General and Gaming > General
52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
bikingjahuty:
Yep, 52 is where the needle stops this year. As I've stated in various posts, next year I plan on trying to reach 100 games beat and am already in the process of beating my first game of 2025. It was an excellent, albeit, frustrating year for trying to complete 52 games, but luckily I was able to accomplish it. With no foreseeable obstacles next year, hitting 52 should be a breeze, but the jury is still out on making it to 100. Fingers crossed!
telly:
Game 24 - Dredge (Switch) - 9 Hours
I breezed through this game very quickly during the holidays. Absolutely stellar fishing game with excellent gameplay and graphics, and interesting story, tons of secrets and areas to explore, well-written characters, I really don't have anything negative to say. I got the bad ending but might go back into the game to explore more of the game and maybe try for the better ending.
dhaabi:
52. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword || Wii || 12.31.24
After nearly four years since I've last visited The Legend of Zelda series, I finally began a playthrough of another entry. Out of all the mainline Zelda titles I'm familiar with, I chose what's arguably the most different, that being The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
Understood to be the earliest entry in the Zelda timeline, Skyward Sword was interesting to play for the chance to understand the series lore alone. In short, and just like with many other series titles, the player-character protagonist Link must destroy an evil from overtaking the world by reclaiming various powers and tools, including the Master Sword and the Triforce. However, it's a far more convoluted practice with many steps involved to accomplish. In fact, the game opens up and continued onward when I thought the playthrough was nearing its end but actually had only completed about one-third of the story. Needless to say, the game was far longer than I had anticipated it to be since I'm generally aware of the length of other series titles. Nevertheless, the playthrough didn't overstay its welcome since so many narrative events followed one after another without losing momentum.
On that note, dungeon layouts, locale exploration, puzzle design, and sequencing within each section of the game is high quality. Toward that one-third mark, I was a little surprised by how the game was only going to introduce three major areas to explore. Instead of many regions to explore, the game instead employs use of backtracking through previous areas to discover new areas after acquiring new tools and abilities. So, while there are only three regions, there are more like ten proper dungeons to overcome which all feel unique from another. Of these, my favorite section of the game—though still annoying on some level—strips Link of all of his equipment and forces the player to stealth through the area to regain it, piece by piece. At the same time, there is also a day and night system which determines in-game events and encounters within the hub area. Periodically as the narrative progresses, side quests become available often in the form of townspeople requests. It always seemed like there was something else to do beyond the main story objective.
But as I mentioned above, Skyward Sword varies from all other entries in the franchise by capitalizing the Wii's motion capabilities. As a result of the game's motion controls, combat feels fluid—arguably too fluid and haphazardly, actually. While playing, I generally reached a point of frustration when play sessions became too lengthy, though I can't say outright that's it's a fault of the game but, rather, from myself hurrying too much. As enemy patterns become more complex, combat requires more patience and strategy to strike through their defenses. Of course, there certainly were times of difficulty in getting specific attack movements to register. Also, for about the first half of my playthrough, I quickly began experiencing wrist pain in both hands as a result of hasty movement. So, a lot of my playtime during the early game was segmented into much shorter play sessions than I'd have liked. After a few days away from the game, though, that sort of pain subsided altogether, which I'm thankful for.
Of course, even besides the divisive motion mechanics, Skyward Sword is far from a perfect game, though much of my critiques are more like annoyances. Accompanying Link, a tutorial-like companion named Fi is also a part of the adventure, and I found them to be generally irritating. While other Zelda games have this sort of role filled, Fi's appearance is far more egregious than I what I remember other games having. At any given time and with high frequency, Fi appears to provide hint alerts and general narrative interruptions to simplify what's immediately already been stated. It's a lot of hand-holding dialogue that gave me the impression that the developers had little faith in players discovering what all the game introduces on their own. On a more surface level, nearly all of Fi's dialogue is an analysis of some kind or something that mentions probability, and it only reaffirmed their featureless expressions and behavior to be likened to what I regularly thought of as a modern AI assistant. Apart from Fi, it did not take long for me to be disappointed by how the screen's overrun with UI elements. Though as my playthrough neared its end, they fell into the background. One final thing worth mentioning is the frequency of item prompts and description windows screens appearing. While it makes sense for some sort of item prompt to appear when new items are discovered, they appear each time an item is collected when moving from one area to the next. Out of everything, this was the one constant annoyance regularly taking place, and one that so easily could have been avoided.
Despite its longer playtime, Skyward Sword kept me fully engaged from beginning to end. Were the motion controls absent, I think many would think more highly of it, although I think they're implemented well enough and succeed in setting the game apart from previous titles. Also, it was interesting to think about the sort of feedback Nintendo received from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and how they applied it to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a game that emphasizes self-discovery.
ignition365:
lmao I feel bad bumping this but I ran out of usable posts for myself to make my notes, so there will be this updated post with notes and my final stats hopefully at some point today.
Main List
Previous List
--- Quote from: Legend ---bold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.
