The First Play Thread of First Plays

[Dogg Thang]

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

Yes it has the old key hunts and switch puzzles. Not sure how deep they’ll go.

[QualityChimp]

Has anyone played Hunt Showdown?

It's in the current PS sale and looks interesting.

[Tobal]

Has anyone played Hunt Showdown?

It's in the current PS sale and looks interesting.

it's a tough and nerve wrecking game, go in with a small team and go up against other teams of players competing to kill a few named monsters across them map, then evac out before another team kills you to steal the loot, and of course you can do it to them. I think i stopped playing due to the prema death of any character you use and their items... so you can go a few bad rounds and have to start from scratch which is quite easy if you end up against well organized teams or just don't have skills and/or reflexes to compete against the hardcore.

[Tobal]

Planet of Lana - Gamepass - like Limbo/Inside it's a sidescrolling 2D platforming with a couple of puzzles, It's you as young girl making friends with orphaned animal monkey thing on a quest to rescue your sister. Unlike them it doesn't have either budget or skilled dev team to make a decent game, it's main fault after playing a good 2 hours is it's all pretty boring, the puzzles are extremely simple, and when i get bored i start picking on the environmental story telling like it's good job someone set up ropes you can't reach on your own. on every single screen so you can't exit the screen to go to next puzzle without the monkey being some part of the puzzle or that 95% of slides are going to be screen transition to a new area, and somehow the advanced alien robots can't scan through long grass.

The main girl herself is faceless flash animated thing that looks at odds with the water-coloured environment which are not animated in the background. She's moves slowly (no run) and has no momentum or physicality, so making large jumps and banging into the opposite platform looks like she just pulled herself up from just underneath the ledge, she can move dead wood logs with ease (and with no hands, they didn't animate it) and somehow survive some very long falls for 'cutscenes' without showing how. It is as least an easy game to get achievements in so, if i'm i need of ms reward points, i know where im going for 20 minutes.

[Lebowski]

Planet of Lana - Gamepass - like Limbo/Inside it's a sidescrolling 2D platforming with a couple of puzzles, It's you as young girl making friends with orphaned animal monkey thing on a quest to rescue your sister. Unlike them it doesn't have either budget or skilled dev team to make a decent game, it's main fault after playing a good 2 hours is it's all pretty boring, the puzzles are extremely simple, and when i get bored i start picking on the environmental story telling like it's good job someone set up ropes you can't reach on your own. on every single screen so you can't exit the screen to go to next puzzle without the monkey being some part of the puzzle or that 95% of slides are going to be screen transition to a new area, and somehow the advanced alien robots can't scan through long grass.

The main girl herself is faceless flash animated thing that looks at odds with the water-coloured environment which are not animated in the background. She's moves slowly (no run) and has no momentum or physicality, so making large jumps and banging into the opposite platform looks like she just pulled herself up from just underneath the ledge, she can move dead wood logs with ease (and with no hands, they didn't animate it) and somehow survive some very long falls for 'cutscenes' without showing how. It is as least an easy game to get achievements in so, if i'm i need of ms reward points, i know where im going for 20 minutes.

It feels very much like a game Ive played before many many times. Its all pushing boxes trial and error and instant death while you work out the puzzle. It feels like this sort of game took the Another world template to its natural conclusion all the way back when Limbo came out and we've had no evolution of that game-play style since. How its scoring so high i will never know, maybe its a really good version of this sort of game but personally I've had enough of them.

[Tobal]

Lies of P demo (played XSX, also out PC/PS) - souls like game with mechanical puppets, plays ok but has none of the movement feel or snappiness of bloodborne which it's closest to, graphics are PS4 level on performance mode and not worth the FPS drop to 30 for quality (resolution and lighting improvement) the demo level which starts in a train station and works it's way out into a mid destruction city, very simple geometry made it more boring than it should be but then i didn't get to far past the square where the first bonfire is.

Levelling up is the usual, kill or get items that give exp, use that to increase STR/DEX/AGI etc,etc (named something stupid in the menu so i had to look hard at the raw stats to see what each did). Game uses Elden Ring arts on it's own stamina bar (basically replaces magic), weapons seem to be all 1 handed blades which added to boredom, and more annoying have durability metre. Nothing ranged outside of some throwing cogs which seem more like for agro pulls than damage. Equipment upgrades seem to tied to the puppet arm, which so far does nothing but punch, has it's own stamina bar which depletes quickly making it useless, changing out the 1 arm pieces i found increase my def at the cost of more weight.

I'll give it another pop tomorrow to see if they reveal anything more to the puppet arm.

[Adam]

Just finished the Lies of P demo and it's amazing Very familiar Souls formula, but what it does that is unique is very interesting. Customisable weapons and stuff. I weirdly enjoy the weapon sharpening mechanic, which pops up mostly during longer boss fights.

