General Gaming ~*D1P's Games of 2024*~

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

It's the New Year, so it's time to pin the New Thread! 

 

[Brian]

Avatar - 6/10

 

Between this and Mirage, crazy to see how much Ubisoft has fallen. Avatar is such a disappointing game. There is definitely a good gameplay loop, but it is buried under too many systems, restrictions, and busy work. I would rather have a much simpler, streamlined first game.  It feels like Ubisoft wanted to create value by adding everything under the moon. Unfortunately it bogs everything down.  Not a great way to usher in 2024. 

[stepee]

4 minutes ago, Brian said:

Avatar - 6/10

 

Between this and Mirage, crazy to see how much Ubisoft has fallen. Avatar is such a disappointing game. There is definitely a good gameplay loop, but it is buried under too many systems, restrictions, and busy work. I would rather have a much simpler, streamlined first game.  It feels like Ubisoft wanted to create value by adding everything under the moon. Unfortunately it bogs everything down.  Not a great way to usher in 2024. 

 

I liked it more than you I think, but not by much. It’s so frustrating because it could be an excellent game if it had an editor of sorts, and instead they actually went out of their way to make it worse!

[Brian]

3 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

I liked it more than you I think, but not by much. It’s so frustrating because it could be an excellent game if it had an editor of sorts, and instead they actually went out of their way to make it worse!

When I noticed a hunger system, I was like “uh oh”. When it introduce a Batman detective vision, I was like “ok wtf ubi”.  And it kept escalating from there. 
 

Pandora is a beautiful world to explore especially since the parkour movement felt good. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for much else. 

[crispy4000]

I'll want to finish a bunch of the games I started (or continued with) last year.  FFXVI.  Tinykin.  Castle of Illusion remake.  Mario & Rabbids 1.  Maybe Luigi's Mansion 2 if I can be bothered to bring the 3DS back out.

 

Going to be a FF heavy start to the year though, especially since I want to make it through FF7 Crisis Core and Intergrade before Rebirth.

[stepee]

14 minutes ago, Brian said:

When I noticed a hunger system, I was like “uh oh”. When it introduce a Batman detective vision, I was like “ok wtf ubi”.  And it kept escalating from there. 
 

Pandora is a beautiful world to explore especially since the parkour movement felt good. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for much else. 

 

I liked how they looked at Horizon FW’s issue with upgrading to the highest level equipment (having to hunt and peck for very specific rare items) and said “What if we based our entire leveling system around that!”

[stepee]

16 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

I'll want to finish a bunch of the games I started (or continued with) last year.  FFXVI.  Tinykin.  Castle of Illusion remake.  Mario & Rabbids 1.  Maybe Luigi's Mansion 2 if I can be bothered to bring the 3DS back out.

 

Going to be a FF heavy start to the year though, especially since I want to make it through FF7 Crisis Core and Intergrade before Rebirth.

 

I love Castle of Illusion Remake, it’s one of the games I always keep installed on my handheld pc. I’m still surprised it actually happened.

[crispy4000]

Yeah, it’s surprisingly good.  Can definitely see the budget limitations, but I’d love for more remakes of 2D games that play loose with it.

[stepee]

13 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

Yeah, it’s surprisingly good.  Can definitely see the budget limitations, but I’d love for more remakes of 2D games that play a  loose with it.

 

Would love to see a similar thing for Quackshot 

[Phaseknox]

I finished A Plague Tale: Innocence.

 

2024 Games

A Plague Tale: Innocence

[best3444]

9 minutes ago, Phaseknox said:

I finished A Plague Tale: Innocence.

 

2024 games

A Plague Tale: Innocence

 

What did you think? 

[Phaseknox]

10 hours ago, best3444 said:

What did you think? 

