52 Games. 1 Year. 2024. [BacklogBeat]

Wozzer · Jan 1, 2024

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress!

How do I take part?
Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images or special formatting to make it extra cool. In addition to this post your updates, completions and thoughts as singular posts throughout the year.

Does my main post need to adhere to a format?
Nope! We previously did, but now you can have it formatted however you like. Take some inspiration from previous year posts. Here's a beautiful one from 2020 or a fancy baseball one from 2021.

Do I need to post reviews, scores, dates and stuff?
Also nope! It is highly recommended to spruce up your completions with mini reviews, a score (for example 2/5), your playtime duration, date completed, platform or any such fun statistical information but it's not required. You do you.

What's that Hall of Fame thing?
Those who beat the challenge get placed in the shrine that is the 'Hall of Fame'™. Furthermore you'll get a pretty little medal that denotes how many years you've overcome the challenge. Cool kids have been doing this for over five years.

How do I know when I've completed a game?
That can be tricky to determine, but it's ultimately up to you. If its a straightforward single player game then it's typically when the credits roll, but if it's say a multiplayer session based game maybe its when you've unlocked a certain feature or completed a battle pass.

Do the completions need to be games released this year?
Nope; any video game will suffice. It can be first plays or replays, classics or recent releases. It can be a game you started last year but are finishing this year.

Do board games count?
They do not. Vidya games only here.

I want to record durations, do I have to manually count?
No, most platforms (Steam, Xbox, Nintendo, etc) will do the duration tracking for you! If in doubt you can also use sites like HLTB to fill in the blanks.

Do episodic games count as a single game or X amount of games?
That's up to you. It's alright to count something like Life is Strange as one or five games. Your choice, for whatever makes sense with how you've been playing. Ask other users if in doubt.

What should I do once I've completed the challenge?
Send me a DM on this platform, with a link to your post that shows all the games you've completed, and I'll make you thread famous by adding you to the Hall of FameTM. If I take a while to respond don't panic, I tend to go into periods of hibernation throughout the year.

Is there a deadline?
Until Dec 31st 2024 @ 11.59pm!

Archive: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 (shout out to VisceralBowl for the 2017 thread)

Starting in 2020 our Discord (http://discord.backlogbeat.com/) has since grown to over 150 members. Among discussing the 52 Challenge (posting updates, picking games, etc) we also coordinate a slew of other totally cool game activities (additional context @ backlogbeat.com)…

A play on a traditional book club that sees us choosing and collectively playing a nominated game per month, sharing our thoughts and opinions through to beating it. Those who beat the current nomination get entered into the raffle to pick the next months; share your favourite games or recent releases you're excited for with us!

Jan: -	Jul: -
Feb: -	Aug: -
Mar: -	Sep: -
Apr: -	Oct: -
May: -	Nov: -
Jun: -	Dec: -

It's the same thing as above, but only for movies! Similar approach in that all you need to do is watch the nominated film to acquire a raffle ticket with an even lower bar to enter as most choices can be completed with a leisurely sub 3 hour investment.

Jan: -	Jul: -
Feb: -	Aug: -
Mar: -	Sep: -
Apr: -	Oct: -
May: -	Nov: -
Jun: -	Dec: -

Sometimes it's tricky to get a thing nominated but there's enough folk playing it that it makes sense to carve a dedicated place and play together. Elden Ring is a great example of a game that reaches new heights when played alongside others.

Come say hey, everyone is welcome and folks from these threads are our favourite kind of people! You'll likely see a lot of familiar faces :)

The brave individuals that overcome the challenge this year;

<none yet!>

The additional survivors who overcame the challenge of the previous years thread;

And below are the legacy participants from years prior who we hope to see return to us this year;

And so there lists all those that have risen to the challenge during this or prior years! If you see yourself beating the challenge, please remember to send me a DM with your post once you're done!

PC90 · Jan 1, 2024

2018: 66 Games
2019: 107 Games
2020: 52 Games
2021: 52 Games
2022: 62 Games
2023: 67 Games

1) Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion (Steam - January 2nd - 3/5)
2) Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion: Karamari Hospital (Steam - January 3rd - 3/5)
3) Wedding Witch (Steam - January 4th - 3/5)
4) Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion: The Doll House (Steam - January 5th - 3/5)
5) Control (Steam - January 13th - 4/5)
6) Control: The Foundation (Steam - January 14th - 4/5)
7) Control: AWE (Steam - January 19th - 3/5)
8) Club Nintendo Picross (3DS - January 26th - 3/5)
9) Silent Hill: The Short Message (PS5 - February 1st - 2/5)
10) Club Nintendo Picross Plus (3DS - February 6th - 3/5)
11) Picross e9 (3DS - February 18th - 3/5)
12) Bike Rider DX (3DS - March 13th - 2/5)
13) Crimsonland (Steam - March 27th - 3/5)
14) Donut County (Steam - March 27th - 3/5)
15) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5 - April 1st - 4/5)
16) Earth Defense Force 5 (PS4 - April 14th - 2/5)
17) Buckshot Roulette (Steam - April 15th - 3/5)
18) The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (Steam - April 27th - 3/5)
19) Street Smart (Steam - April 28th - 2/5)
20) The Artful Escape (PS5 - May 4th - 2/5)
21) Last Stop (PS5 - May 7th - 3/5)
22) TimeSplitters (PS2 - May 13th - 3/5)
23) HoloCure - Save the Fans! (Steam - May 20th - 4/5)
24) Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns (Steam - May 21st - 5/5)
25) Final Fight (Steam - May 24th - 2/5)
26) Carrier Air Wing (Steam - May 25th - 2/5)
27) Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Steam - May 25th - 2/5)
28) Stairway (Steam - May 26th - 2/5)
29) Streets of Rage (Steam - May 31st - 3/5)
30) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) (Steam - June 4th - 2/5)
31) Streets of Rage 2 (Steam - June 4th - 3/5)
32) The Street 10 (Steam - June 8th - 2/5)
33) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Steam - June 11th - 3/5)
34) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (Steam - June 11th - 2/5)
35) Streets of Rage 3 (Steam - June 11th - 3/5)
36) Bounty of One (Steam - June 15th - 3/5)

currently playing:

Cook, Serve, Delicious 2
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Illusionary · Jan 1, 2024

Happy new year! Reserving my post here.

2023: 54 games
2022: 94 games
2021: 104 games
2020: 99 games
2019: 73 games
2018: 90 games
2017: 72 games

1. Sokobond (PC - itch.io) | 1 January 2024 | 7/10
All puzzles completed. Taking the block-shifting premise of traditional Sokoban and giving it a chemistry-themed spin, the objective of Sokobond's levels is to form molecules from various atoms within a 2D grid. Complexity comes first from each type of atom requiring different numbers of bonds (1 for hydrogen, 2 for oxygen, etc.), then later from additional elements within each level that can add/remove bonds, cause rotation, etc. A little knowledge of chemistry may be helpful here given the familiarity that it brings with the overall concept of covalent chemical bonds, but nothing beyond basic high school level and it's certainly not required – all the information needed is clearly displayed on screen.

Elegantly designed throughout, the puzzles nonetheless become challenging as they progress, and I'm not ashamed to admit to having resorted to a guide to get through a few – so there's certainly a hefty challenge here for those who want to test their special visualisation skills!

2. The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (Switch) | 1 January 2024 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of collectibles. My first experience with a Swery game, puzzle-platformer The Missing is certainly a memorable game, if not necessarily for altogether positive reasons. The LGBT themes at the core of its story are very well realised and I'm sure will resonate with many within that demographic. However, while I get that it's likely intended to have a metaphorical meaning, the darkness underlying the core puzzle-solving mechanic really doesn't appeal to me - this sees the player-character severely injuring herself to progress and solve puzzles (the most basic example being dismemberment allowing access to smaller spaces). The core gameplay is decent if unexceptional, with some interesting puzzles but frequently feeling quite clunky in practice – but at roughly 4-5 hours for a complete playthrough, it fortunately doesn't have time to become too frustrating.

3. The Expanse: A Telltale Series (Xbox Series X) | 2 January 2024 | 6/10
Completed, including DLC chapter, with all achievements unlocked except for scavenge collection (1,050/1,200G). The Expanse is a decent but unexceptional title for Telltale Games' return, well-presented and with little sign of the technical weaknesses of some of their earlier games. The harshness of the setting from the TV show is well-captured here and the game fits nicely into the series' canon, with a handful of distinctive characters whose interactions are always interesting to see playing out. The game between these, however, feels really quite slow, largely involving a formula of navigation within or around the Artemis spaceship, picking up/interacting with an item, dialogue and then repeat. The complexity of the plot and the extent of events feels quite limited overall compared to recent contemporary Star Trek: Resurgence, for example, which is a shame given potential of the setting.

The game also commits a cardinal sin with its achievement design, featuring two sets of collectible-based achievements and a chapter select, but not allowing per-chapter clean-up of those collectibles - and unfortunately a full new playthrough really doesn't appeal for the sake of the two that I missed.

4. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (Switch) | 18 January 2024 | 8/10
Normal difficulty playthrough with 100% of collectibles, bonus chapter also completed (not attempting time trials). The number of games taking inspiration from Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is frankly shocking, considering how effectively emotional that game was, but Bayonetta Origins is here to redress the balance somewhat. Following a young Bayonetta and her adopted demon as they attempt to escape an enchanted forest, the simultaneous two-character control is central to the gameplay, which is significantly more action-focused than Brothers. There's still plenty of puzzle-solving as you navigate the interconnected forest environments, but it's somewhat less bespoke than Brothers, while having combat encounters liberally dispersed around the game world. Inevitably the controls take a while to become familiar and the combat isn't especially deep, but overall the game's implementation of its various mechanics is commendable.

Perhaps the biggest detractor that I came across is that while the game's world is impressively large and diverse, away from the critical path (which has clear markers to help you along) it can become difficult to navigate, as the connections between each area aren't clearly indicated and require a fair amount of trial-and-error - which makes seeking out collectibles quite troublesome - even with a guide. While this means that the final part of the experience slows down significantly, overall Bayonetta Origins is an impressively novel take on this type of adventure game, which hopefully we might see more of in future.

5. Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch) | 21 January 2024 | 9/10
Completed with gold ranks on all stages and the majority of 'Zodiac riddles' solved. A replay, but my original review still stands four years later - Sayonara Wild Hearts is an absolutely superb, extremely stylish rhythm game, with a stunning electronic pop soundtrack. The level design and variety is excellent throughout, always perfectly complementing the soundtrack for each stage, with an electrifying sense of speed for the faster stages. Behind the gameplay and music is an uplifting story of recovery from heartbreak, which is a nice touch though not at all necessary for enjoyment of the game. While a short experience for a single playthrough (around an hour), chasing high scores ( I gather that there's a higher ranking even than gold) and achievements brings some longevity, quite aside from just enjoying the music.

6. Long Gone Days (PC - itch.io) | 25 January 2024 | 7/10
Complete playthrough. Long Gone Days is a 2D RPG set amidst a modern-day war - a relatively unusual setting for the genre, which it uses well to facilitate some meaningful character and relationship development, exploring themes of friendship and loyalty, alongside moral dilemmas that conflicts naturally bring to light. The gameplay is admittedly relatively basic and, especially early on, the battle system doesn't provide a great deal of options - but some complexity does eventually come, as the party expands and develops. With no random encounters and limited healing options, the feeling is definitely one of an attritional struggle, very fitting for the setting. I wouldn't say that the game ever truly excels, being limited by that overall lack of complexity, but it's certainly been a worthwhile experience all the same.

7. South of the Circle (PC - GOG) | 16 February 2024 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. South of the Circle tells a well-written, affecting story of the relationship between two university academics, relived in the memory of the protagonist after a plane crash on the way to a research expedition to the Antarctic, alongside also following his attempts to find rescue from the crash. Gameplay is mostly very light, with the core mechanic being dialogue choices through choosing the 'mood' of a response rather than specific lines (for example, fear, empathy or enthusiasm). It's a system that works better than I honestly expected, though only a handful of these choices are actually meaningful to future events.

While it's perhaps disappointing that a greater degree of branching isn't possible, that's arguably outside the scope of what the game aims for and at the overall end, even if the differences in events don't account for much of the time that we see them playing out, they still feel quite deeply meaningful. This isn't a game with particularly lofty aims, but what it attempts it makes a laudable success of.

8. A Little to the Left (PC - Steam) | 27 February 2024 | 7/10
All levels + free DLC completed. A solid puzzle game that will appeal to the "neat freak" in any of us, mostly A Little to the Left's tidying and ordering-based puzzles are mostly pleasantly satisfying to solve, just occasionally veering into having intended solutions that are just a little too obscure. All very attractively presented and with an enjoyable theme around cats underlying the stage progression.

9. An Arcade Full of Cats (PC - Steam) | 02 March 2024 | 5/10
Complete playthrough. A cute but basic hidden-object game, with five scenarios in which to find a number of cats. It's a decent enough timewaster, but nothing much more than that. The small number of cats that are hidden until you interact with some other object in the environment, with no real indication of what that might be, are a particular frustration.

10. Assassin's Creed Mirage (PS5) | March 2024 | 8/10
Completed with platinum trophy earned. Assassin's Creed: Mirage is a very solid game in the more traditional format of the series. It doesn't do anything revolutionary, but it doesn't need to, with interesting stealth scenarios and likeable characters playing out a well-written story. The 'investigations' system that replaces a more typical linear mission structure helps to add some further interest, though combat is a bit of a lowlight, with a new stamina-based system that proves more frustrating than it really ought to.

11. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission (PS5) | 13 March 2024 | 8/10
Complete playthrough. With FFVII Rebirth now with us, it's finally time to catch up on this expansion to its predecessor. At only two chapters in length, Episode INTERmission's scope for detailed story development is clearly limited, but this DLC proves a fun introduction to Yuffie. While I've got a lot of work to master the new combat mechanics that her introduction brings, I look forward to seeing how those develop further in the sequel, as well of course how her part in the core game's events plays out!

12. Children of Silentown (PC: Steam) | 7 April 2024 | 6/10
Complete playthough with 100% of achievements unlocked. Children of Silentown is a decent but unexceptional point-and-click 'adventure', with an enjoyably spooky theme. The puzzles are for the most part fairly logical, though with occasional frustrating 'pixel-hints' required across a few locations. A song mechanic used to unlock different interactions with characters is interesting, if not as well-developed as it could have been. Overall, the game is worth a play for fans of the genre, but it isn't going to be memorable beyond that.

13. There Is No Game: Jam Edition 2015 (PC: Steam) | 25 April 2024 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Essentially a proof-of-concept for the eventual Wrong Dimension. all the ingredients for that non-game's excellence are present here, making for a thoroughly enjoyable, if brief, experience.

14. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow (PC: Steam) | 8 May 2024 | 8/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. While here they're publishing rather than the developer, with The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, Wadjet Eye proves once again that they're the go-to for modern point-and-click adventures. Crucial for the genre, the game's story has a well-written, slow-burning horror-based plot with well-realised characters and excellent voice-acting. It should also be said that the game's eventual conclusion becomes very telegraphed in the later stages, which does feel a bit forced as you play out events that are obviously going to turn out badly, with none of the narrative choice that's now a feature of many games in the genre. Of course, the use of puzzles to gate progress mean that it can feel a little too slow at times - those puzzle are typically well-judged and logical, but there are still a handful where I'm glad to have referred to external hints.

15. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (PS5) | 1 June 2024 | 9/10
Complete playthrough.

16. Super Mario Land (GB) | 1 June 2024 | 6/10
Complete playthrough on both normal and hard mode.

17. Alleyway (GB) | 2 June 2024 | 5/10
Complete playthrough, up to the point where levels repeat (levels 1-24). A barebones Breakout clone with a light Nintendo skin, Alleyway fails to be particularly compelling in a modern context. With 24 levels (8 layouts, each of which has a static, horizontal scrolling and vertical scrolling variant), it's a decent enough length for the Gameboy platform and in its day, I'm sure this could have been a nice little 'timewaster' for those wanting a less mentally demanding puzzle game than Tetris.

jonjonaug · Jan 1, 2024

Past years
2022 - 59 games
2023 - 69 games

1. TEVI
Core gameplay: Very solid. There's lots and lots and lots of customizable unlockables, and the platforming mechanics once you have all your abilities unlocked are fun (although having Super Metroid style wall jump mechanics instead of "hug the wall and jump off it" wall jumps is annoying).

Map design: Pretty good, although it can feel a bit too segmented for a metroidvania at times. Also there's barely any exploration because the game has you on rails for most of it, but the map is also so incredibly huge that not having that might've been just fine (it'd be a pain if you could get lost). Figuring out how to get your hands on upgrade items was fun.

Enemy design: The bosses are fantastic, regular enemies are mostly pretty good.

Story: It's bad and there is so much of it oh my god. They got like 30 famous VAs to voice something that is mostly "eh" at best.

Overall it's a solid metroidvania, but the bad story and bloated map keeps it from being one of the really great ones. 8/10

2. Slay the Princess
A romantic horror visual novel with clear inspirations from The Stanley Parable and Disco Elysium. I can't really say much else about this without going into spoiler territory, but it's really great please play it. 9/10

3. Half-Life 2: VR Mod
Stuff that mostly works: Shooting most guns, most combat encounters, and the vehicle sections work surprisingly better than expected. Handling and reloading is implemented well for most weapons. Movement is fine for the most part, there's only a couple of platforming bits that are tricky in VR.

Stuff that doesn't: The crossbow scope is pretty awkward to use, encounters with a lot of enemies could be annoying, and selecting weapons is brutal because HL2 has a lot of weapons for a VR game. There really needed to be some way to slow down or stop time while selecting weapons, the menu is too finicky to swap weapons in the middle of combat without issues. There's also a couple on rails segments, like the Citadel transport pods, that don't really work in VR at all no matter what you do cause you can just move around IRL.

Overall this worked out pretty well, but there's a few parts of the game that could have used more polish. It does seem that some negative elements are simply because of technical limitations though (like the lack of slowdown during weapon selection), and this is a valiant effort on the part of the developers. 9/10

4. Half-Life 2: VR Mod - Episode One
They removed the flashlight battery but it also automatically turns off after a while on its own? I think this is probably another technical limitation since I don't see how this couldn't have been noticed.

Other than that this basically has the same strengths and weaknesses as the VR mod for the base game. Episode 1 demands that you make more use of the gravity gun than the base game, and the parts near the end where you switch back and forth between it and other weapons a lot are really grating since there's no "quick swap back to previous weapon" button. 9/10

5. Half-Life 2: VR Mod - Episode Two
Almost perfect. The car works real well in VR. The main issue is the final setpiece where you need to switch back and forth a lot between the gravity gun and firearms, which is very clumsy with the VR weapon selection interface. 9/10

6. Portal: Revolution
This is a 6-8 hour long Portal 2 mod that's been in development for a really long time.

It has good puzzle variety, it introduces a few new mechanics and has good spins on existing puzzle mechanics. There's a couple of finicky puzzles that involve moving out of a propulsion field or moving at the apex of a jump that felt weird (I don't think Portal proper ever does this even if it's technically possible specifically because of how it feels unintuitive), but all the rest of the puzzles were good. The writing's not great but not bad either. It could stand to be paced a little better in the middle.

There's also a gentle ramp up in difficulty similar to the actual games, they do take the time to reintroduce mechanics with simple puzzles. Considering it's been 12 years since Portal 2 came out this ended up being a really good idea. 8/10

7. Genotype
This is a simple Shock-like for the Quest, also coming to PCVR this year. You explore an Antarctic facility overrun by mutant gene experiments gone wrong. Your main "weapon" is a glove that you can pull a cord on to transform into different creatures with different uses. Most of them are basically just reskins of common FPS guns with semi-interesting secondary fire options, but there's a few used for solving basic environmental puzzles and navigating the environment.

Most of the game has you looking around each level for keycards and other things you can use to open up more of the facility while completing various objectives that someone gives you over your radio. It's a lot like System Shock 2, Bioshock, and Prey in that regard. Like System Shock 2 and Prey there's also an inventory management aspect, the game has an RE-like inventory system where all items take up one slot. Inventory slots can also be used to carry around quest items and text logs that have keypad codes on them, since there's no record of all found text logs. The game makes decent use of environmental storytelling with a combination of audio logs (sadly only a few of these), text logs, and map props.

The level design is slightly better than Bioshock but not as good as System Shock 1/2 or Prey, although I do appreciate that there's no quest pointer and the game trusts you to figure out where to go on your own. The weapons and enemies are kinda whatever, almost every enemy in the game can be handled with a basic strategy of "spray the not-SMG weapon at it while circle strafing" and there's not much variety in attack patterns. I would say I enjoyed myself quite a bit, but I'm also thinking "god, imsims could have so much potential in VR if done right". Imagine what we could get if a developer on the level of Arkane's 2010s output made a game like this. This game was produced by a small studio, and I hope they take another crack at this sort of game in the future. They should look to games like System Shock 2 and Prey to improve on areas where this game is lacking (level design, enemy variety and behavior, and player abilities). 8/10

8. Humanity
Neat puzzle game. I liked the genre shifts later in the game for the most part, although a few levels could be a little frustrating. The VR mode is cool, it's neat to be literally standing over the board. 8/10

9. Half-Life Alyx: Levitation
This is a fairly lengthy fan campaign, clocking in at about 4-5 hours. The level variety is pretty high, and the mod creators tried to put their own spin on basically every design gimmick in HL:A, to varying degrees of success. Some levels are as good as the base game, while others don't quite hit the same level of polish (usually a couple too many enemies or a level layout doesn't quite work). There's also a few fresh ideas in here that I really liked, like the train level or a puzzle that's solved by tricking Jeff into breaking a door down. 8/10

10. Asgard's Wrath
Stuff that I liked: The core gameplay is very good. It's fast paced, exciting, and the emphasis on parrying requires you to put yourself at risk to deal with enemies. I especially like how every character you can control has different types of weapons, which keeps things mostly feeling pretty fresh across its fairly long runtime for an action game. Some of the puzzles later in the game had me putting my thinking cap on a little bit, although they're mostly of the "put square peg into square hole" variety where you just need to select the correct power/companion to flip a switch. Switching perspectives to your "giant god" form and turning the level into a diorama is a really cool idea.

Stuff that I didn't like: Sometime parry timing can be exceptionally hard to pull off or fail even if you feel like you did it right, to the point where I would just use explosives or powered weapons to cheese certain enemy types rahter than trying to deal with them normally. The whole "avenge other players deaths" mechanic is undercooked and you basically just grind same-y battles to unlock bonus abilities. The number of combat encounters feels a little bloated, but there's not really much else to do to break things up, and by the midway point I was skipping optional dungeons since they tended to wear on. The story is mediocre. Even though the "giant god" mechanic is cool as hell, there's very few areas in the game that fully capitalize on it.

Overall I liked this, although the game does have areas to improve on. I've heard Asgard's Wrath 2 is excellent, and I'm planning to play that in the near future (it came for free with my Quest 3 so there's no reason not to). 8/10

11. Skyrim VR
The unmodded gameplay is pretty bad. Luckily there's a handy modlist you can download and install in like 30 minutes that'll improve basically everything, and configuring everything to your liking and getting used to the controls only takes around 15-20 minutes after that. Once that's done you end up with the best way to play Skyrim and one of the best experiences you can have in VR. I cleared the main quest, the Compainions questline, the Thieves Guild questline, the Dark Brotherhood questline, various other sidequests, and did enough exploring and adventuring to eventually hit around level 50 in about 33 hours. I plan on going back for the Dawngard and Dragonborn expansions later. 9/10

12. I Expect You to Die
An escape room game where the gimmick is that doing (or failing to do) certain things will trigger your death, so most of the game is working out how to fiddle with the room that you can complete your objectives while also not dying. I liked almost all of the levels in the game, and most of the puzzles are fun to figure out. The controls can be really finicky though, and sometimes I would die multiple times on a map due to this even after figuring out the puzzle. There's also a few maps with multistep "screw up once and you die" puzzles that weren't really that much fun to figure out, since the pattern is "die, wait three minutes to get back to that point, die again, repeat until success". 7/10

13. The Room
This is more of a puzzle box game than an escape room game considering that you're only ever looking directly at a big multi-stage puzzle box so I'm not sure why this is called "The Room" instead of "The Box", but working out all the steps to opening the box is pretty fun. 7/10

14. The Room Two
Same basic gameplay as the first game but now you can move around the room you're in. The puzzles are a little easier to compensate for the added complexity, but there's a fair number of annoying "you have to remember where in the room you need to put this item" puzzles and generally the design isn't as tight as the first game. The atmosphere and novelty of the different rooms is a bit better than the first game's single room though, so it evens out. 7/10

15. The Room Three
Same basic gameplay as the first two games but generally just better all around. Each level now has multiple rooms that you move between, instead of single rooms. The puzzles are better designed too. There's a greater variety of mini puzzles you solve in place, and less annoying "go back and forth finding the one spot to put this item" puzzles. The "hub" level is cool too with its hidden puzzles you need to solve to unlock the alternate endings (except for the one with the wrecking ball that I needed to use a guide for). The atmosphere is also improved over the first two games, with better interior design and a more cohesive plot. 8/10

16. The Room 4: Old Sins
Even more refined than The Room Three, even if it's not as long. Like The Room Three you have multiple rooms at a time that you can move between, but instead of themed levels you have multiple rooms open within a singular dollhouse that you can shift your perspective in and out of. It's a really neat design idea for an "escape room" type game too, since puzzle solutions often take place across multiple rooms as an item may be used in a different room from where you find it, and what you do in one room can affect what goes on in another room. The game keeps things from being too complicated by sealing off rooms that you've completed, and the game is paced so that you never have more than three rooms accessible at a time. 9/10

17. The Room VR: A Dark Matter
It's "The Room" but now in VR. The design is similar to The Room Three, where each chapter features a set of connected rooms. The rooms tend to be larger in size and scope than The Room Three, since this was made for VR and not for cellphones, but the complexity and difficulty of actually solving the puzzles is about the same. It's also not as long since there's no hub world to navigate and solve puzzles in, so the game ends up feeling like a disconnected series of rooms like The Room Two, rather than something more cohesive like Three or 4. 8/10

18. I Expect You to Die 2
Better than the first game in terms of puzzle design, presentation, and controls. 8/10

19. Ctrl Alt Ego
This is really unique for an "immersive sim" style game. The PC is a disembodied consciousness that can possess robots and computer equipment, although you do have a "main" robot you control that you can print from fabricators across the world map (the game's version of System Shock's effective immortality, you can also possess any previously activated fabricator from anywhere on a map, so it's also kind of like fast travel around a map). You have a currency called "Ego" that you can use to take over enemies, unlock locked doors, deactivate security cameras, and so forth. Enemies you take over won't be attacked until they do something to break cover, so if you can possess a mobile enemy you can waltz straight through some areas. Taking over enemies can cost a lot of Ego though that can be better spent on other things if you can make it past the enemy some other way. There's also some locked doors that cost a lot of ego to open, but there's usually some alternate way around them if you explore a lot.

