The best game I played this year was GOD HAND (2006), which I played for a few hours to see how well it would run on a handheld system I was hemming and hawing about purchasing from a coworker.
GOD HAND is still amazing. I can’t think about it or especially not see it being played well before I want to play it again.
this was a really neat rental as a kid, i wanna revisit it sometime but since finding out some years ago that it had a saturn sequel with the same name (why would someone do this) i keep thinking i should get around to that one first
I’m the weirdo that said that they finish 6+ games a month on average, at least that has been the case for the last two years (some have been very short!). I’ve yet to determine quite how I’ve managed to amass that time.
Of the games that I played this year (that weren’t necessarily released this year), the ones that have been most notable for me are:
Super Mario RPG remake : I got this for Christmas last year and blasted through the entire thing on New Year’s Day, finishing just after midnight into December 2nd. I’d played some of the SNES version on an emulator some two decades ago but I enjoyed having it on my TV. It has its peaks and troughs but I had a fun time with it.
Robocop: Rogue City: This was kind of an impulse buy after seeing a fairly steep discount for it and also hearing that John Linneman loved it. I too ended up loving what Teyon did with this game - and they absolutely nailed the feeling of being Robocop down to the lumberly walking. Good FPS game.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: I played this on GBA years ago up to a point but for reasons that escape me I dropped it. Playing it again this year on the Advance Collection was a real joy and reaffirmed to me just how good this game is. I liked the modern setting too and I would love to see another contemporary game.
Final Fantasy 4: I’ve started this game countless times but always seemed to drop it around the big Cecil plot beat about a third of the way into the game. I forced myself to persevere this time and was rewarded with a solid experience right the way through, shaming my teenage self.
Etrian Odyssey 3: I played this via the ports that came out last year despite having the original DS release. My feelings at the time were that I wasn’t keen on the sailing aspects of the game, though it has its moments, as it placed a little too much emphasis on progression away from the meat of the dungeon crawling. I still think that this is perhaps the weakest EO game but a weak EO game is still an awful lot better than masses of other games.
Quester: I think this, and its sequel are the biggest surprises for just how much I became invested in. The luminous green 80’s PC graphic design coupled with characterful portraits for party members and the brisk and simple battle system got me hook, line, and sinker, and for me these are some of the finest, tightest games of the last 10 years, much in the same way that Dungeon Encounters hides an astounding amount of pleasure behind its layers of simplicity.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: I actually played this twice this year; once with Ms LeFish going through the main game over the summer, and a second time recently with my trophy-hunting Borderlands buddy. I said this in another thread but the actual main game is decent and unremarkable at the best of times but the post game felt like when the promise of Borderlands’ loot systems was actually realised as part of a gauntlet mode with escalating difficulties. I was pleasantly impressed.
Helen’s Mysterious Castle: This is a one-person, turn-based RPG where turn order is heavily influenced by gear and skills. Each turn a counter falls to 0 for both enemy and player at which point they attack (defends happen immediately but last until a timer reaches 0) with the broad aim being to predict a guard for when the enemy timer reaches 0 and to use attacks with short timers whilst the enemy isn’t guarding. I’d bought the game on Steam countless years ago and it’s only this year that I actually played it but I really wish that I hadn’t slept on it because it is excellent.
lol, the saturn game is a sequel? guess I gotta play it
Astalon is one of my favorite games. Just so you know, if you 100 percent the map and beat the game, there’s a master quest like remix of the map. It doesn’t change a lot but makes the map more challenging to navigate. Strangely there’s almost no mention of this on the internet.
I too played and finished Robocop this year. Legit.
My game of the year is Dragon’s Dogma II. I typically don’t like brawlers but how this game can whip up ever mounting chaos that makes you feel like you’re flying by the seat of your pants is exactly what a want of a certain kinds of games. It’s what I used to like about the GTA series but they’ve been stuck in GTA III for decades.
i mostly played older games this year, as usual.
the best game i played was sylvie lime. that game fucking rocks, and i think it rewired my brain a little to enjoy more challenging and gamey games; the way it expresses creator intent not just through narrative or aesthetic or mechanics, but through the alchemy of all of the above, is masterful. the map is perfectly sized, the mechanics are so fun and bouncy and chaotic, the whole thing has a lovely anarchic/playful/mean/friendly energy. i was in a gaming rut when i played it and it made me remember that video games can be good. cannot recommend it enough.
the best game from this year i played was penny’s big breakaway. i totally went into this with my good time hat on and it met my energy and expectations - it’s a total blast, despite (or perhaps because of) its flaws. it’s a joy to look at and feels wonderful when you clear a series of tough challenges with style. i really hope evening star gets to iterate and build on what they accomplished with this game.
i also really liked:
flop of the year for me was corn kidz 64. love the aesthetic and vibe, hate basically all of the gameplay choices. i keep thinking about playing it again to hang out in its world… and then i remember how annoying it is.
this was a very platformer-heavy year for me, and i hope i get to dig into some rpgs next year!
literally a perfect game. i need to get my wii disc drive fixed so i can get back into it.
