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No Man’s Sky is seeing its biggest month in years amid Starfield’s success

Starfield’s success might be making headlines lately, but another space game also seems to be reaping the benefits of Bethesda’s much-anticipated sci-fi epic: No Man’s Sky.

Summary

Lies of P takes the story of Pinocchio and flips it on its head, creating a world of horror fiction that we seldom see.
Influenced by the Soulslike genre, Lies of P takes place in a challenging, dark world where sinister mechanical puppets inherit the city.
Play Lies of P starting September 15 in early access by picking up the Digital Deluxe Edition today on the Xbox Store. Game Pass members can start playing the Standard Edition at launch on September 19 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows.

Lies of P is a fantastic interpretation of “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” dropping our beloved puppet within the nightmarish city of Krat, a fallen utopia built on the backs of mechanical puppets who have gone mad and slain its citizens. Their creator, Geppetto, has gone missing and “P” is brought to life to track him down to try and save the city.

In the classic fairy tale, Pinocchio embarks on many adventures of self-discovery and encounters a wide range of characters – many of them bad actors who take advantage of his ignorance — which leads him on a transformative journey where he learns what it means to be human, the power of forgiveness, and of course, repercussions for lying.

It doesn’t take much to see that the string that connects Lies of P to the classic tale of Pinocchio is a delicate one, but that’s precisely the allure the game brings to the table here. This isn’t a story you’ve heard before and it plays with the familiar in ways we really haven’t seen with the Pinocchio fable.

The lurid world of Lies of P is a compelling one, filled with evil puppets, dim alleyways, treacherous rooftops, and bodies scattered about; victims of a corrupting Petrification Disease or at the hands of puppets turning on their former masters. All of this is captured in a cityscape inspired by the Belle Époque era of France — a time of great scientific and artistic achievement – in both its majestic architecture and how technology works (e.g., lots of clocks and steam). The game’s world plays with ideas familiar to you, both from the real world and its fabled source material, as you continue to explore its haunting environments.

The string that connects Lies of P to the classic tale of Pinocchio is a delicate one, but that’s precisely the allure the game brings to the table here.

As you step into the world of Lies of P, you’ll no doubt start making these connections yourself, with some of the more iconic characters tied to its source material. There’s P (Pinocchio) and your narrative companion named Gemini standing in for the cricket (Gemini, Jiminy – get it?). The puppet inventor Geppetto and the blue-haired Sophia (the fairy) are both instrumental in helping level up your character – and perhaps these characters will play a role in having P become more human later in the game.

There are other callbacks as well that we’ve encountered, like the Parade Watchman, one of the first bosses in the game, who seems to be inspired by the puppet master, Mangiafuoco. And you can “turn into a donkey” by equipping The Mad Donkey mask, obtained by defeating a wild citizen who functions as the game’s third boss. And from the screenshots, it appears The Black Rabbits, undertakers for Death from the original story, will make an appearance at some point in the game as well. There will be more introduced throughout to be sure, but these were some of the more recognizable characters I’ve encountered in the early parts of the game.

The other inspiration that Lies of P draws upon is the Soulslike genre. Many of the genre’s staples are at play here, like a high degree of difficulty, repeated death yielding knowledge, limited save points, and combat mechanics that reward parries and attacks of opportunity – all of which feed into the challenging gameplay found in Lies of P.

The challenge, like many Soulslikes, will be in your patience with any enemy confrontation throughout the game, forcing you to study, anticipate, and then exploit the patterns you’re able to discern. It can be a very difficult game at times and perseverance will be tested. But the trickle of seeing what is hiding just beyond the dreary fog that blankets the world of Lies of P is a compelling one that will push you forward.

The trickle of seeing what is hiding just beyond the dreary fog that blankets the world of Lies of P is a compelling one that will push you forward.

And at the center of both the adaptation of Pinocchio and Soulslikes will be the “lying” element. The game’s lore leads you to believe that puppets are incapable of lying, but something is special about P — he can. There will be times when you will be confronted with choices where you can give solace to others by lying — or you can tell the truth. How this plays out through the rest of the adventure remains to be seen, but it does add another, very Souls-y layer of mystery that Lies of P has promised here.