You can unlock various different abilities for your main bot to help navigate the environment or enhance your combat abilities (it's actually a choice to unlock a "gun" instead of unlocking things like jetpacks or teleporters or resource recyclers) and level them up by finding "worms" in the map.

You can basically play however you want to. There's always multiple approaches to complete any objective, and the game feels more like a puzzle game than any other imsim I've played. My only real complaints that the last level is very hard and if you go into it with low resources like I did you'll have a rough time, and the ending is kind of ass. 9/10

20. Half-Life: VR Mod
Not nearly as well put together as the HL2 mods. It's still Half-Life so it's still pretty fun to play, but there's an almost complete lack of immersion compared to the HL2 mods, the controls are finicky at points (ladders are especially bad), there's no manual reloading or reload animations at all, and the sound bugs out if you play for too long. 7/10

21. Slay the Princess
A patch came out that added new animations and lines to the ending along with some upgraded music in some scenes, so I did a couple of quick playthroughs. 9/10

22. Cookie Clicker
It was $2.50 and it's been forever since I played the browser game. The math really gets fun/obscene as you go along. I played long enough to unlock all of the heavenly chip upgrades, but the grind after that is pretty hideous so I stopped. 8/10

23. Dragon's Dogma 2
The best action RPG since Elden Ring. I feel like there should have been maybe 3 or 4 more large monsters though. 10/10

24. Minishoot Adventures
This game is a Zelda-like with bullet hell gameplay. You explore a map to find dungeons and unlock powerups which give you more abilities and allow you to explore more of the map. There's hidden collectibles to extend your health and energy meters, and there's a fair number of hidden side paths and caves. Dungeons are even follow the "you get a power-up in the middle of it that you use for the rest of the dungeon" design pattern. But its also a twinstick shooter with bullet hell style bullet patterns. 9/10

25. Elden Ring
A replay of Elden Ring to prep for the DLC. 10/10

26. Animal Well
This is a fun exploration and puzzle centered 2D game where you don't have any proper weapons at all. It's a completely open game that leaves the player to figure out what they're supposed to be doing and how to do it. Nearly every item you pick up has multiple uses, and several have clever ways that they can be used to improve traversal of the environment that players will naturally discover through experimentation. It takes around 4-5 hours to clear the first ending for "defeating" the final boss, and around 12-20 hours to get the second ending for finding all 64 of the "secret eggs" strewn throughout the world that you obtain by solving environmental puzzles and sussing out hidden paths. There's also an additional 16 "secret rabbits" that require community puzzle solving, and possibly even more to find on top of that. I played through the second ending and had a blast the entire time. 9/10

27. 1000xRESIST
This is an absolute must play. It's one of the best "narrative-only" games I've ever played. Maybe the best period if I don't include a bunch of visual novels. it's amazing how it can feel like an angsty teenage coming of age story one minute and have the cadence of a Kill the Past game in the next, and there are SO many amazing lines and moments of both kinds. The way the plot unfolds, themes, and all that jazz is really freaking good. I ended up loving all of the characters and how flawed they all were by the end of it. it's also amazing how the game has a limited capacity for animation (due to obvious development constraints) so they had to go hard on setting tone and mood instead and MAN can they do that. Everyone might be completely still with no lip flaps in most scenes, but the scene framing is out of this world. 10/10

28. Overboard!
Basically a Twine game with graphics. It's short and sweet and has an entertaining concept, but it's also nothing exceptional. I would recommend it on sale. 7/10

29. Frog Fractions
The first time I played this I played for like three hours without finding the secret on the first screen and gave up. Kinda feel like an idiot now. 7/10

30. Super Mario Bros
I played through Super Mario Bros cause I was watching a bunch of speedrun videos and thought "I haven't played this game in over a decade, I wonder if I can still get through it". The answer was that I could up until 8-3 then I just sorta fell apart and had to use save states to get through 8-4. 8/10

31. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch remake)
Playing this game after semi-recently playing Origami King really threw into focus both what the old games did better and what they weren't as good at. The gameplay and character designs/variety are both way better in TTYD than any of the games that came after it, for sure. The battle and badge systems make this one of the most fun to play RPGs ever made. But the moment to moment writing isn't nearly as snappy as Origami King's, and the level design is ass compared to both Color Splash and Origami King. Most of the game consists of walking back and forth down linear hallways, nearly every "hidden object" puzzle is just "find the star piece behind the scenery", and there's a huge amount of backtracking. The remake does a great job at enhancing both the visuals and the music, while making minor tweaks to the rest of the game. 9/10

32. Alan Wake II: Night Springs
A fun, if very brief, set of DLC chapters for Alan Wake 2. The third chapter has less asset reuse and plays around a bit more with the gameplay than the first two chapters, but all three of them were fun. 8/10

Theswweet · Jan 1, 2024

I WILL update this regularly this year! Main post:

#1 Mameda no Bakeru – Completed 1/3/2024 Switch (Ryujinx) – 16 hours
#2 Final Fantasy VII – Completed 1/8/2024 PlayStation (DuckStation) – 32 hours
#3 World of Demons – Completed 1/10/2024 Apple TV – 14 hours
#4 Momodora: Moonlit Farewell – Completed 1/12/2024 PC/Steam Deck – 8 hours
#5 Sonic Dream Team – Completed 1/12/2024 Apple TV – 4 hours
#6 Pizza Tower – Completed 1/14/2024 Steam Deck – 4 hours
#7 Another Code: Two Memories – Completed 1/18/2024 Switch – 6 hours
#8 Another Code R: Journey into Lost Memories – Completed 1/18/2024 Switch – 10 hours
#9 Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Completed 1/21/2024 PC/Steam Deck – 14 hours
#10 Shiren the Wanderer 4+: The Eye of God and the Devil's Navel – Completed 1/29/2024 Vita – 8 hours
#11 Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain – Completed 1/29/2024 PC – 30 minutes
#12 Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island – Completed 2/3/2024 Switch – 16 hours
#13 Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth – Completed 2/22/2024 PS5 – 95 hours
#14 Penny's Big Breakaway – Completed 2/24/2024 Steam Deck – 5 hours
#15 Dragon's Dogma II – Completed 3/18/2024 PC – 53 hours
#16 Slice & Dice – Completed 3/28/2024 PC – 4 hours
#17 Doronko Wanko – Completed 3/28/2024 PC – 20 minutes
#18 Forza Horizon 2 – Completed 3/28/2024 Xbox Series X – 11 hours
#19 Motorstorm: Pacific Rift – Completed 3/30/2024 PS3 (RPCS3) – 15 hours
#20 SaGa: Emerald Beyond – Completed 4/3/2024 PS5 – 15 hours
#21 Buckshot Roulette – Completed 4/6/2024 Steam Deck – 20 minutes
#22 3D Dot Game Heroes – Completed 4/12/2024 PS3 (RPCS3) – 17 hours
#23 Motorstorm Apocalypse – Completed 4/15/2024 PS3 (RPCS3) – 6 hours
#24 Astrobot: Rescue Mission – Completed 4/16/2024 PSVR – 5 hours
#25 Lil Gator Game – Completed 4/16/2024 Xbox Series X – 3 hours
#26 Amazing Bomberman – Completed 4/17/2024 Apple TV – 2 hours
#27 Déraciné – Completed 4/23/2024 PSVR – 6 hours
#28 Thumper – Completed 4/25/2024 PSVR – 8 hours
#29 DJ Max Technika Tune – Completed 4/25/2024 Vita – 15 minutes
#30 Moss – Completed 4/29/2024 PCVR – 4 hours
#31 Soul Covenant – Completed 5/1/2024 PCVR – 10 hours
#32 Moss: Book 2 – Completed 5/5/2024 PCVR – 5 hours

Baybob · Jan 1, 2024

Past Years
2019 - 53 Games
2020 - 29 Games
2021 - 63 Games
2022 - 57 Games
2023 - 53 Games

JANUARY

KtotheRoc · Jan 1, 2024

After completing 65 games in 2018, 73 games in 2019, 81 games in 2020, 70 games in 2021, 69 games in 2022, and 73 games in 2023, I'm back to take on the challenge for 2024.

1: Vampire Survivors. End: 1/1/2024.
2: River City Girls 2. End: 1/7/2024.
3: Golf Story. End: 1/13/2024.
4: Mega Man Battle Network 3 (White). End: 1/19/2024.
5: Persona 5 Tactica. End: 2/1/2024.
6: Gradius. End: 2/12/2024.
7: Persona 3 Reload. End: 2/19/2024.
8: Battletoads in Battlemaniacs. End: 2/22/2024.
9: Golden Sun. End: 2/24/2024.
10: Mega Man Zero. End: 2/26/2024.
11: Turnip Boy Robs a Bank. End: 3/2/2024.
12: Mega Man Zero 2. End: 3/5/2024.
13: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. End: 3/15/2024.
14: Mario Golf (GBC). End: 3/20/2024.
15: Mega Man Battle Network 4. End: 3/22/2024.
16: Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. End: 3/25/2024.
17: Super E.D.F. Earth Defense Force. End: 4/15/2024.
18: Super R-Type. End: 4/18/2024.
19: Pikuniku. End: 4/22/2024.
20: Golden Sun: The Lost Age. End: 5/2/2024.
21: Mega Man Zero 3. End: 5/6/2024.
22: Mega Man Zero 4. End: 5/8/2024.
23: Super Mario Land. End: 5/14/2024.
24: Pokémon Trading Card Game. End: 5/15/2024.
25: A Little to the Left. End: 5/23/2024.
26: Brotato. End: 5/26/2024.
27: Rogue Legacy. End: 5/28/2024.
28: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. End: 5/29/2024.
29: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. End: 6/6/2024.
30: Paper Mario. End: 6/8/2024.
31: Journey to Silius. End: 6/13/2024.
32: Another Code: Recollection. End: 6/15/2024.

Spamlynguist · Jan 1, 2024

PAST CHALLENGES

2023: 24 games finished
2022: 43 games finished
2021: 52 games finished
2020: 121 games finished
2019: 120 games finished
2018: 83 games finished
2017: 63 games finished

JANUARY

1. Crush the Castle - Legacy Collection (Steam) | January 1st - 8.8 hours | ★★★☆☆

2. An Arcade Full of Cats (Steam) | January 1st - 0.9 hours | ★★★★☆

3. An Arcade Full of Cats: TimeWarp Trouble (Steam) | January 1st - 0.5 hours | ★★★★☆

4. Baldur's Gate 3 (Steam) | January 2nd - 91.5 hours | ★★★★★

FEBRUARY

5. Alan Wake (Steam Deck) | February 6th - 11.3 hours | ★★★★☆

6. Alan Wake: The Signal (Steam) | February 6th - 1.3 hours | ★★★☆☆

7. Alan Wake: The Writer (Steam) | February 6th - 1.2 hours | ★★★☆☆

8. Alan Wake's American Nightmare (Steam Deck) | February 13th - 4.9 hours | ★★★★☆

9. New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja (Switch) | February 26th - N/A | ★★☆☆☆

10. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom [Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara] (Steam) | February 28th - 1.3 hours | ★★★☆☆

11. Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara [Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara] (Steam) | February 29th - 1.7 hours | ★★★★☆

MARCH

12. Battle Circuit [Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle] (Steam) | March 1st - 0.8 hours | ★★★★☆

13. Knights of the Round [Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle] (Steam) | March 1st - 1.3 hours | ★☆☆☆☆

14. Armored Warriors [Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle] (Steam) | March 2nd - 1.0 hours | ★★★★☆

15. The King of Dragons [Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle] (Steam) | March 2nd - 0.8 hours | ★★★☆☆

16. Final Fight [Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle] (Steam) | March 2nd - 0.9 hours | ★★☆☆☆

17. Warriors of Fate [Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle] (Steam) | March 2nd - 1.2 hours | ★☆☆☆☆

18. Captain Commando [Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle] (Steam) | March 3rd - 0.5 hours | ★★★☆☆

19. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (PS4) | March 3rd - 2.6 hours | ★★★★☆

20. The Hong Kong Massacre (Steam) | March 6th - 2.9 hours | ★★☆☆☆

21. Progear [Capcom Arcade Stadium] (Steam) | March 8th - 0.4 hours | ★★★★☆

22. Cats Hidden in Italy (Steam Deck) | March 15th - 0.1 hours | ★☆☆☆☆

23. Cats & Seek: Osaka + Extra Level DLC (Steam) | March 19th - 0.5 hours | ★★☆☆☆

24. Cats & Seek: at Dino Park (Steam) | March 21st - 0.8 hours | ★★★☆☆

25. Cats Hidden in Georgia (Steam) | March 23rd - 0.2 hours | ★★★☆☆

26. Power Stone [Power Stone Collection] (PSN) | March 29th - N/A | ★★★★☆

27. Power Stone 2 [Power Stone Collection] (PSN) | March 29th - N/A | ★★★☆☆

APRIL

28. Uncharted: Golden Abyss (PS Vita) | April 3rd - N/A | ★★★☆☆

29. Combat Core (Steam) | April 6th - 4.6 hours | ★★☆☆☆

30. Moto Knight (Steam) | April 13th - 0.7 hours | ★★☆☆☆

31. ACA Neo Geo Shock Troopers (Switch eShop) | April 16th - N/A | ★★★★★

32. ACA Neo Geo Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad (Switch eShop) | April 16th - N/A | ★☆☆☆☆

33. Arcade Archives Sunset Riders (Switch eShop) | April 17th - N/A | ★★★★★

34. Arcade Archives Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninjas (Switch eShop) | April 17th - N/A | ★★★★☆

35. Retro Classix Gate of Doom (Steam) | April 17th - 0.8 hours | ★★☆☆☆

36. ACA Neo Geo Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy (Switch eShop) | April 18th - N/A | ★★★☆☆

37. Retro Classix Night Slashers (Steam) | April 18th - 0.7 hours | ★★★☆☆

38. Mario Slam Basketball (NDS) | April 20th - 2.7 hours | ★★★★☆

39. Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Grafitti [Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1] (Switch eShop) | April 22nd - N/A | ★★★☆☆

40. Dragon Spirit: The New Legend [Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1] (Switch eShop) | April 22nd - N/A | ★★★★☆

41. ACA Neo Geo Metal Slug (Switch eShop) | April 28th - 0.5 hours | ★★★☆☆

MAY

42. Mekabolt + (PSN) | May 10th - 1.0 hours | ★★☆☆☆

43. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5) | May 11th - 34.2 hours | ★★★★★

44. A Tower Full of Cats (Steam) | May 29th - 2.6 hours | ★★★★☆

JUNE

Nothing yet!

JULY

Nothing yet!

AUGUST

Nothing yet!

SEPTEMBER

Nothing yet!

OCTOBER

Nothing yet!

NOVEMBER

Nothing yet!

DECEMBER

Nothing yet!

KOfLegend · Jan 1, 2024

60/52 Beaten!

Completed on April 28th!

January

1. Sayonara Wild Hearts (PS5) | January 1st - 1hr [Replay - 100%] | 5/5

I am flabbergasted.

This playthrough marks the tenth time I've played through Sayonara Wild Hearts (fifth time logged). Year after year, time after time I think, going in, that this is going to be the time the game doesn't fill me with the euphoric feeling it usually does and yet year after year, time after time, Sayonara Wild Hearts has proven me wrong. This is now the tenth time I have lost it during the final few minutes of the game.

I am absolutely flabbergasted.

This is the videogame equivalent of a rollercoaster ride. For just a fleeting moment, it transports you somewhere else entirely. Music. Colors. Voices. Sounds. Feelings. And then it ends. No game has ever made me feel like Sayonara Wild Hearts makes me feel. Euphoria truly is the only way to describe it. It is fucking enchanting.

Wild hearts never die ❤️

2. A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS5) | January 3rd - 14hrs [100%] | 3.5/5

This was alright. The setting's fantastic and the rats are genuinely very impressive, but the game never manages to shake off the "The Last of Us/God of War at home" vibes. It also seemingly can't decide if it wants to be a walking simulator or not, because it gives you a really cool arsenal to approach encounters with but the encounters themselves are so incredibly rigid and usually only have one solution so it ends up not mattering all that much.

The story is fine up until a certain point where it kind of goes off the rails but the characters are great and the voice acting is genuinely fantastic across the board. I really loved Hugo and Amicia's relationship, but I feel like that has more to do with me and my relationship with my big sisters as opposed to the game actually making me care about them, because you don't really see their relationship progress naturally like you do in something like The Last of Us with Joel and Ellie or other games of this ilk. Things are weird between them and then they're not, and then they're weird again and then they're not. It never felt natural to me.

I don't know, it was a perfectly good experience, I'm just a little whelmed given the insane word of mouth this game got.

3. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (PS5) | January 5th - 11hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4.5/5

The quintessential "baby's first Metroidvania" game, and the fact that is can manage to be that while also simultaneously providing a fantastic experience for veterans of the genre shouldn't be understated. It just feels so...light. The writing is funny, the tone is joyful, the controls are buttery smooth, the combat is fun, the platforming is wonderful and the music is great. I've played this game so many times and it's always a wonderful time.

4. Slay the Princess (Deck) | January 6th - 4hrs | 3/5

Was expecting this to be a lot better based on the Stanley Parable comparisons and the general WOM the game has been getting and I'm kinda disappointed. Still an enjoyable experience though.

This is a tough game to talk about without spoiling anything so I'll keep it short. I do genuinely love the way the game is structured and I do like a lot of the writing. It does come off a bit pretentious and tryhard at times but that comes with the territory when you're trying to explore the themes this game is so it gets a pass. What I did dislike though is the voice acting, especially the princess', which comes off as amateurish and fandub-y a lot of the time, though it might just be me since the vast majority of people seem to love the VA.

I don't know, it was fine. I just wish I didn't go in with the expectations I went in with.

5. OXENFREE (PS5) | January 8th - 9hrs | 4/5

There's this nagging feeling that's telling me the game didn't really live up to its full potential that wasn't there when I first played the game back in 2016, but it's still a great time regardless. Fantastic vibes and soundtrack, great characters and voice acting (the majority of the cast is from the "Telltale gang" which is a group of VAs I really miss), great visuals and lovely dialogue system. The story is interesting but leaves you with a bunch of question marks more than anything else which I don't really mind in this case as they manage to pull it off relatively well.

Semi-related: This is the first time a replay of a dialogue-choice-story-driven-whatever game has made me realize how much I've changed as a person. I've recently replayed a couple of Telltale games that I played when they first came out and I was still kinda treating all the characters the same way and making the same choices. With Oxenfree, I genuinely found myself having completely different reactions to what some of the characters were saying and I though it was fascinating (I first played Oxenfree when I was 15, I'm 23 now). Maybe it's because the writing is a lot more realistic? I don't know, there's a compliment here but I don't know how to articulate it.

6. Legend of the Skyfish | January 10th - 3hrs | 1/5

This is one of those "free platinum trophy" games so I knew what I was getting into but...good lord. At least games like Foxyland try to be enjoyable experiences. This was just abysmal across the board.

7. Crystal Story: Awakening | January 11th - 1hr | 2.5/5

It's alright. I was expecting something a little more substantial but this was incredibly bite-sized. Decent prequel to the full game releasing soon, though I do hope the gameplay is somewhat improved because it was extremely barebones here.

8. Ashen (PS5) | January 12th - 15hrs [100%] | 3/5

Really, really wanted to like this more than I did. I l adore Soulslikes and Ashen does a great amount of this things really well, which makes its major failures all the more heartbreaking.

Other than it being absolutely gorgeous and feeling great to play, I genuinely adore how progression is handled. Not having the ability to level up and instead getting stat bonuses from exploration or doing sidequests is an insanely fresh take on character progression (in this genre at least), and I really like that an AI companion accompanies you the whole way through (other Soulslikes like Code;Vein do this but a lot less successfully imo). It's a shame, then, that the five bosses in the game range from mediocre to downright abysmal, and it's even more saddening that most of them are on the lower end of the spectrum. Similarly, the level design is middling. The open areas are fine but the two labyrinthian dungeons in the game are an absolute slog to get through.

Still, I'd say I enjoyed my time with Ashen, and I'm hoping the team gives the IP another shot.

9. A Plague Tale: Requiem (PS5) | January 13th - 18hrs [100%] | 4/5

A really impressive sequel across the board. I have no idea how large Asobo Studio is or what type of backing they have, but out of all the Naughty Dog imitators, they manage to get the closest to them. There are some genuinely stunning set-pieces here and the visuals in general are gorgeous and are an unfathomable jump from Innocence.

The combat encounters are, similarly, much improved. One of the biggest issues the original had was the rigidness of the encounters where it seemed like there was one and only one solution to them. That's not completely gone, especially when the rats come into play, but Requiem definitely lets you spread your wings a little more. The areas are wider, the AI is a lot smarter and you're actually allowed to use your arsenal to the fullest.

The story's a bit exhausting to get through because it's constantly depressing and bleak but that means it did a great job at what it wanted to do (ala The Last of Us Part II). The performances are once again excellent across the board and I actually really bought Amicia and Hugo's relationship this time around. The supporting cast is also insanely better, partly due to them being adults and accompanying you for more than just a chapter or two. The ending's very predictable (maybe that's the point?) but I still thought it was incredibly effective. The plot isn't without its issues, though. There's a large chunk in the middle of the game where it feels like it's going around in circles (you literally circle back to one of the locations like three times) and the lore still feels kind of underbaked, which is a shame.

I was pleasantly surprised that this ended up being a duology. The game leaves room for potential future titles, but it's very clear that Hugo and Amicia's story is over. It's incredibly refreshing and I'm glad they went out with a bang. Asobo Studio is definitely on my radar now and I really can't wait to see what they do next.

10. Undertale (PS5) | January 14th - 6hrs [Replay] | 4.5/5

Played this again to prep for Undertale Yellow! I'm not smart enough to have a new or fresh take on Undertale so I'm not going to try. It's Undertale. There you go.

11. Punch Line (PS5) | January 14th - 6hrs [100%] | 1/5

Not going to waste any more of my time by trying to properly review this steaming pile of shit. Uchikoshi is a two-hit wonder, and I'm beginning to suspect 999 and VLR were good not because of his involvement but in spite of it. Only reason I finished this was because the platinum was easy.

12. Sound Shapes (PS5) | January 16th - 4hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4/5

Forgot how insanely charming this, but very few optional modes have completely dragged down a game for me like Death Mode has. RNG + platforming + time limits = disaster.

13. Enjoy the Diner (Deck) | January 17th - 3hrs | 4/5

Liked this more than I thought I would! The story kinda goes off the rails near the very end but man, the vibes are absolutely immaculate. The visuals are beautiful (they're very reminiscent vewn's work) and the writing is wonderful and very impressive considering it has been put through a localization machine. I don't think I'll be forgetting Moon Palace anytime soon even if I only spent 3 hours or so there.

14. Cris Tales (PS5) | January 20th - 30hrs [100%] | 2/5

They tried, bless their hearts.

