Games Completed 2024

[Michiel K]

30 March: Gears of War (Xbox 360)

Not the first time I finished this, but me and my kid finished our coop campaign run on Hardcore. A lot of fun, some frustration (especially during the split up sections where you can't revive each other) and a nice dosage of 2006 era nostalgia. We want to play through the rest of the series together now.

4 April: Evil West (Xbox Series X)

This was a fun action romp, if a bit formulaic, and I had to play it in short sessions in order not to get too bored with its beats (walking - single button press environmental hazard traversal - simple puzzle - combat arena - rinse'n repeat, more or less).

Supposedly the combat in this weird west beat 'em up, third person shooter hybrid is very much inspired by 2008's God of War, so I feel like I need to play that first before I can formulate an educated opinion, but the intensity of the combat sections brings to mind DOOM 2016 as the game ramps up. I do love that you end up with a massive arsenal of tools, weapons and moves that you can mix, match and combine effortlessly once you're tuned in, as everything is just a button press (or sometimes 2 button presses) away, rather than having to go into menus or having to change loadouts or whatever. It makes the new game + option very tantalising.

[Alex79]

30 March: Gears of War (Xbox 360)

Not the first time I finished this, but me and my kid finished our coop campaign run on Hardcore. A lot of fun, some frustration (especially during the split up sections where you can't revive each other) and a nice dosage of 2006 era nostalgia. We want to play through the rest of the series together now

I think the remaster of the first game is on Gamepass, too. I had hoped they might do a Master Chief Collection type treatment on the series, but it doesn't seem like they are.

[Truk_Kurt]

4 April: Evil West (Xbox Series X)

This was a fun action romp, if a bit formulaic, and I had to play it in short sessions in order not to get too bored with its beats (walking - single button press environmental hazard traversal - simple puzzle - combat arena - rinse'n repeat, more or less).

Supposedly the combat in this weird west beat 'em up, third person shooter hybrid is very much inspired by 2008's God of War, so I feel like I need to play that first before I can formulate an educated opinion, but the intensity of the combat sections brings to mind DOOM 2016 as the game ramps up. I do love that you end up with a massive arsenal of tools, weapons and moves that you can mix, match and combine effortlessly once you're tuned in, as everything is just a button press (or sometimes 2 button presses) away, rather than having to go into menus or having to change loadouts or whatever. It makes the new game + option very tantalising.

Pleased to see some Evil West love in here. I really enjoyed it too and also thought it was like a third person Doom 2016. I get what you mean about the rinse and repeat cycle of it but it didn't bother me too much as I just enjoyed the core combat so much. It's made me interested in the Shadow Warrior series from the same developer.

[Michiel K]

Pleased to see some Evil West love in here. I really enjoyed it too and also thought it was like a third person Doom 2016. I get what you mean about the rinse and repeat cycle of it but it didn't bother me too much as I just enjoyed the core combat so much. It's made me interested in the Shadow Warrior series from the same developer.

Oh yeah! At least the first Shadow Warrior is very fun! I never played the second one as I read it was more of a bloated looter shooter affair, which appeals less to me.

[Michiel K]

I think the remaster of the first game is on Gamepass, too. I had hoped they might do a Master Chief Collection type treatment on the series, but it doesn't seem like they are.

I might need to grab me a copy out of the remaster, should I want to play through the game a third time. If only for the smoother frame rate and because it also includes the content that was added to the PC version.

[Jobobonobo]

Spoiler: show

Jan 7: New Super Lucky’s Tale
Jan 7: Super Mario Land
Jan 9: Tetris Attack
Mar 2: Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Mar 17: Legend of the Mystical Ninja

Apr 6: Stray

This was a nice and sweet game with some amazing visuals and incredible music. The cat reminded me of cats I had as a kid so it even gave me a strange sort of nostalgia just listening to it and watching it rub up against the legs of the robots never failed to make me smile. Even contained some horror which I was not expecting at all. Liked this a lo, glad it was also available on PS4 because I really wanted to check this one out.

[Michiel K]

Mar 17: Legend of the Mystical Ninja[/b]

I briefly played the Goemon games back on the N64 but was not too sure what to make of them, they were a bit full on with Japanese wackiness for me to understand what was going on. But now I want to give this series a proper go and I think the first Goemon title on the SNES was a good place to start.

Despite the rubbish names (Kid Ying and Dr Yang? Really?) and pizzas, this maintained a lot of the japanese flavour this series is renowned for with ancient dragons, sumo wrestlers and tanuki statues. It is a strange blend of light adventure gameplay ala Zelda with platforming heavy stages. You can buy health and armour in shops, play minigames and sometimes need to talk to certain people in order to progress. The platforming stages are good fun but can really test your skills later on. One thing I was not prepared for was how important money is. Not only do you need a lot to buy certain mandatory items such as a gate pass but it also serves as a weapon you can throw and each throw costs four coins. If you don’t, then be prepared to grind by beating up enemies in the villages. Not the worst thing but can definitely bring things to a halt if you are not careful.

