Hands-On : First Play (The New Interactive Service for PS3)

 

So you’re probably all going to start asking “what is First Play?”. Well, readers, if you’re too lazy to click this link and read up on my post for when First Play was originally announced, I’ll quickly summarise it here. Basically First Play is a brand new interactive service that will be coming to PS3s in the UK on April 8th (that’s this Thursday folks!) First Play will provide screenshot galleries, HD reviews & previews as well as featured downloads, which will be handpicked from the PlayStation Store by the First Play team plus there'll be network highlights featuring the best things the PlayStation network has to offer. This could range from the best LBP level, the best PSP Minis or even the best content in the video store. Simply put, First Play is pretty awesome.

I was one of the lucky people who got sent a beta code because I signed up for updates via their website which is how I got to do this hands-on article before Thursday’s release date. Anyway, read on and find out exactly why you need to download First Play!

When I first found out about First Play I was unbelievably excited. I knew that it was being led by the team behind the Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM_UK on Twitter) and that’s a magazine that I’ve been reading since I was 8 years old! Needless to say I’m 14 now and I’ve spent countless hours being captivated in OPM’s glossy pages full of bright pictures and well-written articles. Articles so good, I’d like to say, that they can even rival the quality of mine (gasp!) My time with First Play started yesterday after I’d spent even more hours downloading the 1GB+ file from the PlayStation Store and I have to say that it was well worth the wait.

What stood out to me most was the interface. Slicker and glossier than any of the pages in the mag, the ‘home-page’ of First Play is easy to use and easy to navigate, I had no problem searching through the heaps of gaming goodness that the First Play team had put together. From the main interface of First Play I headed straight to the most appealing part of the service and probably the best ; the HD Reviews & Previews. On offer they had previews for both the upcoming titles, Lost Planet 2 and Super Street Fighter IV (SSFIV), a chance to look at the ads (more on those later), a review of the film Cracks on Blu-Ray as well as a HD video review for Battlefield Bad Company 2. I found all of these pieces of content particularly amazing because not only are they in beautiful and rather stunning HD, they highlight one of First Play’s key features. Insider info. I know that many journalists do have access to exclusive knowledge but First Play takes this to all new heights. Because they are so closely affiliated with Sony they get news and other content before anybody else. Now I’m not saying that you should stop visiting the likes of SFN because frankly, who else will give you these great tips for MW2’s online modes? However, what I am saying is that they can help you to get a lot of gaming gossip before the whole world has even caught the slightest whiff of it! Anyway back to the content…

After marvelling at the impressiveness of First Play’s logistics for a little while, I selected the Lost Planet 2 preview video. I had tried to get into to the LP2 multiplayer beta myself so to see footage of the game in action was pretty cool. The OPM team have always had a knack for knowing what their readers want. What makes this video so special is the quality of the footage, all in crisp HD, as mentioned, but it’s also the voiceover work. Everything in First Play from each and every screenshot to the main interface is all voiced over by Lucy Porter, a comedienne with masses of funny things to say. In the LP2 preview vid she explained the back-story of the game, explained why the climate had changed between the first and second games from frosty snow to a more jungle like atmosphere and she even talked about the set designers interesting use of HDMI cables! All of this was very funny and her voice brings something extra to the already jam-packed table.

Next on my list of things to visit in First Play was the HD screenshots. Remember how I mentioned that all of the images were voice captioned? Well, they were, and it was pretty cool, I tell you! Images from Brink, Mafia 2 , 2010 FIFA World Cup and Red Dead Redemption were some big games to choose from but having already jumped on the RDR hype rollercoaster I selected those images. One example of an image was of the main character, John Marston, shooting at a buzzard. A seemingly uninteresting picture don’t you think? That’s what I thought too until Lucy’s voice started playing with something to say about Red Dead Redemption's hero/rebel choice system (something I talked about here). Her voice added something more to the image and wasn’t just a humorous little caption, it was something that actually expanded on what we already know about the game and it really does help if you don’t know much about a particular game.

