Seeing great games sell too poorly for the pursestring goblins to shell out for a sequel is always a heartache, but it really stung to learn that the incredible Dead Space remake didn’t catch on enough for EA to greenlight a remake of Dead Space 2 (even if EA were a little spotty on the details). Doubly so in the wake of The Callisto Protocol - a game I still think is worth picking up on a deep discount, if you like hitting gross things with a big bit of metal. It’s quite exciting, then, to learn that the next game from Lies Of P developer Round 8 Studios might just replace that severed limb. Alongside a sequel to the puppety soulslike, they’re also working on a sci-fi survival horror game, via Eurogamer.
]]>Our Edders, the RPSer I’d most trust to help me gank a rival covenant member with hammers, reckoned Pinocchio soulslike Lies Of P was an “instant must-play” in his review, and I was pretty fond of it myself. We already know that we’re due a sequel at some point the future, thanks to impressive sales. Director Jiwon Choi previously teased some DLC concept art, and now it looks like we’ll be seeing that DLC by the time the year’s out, according to a fiscal report.
]]>Charity speedrunning extravaganza Games Done Quick has kicked off its first week-long event for 2024. Among the highlights are speedy plays of 2023 highlights including Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies of P, along with a marathon from the world’s first canine speedrunner.
]]>At last, every door on the RPS Advent Calendar has been ripped open, leaving nothing but foil wrapper remnants, and the odd pixel crumb of the digital delights once contained within them. But that doesn't festivities are over! Like a Boxing Day bubble and squeak, we've gathered together all of our favourite games of the year once again, this time in one handy location. If you've been following along with our Advent goings-on, you'll already know what our game of the year picks are for 2023, but just in case you missed them, here's the list in full. Enjoy!
]]>Welcome to door 22 of the RPS Advent Calendar. To enter, you must prove your identity by answering a simple question. Who are you? A human... or a puppet?
]]>Pinocchio Soulslike Lies of P - aka Bloodborne for PC players - will be getting a sequel in the future, the game’s director has revealed. In the meantime, the well-received action-RPG has plenty on the way in the form of a patch out this month including gameplay tweaks, free cosmetics, a soundtrack release, and DLC.
]]>Neowiz have released Lies of P update 1.2.0.0, a major patch for the puppet-ridden action-RPG which educated souls are describing as the closest we may ever get to a Bloodborne PC port. It introduces Dualshock 4 and DualSense controller support alongside a host of changes to enemies, the execution of the game’s Fable Arts or gear-specific special moves, item drop rates and the duration of stagger windows. The overarching aim seems to be to make the game easier, and as I’m sure you’re expecting, a few Lies of P fans - and, it turns out, RPS staffers - are ticked off about that.
]]>At first glance, Lies Of P looks like a wannabe Bloodborne reskin, replacing the Gothic edges of Yarnham with a twisted version of a kid's fairytale. There are silhouettes in windows sheltering from an infection that's plagued the populace and puppets who've gone awol. Take damage and you've got a chance to recoup the costs by smacking the baddie back. There's a bit where you platform down a large well, thin planks of wood marking your descent. Survive and you might want to visit your doll-like maiden and spend your souls.
But is Lies Of P just another boring pretender to Bloodborne? No! I think it's worked with its Gothic Pinocchio theme remarkably well, and the option to snap and configure your puppet lad to your liking makes its journey feel distinct. Sure, Lies Of P might lack some of the presence of its main inspiration, and not all of its parts come together to form a cohesive whole, but the game is an undeniable must for Soulslikers who crave the dark. It's perhaps the closest any Soulslike has felt to a FromSoft game, in everything from its presentation to the cadence of your character's jog.
]]>I wasn't too hot on Lies Of P when I played its first demo way back when. I felt it was so close, too close, to Bloodborne in everything from the cadence of the Chalamet puppet's jog, to the "duhhnng" noise of pickups, and the gothic sheen of its streets. At the time I thought it was a bit of a duff pretender, honestly.