It's really hard to take a giant dump on a game that you can tell people put their hearts and souls in, but this was a hot doo doo mess. The visuals are incredible and the voice cast is surprisingly stacked but the story is a nothingburger, the combat is disastrously unbalanced, the music is forgettable, the writing is basic and the game is filled with bugs. I had to repeat the colosseum six times because the game kept freezing.

I don't know why I kept playing but I did. Maybe in hopes of the game getting better? I don't know. It just sucks because I'm all for more western turn-based RPGs but this isn't it.

15. Before the Green Moon (Deck) | January 21st - 12hrs | 3/5

I ultimately enjoyed my time with this but I can't help but feel that the game would've been better off if it were a narrative focused game like the developer's last game because the vibes are immaculate and the themes are wonderful, they're just dragged down by the really weird pacing that's associated with farming sim games. The gameplay's incredibly dull and interesting events happen far too infrequently. I understand what the game's trying to do, but the message isn't worth the hours upon hours of doing menial tasks when it could've been delivered just as effectively in a different way.

Still, it's a game that will stick with me for a long time. I've never really played anything like it.

16. Oninaki (PS5) | January 23rd - 30hrs | 2.5/5

I want to root for Tokyo RPG Factory so bad because I thought I Am Setsuna was a genuinely great game and had charm out the wazoo, but between this and Lost Sphear being so bland that I could only stomach a few hours of it, I'm starting to think Setsuna was a fakeout. Middling story, cumbersome combat, weak writing...it's all just so disappointing. At least this game, unlike Lost Sphear, feels like it has an identity, but...that's about it really. The atmosphere was nice? I guess?

17. Lost Words: Beyond the Page (PS5) | January 27th - 4hrs | 3/5

This was a cute little experience with a heartfelt story that actually got me a couple of times (god I miss my grandma) but I'm getting increasingly tired of the cinematic 2D platformer genre. I love me a good narrative-focused game, but if you decide to make it a platformer please, for the love of god, make it fun to play.

18. Yakuza: Like A Dragon (PS5) | January 29th - 50hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4/5

Making Yakuza/Like A Dragon a turn-based RPG franchise might genuinely be the best decision Sega and RGG have ever made. This was an absolute delight to play through again. The cast is fantastic, the dub is surprisingly immaculate (I initially played the game in Japanese but decided to go for the dub this time around and, hot take, Ichibian's english VA is superior), the combat is fun (which is not something you'll hear me say about any other Yakuza game) and the side content is excellent which shouldn't be a surprise.
It's very obvious that this is their first go at a turn-based system though. There's a big focus on positioning yet you can't manually position your characters so the combat can come off as wonky sometimes, and the balancing is just all over the place. The true final millennium tower is just badly made and it's probably the last thing most players will do (if they go for 100%) so the game kind of ends on a bummer.

19. Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain (Deck) | January 31st - 0.5hrs | 3/5

Cute little celebration game! The controls are a bit wonky which is shocking considering this was made by MMG but it makes sense given the timeframe in which the game was developed. Still, it was a good time overall.

20. The Callisto Protocol (PS5) | January 31st - 11hrs | 2.5/5

Went in with extremely low expectations and still came out of the experience disappointed. This is an early PS3 era game with pretty graphics and unlike the phrase "this is a PS2 era game with pretty graphics!" which has a positive connotation, this has a negative one. The combat is tragic, the level design is mediocre at best, the story is a nothingburger and the game in general just never manages to shake off the "Dead Space at home" vibes. It sure is pretty, though.

February

21. Interaction Isn't Explicit (PS5) | February 1st - 1hr [100%] | 2/5

An essay about video games in video game form is certainly a novel idea but the whole thing ultimately falls flat on its face. It has nothing new or notable to say (though this is coming from someone who consumes a lot of video essays about video games) and, for something that critiques game design, it certainly doesn't know the basics of making a game fun to play in the first place.

22. Persona 3 Reload (PS5) | February 10th - 82hrs [100%] | 4/5

It's a full moon again.

I'd like to preface this review by saying that Persona 3 FES means the world to me. You've probably heard a version of this statement from a lot of different people about a lot of different games so I'll spare you most of the details, but for a long stretch of time it was my favorite game of all time and, even though it was eventually dethroned, it's still sitting very comfortably at number 2. I've loved a lot of games, but none have been as formative as P3 FES was to me. I played it when I was young (younger than I should've been) and I don't think a single piece of media has influenced the way I navigate life as much as P3 FES has.

Writing about games I love is always hard because I constantly feel like I'm not doing a good enough job at translating that love into words. It's difficult. It's difficult to put into words how much I adore P3 FES to the point where it feels like there aren't any words that could describe it, so you're just going to have to take my word for it if I haven't been convincing enough.

This preface is part of this review because I'm very well aware that no remake of Persona 3 in any shape or form would have ever satisfied me completely. I'm not delusional, even if I had personal input on the remake and decided to keep everything from Yumi Kawamura to the animated cutscenes to the original voice cast intact, I would have still ended up dissatisfied. I say this because I feel like I'm about to rip into Persona 3 Reload, but it all comes from a place of love and I can tell they at least tried to recapture the magic of the original in some areas. Nobody likes being a party pooper and I genuinely went in wanting to love it as much as FES. Even though I didn't, I still ended up having a great time with it (as can be seen from my score) and I genuinely hope in my heart of hearts that people end up adoring it.

This preface is also here because most of this review is going to be comparing this game to FES. It's impossible for me to put myself in the shoes of someone experiencing Persona 3 for the first time through Reload nor do I want to, which means it's also impossible for me to judge Reload as a standalone game. It is a remake and unlike something like Final Fantasy VII Remake which had no intention of being a 1:1, faithful remake of the original, Persona 3 Reload has every intention of being a faithful and modernized version of Persona 3, and I will be judging it as such.

Alright, preface done. Let's get into it.

You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes.

Persona 3 FES opens with what honestly might be my favorite cutscene of all time. The intense sound design coupled with the unique framing of everything happening on screen is fucking enchanting. I've never seen anything like it before or since. In Persona 3 Reload, this scene is recreated but…something's missing. The sound design is less effective, the framing is less interesting, there's now dialogue in it that kind of ruins in the tension, and it's cut in half with the latter part of the cutscene being replaced with an in-game sequence. This is how I feel about Reload's presentation in general. It's mostly not bad by any means, it just constantly feels like something's not quite right. The cutscene direction is lacking (at times severely) compared to the original (the awakening scene, for example, is nowhere near as effective as the original's) and the visuals themselves are a mixed bag. Persona 3 FES isn't the most gorgeous PS2 game, but it's consistent at the very least. In Reload, it's very normal to go from an area that looks absolutely gorgeous to something straight out of Pokémon Sword and Shield within the span of seconds. It's mostly due to the lighting, which ranges from impressive in locations like Gekkoukan High, to "Nintendo hire this man!!" Unreal Engine™ lighting in locations like Tartarus (with the exception of a block or two), to some of the worst, straight up atmosphere-killing lighting I've seen in a game in locations like Yakushima and the dorm, the latter of which being the most important location in the entire game. The game's also obsessed with using green and blue filters, the former of which is used during Dark Hour sequences and looks fine, and the latter being used in some nighttime scenes and looks abysmal. Persona 3/FES had a certain je ne sais quio which managed to elevated its atmosphere that is not only missing from its sequels, but also unfortunately its re-releases.

It's not all bad on that front, though. The new character models need some getting used to due to the change in art style (Soejima is no longer the lead artist) but they look absolutely gorgeous and are among the best I've ever seen when it comes to this type of art style, and the UI is absolutely wonderful and manages to, in my opinion, edge out Persona 5's which is quite a feat. You spend most of your time looking at menus in turn-based RPGs and Atlus is seemingly one of the few companies out there that understand that.

Gameplay is where Persona 3 Reload shines bright and completely eviscerates its prior iterations. I've never hated FES' gameplay (I'm pretty sure 95% of the people that had issues with the party being controlled by AI never actually played the game and were regurgitating what they heard online because the game was balanced around it, but I digress), but Reload plays like butter. Tartarus has been given a facelift worthy of being on a second season of a Real Housewives franchise, the combat is snappy and really fun to look at (SHIFTing feels so much better than Baton Passing and it's all in the animations), the fatigue system has been thankfully removed, teleporters are a lot more plentiful and a lot of the additional content from P3P has been carried over like rescuing people that have wandered into Tartarus. All of the quality of life improvements on the life-sim side that were introduced in Persona 5 have been carried into Reload as well, which makes that portion of the game feel a lot smoother as well. Out of all the improvements, Social Links now being fully voiced might be my favorite one. It genuinely breathes life into characters I never cared for in the original and it's going to be tough going back to earlier Persona games which only had voice acting for specific ranks. Not forcing the MC into a romantic relationship with female Social Links is also a fantastic change.

The new "Linked Episodes" introduced in Reload are absolutely fantastic. I still wish the male party member Social Links were carried over from the FeMC route, but this is a good enough compromise and to my surprise, most of it is actually brand new stuff and not distilled versions of their Social Links from P3P. I found Ken's Linked Episode in particular to be fantastic. The new Strega scenes are a nice touch as well, though they do little to improve on what has always been the weakest part of Persona 3's story. Still, they're relatively harmless so it's ultimately a good addition.

Next up is music and well, this one's a bit of a doozy.

Yumi Kawamura is Persona 3. She was always Persona 3. She will always be Persona 3. End of Statement. For those that have never played a Persona game and don't understand the importance of the vocalists in these games, they are what Utada Hikaru is to Kingdom Hearts, except if you heard Utada's voice most of the time while playing through the games instead of just the openings and endings. Yumi, Shihoko and Lyn (alongside Shoji Meguro) were all integral to their respective games. Replacing them would be unthinkable and yet, with Persona 3 Reload, the unthinkable has happened. Yumi Kawamura has been replaced with Azumi Takahashi and in a ballsy move, they sound completely different than one another. Gone are Yumi's rough and energetic vocals, replaced with Azumi's soft and youthful vocals instead and the results are, well…interesting to say the least.

In new tracks composed specifically for Reload, Azumi shines. Tracks like "It's Going Down Now" and "Color Your Night" sound absolutely wonderful, the latter of which has become one of my favorites from the entire series. Things get complicated, however, when we look at the tracks that were initially composed with Yumi Kawamura in mind. Tracks like "Want to Be Close" still manage to sound absolutely wonderful, but not all of them were so lucky. Tracks like "Memories of You" and "Paulownia Mall" lack some of what made the originals amazing but still sound relatively good while tracks like "Mass Destruction" completely miss the mark. "When the Moon's Reaching Out Stars," one of the best songs from the original game, got dealt the worst hand. I truly haven't heard a song get this butchered since Fergie sang the national anthem at that NBA game.

Since we're on the topic of audio, let's discuss Reload's English dub.

Persona's dubs have always been exceptional. Persona 3's dub was very impressive at the time, Persona 5's dub was fantastic, and Persona 4 might genuinely have my favorite dub of all time. They've never been perfect, mind you, as there's always been a character or two that had weird or funky dubs like Fuuka in Persona 3/FES, Chie in the original Persona 4 (I said it!) and some of the confidants in Persona 5, but in general it wouldn't be controversial to say that the Persona franchise was the gold standard when it came to this type of stuff.

It pains me to say that Persona 3 Reload's dub is extremely hit-or-miss. Atlus West and Sega, for some odd reason, decided to go against what Atlus Japan did and overhaul the entire cast, recasting all of the characters in the process and the results are all over the place which, for a franchise like Persona, is a little shocking. There are some characters that are straight-up upgrades from the originals like Yeung's Fuuka, some that are indistinguishable like Clark's Mitsuru and Robinson's Junpei and some that sound completely different but still end up working like Saab's Akihiko, Solcum's Shinjiro and Lee's Ken.

And then there are Yukari and Aigis, two wonderful characters with troubling performances (for different reasons) and the reason this has its own section in the review. Let's investigate.

Case 001: The Case of Heather Gonzalez's Yukari Takeba

Due to the way it's structured, Persona 3 has some of the franchise's best character arcs because it doesn't rely on social links/confidants for character progression and instead does all of it in the main storyline, which is something that P4 and P5 mostly moved away from to their detriment. Yukari's arc is simple but effective, and I've always thought she was a shockingly realistic portrayal of someone who has gone through a lot of trauma. Michelle Ruff's performance in the original Persona 3 perfectly straddles the line between mean and sincere and is genuinely a perfect fit for the character. Yukari in general is, in my opinion, one of the original game's best parts.

I say all of this because Yukari in Persona 3 Reload is not nearly as good of a character and it is solely due to Gonzalez's performance.

I don't know whether to pin this on Gonzalez's performance or Arem's direction, but…there's no way around it, Yukari in P3R just sounds poor. Not only does Gonzalez fail to straddle that line, it feels like she never even attempted to get on it. The cadence in which she read her lines in is incredibly annoying, her vocal fry sounds unpleasant and feels put on, and her acting in general feels like it's a step below the rest of the cast. She sticks out like a sore thumb and it's heartbreaking. I've seen and heard a lot of recasts in my life and I'm not being hyperbolic when I say I've never seen one completely demolish a character and their arc like this. None of Yukari's emotional moments (like her wonderful scene in Yakushima) are as effective as they should be because the performance is just not up to par.

Case 002: The Case of Dawn M. Bennet's Aigis

If Yukari is one of Persona 3's best parts, then Aigis is unequivocally the best part of Persona 3. She's the heart of the game and probably has the best arc in the entire series (she also happens to be my all-time favorite Persona character so I'm a bit biased). One of the best parts about her character was her voice, which slowly and subtly transitions from extremely robotic to almost human. It legitimately is one of my favorite parts of FES and a large part of why I adore the character.

In Persona 3 Reload, Aigis does not sound like a robot. Her voice has been changed to sound like a modern AI's (which doesn't make sense because the game still takes place in 2009, but sure) and the slow transition, while not completely removed, has been downgraded. This is not on Bennet nor Arem, but instead on the Japanese team that wanted the performances to be more faithful to their Japanese counterparts*, because Aigis' voice slowly transitioning was a fucking masterful decision that was made by the localization team back then. Now that it's no longer there, it feels like part of the character has been completely gutted and it sucks. Unlike Gonzalez and Yukari though, Bennet's performance is actually quite good. It's just the shift in performance that's a shame.

*This is speculative on my part, but Atlus Japan was pretty hands-on with Persona 5's dub based on some interviews I've read and seen (see: SEH-Kamoto gate), and I assume this carried into Reload.

The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed.

In 2009, Atlus released a version of Persona 3 that ultimately failed to capture a lot of what made Persona 3 special due to extremely scaled back presentation. Still, it's worth a play due to all of the additional content and much improved gameplay. It is an okay version of Persona 3, but FES is still superior.

It is now 2024.

Atlus has released a version of Persona 3 that ultimately fails to capture a lot of what made Persona 3 special due to extremely different presentation. Still, it's worth a play due to all of the additional content and much improved gameplay. It is an okay version of Persona 3, but FES is still superior.

So where does this leave us? A version of Persona 3 with all of the original creative intent including voice acting, dialogue and general presentation in addition to an epilogue but relatively dated gameplay, a version of Persona 3 with modernized gameplay but presentation that fundamentally changes the entire game feel for better and for worse, and a version of Persona 3 with a completely unique protagonist that has a different set of socials links that cuts back on the visuals in a major way to its detriment.

There is still no definitive way to play Persona 3. Moreover, the best (in my opinion) version of the game is still (and now forever will be) stuck on the Playstation 2 with no modern ports. I can't lie and say this isn't endlessly frustrating. The charitable read on this, however, is that Persona 3 has three different versions that all genuinely offer completely different experiences. I really can't think of anything like it. I know this, though: if there's any game worth experiencing three times in three completely different ways, it's Atlus' magnum opus.

I won't sugercoat it, though: if it hasn't been clear already, I think Persona 3 Reload fails to hold a candle to Persona 3 FES. The new visuals and lighting kill some the atmosphere, some of the new performances disappoint, the quality of the redone music is inconsistent and it overall just feels a bit…cheap at times. I think Persona 3 Reload is the best way to play Persona 3, no question about it, but I'm almost prepared to say it's the worst way to experience it, though I'd have to revisit P3P before putting a statement like that out into the universe.

But I don't know, I don't think I've been entirely fair if I'm being honest.

Playing through Persona 3 Reload was joyful in many ways and heartbreaking in many others. How can I fairly judge a remake of something that I'm as intensely connected to as Persona 3? It's a nigh impossible task. Even after all of this, I still don't know how to feel about Reload, not really. I don't even think I ever will but that's okay, because regardless of what version of Persona 3 I'm playing through, the first three notes of Memories of the School are enough to make me well up. Maybe, because I love Persona 3 so much, I'm getting too caught up with what Reload is going to mean to other people versus what FES meant to me. Maybe, because I don't think isn't as artistic, atmospheric, emotional and effective as FES, I'm scared people won't like it as much.

But maybe I should be thankful that Reload was at least good enough to not sever the connection I have to Persona 3. Maybe that's all I needed it to be.

Maybe that's enough.

The wind… It feels so nice…

23. Soul Hackers 2 (PS5) | February 17th - 52hrs [100%] | 2.5/5

Probably one of my least favorite Megami Tensei games I've played, if not my least favorite. I'm kind of almost suprised at how medicore and more than occasionally bad this was? Atlus' lower tier releases (non-Persona/SMT) the past few years haven't been amazing but they're certainly way better than this.

The sabbath system is neat and the gameplay in general is fun but everything else across the board is puzzlingly mediocre. The characters are fine but the story falls flat, the visuals and music are servicable at best and the dungeon design ranges from boring to atrocious (the soul matrix being mostly optional isn't an excuse).

I don't know what else to say, honestly. I'm just shocked.

24. Soul Hackers 2: Bonus Story Arc - The Lost Numbers (PS5) | February 17th - 4hrs | 2/5

Somehow even more lackluster that the main game.

25. Rollerdrome (PS5) | February 19th - 8hrs | 3/5

This was really fun for the first two hours but falls off pretty quickly after that. The new weapons they give you and new arenas they introduce aren't different or interesting enough to keep the gameplay engaging. It ended right when I was getting really bored though, so the short length saves it.

26. Ghostwire: Tokyo (PS5) | February 24th - 43hrs | 4/5

Liked this a lot more than I thought I would. I gave it a shot back when it was first added to PS+ Extra and didn't vibe with it but I'm super glad I gave it another shot. It's just another Ubisoft Open World™ game in many ways but my god does the setting absolutely carry it. Bummer that it's probably never getting a sequel because I would absolutely love to spend more time in this world even after spending 43 hours exploring it. I adore the (relatively) small map size because it allowed the devs to make it extremely dense instead, which I love. I also thought the gameplay was quite good and nowhere near as bad as people were making it out to be, but that could be due to the Spider's Thread update that apparently changed a lot of how the combat works.

I just wish the opening hour weren't so weak, it's easily the worst part of the game which is a shame since first impressions are everything.

27. Silent Hill: The Short Message (PS5) | February 25th - 2hrs | 1.5/5

Oh no.

I was going to start this off by saying that I've personally dealt with a lot of the subject matter that was tackled in the game and that's why I think it's abysmal but I don't even think you need that to recognize how awfully mishandled pretty much everything is. The whole game feels like it's PSA video on bullying/suicide/parental abuse/whatever else they tried to shove in here that was specifically made for middle schoolers. It's so distilled and surface-level that it would've been insulting had it not been for the almost satirical performances and downright cringey writing. It's also a mess on the gameplay front. The environments are pretty to look at but what's there to interact with isn't interesting and the chase sequences are not only devoid of scares, they're incredibly unfun because they're based on trial and error more than anything else.

Kind of obsessed with how bad this was.

28. Splatoon 3 (Switch) | February 26th - 6hrs | 3.5/5

Never finished the main campaign back when the game first came out so I thought I'd give it another shot in preparation for Side Order and it's…fine? I don't know, it kinda lands like a wet fart after Octo Expansion but that's what happens when you set the bar too high. I ultimately enjoyed my time with it but half the levels felt like a slog to play through and after three games, the aesthetics are no longer interesting enough to carry it. Three game in and it already feels like Splatoon is running out of steam.

(This is purely a review of the single player campaign. I have no intention of diving into the multiplayer side of the game and therefore cannot judge it on that front)

29. Donut County (PS5) | February 24th - 2hrs | 3/5
🦆

March

30. Super Princess Peach (NDS) | Mar 8th - 7hrs | 2.5/5

Obsessed with how much of a nothingburger this was. The epitome of "go girl!! give us nothing!!!"

Requiring all the toads (this game's equivalent of the star coins) to access the final boss (like, the actual final level of the game and not a secret level or something) is an unhinged choice for a Mario game that I kinda have to respect it.

31. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) | Mar 19th - 120hrs | 4.5/5

I'll come back and review this properly later once all of my feelings are sorted out, but it's absolutely magnificent aside from the ending which was a huge swing and a miss for me.

If the third game is even half as good as the first two, this will probably end up being my favorite trilogy of all time. Not just in gaming but in media in general.

32. Anodyne 2: Return to Dust (PS5) | Mar 23rd - 10hrs [100%] | 4/5

This was a great time. The pacing's a bit weird but the aesthetics are gorgeous, the world is intriguing and the gameplay's pretty great for what it is. It's also probably one of the best sequels I've ever played? I don't think it's a masterpiece or anything like that, it just legitimately takes everything, and I mean everything from the first game and improves upon it to a degree that I've rarely seen before. The jump in quality is just absolutely insane.

33. Please Follow (Deck) | Mar 23rd - 0.5hrs | 2/5

Lowkey felt like a waste of time but it's very short and the presentation was pretty nice so I can't be too upset at it.

April

34. The Outer Worlds (PS5) | Apr 4th - 35hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4/5

35. The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon (PS5) | Apr 4th - 8hrs [100%] | 3/5

36. The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos (PS5) | Apr 5th - 7hrs [100%] | 3.5/5

37. Pepper Grinder (Deck) | Apr 6th - 2hrs | 3.5/5

38. Sephonie (PS5) | Apr 11th - 5hrs [100%] | 3.5/5

39. Boomeroad (Deck) | Apr 12th - 1hr | 2/5

40. Nottolot (Deck) | Apr 12th - 1hr | 2/5

41. The Cat Lady (Deck) | Apr 17th - 5hrs | 4/5

This one's going to stay with me for a very long time, I think. Some of the best depiction of depression I've ever seen in a game. The game kinda suffers on the gameplay side as some of the puzzles are…a little out there but man is the storytelling super effective. Can't wait to check out this guy's other games out.

42. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition (PS5) | Apr 17th - 80hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4.5/5

Still an absolutely quintessential JRPG experience and all of the QoL improvements make the game even better (I can't believe the orchestrated soundtrack wasn't in the original, Sugiyama was a clown). The game still has glaring issues like bland dungeon design among other things but man, what an adventure. I really miss the non-gimped visuals but this is still a fantastic way to experience the game.

43. Raji: An Ancient Epic - Enhanced Edition (PS5) | Apr 18th - 3hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3/5

I feel the same exact way about this as I did back in 2020. Great setting but mind-numbingly medicore gameplay.

44. Dead Cells (PS5) | Apr 22nd - 15hrs [100%] | 3.5/5

Roguelites and likes are the spawn of satan himself, so when a game in this cursed genre introduces options that help get rid of the stench of it, I always end up giving it a shot. I end up regretting a lot of the time, but Dead Cells is one of the few exceptions. the gameplay's fun, the visuals are great, the music is fantastic and the loop is very satisfying. The assist options still fail at getting rid of some of the hallmarks of the genre, but they were good enough for me to find this an ultimately enjoyable experience.

45. Dead Cells: Rise of the Giant (PS5) | Apr 22nd - 2hrs | 2.5/5

The Giant is a fun boss fight and the new biomes are neat but locking the final boss behind 5BSC is not the move.

46. Dead Cells: The Bad Seed (PS5) | Apr 22nd - 2hrs | 3/5

It's fine, not really much else to say. The biomes are good and the boss battle is okay. It's inoffensive.

47. Dead Cells: Fatal Falls (PS5) | Apr 23rd - 2hrs | 3/5

Much like The Bad Seed, it's inoffensive.

48. Dead Cells: The Queen of the Sea (PS5) | Apr 23rd - 2hrs | 3.5/5

The best DLC so far! The new biomes are great and The Lighthouse was exhilarating.

49. Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania (PS5) | Apr 23rd - 2hrs | 4/5

Alright, this was pretty cool. So cool to the point where I kinda can't believe Konami okay'd it. Glad they saved the best for last.

50. Downfall (Deck) | Apr 23rd - 5hrs | 3.5/5

Nowhere near as good as The Cat Lady but still pretty engrossing in its own right. I did come out of the game pretty confused though, so I don't think the story was told as effectively as it should've been. The vibes are immaculate and carry the game pretty far though, so it's tough to dislike.