[Tobal]

Just finished the Lies of P demo and it's amazing Very familiar Souls formula, but what it does that is unique is very interesting. Customisable weapons and stuff. I weirdly enjoy the weapon sharpening mechanic, which pops up mostly during longer boss fights.

I've not beaten the boss yet, changed to the bigger sword which has helped but i'm just not a fan of seikeri style red attacks where dodging or blocking don't work, perfect parry or take damage. Parrying for me should also be there to open up attacking windows for experts not punish the rest of us. Best i've done was buy a few electric applying sharpening stones to get to 2 cm of HP bar left.

I couldn't see an option to customise the weapons on the fly, i could clearly see the handles and blades could be changed up to allow different arts but i'll assume that'll be some workbench somewhere. And nothing became of the arm mechanic pre boss anyway, though i never did think to use it on him to punch him in the belly or arse.

I did like that you could charge up 1 HP vial through attacking when out of them.

[Lebowski]

Dordogne gamepass, switch, ps4/5

Put a couple of hours into this last night and its really sweet, I'm about half way though, so it seems its a short game and very linear so far, but Its the amazing visuals and story that really pulls at your heart strings is worth experiencing.

I was wanting a cozy summer adventure in the vein of Boku no Natsuyasumi, but what this is is more of a dip into grief and loss via a nostalgic look back at hazy summer spent in the French countryside. The story focuses on exploring your grandmas house after her death and triggering memories of the summers you spent their with her.

Its a very simple game you just wander around the locations interact with them to complete your tasks. Theirs a collectable element in hidden stickers to collect, and at the end of each memory you create a page for your journal with sticker you've found photos you have taken and key words you've used to make a poem. its not ground breaking or revolutionary but its worth a few hours of your time if you fancy a nice chilled lazy summer holiday explore of Dordogne

[wakka]

These indie developers just bloody love a game about grief and loss don't they.

Why's it never about ice cream and rainbows.

[Golgo]

These indie developers just bloody love a game about grief and loss don't they.

Why's it never about ice cream and rainbows.

This is very true. I've been quite puzzled by the explosion in recent years of what I call the 'grief em up' genre. I think it was To The Moon that started it all off, or am I wrong?

[Deuteros]

Or mental health. Or emotionally absent parents.

There's a place for exploring any and all topics, in video games or in other mediums, but this dreariness is getting tiresome.

[Lebowski]

Or mental health. Or emotionally absent parents.

There's a place for exploring any and all topics, in video games or in other mediums, but this dreariness is getting tiresome.

It's subject matter may be about death and loss but i wouldn't call it dreary, it dose a fantastic job of transporting you back and giving you that feeling of lost lazy childhood summers, its more a celebration of life and family than one that heavily focuses on the negative, The painted hazy sunbaked graphical style they have used make it a joy to explore too and fit the game perfectly.

[dataDave]

Why's it never about ice cream and rainbows.

I only play games which feature stuff like this, and my life is all the better because of it. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the most consistent/passive fun I've ever had with a video game. It's genuinely uplifting.

[Tobal]

Dordogne gamepass, switch, ps4/5

Put a couple of hours into this last night and its really sweet, I'm about half way though, so it seems its a short game and very linear so far, but Its the amazing visuals and story that really pulls at your heart strings is worth experiencing.

I was wanting a cozy summer adventure in the vein of Boku no Natsuyasumi, but what this is is more of a dip into grief and loss via a nostalgic look back at hazy summer spent in the French countryside. The story focuses on exploring your grandmas house after her death and triggering memories of the summers you spent their with her.

Its a very simple game you just wander around the locations interact with them to complete your tasks. Theirs a collectable element in hidden stickers to collect, and at the end of each memory you create a page for your journal with sticker you've found photos you have taken and key words you've used to make a poem. its not ground breaking or revolutionary but its worth a few hours of your time if you fancy a nice chilled lazy summer holiday explore of Dordogne

I've played a few hours into it, finishing the chapter after going the market, had fun combating a glitch/bug where i kept falling through the beach floor constantly from top to bottom of the screen, luckily i could guide it slightly to 'press A' location to get out of it. As for the story to that point they pretty much let everything out of the bag for where i would expect it to go

->Open Spoiler<-

Soon as i finished the market chapter there only place these indie devs now to go for drama. I'm pretty they'll just make out the french villagers are racist to the black kid who steals and he'll probably die trying to find the treasure (in order to win favour with them) or get Mimi in a near fatal experience and that will cause the final break up between her dad and Nora, and her memory loss.

Like the art style used and purposely making a mess of whatever task i'm given (like brushing your teeth), but sadly game doesn't react to it when you think they would. And i really don't think the music fits the 80's time period for the kid sections or the 90's bit with the adult, feels like it should be in a game like Deus Ex or Flashback.