Lies of P launches on September 15 in early access for those who purchase the Digital Deluxe Edition on the Xbox Store. Game Pass members can start playing the Standard Edition on September 19 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows. Check out our earlier coverage from the Lies of P demo to get some great pointers on how to play.

Lies of P Digital Deluxe Edition

NEOWIZ

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$69.99

Pre-order

Pre-order Lies of P Digital Deluxe Edition and receive
• 72 Hours Early Access
• Mischievous Puppet’s Clothes
• Mischievous Puppet’s Parade Hat
• The Great Venigni’s Signature Coat
• The Great Venigni’s Glasses
• Mask worn by those preparing for the festival
* The Mischievous Puppet’s Clothes and Mischievous Puppet’s Parade Hat are preorder bonuses.

Lies of P is a thrilling soulslike that takes the story of Pinocchio, turns it on its head, and sets it against the darkly elegant backdrop of the Belle Epoque era.

You are a puppet created by Geppetto who’s caught in a web of lies with unimaginable monsters and untrustworthy figures standing between you and the events that have befallen the world of Lies of P.

You are awakened by a mysterious voice that guides you through the plagued city of Krat – a once lively place that has been poisoned by madness and bloodlust. In our soulslike, you must adapt yourself and your weapons to face untold horrors, untangle the unfathomable secrets of the city’s elites and choose whether to confront predicaments with the truth or weave lies to overcome them on the journey to find yourself.

・ A DARKLY ELEGANT AND CRUEL WORLD
Unearth the secrets of the city of Krat – a place soaked in the style of the Belle Epoque era which once thrived due to its puppet industry and now sees its streets covered in blood.

・BATTLE WITH TWISTED INSTRUMENTS
Develop a unique combat style to counter vicious enemies and terrain by weaving together dynamic weapon combinations, utilizing the Legion Arms, and activating new abilities.

・WHAT’S IN A LIE?
There will be times when you will be confronted with choices where you can give comfort to others in sorrow or despair by lying…or you can choose to tell the truth.

Carve your own path.

・A CLASSIC REIMAGINED
Experience the beloved fairy tale of Pinocchio reinterpreted as a dark, grim narrative that allows players to discover the secrets and symbols hidden within the world of Lies of P.

Lies of P Standard Edition

NEOWIZ

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$59.99

Pre-order

Pre-order now to receive the following bonus content
• Mischievous Puppet’s Clothes
• Mischievous Puppet’s Parade Hat
* The Mischievous Puppet’s Clothes and Mischievous Puppet’s Parade Hat are preorder bonuses.

Lies of P is a thrilling soulslike that takes the story of Pinocchio, turns it on its head, and sets it against the darkly elegant backdrop of the Belle Epoque era.

・WHAT’S IN A LIE?
There will be times when you will be confronted with choices where you can give comfort to others in sorrow or despair by lying…or you can choose to tell the truth.

Carve your own path.

Star Trek: Infinite Preview: Spreadsheets, the Final Frontier

There’s an old joke about 4X games that goes something like this: after you spend several hours on YouTube watching tutorials, you get to fumble your way through a playthrough with a vague idea of what you’re doing before you inevitably make some fatal mistake you don’t recognize until much, much later. Then you restart and do a little better. Star Trek: Infinite isn’t interested in re-inventing the galactic wheel – this is a 4X game’s 4X game – but it does do a good job of bringing Trek into the space that publisher Paradox Interactive has boldly charted over the years.

From the jump, Star Trek: Infinite lets you choose from four factions: the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire, and the Cardassian Union. The Federation is best at exploring, diplomacy, and researching new technology. The Cardassians excel at spycraft and warfare. The Klingons’ penchant for tradition and honorable combat make them the guys you’ll want to go to if you’re looking to conquer the rest of known space, and the Romulans are great at stealth and guile. I mostly played the Federation, because I wanted to try a less combative playstyle.

Star Trek: Infinite is a pretty traditional 4X game; you’ll navigate a series of menus to control your civilization, manage your planets, acquire resources, expand your territory, build and pilot ships, and so on. If you’ve played Stellaris, you’ve got a pretty good idea of how Star Trek: Infinite works. If you haven’t, just imagine navigating a series of Star Trek-themed spreadsheets, and you’ll be on the right track.

