September 19, 2023 - Day 262 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 283

Game: Lies of P

Platform: Xbox Game Pass PC
Release Date: Sep 19, 2023
Installation Date: Sep 19, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 32m

Something a little different today. A review of Jodie Whittaker's Australian accent.

OK, not really (although it's passable, and justifiable with her backstory of having been living in the UK and returned to Australia).

As far as I remember, this is the first time I've reviewed an Xbox Game Pass game, which means I get to play Lies of P without dropping A$100 or more on it.

Lies of P is a third-person soulslike set within a retelling of the Pinocchio story. You play as P (ie. Pinocchio), who's suddenly awakened, seated in a train, in what very much appears to be mostly-human form, with the exception of a mechanical arm.

A voice calls to you to meet her at a hotel, but to get there, you first need to escape the train station, which is full of mechanical people determined to kill you.

You're presented with one of three initial playstyles, and I chose the one with the (seemingly) most straight-forward attack style (and the most HP).

Lies of P is set in the Belle Époque era. I had no idea what that was, but it's basically late 19th Century Europe through to WWII. The environment is beautiful.

One of the most lessons I learned the hard way, is don't make the mistake of skimming each of the tutorial pop-ups. Turns out they're kind of important.

Even so, by the time I hit the 32 minute mark, I'd traversed the same set of mobs five or six times, and died on the first boss repeatedly.

Blocking is incredibly important, both for restoring energy, and for staggering the mobs. Unfortunately, it requires very good timing, and I don't quite seem to be able to pull it off yet.

This is where XGPU is most useful to me. If I put in another couple of hours, and it's not a game I'm going to improve at (some of them aren't, thanks hand-eye coordination!), then nothing lost.

Not quite sure what I'll do when I have to start paying full price for XGPU, but that's a problem for 2027 Allie.

For now, Lies of P is:

4: Good

#LiesOfP #ThirdPerson #Soulslike #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

July 9, 2023 - Day 190 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 210

Game: The Surge 2

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 24, 2019
Library Date: Apr 30, 2023
Unplayed: 70d (2m9d)
Playtime: 79m

The Surge was one of the earliest reviews I did in this project, and the game that gave me an understanding of the mechanics of Soulslike gameplay.

In April I found that I had a Steam Key for The Surge 2, from the Humble Choice July 2021 bundle, and so I loaded it up.

For the last few days, it's been bugging me that the gap between play days and new plays was 19 days. It feels... unordered. Threw in a bonus newplay to round it up to 20.

The Surge 2, like its predecessor, is a sci-fi themed third-person Soulslike action-RPG.

It's also the game I've sworn more at than any other since January 1.

I've gotten frustrated with some games, but my frustration with The Surge 2 was on a whole different level.

After a cut-scene intro, followed by a character creator, you wake up on a hospital table in a prison.

Unlike the first game, you don't have an exo-suit, just a couple of defibrillator gauntlets. Yeah, I have no idea why.

The game does the same thing as the first one, too. Throws you up against larger enemies to teach you the movesets, and then suddenly throws you up against an armored boss.

Clad only in a hospital gownsuit (no bare bums here), and a pair of defibrillator gauntlets.

I died.
And died.
And died, and died, and died some more.

For the first 45 minutes I couldn't even land a single hit on him before he took me out.

The swearing became increasingly copious, eventually quitting out in frustration, and looking up a Google video on how to kill the boss.

It didn't help.

I went back in, and locked on, targeting the one exposed part of his body (his head).

Died.

Died some more.

Eventually I got a single hit in.

Died a few more times, ragequit and went grocery shopping.

Came back from the shopping, sat down at the PC and tried again.

I died.

I honestly don't understand what people see in Soulslikes. The sheer frustration of dying over and over again.

Eventually, I was managing to avoid him, so I was still dying, just slower.

Then I noticed he was telegraphing his attacks, and there were... gaps. I might be able to land a punch and retreat.

I did.

Then two attacks in a row.

I started to feel the pattern. I still died, but I was doing increasing damage.

Then suddenly... I didn't die. He did.

I won the fight.

It was then, that I understood what it is that people see in Soulslikes. Breaking through that frustration to clarity.

The satisfaction of taking down a boss that seemed impossible to kill, or even hit. Not by coming back with bigger guns, but by recognising the patterns, and countering them.

The Surge 2 is the Soulslike that gave me an understanding of the satisfaction to be found in Soulslikes, and is:

4: Good

July 2, 2023 - Day 183 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 202

Game: Elden Ring

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 25, 2022
Library Date: Jul 2, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 33m

Here we are, at the half-way mark. There are 182 days ahead, and 182 days behind. For today, I decided on something special

Turns out, in return for my upgrading my son's computer last night, he bought me the game of my choice today... which was Elden Ring. Again.

Technically, this is not an "unplayed" game. My kids bought me Elden Ring for my birthday last year, and I attempted to play it, got intensely frustrated with it, and quit out after 80 minutes and got a refund.

I simply didn't understand that death is part of a soulslike.

However, in the process of playing through this project, I grasped the play style of a soulslike, which brings me back to Elden Ring.

In case you've been living under all of the rocks, Elden Ring is a third-person open-world soulslike action-RPG.

It's dark, and brooding, almost devoid of colour. As with other soulslikes, there are points within the game that you can return to either when resurrecting, or to (effectively) save your progress.

However, do that, and it resurrects all the mobs you just killed, doesn't it? (Yes. It does.)

There's a constant trade-off between returning to these points to restore your energy, and effective save your inventory, and upgrade, or to keep moving forward, in the hope of finding what Elden Ring calls a "Site of Grace".

Starting over from the beginning on a fresh save, I learned something that I missed first time around... when I quit out after 80 minutes in March 2022, I hadn't even completed the tutorial. The final tutorial boss frustrated me so badly, I gave up.

Probably should have gone in with a character base far less squishy too.

This time, as a Vagabond, I died twice, and I enjoyed myself.

It's still not "I MUST PLAY THIS UNTIL I AM FINISHED!", but it's definitely "I'm going to willingly spend some time in this game."

Thus, at the halfway point of #Project365ONG, I'm happy to say, having given it another shot, Elden Ring is:

4: Good