51. Tales of Kenzera: Zau (PS5) | Apr 26th - 10hrs [100%] | 3.5/5

A servicable metroidvania, though calling it a metroidvania might be a little bit of a stretch given the linearity of it for the most part. "Action platformer with metroidvania elements" might be more accurate. It's pretty, controls well, and has a decent story. the fast travel points are too few and far between though and the game had a pretty aggravating glitch where the character wouldn't move for a split second after closing the map (on PS5 at least, not sure if this is present in other versions of the game).

52. Lorelai (Deck) | Apr 28th - 4hrs | 3/5

Easily the weakest of the "Devil Came Through Here" trilogy. Doesn't have the strong central narrative of The Cat Lady nor the vibes of both TCL and Downfall, which means you're just left with weird stuff and creepy visuals. It's enjoyable enough and the puzzles are a lot better this time around, but it's a disappointing trilogy capper.

53. Kneedle Knight (Deck) | Apr 29th - 1hr | 2/5

Wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It's really charming but this feels like more of a proof of concept than anything else. There are worse ways to spend an hour, I suppose.

May

54. Speed Dating for Ghosts (Deck) | May 1st - 1hr | 3/5

Even cuter than I was anticipating! Kyo my beloved <3

55. Dave the Diver (PS5) | May 3rd - 20hrs [100%] | 4/5

I thought people were exaggerating when they said this was "the everything game" but it's actually true, you do do a lot in this.

It's extremely addicting, effortlessly funny, insanely charming and just overall a really good time. It does really fall off when you get to the final big area of the game but it's not enough to drag the entire experience down. I'll be keeping my eyes on mintrocket.

56. Deliver Us the Moon (PS5) | May 4th - 4hrs [100%] | 3/5

Very badly wanted to like this more than I did. I love stories set in space (The Habitat is one of my favorite podcasts ever) , it's the perfect setting to dissect characters in, but Deliver us the Moon sadly doesn't do anything with it. The gameplay's alright (the platforming is serviceable at best but the puzzles are mostly neat), but the story falls really short. There's nothing bad about it per se, it's just painfully predictable. Same thing, unfortunately, goes for the characters. I'm hoping Deliver Us Mars...delivers (ayyy) on that front.

57. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - The Legend of Dead Kel (PS5) | May 7th - 4hrs [100%] | 3/5

58. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - Teeth of Naros (PS5) | May 7th - 4hrs [100%] | 3/5

59. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning (PS5) | May 7th - 60hrs [100%] | 3.5/5

DO NOT ORDER DRAGON AGE FROM SHEIN!!

In all seriousness, this was one of those "comfort food" games for me. Aside from the surprisingly robust combat system, nothing in Amalur really stands out all that much. The characters are bland, the story gets worse as it goes on, the game looks and feels like an MMO, complete with all of the hallmarks of the genre like braindead quest design, and yet...I can't really say I wasn't having fun playing it. It's more than the sum of its parts and really scratched an itch for me that hadn't been scratched in a while, and that's all I needed from it.

60. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - Fatesworn (PS5) | May 7th - 10hrs [100%] | 2.5/5

DO NOT ORDER THE WITCHER 3: BLOOD AND WINE FROM SHEIN!!

This was disappointing to say the least. The idea of a game getting an expansion almost a decade after its release is pretty exciting, but they fumbled it badly. The new areas are absolutely gorgeous but the story is so laughably bad that it's almost entertaining, the chaos system is annoying and both the dungeon and quest design is somehow even worse than the base game. It's still Amalur which means it's still fun to play at the end of the day but man, what a missed opportunity.

Wozzer · Jan 1, 2024

Grabbing my own :D!

Bosh · Jan 1, 2024

Main thread

6/6 so far!

2018: 64 Games \| Part 1 \| Part 2	2019: 65 Games \| Thread
2020: 104 Games \| Thread	2021: 87 Games \| Thread
2022: 78 Games \| Thread	2023: 59 Games \| Thread

COMPLETED [24]

hydruxo · Jan 1, 2024

Completed Games: 01 / 52

Blue = Loved / Favorite
Purple = Liked
Orange = Decent
Red = Didn't like

Sea of Stars - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 9/10 | Date finished: January 15th

I started playing Sea of Stars when it came out last year but ended up getting sidetracked by other games and work in general, but I finally got back around to it over the last week or so. This game is such a joy to playthrough if you're a fan of Chrono Trigger and old JRPGs. The writing won't win any awards, but just about everything else about this game is so impressive. The presentation and art is incredible from start to finish. They do a lot of creative things with the levels and it makes the game feel fresh throughout your journey. There are a wide variety of environments that really do a great job of making this world feel unique and lived in. There are tons of memorable side characters who make a lasting impact on the story no matter how large or small their roles are. Combat is also a great time with the timing based attacks and lock system. It never gets particularly complex but there's enough there to make you put some thought into battle strategy, especially with bosses. Although I mentioned the writing isn't all that great, I do think there's a wholesome and endearing way that characters and their dynamics with each other are presented in this game that I really appreciate. Garl is a very likeable character and is easily the heart of the party. I really enjoyed my time with this game and I think Sabotage Studio's passion for the genre and the games that came before is very evident while playing Sea of Stars. It's a really impressive experience and I'm looking forward to the DLC. Would love to see a sequel one day too.

Tambini · Jan 1, 2024

#1 Rollerdrome - Xbox - 5 hours - 7.5
Fun and intense to play, the high difficulty is a bit at odds with the trick system, I found it difficult to concentrate on scoring high when surviving is pretty tough on its own but it was a good challenge

#2 God of War Ragnarok + Valhalla - PS4 - 50 hours - 8.0
Enjoyed the story stuff a lot, production levels are off the charts and the new characters were all interesting. Gameplay I enjoyed overall although some parts felt like going through the motions, very similar to the previous game. I was already sick of the axe throwing and bush burning puzzles in 2018.
As an old school GOW enjoyer, I liked the Valhalla DLC a lot, brought up the package as a whole for me, although I would have paid for a longer experience

#3 Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - PC - 20 hours - 8.0
This was a nice surprise as a game I knew very little about. I liked how each level introduced new mechanics, it was decently challenging with good level design and all the different characters have unique and useful abilities. camera and controls could be a little finnicky

#4 Shadow Tactics: Aiko's Choice - PC - 5:30 hours - 8.0
Standalone expansion that doesn't really add anything new but remains a good time

#5 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 - PS2 - 10 hours - 8.0
This was the first THPS game to go more open, and it's a change I can get onboard for after 3 games, even if I prefer the older style. Gameplay remains addictive as ever, some of the challenges in this game are ball achingly difficult though

#6 Hogwarts Legacy - Xbox - 42 hours - 8.0

#7 Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Switch - 18 hours - 8.5
Definitley one of the best metroidvanias I've played in years, feels great to play, combat is slick and the boss fights are a highlight. There's some really challenging platforming sections, but never felt unfair or unfun

#8 En Garde! - PC - 3:30 hours - 8.0
Very fun to play, cute dialogue, great interactivity with the enviroment, kicking dudes down stairs, throwing buckets on their heads, dropping chandiliers on them, it's all very satisfyting. Parrying is quite forgiving but the game does get quite hard in the last level. Very short but was good for a one-sitter.

#9 Humanity - PC - 14 hours - 8.0
Presentation is outstanding, some amazing visual moments, and there's some really great puzzle design in here too.
Campaign has a lot of diversity to the puzzles, gets a little trial and error later on and moves away from the puzzle design i liked so much in the earlier levels but had a good time and it left a lasting impression on me

#10 Tomb Raider Remastered - PC - 9 hours - 7.5
The platforming and level design hold up really well, and with the updated visuals, some nice atmosphere too. The combat doesn't hold up nearly as well, it's pretty painful. I was quick saving and loading a lot but overall having a good time doing it

Whimsicalish · Jan 1, 2024

2020: 71 games
2021: 63 games
2022: 63 games
2023: 52 games
2024: 37

Review: 01 | It Takes Two | PS5 | Jan 01 | 12 h | 4.5/5
Review: 02 | The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories | PS5 | Jan 01 | 9 h | 4/5
Review: 03 | OMNO | PS5 | Jan 01 | 4 h | 4/5
Review: 04 | Jett: The Far Shore | PS5 | Jan 07 | 11 h | 2/5
Review: 05 | Jett: Given Time | PS5 | Jan 13 | 10 h | 2/5
Review: 06 | Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines | PC | Jan 13 | 7.8 h | 5/5
07 | Sticky Business | PC | Jan 14 | 18 h | 4/5
08 | Glass Masquerade: Halloween + Christmas DLC | PC | Jan 14 | 1 h | 3/5
09 | Glass Masquerade: Heritages DLC | PC | Jan 18 | 2.5 h | 3/5
10 | Glass Masquerade: Inceptions DLC | PC | Jan 18 | 1.8 h | 3/5
Review:11 | A Way Out | PS4 | Feb 01 | 6 h | 3/5
12 | I Am Setsuna | PS4 | Feb 03 | 33 h | 3/5
13 | Hidden Through Time | PC | Feb 03 | 8 h | 3.5/5
Review:14 | Sticky Business: Plan With Me | PC | Feb 03 | 3.9 h | 3.5/5
15 | Later Daters | PC | Feb 05 | 3.5 h | 2.5/5
16 | Lost Words: Beyond the Page | PS4 | Feb 05 | 5 h | 3/5
17 | Tacoma | PS Streaming | Feb 10 | 2 h | 4/5
18 | Final Fantasy VII | PC | Feb 12 | 31 h | 3/5
19 | Growing Up | PC | Feb 22 | 24 h | 3/5
20 | Bunny Park | PC | Feb 23 | 5.4 h | 2.5/5
21 | Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines: Wings & Tunes | PC | Feb 23 | 1.35 h | 5/5
22 | Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion | PC | Feb 25 | 18 h | 2/5
Review: 23 | Haven | PS5 | Mar 02 | 15 h | 4/5
24 | Ghost Files: The Face of Guilt | PC | Mar 03 | 3.2 h | 2/5
25 | Palworld | PC | Mar 07 | 42 h | 3/5
26 | Dogs Organized Neatly | PC | Mar 19 | 8.9 h | 4.5/5
27 | Chicken Police: Paint It Red | PS4 | Mar 24 | 7 h | 4/5
28 | Colorzzle | PC | Mar 31 | 2 h | 3/5
Review: 29 | Islanders | PC | April 06 | 38.5 h | 4/5
30 | World of Warcraft: Plunderstorm | PC | April 21 | ~20 h | 2/5
31 | Last Stop | PS5 | April 27 | 5 h | 4/5
32 | Garden In! | PC | May 12 | 10 h | 3/5
33 | The Artful Escape | PS5 | May 12 | 4 h | 2.5/5
34 | Minit | PS4 | May 18 | 4 h | 4/5
35 | The Quiet Man | PC | May 26 | 3 h | 1/5
36 | Sea of Stars | PS5 | June 01 | 42 h | 3.5/5
37 | SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated | PS4 | June 06 | 13 h | 2/5

arvan59 · Jan 1, 2024

Was a couple of games away last time. This will be my year! Also keeping track on backloggd

1. Alan Wake's American Nightmare (PC) - 1/03 - 7/10
2. Frog Detective: The Haunted Island (PC) - 1/06 - 7/10
3. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (PS2) - 1/09 - 4/10
4. Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invincible Wizard (PC) 1/15 - 7/10
5. 007: Everything or Nothing (PS2) 1/16 - 6/10
6. Sanrio World Smash Ball! (Super Famicom) 1/21 - 7/10
7. Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (Famicom) 1/22 - 8/10
8. Go Mecha Ball (PC) 1/26 - 7/10
9. Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County (PC) 1/28 - 8/10
10. Control: Ultimate Editon (PC) 2/09 - 10/10
11. Luck Be A Landlord (PC) 2/18 - 7/10
12. Balatro (PC) 2/23 - 9/10
13. Super Mario Wonder (Switch) 2/23 - 8/10
14. The Punisher (Arcade) 3/14 - 7/10
15. WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames (GBA) 3/14 - 8/10
16. WWF Betrayal (GBC) 3/16 - 5/10

JustTom · Jan 1, 2024

Happy new year to everyone and good luck trying to beat challenge! Last year was my last time participating and beating the challenge, so I am just here to cheer for everyone:)

chrominance · Jan 1, 2024

Welcome to 2024! Please for the love of god be a better year than 2023.

Not going to kill myself to achieve any specific goals, but here's what I'd like to do in rough order of priority: play at least one of the big marathon-length games I've had in my backlog (Persona 5 Royal? Xenoblade DE? Looking at one of you!); play at least one of the purchases I made last year when the 3DS/Wii U eshops were shutting down; play one of the Japanese imports I bought last year; maaaaaybe finish 52 games but honestly I'll be happy if I just beat last year's total of 21.

PREVIOUS YEARS
2023: 21 games (full post, wrap-up)
2022: 52 games (full post, wrap-up)
2021: 52 games (full post, wrap-up)
2020: 52 games (full post, wrap-up)
2019: 27 games (full post, wrap-up)
2018: 9 games (full post)
2017: 52 games (full list, wrap-up)
2016: 56 games
2015: 59 games
2014: 63 games

COMPLETED GAMES
1. Grand Theft Auto Online: Los Santos Drug Wars (PC, 2022) - 1:18 + 14:41 in 2023 - January 1

As my introduction to the world of GTA Online, Drug Wars was pretty good; mostly fun missions, and surprisingly characters I don't hate. It's too bad about the Online trappings but if this is the price we pay for GTA V expansions I guess it could be worse. (full post)

2. Doom (PC, 1993) - 5:27 + 1:10 in 2023 - January 4

As someone who was actually playing video games when Doom first came out, it's taken me way too long to finally experience this classic in full. (full post)

3. Grand Theft Auto Online: The Criminal Enterprises (PC, 2022) - 7:59 - January 10

This series of missions wasn't created that much earlier than Drug Wars, but it feels less substantial than the Freakshop and its drug-addled inhabitants. (full post)

4. Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator (PC, 2024) - 29:39 - February 8

An Atelier gacha game can definitely be a lot worse than this, but I'll be glad to return to a traditional entry in the franchise in the future. (full post)

5. Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage (Android, 2021) - 22:21 (continuing from 2022/2023) - February 9

Another year, another treadmill. Colorful Stage continues to be one of the best rhythm games I've ever played. (full post)

6. Star Trek: Borg (PC, 1996/Web, 2023) - 1:50 - February 18

One of the Star Trek games that's sadly lost to time as abandonware, but revived as a web game by some enterprising fans. I can see why it got middling reviews back in the day, but as an interactive two-part episode of The Next Generation (but not really) it's not bad. (full post)

7. Sixty Four (PC, 2024) - 33:40 - March 9

Boy do I love me a good incremental game. Sixty Four isn't exactly an idle game--you can't fully automate stuff for a very long time--but it does nevertheless scratch the itch that many good incrementals do: you start with something small and concrete, and eventually end up somewhere completely unfathomable. (full post)

8. Minami Lane (PC, 2024) - 2:59 - March 12

For the price of a cup of coffee or two, you get a bite-sized bundle of gaming joy. I'd love to see a more elaborate version of this kind of game, but there's also a beauty in how perfectly sized it feels. (full post)

9. The Planet Crafter (PC, 2024) - 51:28 - April 30

A diamond in the rough. Definitely not a game for everyone; some might find the survival crafting loop too barebones or tedious, especially at the start of the game, or the terraforming aspect underbaked. But there's enough here to make for a compelling experience, at least for me. (full post)

10. Little Kitty, Big City (PC, 2024) - 3:43 - May 14

Just an extremely lovely game about being a cat. If you wanted something more playful and less post-apocalyptic than Stray, this is your port of call. (full post)

11. Luck Be a Landlord (PC, 2023) - 10:43 - May 22

A fun game about recruiting Lady Luck to bring down your landlord and, in the process, destroy rent-seeking capitalism. Well, not really, but it's a cool slot machine roguelike nonetheless. When you hit upon a winning strategy, you feel like a million bucks; when you don't, eh, resets are quick and painless. (full post)

PLAYED RECENTLY
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PC, 2024) - 24:21
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PC, 2023) - 4:46
Abiotic Factor (PC Early Access, 2024) - 7:17
Endless Ocean Luminous (Switch, 2024) - 4:04

PURGATORY
Dreamscaper (PC, 2021) - 0:26
Alan Wake 2 (PC, 2023) - 3:54 + 3:42 in 2023
Doom II (PC, 1994) - 1:44
Thronefall (PC Early Access, 2023) - 0:11
Palworld (PC Early Access, 2024) - 64:13
Rain on Your Parade (PC, 2021) - 0:15
NieR Reincarnation (Android, 2021) - 1:56
Final Fantasy VII (PC, 1998) - 26:51
Balatro (PC, 2024) - 3:01
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5, 2024) - 1:56
inbento (PC, 2019) - 1:58

Grand Theft Auto Online: Los Santos Drug Wars

Grand Theft Auto Online: The Criminal Enterprises

Duxxy3 · Jan 1, 2024

2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018

01 : Gears of War Judgement - XSX - 1/1/24
I've lead off so many years with this game and I won't stop this year. Out of all the Gears games it is the one that feels the best when you're really in the shit. I also think that it has the most randomized encounters in the series, so that makes it much less repetitive than the other titles.
I'm still hopeful that we'll see some Gears announcement this year, but I've been saying that for years now.

02 : Cyberpunk 2077 - PC - 1/2/24
So I started to play a new character in patch 2.1, but I just wasn't feeling it at all. The game had changed too much from what I liked. So I rolled back to the patch before 2.0 and played another Streetkid.
It felt like the Cyberpunk (at least the base game) that I knew and loved. No level scaling. Net running returned to OP. No gangs chasing me down every 5 minutes. I'm not sure if this is a one of run or not, who knows. But it was fun.
Aldecaldos ending of course. Fairly straight path to it, other than grinding a bit for the Rippler. The Star ending theme is wonderful. Such a good fit.
Anyhow, I played this on my fantastic Christmas present - a pair of Harmonicdyne Zeus Elites.

03 : Dead Space Remake - PC - 1/7/24
Bought this for Steam. I have it on Origin, but I like the convenience of Steam for my favorite titles.
I know it's not the best optimized game out there. And there were some rather funny cutscenes where not everything loaded (included one of the enemies). But it's still a great game.
The game does run a lot better from year to year. I remember I was on my Ryzen 5600/RTX 3070 build a year ago and I had to turn on FSR ultra performance just to get through the final boss. But at least those issues have been wiped out. There's still the traversal stutter of course. But when you like a game as much as I do with this game, you can get over it. I shouldn't have to though.
My completion time was nearly identical from my last NG+ playthrough. I think it was within 10 or 15 minutes over the seven and a half hours it took to finish the game.
Not sure I'll keep those Zeus Elites after all. But I'm also not sure what headphones I'd even want next. I've run out of full size open backs to try out.

04 : Gears 5 - XSX - 1/13/24
I really cut down on how many times I play through this. Every year without a new Gears title it gets a little harder to get excited about the series.
Decided to go with the series X version because the PC version was taking too long to install and I wasn't patient enough to wait (yes, that's the actual reason).
I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a new monitor, but the game looked great. Colors looked better.
I played half the game with my Zeus Elites (that I did return) and then with my Orchestra Lite IEMs. Both worked well, but the mixing in the game isn't absolutely perfect. The flock sound effect seems to come from everywhere, and occasionally effects aren't in the correct position.
I got two new achievements! Two achievements doesn't sound like much, but it is when you've played a game for 200 hours and have seen basically everything.

05 : Resident Evil 7 - PC - 1/14/24
It's been quite a while since i went through this.
I can still see why this was the game that revived Resident Evil after the mess that was RE6. And as we get closer and closer to RE5's remake, I hope that Capcom remembers what happened with the series when it went too action happy. To remember the game that brought Resident Evil from the brink.

06 : The Last of Us Part 1 - PC - 1/23/24
So the same day that TLOU2 Remastered comes out, my wife buys me a 7800x3d as an upgrade for my PC. The next day it's in and installed, so I had to see if the new CPU helped out this rough, rough, port of a game.
Yes it did. Even the final combat sequence of the game was perfectly smooth, much to my own surprise. So apparently the fix for this game is to buy a $400 CPU and a $600 GPU (along with the hundreds of dollars in other parts). It plays great on this system, as it should.
I've noticed that I use my Kiwi Ears during hectic sections of games, and they have not let me down a bit. Pin point beyond what I'd expect from an IEM.

07 : The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered - PS5 - 1/31/24
Easy question out of the way - was the campaign worth the upgrade cost? For just the campaign? No. The campaign doesn't look much better in the remaster. In fact I'm pretty sure one of the later stages runs worse on the remastered version. But it was nice to have shorter loading times, and a slightly more consistent look.
This is now my 17th time through the game, and once in a very long while I'll find something new, or experience an encounter in a different way. The game is still very fun for me. It still has the best audio in any game as of early 2024.

08 : Dead Space 2 - PC - 2/6/24
So after playing Dead Space remake a whole bunch of times, I wanted to know how well Dead Space 2 holds up in comparison. Well it's good and bad. Graphically it doesn't look as good as it once does. Sound design is still good. But the PC version isn't great with a controller, and with a mouse a modification is required. But it's still Dead Space 2, and it's still a great game.

09 : Control - PS5 - 2/8/24
This was the only version of Control that I had not finished. Control for Epic. Check. Control for Steam. Check. Control for Xbox. Check. And now the check for Control on Playstation.
Compared to Alan Wake 2 the story isn't as good. Still a good story though. But where Control is at its brightest is as a bad-ass shooter with superhero abilities. Throwing things (and people) just never gets old. I skipped over the ground pound ability again, but it was so tempting this time around.
The game also has fantastic audio. Not just positional accuracy, but a great atmosphere, sound effects, the score and of course... that one music track.

10 : Portal 2 - PC - 2/12/24
I wasn't sure I'd ever play through this game again. I played through it just once, at launch. Immediately I put it as my #1 game of all time. Not necessarily my favorite, but the best game that I had ever played. Nothing has bumped it out of that spot.
So has my first replay changed my mind? Diminished my opinion? Nope. It's the best game that I have ever played. A 10 out of 10.

11 : Call of Duty Vanguard - PC - 2/15/24
The newest COD that I actually enjoyed. When Call of Duty is done right, even the not great ones are still fun to play. This one isn't great, but it's still a lot of fun.

12 : Bioshock Infinite - PC - 2/17/24
It has been a bit since I played through this one. I still really enjoy this game, nearly 11 years later. The game has aged well, primarily because of the art style. The 360 and PS3 versions don't look as good, but that's the downside of fixed hardware.
There's more and more good news about Bioshock and the makers of Bioshock. Bioshock 4 is in production, and Kev Levine showed of JUDAS. That one looks incredible. It reminds me so much of the Bioshock games. I am very excited to see what happens with these two games.

13 : Gears of War 4 - XSX - 2/23/24
This one has strangely aged well. I think it's because a more linear game than Gears 5. Still annoying having to fight robots, but the encounters themselves are good. Game still looks and sounds good.

14 : Grand Theft Auto V - PC - 3/5/24
Haven't been able to get into much lately, aside from WoW. Couldn't get into new games or even Black Ops, but GTAV grabbed me a bit. Some part of that is probably all the GTAVI news we're getting now. I have a feeling it'll be a good game, but I'm not sure the series hits the heights of GTAV again.
The game is still a ton of fun. Everyone complains about the controls, but I think they're good enough considering all that you can do in the game.
Sound and music are great as always, nothing new there. I'm not sure if they update the soundtrack over time, or what.
The NPC player models are definitely starting to show their age. The world still looks great. Vehicles and weapons look great. But the NPCs that get camera time are looking worse by the year.

15 : Call of Duty Black Ops - PC - 3/6/24
Still one of the better COD campaigns, thirteen plus years later. Gary Oldman as Reznov is just so damn fun to listen to.

16 : World of Warcraft Dragonflight - PC - 3/7/24
Level 70 Mage.
At one point in time I had zero max level cloth characters. Now I have two, with the priest coming along at some point. This was my first from scratch character that I created since... I'm not sure if it was Shadowlands or BFA. Either way it has been years since I took a character from 1 to max level. It went a lot better than I expected. Super squishy, but frost is a good spec to level in. Damage might not have always been great, but the snares and slows helped a lot.

17 : Resident Evil 2 Remake - PC - 3/8/24
Leon A route.
Took a day off from work and wanted something fun to play through. RE2 remake is always a good pick.

18 : Call of Duty WWII - PS5 - 3/13/24
Surprisingly, this game has actually aged pretty well. The cutscenes are top notch even by todays standards. The story is pretty decent and the action itself is a relatively standard COD experience (minus the optional squad commands).

19 : Gears of War 3 - XSX - 3/17/24
It's not a PC version, or a remaster, but man does this 360 game look good on series X.
On the headphone front, I got two headphones recently. A Thieaudio Hype 4 and Sennheiser HD 490 Pro. I ended up not keeping the Hype 4. I couldn't get the fit right, and my Orchestra Lite seemed a little better for gaming. So far the 490s are pretty good. They're a better 560s. The good materials are better, comfort is improved and the sound is more full. It's a higher quality 560s, which I considered to be one of the (if not the) best headphones for gaming. We'll see if those first impressions hold in the long term.