But a good chunk of time with it at this year's Gamescom has swivelled my head back in its direction. Having clacked through some dingy streets, fired blue gloop from my arm, and fought the literal King Of Puppets, I've come to realise it has the potential to be a magnificent Soulslike in its own right.
]]>'Soulslike but in the Han Dynasty' game Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty released earlier this year, but developers Team Ninja are gearing up for another five months of updates and DLC. A recently revealed roadmap details all the changes coming to the action RPG, from the seemingly small balance tweaks to the hopefully exciting crossovers with fellow Soulsian bedfellows Lies Of P and Nioh.
]]>These days, weeks often feel like years, so if you told me Steam Next Fest happened back at the start of the year, I’d believe you. And yet, it was little under a month ago that Valve kicked off its annual demo-filled celebration of upcoming PC games. Now, it’s checking back in with a ranking of the most popular demos that people played - and it’s a doozy of a list.
]]>Just in case your Steam wishlists weren't already stocked up from this year's Summer Geoff Fest bonanza, here we are with another edition of Valve's Steam Next Fest, which has unleashed hundreds, if not thousands of free game demos on us, starting from today, June 19th, until Monday June 26th. You can view the entire June Next Fest line-up right here if you'd rather browse at your leisure, but we've also been playing some of the demos in advance to bring you some curated highlights of what we've enjoyed so far. We haven't have access to every demo in this year's Next Fest, I should note, but think of these more as some initial tasting suggestions to get you started, rather than a complete overview of what's worth playing.
]]>Lies Of P isn't even out yet, but a group of modders have already tried turning the Soulslike into Bloodborne. The mod comes from Garden of Eyes, a YouTube channel and group of modders that typically work on FromSoftware titles (they're the ones that made that long COVID mod for Elden Ring). Yesterday, though, they showed off a mod for Lies of P that lets you turn the game's Timothy Chalamet-looking twink into a hunter from Bloodborne.
]]>What if fairytale puppet Pinocchio had to kill a load of people and robots? You can discover the answer for yourself today in the demo for Lies Of P, launched live during Geoff Keighley's Level Up Pool Party. The demo offers the Soulslike's first two chapters, including letting the little would-be boy cut up bosses.
]]>Like all good fairytale characters, Pinocchio gets a revision every couple of years - except for 2022, when he was adapted thrice (mostly in bad films, except for the Del Toro one). The loveable puppet isn’t waiting too long for his next comeback, as the RPG Soulslike Lies Of P is coming to PC and Game Pass in August.
]]>Want to know more about Lies Of P? The upcoming 2023 action game from Neowiz can be handily summarised with the phrase, "Pinocchio Soulslike" - and we have to admit, it's a pretty great pitch. It certainly has us excited after looking at the snippets of gameplay and storytelling that the devs have released in the leadup to the game's release.
Lies Of P tells a dark Pinocchio story, one which involves a gruelling trek through a horror-tinted fallen city filled with various hostile automata. If that sounds like your kind of game, then read on to find out everything we know about Lies Of P, from its expected release date to gameplay details, trailers, story, and more.
]]>Bloodborne was great, but it didn't have any lightning gorilla robocops. This is a problem the upcoming Lies Of P hopes to fix, as revealed in a new gameplay trailer designed to show off how nice it looks on a Radeon RX 7900 XTX. I will likely never own a Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but it's looking increasingly likely that I will buy Lies of P.
It's a Soulslike that plonks you into an alternate Victorian London where people got real good at inventing creepy automata. You play as the big P himself, Pinocchio.
]]>Happy New Year, folks! Crikey, there are a lot of games coming out this year, aren't there? When I first asked the team to put together their most anticipated games for 2023, I was thinking we'd have a reasonably sensible number of things we were all looking forward to, you know, somewhere in the region of the 43 games we highlighted at the start of 2022. Very quickly, though, it became apparent that, actually, there are simply loads of games the RPS Treehouse is personally excited about this year, and cor, it would be rude not to include every last one of them. I'll be upfront: there are a fair number of TBA games on here that probably aren't going to come out in 2023, but as ever, we remain hopeful and optimistic all the same. So let's dive in.