The ssx enjoyers have been talking a lot about tricky madness and how this person is trying to make a spiritual successor to SSX3. I haven’t bought it yet but I’m paying attention.
I played some good games this year, here are 7 that I had an especially good time with
Pathologic 2: This one was a strange and compelling experience. Very stressful at times and I felt quite desperate while playing this game, in a good way. How this game IS able to make me feel such an unpleasant emotion and still interest me enough to keep playing is like magic to me. Have to replay this before P3 comes out.
Animal Well: Still playing this one as I keep finding new stuff to do. Somehow was able to click with this one vs Void Stranger which I played this year. Only reason I compare the two is because they engage in the same sort of trickery some times. I think the fact that this one is a bit nicer to look at did the trick for me. Learned that if I’m willing to chill out in the world I’m fine with it being filled with secret stuff to uncover. I find it very endearing that the movement tech/abilities in this game are based on spinning a disk, blowing bubbles and using a slinky. That’s very cute.
Bloodborne: Still think about certain sections of this game, I love that I remember it as a long nightmare, mad respect for being able to create a world where thats the main feeling throughout and in such a visually appealing way.
Dark Souls 2: This game made me realize that Dark Souls can be goofy as heck. Exploding barrels, comically hard bosses etc. Aside from that, excellent vibes and very evocative environments (still have not beat it though).
Chained Echoes: Lovely art in this game. Similar to Animal Well in that if I ever feel disengaged with the story/combat etc I can just look around at the pretty pixel art. I was surprised with how flexible the turn based combat is and how new pressures are added up late in the game. Good game (have not finished it though lol).
Bauldrs Gate 3: Finished a first play-through of this and can see myself doing so again in the future. Big hamburger and fries of a game, made me realize I kind of love CRPGs. Currently playing through the first BG and not sure how I like it but it’s interesting to go back to its roots. There were certain things about it that sort of bugged me but its probably my most played game this year and I have to give it props for that.
Prey (2017): Out of the other Greatest Hits in Arkane Studios games, this one stands out to me as being the most unique. Though Dishonored 2 had some genuinely perplexing environments (shoutout to Jindosh Clockworks), Prey was overall a very unique experience and expertly constructed imo. I’m going to revisit this one in the future for sure.
man, i got bullied by the cool kids™ when i got here & grabbed it on sale, but my PC is booty so it’s just kinda sat there
should finally have a new-to-me steam deck in a week or two, might finally have to give this one a go!
Live A Live caveman story (the only part I finished) is my REAL Game of the Year 2024. It’s fun, funny, nobody yapping word salads forever cuz there’s no dialogue text! The best.
When I think about Read Dead Redemption II’s virtues, the cutscenes aren’t the first or even second or third thing that come to mind, but they tend to be what one thinks about when discussing the “story” of a game like it; and discussion of a game like it often devolves into assessment of “the story” and “the gameplay” as though they could be separated. Falsely dividing the game into discrete categories overemphasizes the cutscenes in one and the missions in another, and loses track of the other 75% of the game along with all that makes it interesting. The cutscenes and writing are fine, but are in and of themselves largely unremarkable. The missions often pleasantly deviate from their repetitive and combat-centered precedents in the first Redemption, but do not any more than the cutscenes compose the whole experience.
Not to get carried away addressing strawman arguments; it’s difficult to talk about these things because of what our shared vocabulary has come to mean, but all I’m saying is Red Dead Redemption II is a nuanced object, and it moved me.
Among RDR II’s most worthwhile designs is the base camp. Your big odd family is there milling around, chatting, fishing, arguing, singing, and so on. Sometimes they ask Arthur’s advice, to which he can give one of two responses. This, more than the flashy movie scenes, is the preferred use case for voice acting in video games. Walking around your home base talking to the party in Suikoden or Final Fantasy VI or Persona 3 can be as much of a pleasure, but is necessarily less dynamic. Red Dead Redemption II expands on the foundation more recently set by Wolfenstein: The New Order and Mass Effect (what are some earlier games with walking, talking characters at home base?) wherein the player walks in and out of conversations in progress.