20 : Resident Evil 3 Remake - PC - 3/18/24
So I'm 20 games into this year and have yet to finish a new game. There really has no been much that I've been interested in buying since Alan Wake 2 back in October of last year. I'm sure there's good games out there, but nothing that really falls in the genres I enjoy.
Just a quick romp through Racoon City. So far the HD 490s are holding up great. I haven't really compared them directly to other headphones, but for gaming they are way up near the top. RE3 remake is a great test for headphones.
The RE engine is a funny thing. Most of the time the games look amazing, but if you catch it in the wrong light... doesn't look so great.

21 : COD Modern Warfare 2 Remaster - PC - 3/19/24
Who cares about new games when you got awesome remasters like this? It's been years since I played this many COD titles in a short period.
I love this campaign. Damn near perfect length and pacing.

22 : The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - PS5 - 3/23/24
It's just a single chest run, but even still... getting there is pretty damn hard. Can't remember the last time I ran through the game. Probably back on my original PS4.

23 : Half Life 2 - PC - 4/3/24
I'm having a hard time find new games to play lately. Even with this one I stretched it over a week.
I'm pretty happy that old-ass Duxxy can still find his way through a game that doesn't always give the clearest direction. I felt like Gandalf in Moria on more than a few occasions. Places felt familiar, but I wasn't 100% certain where to go each time.
Graphically the game doesn't hold up so well, at least when up close. But honestly it's good enough. If more FPS campaigns suddenly came out with this level of fidelity, I'd gobble them up. What's more important in an FPS is the shooting and audio, and Half Life 2 gets those mostly right. Shooting is still has fun as it ever was, but I would dread trying to play this with a controller. Audio effects are good, but audio position can be difficult to pinpoint. Even with top of the line headphones.
I'm thinking about checking out the Halo series again. It's been a while too.

24: Halo Combat Evolved MCC - XSX - 4/7/24
This game has not aged well. From a technical perspective and absolutely not from a gameplay perspective.

25: Vanquish - PC - 4/12/24
This still has some of the best gunplay in any third person shooters. Great game.

26: Dead Space Remake - PC - 4/18/24
EA/Motive announced that the Dead Space series is back on the shelf. Which really, really, sucks for me. I was hoping that Motive was already starting to work on Dead Space 2 remake. It doesn't need the remake as much as Dead Space 1, but it would have been nice anyhow.
I really do enjoy replaying this game. Maybe I'll do my long awaited Plasma Cutter-only run next time around. This run was just a way to remind me how good the game is.
On the headphones front, I did return the HD 490s. Great headphones, but the foam that covers the driver isn't very deep and it touches my ear. That's with less than a month of use. With a year or two, those headphones would have been on-ear headphones. So that's unfortunate. Probably back to the HD660s and Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite (I played most of the game the Kiwi).

27: Gears of War Judgement - XSX - 4/18/24
Maybe if I keep replaying these games it will guilt Xbox into announcing something Gears related? Maybe? Well probably not, but the games are at least a lot of fun to play through.

28: Metal Slug - PC - 4/26/24
Completed on my... Steamdeck.
Bit of a pain in the butt to get it working, but once it was working it was great. The DPAD worked very well in the game.

29: Metal Slug X - PC - 4/27/24
Another Steamdeck game!

30: Metal Slug 3 - PC - 4/27/24
I love these games. Basically an annual tradition at this point.

31: Resident Evil 2 - PC - 5/4/24
Claire Route B. It's crazy how well this plays on Steam Deck. Runs well at 60fps. Looks good on screen. Aim actually felt better with the Steamdecks analog sticks. Sound with speakers was good, sound with IEMs was fantastic straight out of the headphone jack.

32: The Last us Part 1 Left Behind - PC - 5/11/24
I haven't played Left Behind on PC til now. I didn't run into performance issues like I did with the base game around this time last year. Everything was smooth. The enhancements to Riley's character model just makes things even more heart breaking :(

33: Hellblade 2 - PC - 5/23/24
I've been waiting roughly 7 years for this game. While everyone is talking about what the game is not, I care more about what the game really is. It is an astonishingly gorgeous game, with some of the best audio for a headphone wearer (HD660s). The story, the adventure, the world... all so well done. This is my first Microsoft GOTY candidate since Forza Horizon 5. Probably their best non-racing game since... Gears of War 3.

34: Hellblade - PC - 5/25/24
So, how does it compare to the second game? The easiest comparison is that Hellblade 1 is more of a game than Hellblade 2. Graphically of course there's no comparison. On the sound side they're both excellent. Both have interesting stories, but I prefer the first games story. Combat isn't as one sided as I expected. Hellblade 2 doesn't have a lot of combat, but what is there is good. Hellblade has a lot more combat, and the biggest positive there is that it improves the pacing.
Puzzles are not as cool looking in the first game as compared to the second, but they're slightly more head scratching.
They're both excellent games in my book. If I had to to rank them, I'd put Hellblade 1 on top.

35: Cyberpunk 2077 - PC - 6/12/24
Have been holding off on new games, just in case Microsoft decided to shadow drop a Gear collection.
So I've been playing this the past week or two. I finally decided to go for a throwing weapon build. Something that doesn't work in the legacy version of the game, but works very well with the retail. I used hacking and tech for support, but most of my time I spent throwing knives at peoples heads.

36: Alan Wake 2 Night Springs DLC - PC - 6/13/24
Just a few quick episodes, but I love new Alan Wake content. I think my favorite episode was the first one, the Rose episode. Felt like a combination of Alan Wake and a zombie game, with a very unstable main character.
Got new headphones recently - Simgot Supermix 4. So far they seem great for gaming. Maybe even better than the Kiwi Ears.

Dreamyard · Jan 1, 2024

Finished:

Currently Playing:

1. Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition
2. Mega Man Battle Network

Saw the 2023 thread and really liked this idea, so I'm applying for 2024. 52 games would be amazing to accomplish, but even if it's half of that, I would be happy!

Arshes · Jan 1, 2024

Past Years: 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (NSW) | January 3rd - 12 Hours | 4/5
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (NSW) | January 4th - 12 Hours | 4/5
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) | January 7th - 20 Hours | 5/5
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (PS5) | January 15th - 40 Hours | 5/5
Final Fantasy VII Remake - Episode Intermission (PS5) | January 16th - 7 Hours, 30 Minutes | 4/5
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS) | January 23rd - 27 Hours | 5/5
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (NSW) | January 25th - 20 Hours | 4/5
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (NSW) | January 27th - 21 Hours | 4/5
Captain Toad : Treasure Tracker (NSW) | January 30th - 12 Hours | 4/5
Silent HIll: The Short Message (PS5) | February 1st - 2 Hours | 3/5
Persona 3 Reload (PS5) | February 16th - 107 Hours, 40 Minutes | 5/5
20 Small Mazes (PC) | February 17th - 1 Hour | 3.5/5
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - HD Remaster (PS4)| February 27th - 80 Hours | 4/5
FInal Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) | March 21st - 150 Hours | 5/5
Devil May Cry (PS4) | March 28th - 6 Hours, 52 Minutes | 4/5
Onimusha: Warlords (NSW) | March 29th - 4 Hours | 4/5
Elechead (NSW) | April 23rd - 3 Hours, 23 Minutes | 4/5
Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition (PS4) | April 27th - 38 Hours, 6 Minutes | 4.5/5
Princess Peach: Showtime (NSW) | April 28th - 8 Hours | 3.5/5
Final Fantasy XVI - Expansion Pass (PS5) | May 1st - 12 Hours | 4/5
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (PS4) | May 14th - 18 Hours | 4/5
Assassin's Creed 2 (PS4) | May 20th - 40 Hours | 4/5
Doom 1993 (PS4) | May 24th - 6 Hours | 4/5
Doom II (PS4) | May 26th - 5 Hours | 4/5
Astro's Playroom (PS5) | June 4th - 4 Hours | 4/5
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Patch Series | June 7th - 40 Hours | 4/5

AvianAviator · Jan 1, 2024

Tarnished · Jan 1, 2024

Date I finished - Game name (Platform)

03/Jan - Dark Sektor (Playstation 3)
A very bland TPS from this gen, I didn't like most of the game, but I was in a nostalgic moment (next entries will confirm) and enjoyed some of the combat and mechanics. Dumb plot. 2/5

12/Jan - Folklore (Playstation 3)
This one is a very very old backlog. Had this game in my collection for more than 10 years but only in 2024 finished it. It's a fun and trippy experience, I love this experimental PS3 era and the sixaxis mechanics are somewhat fun. The story and characters albeit not memorable, are well written. 3.5/5

18/Jan - Elden Ring (Playstation 5)
Not the first time beating the game, I started a new save when the Shadow of the Erdtree rumours started to surface. Did a speedrun of sorts and not 100%. I'll be using this save on the expansion. 4,5/5

23/Jan - Dead To Rights (Playstation 2)
I was in a mood of more dumb action TPS games since Dark Sektor and decided to play someting from this iconic franchise. Not a bad decision by any means, but this game aged like milk. Worth the experience tho. 2/5

25/Jan - Rule of Rose (Playstation 2)
Now with another HIDDEN GEM. I finally played this horror piece and yeah, the cult behind it's following is right. This is not the most visually scary game I ever played, but one of the most "scarring" in my recent memory. I keep searching and reading opinions about the game days after playing just to understand the experience. 4,5/5

16/Feb - Nier Replicant (Playstation 5)
I'm a huge fan of Nier but never played this "remake" because it's nothing but a remaster, but I liked to revisit this game after so many years. The extra content was worth and this game is a classic from the genre. 4/5

01/Mar - Moonscars (Playstation 5)
Neat indie "metroidvania". From the beginning you can sense the Blasphemous influence in it, but the game has a vibe and a gameplay style different from this source enough to be it's own kind. The variety of scenary and enemies could be better tho. In the end I was just playing for the gameplay and didn't care about the story. 3/5

05/Mar - Soulstice ( Playstation 5)
This is actually a PS2 action game made in today stardards, lol. I felt like I was playing a generic seinen manga, like, of course, the game don't hide it's influences from Berserk and Claymore, but had a great time with the variety of missions and the gaming not being a lazy "arena hack 'n' slash", you actually fights in narrow spaces, often part of the scenery you need to do puzzles and platforming. 3/5

15/Mar - Control (Playstation 5)
This was a inverse experience from the last entry. Really enjoyed the story and aesthetics, Remedy is one of the goat on these aspects, but felt a little bored when it comes to actual gameplay. Played the Ultimate Edition, but I was so sick of the shooting part of the game that I didn't finished the expansions. 3,5/5

19/Mar - Onimusha: Warlords (Playstation 5)
This is one of my fav games ever and it's a classic. While I'm glad that it had a remaster on the PS4, I'm disappointed by this botched port. It's nice to play it on modern platforms but the constant stutter and audio glitches turned me off bit. 4/5

19/Apr - Judgment (Playstation 5)
I am somewhat burned out from the Yakuza franchise. Not that I don't find every single game at least "very good", but I just can't keep up with the tons of content and story form every entry anymore. Like, I never played anything realized after 0. But tried Jud and man, what a journey. I like crime investigation settings and watched Psycho-Pass recently, so I was pumped by the story about a Kamurocho detective. The fresh start story, the enjoyable characters and a nostalgic feel like I was playing something from this franchise for the first time made it to be my favorite game of the year until now and I'm thrilled to play other games now. 5/5

And that's it for 2024 so far. I'll try to update my post more often. Sorry If I made some grammar mistake, english is not my first language.

If anyone cares, I'm listing my games here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/WesternYokai/
And I talk about them here: https://twitter.com/WesternYokai666

sabertoothzombie · Jan 1, 2024

First Post

January
1. Lake: Season's Greetings (PC) - 3.3 hours - January 6th - 3/5
Pretty much more Lake, but from this time from the perspective of the mc's dad. It's not bad, still pretty chill, but the story is alot less interesting than the first.

2. Hoa (PC) - 2.2 hours - January 13th - 3/5
Absolutely beautiful when it comes to the artstyle, looks kinda like a Ghibli movie. The gameplay and puzzles are very very simple and not challenging at all. Would've liked it more if Steam Deck performance didn't shit the bed at the end.

3. Jusant (PC) - 6.1 hours - January 20th - 4/5
I had heard alot of good things about Jusant before playing it, but I kept pushing it off because I wasn't sure if I'd like the gameplay (manually climbing). Immediately upon starting the game I fell for the world I was traversing. It was so interesting to figure out what had happened to this place and its people. I had a little difficulty with the climbing at times, but overall I thought it was a really good game and would have been in my top ten last year if I had played it sooner.

February
4. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PC) - 53.3 hours - February 4th - 5/5
I'm giving this a perfect score because it's an amazing game that everyone should play, even with its flaws. I love the Yakuza series and Ichiban has been a great protagonist to take over the mantle. I was hoping we'd see some improvements/refinements in the gameplay versus the last game while keeping an incredible story. It most achieved that. I say mostly because while I think the gameplay is better than LAD, I'm not sure if the story really is. I don't think it has any real lows, but I don't think it has higher highs than LAD. Also, Hawaii was a great location, I might like it more than Yokohama, but the island mini game was probably my least favorite side game of the series.

5. Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara (PC) - 4.4 hours - February 11th - 3/5
A decent and short platformer that has a charming style to it. I'm not a fan of losing a double jump, but it didn't feel bad to controller.

6. Skator Gator 3D (PC) - 42 minutes - February 14th - 3/5
Definitely not what I thought it'd be. I thought it'd mostly be an on-rails (literally) platformer, but there's a large chunk where you're just doing normal on the ground platforming. I didn't really care to find all the collectables or get the best times

7. Planet of Lana (PC) - 4.4 hours - February 17th - 3/5
Visually striking, but very shallow puzzles, which is kinda the whole point to the game.

8. Babbdi (PC) - 52 minutes - February 18th - 3/5
I don't know how to describe this one. Open world sandbox/get-the-hell-out-of-the-city game in a depressing environment that looks like it take brutalism to the extreme

March
9. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - 68.3 hours - March 11th - 5/5
I could write a really long review about how much I love this game, but even a month after finishing it, I'm still gathering my thoughts. It's a great game, almost every side quest introduces a new mini game of some kind that's not used anywhere else (like mushroom pulling). The visual, A+, the music, A+, the gameplay, A+. The story....ehhhhh. I really liked it, but it's hard to argue that it was focused and didn't just feel like a bunch of random non-connected events that had nothing to do with the story of the first game until the very end. But you get to ride a chocobo as Red sooooo......GOTY?

10. Cavern of Dreams (PC) - 5.9 hours - March 16th - 3/5
A platformer that tries to invoke the N64 feelings of old. I t does a decent job at it, though that's not always a positive. Some of the puzzle solutions are a bit obtuse and some of the controls aren't the best/most comfortable (double jump by headbutting a wall)

11. Loddlenaut (PC) - 3.7 hours - March 16th - 4/5
A chill experience where you go around an ocean cleaning up a mess. You have to manage your oxygen and resources in your backpack. There's upgrades and new tools to use and a background story on why the place is a mess.

12. Chants of Sennar (PC) - 9.9 hours - March 23rd - 4.5/5
A game where you need to use context clues to figure out puzzles using languages that you have to piece together. It looks gorgeous, and I was worried I'd struggle with it, but the game always gives you enough for you to figure it out. It's one of those puzzle games that makes you fell really good after you find the solution.

13. Summerhouse (PC) - 78 minutes - March 23rd - 3.5/5
A neat interactive toy. It didn't really keep my interest long, but that's mainly because I spent an hour on creating one house and did not think I could top it. I'll probably go back to it later and some point.

14. A Little to the Left (PC) - 2.5 hours - March 23rd - 2.5/5
I was disappointed in this puzzle game. It started out easy and didn't really progress in difficulty unless you were trying to fine all the solutions, not just one of them.

15. Cocoon (PC) - 5 hours - March 26th - 3.5/5
Really cool concept, really cool vibe. I just wish it didn't have the boss fights, I feel like they were a bit unnecessary. I also readily admit I needed a guides help on some of the puzzles. I just had a hard time as the number of orbs grew towards the end.

16. Chicken Journey (PC) - 3.7 hours - March 30th - 3/5
A simple metroidvania with no combat, just puzzles. You explore, do some quests, get some upgrades, go back to an area and use those upgrades to finish quests. Very simple

April
17. Islets (PC) - 6.1 hours - April 2nd - 3.5/5
A very good metroidvania with an interconnected world, fun boss fights, and good upgrades (double jump, ground pound, etc.). It had one quirk I wasn't a fan of, and that was the fact that anytime you attack, your characters moves forward a bit. Not a deal breaker just felt weird

18. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals - 5.9 hours - April 7th - 3.5/5
I loved the first game, but the sequel kinda let me down. Not that it is bad, it's good, and the new characters we follow have real adult problems they face which is a nice change of pace from the angsty teens from the first. But, it didn't really do anything new, or at least it didn't feel like it did, so the novelty of the radio and freaky things going on kinda feel a bit flat.

Bii · Jan 1, 2024

Reserved.

Tagovailoa · Jan 1, 2024

Reserved!

Challenges Tracker

Pokemon Mono Type (2/18)

Water - Pokemon Blue - Finished at the end of 2023
Poison - Pokemon Fire Red - Finished on January 5, 2024
Flying - Pokemon Silver - Finished on ???

Dragon Quest (0/9)

Snowfruit · Jan 1, 2024

I played more than I thought last year, I think I can actually play even more this year too. Hopefully making more regular updates.

2018 - 54	2019 - 56	2020 - 53
2021 - 27	2022 - 13	2023 - 35

1. Hades
2. Valheim
3. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
4. Persona 3 Reload
5. Portal
6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
7. Bokura
8. Tekken 8
9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
10. Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Cobi's Journey
11. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
12. Dragon Quest IV
13. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

14. Stardew Valley 1.6
15. E.V.O.: Search for Eden
16. Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide
17. Dragon's Dogma 2
18. Lies of P

19. Sand Land
20. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light
21. Yakuza: Like a Dragon
22. Final Fantasy II

23. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered

playing:

dropped:
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

ReclusiveHaze · Jan 1, 2024

Reserved! Glad I was able to accomplish my goal last year and I hope to do even better this year!

Previous year:
2023 - 55 Games Completed

(15/52 Completed)

Currently playing -

1. Chrono Trigger (DS) - 27 hours, 17 minutes (1/8/24) 2. Titanfall 2 (PC, Campaign on Hard difficulty) - approx. 8 hours, 20 minutes (1/8/24) 3. Tsukihime PLUS-DISC (PC) - approx. 2 hours (1/10/24) 4. Northern Journey (PC) - approx. 10 hours (1/23/24)	5. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PC) - 101 hours, 33 minutes (2/19/24) 6. Strider (1989, Arcade, played on MiSTer) - approx. 1 hour (2/23/24)	7. Illusion of Gaia (SNES, played on MiSTer) - approx. 12 hours (3/5/24) 8. Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC, replay) - approx. 5 hours, 15 minutes (3/20/24) 9. Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs (PC) - 3 hours, 51 minutes (3/23/24) 10. Amnesia: Rebirth (PC) - 9 hours, 53 minutes (3/26/2024) 11. Amnesia: The Bunker (PC) - approx. 7 hours, 20 minutes (3/30/24)
12. Kagetsu Tohya (PC) - 50+ hours (4/11/24) 13. Melty Blood Re-ACT (PC, Story Mode only, all routes) - approx. 6 hours (4/19/24)	14. Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines (PC) - approx. 6 hours, 30 minutes (5/19/24) 15. Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut (PS2, Stahn's Side only) - approx. 30 hours (5/27/24)	Nothing yet
Nothing yet	Nothing yet	Nothing yet
Nothing yet	Nothing yet	Nothing yet

el_galvon · Jan 1, 2024

Previous years:
2022 - 66 games
2023 - 67 games

Let's go!

January update:

01. Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (PlayStation 4 - 2020) | Jan/01 - 12hrs | 6
The Good: Nice graphics and linear level design, like the classics
The Bad: The levels are ridiculously long and often very frustrating

Unfortunately, I ended up disappointed with Crash 4. I absolutely love the original trilogy, both the PS1 versions and the N.sane remakes, but I found this one very underwhelming. It has some good points, the visuals are great, the Boss Battles are fun and some stages have great moments. But the gigantic levels are very tiring and not rarely with some bizarre difficulty spikes.

Also I didn't enjoy very much the other characters. Neo Cortex, in particular, doesn't control very well. There's also the absurd requirements to complete 100% of the game, but even considering only the necessary to reach the credits, Crash 4 it's really not on the same level of the original trilogy.

02. What Remains of Edith Finch (PlayStation 4 - 2017) | Jan/09 - 3hrs | 9
The Good: All the different and fascinating ways the game tells each story
The Bad: It would be cool if you could explore the house more freely

Up there with Gone Home as my favorite "walking simulator", or whatever you call these type of games. Absolutely incredible presentation and a touching story with some very special moments. Gregory and Lewis histories in particular are both very memorable.

A good option on a list of "games to show to someone who doesn't like/know about video games".

03. Sonic Mania (PlayStation 4 - 2017) | Jan/11 - 6hrs | 8
The Good: Gorgeous pixel art and excellent soundtrack
The Bad: Few original stages

One of the best initiatives Sega had for the blue hedgehog in recent times. I just expected more new levels, most of the game feels like a "greatest hits" from all the Genesis games, with only a third of it being complete original levels. It's only a bummer because these new levels are really good, so you keep wondering what new ideas the developers might had.

But overall it's a very solid 2D platformer, don't know if it's my favorite Sonic game but it's easily one of the best.

04. Tetris DS (Nintendo DS - 2006) | Jan/17 - 5hrs | 9
The Good: Modern Tetris mechanics + Classic Nintendo aesthetic = greatness
The Bad: Few extra modes are really interesting

Another great Tetris for a Nintendo portable console. Highlight for me is the VS. mode with an very difficult Bowser as the final challenge.

05. Persona 5 Strikers (PlayStation 4 - 2020) | Jan/25 - 60hrs | 8.5
The Good: Some nice interactions between the main cast that wasn't so frequent in P5
The Bad: Not all mechanics adapted from P5 works as well in this game

I didn't expect this to be an actual sequel to Persona 5 (the original one). It was great to see these characters again, in a similar feeling I had when I played P4 Arena, but I feel Strikers goes even beyond that. The real time action focused combat may be a bit too much sometimes, especially in Boss Battles, but it's impressive how much they created with the original game as a base.

The "road trip" storyline it's fun, even if it takes a while to present something really interesting. I liked both Sophia and Zenkichi and their interactions with the Phantom Thieves, hope to see them again in the future somehow.

06. Sky Odyssey (PlayStation 2 - 2000) | Jan/28 - 9hrs | 8.5
The Good: Mission variety and the impressive soundtrack
The Bad: No checkpoints in missions is a bummer

This game is fascinating. A "flight simulator" released few months after the PS2 launch, but I think it makes more sense to see this game more like an "action/adventure", even though it has no combat at all. Most missions consists in "go from point A to point B" but very often something unpredictable happens. In a mission your fuel is leaking and you need to refuel flying near a train, in another one your engine explodes and you need to control the plane down the river. It's incredible how they were able to create these "set pieces" in 2000.

There's also the incredible soundtrack, which greatly contributes to the necessary feeling for each moment. After feeling like I had already heard something similar, I discovered that the composer is none other than Kow Otani, who also scored Shadow of the Colossus.

I mean, just listen to this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78GHTIcDnK4

Anyone who's looking for "hidden gems" in the 128-bits era should give this a look. I had way more fun than I expected, even in the more difficult moments. The game also has some really cool unlockables and extra modes, a complete package.

Optional Objectives · Jan 1, 2024

Here's to another year of completing many games! My backloggd reviews are linked.

No. 1 - Starcatcher (2022)
No. 2 - Hades (2020)
No. 3 - Mr. Platformer (2023)
No. 4 - Before the Green Moon (2023)
No. 5 - Humanity (2023)
No. 6 - Centipede (1981)
No. 7 - Maze Invaders (1981)
No. 8 - finity. (2023)
No. 9 - Asteroids (1979)
No. 10 - Missile Command (1980)
No. 11 - Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode Intermission (2021)
No. 12 - Penny's Big Breakaway (2024)
No. 13 - Superliminal (2019)
No. 14 - Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (2024)
No. 15 - Anodyne (2013)
No. 16 - Oxenfree (2016)
No. 17 - Shatter (2009)
No. 18 - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pack (2022)
No. 19 - Metal Slug (1996)
No. 20 - World Wars (1987)
No. 21 - Super Mario Land (1989)
No. 22 - Animal Well (2024)
No. 23 - Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (1991)
No. 24 - currents (2022)
No. 25 - com__et (2023)

Spacejaws · Jan 1, 2024

I'm in again for this one. Really enjoyed doing last year.