I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. The story and characters were compelling, the graphics were excellent, the gameplay was solid and the levels were varied and well designed. I’m really looking forward to playing A Plague Tale: Requiem when I get a PS5.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

First completion on the year is in the books. Beat Super Mario World for the first time ever on my own. I did the GBA game on my Analogue Pocket. 10/10, I mean what bad can you say about Super Mario World?

 

2024 games:

 

Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World - GBA

[Keyser_Soze]

[Xbox Game Pass]

 

Persona 5 Tactica: 7/10

 

I sort of mentioned this in the other thread but I had never played a Persona game before but wanted to check this one out because it's a "tactics" game. The game does a good job of getting you up to speed on the idea of the series and who the characters are. The game feels very much like a Persona 5 side story, taking the characters you enjoyed from P5 and giving you another chance to go on an adventure with them and watch them dress up and other fan service stuff. The story is a bit of a hard sell at the beginning though, it basically centers around a politician Toshiro Kasukabe (and the hard sell is why do we want to care about the politician? ) so it's kind of divided into three acts and the first act is whatever, the second act is very good and the 3rd is good.

 

With all that being said as a "tactics" game it is kind of a failure. Yes you move around a map and shoot from cover and such but there isn't much of a tactical element. You can move freely with any character until they act and then they stay in place but if you shoot anything that is not in cover you can move again. So the game actually encourages you to beat battles as fast as you can (like 8 turns or less) and is actually encourages later with "quests" that make you beat a whole map in 1 turn. So I think this is less of a tactics game and more of a puzzle game. Figure out how you can win as fast as you can. It took me about 40 hours to beat this which is a lot longer than howlongtobeat says. It's very heavy on story with not a lot to play. It's almost like a visual novel, cut scenes are just the 2D character cutout on screen talking and I don't meant this as a pejorative as I do like the look and artwork of the game but if you were going to pay for this game I would say it's not really worth it at $60. It's a mostly low budget side thing and while enjoyable there's not too much to come back to here. (There is a new game plus but it's basically the same thing just so you can grind up to max level and collect all the personas.)

 

2024 Games

Persona 5 Tactica - (01/07/24)

[Remarkableriots]

PSN Level 373

 

Power Wash Simulator 8/10

It's a very fun game, but it crashes a lot, and they haven't fixed the glitch that prevents the platinum trophy.

 

[best3444]

Star Wars Jedi Survivor 9/10

 

Best Star Wars game I've ever played. Easily top 5 from last year.

[stepee]

Let’s goooo

 

Starfield

 

 

[best3444]

24 minutes ago, stepee said:

Let’s goooo

 

Starfield

 

 

 

You gave it an 8.9 which is a great score. When I was playing it I was hovering around an 8.5. 

[stepee]

16 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

You gave it an 8.9 which is a great score. When I was playing it I was hovering around an 8.5. 

 

I just couldn’t give it a 9 with the lack of lived in locations beyond the major cities. But I never actually got tired of the content that was there, even after 75 hours I was still enjoying it a lot and will probably play more in a year or two after giving it some time to add more content. Even some games I really like at 30 hours I’m like okay I’m ready for this to end. It does something very interesting and clever with the new game + as well which makes it even more likely that I will return to it.

[best3444]

12 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

I just couldn’t give it a 9 with the lack of lived in locations beyond the major cities. But I never actually got tired of the content that was there, even after 75 hours I was still enjoying it a lot and will probably play more in a year or two after giving it some time to add more content. Even some games I really like at 30 hours I’m like okay I’m ready for this to end. It does something very interesting and clever with the new game + as well which makes it even more likely that I will return to it.

 

I wonder if it will be as modded as Skyrim and if we will see something like we just saw for Skyrim. 

[stepee]

It won’t get to Skyrim level I don’t think but I hope they continue to work on it and it rises in popularity over the years so we get some of that. It didn’t exactly bomb but it’s mindshare needs improvement with some good updates.

