by chlomo
Well, forget everything you know about videogames because I'm back to tell you that unless you played what I did, you played the wrong things. Some would say that maybe the end of the year is a bit too late to tell everyone what they should have played over the last year, but well, those people are losers.
This year I've got games I've partially and even some I fully remembered and let me tell you, I played some games this year hoo-boy. So throw out your gaming pc, flush your Xbox Series X and overcharge your PS5's rent until it's forced to move out cos it's time for some real gaming.
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
We're looking at a game that techincally I started in 2021 that I finally finished in 2024, but let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I don't like to declare myself as a pro gamer, but I'm pretty sure remembering that I need oxygen and sunlight are two things not all gamers are aware of, but Subnautica MAKES you aware of it at all times, it's a challenging game for big brain gamers, I almost didn't make the cut. So what if I drowned a few hundred times, it was for SCIENCE! I may have left a little bit of the grey matter behind when I drove my Seamoth to crush depth several times. I may have died, but I did it so that I could live. I may have accidentally parked my Prawn Suit in area's I couldn't actually get to, but even genius's make mistakes sometimes. I put on my own tunes and disappeared into the underwater caves time and time again, forgetting what I went down there for. Subnautica was honestly some of the most fun I've had in ages, exploring the caves, trying to figure out how to get to places and taking serene journeys backwards and forwards in my various little boats and mechs that I gave cute little names to. Remebering how when I finished Factorio I regretted not making the spider mech, I even made the Cyclops in the game, long after I actually could have used it and only just before I launched into space, leaving it all behind. Very few games recently have given me a feeling of sadness when I go to finish the game, but with Subnautica I probably could have stayed stranded in that biome forever.
Alan Wake was a game that I played on Xbox 360 and I was always just kinda "eh" about it, it didn't feel special, it didn't feel like something worth writing home about. I'd seen David Lynch's work and the writing in Alan Wake felt very cheesy. I didn't like it enough to play past the opening hour. But when I got told Alan Wake 2 was one of the best games of this generation I was like "OH FINE, OK, I'LL TRY IT." But despite my best efforts, it turns out you really can't appreciate Alan Wake 2 without Alan Wake, so after I begrudgingly replayed the first game I sat down and had one of the best survival horror experiences I've had in a long time. Alan Wake 2 felt special, it felt like the kind of game that other games want to be, it was done with vision and love and care and felt like a cohesive piece of work that went out of it's way to try new things and idea's and even expand on old ones. It may have been a big song and dance for Alan when he got to the "We Sing" chapter, but it was just as big of a song and dance for me, who was equally blown away.
It has been a good year for finishing games I bought in 2021, but Cyberpunk has been a work in progress and only this year was I able to run the game properly without being assaulted by T-Posing npc's and my car randomly exploding. I explored the mean streets of Night City, a dead rockstar in my brain, a inventory full of cute outfits and swords and my dead friends motorbike tuned to Pacific Dreams so I could space out and drive mindlessly around the city until trouble found me. I just loved the vibes and went out of my way to do every little thing I could, exploring every detail, it's rare to find a game that's side quests felt so tailored and special and playing it at the same time as playing Starfield just widened the gap in the amount of love and care that went into it and made me appreciate Cyberpunk more. I wish the game had been longer, I played it forever, but I wished for more, I'd had never have moved out and moved onto other games, I'd not have made those decisions and kept on living higher and grander, leaving Judy staring at me wistfully as I boarded that tilt wing to hijack the very stars.
Helldivers may think itself a game about shooting bugs, but it's an imitator, a clever copy, but the true bug hunting game shall not be denied. EDF 5 picked up where Helldivers dropped the ball, where in Helldivers were the 40 minute missions about destroying Godzilla? Cmon, you think I'm going to just let that slide Sony? Amateurs. So, maybe splash damage we encountered from all having broken plasma weapons may have had an effect on the blinding laser missions where the entire city was flattened by an alien spaceship that made me and all my friends go "WAIT WHAT, WHAT THE HELL, HOW DO I GET AWAY FROM THAT WHAT, WHAAAAAAAA", it's just part of the job, I wasn't made a wing-diver, I was born one. Born to fall face first into the dirt and be stuck staring up my own skirt until my poor, wounded friends could come and revive me <3 EDF still manages to be absolutely broken and ridiculous, with it's "frog" people and it's trillion guns and missions and wow, when we finished it, it sure lived up to the hype. I look forward to EDF 6, I think.
