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Honorable Mentions: Shadow of the Erdtree. I'm not skipping it because it's DLC. Like, the amount of content in it puts a lot of "full" games to shame. If it hadn't been for Elden Ring itself being absolutely huge, FROM could've released Shadow as a full price standalone game and no one would've complained lol. But it was "just" more Elden Ring. Which, don't get me wrong, it was great and I loved it. But it didn't exactly blow my mind or anything. It was just really, really good. Same goes for Metaphor: ReFantazio. I'm honestly a little surprised by all the GOTY love this one got. Not because I don't think it deserves it but rather because Atlus games typically don't seem to get any. I guess Persona 5 might have? Much like Shadow of the Erdtree, Metaphor was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed it but at the end of the day it was "just" another ATLUS JRPG. It really didn't break the mold as much as I expected it to. Which is fine. It's just not my game of the year. Speaking of which... Game(s) of the Year 2024: That's right, I'm calling it a tie! They were definitely my two favorite games this year. Hard to say which one gets the edge, honestly. The answer could change depending on which day you asked me. Silent Hill 2 wasn't just a fantastic remake, it was possibly the best horror game I've ever played. And Indy came out of nowhere with a surprise immersive sim based on one of my favorite movie franchises. I was actually nervous about how both of these. Both games had me thinking "Please don't suck!" ahead of launch, so it was a very pleasant surprise that they both turned out so freaking good.

I stopped tracking my games on a spreadsheet a while back, so I just went back through this thread and made a list lol. Some stuff may be missing, I guess, but probably nothing major. 1. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty 2. Horizon: Zero Dawn – Complete Edition 3. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – Master Collection Version 4. Persona 3 Reload 5. Persona 5 Strikers 6. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix 7. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers 8. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree 9. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – Master Collection Version 10. God of War: Ragnarok 11. Silent Hill 2 Remake 12. Metaphor: ReFantazio 13. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake 14. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle 15. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine I was gonna try and do Space Marine 1 -> Boltgun -> Space Marine 2 before the end of the year but I got distracted from Boltgun after finishing the first chapter. Everything was played on PC. Honorable mention to P5 Strikers for being so forgettable I had actually forgotten I'd played it. I'm surprised that I managed to get through two of Atlus' long JRPGs without getting burned out. In fact, I feel like in both cases I went through them much faster than usual. I wonder if that would've changed had I tried to fit SMTV Vengeance in there.

Game of the Year: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth What can I say? It's the next epic installment in the FF7R series. It's got a little bit of open world busy-work, but overall it's a lot of fun, the characters are great, the adaptation is fantastic, it's everything I could have wanted. Runner-Up: Astro Bot Asobi did it again, with a full-sized 3D platformer good enough to challenge Mario. This game is such a delight, I'm sure I had a stupid grin on my face like 90% of the time I was playing it. Everything about it, from the way movement feels, to the visual style, to the love of Playstation's history, it's just such a delight. Honorable Mention: Helldivers II Like Sea of Stars last year, this game was totally not on my radar, and I don't generally go into multiplayer games, but this one is fun enough that it actually pulled me away from Persona 3 Reload, and I spent basically the entire month of February playing it. The only thing that broke its spell was the release of Rebirth.

End of the year wrap-up time! I beat 31 games this year, down from 54 last year. As always I only count games I beat for the first time this year. PC was far and away my most-played platform last year, with a whopping 87% of my games and 78% of my playtime. For the first time at least since the Switch released, I had no Nintendo games whatsoever. Xbox barely got in, because I was replaying the old Splinter Cell games and discovered I'd never played the Kola Cell DLC. Playstation won for longest average game because of the 3 games I played on the platform, one was FF7 Rebirth. All in all I'd say 2024 was a pretty decent year for games for me. Bring on 2025!

