Fall Guys

Started by martTM
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martTM

I'm not one to praise PS+ at all, especially since I'm letting it lapse when September rolls round, but Fall Guys seems like the perfect game for the service.

In case you haven't seen it, it's basically Takashi's Castle in videogame form (some of the events are stolen straight from it). Think Fortnite meets It's A Knockout. It looks like this:

Anyone thinking of grabbing it, since I don't think anyone here still has PS+?

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Ninchilla

I still have Plus…

Never heard of this, but I just saw that there's decent buzz around it in the PS+ subreddit. I'll definitely play it more than Modern Warfare 2.

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Jimbob78

A couple of my friends got beta access for this and loved it.
Mart's description is spot on.

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Garwoofoo

I really like the look of this. Definitely going to check it out when it hits the service next week.

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cavalcade

Also out on PC I see. Though it won't have the community there. Looks great - actually a really interesting idea to take the Battle Royale concept and apply it to non shooty stuff. I could see that being a bit of a growth genre in the future. I know we've seen Tetris Battle Royale, but you could apply this concept over a range of genres and it would work.

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martTM

Could we… maybe… is there… a Soc online gaming session on the cards?!??!

(I bet it's random only and you can't choose who to play with to prevent folk working together)

Also out on PC I see. Though it won't have the community there. Looks great - actually a really interesting idea to take the Battle Royale concept and apply it to non shooty stuff. I could see that being a bit of a growth genre in the future. I know we've seen Tetris Battle Royale, but you could apply this concept over a range of genres and it would work.

Fornite meets Cooking Mama, Paul Hollywood is the final boss.

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martTM

It's battle royale though, that wouldn't make sense. I'm thinking like 1 Vs 100 with more pratfalls.

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Ninchilla

Finally got round to watching the trailer, and that looks like it could either be huge amounts of fun or immensely frustrating - probably depending on how quick it is to restart once you get knocked out.

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Jimbob78

There's lot of different games and some are better than others. Like I said big thumbs up from the people I know who have played it, day one purchase for them.

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martTM

Out today. Top 12 on my second game. I think I like it. Hard to see how you can 'get good' at it like other battle royale games, which is a plus because it means it's always fair (unlike, say, Fortnite where if you're shit, you might as well not bother). Worth a look!

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martTM

I definitely saw at least one of you (JDub?) playing this last night. Don't deny it.

Seriously, if anyone's playing tonight, shout and we should squad up. Don't even feel obliged to use a headset, I almost certainly won't. But it might be a laugh for a few rounds.

Anyone?

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Garwoofoo

My boy is really enjoying this. Haven’t had the chance to really play it myself apart from a couple of quick goes yesterday. It’s fun.

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Ninchilla

Played three games ("episodes"?) of this tonight, and the best I managed was getting to round four; a couple of times, I was close to qualifying first, but didn't see a drop, or mis-timed a jump.

It really seemed to like the tail grab game, I think that came up every time.

Even when I was doing well, though, I was finding it mildly frustrating - the controls seem sluggish, and I couldn't tell when I was the right position/distance to grab a tail; succeeding in swiping one seemed largely arbitrary.

Still, I can imagine it'd be bonkers fun with a party for smack-talk and commiseration.

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martTM

I keep forgetting I'm ahead of you all - when I finish playing around 9.30pm, you're all only just jumping on…

I played a whole bunch of episodes last night (seven?) and over the last two nights I've averaged two wins a night (three Tues, two yesterday). I'm better at races, Hex-a-Gone seems to be my specialty and I hate Tail Tag.

The egg game where you're not only putting eggs in your own team's nest but stealing eggs out of others is a clusterfuck of hilarious proportions. Interesting how everyone's already assuming roles for the team games too: Fall Ball sees as many people drop back to defend as much as they do rush forward, and watching a few folk rush ahead down the ball push slope to basically spoil the efforts of the other teams is glorious.

I like this a lot. I'm going to be dipping in and out of it for a while, at least for all of the first season. It definitely needs new games come Season 2 though.

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JDubYes

I'm pretty much in the same boat as Ninchilla - I thought it was fun, but it was also frequently frustrating (sometimes I'd find my character would just fall over, etc), and there's a limit to how much longevity I think it'll have (for me) if there's only so far I can affect my own fate.

Is it me, or is it quite stingy with rewards too?

So yeah, I'll keep it on the HDD, maybe boot it up here and there (especially if there's a party up), but otherwise I'm only moderately bothered.

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dizzy_est_un_oeuf

I played a bit last night… I'm not totally convinced but I think it probably depends on how habit forming it becomes. Could see it being a quick kick off to gaming sessions but not convinced it holds up as a battle royale and I can think of a few better party games that have similar touchstones.
Nice to see they took the spinning pole jumping game from Kung Fu Chaos though.

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Ninchilla

I keep forgetting I'm ahead of you all - when I finish playing around 9.30pm, you're all only just jumping on…

I normally don't even get control of the TV until after everyone else goes to bed at about 11. :(

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Ninchilla

Gave it another go tonight, but got immensely frustrated, even when I was doing okay; I think this is one of those games where I need to be in the right frame of mind for it, rather than instilling that frame of mind on me as I play it.

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cavalcade

I'm pretty much in the same boat as Ninchilla - I thought it was fun, but it was also frequently frustrating

The last time I was on a boat with Ninchilla I had the same experience. Why do we keep getting on boats with him?