]]>Last month, Rachel and I made the long pilgrammage to Seattle in order to attend PAX West 2022. While we were there we ran around the show floor with a bag full of loose camera equipment, stopping frequently to enthuse about cool video games we'd discovered or to interview someone interesting. At the time, all of these videos were only accessible to our premium supporters. However, as 30 days have passed since we originally shared them, we're now making them free for everyone to enjoy. Surprise!
From an interview with the voice cast of Team Fortress 2 to a comprehensive tour of the show floor, there's something for everyone in this bundle of audio-visual delights. Scroll down to see what we got up to, and remember, if you like what you see please do consider funding content like this via our supporters programme. It truly means an awful lot.
]]>It's day two of PAX West and to kick off our second day of game events and demos we got hands-on with a build of Neowiz's Pinocchio RPG, Lies Of P. The gameplay demo caused quite a stir when it was at Gamescom earlier this year, so we made it one of our priorities to check it out here in Seattle.
Neowiz are not actually at PAX so there wasn't anyone on the team to give us some behind-the-scenes info, but I got stuck into the demo for a solid 30 minutes, brawling with the game's angry robot lads that roamed the city's blood-washed cobbled streets.
Overall, I had a great time with the demo. Yes, it is incredibly similar to Bloodborne in both its combat and environments but there are plenty of other elements that steer it away from FromSoftware's horror-filled gothic RPG. If you want more details instead of that short summary then check out our video below where I talk about my time with the build, and about having my arse kicked by giant mechanical automatons. Enjoy!
]]>It wouldn't be Gamescom without a Geoff Keighley liveshow to kick it all off, would it? Tuesday's Opening Night Live showcase featured a huge amount of trailers to gawk at, a baggage carousel of content that moved at a blistering clip. Despite its two hour runtime a lot of interesting (and in most cases, new) titles weren't given a huge amount space to breathe, their moment in the spotlight frequently cut short by another trailer waiting impatiently in the wings.
]]>Grim Souls-like Lies Of P will be hitting PC sometime in 2023 according to a new gameplay trailer shown at Opening Night Live during this year's Gamescom. The RPG combines the story of Pinocchio with some major Bloodborne energy, as the puppet searches for a way to become a real human boy in a decimated city. This is far from the classic fairytale story though. With a dark-gothic backdrop and mechanical killer robots to contend with, Pinocchio has his work cut out for him. You can watch the new bombastic gameplay trailer below:
]]>It has been a long damn year, so I'd forgotten that people were making a grim Soulslike video game based on Pinocchio. Oh, but they are! And you can see that in the first gameplay trailer for Lies Of P. Some big Bloodborne vibes mixed with a bit of Sekiro, within an edgy murderworld based on the old story. As if anything could be scarier than the bit in the Disney version where the kids get turned into donkeys. But come, watch the trailer.
]]>I've played my fair share of games that call themselves "Souls-like"—the good, bad, and ugly all. This upcoming Souls-like sure does check lots of familiar boxes: grim fantasy 19th centry aesthetic, a bit of body horror involving rats, church choirs, and fellas lugging about objects much too large for them. By that description, I've played plenty of games like this one. But wait, hold on, This particular Souls-like is called Lies Of P and it's also about an edgy, mechanized, Pinocchio. Yes, the lad with the nose. I think I do actually want to play this ridiculous game.
]]>Sorry, definition nerds. 'Soulslike' is a word now. Disgusting, I know, but this is how genres are made. Along comes a giant like Dark Souls that everybody won't stop bleating about and soon it has copycats. Before you know it, a swarm of games like Dark Souls with sparse checkpoints and lethal attacks are scuttling around, leaving slime trails and biting your ankles for surprisingly massive damage. Ugh, Soulslikes. But stoop low to appreciate these little monsters, and among them you'll find some very good games about dying.
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