The First Play Thread of First Plays

[Tobal]

Wo Long on gamepass, gave up part way into the tutorial as i just couldn't get the window for all this parrying you need to do and its not worth learning for a asset flip Nioh trying to ape Sekiro, and i remember how punishing the demo was around death powering up your enemies to a +5 level gap and +10 for bosses, no thanks, ugly as sin as well.

After dropping it shortly into the tutorial lab, I did go back to Atomic heart after watching a twitch stream of later gameplay, so i turned on Aim Assist (off by default), then powered through that opening Lab to get to the sex fridge for this plasmid shop... i mean polymer powers which make it feel like Bioshock game. I had alot more fun after that with all the platforming challenges/simple puzzles and warmed up to P3, alot of his interactions with the glove, robots and the talking dead as this Duke Nukem like guy did get a couple of chuckles here and there, plenty to wander around for adventure if you want to, the story pretty nuts (it does question its commie beliefs, which the opening few hours does not as full on cheer leader for the CCCP) and not that long to finish the game (10/12hrs) if you don't do the side labs for weapon upgrades which really aren't needed, most are alternate functions which don't see better than the craftable default ones.

I stuck to the homing saw blade for melee, pistol with dmg focus on mutants, shotgun with dmg focus on robots, the electro pistol early on with charge aoe attack really helps and the rocket launcher for bosses. It is quit fun to use powers in one hands and still be able to use any weapon in the other, loved using the telekinesis lift, shotgunning them in the mid air for a cool 1 handed reload.

[Neon Ignition]

Splatoon 3 - Just started the campaign, I do enjoy these but this one is struggling to land the same so far because it's a very unpleasant colour scheme they've gone for this time and it particularly feels very DLCesque

[dataDave]

it particularly feels very DLCesque

No may man, go back to 2 after a while of playing this. It's way more refined. 2 feels clunky, padded, and floaty in comparison.

[briareos_kerensky]

Assault Suit Valken Declassified. Just gave it a quick go, great work from M2 as usual, and a lot of extra content to boot. As the name implies this is about the Japanese version of the game, so the manual is only from that version (translated though), and you can't choose to go for the censored EU/US release should you want to. The Napalm trick still works, and this being the Japanese version, you don't lose it upon death.

[edit] If you want the credits from the main menu you get unlimited continues and chose which weapons you start with. The credits are overimposed over a pretty cool animated scene too.

[buster_broon]

I've never played any of them before and bought the 3rd one and didn't like it

sold it the next day

[Lebowski]

Tchia, PS5

Finally got round to giving this a couple of hours and got into the game proper, i think after the likes of Elden ring this Pre filled out map is a bit of a let down as its more the Horizon school of Navigation with an almost overwhelming array of icons markers and things to do with little to no guidance on why you need to do them. Id of much of preferred a slowly opening map with things too discovered by studying the map and heading to interesting places like you do in Elden ring.

The main story starts with a small tutorial area that teaches you the basics before letting you loose with the game-world proper, the main quest after you finish the tutorial area is Trying to save my dad and to talk to the person who took your dad you need certain offerings to gain an audience.

Your task now is to visit the different islands to get a series of items in a big old scavenger hunt type adventure. Tchia can posses all of the animals on the island and this is what you use for traversal, if you need to get somewhere quick posses a Boar or a Deer and you can run at great speed or take over a bird and fly their.

Its a nice system and your just left to experiment with it, its surprising that you can do things like posses a coconut or a lamp and roll and hop about and its a lovely place to explore. Ultimately though if your a bit burnt out on this style of game like i kind of am your not going to find anything that new or revolutionary here. It's a nice chilled adventure that's gonna take you a good chunk of time to see and do everything and things like a lack of fast travel on the islands will see you traveling the same area over and over if you want to explore it all. I really wanted to love this but found it very been their done that.

[dataDave]

I just put my €60 vote in for a new Advance Wars game and I have to say I'm quite impressed with what they've done. I don't really mind the new art (paying tribute to some of the best pixel art ever was never going to be easy), but it's the redone music and audio that really stands out as exceptional.