Legend of the Mystical Ninja is a silly little adventure that does not take itself too seriously. I can imagine this being pretty fun in two player. Konami really knew what they were doing in the 16 bit days. Catchy soundtrack as well, lots of toe tappers in this one. Definitely excited to try later entries in this series and someday, eventually give the N64 games another try with a new perspective.

I missed your post on this! What a great series and indeed a great game to start with. I was so upset with that KId Ying and dr. Yang bs when I found out that I got myself the Super Famicom original instead. Was playing it in 2P coop with one of my best buddies who happens to be fluid in Japanese, so very specific ciscumstances are needed for maximum enjoyment, for me.

[markfm007]

Spoiler: show

January 6th - Persona 5 Royal
January 11th - Control: Ultimate Edition
January 23rd - Alan Wake 2
February 13th - Batman: Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum
March 2nd - Cocoon

April 6th - Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition

Really fell in love with this game far more than I was expecting to. It has an amazing atmosphere and gorgeous colour palette, lots of dim blues and greens, beautifully lit. I loved how much freedom it gives you to explore, how it buries away secrets and encourages you to find them. There’s a great balance between how cute and funny the characters can be, and how dark and dangerous the setting and plot is. Straight away I fell in love with the Knight, the grubs, Hornet, Greenpath and the City of Tears, and knew I wanted to see more.

The soundtrack took me by surprise with how beautiful and melancholic it is. It adds to the atmosphere and adds to the identity of each area. There’s a great mix of areas that feel like the heart of civilisation, to wilder gardens and further reaches, to others feeling very mysterious and dangerous. The controls also feel superb too. The jumps, dashes, wall climbing, pogo-ing with your nail, it’s all introduced very well until the point it became second nature. It has a bug-like springiness to it, giving you both a sense of overcoming great odds, but also feeling a growing sense of power and expertise in your own character and abilities. I was also impressed by the upgrade charms, which all felt distinct, worthwhile, and fun to experiment with.

This game is BIG, especially if you delve into the optional stuff, which I did after I beat the story. I’ve still got some to do, which I’ll pick up as and when I feel like it. But I’ve done a lot of it and have beaten the Radiance, which felt like a good cut off point. I’m sad that there’s not really much more for me to discover, as that aspect of the game is second to none, but it’s still a lot of fun to jump into and try to beat a challenge. Really I just want to keep playing it, and like many people I will now be waiting eagerly for Silksong to arrive. No pressure!

Three word review: Doma doma doma!

[Alex79]

Brilliant game, and yeah, the soundtrack is exceptional. There are very few game soundtracks I'll listen to outside of the game, but this is one of them. Played this through twice but still never 100% it. Can't wait for Silksong.

[Jobobonobo]

I missed your post on this! What a great series and indeed a great game to start with. I was so upset with that KId Ying and dr. Yang bs when I found out that I got myself the Super Famicom original instead. Was playing it in 2P coop with one of my best buddies who happens to be fluid in Japanese, so very specific ciscumstances are needed for maximum enjoyment, for me.

That 2P coop sounds like a great time all right. Sadly I am playing this on a hacked 3DS so not possible for me at the moment. I saw speedruns of this in 2 player and the way you can annihilate bosses in no time when you are well coordinated was a delight to observe. Am currently starting the second Super Famicom game as all main series titles for the Super Famicom got fan translated. This is a lot more action focused and the platforming seems to get especially tricky here but having a right old good time with it. It also means that from this point on, no silly localisations like Kid Ying making an appearance, instead all original Japanese names. Pity Konami has never really tried to make this series more accessible to the west during the 16-bit days.

[Michiel K]

Oh yeah. There was at least one untranslated PS1 game (2D graphics) that I played an illicit copy of at a friend's back in the days. One of the playable characters was this weird caveman dude in green garb. And then Konami gave it another shot with the 2 N64 Goemon releases.

I prefer the overall game design and playability of the second "Mystical Ninja" on the N64, as it harkens back more to the classic side scrolling formula, but the first game has its charm and is maybe more of a hoot overall.

[Jobobonobo]

I think a lot of the PS1 stuff is still not translated so hopefully that will be a future project for someone to tackle. Heard both N64 games are really highly regarded by the fans of this series so look forward to trying them out some day. Goemon's Great Adventure was one I heard a lot of good things about and I'm glad they went back to side scrolling for that one as those kinds of games were even rarer than RPGs on the N64 back then!