You have to like spreadsheets and pause-and-play gameplay to get the most out of the experience, but there’s some cool Star Trek-flavored filling in this donut. First, you’ll run into lore-important Star Trek characters who can command your ships, serve as admirals in your fleets, or spy on the other factions. It was cool to have Spock run some of my tech research and step into a science vessel when I needed him, and it just wouldn’t feel right to have the Enterprise under the command of anyone other than Jean-Luc Picard.

Another cool thing is the Mission Tree, which tasks you with completing certain faction-specific requirements that mark major milestones in the events of that society. Gather enough alloy as the Federation, for example, and you can build the Enterprise. Win enough fights with the Enterprise, and you get Worf, while surveying systems gets you bonuses that aid the Federation for decades. Completing these milestones unlocks story events and missions that will be familiar to Trek fans, and there’s even branching paths depending on how you decide to play your faction and what you do when story events play out. It all feels very Trek, and gives you something to shoot for as you manage your civilization.

I tried to do things the way they would, which meant diplomacy and exploration first. And the crazy part was, it worked.

My favorite part of Star Trek: Infinite, however, is how differently each faction plays. When I was the Federation, I tried to do things the way they would, which meant diplomacy and exploration first. I would only get into shooting fights as a last resort. I kept a couple of fleets around for defense, but mostly I explored strange new worlds, sought out new life and new civilizations, and boldly went where no one had gone before. And the crazy part was, it worked. I built relationships with other cultures and once we got along well enough, I brought them into the Federation. Meanwhile, the Klingons were starting wars every other week, the Cardassians were trying to bully and/or conquer the less advanced civilizations, and the Romulans were mostly trying to be left alone. That is, when they weren’t sneaking into our territory.

Eventually, though, conflict does arise, and you’ll want to be prepared when it does. Star Trek: Infinite lets you customize your ships, taking a simple class blueprint and adding in all the wonderful toys you get from the research your scientists have been doing. It’s fun to be able to tailor your ships to your playstyle, and it means your older ships are still useful later in the game. You don’t have to engage with this system – Infinite will generate an “auto-best” build for you automatically – but it’s a nice feature, especially in a game based on a series with ships this iconic.

Star Trek: Infinite does a great job of staying true to what makes Trek Trek while integrating it into a 4K strategy game. You’re still navigating a lot of menus, certain things are still very obtuse and require a lot of prior knowledge (I wasn’t kidding about all those YouTube tutorials), and it can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially if you’re new to 4X games. But after spending a dozen hours with this preview build, I still want to explore, discover new civilizations, unlock new missions in the Mission Tree, and see what else Infinite has up its sleeve. Exploring the final frontier isn’t easy; Infinite gets that. But it also understands there’s a whole lot of adventure out there, too. All we have to do to find it is be brave enough to engage with all those menus.

Play as aliens or agents in suspenseful sci-fi multiplayer title Mannequin, coming to PS VR2 in 2024

Hello PlayStation nation! My name’s James Hunt and I’m the Game Director for Fast Travel Games’ new PS VR2 title, Mannequin, coming in 2024. You may know the Fast Travel team from our long history of single-player VR experiences like Cities: VR and the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice, but Mannequin will be our first ever in-house multiplayer title, allowing up to 5 players to enjoy suspense, social deduction and fast, sudden action.

Let me tell you all about it.

Play as aliens or agents in suspenseful sci-fi multiplayer title Mannequin, coming to PS VR2 in 2024

Frozen in time

In Mannequin, our first original IP since 2019’s The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets, the world is reeling from the appearance of an extraterrestrial presence. Sites across the globe have started mysteriously freezing in time, and first responders called to these areas have become motionless, helpless statues.

Not only that, but a race of alien beings has been discovered at these locations, known to you and I as Mannequins. They boast potentially life-threatening abilities, and it’s up to a team of special Agents to hunt down these supernatural new threats before they themselves fall victim to the Mannequin’s powers.

What follows is a tense game of cat and mouse.

Fight to a stand still

In a standard match of Mannequin, three players work together as the titular aliens, facing off against a team of two Agents. As Mannequins, you’ll have the ability to assume a pose and then freeze yourself, turning into a statue with the appearance of one of the trapped first responders. You can use this power to set up the perfect ambush, lying in wait for Agents to appear and then dashing forward freezing them in-place with a touch of the hand.