[stepee]

Starfield

Bleed 2

 

Just redeemed Bleed 2 today after not being aware I had it for years. It’s really good actually. It’s a lot better designed than I thought it would be. It’s very much a treasure style run and shoot with a focus on multi phase bosses with a little bit of bullet hell. Good enemy design and super tight mechanics. Biggest downside is it’s about the length of a 16bit treasure game as well so you’ll beat it in about an hour. I think it’s worth the $10 asking price for genre fans as it’s a very well made one of these. Or definitely worth the $2 or so I see it on sale for frequently. I went ahead and got the first one too so I’ll probably play through that tomorrow.

[dualhunter]

Finished Sea of Stars twice.

[crispy4000]

 

As others have said here, it's got flaws.  The moderate challenge starts to fade away in the last third of the game, outside of the hardest optional bosses.  Equipment and crafting items are rarely worth getting excited about.  At some point partway through they hit the in-game lighting with an ugly stick, for story reasons.  Sidequests are largely doldrum.  There’s too many in game environments you can’t return to, that play out as basic action game levels.  The voice acting is great, but the lip-sync is laughably inconsistent.  The occasional partial nudity and sexual joke moments feel forced.  It ruins the emotional impact of at least one scene as a spectacularly dumb fantasy euphemism for sex.

 

Still, I found FFXVI a lot of fun on the whole.  The combat is great, if a tad bit too parry dependent, with big windows used as an excuse to toss the kitchen sink at you.  I was concerned early on that all the effects-driven attacks would make its action too hard to follow, and while it does on some level, by the end of the game I was surprised how much I got used to seeing through the chaos.  It's legible, but this is the extent to which I can tolerate without pulling the camera back.

 

Plot and characters are well developed, if not a series high mark.  While the stakes can feel a bit too small, it largely succeeds with its story in ways other modern FF games falter, especially the dialogue.  I really like the way that world politics are presented, especially the military advisor bits that take a cue from GoT.  And the set piece battle moments don’t disappoint, constantly one-upping the last thing you saw.  They somehow nailed the excitement of watching cinematic summons like in previous games, when I thought I was long over that.  And the game’s antagonists are all really fun, maybe even more so than the main cast.

 

A word on the sidequests, I don’t think they’re the problem as much as the world and game they’re put in.  It needed more interesting environments to sustain a quest log.  It mostly feels like one off set pieces padded with transition routes and obvious combat quest amphitheaters.  Later in the game the sidequests unlock new optional towns or subplot driven areas, I would have liked to see more of that throughout.  Next time, SquareEnix, please tells us the rewards from the outset to respect our time.

 

Overall, I’m still very positive on the game.  The gameplay itself is fun, and if you can dig the medieval castle vibes like I do, it delivers on its vision.  Not the best FF out there, and not quite up to FF7 Remake, but warts and all I'd still recommend it if you enjoy the general tone of it from the demo.

 

8.5/10

 

2024 Games

Final Fantasy XVI - 8.5/10

[stepee]

Starfield

Bleed 2

Armored Core 6

 

And just now, Returnal. I was closer to the end than I realized but man those last environments were fantastic. I’ve had a long troubled relationship with this game. Of all the games that are too difficult for me, this is the one I wished had an actual easy mode the most. I really don’t like using invincibility cheats so I didn’t do that here and instead just buffed my damage. But I did more here beyond what you can normally do in the game than I did with AC6 and found this one even more difficult still!

 

I love everything about it besides its difficulty and along with that how much progress you lose when you die. It seems downright cruel at times and I can’t help but feel it’s artificially extending its game time, a complaint I can’t reasonably levy against say, Armored Core 6. This one I will mark down more because I think it’s punishing to a point of being a lesser game than it could be.  I’m also a little ehhh with the story and where it went, though it does a good job of building atmosphere.

 

Besides that it’s an amazing looking game on both artistic and technical levels. It’s funny playing it now further into the generation, albeit on pc, how people tried to downplay how much of a current gen only game it was around launch. There is no way this game exists on previous gen consoles and it reminds you of that pretty often. Amazing sound design as well that really shines on a 3d surround setup.