Alien: Rogue Incursion Last game of 2024 for me. I bought it on steam at first but the PC port at launch was pretty rough and Virtual Desktop didn't even work, which is pretty much the objectively best way to do PCVR if you're using a wireless connection, so I refunded it and got the PSVR2 version instead, which ended up being the much better version for once. Technical hiccups aside, this is pretty much the definitive Aliens experience for me. If Isolation was the definitive Alien experience then this one embodies Aliens as in the more action based sequel film. Yes, you have guns that can actually kill the xenos this time, but what I like is that you're still not going to be mindlessly mowing them down like in Colonial Marines. Xenos are still a big threat and can kill you in two hits tops. They will also try to sneak up on you by crawling along walls and ceilings and through vents. More than once I've turned around to find a xeno clinging to a wall and staring at me from three feet away. This game really demands that you use the motion detector but I swear sometimes it feels like the xenos try to deliberately seek out your sweeper's blind spots so they can get the jump on you. I do appreciate that if a xeno is nearby you'll hear the motion detector start pinging even if you aren't holding it so you don't always have to have it in your hand at all times. Of course, you can't effectively use any gun except the magnum while holding on to it, so when shit hits the fan you're either going to have to drop the detector quickly or start blasting and hope you can manage the recoil with one hand. I don't want to spoil the story but it does offer up several moments where you get to experience iconic Alien tropes firsthand. The two main characters are alright. I was rather fond of my android companion, who goes to great lengths to protect you from the hellish situation you find yourself in. However, while the game is a decent length on its own I have to knock it for suddenly revealing at launch that this is just part one of a two part story. Seems rather shady to hide that until the last minute. For most of the game you're just fighting xenos and facehuggers. They didn't make up new subtypes for this that didn't exist around the time of the original Aliens film. That didn't really bother me since it's lore accurate and the standard xeno is a very well designed enemy but the fact remains that you don't have a whole lot of enemy variety if that sort of thing bothers you. You also have only four weapons: a magnum, a shotgun, grenades, and the iconic pulse rifle. Again, the pulse rifle was the whole point for me so I didn't mind but maybe you would feel differently. I will say the rifle feels great to shoot on the PSVR2 with the controller haptics rattling against your hands every time you fire it. While I wouldn't call this a survival horror game, I'd say it's survival adjacent at least. Ammo isn't rare, but there's a limit to how much you can carry and I was forced to fall back on my magnum more than a few times. I have a suspicion that the xenos spawn infinitely if you screw around and waste time. I never felt like it was more than I could handle, but the only places that are completely safe for you to relax and take a breather are the panic rooms, which also count as save stations. Autosaves are rare and you can't save if xenos are neaby much like in Isolation, so if it's been a while since your last save you'll be feeling the pressure of losing progress if you run out of supplies and die before you find another panic room. Looking at your map is also done in real time on a handheld datapad you have to scroll with your finger so you better make sure you're safe before you start looking for directions. Sometimes you also have to use computers or repair electronics to progress and the xenos will absolutely not show you the courtesy of waiting for you to finish so you best listen for your motion detector while doing any puzzles. PC performance and Part 1 issues aside, I have a few small gripes. It is a metroidvania so you'll be doing a lot of backtracking and using tools to unlock new areas, but a fair bit of it amounts to upgrading the security clearance on your key card. There were a few times when xenos would clip through doors, and while they couldn't attack me from the other room it did at least give away their presence. The full body model could also get a bit awkward at times depending on the position you're in. Still, I can't deny this was the kind of Aliens experience I've been wanting to have in VR for a good while. Isolation is a great game sometimes you just gotta shoot a pulse rifle.

Hidden Folks Cutesy little game I think I've had for an age. Was good "pick up and drop" type game during the weird times that is Christmas and the preceding and proceeding days. I've played similar "Where's Wally" type games before (played Hidden Through Time on my phone recently too). This one is entirely mono-colour* (and you can change the background, which has made it a bit easier on my eyes), but you can interact with things that sometimes spark other elements (towards the end you have to adjust a lot of elements to get like tracks running that will maybe deliver your item or similar). I did have to google solutions for a handful for items (one felt a bit cruel as I'd got 80% of the way to the clue, except unless you were zoomed out you wouldn't see what you were triggering). Given there's hundreds of items/folks to find across many levels most are very manageable on your own, ranging from simple and obvious to devious but make you go "woohoo" on completion. Took about 10hrs to complete (according to steam play time, though some I think is distracted playing). *turns out it's part of a bundle of 2-bit colour games https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/9897/The_Black__White_Indie_Games_Bundle/

Since I don't think I'll be able to finish Sekiro before the end of the year, here's my list for 2024: Onechanbara Z2: Chaos Taboo Trial Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation The Typing of the Dead: Overkill Bullet Girls Phantasia Palworld Borderlands GOTY Enhanced Borderlands 2 Maid of the Dead Borderlands 3 Warhammer 40000: Gladius Warhammer 40000: Mechanicus Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II Elden Ring Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Space Marine 2 The Callisto Protocol The Evil Within The Evil Within 2 Much better than I thought, was sure I'd only finished 14 games or so, also, earlier in the year I thought this would be a fanservice heavy year for me, ended up being more of a WH40K kind of year.

Gothic surf rock has a name, gothabilly, and it is my favorite genre name of all time.