--- End quote ---
128. Thirty-One 3D Premium (PC)
Final game for the year. I started a couple of curator accounts on Steam for various things and occasionally I'll get stuff from developers/publisher to play and review and this was one that I reached out to the developer to request and they actually sent me a couple of steam keys for their games, so I might giveaway the extra keys at some point. Anyway, 31 is a card game that my family played a lot when family would gather in my childhood, so I was bit hyped to give this a go because I have fond memories of the game. That said, this game is a different variant on 31. I did think to myself maybe we played with a variant, but I went and searched the internet and our way to play was pretty standard and this game's style I couldn't find listed in any variants I read about. I didn't really enjoy this variant given that you have only the cards dealt to everyone plus 3, so you have a very finite list of possibilities, which does make for quicker game, because you can choose to end the round as soon as you notice someone swap suits, but that also makes the game lose a lot of its charm because the game ends as soon as someone notices that someone changed suits.
Rating: Hard pass
Final Stats
Top Games played released in 2024
* Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
* The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NS)
* Little Kitty, Big City (XS)
* Another Crab's Treasure (XS)
* Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (XS)
Top Games played NOT released in 2024
* Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5)
* Dave the Diver (PC)
* Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (PS5)
* Pokemon Scarlet (NS)
* Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC)
Top Games played overall in 2024
* Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5)
* Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
* The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NS)
* Little Kitty, Big City (XS)
* Another Crab's Treasure (XS)
Console breakdown
Platform Count
PC 77
XS 19
360 10
X1 7
NS 5
PS5 4
GBA 2
GBC 2
PS4 1
PSX 1
Platform with the Most Beat Games: PC had a small lead last year, PC fucking demolished this year eating up more than all other platforms combined. Holy cow.
Platform with the most unfinished titles: Again I didn't really keep track of abandoned games like last year, I really need to make an effort of keeping track of that somehow... but I think PC probably wins that, as I actually did real good finishing up console games that I started this year. I think I only had 1 tracked unfinished game this year despite playing a lot of games that I didn't track at all.
Current v. Retro v. Mobile/Handheld v. PC v Arcade: 36 - 11 - 4 - 77 - N/A. Again PC dominated, didn't do any Arcade this year, and only a few handheld games. Console total wasn't awful, kinda respectable, but much lower than historic.
Game that ate up the most time: Real hard to tell, because year end reviews didn't share hours across the board and I had some inflated times with Forza Horizon 3/4 and some PC games... I'd guess Infinite Wealth or FF7R2 probably win that given how many months it took me to beat each, though I was sprinkling my playtime... so maybe Forza Horizon is legit?
Quickest game beat: Another 100 hidden game.
* Best Racing Game: Forza Horizon 4 (XS)
* Best Puzzle Game: Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions(PC)
* Best Platformer: Hell Pie (PC)
* Best RPG: Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased his Name (PS5)
* Best Action Game: Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased his Name (PS5)
* Best Story: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
* Best Soundtrack: Rock Band 4 (X1)
* Best Shooter: Perfect Dark Zero (360) [This was an awful year for shooters for me]
* Best Independent Game: Little Kitty, Big City (XS)
* Best Handheld Game: Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NS)
* Best Xbox Game: Little Kitty, Big City (XS)
* Best Playstation Game: Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased his Name (PS5)
* Best Nintendo Game: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NS)
* Best PC Game: Dave the Diver (PC)
* Character of the Year: Ichiban Kasuga/Kiryu Kazuma
* Studio of the Year: Ryu Ga Gotoku (Like a Dragon)
* GOTY from another Year: Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased his Name (PS5)
* Game of the Year: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
Game per year list
2024 Balatro
2023 Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
2022 Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
2021 Arietta of Spirits
2020 Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered
2019 Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions
2018 Simmiland
2017 Hidden Folks
2016 Forza Horizon 3
2015 God of War 3 Remastered
2014 WWE 2K15
2013 Shadow Warrior Classic Redux
2012 Need for Speed: Most Wanted
2011 WWE '12
2010 Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
2009 Velvet Assassin
2008 Elements of Destruction
2007 Yaris
2006 Feeding Frenzy
2005 Perfect Dark Zero
2004 Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc
2003 Spy Muppets: License to Croak
2002 Lilo & Stitch
2001 WWF Betrayal
2000 Pokemon Puzzle Challenge
incide:
Getting through a big gaming backlog is always a struggle, but it's pretty satisfying when you finally knock out games that have been on your list for years. I tend to split my time between new releases and older games I missed, sometimes I'll mix in some quick indie stuff just to get the feeling of progress, then dig into bigger titles when I have more time on my hands. But honestly, the most fun I have lately is playing around with customization, like collecting cool skins in games such as CS2 or Dota 2. Speaking of skins, I’ve found some good resources ranking the most popular ones for different guns and explaining what makes them special, like the best M4A1-S skins in CS:GO, https://skinsmonkey.com/blog/best-m4a1s-skins-in-csgo. Reading up on that keeps my interest going even when I’m not in the mood to play.
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