 

And the gameplay is just spot on, how I would dream a 3rd person Metroid game would play. Shooting and traversal mechanics are solid and the sense of speed zipping around the levels is great. 

 

I would love a 3D Metroid style game just like this but with hand crafted levels, difficulty options, a bigger exploration focus, and the removal of the rogue-lite system so much. But as it is, I’ll take what I was able to get here using cheat engine and powering my way through to enjoy the mechanics and strange sci-fi world they take place in.

 

7.9/10

[crispy4000]

How much harder would you say the second half of the game is than the first?  I'm wavering on weather I want to return to it, or just say, nah I'm good.

[stepee]

16 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

How much harder would you say the second half of the game is than the first?  I'm wavering on weather I want to return to it, or just say, nah I'm good.

 

Id say it gets a fair bit harder depending on how leveled up you get. The very last chapter letting up a little bit. But the two before that have some pretty insane spreads of bullets and more shielded enemy’s which makes it harder to play it safe if you don’t have a shield breaker weapon. Some of the bullet hell gets pretty damn wild.

[stepee]

Ys9 is now my main game now that Starfield is beaten since I had already gotten pretty far in while playing that. I’m about 2/3rd through it already at 30 hours. I’m doing all the side quests because everything here is wonderful so it’ll be on the long side for a play through.

 

This is probably my second favorite action rpg just slightly behind Ys8 which is my favorite. They would probably be my favorite jrpg’s period but I think Paper Mario TTYD counts as one.

 

Fucking phenomenal games. And Ys10 looks like it is going to be just as good. I’ll have to check out Ys7 at some point and some of the others (Ys8 was my first I actually played) but I think the gameplay gets really scaled back after that.

 

Both of these games build a sense of place where you really feel connected to the world and characters in a way that seems so simple yet hardly any games compare in that regard. I suppose if the older ones retain that element they would be worth playing even if the mechanics are more antiquated.

[dualhunter]

Finished Portal: Revolution. Very well made but I preferred Portal Reloaded and Portal Stores: Mel.

[stepee]

Starfield

Bleed 2

Armored Core 6

Returnal

Ys9

 

At a certain point I realized that actually I like Ys9 as much as Ys8, both are amazing action rpgs and my favorite in the genre. Even the dungeons are a lot of fun here. The pacing is on point, the action is speedy and impactful. There’s tons of side content worth doing. It’s not too short nor overstays its welcome. Leveling up is well done and rewarding. You don’t need to grind beyond just doing side missions. 

 

Ys8 had better music but the music here is still good, just not as amazing as Ys8. But the fun traversal mechanics added here with the gifts and better enemy design here easily make up for that. I loved the story and how it wrapped up with a satisfying resolution to the mysteries. Ys10 is definitely higher than almost any other game on my most wanted list now. 
 

10/10

[Brian]

Avatar - 6/10
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank - 7/10

 

It’s a sequel to Tax Evasion so definitely play that first before this since it heavily references the first game. Outside of that, it’s a completely different game. It’s a rogue lite twin stick shooter. I typically don’t like these games because of the repetitiveness but the devs did a good job with it. The main map stays the same which I like and only certain rooms that are optional change. It has a good variety in weapons and is fun to play. It’s on the short side. The only frustrating part is the final boss but it has a god mode in the setting which I used after dying 5-6 times. I recommend it. It’s on Game Pass

[best3444]

Skyrim 9/10

 

I just focused on the main story and this was surprisingly short. Like 20 hours to beat. It's an incredible RPG but the combat needs completely revamped. 

 

I'd put this in my top 15 games ever, though. It was cool to play with different mods which made the game look like a generation ahead of its original release. 