That the player and the camp travel together from one chapter to the next contribute to the latter’s power. Over the course of a year and across six locations, the camp changes, and the gang with it. Your companions bring you new problems; you offer solutions knowing you won’t change whatever fate the plot has written for them.
The game asks that you contribute to the camp’s supplies, though in my playthrough nothing of much consequence happened in times of feast or famine. In any case Arthur hunted for food and donated too little of his obscene wealth to the camp coffer, in the absence of which I suspected Arthur’s companions would go hungry and lack comfortable living space—something Arthur could not abide.
The context-sensitive interactions you can have with every NPC are so thin that one might ask why they’re here at all. Doesn’t their transparent flatness undo the pageantry and dense illusion the game otherwise tries hard to sustain with its drama, score, graphics, detailed store catalogues, newspapers, and horse anatomy?
NPC conversations are driven by what I’ll call the Howdy Button, which necessarily puts the marionette strings at the center of the player’s focus. Drawing attention to the world’s artifice is the inherent vice of the player’s participation in it. Where many games ask you to pass through their amusement park–like choreographed drama, Red Dead Redemption II asks you to reach out and touch it. We often understand “play” in video games in the context of physical action, running and jumping and shooting—of which there is obviously plenty in RDR II—but less often does it apply to the act of conversation. Certainly many, many RPGs involve the player in conversations, but no matter how good the dialogue is, these are most often a means of delivering information to the player. In The Witcher III, every conversation brings the player closer to the conclusion of a quest, or else informs the player’s idea about people, places, and concepts within the world. In something like Pokémon the NPC dialogue / informatic is often redundant instruction to the player, and in Dragon Quest it’s often humorous. The grand majority of NPC conversations in Red Dead Redemption II offer no information to the player whatsoever, nor are they very amusing; the game simply gives the player the opportunity, for its own sake, to make the dolls talk to each other. You can Greet or Antagonize, and can often continue Arthur’s line of thinking by pushing the button more than once. Different combinations like “Greet —> Greet” or “Greet —> Greet —> Antagonize” produce varied results.
None of these interactions in RDR II are much deeper than what’s typical of RPGs, but it does strike me differently to have the agency to approach, contribute to, and then walk away from conversations with strangers, or even an ongoing interaction between Arthur’s companions, without bringing up a CRPG dialogue window. The Howdy Button facilitates all of this.
I lament that Red Dead Redemption II only allows you to dress Arthur (and John). That the clothing options are so robust and the NPC outfits themselves distinct make me yearn for an Infinity Nikki in this world, though I can’t understate how much the waRDRobe options it does give you improve the game. I am not Arthur Morgan; even as I am able to Greet or Antagonize citizens of Valentine and Rhodes and St. Denis at my leisure, he is his own man, but I can imagine how he would dress and whether he might shave for those and other occasions in those places. He will dress differently to meet his old ex as he will to go hunting with Hosea as he will to break a friend out of prison. He will shave to better hide his face with a bandana, or let the beard grow during the rainy season.
There are a few gauges, meters, attributes, etc. that the game supposedly expects the player to understand and keep track of. I did not, and consequently did not make decisions with the aim of influencing them.
Indika first makes you, and later gives you the choice, to perform tasks which yield points, though it’s immediately clear from the character-building skill tree thing that the points are worthless (the loading screen tells you point-blank that this is the case). These tasks consist of slowly walking to retrieve a basket of potatoes, slowly walking and turning a crank to fill a bucket, and so on. One way to earn points is by lighting candles in small, sad graveyards. Beyond the goofy video game points, everything about the environment suggests your actions will make no difference to anyone, living or dead. These graves are in the middle of nowhere, the landscape is barren, every person you meet is dying or will be soon, and all this in a world which becomes the more absurd the more you see of it.
I lit all of the candles assuming it was useless. At the time I didn’t know exactly how the game would end—maybe the loading screens lie to test Indika’s faith; or even if they’re truthful about the points, the game could didactically make some other point about the use in doing a good deed when there is no tangible or even a known reward. Indika the game understands these are on some level the hopes or assumptions of Indika the character, and the ending of the game gives her/you as many points as you want to make absolutely clear that it’s all a waste of your time and thought. It acknowledges nothing you ever did to gain the points, and you’re left looking in a mirror wondering what any of it was worth. Nevertheless, when I play it again I will light every one of those candles, for the same reason I always tranq the enemies in Metal Gear, and for the same reason that I contributed to the camp supplies in Red Dead Redemption II.