[Tobal]

Had a pop at descenders part of the new PS5 lowly peasant sub, think Trials but downhill mountain biking made in unity... So it looks super basic, menus are default stock but it moves fast and controls decently from behind cyclist while trackmania style tunes play. Game is a rogue-lite run through 4 areas, each area has multiple branching paths, you can see over players live as ghosts and map when selecting which way to go shows the current number of players.

The random dice factor of the rogue is randomly generated courses, which give a difficulty of curves, stunts and steepness along with rarity of weather and some special jump bits, you start with 3 lives to complete the area but making your way to a 'boss' level, you can get a few lives back completing the secondary mission on each course. occasionally you'll find puzzle levels where you need to climb a bunch of junk to reach the top, though with out full camera control (r stick is ride position for sliding, jump prep and stunts in the air) its super hard. Couldn't see anything to do with equipment upgrades, you get new outfits to dress up in.

With some more care given to the graphics and perhaps a free look button for scouting puzzle levels it could be alot better, 6/10.

[fishbowlhead]

I just put my €60 vote in for a new Advance Wars game and I have to say I'm quite impressed with what they've done. I don't really mind the new art (paying tribute to some of the best pixel art ever was never going to be easy), but it's the redone music and audio that really stands out as exceptional.

The only thing I don’t like is the AI attack patterns is now randomised, which is fine 90% of the time. Except for Grit and Sturm, Sturm will be a particular arse monkey with no set pattern to exploit.

[Neon Ignition]

Hogwarts Legacy
Oh man... where to pitch this. So, it's a looker so if that appeals you can probably add a point. It's a phenomenal recreation of the Harry Potter world as well, incredibly well constructed locations and it also recreates that sense of school and of being within that world meaning that if you are fan of the franchise you can likely add another point as the sense of experience will carry it a lot. However, I'm hung up on the most concerning area... gameplay. It's not terrible but it is pretty basic and frankly... there's not much of interest going on. You get in the occasional simple fight but a lot of it is following the marker point to point, having a conversation, learning a spell (which is as deep as tracing a simple diagram once) etc. The budget ultimately betrays the childs game it is underneath. Incredibly polished for a licensed game but ultimately still a licensed game at the end of the day that doesn't live up to the reveal trailers and I feel reviewers got carried away that it wasn't a disaster.

6/10

Expectations Disappointus!

[Tobal]

Fifa23 has hit gamepass, not played one since it stopped evolving in 2013 and it's single player BAL/manager modes paled next to PES. After turning off more assists than you'd find in Gran Turismo i felt in control of the players, plays well if slow, had abit of time of go in BAL mode and seems like RPG now with paying for lifestyle stuff and exp/charisma charts... took me back to Footballer of Year on the speccy when it asked me to buy a trampoline.

Looking back in the forum history the last made fifa thread was 2015

[Dogg Thang]

Just a quick one. I bought Boltgun, the new Warhammer 40K game and gave it a quick go last night. It’s a 90s shooter inspired game, so it’s pixely and has an old school feel but then brings some modern improvements. It feels superb. The character moves quickly but feels heavy. And the main first gun, the Boltgun itself, feels so satisfying. You can feel every impact. So far, I’m loving it. No idea if it will actually be a good game overall or hold my interest but it makes a great first impression.

[Asura]

Just a quick one. I bought Boltgun, the new Warhammer 40K game and gave it a quick go last night. It’s a 90s shooter inspired game, so it’s pixely and has an old school feel but then brings some modern improvements. It feels superb. The character moves quickly but feels heavy. And the main first gun, the Boltgun itself, feels so satisfying. You can feel every impact. So far, I’m loving it. No idea if it will actually be a good game overall or hold my interest but it makes a great first impression.

Oh great - I was thinking of getting this.

What platform are you on?

[Dogg Thang]

Oh great - I was thinking of getting this.

What platform are you on?

I got it on PC so I’ve been playing it on my Steam Deck.

[Tobal]

I got it on PC so I’ve been playing it on my Steam Deck.

Is it just shooting or does come with Key hunts and switch puzzles of Doom/Quake?