FirstPlay has been with us for a few months now and it’s really starting to get into its stride, with great content appearing every week. But what can you find in this week’s episode?

Do you like a challenge? Do you think recent games are too easy? Do you enjoy dying over and over again? If you answered ‘yes’ to all three, then you’re going to love Demon’s Souls. With a little help from Namco Bandai, From Software’s hardcore RPG has finally found its way to Europe, and you’ll find a review of it in this week’s FirstPlay.

There’s also a review of American football newcomer Backbreaker, a preview of Ico-wannabe Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, and screenshots of LittleBigPlanet 2 and God of War: Ghost of Sparta. This episode also introduces a new slideshow option for the screenshot galleries, for those too lazy to press R1 to cycle through images.

As always, this episode can be purchased for 99p, or you can save some money by taking out a 90-day subscription for £8.99.

Download size of Episode 12 = 1124MB

The complete contents of this week’s episode are as follows:

HD Reviews and Previews

Backbreaker review – decent, but far-from-perfect rival to EA’s Madden – 7/10

Demon’s Souls review – a ridiculously deep and challenging RPG – 9/10 – check out the PS3 Attitude review here

Majin & the Forsaken Kingdom preview – looks okay, but it remains to be seen if it can equal Ico’s awesomeness

The Book of Eli review – a smart and beautiful blockbuster – 8/10

Network Highlights

LittleBigPlanet Best Levels – don’t worry, you’ll still be able to play all these in LBP2! – check out the PS3 Attitude review here (and here)

Skate 3 Tricks and Bails – a request for viewers to message FirstPlay about their insane trick and/or bail videos, to be shown in a future episode – check out the PS3 Attitude review here

PSN Racer Round-up – a look at the best racers on PSN

• PixelJunk Racers – Q-Games’ often underrated first title in the PJ series
• Outrun Online Arcade – still good fun, despite being a remake of the classic 80s arcade game
• WipEout HD Fury – definitely one of the best racers (and games) on PS3

PSP Comics – a browse through the PSP’s comic store

• Atomic Robo Vol.2 (Issue #5) – a smart new series in the same vein as Hellboy
• Bill Willingham’s Pantheon (Issue #4) – a satisfyingly dark story
• Powers (Issue #6) – a hardboiled detective story with added superhero spice
• Kick-Ass (Issue #8) – a shower of blood, gore and very naughty words
• Sláine (Book of Invasions #1: Moloch) – somehow even more gory than Kick-Ass

Screenshot Galleries

God of War: Ghost of Sparta – only a short gallery, but we’re promised some gameplay footage in a later episode

LittleBigPlanet 2 – (predictably) looking absolutely amazing

Nail’d – this ATV racer could easily be called ‘Pure 2’; seriously, it looks really similar

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 – it’s a good job clones exist in the Star Wars universe, otherwise this game would have quite the plot hole

Featured Downloads

FirstPlay Assassin’s Creed II Theme (pictured below)

Backbreaker demo (returning from last week)

FirstPlay Assassin's Creed II Theme

Next Week

• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Buy a £20 PSN card from – Amazon UK : GAME

All sales made through PS3 Attitude help our charity fund