch, and a launch model too. there was some pop in where shadows appeared before the grass that sat on top, but other than that everything looked and controlled great and it didn't feel like i was playing a lesser version of the game.

by about 40 minutes into the demo, it really started to feel slow. i had turned on auto messages, but they were slow. there was nothing in the options to increase the speed of the text bubbles. the default in this demo just happens to be really slow. i had set the difficult to easy as i wanted to sit back and enjoy the story, but i was starting to get frustrated by how slow things were starting to feel and the auto messages was a key part of this.

it would take about 40 minutes to start our final training quest and get all the back story of the world. having so much information available is useful as i've never played the original on PSP. but it was a lot to take in in such a short period of time. when it came to combat, the game had some nice pictures showing how to do it. as i've played previous The Legend of Heroes games i was also able to bring some of that past experience. what's nice about the combat is that if you're facing a low level enemy you can quicky dispatch them. but if there are many of them or something stronger, you can do a quick hit and then engage them in turn based combat.

it took a little under 20 minutes to complete this final training quest and i ended this video once we became junior bracers. unfortunately, i don't know how much longer this demo was. there was no information on the game's eShop page and the game itself gave no information as to how long and what was in this demo. another issue with this demo is how out of date it is to the game. the developers have done a final job continuously updating the game since it came out, but this demo hasn't been updated. i don't know how different this demo is, or how improved the game is, from what i played in this video.

Backlog Conquering - Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy HD On PS3 - Part 4

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.

Our new game is the PlayStation3 version of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy from the 2012 The Jak and Daxter Trilogy that remastered the games and brought them into HD. This series is my first time playing any of the games from the initial trilogy, tho i have played the PSP game Daxter.

Check out the other parts of this play through:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fvi6KUY0vD8

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/bf7Obhhh8K4

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/oMqaSd8rB4k