As I headed to the Network Highlights section of First Play I was greeted by an advertisement for Assassin’s Creed 2. Now I don’t mind ads at all because they help to keep a service (or website) cheap or entirely free. Plus these ads are particularly great because they’re not full of the worthless crap that you find littered between TV show breaks and they’re also skippable (that’s a made up word by the way) and (yes there’s more) if you really take a liking to the ads, you have the option to press select and visit the product’s website, another useful feature. I really like the Network Highlights section because it will feature content made by users such as kills in Uncharted 2, awesome Sackboy costumes, or, as the beta showed, the 10 best Singstar videos. I thought that these videos, showing user input, are what sets First Play apart form Qore, a similar online magazine-like service available to PS3 owners in the US. Well there’s that and the fact that First Play is way cheaper too…

Featured downloads are also one of the things featured in First Play, a great round-up of the other things that PS3 owners in the UK should download. Besides every episode of First Play that is! Though there’s not much to say about it despite the fact that it’s a great addition to First Play’s already excellent list of features.

And so, readers, I shall leave you with this… First Play is a must download. No doubt about it. It’s released on April the 8th (this Thursday) and is 99p for one episode or £8.99 for 12 EPISODES which is 30% off the usual cost (bargain!). The service is currently only available in the UK (for once we get something first!) but will be made available to other countries in the PAL region (Europe) soon. If you live in the US you can download Qore instead.

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First Play UK Announced

Comment Questions

1. Are you angry or annoyed that First Play isn’t available in your region?
2. What do you think could be added to First Play to make it better?

First Play UK Announced

First Play UK Walkthrough video via me on YouTube

Being the only blogger at System Fail News is hard, I am the only one who runs and writes for the site and sometimes it can be really difficult to keep up. I don’t have the privilege of having lots of people on my staff the way other sites do although I do my best to bring you as much gaming goodness and as many exclusives as I can. You may have already heard about First Play, the new digital gaming news service coming to PlayStation 3s in the UK, it’s being led by the team behind the Official PlayStation Magazine UK (OPM_UK on Twitter) and so will surely be great. Wanting to go that extra mile and not just do the generic ‘copy and paste’ thing that loads of other sites do, I waited out a little while for the new edition of OPM to be released so that I could give you some extra info about the service. However, as much as I love the mag, this time it let me down, failing to mention First Play even once and therefore left out the snippets of info that I wished to tell you all here. Alas, do not be disheartened as I have posted the trailer/walkthrough video for First Play and below I will bullet point the service’s key features.

• Is a brand new paid interactive PS3 service that will give its users heap loads of PS3 news and insider gossip before anyone else
• Will only be available to UK PS3 owners for the meantime but apparently if it does well, the rest of Europe, followed by other parts of the world will be the next ones to get it!
• Features HD Screenshot galleries ,HD Video Reviews and Previews , HD Trailers and all of the best user uploaded content from the PlayStation Network.
• First Play comes out every Thursday (starting Spring-time) of every week, downloadable via the PlayStation Store
• Prices are 99p per episode or £3.99 per month if you subscribe (approx.) – a pretty good deal if you ask me!

You can check out the First Play website @ www.firstplay.co.uk

I promise to keep you updated when I hear anything about a set start date for the First Play service

UPDATE - it has just been announced that First Play's first episode will be available to UK users by the PlayStation store THIS THURSDAY. Mark your calendars, - April 8th. I'll be posting a hands-on of their beta issue sometime this week :D

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Comment Questions 

Do you think First Play looks good?

For those of you who are Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii users, would you like to see a similar service come to other consoles?

See Need For Speed: Shift In Action

Check out this brand new trailer for Need For Speed: Shift and watch the superb gameplay that is featured.

Need For Speed: Shift Gameplay Trailer courtesy of Joystiq

So what do you think? Leave a comment!

Don’t let your friends miss out on this brand new trailer! Share it with them using the Share This button below.

Tekken 6 Wireless Sticks (Hey That Rhyme’s!)

 

While Street Fighter 4 may have been the best fighting game of the year, so far,  there may be a contender that can  ‘reclaim that title’  and it’s name is “Tekken 6”. Anyway, enough of that movie trailer crap and on to the actual headline…

So some cool company called HORI have produced a pretty darn awesome peripheral for Tekken 6 (see image above) and it will act just like arcade machine controls, only it has a couple of added features-

a) it’s wireless!

and

b) it won’t get jammed like the Street Fighter IV fight stick did ;D

 

He he he, I’m looking forward to Tekken 6 because it will make a great post tile

Tekken 6 Takes The Trophy < hey it’s alliteration!

 

Are you looking forward to Tekken 6 too? Leave a comment!