22/52

1. Immortality
03.01.2024 - 6 Hours - Steam Deck - 9/10

So this was pretty great, I binged it like mad over the last few days and had been completely spoiler free, however I did have a problem with it in that I think I played it wrong and got the credits way before I understood anything.
I kinda was collecting as many scenes as possible and was then going to watch them but I think the game expect you to watch them as you go but I was too worried about missing some object in a scene that would be key so I often unlocked scenes and went back to the original footage to find more scenes to unlock. About 4 hours in I got the credits.

I spent a few more hours trying to piece together footage and work out what I've missed and had a fairly good understanding now. I ended up going to youtube to see if there were scenes I missed which there were but really enjoyed discovering new clips and kinda in awe of the quality as a whole and the multiple layers which would have been crazy interesting without even the uh other one.

Now gonna hit up some youtube theory videos to see what I missed but I kinda wish I had watched the clips as they came but felt I kinda got OCD'd about unlocking the clips.

2. Terminator Resistance Enhanced Edition
07.01.2024 - 17 Hours - PS5 - 5/10

So with the Robocop release and it looking pretty damn good I always had this game on my eye and decided to spend some Amazon gift vouchers on it at Christmas. I'm a kinda find of B-tier, janky games and kinda always rate them a little higher than most or at least appreciate them a bit for what they are. I didn't have a horrible time with Haze for instance.

Right off the bat with this you can tell somethings off the moment your guy speaks. There's what seems like a lot of really kind rough elements, especially for an Enchanced Edition. The audio mising is all over the place, your character speaks sometimes way quieter than the NPC's and other times not. He also sounds like he's reading right from the page, none of it seems natural at all. The NPC's themselves though are a lot better, albiet on occasion some really stunted dialogue and god awful romance stuff. Visually as well, while it does a good job keeping some key visuals from the movies, in other ways looks kinda primative even for a PS4 game. The stupid bones in the dirt and copy pasted everywhere, nothing really looks impressive that isn''t lifted from the movie like the blue light beams in the night or Terminator designs. It's a bit fugly in general.

The missions themselves kinda step up a bit at first, then get pretty dull, then kinda peak in one mission near the end where you got to get the codes where it's more destoryed urban enviroment. Most of the game is just empty waste, which while that fits the movies it would have been nice to maybe have some kind of enviroment shakeup like I dunno a Skynet facility or like inside a godamn circus I dunno just anything. These maps felt like the open world Fallout areas of wandering around avoiding terrible godamn AI and grabbing random shit from the ruins. Terminators couldn't deal wiht me being on a level above them they just wander around undert you aimless before they get bored and walk away. For what is supposed to be aterminator, unrelenting all pursuing, unflinching killing machines controlled by the most incredibly AI in history, they are dumb as fuck and not scary. Especially when you start getting weapons for it. I had Terminators spinning on the spot, Terminators walk towards me but I duck under a wall and they just give up, Terminators just not follow me after alerting them the AI in this game is ironically garbage.

I'm not even sure why conventional weapons are in this game. You start with a pistol and it's replaced with an uzi like 10 mins in. Then you get an M16 and then a shotgun and enough ammo to not have to give a shit. However...suddenly you end up fighting Terminators, and the conventional weapons are just useless. You have to use plasma weapons. I held onto conventional weapons for some time thinking well I'll use them again the non terminator enemies but generally after that first terminator you predominantly fight terminators and get enough plasma ammo to never worry about conventional weapons again. Annoyingly inventory space starts to fill up with all these new plasma weapons then fucking rocket launchers which there are two versions and it feels like you need to keep both for some big enemies at the end as you kinda stumble across ammo for one or the otherso holding both means you can actually use the ammo you find. Why they both have different fucking ammo I don't know they have the exact same fucking stats.

Then you start getting towards the end with story revelations and NPC dialogue and the writing takes a damn nosedive. Characters are megafucking stupid, our hero is the most oblivious mutherfucker on the planet who perpetually struggled to understand time travel. He's explained it at one point then he's confused as fuck how Skynet could have understood about an attack and John Connors like Time Travel you dumb bitch and Rivers is like huh wha but how did they know?! It is insultingly stupid and doesn't make any sense because John Connors claims he knew about this and so did um our friend from the future and they still let a bunker full of people die for shits and giggles. Throw in some more awful dialogue and really boring missions and this game sucked.

I honestly preferred Aliens Colonial Marines over this and would play it again in a heartbeat. Thankfully it's an easy fucking platinum.
It get's a few points for the Infiltrator Mode which was actually quite fun even though I played on easy and blitzed through it and I feel like that's actually a much more interesting concept for a game. Playing pseudo Kyle Reese but he's a fucking mega idiot amongst some really hammy writing is shit. Plus odd technical stuff like the audio mixing, subtitles not matching dialogue on occasion (petty I know but I hate this, seems like something so easily fixed for an "Enhanced Edition") and even the dead soldiers on the group are just copy and paste jobs. One level (the level I liked actually) had like 3 of them lying in the same position dotted around each other and I noticed the ID on their shirt was the same. I started looking at more dead bodies and even if they were in different positions they are all the same dude with the same ID. As I say just a bit sloppy and it pulled me out.

I'll still play the Annihilation Line though. Infiltrator mode was originally DLC before and it seemed quality so hopefully it's got more going for it than the main game.

3. Terminator Resistance: Annihilation Line
11.01.2024 - 5 Hours - PS5 - 5/10

Naw this is shite too.

4. The Legend of Grimrock
20.01.2024 - 18 Hours - Steam Deck - 8/10

Hey this game is pretty great! It looks quite slick for a blobber, lovely atmospheric dungeon with rewarding challenge and progression and tidy little secrets all over the place. Some brain bending puzzles and a neat bit of lore tying it all together.

At first I thought I was doing quite well with the puzzles but then closer to the end I had to hit the google and mostly got myself annoyed as the solutions were either simple or I missed some key thing. Some of them though are kinda huh how was I supposed to know that and requiring a bit of trial and error and cumbersome to backtrack for an item that might potentially be the solution. All in all pretty cool. Would have been nice to see more enviroments and some levels are kinda a ballache woth respawning enemies that easily box you in, not feeling like a challenge but just luck.

Looking forward to giving 2 a go.

5. Tacoma
21.01.2024 - 6 Hours - PS5 - 7/10

Hey this was cool! Bit short however and I really wanted more of the ship to explore, getting these snippets of the life of the station and the people in it was really interesting but once the AR videos are done there's not really anything to do otherwise, very light on puzzles and the enviroments are still kinda bare except the odd items here and there that give you a glimpse of the crews lives which were great.

Does a great job painting a futurist kinda realistic corporate nightmare too. Very enjoyable!

6. Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix
28.01.2024 - 56 Hours - PS4 - 6/10

So I don't often get affected by rose tinted glasses. Usually I play old games I love and continue to love them, the rough parts are quirky, understandable or even charming.

Coming back to Kingdom Hearts, a game I'd say was one of my favourites as a kid, has been kinda rough. I...just don't think it's very good. It's a bit platformer, bit character action and a bit rpg and I'm not really sure which bit it does well. I think platformer in the sense the most enjoyable parts to me are the collectathon aspect, finding new secrets and such.

The platforming mechanics though are rough, invisible walls everwhere, that fucking jump button has a delay on it I'm sure, camera is bloody ass and ublockable shit to coax you to revist small abd kinda shit worlds that are chock full of combat which also prevents you from interacting with anything so if you just want to open a chest you've got to beat 3 waves of some bullshit.

Combat too, goes from incredible easily to some of the most frustrating and unsatisfying fights in a game I've played. The endgame stretch is just incredibly unfun. Hollow Bastion is shit. End of the World is shit. It's kinda a shit game, but addictive with great music.

I think playing this now, the novelty of it being Final Fantasy x Disney definelty held it together really well for me. But kn the revisit it's barely fucking anything to do with FF except some spell names and a few cameos. The heartless being the most generic looking boring ass motherfuckers is such a dissapointment the only bosses I enjoyed fighting are the Disney ones and a few Collesium fights against the FF characters.

Also on revisit...I cannot believe how bad the story and dialogue are. This game is just noise and colours it really feels like there is no substance to ir other than press buttons and get items with your Disney friends. It's so dire.

I was playing this to get to Kingdom Hearts 3 which my wife bought me for my Birthday 2 years ago, the intention was to play through the main games again but I think I'm going to have to skip that and go straight to 3. I think KH2 is considered the better game but I remember being fucking disappointed in it as a kid and now I'm thinking maybe I just caught wise that it was just word rainbow vomit passing as a story. I'll play it again at some point but ya my replay of the series didn't get off to a good start at all.

7. Blackwell Unbound
29.01.2024 - 3 Hours - Steam Deck - 8/10

Another Blackwell game and again, it's great! Still very short though but I love the art, the characters, the lore snippets hinting at again a greater mystery and the kinda grassroots feel to the dialogue. This ones a prequel so you get to see how the aunt and Joey worked together and it's kinda tragic after the next game shows you how that ended up. You also have an extra mechanic to swap to Joey in this one which has it's limited uses but some pretty unique.

Really enjoyable and with the length of these episodes I wonder if they'll ever be released as one full game with all these sequences combined. Think it could work well!

8. Pokemon Shield The Isle or Armor
08.02.2024 - 15 Hours - NSW - 6/10

I was pretty harsh on Shield last year and the DLC is an improvment but doesn't really fix a lot wrong with the game. It being Post game DLC also makes things a bit rough, all the new mons being at lv60 kinda hampers any chance of using them during the main game unless they are only at that level because K've beat the game.

The island works much better with the open world concept than the Wild Area, I'm still not a fan of the world just littered with aimless pokemon seemingly with no rhyme or reason. I still prefered the tall grass than this system and I think its worse here because they have tried to cram in so many the areas seem stupidly busy with pokemon of all shapes and sizes.

Storywise a marked improvement. Not an end of the world type deal but just revolving around a pokemon, exploring the island and talking to the characters with one of the better rivals to boot. A pity snivelling little brown nosing coward. Great stuff! Would love to see this mentality towards story and characters given more emphasis on a wider scale.

I wish there was a better map though. Some of the paths could get really confusing as well as everything in those areas looking the same and I still not sure the correct way to get to the fire tower without stumbling around first.

9. Untitled Goose Game
15.02.2024 - 8 Hours - PS4 - 9/10

Excellent title! Very late to the part but the puzzle stealth gameplay, great style and comedic beats with you being a little feathered agent of chaos just makes for a really fun game with a lot of personality.

10. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC
23.02.2024 - 70 Hours - Steam Deck - 10/10

I just flat out loved this game. It feels like a golden oldie PSX RPG just briming with character, it's story is told with just enough realism and wackiness mixed in, toeing the line very well which reminds me of PSX Final Fantasy, little cringe, lots of heart.

It's not the hardest game, and I fell into grinding a few times to be able to afford items/quartz so you can end up overlevelled, but it's battle system is great, the quartz customising fun to mess around qith combinations and it's world and characters a joy to explore with a lot of payoff. I think it's also one of the few examples of some kid party members done right. Second Chapter installed immediately I want to dive right in.

11. Blade Runner Enhanced Edition
27.02.2024 - 8 Hours - PS4 - 8/10

Huge fan of the movies and always been intrigued about this game. Held off at first until it got parched for the original graphics (although I do think Nightdives enhanced tweaks in some areas and cutscenes looked great but too soft).

Ultimately I can see why it didn't become a hit, the kinda freeforn nature of the clues can get really confusing, trying to piece together what you are discovering rather than just picking up shiny little objects. The photo enhance feature is fucking dumb too as there's little hint what section you enhance is going to rotate around to a completely different picture which is oddly unsatisfying.

That said, I really enjoyed it's world and characters and if I had more leisure time would love to run through it again just to see what changed. Weaving it in through the original movie is such a cool idea and if you don't try to think too hard about it, works really well and is pretty unique. It did a great job capturing the essence of the film, along with the narrative kind bending your perception on what is real and not, but even so I feel like it leaned way too heavily on that at the end (or at least my end) where basically you become a replicant fugitive for an act then next act that kinda just gets glossed over where my cop buddy is suddenly pally pally again outa nowhere.

Yea there's plenty of jankiness like that. Odd interactions with characters that feel like you missed something or did it out of sequence. I also had an odd interaction with one replicant Lucy where I chased her through a maze while disarmed, caught up to her and my character said I'm not going to kill you I'm disarmed and she replied something about what the police would do if they found out then she ran to like the centre of the maze behind a wall and I could see or interact with her. Later on I found out somehow this counted as me killing her and she was gone from the game so I started killing the rest lol.

Excellent and unique movie adaption.

12. Pokemon Shield The Crown Tundra
16.03.2024 - 15 Hours - NSW - 5/10

Got really bored of this fast. It has a ton of interesting pokemon, and just soo many oddly rare pokemon like fossil mons, trade only mons, eevelutions but so late in the game it seems pointless, and this DLC has almost 0 trainer battles (I only remember the one at the start). It tries to be more story focused but I'm not really a fan of the intellectual pokemon stuff, so I couldn't give a shit. At this point I struggled to find a reason tonuse any of these cool mons that would have been cool to train up 100 hours earlier. I still think Pokemon could do with a new game plus feature letting you take a select few to a fresh game at lvl 5.

There's no explaination why their are so many rare as pokemon here. Like nearly all fossil pokemon, a bunch of legendary trios but whatever. Just feels like quantity over quality toss a ton of legendaries at the player and whatever. Nah, this game was pretty bad. Real dissapointment.

13. Cuphead - Delicious Last Course
25.03.2024 - 3 Hours - Steam Deck - 10/10

Still fantastic! Although the um breaker attack I think it's called feels very OP. I didn't feel like any other weapon did nearly the same amount of damage for the same versatility.

The only boss I had issue with was the dogfight when the screen flips. I really didn't like that but everything else about it is just more of a fantastic game. Presentation really hits home along with super rewarding gameplay.

14. Baldur's Gate 3
12.04.2024 - 219 Hours - Steam Deck - 10/10

Oh my god. What a fucking game. The only real negatives I can say about it is that I'm not a massive fan of turn based tactical games, and some of the fights took fooorever, even basic ones, but even so I can't mark this shit down it was utterly fantastic from start to finish. I do have some minor complaints about the canon fates of two evil characters in the old game too but I don't think I can fault Larian for that too much.

As a massive Baldur's Gate fan, I come away from this thinking it feels more like a true sequel to Dragon Age than Baldur's Gate. The origins, companion approvla stuff, even the janky cutscene animations reminds me of Dragon Age. That is no bad thing however. It far surpassed anything that Dragon Age did, and while it doesn't hit the same spots the Baldur's Gate games gave me it hits a whole bunch of different ones. Completely deserving of all it's praise just a stupendous experience all round. Literally after all the time it's sucked out of me I just want to jump right back in.

15. Final Fantasy XVI: Echoes of the Fallen
18.04.2024 - 3 Hours - PS5 - 9/10

Just as I loved the main game this is just more of a good thing. Excellent dungeon with great boss battles and that amazing damn song at the end. I held off playing until The Rising Tide came out and I'm glad to have been able to jump back into one of the favourite Final Fantasy's in decades.

16. Grim Fandango Remastered
19.04.2024 - 20 Hours - Steam Deck - 10/10

Another goat that I've been way too slow to pick up. Once started though I barrelled my way through it and can see why it has the status it does.

Fantastic characters, unique worlds, witty writing, you really cool make a movie out of this it reminds me a bit of Nightmare Before Christmas or somesuch. Puzzles were not crqzy obtuse, I did google quite a few when I got stuck and I didn't feel like they were unfair the only one is near the end with the hand grinder where the controller controls it's like the only time in the whole game you have to press circle/b to pick an item up instead of interacting with it.

Would loce to see a sequel of some kind I need more Glottis!

17. Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide
28.04.2024 - 15 Hours - PS5 - 9/10

Again, more of a good this and again, really, really enjoyed it.

New location is beautiful and loved learning more of the lore. Sadly think it could have gone further, I thought we would be getting more snippets on Jills background before being taken hostage by the Rosfields. Her home, parents, their crystal dying, anything really. Also set myself up for dissapointment as the lead up to the Timekeeper fight I thought for a moment we were going to get the missing Eikon battle against Shiva or even *gasp* playing as Shiva. Then I did it again during Leviathan where I was sure Jill as Shiva would show up to save the day.

Excellent boss battles though although there is a tricky DPS check during Leviathan that felt a bit unfun. Think you had to hit things precisely and use abilities in a way so they wouldn't become available when you had been pushed back for optimal damage. Not really a fan of the old DPS check but at least it wasn't as bad as Omega Weapon where I hadn't configured myself for maximum damage, at least not on a whim and struggled a bit.

The new abilities are awesome but I also fucked up big time. I didn't check the Kairos Gate until after beating everything in the DLC. Which meant...I didn't get Ultima until there was nothing left to do 😞 that is except the Kairos Gate.

Played through it for the trophy, it's a fun idea and I love the UI design but I'm not really one for challenge/arcade/time attack/score attack modes so I got up to depth 10 and then turned on the timely evasion bonus thing to burn through the rest of it. Pretty much the same thing I did with the Chonolith trials and I don't see myself playing either ever again.

I do want to do a second playthrough in Final Fantasy mode though, really eager to but I have FFVII Rebirth there and need to play it so I'l jump back in after that is done.

Ultimately, sweet story, great location, lovely characters, awesome new abilities and gear, cool new bosses and hunts, and some banging music.

18. Dino Crisis
02.05.2024 - 17.5 Hours - PS1 (via Steam Deck) - 10/10

Loved it through and through. Never finished it before so it's been on my backlog for awhile but just like the PS1 Resident Evils it does a fantastic job with that line between survival horror and B movie cheese.

The changes from zombies to fucking dinosaurs works really well and doesn't feel too immersion breaking when you are slipping past these guys despite the tank controls. Everything is very claustrophobic. Lots of corridors and wee lab rooms allowing for a quick weave and run through a door.

It seems like there's some kind of randomness to the gameplay too. I think some items I picked yp were different on reload and I did enjoy mixing like crazy to get all those poisonous darts with like 15 total during the game a d maybe used 3 max lol.

It's one of the few games I play where once I beat it I wanted to jump back in for a while, super tempted to see these other endings and maybe have an easier time. Chunks of my playthrough were me loat, mostly for not reading a memo properly or annoyingly one of the DDK doors where I checked it twice but from the wrong angle so it gave me a message saying I couldn't use the DDK key on it making me think there much be another one. No. I needed to step a little to the right.

Other than minor misgivings and having to really pay attention to memos which I suck at but steams screenshot featre really came in handy!

19. Dredge
09.05.2024 - 26 Hours - Steam Deck - 8/10

Fantastic game, very atmospheric, tense but also chill at times. Reaching each of the zones and exploring/working out their puzzles along with the pokemon collectathon aspect really hooked me and I loved it all the way to the end and mostly just enjoyed sailing around. I'll include The Pale Reach DLC too as it was fairly short, taking me about an hour to beat but again, was reallu cool.

My only real complaint is I found the progression maybe a bit off? I ended up nearly fully kitted out on the first island after Marrow, mostly due to trying to catch all the aberrations It took a crazy long time to get Wreckfish aberation and the crabs for the painter which meant I had tons of money, performed all hull upgrades, and researched more than half of all the equipment in the game despite not being more than a quarter through, and as the merchant keeps respawning research items K was able to just keep buying them when I revisted and completed them all not long after. I feel like some of these items should have been mkre rare/limited and not simply purchasable. Rewards for a lot of quests were research items that I was just selling and there was no point to trinkets as I had like 30K by the end of the game.

With that out of the way the wrest of the game is just excellent to explore, odd characters and the quirks of each zone, really looking forward to the next DLC.

20. Metal Wolf Chaos XD
17.05.2024 - 8.5 Hours - Steam Deck - 5/10

This feels like the story of America written by aliens.

It's...cheesy madness. It's also, not very good?

21. Donkey Kong Country
09.06.2024 - 5 Hours - SNES( via Steam Deck) - 10/10

I think I've seen some revisionist impressions of this game, people saying it doesn't look great, play great, it's just a bunch of nostalgia.

What a bunch of morons. This game is still tops. It looks vivid and colourful, has lovely animated characrers, simple, satisfying, challenging and tight gameplay with nearly every level throwing a new challenge at you on top of a goat soundtrack. It's excellent and I won't hear anything to the contrary.

22. Twisted Metal
03.01.2024 - 4 Hours - PS1 (via PS5) - 7/10

It's a rough, early, 3D gem and I still love it. Played through it to get the platinum and while most of my memories are with the 2 player, playing through the campaign is still a lot of fun. The cars are still great to drive around with their sliddy jank controls and each car does feel like it gives you plenty of variation on ways to play. I hated being pitted against the big bodies like Darkside and Hammerhead.

The synopsis at the end are quite cute. Monkey paw type stories that can be wacky, dark, sad, childish or just plane weird. It's a great bit of flair for the characters even if the writing is a bit amateurish. Always appreciate arcade endings with these little blurbs. All in all it's a pretty solid, but short, game with not that much content. Not sure which one it was that I played the most out of 2 or 3 but I absolutely remember the River level as one we played all the time and also really enjoyed the Cyburbia level.

Odoru · Jan 1, 2024

Reserved!

kierwynn · Jan 1, 2024

Updated: 6/12 (I will be slowly but surely adding thoughts to each game lol)

Finished: 9/52

Game #1- Octopath Traveler 2 (Switch) | 1/9 [76 hours 27 mins]

I started playing Octopath 2 when it released, and then kinda stopped playing it for no real reason. I loved the first Octopath, but prerelease showings hadn't really sold me on this one yet. The characters didn't grab me (and don't even get me started on how I felt about Partitio's voice!) and idk... I just wasn't feeling it. I ended up picking it back up again at the end of my pregnancy last year (I guess because I didn't have the energy to do much else), and I'm so glad I did. My initial impressions were so very wrong. I was one of the few, it feels like, that didn't mind the first games disjopinted stories. It's what it was going for, so I didn't mind, But, as someone who really loves character interactions, the steps taken in this game to improve that aspect were amazing. I loved the crossed paths chapters (just wish there were more!) and the final chapter that involved everyone was a great touch.

Game #2- Lethal Company (PC) | Ongoing [10+ hours]

Game #3- Super Mario RPG (Switch) | 1/16 [11 hours 28 mins]

Game #4- Granblue Fantasy: Relink (PC) | 2/8 [63 hours 44 mins]

Game #5- Pikmin 4 (Switch) | 2/18 [42 hours 09 mins]

Game #6- Content Warning (PC) | Ongoing [6+ hours]

Game #7- Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PC) | 5/5 [63 hours 29 mins]

Game #8- Cats Hidden in Paris (PC) | 5/24 [33 mins]

Game #9- Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (PC) | 6/12 [77 hours 10 mins]

Currently playing:

FFXIV Endwalker
Persona 3 Reload [in January]

Sillen2000 · Jan 1, 2024

✨👾~Sillen2000's 52 Games Extravaganza 2024!!!~👾✨

2020 main post (58 games)
2021 main post (47 games)
2022 main post (53 games)
2023 main post (60 games)
GOTY 2023

33/52 completed

Tales of the Abyss (3DS)
It Takes Two (PS5)
Tactics Ogre: Reborn (PS5)

Mass Effect (PS4) - Was cruising around, doing the available side quests. About to get Liara.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (PS5) - Need to get some things to open some big door, or something.
Slave Zero X (PS5) - Only on the second stage.
Sea of Stars (PS5) - Reached the first big twist, I guess.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS5) - Chapter 10.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - About halfway through.
Pokémon Scarlet (NSW) - Almost finished, but took a hiatus in December of 2022 to wait for a friend to get Nintendo online so I could visit his game and evolve my dolphin my Finizen, which I finally did sometime last year! Now I just need to find the time between other games to actually reach the end.

Crystalis (NSO) - Not because I disliked it, but I feel like there are so many games I want to play and I have to prioritize a bit, which meant Crystalis, a decent but sometimes also fairly tedious game, is getting abandoned. Maybe I'll return to it some day.

Games completed by system
Nintendo Entertainment System: 1
Game Boy: 1
Nintendo DS: 1
Nintendo Switch: 6
Nintendo Switch Online: 8
Playstation 3: 2
Playstation 5: 9
PC: 5

First Playthroughs Vs. Replays
First playthroughs: 24
Replays: 9

Ratings:
☆ -
☆½ - 2
☆☆ - 4
☆☆½ - 6
☆☆☆ - 6
☆☆☆½ - 5
☆☆☆☆ - 6
☆☆☆☆½ - 3
☆☆☆☆☆ - 1

Random Games From the Backlog for Me to Play in 2024!

I bought way too many new games last year, and knowing myself I probably will this year as well, but I at least want to try and tackle that old backlog of mine a bit more in 2024, and so to help motivate me to do so I used Backloggery's built-in randomizer to pick out 12 games of mine for me to not necessarily beat, but at least try out. The results of those 12 dice rolls are these following games:

Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition (PS4), The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), Untitled Goose Game (NSW), Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3)
Tactics Ogre: Reborn (PS5), ICO (PS2) ✔, Xenogears (PS1), Omori (NSW)
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC) ✔, ZeroRanger (PC) ✔, Signalis (NSW) ✔, Dragon's Crown Pro (PS4)

Monthly Updates!