[stepee]

Starfield

Bleed 2

Armored Core 6

Returnal

Ys9

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

 

Probably the best COD campaign since the first Black Ops and better than any of the ones since. It really does feel like a proper return to form (campaign wise) to the height of COD4 and it must suck for IW to see all that good will thrown away in the subsequent years.

 

Still an incredibly attractive game, I imagine it was damn near groundbreaking graphically in 2019. I should have played it then. I’m not sure what happened where this has ray traced shadows that look fantastic and then they just vanished from the four games since this release. I hope they are back in the next one.

 

The campaign holds a steady focus and doesn’t get lost with boring missions like MW2’s plodding and overused “click to done strike” fare. The story is still a bit thick on the propaganda side but does do a better job than most of these in at least showing the struggles of its legally distinct Syrian people. The “escape the house” flashback sequence is particularly harrowing.

 

The stealth missions are actually fun and of course plenty of bombastic Michael Bay COD action across its 6 or so hours.

 

I actually did like MW2 overall besides those terrible drone missions, but it was obviously a step down from this, and I can see how it probably felt a bit of a rehash. Though at the same time I might have enjoyed it more having played this first to have more familiarity with the characters beforehand.

 

But yeah, it did leave me a little sad that IW seemed to be really on track building MW back up only to have the momentum stolen from them with the off-putting MW3 release. 

 

Hopefully IW, under MS now, will be able to get things back in gear as I do love me a solid COD campaign and do not want to see the series become multiplayer only.

[Keyser_Soze]

[Xbox Game Pass]

 

Thirsty Suitors: 7/10

 

In this game you play as Jala, a bisexual woman of Indian descent as she returns home after a breakup with her girlfriend to live with her parents and reconcile not only with her family but her past lovers that make up a large LGBTQ+ cast. Already you can see certain people's heads spinning. It's kind of a mix of a skateboard game and a turn based RPG with some cooking in it. Most of the action (battles and cooking) have what I'd say close to QTE mechanics in them, they take a bit more effort and concentration than a QTE and cooking especially you'll need good button timing to get the best dish. The turn based battles do have an interesting twist to them in that you have to inflict a status on your opponent to do some damage, and they usually have some silly effect to go with it. Another unique aspect to the game is that story / dialogue is basically stitched into every part of the game so the big battles aren't just fighting they further the story, same thing with the cooking. The game isn't too challenging, and pretty short. I only took a long time with it because I was going for all the achievements, but even with that it took around 12 hours to beat.

 

The story is pretty good. It is kind of like Scott Pilgrim where you battle your exes.  The story is mostly positive and upbeat despite dealing with the emotional subject matter. There's also a side story about a cult that is recruiting kids that didn't quite go anywhere, unfortunately. I think this might resonate more with people who have had family troubles or bad breakups and such, something I can't relate to too much, at least in regards to the portrayal in this game. But despite that I still had a nice time with the game. Also, I must say that the cooking game really made me crave some damn Indian food. They probably should have included some actual recipes in here as a bonus or something.

 

 

2024 Games

Persona 5 Tactica - (01/07/24)

Thirsty Suitors - (01/26/24)

[stepee]

Starfield

Bleed 2

Armored Core 6

Returnal

Ys9

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

Vampyr

 

Vampyr is actually one of my favorite games from last gen and I originally played most of it when it first came out. But it was the game I was playing at a particular low point in my life where I then ended up not having a gaming pc for a couple years and then it never felt like the right time to go back and finish it.

 

With Banishers approaching, I knew that now was the time so I wrapped it up today. Playing it several years later, I didn’t really miss a beat because it was so memorable that I didn’t even need to read a synopsis to jog my memory. 

 

Surprisingly looks just as good today as it did at launch. It was never a tech showcase by any means but it’s excellent art direction and atmosphere means it has held up quite well.

 

It was good to finally see how it all ends and get some closure to it. Definitely goes some interesting places. Beating it so many years later hasn’t altered my impression of it, I still consider it one of the best of last gen. Definitely recommend it if you missed out on it!