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Garwoofoo

I like this and admire it but I'm not sure it's really my sort of thing. I find it all a bit random really. And I get that the unscripted chaos is kind of the point but I'm not sure I ever really feel like I have much influence over proceedings. I probably find it more fun to watch than to play.

But my boy loves it, so it's getting played regularly in this house, and it's always great to see a tiny development team have a huge hit, so good luck to them. (And a big shout out to whoever they've got running their Twitter account, who is doing an exceptional job. Seriously).

One thing that's not been highlighted much is the unlock/monetisation system - it's really good. All the unlocks are cosmetic (costumes, emotes, colour schemes, celebrations) but there are loads of them and they switch in and out of the store regularly. You earn kudos by playing which lets you buy regular outfits and crowns for winning which lets you buy rarer and more desirable outfits. (You can of course buy kudos and crowns with real money, but I can't imagine many people feeling the need to do that just yet). There's a kind of battle pass & season system which rewards you for playing and levelling up. Then there are a small number of premium costumes which can be bought as traditional DLC (the bag of chips costume is almost worth it on its own). It's all designed to keep people coming back time and again as there's new stuff on offer every single time you log in, and already the games are stuffed full of people wearing different outfits and combinations of clothing. If they can keep the flow of new stuff coming, they'll have a real long-term hit on their hands.

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feltmonkey

I gave this a good go yesterday, and I really like it. I can see the argument that the lack of real control over how well you do might be frustrating, but I didn't find that to be the case, personally. I think the key is to not really care whether you win or not. Most of the time, when some random bullshit meant I got knocked off the edge of a track costing me qualification, I laughed. It's a funny load of chaotic nonsense, and the fun comes from that, not from doing well at it.

This is unfortunately slightly undermined by the progression system and in-game store. Tying that to how well you do in the games, and particularly the fact that you need the winners crowns to buy the best stuff is a problem for me, and is a recipe for people getting frustrated trying to win a game that can't really be won through skill alone.

The mentality of success = enjoyment is pretty much the basis of gaming, so they would be fighting a difficult battle anyway. Even in the couple of hours I played I started to notice some slightly negative gamer behaviour undermining the game. Specifically, on the game where you are playing a version of football, as soon as one team started to lose, half that team would quit. It would be nice if a miracle happened and someone created an online game where everyone played it in the right spirit and enjoyed themselves whether they won or not, but I can't see it happening.

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martTM

I gave this a good go yesterday, and I really like it. I can see the argument that the lack of real control over how well you do might be frustrating, but I didn't find that to be the case, personally. I think the key is to not really care whether you win or not. Most of the time, when some random bullshit meant I got knocked off the edge of a track costing me qualification, I laughed. It's a funny load of chaotic nonsense, and the fun comes from that, not from doing well at it.

Totally agreed with this. Not once have I felt cross or frustrated when I've lost. It's just a silly knockabout game, all clean fun. Even if someone's a dick (not hackers), it's fine. If you're given the tools to do something, why not do it? It's the very antithesis of 'git gud'.

This is unfortunately slightly undermined by the progression system and in-game store. Tying that to how well you do in the games, and particularly the fact that you need the winners crowns to buy the best stuff is a problem for me, and is a recipe for people getting frustrated trying to win a game that can't really be won through skill alone.

You can get crowns from the general prize pool too, albeit slowly. Agreed that could add frustration but a) to me, that just makes the crown-based outfits all the more desirable since they're not something you see a lot of, and b) the devs have said crowns will be more available in the future…

The mentality of success = enjoyment is pretty much the basis of gaming, so they would be fighting a difficult battle anyway. Even in the couple of hours I played I started to notice some slightly negative gamer behaviour undermining the game. Specifically, on the game where you are playing a version of football, as soon as one team started to lose, half that team would quit. It would be nice if a miracle happened and someone created an online game where everyone played it in the right spirit and enjoyed themselves whether they won or not, but I can't see it happening.

I've not had people rage quit on me yet, but I guess it'll come. People be peoplein', that's why I don't like them as a rule. :smile:

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feltmonkey

This is brilliant fun in multiplayer. You don't really work as a team particularly, althought when a team game is drawn you do all end up on the same side. It shouldn't really work as a game where you enter as a party, but combine it with a group whatsapp chat, all dress in the same outfit, and it's hilarious.

I've got it on PS4 and PC now. My brother and sister had been playing it together and decided that I should join their group so they gifted it to me on steam. So if anyone wants to team up on either platform, let me know.

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Garwoofoo

Despite my initial reservations, this has become the most-played game in this household for ages - it's a rare game that all three of us enjoy (I think Overcooked may have been the last one). To the extent that my other half actually made me set up a PS4 account for her so she could play online, and I keep finding her sneaking in a quick game or two when no-one's around.

Season 2 sneak peek:

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Jimbob78

This is almost all I'm playing at the moment. Came second in one of the races yesterday and did a lap of honour of my room.
As said above, so much fun in multiplayer even if most of the time you are not really playing together. This is the only reason I renewed by PS plus.

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Mr Party Hat

It's the first online game I've played where failing is never annoying. You're not really expecting to win – it's a 60 to 1 shot – so falling is just an hilarious inevitability.

I do wish the characters controlled a little better, although maybe if it had Mario levels of accuracy that would introduce an unwanted skill advantage.