JANUARY WRITE-UPS

1. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (NSW) | 4/5 - Played through the entire game in multiplayer which, despite some camera issues, was a lot of fun! Low difficulty overall, but great level design made more for exploration and surprising the player with fun gimmicks in each stage via the wonder flowers, rather than platforming challenges, and with the special world that provides some friction when you want to challenge yourself for a bit (though nothing's too difficult outside of some sections of the final special stage.) Love the new sound effects, and the art style is probably the best one 2D Mario's ever had. Really wish the boss fights could have been as creative as the rest of the game, though.
2. Octopath Traveler II (PS5) | 4/5 - Absolutely fantastic turn-based battle system in an RPG that has some issues connecting all eight stories in a satisfying way, and where the writing can be a bit iffy at times, but still entertaining for the most part. Feels a bit like if Live a Live's final chapter got turned into an entire game, and shows that an open world, very classical JRPG can work out surprisingly great, especially since the developer's really knew exactly how large the world should be in order to still have something do to on basically every single screen. And yeah, it has the best soundtrack of 2023, and is by far the best looking HD2D game. Maybe one of the best JRPG superbosses I've ever fought as well?
3. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC) | 2.5/5 - A fun adventure with some impressively extensive and well-written dialogue trees, great voice acting (outside of Tim Curry and his very inconsistent New Orleans accent), charming early 90's adventure game graphics and a fantastic, moody soundtrack. Also surprisingly good about teaching the player about actual voodoo traditions and beliefs. Too bad the whole thing's let down by a couple of absolutely awful puzzles, often very unclear goals, egregious pixel hunting and a UI from hell. The main romance also feels very forced, unfortunately.
4. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (PS5) | 2.5/5 - Shouldn't work at all, and it sort of really doesn't, but is still a surprisingly good time. Like, it controls like trash, it's almost impossible to aim with a gun, platforming is a nigthmare, the isometric camera is way too zoomed in on the player. Still, it's weirdly ambitious in all its extreme jankiness. The middle of the game just goes from an action game into a pure adventure game for a while, and there's even a bit of freedom in how you choose to beat some stages (like in the third stage where you can talk your way through or just kill every Gungan in your way.) There are even dialogue trees for basically every conversation in the game, and they let you be the biggest Jedi asshole in the entire galaxy.

FEBRUARY WRITE-UPS PART 1 (GAMES 5-7)
PART 2 (GAMES 8-10)

5.Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade + Episode INTERmission (PS5) | 4.5/5 - Just as great now as when it released four years ago. One of the best parties in all of gaming, incredible combat and an all-timer of a soundtrack makes this one hell of a journey, despite some pretty egregious pacing issues here and there. DLC was great too, though it's mainly just more of the same with a bit more refinement.
6. Metroid Fusion (NSO) | 3.5/5 - Great atmosphere, decent difficulty, beautiful GBA pixel art, and fun moment to moment gameplay makes sure Fusion can sort of keep up with the better games in the series. But its linearity, overuse of invisible walls and bosses that frankly could use a bit less health across the board drag it down a bit for me. Not sure who thought both this and Zero Mission should have a final boss completely unrelated to the rest of the game's plot.
7. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PC) | 3/5 - Interesting, and does some very cool things, but while combat and puzzles start out fairly decent, they never really evolve which makes Hellblade feel maybe an hour or two too long despite me only needing around six hours to beat it. As much as I'm impressed by the psychosis angle and how respectful the game usually seems to be with regards to this, it also feels very gamified at certain points rather than feeling particularly believable. Still looks great, though, seven years later.
8. Persona 3 Reload (PS5) | 4/5 - Used to be my least favorite of the modern Persona games, and that's still the case with Reload, but just like my first time with the game on PS2, I still think it's a very good game despite this. The story is great, the characters are decent, combat is as fun as always and the soundtrack is amazing. Just overall a very good JRPG, though it's very clearly the first attempt at modern Persona's calender system and social links since there're a lot of days when there's nothing to do, and the characters you bond with are mostly not very well written (though I won't be taking criticism against my one true love Bebe.)
9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (NSO) | 4/5 - Still a timeless classic in most regards, but I found it hard to go back to the N64 version after having played the 3DS remake (remaster? Remakester?) that at least fixes some of the bigger issues (extremely slow text scrolling, pretty poor aiming, etc.) Still love the game (Shadow Temple not so much), but I'll probably play the PC port in the future if I ever want to experience the classic N64 graphics again.
10. Penny's Big Breakaway (NSW) | 2/5 - Very Annoying.

MARCH WRITE-UPS

11. ZeroRanger (PC) | 3/5 - Absolutely incredible soundtrack and looks pretty great as well, but despite feeling pretty good to play isn't really that special as a shmup from a gameplay perspective, is way too cryptic as to how you reach the actual final stage, and the plot obfuscates itself to the point of being incomprehensible. I sort of appreciate how cruel the final boss is, however.
12. Pokémon White (NDS) | 4/5 - Sometimes you just want a nice Pokémon experience of old, and that's pretty much exactly what Pokémon White is. Outside of the absolutely insane encounter rate, this is a fun adventure with a bit more plot than usual for this franchise (though it's still really not much to write home about), a bold decision to have every wild Pokémon be from this generation, and occasionally a much higher difficulty than I'm used to with the series. Really enjoyed the two rivals' journeys.
13. 9 Years of Shadows (PC) | 3/5 - Pretty run of the mill Metroidvania with fairly linear progression whose biggest strength is probably how great the pixel art looks. Controls well, has a lot of pretty fun, original power-ups to get, and a memorably challenging final boss do make for a pretty nice experience. Wouldn't have complained if regular enemies had gotten their HP cut in half, or if most bosses didn't have such obvious patterns.

APRIL WRITE-UPS

14. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (NSW) | 2.5/5 - The Ace Attorney gameplay loop is about as fun as ever, and a lot of individual parts of Apollo Justice are really good in isolation, but when put together into one whole they create a bit of a mess, and the feeling of a game that's just a first draft of something that could have been really good. Also not really a fan of how Apollo and Trucy are basically just diet Phoenix and Maya. The new Cornered theme is probably the best in the series so far, however.
15. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) | 5/5 - I'd explain, but I don't think I can.
16. Jumping Flash! (PS5) | 3/5 - So funny to think how people happily paid full price to experience a very short, abstract 3D platformer 29 years ago. Jumping Flash is mainly a curiosity these days where nothing it does is all that new, but it honestly holds up a lot better than I'd expected from the first 3D platformer (not sure how true that is, but that's what the game itself says), and it uses its tech demo levels to not only show off the power of the PS1, but also create absolutely insane worlds that are surprisingly fun to traverse and jump a million miles above as you search for rockets to get to the next stage. Fantastic soundtrack!
17. Tales of Kenzera: Zau (PS5) | 2.5/5 - Good story, great music and fairly inspired visuals (though it does feel a bit too inspired by the Ori games at times), but is really let down by annoying glitches, inputs sometimes not being registered, too much mindless combat, and being a Metroidvania that's afraid of really being a Metroidvania, to the point where the entire map is revealed as soon as you get to a new area (which makes going for power-ups on alternate paths really confusing if you ever need to backtrack for them), and the entire thing is a bit too linear for my taste.

MAY WRITE-UPS

18. Kirby's Dream Land 3 (NSO) | 3.5/5 - Pure vibes.
19. Ico (PS3) | 3.5/5 - Sort of pure vibes, but also a surprisingly good puzzle-adventure game that you can really see how much it influenced the AAA Sony games of the last 15 or so years. Great, subtle story-telling, fantastic atmosphere, incredible soundtrack, combat that can thankfully be easily skipped, makes for one hell of an experience even 23 years later. It's just too bad how robotic your partner, Yorda, feels. Ueda & Co really tried to make her seem spontaneous and with a will of her own, but her AI is not quite good enough to make her believable as a person. Sitting down on a bench with her while that save music plays still feels a bit magical, though.
20. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (NSO) | 3/5 - Here's the thing about Yoshi games in general: obnoxious when going for 100%, not very interesting when just going through stages, playing it like a normal platformer instead of a 2D collectathon. I didn't go for 100%, and so what I got was an absolutely beautiful game with so many interesting ideas, but with levels that go on for way too long, and with very harsh checkpointing those few times one happens to die. I would never call Yoshi's Island a bad game or even anything close to that, but one that I wish was maybe two hours shorter, with tighter level design and maybe a less slippery Yoshi.
21. Animal Well (PS5) | 4/5 - I'm not one to fall out my chair when I make a cool discovery in a video game. I'm more like "oh, neat", and then move on, but I sure had a lot of "oh, neat" moments while playing Animal Well, a game that is not afraid of just letting the player loose in its mysterious Metroidvania world and figuring things out for themselves. Really cool power-ups, incredible art direction, and trust in the player goes a long way for me here, and I see it as only a positive that the safe room theme is basically just ripping off the beginning ambiance of Laura Palmer's Theme. Not the biggest fan of how the second layer just becomes a very obscure collectathon where you're hunting for eggs across the entire map, though.
22. Super Mario Land (NSO) | 2/5 - I get how cool this must have been back in 1989, but Super Mario Land feels a bit pointless these days since I can easily play all the other 2D classics easily, and it just isn't even close to standard 2D Mario quality with its bizarre physics, stage that reuse segments over and over again, and the whole thing being over in just over half an hour (and that was despite me playing really poorly!) Still an incredible soundtrack, though.
23. Stellar Blade (PS5) | 3.5/5 - Terrible storytelling, but a lot of fun to play. The sexualization of Eve (and a couple of the other female characters) is embarrassing, but you can luckily give her better outfits to tone it down fairly early on, and from that point on it's mainly just a fun, fairly forgiving souls-like with tight level design, a great soundtrack and some really hype boss fights. Nothing groundbreaking, but a really good time for the most part.
24. Signalis (NSW) | 4.5/5 - Ich bin jetzt jemand anders als zuvor, aber habe keine angst. Ich mag immer noch Silent Hill 2, Ghost in the Shell und Evangelion.
25. Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (PC) | 2.5/5 - A real disappointment, unfortunately. Looks and sounds amazing, but the gameplay and story just don't work for me on the level that they did in the first game. I mean, I was already sort of tired of how Senua's Sacrifice played by the end of that game, so just more of it wasn't ideal. The story also feels a lot less impactful, maybe a bit too vague about what's real and not at times (it feels a bit like the only way the game makes sense is if everything is just in Senua's head, but that'd be so boring), slightly aimless, and with pretty poor pacing to boot. Didn't hate Senua's Saga, it has some really strong moments, but I'd be lying if I said I liked my overall experience with it.
26. 1000xRESIST (NSW) | 4.5/5 - Performs about as well as Pokémon Scarlet/Violet on the Switch, the main hub is a nightmare to navigate, and some voice actors sound like they're recording their lines while trying not to wake their parents up in the next room. This doesn't really matter, though, since basically every egg here is put into the story basket, and that story is absolutely incredible; taking on so many different themes from generational trauma, to how power corrupts, the impact of standing up for what you believe in, and the immigrant experience just to name a few things, and while it can sometimes feel a bit messy in the moment, 1000xRESIST (not a great title) manages to actually tie everything together into something so beautiful and thought-provoking.

toth3max · Jan 1, 2024

Claiming my post. I've finished this twice before but failed the last two years. Hopefully 2024 will get me back on track.

Completed 8/52

Final Fantasy VIII (Steam Deck) | Jan 2nd - 26h | 4/5
Super Contra (NES) | Jan 10th - 1h | 3/5
Final Fantasy IX (Steam Deck) | Jan 13th - 27h | 4/5
Contra: Hard Corps (Mega Drive) | Jan 15th - 2h | 3/5
Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear) | 20th Jan - 1h | 3/5
Contra Spirits (SNES) | 24th Jan - 1h | 3/5
Silent Hill: The Short Message (PS) | 20th Feb - 2h | 1/5
Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy (Arcade) | 20th Feb - 1h | 3/5

Currently playing

Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
Diablo IV (co-op)

CubeApple76 · Jan 1, 2024

Reserving a spot again this year, maybe I'll finally do it. Came close 2 years ago, last year was not close at all, largely due to a super busy real world year.

2022 - 49 Completions
2023 - 15 Completions

As with every year, DLC that has a definable completion point (i.e. not some cosmetic or whatever) counts separately, as do battle passes, expansions, and seasons for GaaS games - those take up enough time on their own to count imo.

Total Completions: 0

Replays: 0
Live Service Seasons: 0
DLCs/Expansions: 0
First Playthroughs: 0

Completions by platform:

Xbox: 0
PlayStation: 0
Nintendo: 0
PC: 0
Mobile: 0

Number	Title	Platform	Playtime	Date	Rating
1	Jusant	Xbox Cloud Gaming
2	Starfield	XSX
3	Forza Motorsport	XSX
4	Halo Infinite Season 5	XSX

Mashdyno · Jan 1, 2024

2016 - 40
2017 - 36
2018 - 39
2019 - 32
2020 - 28
2021 - 30
2022 - 35
2023 - 32

Running Total: 11/52

Currently Playing:
Immortals of Aveum - PS5
Zelda: TOTK - Switch
Hellblade II - XBS

Backlog:
Animal Well
Zelda: TOTK
Super Mario RPG
Metroid Prime Remastered
Yakuza: Infinite Wealth
Unicorn Overlord

Completed:

1. Emily is Away too - PC
Completed 1/1/24
*This game just nails the nostalgia I feel for this time period. The sounds and linked Youtube pages are just such a time machine. Love these so much. 9.0/10

2. Emily is Away <3 - PC
Completed 1/1/24
*Love the Facebook aesthetic of this game, it wasnt as effective with the sounds and music but still a great trip overall. 8.0/10.

3. Baldur's Gate 3 - PS5
Completed 1/28/24
*I'm familiar with Larian's games so this didn't come out of nowhere for me, but they really brought it all together for something special here. The quality of the characters is incredible, the world is vast and there are so many places to explore and quests to complete. Its a shame we wont see a DLC expansion released since Larian's next game is likely years away. Gonna be a long wait for BG4. 9.5/10

4. Evil West - PS5
Completed 2/1/24
*I don't really have a lot to say about this game, it was fine. Pretty straightforward, PS3/PS4 era action game. Decently fun combat, visuals were alright, lots of upgrades. 7.0/10

5. Assassin's Creed: Mirage - PS5
Completed 2/8/24
*Really enjoyed this as a familiar game that has some really nice visuals for its supremely well done setting. The story was fine, and the gameplay really hasn't changed much. Definitely toned down the gear economy and points of interest on the map. 8.0/10

6. Good Company - PC
Completed 2/24/24
*This games scratches an itch in my brain that is just so satisfying. I lost so many hours into this game just setting up courier routes. It does get a bit repetitive at the end but I really like this game. 8.0/10

7. Aliens: Dark Descent - PC
Completed 3/13/24
*This game was so much fun, small squad based RTS with RPG mechanics and really nice visuals. The story was cool enough and fit within the Aliens world, xenomorphs are such a great enemy and this game did them very well. The game is a bit buggy with the last update coming over 6 months ago. There weren't a ton of enemy types and they were recycled a bit throughout. Overall I loved this game and hope they make more of these. 8.0/10

8. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
Completed 5/3/24
*Loved so many things about this game but its length and amount of things they stuffed in here is not one of them. If you're a fan of FFVII or the series then you already know. Amazing music, I like what they're doing with the story, fun combat. Bring on part 3. 9.0/10

9. Dave the Diver - PS5
Completed 5/30/24
*Originally played this on PC and liked it, gave it another try when it hit PS+ and saw it all the way through. Just a really great cozy game, not too difficult and really fun varied gameplay. Also got to see the Godzilla DLC. 8.0/10

10. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - PS5
Completed - 6/12/24
*Very fun metroidvania game that seems like the kind of mid tier budget game that we need more of. Love the price point, love the length. The platforming in this game is awesome, the combat was also good but I really didn't care to get good at it. The story was fine but I love that this series has time as an element that is manipulated and often central to the story. 8.5/10

11. Dredge - PS5
Completed - 6/13/24
*So happy this hit PS+ because Ive been eying it for quite a while. Love the gameplay loop of fishing, upgrading, and finding new depths to fish. The story was creepy and the bad ending was very unsettling in a good way. Lots to do but also easy to finish this quickly. 8.0/10

medli · Jan 1, 2024

My first year doing this. Will add better formatting and detail when I have the downtime.

Completed - 2/52:

Mega Man X (SNES) - Jan 5th

FFVII Remake: Intergrade (PS5) - Jan 21st

Currently Playing:

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (PS5)

Wesker · Jan 1, 2024

Happy new year!
Happy to be part of this again!
Games that are replays are marked accordingly.

OVERALL COMPLETED GAMES: 32

1. Batman: Arkham Origins ★★★★★
played on

[January 2nd]

One-sentence review:
»Far better than I expected, a bit buggy here and there but all in all a damn fine Batman game.«

2. Arise: A Simple Story ★★★★★
played on

[January 4th]

One-sentence review:
»A visually pleasing, emotional yet sometimes frustrating game due to some control and camera issues.«

3. Abzû ★★★★★
played on

[January 4th]

One-sentence review:
»A slow-burning game with stunning visuals, a lot of fish and cozy atmosphere.«

4. Aperture Desk Job ★★★★★
played on

[January 5th]

One-sentence review:
»Short, sweet and absurdly funny while providing a great introduction to the Steam Deck's input capabilities.«

5. Röki ★★★★★
played on

[January 19th]

One-sentence review:
»A beautifully animated adventure game with an emotional story about loss, family and hope.«

6. Fotonica ★★★★★
played on

[January 20th]

One-sentence review:
»Fast indie runner with a great soundtrack and slick visual style.«

7. The Hong Kong Massacre ★★★★★
played on

[January 21st]

One-sentence review:
»The John Woo game I always wanted with amazing destruction, although a tad repetetive levels in terms of design.«

8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III – Season One
played on

[January 23rd]

9. Hi-Fi RUSH ★★★★★
played on

[January 24th]

One-sentence review:
»Amazingly fun and fluid gameplay paired with a stunning visual style and actual funny dialogue make for one of the best games I have played from Microsoft in a long, long time.«

10. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice ★★★★★ ↻
played on

[January 26th]

One-sentence review:
»Still one of the most unique and emotional experiences out there from an audio-visual standpoint alone.«

11. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty ★★★★★ ↻
played on

[January 29th]

One-sentence review:
»Still one of my favorites although it arguably aged rather badly considering the bad translation compared to the first game. «

12. Asterix & Obelix Slap Them All! 2 ★★★★★
played on

[February 1st]

One-sentence review:
»A competently made brawler which perfectly captures the comic's art style and overall feeling.«

13. SOMA ★★★★★
played on

[February 6th]

One-sentence review:
»A fantastic horror game with superb writing, posing philosophical questions whilst giving off a healthy lovecraftian vibe.«

14. Diablo IV: Season of the Construct
played on

[February 11th]

15. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory ★★★★★
played on

[February 11th]

One-sentence review:
»One of the greatest stealth games ever made, mechanically speaking.«

16. Superliminal ★★★★★
played on

[February 12th]

One-sentence review:
»This game is simply art.«

17. No one lives under the lighthouse ★★★★★
played on

[February 20th]

One-sentence review:
»A fine horror experience with an interesting visual concept that unfortunately misses its mark in the last third or so. «

18. Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary (MCC) ★★★★★ ↻
played on

[March 10th]

One-sentence review:
»Still a classic.«

19. Midnight Fight Express ★★★★★
played on

[March 12th]

One-sentence review:
»Solid brawler with a non-sensical plot, in other words: Sifu lite.«

20. Blood: Fresh Supply ★★★★★
played on

[March 14th]

One-sentence review:
»One of the creepiest games I have played, that has no problem going neck to neck with Doom.«

21. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III – Season Two
played on

[March 26th]

22. Halo 2: Anniversary ★★★★★ ↻
played on

[April 2nd]

One-sentence review:
»Strong beginning and ending, mediocre mid-part.«

23. Portal with RTX ★★★★★
played on

[April 5th]

One-sentence review:
»The updated visuals just elevate its cult status even further.«

24. Shadow Man Remastered ★★★★★
played on

[April 12th]

One-sentence review:
»A cult-classic for so many reasons.«

25. Tomb Raider Remastered ★★★★★
played on

[April 18th]

One-sentence review:
»Besides some weirdly hidden passages, a fantastic adventure from start to finish.«

26. Forgive Me Father ★★★★★
played on

[April 22nd]

One-sentence review:
»Fxcking fantastic soundtrack, superb gunplay and Lovecraftian af.«

27. Diablo IV (Sorcerer – level 100)
played on

[May 5th]

28. Alone in the Dark ★★★★★
played on

[May 6th]

One-sentence review:
»Good reboot of a rocky franchise with some technical hiccups, and a satisfying story for most Lovecraft fans.«

29. INDIKA ★★★★★
played on

[May 9th]

One-sentence review:
»A harrowing tale of a nun that's excellently shot and beautifully voice-acted.«

30. Outcast – A New Beginning ★★★★★
played on

[May 25th]

One-sentence review:
»Pretty good old school open world gameplay coupled with fun characters and dialogues.«

31. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III – Season Three
played on

[May 26th]

32. Senua's Saga – Hellblade II ★★★★★
played on

[May 28th]

One-sentence review:
»Not as great as the original but the second half of the game is remarkable in every sense of the word.«

2023 | 52 games
2022 | 70 games

JazzmanZ · Jan 1, 2024

I shall take part this year.

Complete Games

1.SMRPG Remake (January 4th)
2.Super Mario Wonder (January 11th)
3.The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (January 11th)
4.Wario Land 2 (January 12th)
5.Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age (January 24th)
6.Metroid Prime 3 Corruption (January 27th)
7.Super Mario 64 (January 30th)
8.Fire Emblem (February 3rd)
9.Kingdom hearts Chain of Memories (February 11th)
10.Dragon Quest VII 3DS (March 18th)
11.Hollow Knight (April 15th)
12.Starfox 64 (April 28th)
13.Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 (May 13th)
14.Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door Remake (June 1st)
15.Megaman 1 - Gameboy (June 8th)
16.Megaman 2 - Gameboy (June 9th)
17.Megaman 3 - Gameboy (June 10th)
18.Megaman 4 - Gameboy (June 11th)
19.Megaman V (June 12th)

Dermee · Jan 1, 2024

Will hopefully, possibly, likely, try to participate.

SilentEagle · Jan 1, 2024

Happy new year!

Reserved.

raspberrymousse · Jan 1, 2024

Reserving my post, happy new year everyone! Got a feeling I'll be completing a lot of games these first couple of months given the amount of interesting indies (and larger games) leftover from 2023.

TheOneJat · Jan 1, 2024

Reserving for 2024 :D

GhoulOne · Jan 1, 2024

Ok I'll try it this year.

Most recent completion - Picross -LogiartGrimoire- (Switch) 6/10/24

2Xtreme (PS4)
2Xtreme (PS5)
The Artful Escape (PS5)
Assassin's Creed: Mirage (PS5)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (X1)
Dynamite Cop (Arcade)
Evil West (PS5)
Excite Truck (Wii)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)
Harold Halibut (XSX)
Interaction Isn't Explicit. (PS5)
The Last of Us: Part I (PS5)
The Last of Us: Part II Remastered (PS5)
Lil Gator Game (XSX)
Little Kitty, Big City (XSX)
A Little to the Left (XSX)
Pac-Man World Re-Pac (Switch)
Picross -LogiartGrimoire- (Switch)
Picross S2 (Switch)
Picross S: Genesis & Master System Edition (Switch)
Princess Peach: Showtime! (Switch)
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (XSX)
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC)
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (X1)
Uno (PS4)
Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting [DLC] (PC)
When the Past Was Around (X1)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS5)

Total Completions - 28

DekkoCards · Jan 1, 2024

Reserving for 2024... Gonna give it a try this year.

LaDiiablo · Jan 1, 2024

LaDiiablo's 52 games challenge!
To be honest, I never played a 52 games in single year, but the reason I wanted to participate in this challenge is that every year I find myself play and play less games due to work, stress, other commitments & I really want to change that cause I still freaking love video games, so what's better than little challenge with other people to motivate myself! Last year I beat only 8 games, so anything more is a win in my book!
P.S.#1 I'll take inspirations from others replies to make my thread, I hope you guys don't mind :D
P.S.#2 English is not my first langage so don't expect short reviews like other members do, I'll try to write one line to express how I felt about that game!

Games completed so far: 10/52

January 2024

1/52. Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox Series X) | 1 January 2024 | 90%
After the announcement trailer of GTA 6 (HYPE) I knew I wanted to replay GTA 5 in preparation & man I really still love this game, yes the characters can be obnoxious some times and some of the missions are really bad in my opinion, but the heist system, the city, the mayhem is still there! I can spend hours & hours in Los Santos without getting bored! I'm really hoping for better mission structure in GTA 6 tho, the "follow the blue & yellow line or you fail the mission" method is getting very stale, I want some freedom in how I complet their missions.

