After playing this Xbox Game Pass game, I hope no one reads my notebook

Date:
Sun, 27 Mar 2022 13:00:43 +0000

Description:
Telling Lies is a gripping, thriller that taps into our innate curiosity even if it feels wrong.

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I hope no one reads my notebook. Words like bleed out, kinky, and meemaw litter its pages, with devil-scratched dates and times alongside them: I wouldnt want anyone to take me for a serial killer.

Ive not been plotting anything sinister, honest. Ive simply been playing one of the best games to hit Xbox Game Pass : Telling Lies.

Im ashamed to admit that when Sam Barlows Telling Lies was released back in 2019, I slept on it, despite the fantastic reviews it received. Ive always
had an aversion to FMVs, thinking them outdated and as something that should remain firmly in the 80s. But Telling Lies has converted me.

Gripping from start to finish, Barlows detective thriller taps into our natural curiosity and is a must-play for anyone with (or without) an Xbox
Game Pass subscription ahead of the developers new game, Immortality, later this year. Tapping into our curiosity

Telling Lies pits you as an investigator watching through archived video
calls between four people to get to the bottom of a plot. You use a database to search through the footage by entering keywords if a word appears in any of the archived footage it appears as a short clip for you to watch. You use what you see and hear in the conversations between these characters to guess at keywords to enter into the archive. As you watch more videos and enter
more words, the story begins to unfold as do its many twists and turns.

Watching the videos feels intrusive, youre a stranger invading private
moments between couples, friends, and families. Its even more uncomfortable having spent two years relying on the likes of Zoom and Skype to keep in
touch with my own inner circle. I dont want to spoil any story beats for
those who havent played Telling Lies, but as you go youll find that while
most of the videos push the narrative forward, several dont add anything to the plot and those are the moments that are the most uncomfortable: should I be watching a child sleep while her father tells her a story? Probably not. But I am.

It reminded me of scenes in the Snowden movie depicting the NSAs counter-terrorism monitoring: a screen full of private moments. It made me think about how I would feel if someone was watching back my many Google Meet and Zoom calls, theyd likely be bored but I would definitely feel invaded
(and embarrassed).

But while Telling Lies is uncomfortable, its not real, so you can make peace with peering into these peoples lives like theyre a tiger in a zoo. We're all nosey, at least to some degree, even if we dont like to admit it. Maybe you want to know what your neighbors are arguing about, or youve looked up your friends new partner on Facebook we're curious and we can't help that.
Telling Lies taps into that curiosity, that need to know, and encourages it. After all, what youre doing is for the greater good, right? Freedom to snoop (Image credit: Annapurna Interactive)

Whats most gripping about Telling Lies is the freedom it gives you. The non-linear narrative means that its up to you to make the connections. As a journalist, Im wired to note pretty much everything I can, which quickly became an issue as I noted down every word, date, and time I thought had relevance the legibility of the notes becoming more questionable as evening turned into night.

Ultimately, it meant that when I reached a dead-end in my investigation, I
had hundreds of words noted down to look up. Yet, still, there were connections I couldnt make, videos I couldnt find. I felt like a detective in an HBO series, draining a glass of wine as I flicked back and forth between pages and videos, trying to find the word I must have missed. And I never did find all the videos, despite picking through as much as I could, something that eats at me days later.

Ive finished Telling Lies at the perfect time, as Sam Barlow recently
revealed his next game, Immortality . Rather than searching with words, in Immortality, you use items within its video clips to jump between scenes, almost like a reinvented hidden object game. Perhaps, before taking a chance on Telling Lies, I would simply have ignored Barlows next foray next FMV project. Instead, Im preparing a new notebook to be soiled. Best Xbox Game Pass games : 30 games you absolutely need to play



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/i-hope-no-one-reads-my-notebook-after-playing-t his-xbox-game-pass-game/


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