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Lies of P (PS5)

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It isn’t often that I play a game and decide to just put it down never to go back. Especially after playing it for a few hours. There’s something in me that makes that time seem like a waste, if I don’t submit to more time with the game in order to finish it off. But here we are.

On paper, there was no way I was going to enjoy Lies of P. It’s ostensibly a Soulslike, and I have never enjoyed any of that genre. A combination of the grimdark settings and rock-hard gameplay and trying to beat the same area or baddie over and over and over again with slow combat and precision blocking and parrying just doesn’t feel fun. I’m a little jealous of all those people who do find it fun, and yes, I understand the satisfaction they must get for completing sections of the game or taking down an impossible boss. After all, I find the same in 2D Castlevania games, which are, in many ways, also soulslikes.

Lies of P made me want to try this sort of game again. Toby off of the ugvm Podcast (yes, that’s still going, somehow) mentioned he also hadn’t been a fan of soulslikes in the past but Lies turned him. I was also intrigued by the premise – you’re Pinocchio and all the other puppets have gone mad and you have to fight them. It definitely sounded a lot less grimdark and dirty and rainy and miserable.

Sadly, it is just as grimdark and dirty and miserable.

That in itself isn’t the end of the world (unlike other games in the genre which are the end of the world, ah ho ho), but the gameplay feels just like Demon’s Souls does only with marionettes instead of skellingtons and undead soldiers and stuff. Perhaps if this were more like Toy Story or Clockwork Knight or Pikmin instead I could pretend it was something different but it isn’t.

A few hours in, after meeting Geppetto and beating a boss and progressing through a few areas, I just wasn’t enjoying it. I hate how all the baddies respawn when you save the game and how there are loads of baddies that spring out of nowhere meaning you die and have to remember them next time. The world doesn’t have enough landmarks to stop me getting lost and going round in circles, and the slow (albeit quicker than Demon’s Souls) combat just isn’t for me. On the plus side, it isn’t as punishingly hard as other games like this I’ve played, and the plot is really interesting, but no – I’m out.

Mario Kart 7: back online

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With the help of the Pretendo network, I’ve managed to have a few games of this online over the past week or so, as well as doing some more time trials. The lobbies aren’t full, but any stretch, but even when there’s only three people in a race the catch up algorithms mean that it’s fun to compete. On a couple of occasions there was one player who knew glitches on levels which meant they won easily, but they never stayed online for long. I won only a couple of races, but my ranking has slightly improved from 1000 so the game thinks I’m doing OK.

Coming from Mario Kart World, the 3DS isn’t that comfortable to hold, and I keep forgetting that I need to hold the shoulder button down in order to train a shell or banana behind me. There were a couple of times I wished I could have a feather to jump a gap, and I got very confused in Shy Guy Bazaar where the World version of the track is just a little bit different. Still, this is a great game.

In 150cc the game still feels pretty unfair, but in time trial it’s amazingly tense

Wreckfest: this isn’t a PC game

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So why is it crashing as if is one?

Unfortunately the debug menu option doesn’t work, and instead it just quits the game. I’ve tried deleting and redownloading, and I get the same error, which means it might be an issue with a locally stored save file or update file or something. Pretty frustrating.

August 2025 – It’s going to be a takedown!

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Yes I've watched K-Pop Demon Hunters!

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Fantasy Life I (PS5)

It's been a while since I have played an Animal Crossing/Stardew Valley style cosy game. Fantasy Life I has many different classes from fishing, combat to crafting.
 
 
 
Ghostwire Tokyo (PS5) - Completed
 
The last few boss battles were a bit challenging but completed last month, there were still many activities left on the map but I am not a fan of the Ubisoft style of filling a map with icons.
 
Backlog

Shopping

Added Fantasy Life I & Indiana Jones & the Great Circle.

I spent a bit of time sorting out my PlayStation Library into Subscription, Monthly & Purchased games. Currently sitting at 93 games!

I'll focus on the subscription games before they leave the service.  

Want

A few more titles added to my wish-list in Promise Mascot Agency & Thank Goodness you're here.

Bin

Stick drift, one of my PS5 controllers has started to drift.

APB: twitchy siren

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Maybe it’s the conversion to the Xbox pad, but APB is incredibly difficult to control. In order to arrest someone you have to have your cursor over them and press the siren, because obviously criminals are only going to pay attention to a police car which is an exact distance away from them. The thing is that the cursor is not at a set distance from your car, but instead varies with the speed you’re going. In order to have enough of a gap between your car and the cursor to be able to arrest someone, you have to be going quite fast, certainly faster than the criminals you are chasing. For littering this isn’t so much of an issue, since you need to signal to them once. By the time you get to chasing down dopers, it’s much more difficult because you have to signal on them three times, meaning you are almost guaranteed to crash; too many crashes and you’re out.

I’ll have to see if there’s an original cabinet next time I go to somewhere like Arcade Club, because the concept of the game – a semi-open world, different criminals to find, extending time through fuel and doughnuts – is quite attractive. It’s just the controls which frustrate.