[Indiana747]

(Jan) Battlefield 3 - Series X.
(Jan) Hi-Fi Rush - Series X.
(Jan) Daymare 1998 - Series X.
(Jan) The Beast Inside - Series X.
(Feb) XIII - Series X.
(Feb) Close to the Sun - Series X.
(Feb) Atomic Heart - Series X.
(Feb) Return to Grace - Series X.
(Feb) MADiSON - PS5.
(Mar) TDPA: House of Ashes - PS5.
(Mar) RE Village: Shadows of Rose - PS5.
(Mar) Those Who Remain - Series X.
(Mar) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Series X.
(Mar) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - PS5.
(Mar) Control: Ultimate Edition - Series X.
(Mar) DREDGE - Series X.
(Apr) Little Nightmares - Series X.
(Apr) Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - Series X.

[Indiana747]

(Jan) Battlefield 3 - Series X.
(Jan) Hi-Fi Rush - Series X.
(Jan) Daymare 1998 - Series X.
(Jan) The Beast Inside - Series X.
(Feb) XIII - Series X.
(Feb) Close to the Sun - Series X.
(Feb) Atomic Heart - Series X.
(Feb) Return to Grace - Series X.
(Feb) MADiSON - PS5.
(Mar) TDPA: House of Ashes - PS5.
(Mar) RE Village: Shadows of Rose - PS5.
(Mar) Those Who Remain - Series X.
(Mar) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Series X.
(Mar) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - PS5.
(Mar) Control: Ultimate Edition - Series X.
(Mar) DREDGE - Series X.
(Apr) Little Nightmares - Series X.
(Apr) Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - Series X.
(Apr) Robocop: Rogue City - PS5.

[Alex79]

JAN - Strider (Arcade on Evercade)
JAN - Strider (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - God Of War (PS5)
JAN - Universal Paperclips (Android)
FEB - Alwa's Awakening (Evercade)
FEB - Little Inferno (Android)
FEB - Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (Gameboy on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Mario Golf (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Duke Nukem Remastered (Evercade)
APR - Castlevania Legends (Gameboy on Switch)

APR - The Combatribes (Arcade on Evercade)

Interesting little scrolling beat 'em up from Technos. Nice big sprites and a surprising amount of position based special moves. Quick to playthrough and quite entertaining.

[Truk_Kurt]

Lost Judgement
Loved it other the final chapter which was a bit of an overlong slog. I love the story of the Judgment games, I’d go so far to say that they’re both in my top 5 videogame stories. The characters remain great, Yagami is my boy! I even think the combat felt a little better in this compared to the others I’ve played. I’d say the side stories are a little weaker too as none of them were particularly memorable but admittedly I didn’t do them all. I’d give it an 8.5/10
New ranking of those I’ve played
Judgement > Lost Judgement > Zero > Yakuza Like a dragon

[seansthomas]

Jan 4th - Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS5)
Jan 10th - Jusant (Xbox Series S)
Feb 6th - Resident Evil 4 (PS5)
Feb 19th - Resident Evil 4 - Hardcore (PS5)
Feb 25th - Interaction isn't explicit (PS5)
Mar 10th - The Last of Us Part II: Remastered (PS5)

Apr 16th - TLoZ: TOTK (all shrines) / Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Challenge Tombs) / Helldivers 2 (PS5) / Split Second (Xbox Series S)

Since beating TLOU2, I've struggled to get into anything much, flitting around doing bits and pieces that don't fit this list format, but that I thought I'd log for myself.

I went back to TOTK and decided to tick off some quests, beat every shrine and find every lightroot. It kinda reaffirmed what I feel about that game, in that it's got miraculous mechanics and invention, but its not what I'd hoped for. Once the wow factor of making weird contraptions wears off, what's left isn't as holistic as BOTW. It's best when tight, and focuses on more interesting stories and revamping key areas to have new purposes. But there isn't as much of that as you'd hope.

A lot of the shrines are glorified tutorials on how to connect Zonai devices or side quests to simply find them squirreled away underground, making them feel lesser endeavours to those in BOTW. A TON of them are just the crap ones where you get Rauru's blessing and a chest (though there is one genius one that plays on that fact). And the lightroots are plentiful, but without much new to do between them. There's a lot of padding going on down there.

All in all, I put 130+ hrs into TOTK so it's obviously not a bad game. But I don't think it's an amazing one.

---

With SOTTRaider now on Gamepass, I decided to polish off the Challenge Tombs rather than pay £20+ for them on PS5. Glad I didn't drop that cash on them, as they're all quite short. But they're all really good concepts, and explore that theme fully and smartly. They centre on various topics including platforming, fire, poison, winch mechanics, water, traps, music and wind. A couple had me properly scratching my head and I'm super glad I played them.