But Agents are far from defenseless. Armed with state of the art technology, they can scan levels for a Mannequin’s rough location. Catch the enemy in the act or suss out which statue is an enemy in disguise and you’ll need to blast them with your laser pistol. The first team to wipe out the other wins, but there’s a few more twists that make Mannequin a game of intense strategy and shifting favor.

The race is on

Each of the game’s levels features Power Stations that Mannequins can steadily drain. Draining two Power Stations will grant the team enhanced powers, including the ability to see exactly where your enemy is. This can quickly turn the tide of a match, but Power Stations make for high risk areas that Agents are likely to keep under close watch. Make sure you’re not stumbling into a trap.

Agents also have another reason to defend these Power Stations. If Mannequins haven’t claimed them within three minutes of the start of a match, the human team will get the upgrades instead. Each side can also revive any downed allies, but this too creates the perfect opportunity for a deadly ambush.

This makes each game of Mannequin a sharp, tight and tense exercise in hide and seek. Can the Mannequins fool the Agents into thinking they’re friendly, then strike at the right moment? Or will an Agent’s cunning and use of gadgets help them come out on top?

Get involved

Here at Fast Travel, we know that making the best multiplayer games can’t happen without the support of our fantastic community. We want to know what you think of today’s reveal and what you want to see in the full game when it launches in 2024. We will have more to share, including the first gameplay footage, soon.

We really believe that Mannequin is going to be a flagship multiplayer game for PS VR2, but that can only happen with your help. Until next time, ask yourself – who can you trust?

Gunbrella review: a stylish 2D platformer with bullets in its brolly

You can’t fault the pitch. In Gunbrella you’re a sort of cowboy dude with a shotgun that’s also an umbrella. You use the umbrella to deflect enemy projectiles, block attacks, fly up into the air like a furious Mary Poppins and zoom along ziplines. You use the shotgun, as you might reasonably expect, to do the majority of your big murdering.

Gunbrella is a classic 2D platform shooter in the style of a steampunk western. It’s like Deadwood crossed with Singin’ In The Rain, if Gene Kelly ever used his umbrella to blow holes through anyone who didn’t sufficiently praise his tap dancing. Some light exploration bits have you travelling by train from frontier towns to mining villages, much of them decorated with giant spinning cogs – so you know it’s steampunk – and populated by a small cast of quest-giving locals, pill-dispensing shopkeepers and monologuing villains.

Starfield to Get Official DLSS Support, an Eat Button for Food, and Much More

Starfield developer Bethesda has outlined a raft of improvements coming to the space role-playing game post-launch.

In a blog post, Bethesda said Starfield’s first update is a small hotfix targeted at the few top issues it’s seeing. But after that, players can expect a regular interval of updates that have “top community requested features”.

These features include DLSS support on PC, perhaps the most-requested update from PC players. Also of note is an eat button for food. Currently, Starfield does not let you eat food as you see it in the game world, so an eat food button would save a lot of time.

Here’s the list:

Brightness and Contrast controls
HDR Calibration Menu
FOV Slider
Nvidia DLSS Support (PC)
32:9 Ultrawide Monitor Support (PC)
Eat button for food!

Meanwhile, Bethesda said it would “love” to add city maps to Starfield in the future. Starfield’s barebones maps have been universally criticised, with some players taking it upon themselves to create their own.

“We’re also working closely with Nvidia, AMD, and Intel on driver support, and each update will include new stability and performance improvements,” Bethesda continued, before reiterating that built-in mod support (Creations) that will work across all platforms similar to Skyrim and Fallout 4 is set to launch early 2024.

“Until then, we know our PC community is already very active in the modding space and if you have any feedback on how we can make this better, please let us know,” Bethesda said.

“Modding and creating in our games will always be a vital and important part of who we are, and we love seeing the community get off to such a strong start.”

There’s a lot going on in the world of Starfield. It’s seen over six million players since launch, making Starfield Bethesda’s biggest ever game launch. Players have worked out how to make ships the AI can’t hit, discovered many hidden references to other games like Skyrim, and used thousands of potatoes to show off its “mind-blowing” physics.