DOO DOO DOO DOOOOOOO, DAH DAHH, DOO DO DO DOOOO, BAH BAH BUH BAH BAAAAAAHHHH. Rarely ever is my favorite part of the game the loading screen, but when I watch this game load, I suddenly care immensely about DEMOCRACY as me and my friends pods hurtle past the stars and celestial bodies as that heroic music plays in the background, liberty resting firmly on our shoulders. When we finally crash land on the planet, arriving just in time like a burnt piece of toast 5 minutes before it's time to leave for work. We throw down our devastating firepower against the bugs, the bots, the aliens but most importantly, ourselves <3 Friendly fire has never been so wholesome, whoops sorry everyone! I tripped and dropped my 380mm barrage hahaha, watch the fuck out it's raining shrapnel! Oh, never mind, just got blasted by my friends auto turret, I'd hope they get got too but the Bile Titan already stood on then them, shucks, war sure is funny sometimes.
Somewhere between accidentally drinking my pee and pouring blood into the gas tank of my rusted piece of junk car with a boot full of swords and italian sausages, croissants and pink coloured spray paints, I had discovered that I lost two of my cars rear doors when I hit a rock a few miles back. I sighed, got out my car to inspect the damage, forgot to use the handbrake and watched helplessly as my car rolled down the hill and off into the horizon never to be seen again. That night I'd have to outrun the killer rabbits and hope that when I eventually got to the next gas station that I could salvage a new vehicle and that the zombies wouldn't sneak up on me from behind. The Long Drive is what I imagine 1960's America is in the minds of those who were there, it's supposed to be the apocalypse, but the world already ended for me when I watched all those Italian sausages disappear over the horizon, because the physics have been broken since patch 0.007. God bless.
ROCK AND STONE BROTHER. Well, if it isn't the after job drinks, where I can customize my dwarf to look like a post-trauma version of Wario who'd really seen some shit, then get drunk and ride some barrels, hell yeah. Back to the mines huh, oh well time to have a ridiculous shoot-out with the local wildlife and then feed lots of materials into Mollie, what a good robot. Yelling rock and stone and then getting yourself downed by digging a hole through a wall and coming out over a giant pit, falling into it and having to beg your friends to help you out. Deep Rock Galactic felt like a real job, but one I actually enjoyed. But how could you not when the benefits are this good?! *Drinks another round of lucky leafs that do absolutely nothing*
In-between all the turn-based tomfoolery that is the modern "Yakuza" experience, they slipped in this little game specifically made for me, designed so I could have one last time with my most precious videogame character Kazuma Kiryu, before he was wheeled off never to be seen again in the other Like A Dragon games (you know the ones). The game itself had a few flashbacks to the previous games and whilst I know the writers hands were tied with what they could have done with Kiryu's character considering the games that were to come, it was still pretty good, I'd hoped for more but I probably didn't deserve it, but Kiryu did. I didn't even do everything, but I maxed out the arena because I just love the beat em up combat and playing as Kiryu one last time really made this game special to me, I thought it was all over after 6, but I was so glad to be back one more time. *sobs uncontrollably*
I know this was on last years list but I only just finished it properly, so nah, you're wrong. This is just the best Ace Attorney of the very limited few Ace Attorney games, this was so engaging even if some of the stories went on a little too long, the concept of giving the jury a face was so new and refreshing, even if all they did was toy with your emotions being so painfully dumb and gullible, it all just worked. The characters were great, it was all really well written and I hope they continue with this even though I know it's a bit of a slim chance.
This was a happy little accident, I do love me the souls games and wowee, it's a modern Kings Field that's not aged like milk in the sun. A fun selection of weapons, a really cool deep and connected world, it's the sweet spot between Dark Souls 1 and Kings Field 4. It's got a grand atmosphere and I wanted it to keep expanding and to find more and more within the depths of The Great Well, but well, I got what I got and I'm glad. I wish I could have spent more time with it.