Red Dead Redemption II doesn’t have the same things on its mind as Indika, but I played it in a similar way. The points are nearly useless, but to forego the tasks tied to the point balance would be to give up on the whole thing.
After Arthur’s tuberculosis worsens considerably, I made him eat more often, and paid more attention to what kind of food it was. I had him sleep more often and not push himself too hard. I knew he would die and that there was no way to alter the course of the plot, but nevertheless I needed to do these things.
I’m human, I like snazzy looking games that run well. However, I have a huge chip on my shoulder about “photorealistic” graphics in video games and the relationship between hardware manufacturers, publishers, and players which perpetuates that set of aesthetic priorities.
i want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and i’m not kidding
What Red Dead Redemption II achieves in lighting and environment design almost justifies the twenty-years-and-counting chase for realism we’re still stuck in. It doesn’t, and it goes without saying it doesn’t justify the working conditions imposed on the game’s makers, but that it comes close attests to what it’s like riding around the map and taking in the clouds, mountains, and open fields. Shadow of the Colossus covers some of this same territory, but it’s nice to have more than one game on the subject of horse wandering. RDR II’s environmental graphics and design come close enough to real life that the sky itself is meaningful.
I bought one horse at the beginning of the game and stuck with her till the end. Stella <3
Among the scripted action, I acknowledge:
The John Marston epilogues disappoint somewhat—they’re overlong, overstuffed with combat that is too difficult, and too often pause to pay homage to the first Redemption—but nevertheless maintain the sense of Shenmue-ness that make the game worthwhile. As John you go to the bank to buy land; you go to the lumber yard to buy a prefab house; you participate in a music video rhythm game house-building minigame. Later, you take Abigail into town to get a couples photo taken before rowing out onto the lake to propose to her.
Chapter 4 is nearly a whole new video game from the one presented in chapters 1-3.
The soundtrack is great.
I have not played Red Dead Online. Perhaps a decade from now, when the servers go offline and I still haven’t played it, I’ll regret it.
I have typed all this and neglected to mention what I spent 65% of my time doing: taking screenshots.
Beautiful and thoughtful and insightful commentary, @captain.
Stuff like this always makes me think that it’s time to start exploring and using the term “ludonarrative consonance,” elements within games that make the interaction of gameplay and narrative feel pleasing or engaging or fulfilling.
I also like to play Metal Gear Solid non-lethally, and though it didn’t sink its hooks into me nearly as much, one of the most fulfilling aspects of Red Dead Redemption II was when gameplay and narrative seemed to cohere, or even, when gameplay options allow or even condition the player to allow their player avatar to act in a way that would, hm, let’s say, have a greater-than-normal amount of diegetic verisimilitude. I don’t just move the player avatar around and complete gameplay objectives, I am invited to direct certain functions and features of the player avatar’s psychology or social behavior or even something like their reflexes or level of body awareness.
Makes me think of, say, how for the first few hours of playing a Yakuza game I try not to run into people as I am dashing through the busy pedestrian areas, but most certainly by the end of the game I’ve become entirely conditioned to the idea that these interactions do not matter, and there is, not even just no consequence to just shoving past people or knocking them over, but there is virtually no response from the game at all, no chance for emergent gameplay things or narrative, so I stop bothering and just run into people (at least sometimes anyway). The only significant gameplay difference between going at the walking speed and taking in the sights and sounds or weaving through people and going all quarterback on them and strategically ripping through them is that it takes a little longer to get to your next objective, or you’re a little faster.
I think despite it seeming superficially simple, the Howdy Button and its simple 2 way branches at each point of contact feel so interesting is, on account of the ridiculous volume of content in the game overall, there is always in the back of your mind that you could be waltzing into a semi-scripted or even scripted emergent encounter at any time. I don’t know precisely how it works, but, I would assume that, upon Arthur being interacted with, the only way to 100% ensure no further emergent events can happen is to just not respond at all. Whereas any kind of response at least has a chance to cause some kind of emergent event to potentially occur. Even if it’s something simple, like, Arthur is suddenly in a brawl, on account of how, upon what the learned and the foolish would alike agree is at most a gentle reckonin’ (mind, that being a reckonin’ of the pontificatin’ or musin’ like, not of the type Biblical), that some rascally feller’s boots were of a mighty inferior quality, and, ‘pon our Arthur deliverin’ a verbal parlayance of the aforementioned reckonin’ to the one or the more ears of that said rascally feller, that feller were to take a mighty Offense, and be moved to address the psychological upset most martially upon the body of ol’ Arthur (or, mayhap, upon the mind, with an equally proturberin’ and afflictin’ barb of his own, which the player will then be inclined to respond to then themselves most martial). But, it’s not nothing, it’s not indicated on the map like a Yakuza “random” encounter is, and aside from the horrific labour implications behind it being made possible, it’s nothing short of astounding how long you can go without hearing anything being repeated.