If you’re interested in modding Starfield, check out IGN’s guide on how to install Starfield mods. However, if you’re still just getting started, here are all the things to do first in Starfield.

IGN’s review explains the pull to seek out Starfield’s “immense amount of quality roleplaying quests and interesting NPCs” is strong, despite a rough start and some core aggravations.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Hauma – A Detective Noir Story review: Indiana Jones meets visual novel meets ridiculous cop show

One of my favourite TV shows is The Rookie, because you never have any idea what could happen next. No episode can go more than five minutes without some kind of twist, often with no relation to anything that has happened up until that point. Like, you think the stand-off between criminals and their victims in a courthouse nuclear bunker has been resolved, but it turns out that while the camera was off him, a lawyer got stabbed by someone else. Hauma is bringing that kind of energy to the visual novel space.

You play as Judith, a former detective and champion boxer who’s wrapped up in solving the case her grandfather was working on before he died. On its face, Hauma is therefore a detective game in a pretty cool 2D comic book-style, with a slightly worse version of the Frogwares Sherlock Holmes mind palace as your inventory of clues, which you combine to logic your way through puzzles. But at the point where you’re in a tunnel under the ruins of a Nazi temple in Munich, having discovered that the MacGuffin is a shin bone carved with the recipe for an eternal life drink (which was stolen by some nuns and taken to Bavaria, and then the nuns all got pregnant I guess?) – and, secondly, having recently survived a massive explosion at an Oktoberfest beer tent – you kind of think, well, things have gotten quite out of hand, haven’t they?

Nintendo Direct Announced With 40 Minutes on Switch Games Coming Out This Winter

With rumors of a next-generation Switch swirling, a Nintendo Direct has been announced for Thursday at 7am PT. It will focus on Switch games releasing this winter, Nintendo said.

Among the rumored announcements are remasters for Nintendo classics like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a Fire Emblem remake, and a new Donkey Kong game. The next-gen Switch could also get an early tease, though Nintendo may be wary of disrupting its holiday release schedule.

Nintendo said the Direct will last around 40 minutes. “Tune in on Sep 14 at 7am PT for a #NintendoDirect livestream featuring roughly 40 minutes of information focused on #NintendoSwitch games releasing this winter,” Nintendo said in a post on X.

Tune in on Sept. 14 at 7 a.m. PT for a #NintendoDirect livestream featuring roughly 40 minutes of information focused on #NintendoSwitch games releasing this winter.

Watch it live here: https://t.co/tUb8vyZNfx pic.twitter.com/WJcQ5ZQl1b

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 13, 2023

The last major Nintendo Direct was in June, where Nintendo revealed Super Mario Wonder, a Super Mario RPG remake, and a host of other big announcements. Expect deep dives into both games as well as a release date for the second set for Pokémon DLC. Just don’t count on Tears of the Kingdom DLC, which according to producer Eiji Aonuma will not be happening.

Keep an eye on IGN for plenty more Nintendo Direct coverage on Thursday, including a deep dive special by Nintendo Voice Chat, follow-up analysis, and lots more.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

What are your favourite guilty pleasure games?

Cor, has it really been almost half a year since we’ve done one of these? Apologies, readers. I honestly don’t know where the time goes. It’s probably because we’re spending too much time with our favourite guilty pleasure games, which is the subject of this latest Ask RPS column.

The question comes courtesy of ronzilla, who asked: What were your favourite guilty pleasure games of 2022? As in, I play this all the time and I’m semi-embarrassed to admit it?

A good question! In canvassing the wider RPS Treehouse for their responses, it quickly became clear that most of our guilty pleasure games extend way beyond the bounds of just the year 2022, so we’ve answered a bit more broadly than the original question perhaps intended. Still, hopefully there are still some entertaining answers in here nonetheless.

Guide: Nintendo Direct September 2023: Time, Where To Watch, Our Predictions

Nintendo officially announces the rumoured September ’23 Direct.

The next Nintendo Direct has been announced: it’s coming on Thursday 14th September 2023, keeping up the tradition of an annual September presentation for the platform holder.

The showcase is set to run for around 40 minutes, with Nintendo saying that it will mainly focus on “games releasing this winter”.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Category: Video Games