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Gran Turismo 5 Lowdown

Lately here at SFN I have been a little over-excited about all of the new racing sim games that are set to be released and so with this "motor vehicle" trend setting my blog 'a light' , why not add a little more fire to the the already raging fire with this news about a possibld (yes it has only been rumoured) Gran Turismo release date! This new specualted release date for the game is

November 27th 2009!

(via That Video Game Blog)

Excited for the game or don't you care? Leave a comment!

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Forza Motorsport 3 Release Date Confirmed

The PS3 Will Be “Left 4 Dead 2”

We all had a little inkling that Left 4 Dead 2 would be coming to PS3 but with no official evidence it could never be confirmed. Well, now that there is this screenshot (see above picture) PS3 owners can rejoice that they are getting this marvellous game (if I do say so myself!) Many of us are looking forward to this as although Valve have steered clear of PS3 in the past, this shows that are slowly coming to terms with the console’s potential!

Left 4 Dead 2 or Left 4 Dead Ewww! Got thoughts about the game? Leave a comment!

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System Fail Top Tips: 5 Must Have Games (PS3)

In comparison to the Xbox 360, the PS3 is a relatively new console, yet there are still plenty of great games available for it.

Below I have listed the top 5 games that you should definitely buy for your PS3.

5.Grand Theft Auto IV

The Don, the top dog,the King. All of these titles represent Grand Theft Auto's status in the world of sandbox games. Rockstar's recent addition to the series, GTA IV, was a massive hit with crazed fans of the long-running franchise and newcomers alike. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why. In the game you get to run around like a mad man, killing innocent civilians, irritating policemen with your wave of endless crime sprees and as an all time first you get to go bowling!

4. Little Big Planet

Aah, Little Big Planet. The only game on PS3 that can turn a hardened career criminal into a super-sensitive softie. I can understand a gangster's change of heart, after all Sackboys are just sooo cute! The adorable playground world that developers Media Molecule have created is intriguing to everyone over the age of embryo (not really an age, I know) to anyone under the age of ancient (again not an age). With LBP it really is love at first sight!

3.Killzone 2

Die.Helghast.Die! These 3 words are the basic premise for Guerrilla's dark and grimy shooter. And it’s those same few words that have earned Killzone 2 the place of number 3 in this list. While the game is quite diverse and up to date in terms of graphics, gameplay and the like it’s base is relatively simple; kill the Helghast, revive your team mate, kill the Helghast, revive your team mate etc… This accessible way of playing provide an extremely fun experience and so it is a high priority must have!

*Demo available from the PlayStation Store

2. inFamous

Oh no. What on Earth have you done? inFamous’ story starts off when innocent bike messenger Cole embarks on a delivery mission which involves a mysterious package, which just happens to contain a freaky-deaky glowing orb. Anyway this orb thing goes KABOOM and devastates the whole of Empire City (where the game’s set) it also gives the main character Cole some super-cool electric powers.It’s up to you (as Cole) to run around Empire City either protecting the city from the equally powerful Reaper gang (who also have powers) or just making the Empire City residents’ problems a heck of a lot worse. It really is up to you…

*Download the demo from the PlayStation Store.

1.Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

The last on the list and the last in the MGS series (or so Hideo Kojima says). This game is famous for its uber long cut scenes, something that is only respected by fans of Metal Gear Solid. That annoying feature isn’t much to worry about as it doesn't take away from how much fun can be had with the game. It’s no generic FPS, Brother’s In Arms I’m talking to YOU, it's a solid video game that ties up the majority of the loose strings left of the Metal Gear Story and is definitely worth a place in your PS3 video game collection.

Missed out your favourite PS3 game? Leave a comment and tell me all about it!

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Uncharted 2 Q and A Talks About Online Co-Op, Love Interests.

Take a look at this Q and A of one of the guys behind Uncharted 2 : Among Thieves at Naughty Dog.



Like what you heard in the Q and A? Pre-order Uncharted 2:Among Thieves from Amazon!


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Update On The Way

I just read on the Official Playstation Bog that there is an update for the PSP on the way. The update is version 5.03. On the blog they didn't provide much detail as to when the update will be released or as to what it will do, however the article did say that it will improve system software stability.Whatever that means!

What feature would you like to have added to your PSP?Leave a comment in the box below to speak your mind.