Bloodborne [PS4]

[VR46]

Japanese beta invites are being emailed out today, any joy chopemon? guess due to time difference they will have been sent already, nothing received here

[chopemon]

Nothing yet

[Brad]

Congratulations! You have been chosen to take part in the Bloodborne™ Alpha Test!

I'M IN BITCHES!!!



The Alpha Test will be open for a limited time on the following days:
Wednesday October 1st 19:00~22:00 (CET), 18:00~21:00 (BST)
Friday October 3rd 19:00~22:00 (CET), 18:00~21:00 (BST)
Sunday October 5th 19:00~22:00 (CET), 18:00~21:00 (BST)

[doodledude]

I'm in

[chopemon]

Lame.

If anyone gets a code, doesn't want it and feels generous, you know where I am!

[hudson]

Let's rock!

[fuse]

Lame.

If anyone gets a code, doesn't want it and feels generous, you know where I am!

Sounds like they know we don't need any kind of headstart, don't sweat it

[Brad]

Lame.

If anyone gets a code, doesn't want it and feels generous, you know where I am!

Yeah I know where you are mate. At home, not playing Bloodborne, mwahahaha!!!! Erm, I mean, good luck dude!

[chopemon]

[shaffy_oppa]

I didn't get in either T_T

[Adam]

I posted my code on GameFAQs as I didn't want it.



Lol! Not really, gonna try get on this tomorow

[Adam]

Are we allowed to talk about the game in firstplay?

[Mr M0by]

Pretty sure there was an NDA prior to being presented with he download code.

[VR46]

I would just post impressions in here Adam, until a proper demo for everyone or the actual game release. NDA's are there to be broken!

Seen about six people on my friends list playing this tonight.

[Adam]

/naughtyboy

There are no Estus Flasks in this, they have gone back to Herbs essentially. Called Bloodflasks. You start with a few and when you run out you are essentially screwed as you are relying on enemies to drop more. It's not very nice to get all the way up to the boss, use up all your healing items then die, only to be reset to a checkpoint and have to do it all over again without the health items this time. It really hindered my progress and I never finished the demo. The items do tie into the new health system I guess. When you are hit by enemy attacks, your health that you lost can be recovered! Gotta act fast as you only have about 2 seconds to deal damage to something to start recovering your life back and it will take a few attacks. Since shields look like they are gone, you will be dodging or taking hits so this health recovery system will need to be taken full advantage of. Triangle is dedicated to your bloodflasks now. Square is for your items. There's some nice item combinations you can do, like toss oil at enemies then throw a molotov at them. Pretty much killed one of the big guys with that in one shot but I couldn't do it often as once again you have to rely on enemies dropping them, or get one time pickups from the level.

In the Alpha, there is no souls collecting or level ups, or equipment management screens, it's all disabled. Your character is chosen from 4 presets which all have different weapons and armor. The weapons have 2 modes which you switch between with L1. I played with 2 characters, the first one had a weapon that acted like a sword, but with L1 the blade flicked out like a giant switchblade and became a great sword. All attacks were done with R1 and R2, L2 was for the (shot?)gun which looks to have replaced shields for the most part. Shooting enemies with it can stun them and deal minor damage, the shots get off real quick too so you could use them defensively. The second character had a pistol and a knife and was the most agile. The pistol was single target, longer range than the shotty and looked to do a tiny bit more damage but didn't stun so well. The knife was super fast and mostly good against one enemy at a time. Pressing L1 split the knife into 2 and let me dual weild them, I couldn't shoot my pistol in this mode. Still, all attacks were done with R1 and R2, while L2 changed to a defensive slash which had me cut a cross infront of me while hopping backwards.

Graphically the game looked amazing, very moody. Dark and busy. There is lots more crap laying around for you to roll into if you like. Fighting enemies and smashing up objects mid fight introduced alot of slowdown. It ran <30 fps for sure and it dropped alot. Character faces still looked like they came from ElderScrolls Oblivion but covered up, the character models looked great. You can get soaked in blood and stuff. I love the sound of the footsteps on the stones!

Soapstones have been given a makeover. You now have a Notebook for keeping track of your messeges and writing new ones. The graphic for signs are little skeleton babies raising out of the ground which when activated, produce a piece of paper from the owners Notebook and show you the messege. You can rate up or down. I got 14 rates for one of my messeges (Beware of the Half-wits) and didn't notice any health restore or anything. Blood marks on the ground have changed to mini tombstones which rise out of the ground when you get close, dead cool. The white soapstones have been replaced with a big bell and small bell which don't look like they are fully implemented yet. Ringing the big bell sometimes got another player to join me. Sometimes. Ringing the small bell is, I think, the same as leaving your sign on the ground from previous games, in the hopes to be summoned by another player. But in this game there is no confirmation that you have done this correctly. You ring the small bell and then 10 minutes later you hear a wooshing noise and the screen goes black. You load up in another players game. Perhaps.

Will try and clear the 'demo' when it's up next time, there's plenty of gates I need to unlock