Perhaps even if the percentage chance of something unexpected happening is quite low, and the percentage chance of something unexpected happening that is also interesting is even lower, it still matters a lot that the chance isn’t 0%.
I also played RDR2 this year. I didn’t finish it, and it’s no longer included with PS+ so I don’t think I ever will and I’m ok with that.
RDR2 frustrated me endlessly and constantly made promises that it couldn’t keep. Despite all that, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Before I put in my two cents I want to clearly state: Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterfully crafted video game and one of the most ambitious pieces of media released in my lifetime. I don’t think anyone who loves it has bad taste or is misguided or misunderstands the game. In a lot of ways, I really love RDR2; there’s a human element that I rarely expereince in AAA games that it has in spades. But like us humans, it can make some really confusing, and annoying decisions.
Captain mentioned the conversations you can have with gang members in camp. They’ll come to you looking for advice and you have the ability to navigate the conversation in a couple different ways. When this happened the first time, was organic, interesting, and surprising. Arthur spoke on how he was tired of the life and all the killing, but he has this anger that causes him to hurt innocent people. It was a neat moment, but kind of odd… It was reading as if MY Arthur had been robbing and killing innocent people in acts of wanton violence. I most certainly hadn’t been; my honor was incredibly high and I didn’t randomly rob or kill anyone ever (except for that one time, and I’ll get to that). I don’t get any enjoyment out of being an asshole, even virtually.
This seemed strange at the time, but even more so when I had the exact same conversation with another member of the gang about 10 hours later. When I say that it was the exact same conversation, I mean that Arthur repeated the same exact audio files. And again, I hadn’t killed anyone that the game didn’t force me to kill. It ripped me out of the immersion completely, and that’s the promise that RDR2 can’t seem to keep. The game promises a cowboy life sim of sorts, but delivers a strange game where you play as two men: Your Arthur and the game’s Arthur. My Arthur was a good man. He was a man that constantly caught, and recovered from tuberculosis, took care of his family, and protected those that needed protecting. The Game’s Arthur is possibly the most prolific mass murderer in American history.
Something I struggled with is what the game was trying to convey from a moral and ethical standpoint. Killing innocents is bad. Unless it’s a mission where you need to kill innocent people, then that’s totally ok, or if the game determines that those people you’re killing aren’t innocent, then killing them is good!
Once I was riding through the fictional south at night and stumbled upon a KKK rally. I dismounted and calmly walked up to see what was going on. One of the klansmen told me that it’s ok if I sit in, as long as I’m quiet. Of course, I immediately pull out a stick of dynamite and throw it into the middle of the circle of vile racists, killing several immediately. I then track down the remaining people and take them all out. I was rewarded with honor points for this, which I don’t know how that makes me feel. Yes, those were evil men, and there are ample opportunities to stop them from doing active evil (stopping a lynching or robbery). This wasn’t one of those cases, so this sparks a serious ethical and moral debate that RDR2 takes a firm stance on.
RDR2 can’t take a firm stance on what it’s trying to be. In a lot of ways, RDR2 is the most ‘video game’ video game I have ever played. Customize your horse! Use special power ups to increase your special power meter! You want minigames? Here’s 100!
On the flip side, it painstakingly takes steps to create a cowboy simulator. Watch Arthur skin this animal with a 15 second animation. Dress appropriately for the weather or Arthur will have negative consequences. Same goes for eating and sleeping!
Just like how narratively there seems to be two Arthurs, there’s also “Silly fun action shooter” Arthur, and “Simulation, immersion” Arthur. All of these Arthurs are pulling the player into so many directions with almost every interaction you have in the game. If you just want to be a six-shooter renegade blasting your way through the turn of the 20th century, you’ll still need to build a camp and craft all of your special ammo bullet by bullet.
There’s a lot in there, and I honestly could write about RDR2 all day. I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed it the way that I do other games, but I got a lot out of it. It’s a game that I think everyone should try, kind of in the same vein as Death Stranding.