2/52. Inside (Xbox Series X) | 3 January 2024 | 95%
OK I get the hype now! this game is a masterpiece & I really can't stop thinking about it! what did happen to this world? Who are making this mind control devices? An invading nation? The rich trying to control the poor? and don't even start me with the secret ending, who was controlling us? does this happen often? are we part of the experiment? I want more of this eerie world, please someone turn this into a show or movie! I WANT MORE INSIDE!

3/52. The Case of the Golden Idol (Windows PC) | 8 January 2024 | 85%
I really enjoyed this puzzle game and the idea of using the words in the chapter to solve the mystery! the puzzles were clever & very fun to solve but in the later chapters that contain LOT of words, filling the left section of the parchment became very hard even if you solved the mystery already in ur head cause the game doesn't show you which paragraph relate to which incident (or maybe I'm just dumb)! anyway really recommend this game!

4/52. Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka (Windows PC) | 10 January 2024 | 80%

5/52. Golden Idol Mysteries: The Lemurian Vampire (Windows PC) | 11 January 2024 | 80%
I finished both DLCs & I gotta say, the jump in difficulty between the base game & DLCs is HUGE! especially in "The Lemurian vampire" that I had to use hints for the first time to solve the 2nd & 3rd episodes! still I really loved this game & can't wait for the next installment!

6/52. Half-Life (Windows PC) | 19 January 2024 | 95%
What can I say? this game is still a masterpiece and I think it really holds up to today's standards... I don't think I replayed this game ever since I first played it in the early 2000s, so I pretty much forgot almost everything past the opening sequence, & what a joy to rediscover this game! The iconic Half-Life sound, the iconic enemies like headcrabs & marines, the mysterious G-Man! God I'm so glad I replayed it, & can't wait to replay the whole series this year!

7/52. Hitman 3 (Xbox Series X) | 23 January 2024 | 85%
I freaking love this trilogy, what IO did with Hitman is nothing short of miracle, they reinvented the franchise & made some of the best stealth levels in gaming EVER, & the third installment continue the trend! The grandeur of Dubai, the murder mystery of Dartmoor, the neon vibes of Chongqing, and my favorite level: Berlin with its awesome twist of not knowing your targets, all levels were awesome. I also loved the assassination stories of this installment, especially solving the murder in the manor "Knives out" style, but nothing for me beat the "silent assassin suit only" run, and adapting mid run to the variables! I really really loved the new Hitman trilogy & I can't wait to see what IO do next with 007!

8/52. Hitman 2016 (Xbox Series X) | 26 January 2024 | 85%

9/52. Hitman 2 (Xbox Series X) | 28 January 2024 | 85%
After finishing 3, I said: "fuck it, I'm gonna replay 1 & 2 in the new engine before the games leave gamepass", & I'm glad I did! amazing trilogy!

February 2024

10/52. Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Xbox Series X) | 19 February 2024 | 85%
What a fun Metroidvania! I had a blast from start to finish, the movement was fun, the level design/platforming was fun, the music/art style are gorgeous! I was hoping for some bosses but oh well! now I'm looking to play the sequel some days in the future! probably my favorite xbox one exclusive so far!

Bastion · Jan 1, 2024

2023 List-62
2022 List-55
2021 List-79
2020 List-121
2019 List-85
2018 List-112
2017 List-87

Game 1-The Council Episode One The Mad Ones(2018)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 1
-It started slowly as most episodic games do but I'm thought it was pretty interesting. We'll see where it goes. 7/10

Game 2-The Council Episode 2 Hide and Seek(2018)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 1
-The mystery gets deeper. It's pretty good. 7/10

Game 3-Venba(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 1
-After seeing this game come up in many best games of the year lists, I decided to give it a go and am glad I did. It was a moving game about the challenges of being first generation immigrants and seeing your kids assimilate and not want to be part of your traditional culture. The cooking could have been stripped out and I would have been happier. 8/10

Game 4-Fort Solis(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 2
-This game does not get much love but I thought it was worth incredible. Great mystery story, great environment, great graphics, great voice acting and characters. I guess some people don't like walking simulator adventure games. 9/10

Game 5-The Council Episode 3 The Ripples(2018)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 3
-This was a pretty good episode. I have to say I like the historic figures included in this series. 7/10

Game 6-The Council Episode 4 Burning Bridges(2018)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 4
-Well this was a crazy episode. Everything was turned upside down. Let's see what happens in the finale. 7/10

Game 7-The Council Episode 5 The Checkmate(2018)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 4
-I feel this game went off the rails the last two episodes. It was still ok and I really do like these episodic games. 7/10

Game 8-Beyond Eyes(2015)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 6
-I love walking simulators but this was the worst one I've ever played. While the premise is cool, it just isn't well executed. It's just soo sloooow. Slower than most walking simulators. 4/10

Game 9-Bright Memory(2019)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 6
-This was an ok first person shooter action game. It was quite janky so I look forward to Infinite to see if it's improved. 6/10

Game 10-Under the Waves(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 7
-I loved this game. The loved the underwater setting, the story, everything. So, so good. 10/10

Game 11-Exit 8(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 7
-Interesting short game where if you want to escape the loop, you have to spot the anomalies. It's labeled as a horror game but it isn't even close to a horror game. It's ok at best. 5/10

Game 12-Halo Spartan Assault(2014)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 8
-This was a brief, short diversion. I love the Halo universe and music and this one delivers it in a smaller scale. Fun game. 7/10

Game 13-Slay the Princess(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 8
-Interesting game but I have decided that time loop games are not my favorite. I feel like I'm wasting my life. Now this isn't as bad as most because it's a visual novel and every loop was different to a degree but still a lot of repeat story over and over. 7/10

Game 14-Supernormal(2024)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 9
-This was an ok horror game where you just have to wait and find clues throughout the environment as time progresses. Not my type of horror game. 5/10

Game 15-Bright Memory (2021)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 12
-This was ton of fun and much better than the first game. Loved the gun and sword play in this game. So good for a small developer. It was about two hours but for what I paid for it, well worth it. 9/10

Game 16-I Love You Colonel Sanders(2019)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 13
-For a free visual novel promoting KFC, this was pretty good. 6/10

Game 17-Milky Way Prince The Vampire Star(2020)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 15
-This was a visual novel that focused on a toxic relationship and the challenges that brings. Pretty powerful but I felt it dragged on a bit. 7/10

Game 18-Narcosis(2017)-PC via ROG Ally--Beaten on January 18
-After beating Under the Waves, I wanted another underwater game and this was another very good game. It's scarier than Under the Waves which I appreciate. 7/10

Game 19-Deadlight(2012)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 21
-What a great game this was. Great atmosphere for a side scroller. Great gameplay as well. 9/10

Game 20-Redeemer(2017)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on January 23
-This game was a ton of fun. Just run and gun and rip baddies apart. 9/10

Game 21-That Dragon Cancer(2016)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 27
-This was a very emotional game about parents losing their young song to cancer. It makes you what it can be like for families that go through this. 8/10

Game 22-Eternights(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on January 31
-This was a kind of generic version of Persona. It was ok but just generic overall. 6/10

Game 23-Silent Hill The Short Message(2024)-PS5-Beaten in February 3
-I was super excited to find out that there was a free Silent Hill game out as I love all the older games in the series. This game really had nothing to do with Silent Hill from what I could tell. It was also a loop game which I really am not a fan of. It was a ok experience but being free, I really can't complain too much. 7/10

Game 24-Rosas are Red(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on March 19
-This was a two hour adult dating sim visual novel that was fun. Nothing special but enjoyed my two hours with it. 7/10

Game 25-Alone in the Dark Prologue(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on March 20
-This was basically a 15 minute prologue of the new Alone in the Dark that just came out. I wanted to okay this before the full game. This was ok. 6/10

Game 26-The Symbiant(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on March 26
-Halfway to 52! This was a BL romance visual novel that was pretty good. It was the first BL game that I have finished. 8/10

Game 27-The Symbiant Re:Union(2024)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on March 29
-This was ok at best. Not nearly as good as the first game. 6/10

Game 28-Open Roads(2024)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on March 31
-Loved this adventure game. Love the animation and the mystery behind it. 9/10

Game 29-Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk.
(2022)-Switch-Beaten on March 31
-This very short game apparently is about a girl suffering from mental health issues. It made no sense to me. 2/10

Game 30-Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk(2022)-Switch-Beaten on April 1
-This was better than the first game but still a bit nonsensical to me. 5/10

Game 31-Buckshot Roulette(2024)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on April 6
-This cheap game was getting alot of buzz online so decided to give it a shot. I thought it was stupid and not worth the few dollars I paid for it. 2/10

Game 32-Slain Back from Hell(2016)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on May 4
-What an awesome metal rock ride this was. Such a good 2-d action game. Quite hard too. 9/10

Game 33-Valfaris(2019)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on May 9
-Wow! What an awesome game. This is a sequel to Slain Back from Hell and it's just soo good. 10/10

Game 34-Amanda the Adventurer(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on May 12
-This was a very dark little horror game dressed up in a Dora The Explorer cartoon. Very interesting game. I look forward to the sequel. 7/10

Game 35-Indika(2024)-PC via RoG Ally-Beaten on May 20
-This was an interesting game to say the least. It was dark and more of a walking simulator which I love. 8/10

Game 36-Senua's Saga Hellblade 2(2024)-Xbox Series X-Beaten on May 31
-I absolutely loved the original game and this was just as good. What an experience this was. 10/10

Game 37-Synthetic Lover(2022)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on May 31
-This was a decent BL game made by the same group that made The Symbiant ganes. Nothing special. 6/10

Game 38-Ys VIII Lacromosa if Dana(2018)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on June 4
-I finally got around to playing and beating Ys 8. What game this was! Falcom makes the best games. Playing Oath of Felghana next. 10/10

Game 39-Ys Oath in Felgana(2010)-PSP-Beaten on June 7
-I loved this game maybe even more than 8. It was about 12 hours which is perfect for me as it eliminated a lot of the padding that 8 has. 10/10

Game 40-Mediterranean Inferno(2023)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten in June 10
-This was an extremely weird game that wasn't easily to follow. It did get dark at then end though. It also wants you to play through several times which I have no interest in doing. 6//10

Game 41-Ys Origin(2012)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 11
-I am loving these Ys games. They are so much fun. I beat Yunica's story. Apparently I have to play through it two more times using different characters to get the full story. I'm not a fan of games that do this but it's so much fun I can live with it. 9/10

Game 42-Ys Origin(2012)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 13
-I decided to replay the game this time as Hugo. Loved it. Now I will play one more time to get the final story. 9/10

Game 43-Ys Origin(2012)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 13
-Played through Toal's story which completes the game. I've rarely played games through two times let alone three times but still really enjoyed it which says a lot about this game. 9/10

Big_Salad · Jan 1, 2024

2024 Finished Games List:

Off to a somewhat early start.

	Game	Platform	Date	Hours
1	RoboCop: Rogue City	XBOX	1/1/2024	16
2	Like a Dragon Gaiden	XBOX	1/8/2024	14
3	Madden 24	XBOX	1/14/2024	16
4	Super Mario World	Deck	1/22/2024	6
5	Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island	Deck	1/28/2024	9
6	Prince of Persia The Lost Crown	XBOX	1/29/2024	20
7	Final Fantasy VII: Remake	PS5	2/1/2024	26
8	Death Stranding Director's Cut	PS5	2/10/2024	33
9	Return To Grace	XBOX	2/19/2024	3
10	Bluey: The Videogame	XBOX	2/21/2024	3
11	Teardown	XBOX	2/24/2024	10
12	Metal Gear Solid 2	XBOX	2/27/2024	9
13	Plumbers Don't Wear Ties Definitive Edition	XBOX	3/6/2024	3
14	Paw Patrol World	XBOX	3/14/2024	6
15	EA Sports PGA Tour	XBOX	3/17/2024	20
16	MLB The Show 24	XBOX	3/23/2024	20
17	Fallout: New Vegas	XBOX	4/24/2024	60
18	Fallout 4	XBOX	5/19/2024	65

Ted · Jan 1, 2024

Reserved. Thanks for doing the thread as ever Wozzer.

Previous years:
2017 - 52
2018 - 10
2019 - 38
2020 - 32
2021 - 17
2022 - 8
2023 - 18

> 2024 progress diary (updated 01 June):

05/January - Call of Duty: MWIII WZ / MWZ / MP (Season 1) - Some hours!
Completion State: Completed the Battle Pass and all weekly challenges.

Not a huge fan of the remastered MP maps but I like the new WZ/MWZ map. Shame there isn't a massive resurgence mode for Urzikstan from the start as I've never been a fan of the modes on parts of the map. I'm mostly playing MWZ when I'm solo and only really playing WZ when friends are online. Hoping S2 adds something interesting else I'm not sure how long I'll be playing this year.

06/January - We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie - 8.7 hours
Completion State: Completed all levels in ALAP and AFAP modes.

It's not as cohesive as the original Katamari Damacy but it's more Katamari so it's still great.

14/January - Eufloria - 22.4 hours
Completion State: Completed all missions in story mode, a little of the Dark Matter and a couple of skirmish arenas.

It's missing one main QoL features from Eufloria HD, the ability to pish seeds from asteroid to asteroid when the asteroid reaches a defined number of seeds, but beyond that it's basically the same so my comments from back in 2017 stand:

Very few games manage to be both intense and relaxing at the same time. This is one.

Beautiful art style, interesting but not complex mechanics, a simple but mildly evocative story, this is all round a good and stylish little game. Some challenging levels but it rarely feels unfair, you really need the right blend of puzzling and strategy in this kind of game and I think Eufloria gets it pretty bang on.

23/January - Circuit Superstars - 16.8 hours
Completion State: Completed and achieved gold in all 16 events.

I should really love this game. It's a beautifully presented isometric racing game with a driving model with just enough depth, race structures that have a qualification session and a race (with some requiring pit stops) which are, for me, very challenging with the AI set to pro and plenty of events. For some reason though, whilst I enjoyed it and I acknowledge it's a really good game, it just didn't get under my skin like I thought it would.

I can't put my finger on it exactly but I think it's a combo of the safe driving model that encourages precision and only precision and the AI which, like most racing games, are more a procession of obstacles rather than dynamic combatants for whatever position we are vying for at a given moment. It's one of those games where championships are a little moot as the same driver is in most cases in the same position every race with only your position changing/effecting theirs. It's one of my pet peeves with the vast majority of racing games and, in my opinion, we have to move on from this if racing AI is ever going to be even close to as fun as racing other players in a fair, clean lobby.

Overall, still a good game but just doesn't quite push through to great which is disappointing as I really wanted it to be.

20/February - EA Sports FC24 - 33.9 hours
Completion State: Completed a single season of the player career as well as a couple of tournaments and some local MP.

I would normally play a few seasons of a player career but it's impossible to progress beyond the first season in my save due to a peculiar but widely reported (and as yet unfixed) error. Very disappointing as the core gameplay is reasonably compelling. However due to this bug I can only rate this poorly. Fuck EA.

24/February - Banished - 11.9 hours
Completion State: Got a community successfully growing and hit the constant growth end game.

This city building sim is very much a resource balancing exercise that, like modern capitalism, demands constant growth in order to thrive. It's fun enough but like most/many city/resource sims it ultimately demands you find a strategy and then essentially repeat it ad inifinitum in order to balance resources via growth. It makes for, in my opinion, a fairly dull end game.

01/March - Horizon Chase Turbo - 13.3 hours
Completion State: Completed the world tour, along with some tournaments, adventures and endurance series.

Fun arcade racer with a load of content to play through. Great stuff.

02/March - Cats Hidden in Maple Hollow - 1.5 hours
Completion State: Found all the cats hidden in Maple Hollow.

I like hidden object games. Sue me.

19/March - Assemble with Care - 2 hours
Completion State: Completed all levels.

I love taking things apart and putting them back together, whilst this simplifies this a lot, it is still a fabulous little thing with a thoughtful story to tell. Well worth playing for sure.

30/March - Call of Duty: MWIII WZ / MWZ / MP (Season 2) - Some hours!
Completion State: Completed the Battle Pass and all weekly challenges.

The best thing about season 2 is [more] recycled content. And by the looks of the excitement for Rebirth Island this trend to we want new stuff that's just the old stuff made prettier seems likely to continue.

14/April - Golf Peaks - 5.7 hours
Completion State: Completed all levels and bonus levels.

Lovely art style but some of the puzzles tweak my puzzle brain game in the wrong way. Mostly in that sometimes not all of the moves (represented here as cards with a type and distance for the ball to move) are required. For some reason this irrationally peeves me. Still, nicely presented and fun enough.

11/May - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - 19.1 hours
Completion State: Completed the game.

A fun souls lite.

The game was on sale on May the 4th so it seemed fated. I'm not a Star Wars fan (nor am I not, it's just not something that I have ever got into) and the longest I've really spent with the franchise is an old super Nintendo game. Oddly that seems like a good reference point as like that one this had as much environmental puzzle content as it does combat.

Overall I liked it, Cal is a likeable but naïve young Jedi and the story carries him, the supporting cast (big up BD-1) and the crews mission along at a decent and compelling lick. Good stuff.

12/May - Milo and the Magpies - 2.2 hours
Completion State: Completed all the levels and found all the secrets.

Beautiful art, engaging scenes and mostly logically puzzle solving. A cute mash-up of point and click and hidden object game that tells a charming story of Milo the cat lost in their street finding their way home.

Well worth a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

27/May - Call of Duty: MWIII WZ / MWZ / MP (Season 3) - Some hours!
Completion State: Completed the Battle Pass and all weekly challenges.

OK Rebirth Island is fun (Loaded Resurgence is great, hectic from the off fun), and the new MP maps are pretty good. OK, fair enough. I enjoyed this season. I'll say it.

01/June - Super Woden GP II - 27 hours
Completion State: Completed most events, did some time trials, tried the arcade mode and did a little local multiplayer.

I think it is better with the mid pace BTC/DTC/JTC style cars but up to this level it's great fun. Lot's of interesting cars, a half decent amount of tracks and plenty of racing to do. Good game to a point.

last played HL2:E1 in 2020

> Completed Games (15/52) - 37 to go

#01: Call of Duty: MWIII WZ / MWZ / MP (Season 1) | Various COD studios | PC | ★★☆☆☆
#02: We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie | MONKEYCRAFT Co. Ltd. | PC | ★★★★☆
#03: Eufloria | Rudolf Kremers & Alex May | PC | ★★★☆☆
#04: Circuit Superstars | Original Fire Games | PC | ★★★☆☆
#05: EA Sports FC24 | Electronic Arts | PC | ★☆☆☆☆
#06: Banished | Shining Rock Software | PC | ★★☆☆☆
#07: Horizon Chase Turbo | AQUIRIS | PC | ★★★☆☆
#08: Cats Hidden in Maple Hollow | Travellin Cats | PC | ★★★☆☆
#09: Assemble with Care | ustwo games | PC | ★★★★☆
#10: Call of Duty: MWIII WZ / MWZ / MP (Season 2) | Various COD studios | PC | ★★☆☆☆
#11: Golf Peaks | Afterburn | PC | ★★☆☆☆
#12: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order | Respawn Entertainment | PC | ★★★☆☆
#13: Milo and the Magpies | Johan Scherft | PC | ★★★☆☆
#14: Call of Duty: MWIII WZ / MWZ / MP (Season 3) | Various COD studios | PC | ★★★☆☆
#15: Super Woden GPII | ViJuDa | PC | ★★★☆☆

★☆☆☆☆ - Bad | ★★☆☆☆ - OK | ★★★☆☆ - Good | ★★★★☆ - Great | ★★★★★ - Exceptional

> Currently Playing

Actively playing:

Watch Dogs: Legion - Ubisoft - PC
Loved W_D2 so thought I'd give this a go despite the poor critical reception when it first came out.
Enshrouded - Keen Games - PC
I loved Valheim and this looks like it is Valheim with a more structured progression system so I'll give it a good go. Probably a bad decision productivity wise but ho hum.
XCOM 2 - Firaxis Games - PC
Recently thought about replaying XCOM so thought why not just try the successor. Going to play vanilla XCOM 2 first and then maybe next year WOTC.
Baldur's Gate 3 - Larian Studios - PC
Loved D:OSIIDE and never touched anything DnD related so I am looking forward to getting stuck in.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Ubisoft - PC
After enjoying Origins and it lasting me so long, why not!?
Call of Duty: MWIII Warzone / MWZ / MP - Various COD studios - PC
Occasional sessions with friends in BR/MP, regular solo MWZ sessions.

Occasionally messing with:

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Asobo Studios - PC
Slowly completing a round the coastlines of the world series of flights.
Cities Skylines - Colossal Order - PC
Playing with a few different cities and self-imposed scenarios.
Kerbal Space Program - Squad - PC
Muddling about with my commsats orbiting every planet mission.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 - SCS Software - PC
Slowly building my trucking empire.

> Started but dropped

#01: Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend - Arc System Works - PC
Fancied playing a crazy fighting game story and Blazblue in theory fits the bill but I just can't bear the presentation and even more so the ableism I suddenly came across a couple of chapters in. The occasional gratuitous crotch shot just seals the deal in terms of dropping it. This was only released in 2014 so whilst it's ten years old it's not like it's a product of the seventies or the like!

RedShift · Jan 1, 2024

Gonna give this a go again this year - hit 52 last year despite a load of huge games along the way, I think my backlog is mainly clear of big hitters this year so should be a bit simpler.

Updates: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

#	Title	Platform	Original Platform	Started	Finished	Time
1	Super Mario Land	PC	Game Boy	1-Jan-2024	1-Jan-2024	1.0 hours
2	Death's Door	PC		2-Jan-2024	11-Jan-2024	9.0 hours
3	Cocoon	PC		11-Jan-2024	13-Jan-2024	4.5 hours
4	Bzzzt	PC		13-Jan-2024	14-Jan-2024	2.0 hours
5	Pokémon Red Version	Android	Game Boy	5-Jan-2024	29-Jan-2024	20.0 hours
6	Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain	PC		30-Jan-2024	30-Jan-2024	1.0 hours
7	Sonic Adventure 2	PC		31-Jan-2024	7-Feb-2024	9.0 hours
8	Planet of Lana	PC		9-Feb-2024	15-Feb-2024	4.5 hours
9	Metroid: Zero Mission	PC	GBA	10-Feb-2024	17-Feb-2024	4.5 hours
10	Kirby's Dream Land	PC	Game Boy	23-Feb-2024	23-Feb-2024	1.0 hours
11	Assassin's Creed Revelations	PC		21-Feb-2024	24-Feb-2024	14.0 hours
12	Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins	PC	Game Boy	25-Feb-2024	27-Feb-2024	2.0 hours
13	Resident Evil Village	PC		28-Feb-2024	4-Mar-2024	9.5 hours
14	Chants of Sennaar	PC		1-Mar-2024	6-Mar-2024	9.0 hours
15	Balatro	PC		9-Mar-2024	9-Mar-2024	5.5 hours
16	Donkey Kong '94	PC	Game Boy	7-Mar-2024	12-Mar-2024	6.0 hours
17	Batman: Arkham City	PC		14-Mar-2024	22-Mar-2024	13.5 hours
18	Pokémon Gold Version	Android	Game Boy	16-Feb-2024	23-Mar-2024	22.5 hours
19	Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope	PC		23-Mar-2024	29-Mar-2024	6.5 hours
20	What Remains of Edith Finch	PC		6-Apr-2024	6-Apr-2024	2.0 hours
21	Alien: Isolation	PC		31-Mar-2024	10-Apr-2024	15.0 hours
22	Minishoot' Adventures	PC		10-Apr-2024	17-Apr-2024	11.5 hours
23	The Forgotten City	PC		22-Apr-2024	26-Apr-2024	6.0 hours
24	The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass	3DS	NDS	17-Apr-2024	28-Apr-2024	17.0 hours
25	Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3	PC	Game Boy	21-Apr-2024	29-Apr-2024	4.0 hours
26	Cassette Beasts	PC		2-May-2024	12-May-2024	17.5 hours
27	Dave the Diver	PC		4-May-2024	18-May-2024	24.0 hours
28	Animal Well	PC		19-May-2024	21-May-2024	6.0 hours
29	Crow Country	PC		22-May-2024	23-May-2024	4.0 hours
30	Little Kitty, Big City	PC		25-May-2024	25-May-2024	2.5 hours
31	SteamWorld Dig	PC		26-May-2024	26-May-2024	4.0 hours

2018: 64 Games \| Part 1 \| Part 2	2019: 65 Games \| Thread
2020: 104 Games \| Thread	2021: 87 Games \| Thread
2022: 78 Games \| Thread	2023: 59 Games \| Thread

52 Games. 1 Year. 2024. [BacklogBeat]

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