The basis of what they did here is super smart and some of the best exploration mechanics I've come across in games. Dial down pointing out the platforming route a bit, expand these puzzle sections more and reboot the story and I reckon you've got a cracking game on your hands.

---

So I'm not sure I'll ever complete Helldivers 2, but I'm having a lot of fun with it and am at a point where I think I can firmly say 'its pretty great'. It's got that vibe of Splatoon and Rocket league where you can just drop in and have fun, and in some way add some value to the team. Which might sound, 'so what?' but I tend to bounce off a lot of multiplayer games because I find I'm a hindrance to the team and cannon fodder Vs being of some use. Like when I went back to Halo Infinite, and was just target practise.

Helldivers 2 is so smartly structured. You have what you need when you start the game and level up at just the right rate as the challenge increases. Missions are varied and things can escalate out of nowhere. When your squad gets separated and you're in a situation frantically trying to do mass crowd control whilst surviving... man it's good.

And it feels so invested to Titanfall 2, my favourite ever online multiplayer game. From the drop ships, aesthetic, level system, audio, music... it hits so well.

I can seeyself playing it on and off for a while yet.

---

Again I have a ton of games I dip into that I'll likely never 'complete'... Tony Hawks 1+2 remastered, EAFC24, Virtua Racing, Out-Run 2...

Split Second is another. I'm in the final stages of it and I just wanted to log that it's brilliant. What an oddity. A brilliant racing game from Disney that should be regarded as an all timer that resurrected the genre with new mechanics. But is instead a long forgotten, under bought title that no one really recalls.

It's like the best bits of an arcade Sega racer, Burnout 3's Takedown mechanic and a game show.

Deserves a play and more love.

[Truk_Kurt]

So I'm not sure I'll ever complete Helldivers 2, but I'm having a lot of fun with it and am at a point where I think I can firmly say 'its pretty great'. It's got that vibe of Splatoon and Rocket league where you can just drop in and have fun, and in some way add some value to the team. Which might sound, 'so what?' but I tend to bounce off a lot of multiplayer games because I find I'm a hindrance to the team and cannon fodder Vs being of some use. Like when I went back to Halo Infinite, and was just target practise.

Helldivers 2 is so smartly structured. You have what you need when you start the game and level up at just the right rate as the challenge increases. Missions are varied and things can escalate out of nowhere. When your squad gets separated and you're in a situation frantically trying to do mass crowd control whilst surviving... man it's good.

And it feels so invested to Titanfall 2, my favourite ever online multiplayer game. From the drop ships, aesthetic, level system, audio, music... it hits so well.

I can seeyself playing it on and off for a while yet.

So I just picked up Helldivers 2 yesterday, has most of your play time been with friends or randoms? I'm hoping it can be just as fun with randoms but ideally I would like to play with friends but I think they have all mostly moved onto other games now. I should stick a message in the Helldivers 2 channel in here.

[Scrustle]

Spoiler: show

12/01 - The Legend of Zelda: The Missing Link
28/01 - Tony Hawk's Underground
02/02 - Max Payne
03/02 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Hero Mode)
07/02 - Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
14/02 - Max Payne 3
23/02 - Splatoon 3: Side Order (first clear)
28/02 - Splatoon 3: Side Order (all Palettes cleared)
05/03 - Alan Wake
08/03 - Alan Wake's American Nightmare

17/04 - Skye

This little game just popped up on my radar and it was a nice relaxing way to spend about an hour. It's a flying game where you explore a Scottish island with a seaplane and complete a series of minor tasks for a couple of random villagers. It's pretty fun. It feels good to control and is also easy to get to grips with, and it also has some nice art design. The textures have a kind of rough paint stroke effect to them, which looks especially nice with the animations of the wind blowing the grassy fields. It also makes the game look a little reminiscent of Dreams. There's some collectables too, but they mostly seem like something to simply give you a reason to fly around and explore rather than just going from point to point. This is also a free student project game, and by those standards it's very impressive.

---

Split Second is another. I'm in the final stages of it and I just wanted to log that it's brilliant. What an oddity. A brilliant racing game from Disney that should be regarded as an all timer that resurrected the genre with new mechanics. But is instead a long forgotten, under bought title that no one really recalls.

It's like the best bits of an arcade Sega racer, Burnout 3's Takedown mechanic and a game show.

Deserves a play and more love.

I'm a big fan of that game. It's such a shame we never got the sequel that was being planned. Such a fun and unique idea for a racing game, but where there was clearly room for refinement that a sequel could have made good on.

[ratsoalbion]

Skye sounds delightful.

I used to love playing Sid Meier's Solo Flight as a kid for those vibes, but look at it now you can see how much of the heavy lifting that my imagination was doing.

And Skye is free!