I know this is a safe place to say this, but, one thing this conversation makes me realize is that I’m very, very interested in what GTA 6 is going to be.
And to be clear I say this as someone who has literally not even played a single second of GTA V, the most profitable single media property of all time
There is some of this early on, but as KingTubb alludes to, it doesn’t take very long for conversations to repeat themselves, especially the ones you yourself initiate: I call it the Howdy Button because Arthur begins maybe 50% of these interactions by saying “Howdy, Mister!” I think it’s more down to the player to “work” to make this kind of thing interesting—in that way I guess I’m arguing that any ludonarrative consonance or dissonance is a fucntion of the player’s attitude as much as it is one of design. Though I would certainly argue that RDR II’s design is more fertile a terrain for play than RDR or GTAV, for example.
I agree with you it’s weird the game even attempts to sustain an honor system given just how much murder it forces your hand on in the missions, and for me it was those parts which challenged my suspension of disbelief: Arthur and Micah slaughter almost everyone in Strawberry only for the town to repopulate a couple months later. I get where you’re coming from but for me it made sense for Arthur to continually refer to his past moral decrepitude considering the missions keep forcing you back into it.
I realize we’ll agree to disagree but it’s not just the player, but Arthur being pulled in different directions, that’s what the game is about! Granted I dislike Spec-Ops: The Line for being “about” a similarly forced series of player actions, so fair enough that for you RDR II is at odds with its own interests
I bet you 10CAD you would not be interested in VI if you had played a single second of V…
What confuses me about GTA is that it gives you all these options to express yourself as a player, but implicitly makes fun of you for caring about anything (it makes fun of everything). I am interested insofar as it’s coming from the studio whose last full game was RDR II, but I’m not too optimistic
(((((Top ten games i finished for the first time in 2024)))))
1. Boku no natsuyasumi 2: really an amazing game. Visually stunning. Very cute. Tells many emotionally impactful stories with some surprisingly complex and flawed characters. Between this game and dragon quest 3 ive been fully convinced that “good writing” in a video game (for me) is 75 percent scenario, 25 percent economical dialogue to support it. 10/10 One of my favorite games now.
2. Dragon quest iii (gbc): havent played every dragon quest, but this is my favorite so far. This version looks amazing. surprised that the remake was still getting “generic story” comments, because in my mind it is anything but that. So many beautiful small moments. It’s a game that managed to keep surprising me without deviating from its familiar core. 10/10 One of my favorite games now.
3. Sekiro: nobody wants to hear about this game anymore, but i really liked it. Made me realize i dont need a lot of the rpg stats, weapons, and character builds that the souls games have. Probably the most fun combat in a game for me, partially becuase it’s deceptively simple (never been good at those big combo multiplying action games).
4. Sweet home: finally got around to this at the tail end of an rpgmaker horror kick. Man this game is so cool and so full of ideas. I really think there is a whole lot more to learn from it game design wise that resident evil never touched.
5. Ufouria: just really charming, breezy, and looks great
6. Soul blazer: really original and charming
7. Kingdom hearts: this game is sorta bad in many ways, and i dont have any nostalgia for disney OR final fantasy, but i do have nostalgia for playing parts of this game at a friends house 20 years ago. Loved it. more than it deserves, maybe.
8. Ffvii Remake: huge shoutout to @antillese who sent this game to me in the mail from all the way across the Willamette river. Had a great time with it, it was my big idiot AAA game experience of 2024 and i was totally there for it. Some parts dragged, some stuff was dumb, but it was always a spectacle and almost always fun. I found the normal difficulty to be the perfect level for me, most bosses made me sweat but didnt kill me more than once or twice. Just really a great ride.
9. Silent hill 2: Continued my trend of finally getting around to a game right before the remake/reboot. Classic for a reason, great music and atmosphere. Walking down an apartment hallway and checking to see if every door is open is not very fun. I prefer the first one, but this was still very cool.
10. Metroid fusion/aria of sorrow: this is cheating but this is more about the joy of playing them on my childhood SP. they look great on the front-lit screen and the controls were mad snappy. Good games.
You’re absolutely right, so you’re wrong! I agree!!
And I tend to be over crititcal of things I like or believe are really close to being amazing. Like I said, I think RDR2 is required reading; it’s really doing some things that are pretty unique and interesting for AAA games, if not gaming as a whole.
And I also agree with you about GTAVI. GTAV is trying so hard to be south park and ends up just being mean to everyone and everything for the sake of it.