Cloud Monday - Cyberpunk 2077 - PT2 - Shooting Is Affected By Controller Lag

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I noticed it in the first video, especially during the tutorial, that there's noticeable lag in controller inputs. for the most part, most other games i've played as part of this series haven't had this issue. the worst i remember was Rogue Legacy 2, but that had in it's options a "BETA" feature to improve latency in the controls at the expense of some screen tearing. a quick look in the options showed that the game seemed to be in a console controller mode and couldn't be made more sensitive. 

What this mostly means is that it's going to take longer to adjust to the games shooting mechanics. i personally found it difficult to aim and keep the aim constantly on an enemy. it's hard to say this early into such a long game whether this is something you can adjust to your self or if you're able to spec your character, by stats or equipment, in such a way that it minimises the negative effects. If you play this game via the Cloud, it'll be interesting to hear from you how you dealt with the shooting and controller lag. the tutorial does show how you can use hacking and melee combat so you're not strictly forced to always use guns. it could be a simple change of play style at the start of the game, until upgrades and better equipment make the shooting better, is how you should play it.

The quality of the video stream we got in this part wasn't as good as it was in Part 1. it was mostly Stream Tearing, where one or two of the frames of video we got were lacking information, so there were little bits of gray on screen. in a game as stylised as Cyberpunk 2077 it was noticeable and whilst it didn't affect my gameplay i can see how it happening whilst driving or during a shoot out would be quite a negative experience. In this part i did get to the infamous driving shoot out section and it was rough. the framerate dropped lower than i had experienced up to this point and this made the shooting even worse. this wasn't a streaming issue, this is just the game.

It's difficult to say whether Cyberpunk 2077 is a game better streamed than downloaded to console. it already has it's own issues regardless of how you play it. But streaming it does seem to add one or two more. it's a big download and it's not going to get patched anymore or get any of the DLC so i think i would prefer to stream this from the Cloud rather than having it take up space on my HDD. the streaming experience isn't great but it doesn't detract from the game too much. Let me know in the comments what you chose to do.

Check out Part 1 at - https://youtu.be/ALv_ddXCx9Q

Mobile Friday - COSMO PANIC - An Easy To Play Retro Style Wave Based Shooter That Needs More Polish

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried COSMO PANIC from developer FUNDOSHI PARADE on my iPhone 14 Pro.

On the App Store, this game's icon not only looked cool but i also immediately had an idea as to it's gameplay. checking out the screenshots revealed it to be a retro style shooter.

When we start the game we're greeted to an opening crawl inspired by Star Wars. it tells an interesting story, but i suspect that's the only time we're going to be given story by the game. 

The first time playing was pleasant as there's a decent tutorial telling us how to move and what to do. i found it useful and a surprise that there was one. unfortunately, the tutorial kinda just stops. when we lost, we were greeted by a screen that i didn't immediately realise was the game's home screen. i was expecting a result screen or a story screen. i think the game needs to continue it's tutorial to help guide the player better and explain things more clearly.

The gameplay is solid. it does exactly what it sets out to do. what makes COSMO PANIC different to some other wave based games is that we're defending something that's not ourselves. most of these games have the enemies come after us, but here the enemies are targeting a planet we're defending. we can bounce into some enemies without consequence, whilst others can paralyse us momentarily. 

we're not expected to always win and survive but it did feel like progress in this game slowed down too quickly. i was able to do the first 3 waves fine but that fourth wave was much more difficult even after spending money on upgrades. i'm concerned that progression in this game might be a little off and will need tweaking.

Version 1.1.1 Played

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